Colt stood on the spot where, just a few weeks previously, he had looked up and admired the half finished tower. Now he surveyed its ruins.
He took Golding and Fitch to one side. 'Thought you said this Injun you had on a leash wouldn't do nothing to the site?'
'How were we to know he was going to go apeshit with a bunch of dynamite?' said Fitch. 'T'aint what we told him to do.'
'Don't matter what you told him to do, I put you in charge of a job and you didn't get it done proper. Next time you fuck up on a scale like this it'll be a picture of your mutilated corpses that they're passing round half of Kansas.'
Colt could see that Fitch wanted to give him some backchat, but Golding caught Fitch's eye and signalled for him to keep quiet. 'It's a good thing Simon Peter here worked out that I planned to use the Injuns as slave labour to replace the volunteers we lost.' Simon Peter bowed his head with humility at the fleeting praise. He knew how to play this game.
'It's a good idea sir,' said Golding. 'That way we can work 'em twice as hard as the volunteers and feed 'em less.'
'I know it's a good idea. I don't need a fuck up like you to tell me that. Now you two half-wits have got one last chance to redeem yourselves. Are you up for it?'
'Sure,' said Fitch looking at the floor and grinding his teeth.
'Anything you say,' said Golding, trying to get back on Colt's good side. 'We're your men.'
'I'll have to take your word on that. Now, this here occupation's likely to bring a reprisal from the redskins and their UTN. From what I hear their numbers are building slowly, but not enough to be a real threat to us just yet. I want you to organise sentry parties all along the borders of our current territory. Take a few experienced men and put 'em in charge of a bunch of expendable recruits. Organise a line of communication with each party that comes straight back to me here. This is where I plan to stay awhile. Tell the parties they're strictly on reconnaissance. I don't want them intervening 'less the Injuns are fucking with something of strategic importance to us. Like our transmission and broadcasting equipment.'
'What if they try and attack something that ain't of importance to us?' said Fitch.
'Let 'em. The more folk are frightened of the UTN, the more they'll turn to us. It can only play to our advantage. We gotta let 'em have a few victories to keep the fear in people. It'll only strengthen us more. That was the plan in the first place.'
'Sir,' said Simon Peter. 'Do we order any of the scouting parties to try and capture UTN members and their sympathisers? Could be good for gathering intelligence.'
'Thinking what I'm thinking again? Good boy.' Colt looked to Fitch. 'Any of our boys experts in torture and interrogation?'
'Few. Ex-pigs and veterans mainly, plus a few psychopaths we keep on a short leash.'
'Good. Post at least one with every party near a border with known UTN activity. And remember they ain't all redskins these days. Lot of race traitors sold out on their heritage and went to live like savages.'
'Sir,' said Simon Peter. 'We've underestimated these Injuns before, there any chance they'll try a surprise attack on us here? Throw everything they got at us, like a retribution thing?'
'I doubt it. If they thought they had enough men to take us on and win they'd have left an army behind to protect the place or at least tried to attack us on the move. No, my way of thinking is that this suits their purposes just as much as it suits ours.'
'Start of a beautiful relationship,' said Golding with a chuckle.
'Amen to that,' said Colt.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cortez finished his first prayer of the day, bowed to Mecca and stood. Anna finished up her prayers and turned to smile at him. She had taken to joining him in his devotions every day. She prayed to Christ while he gave thanks to Allah most merciful and the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him.
It had become their little ritual. They had also begun to discuss one another's faiths, with a genuine willingness to learn from each other. Cortez's respect for the extraordinary young lady had grown tenfold.
Cortez had noticed that the fallen woman's respect for Anna had also grown, the two of them seemed quite close after their night on the mountain. This, along with her effectiveness in a fight, had made Cortez hate Linda less.
Linda was at the stove when they climbed back in the vehicle. 'How do you like your rat?' she said. 'Rare, medium or burnt?'
'Don't we have anything else to eat?' said Greaves. 'Rat gives me indigestion.'
'Don't you have a pill for that?' said Linda winking at Anna. 'I'm afraid rat's the only thing on the menu. You should be thankful I managed to catch these. All we've got is those two tins of corn, which may or may not be edible. They come from that batch we scavenged in West Point, half of which weren't edible. 'Cept for that we've got some wizened apples we picked a few weeks back. Way I see it, that's lunch and dinner taken care of.'
Greaves pulled a face. 'We'll make Torrington in a few hours,' he said. 'It's just over the border in Wyoming. I'm sure we can pick up some rations there.'
'What's in Torrington?' said Linda 'The world's last surviving Walmart?'
'No. Beneath the City Hall and Police Department on 21st Avenue is an underground complex of offices built by military intelligence. It has an independent generator which can easily be started, and a host of cutting-edge information technology. Doubtless there will also be food stores down there somewhere.'
'And stuff we can sell?' said Linda.
'Yes. There will be lots of things we can sell.'
'But you've got your own particular reason for going there haven't you?' said Linda. Cortez had noticed that she could never take anything on trust. She always had to question and undermine Greaves. She probably did not like men very much, Cortez thought. Considering what she did for a living, this didn't surprise him.
'There are schematics on the memory stick we retrieved in Indiana that I have to access. They show the underground laboratories near Little Bighorn in Montana. I need to study them to find us a way in. Torrington is the only place on the way with computers that I can realistically get to work.'
'What is it with you and underground buildings? Everyplace you take us is hidden deep within the bowels of the earth. Did one of your ancestors breed with a mole or something?' Greaves ignored her question. Linda finished cooking and they ate in silence.
'You know there's a few things that bother me about this whole trip,' said Linda, after gnawing the last bit of flesh off her rat bones. Cortez sighed. He was just beginning to find her company bearable. 'I know I was hired to take you to Montana. But I don't know if I'm happy with what's going to happen once we get there.'
'What do you mean?'
'You know exactly what I mean. When we do break into this underground laboratory with Anna, what happens next?'
'Why, we save the world of course.'
'You mean you infect an innocent girl with an experimental virus that's supposed to be a hundred times deadlier than the one that just wiped out most of the planet. I'm sorry, but the more I think about your story, the less I buy it.'
'But I explained about the Doomsday Virus. I told you that Anna was specially bred to be its host.'
'You gave us some wild science-fiction story about a virus that's going to fall in love with a girl and make her an immortal goddess. That sounds a lot more like a fairy tale than hard science to me.'
'But it's true,' said Greaves. 'Who's the scientist here, me or you? I've seen and helped create things that are beyond the comprehension of most human beings. Who are you to start questioning me?'
'Okay then. Let's say everything you told us is true. That Anna is the special one chosen by the Doomsday Virus and that you got to her before your old buddies did. How do we know we're not playing right into their hands by bringing her to their laboratory? Come to that how do we know you're not still working for them and that all this
