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lock on the door. Then he jammed a copper knife blade into the jamb and
snapped off the handle.
"Wouldn't open that easily," he smirked, tossing the handle away.
"How long?" Ryan asked.
"Roughly minutes. It's not my fuse, so I can't know for sure. Might be eight,
could be twelve."
"Fair enough. Everybody, double time!" Ryan shouted, and took off at a run.
The group hustled through the zigzagging corridors, encountering no resistance
until reaching the last intersection. Two cannies were dragging away the pile
of dead dogs on a bamboo litter. The men dropped the animals and hastily ran
away at the sight of the heavily armed party. Ruthlessly, the prisoners gunned
down the cannies from behind, and spit on the corpses as they hurried by.
Reaching the collapsed section of the warren, Ryan paused at the right turn
and signaled it was all-clear to Doc.
"Lady Ann, we meet once more." The scholar smiled, then looked over the sec
men. They were as rough and tumble a group as he had ever seen. "Your
entourage, I assume?"
"Six minutes and counting," J.B. said brusquely, patting his munitions bag.
Doc said nothing, but his eyes went wide, and he started up the mound of loose
dirt. Reaching the surface, Doc unlimbered the M-16 and stood guard while the
others clambered out of the blast crater. Exiting the tunnel, the group
quickly got away from the depression in the ground as the rim was soft and
crumbled easily under their boots and bare feet.
"This way!" Mitchum cried, waving a blaster and heading for the water pool.
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"Forget it! Follow me," Ryan countered, and started up the inclined ramp at a
full sprint.
In ragged formation, the group charged past the pungi-stick wall, and braked
to a halt upon reaching level ground. Masked by moon shadows, Krysty and
Mildred were waiting there with blasters drawn. Dean was nowhere in sight.
"Hello, Adam," Mildred said, her blaster out, but not quite pointing in the
direction of the sec men.
"Hey, Claire," Ryan responded, and the women relaxed.
Mitchum arched an eyebrow at the exchange and said nothing. But it was
patently obvious they were exchanging some kind of a code. Who exactly were
these outlanders?
"Nice to see you again, lover," Krysty said, resting the barrel of the Steyr
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on a shapely shoulder.
Ryan pulled her close for a hard kiss and took the longblaster. "Move fast. We
lit their armory."
"Dean, get the horses!" Mildred shouted.
Instantly, the boy bolted from the stand of bamboo and dashed into the
darkness of the night.
"Horses? Scorch me, we might live to see daylight yet!" a sec man said,
grinning widely.
J.B. tossed Mildred the scattergun. She caught the blaster and pumped the
action to chamber a round. Watching the exchange, Colonel Mitchum was
impressed that a lowly woman knew anything about blasters.
Just then there was a loud bang and a sec man fell to the ground, a jagged
hole in
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unison, the companions turned and fired down into the ville. A group of
cannies armed with longblasters took cover in the smoking rubble, and started
to reload.
Leading the way, Ryan sprinted along the path through the bamboo forest and
found Dean slashing the ropes tethering the horses. Most of the animals were
bareback but there was no time to find and cinch on saddles. Clumsily, the
people climbed onto the placid animals and rode out the swinging gate. Once
outside, they kicked the beasts hard and started to gallop away from the
hidden ville at top speed.
The companions and the sec men had just cleared the patch of dry land and were
splashing through the beginnings of the swamp when a flash of light lit up the
sky. As wind buffeted man and horse, they watched as a column of fire and
smoke formed a classic mushroom shape that reached for the stars.
"Mother of God," Mildred said, watching the mushroom cloud expand over the
shaking bamboo. "How much powder did you use?"
"Everything they had," J.B. replied curtly.
Just then the ground tremors arrived, and the horses reared on their hind
legs, screaming in terror. The riders fought to control their mounts.
"Watch for debris!" Ryan warned, even as the first of the wreckage started to
plummet from the sky.
Charred heads splashed into the soggy landscape, along with bent blasters and
unrecognizable things blackened by smoke and fire. Racing into the trees, the
group waited until the grisly rain finally ceased. A reddish light swelled to
fill the world, and they could see the bamboo forest was on fire, the flames
illuminating the surrounding countryside for miles.
"Which direction to the ville?" Ryan asked, settling the Steyr into a more
comfortable position across his back. He was dirty and tired, but they
couldn't make camp until far away from here. A few of the cannies might have
survived
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come after them in a nightcreep. Best to get some distance for safety.
Gazing at the stars overhead, Ann turned in the saddle and pointed. "That way.
North."
"No, we should go east from here," Colonel Mitchum corrected her. "Then north
after passing the rad zones."
Reining in his horse to keep it steady, Ryan studied the two people, debating
their answers.
"How far?" he asked suddenly.
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"A week on foot," the girl answered after a hesitation.
"Day or so, on horseback," Mitchum added. "Easy traveling, flat land, lots of
freshwater."
Moaning across the land, a warm wind blew over the group, rustling the leaves
on the trees and carrying the smell of fiery death.
"East it is," Ryan said, not believing a word said by either of them.
Personally, he much preferred fighting cannies. At least you could see them
coming.
Chapter Nine
The bedroom was lit only by candles, the flickering light playing across the
waiting people. Dried flower petals mixed into the wax gave off a sweet
perfume.
The only door was shut tight and locked with a heavy wooden bar, and a cheery
blaze burned in the predark fireplace, giving off soothing waves of warmth.
The window shutters were closed, and the silence was broken only by the soft
crackle
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burning logs in the fireplace.
Standing on a small rug in the middle of the room, a slim woman with long
blond hair slowly unbuttoned her shirt and let it slide off her body. The
cloth fluttered to the floor, and she ran delicate hands across her taut
stomach, then upward to cup her heavy breasts. The pink nipples hardened
immediately, and the tip of her tongue played along her sensuous lips. Tugging
on her waistband, she released her skirt to join the shirt on the floor. She
was shaved clean, ready for this special evening, and small tattoos adorned
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