Chapter Fifty-one
Slater and his men stayed mounted on horseback, and from the safety of the trees, watched the events at the train take place far below. It had taken some doing, but Slater had found where the train had gone. He managed to gather a dozen men and get there in time to catch the tail end of the “festivities.”
Now watching the train puff its way out of Absolution and the creatures give up their pursuit, he had to admit this Hollister impressed him more and more. They had fought well and killed a passel of these creatures-and not only that, but they also managed to save a handful of women and children. It looked like they had hidden some heavy ordnance on their train, and that was duly noted-but fighting their way through those beasts and onto the train had been impressive. No doubt about it.
“Now what, Boss?” one of his thugs, named Nolan, asked.
“Now we get the hell out of here without those things catching sight or wind of us,” he said.
“What do you suppose them things are, down there?” Nolan asked. Slater sighed at the man’s stupidity.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Slater said. “But let’s avoid them just the same.”
But Slater knew what they were. And he found it even more surprising that Hollister had allowed the woman to come aboard. Letting the fox inside the henhouse was a dangerous and confusing strategy, as Slater saw it.
He rode along, the train ahead of them nearly disappearing from sight. And a flood of emotions rolled through him. Curiosity, confusion, and just like in Torson City, fear.
P inkerton had a cadre of at least twenty agents waiting at the warehouse when the train arrived. The trip had gone without incident. The children and the women all had blank stares, working through their trauma, trying to achieve some way of dealing with the horror they’d experienced. Billy stayed in Hollister’s bunk, the door kept locked, and he and Chee took turns standing guard throughout the day.
Sally and the others mostly kept to themselves. Their world was no longer the one they thought they knew and it would be a struggle for them to find a place in it. Hollister was convinced that Sally would make it because she had the strength. Not to say she wouldn’t be haunted by it, but she would find a way to push it down inside and move on.
Now that the Pinkertons were moving the people off the train, the lead man, a big, thick Irish thug named Mullen, came back on the train in the office car and stared hard at Shaniah, then Hollister. Jonas knew what was coming.
Mullen pulled a letter from the inside pocket of his jacket. “Got a letter here from Mr. Pinkerton, says we’re supposed to take the woman and the boy with us.” He handed it to Hollister, who put it on the desk without reading it.
“Uh-huh. Well, that’s a problem. You’re welcome to take the lad, but I’ve got a tactical situation and I am using the woman as an asset. So I’m going to have need of her for a while longer.”
Mullen shook his head. A shade under six feet tall, he was a bull of a man, big head atop broad shoulders. For a moment, he put Hollister in mind of Senator Declan, but Mullen wasn’t that smart. It was written plain as day on his face, scarred and cut in dozens of places. He wore a bowler cap and his upper lip carried a thick mustache. His nose was wide and flat and had been broken more than once. “I got my orders. Mr. Pinkerton wants any of these captured subjects brought to-”
“She wasn’t captured,” Hollister interrupted. Chee and Shaniah watched the exchange with quiet but slightly stunned expressions on their faces. “She voluntarily joined us and saved several lives. I’m going after more of these things and I need her.”
“That’s all well and good, but I have my orders and I answer to Mr. Pinkerton,” Mullen said.
“And Mr. Pinkerton has given me full authority to run this operation as I see fit,” Hollister added.
Mullen stood up from the chair across the desk from Hollister, making sure as he did so that his suit coat opened so everyone could see the double-rig shoulder holster he wore. The tooled leather held two pearl-handled pistols.
“Be that as it may, Mr. Pinkerton gave me strict instructions, and I intend to follow them.” He looked at Shaniah, who had stood idly by. “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.”
Shaniah’s gaze drifted between Hollister and Mullen before settling on the Pinkerton man.
“No,” she said.
“I… excuse me?” Mullen said. He was one of those men whose size and demeanor usually intimidated everyone. Now it wasn’t working, and it had thrown him off his game.
“I said, I won’t be going with you,” she replied.
“Ma’am, there’s no need for this. We’re just going to take you to a place where you’ll be safe.” He reached out with his arm as if to take her by the elbow. Hollister knew what was going to happen next, but Mullen had no idea.
With speed that could only fairly be described as inhuman, Shaniah grabbed Mullen by the wrist. She spun him around, his arm behind his back, her other arm wrapped around his throat, lifting him off his feet. Hollister and Chee both winced when they heard the crackling, tearing sound of his shoulder ligaments popping like firecrackers.
“Awww, goddammit, you bitch, turn me loose!” he begged. Shaniah did, pushing him forward as he staggered across the floor of the car, trying to right himself, until he crashed into the wall. He spun back toward them, his arm hanging loosely at his side, his face twisted in pain.
“As I said,” Shaniah repeated quietly. “I will not be going anywhere with you.”
Mullen looked at her, his eyes darting downward toward the pistol in the shoulder rig on his right side. His left arm was useless and his mind was trying to gauge if he could draw it in time to shoot the woman.
“If you draw your weapon, this time I will break your arm and not merely dislocate it,” she said quietly.
Mullen’s face took on a curious look. One that Hollister rarely saw in men he had gone up against. He was beaten and he knew it and his expression was neutral; neither angry or full of rage. But his eyes blazed. He needed to reassert himself somehow. Telling Pinkerton he had had his arm torn nearly off by a woman was not something he relished.
“I’ve got twenty armed men outside, waiting…” he said.
This time Hollister said, “Agent Mullen, I’ve no doubt you’re a good man and do your job well. I’d be willing to bet you’re one of Pinkerton’s best. But I can tell you from personal experience Miss
… Shaniah here is special… and if you had forty men outside it wouldn’t matter. I know you’re doing what Pinkerton asked of you. And I admire you for following orders. But I work for him too, and he’s given me a lot of latitude. I’m telling you I need her.”
“I got my orders,” Mullen said. His voice was close to breaking, the pain from his dislocated shoulder starting to rage.
“Pinkerton has given me orders too. So let’s just call this one a draw. I’ll send a letter for you to take to him and explain everything. Will that work?”
Mullen was quiet a moment. Finally he nodded.
Hollister sat down at the desk, and scribbled out a note to Pinkerton. Blowing the ink dry, he folded it inside an envelope and handed it to the detective. “Thanks for this, Detective Mullen. I promise you I won’t forget it.”
Mullen stepped to the door, turned, and looked at Shaniah, then Hollister. “Neither will I,” he said. He lumbered out of the train, slamming the door behind him.
“Do me a favor,” Hollister said to Shaniah. “Next time, try not to injure the good guys.”
“He put his hands on me. Unnecessarily,” she said.
“I know, but the thing is, he’s on our side, and if you go around breaking the arms of all the good guys, we’re gonna run out of good guys and after what we just saw in Absolution, we’re going to need a lot of them.”
“Then instruct them to leave me alone,” Shaniah said.
Hollister sighed.
“Chee, could you do me a favor and ask Monkey Pete to get the train under way again?”
“Yes, sir. Where to?” the sergeant asked.
“Head west, tell him I’ll let him know our final destination shortly. We’ll go as far as we can by train, then ride the rest of the way.” On their way back to Denver, they had stopped and retrieved Demeter so Shaniah would have a mount if needed.
“Yes, sir.”
