Through Darkest America

Kari looked at him in the dark. “You think Lewis sent me.”

Howie gave her a harsh laugh. “Now why’d I think a thing like that?”

“Well, he didn’t.”

“Uhuh. You just ambled on up here an’ told the guard `hey, let me run on in there and see old Howie.’ ”

“Of course not,” she said crossly. “I asked Lewis if it was all right. He said it was.”

“You admit it, then.”

“I don’t admit anything, Howie,” she said evenly, “except that I wanted to talk to you. If you don’t want to see me, I’ll go. Is that what you want? If it is, say so.”

“Kari…” He tried to make her out in the dark. She was no more than shadow against a greater blackness that swallowed the room. “I’m tired, Kari. I’m tired and I’m hurt and I don’t mind sayin’ it—I’m plain scared. You can go or you can stay. It’s all the same to me. I don’t figure we got much to say to each other. Not anymore.”

“Why not anymore? What does that mean?”

He couldn’t see her, but he didn’t have to. He could read her in the dark. Head cocked slightly, the little pinched line between the wide, curious eyes. She didn’t see it at all. She really didn’t. It was something he could never really make himself understand.

“Kari. You’re out there and I’m in here. Ain’t that enough?”

She was silent a moment. Then, “You’re mad at me? Is that it? Because the troopers didn’t torture me like they did you and Pardo. Because you’re locked up in here and I’m not.”

“No, it’s just…”

“I think that’s exactly what it is, Howie. You’re locked up and hurt and you think everybody else ought to be if you are. Only that’s not so and you can’t make me feel bad that it’s you instead of me.”

“That ain’t it and you know it,” he said wearily. “I’m glad you got away. I didn’t think you was alive. I didn’t think anybody was. It’s just… well, you showin’ up like that with Lewis. Out there in the tent with Pardo…  like he was.”

“I didn’t exactly get away,” she told him. “I mean, I got caught, just like you did. I can’t go or anything. I’ve got to work on guns for them, but that’s all right, I guess. I like to do it and I’m good at it.” She was silent a moment. “Howie. Maybe you could work with me. If you want to, I could talk to Lewis.”

“Kari…” He reached out in the dark and found her hand. She jerked quickly away from him.

“Listen,” she said flatly, “I asked you because I can use the help. It doesn’t have anything to do with you touching or feeling or anything like that. I shouldn’t have ever let you do that… see me naked and everything back at the Keep. That was a big mistake.”

Howie stiffened. “Well don’t worry your godamn head about it,” he snapped angrily, “it ain’t likely you got any big problem with me! Lewis sure isn’t goin’ to let me get close to no guns.”

Kari didn’t seem to notice his anger. “Oh, I don’t think that’s true, Howie,” she said seriously. “He knows you told him everything.”

Howie snorted. “He does, huh?”

“Yes. He told me so. He said he just had to make sure.” “That’s what he kept telling me,” Howie said darkly, “all the time he was slicing away at my foot.”

“I think he meant it, though,” she said. “They were pretty mad about Pardo. Losing all those weapons when they thought…”

“Hey, wait, now…” Howie stopped her. “What do you mean, losing the guns, Kari? They got the guns. I already know that.”

“No,” she shook her head in the dark. “They were supposed to. I mean really supposed to. Pardo made a deal with the Loyalists. He was going to deliver the guns at a higher price than Hacker would pay. Monroe was to wait until the column met the big Rebel force and get them all at once.”

Howie was shaken. “Pardo was double-dealing Hacker? And he trusted the Loyalists, after what he’d done to Monroe?” He let out a short whistle. That didn’t sound like Pardo.

Only it did—Pardo figuring he could outslick anyone, no matter what.

“That’s just it,” Kari explained. “He didn’t trust them. Not really. Any more than they trusted him. They’d already decided to kill Pardo and everyone else in the attack and just take the guns. Only, Pardo didn’t have them.”

“He did, though,” Howie protested. “We all packed them on horses at the Keep, I saw them. So did you!”

“He had them there. Lewis figures that’s why he made such a big thing out of letting everyone know what he was doing. He didn’t have them on the mesa, though, when the troopers attacked us.”

Howie was bewildered. “He didn’t? Then…”

“He told Lewis what he’d done with them. After Lewis… did those things to him. It was the second night we camped, Howie. Up on the rise with the big red rocks? Pardo had arranged to have the government troopers stage an attack there. He said it was to make Hacker nervous and throw him off guard. It wasn’t, though. What he wanted was a few moments of confusion to hide all the guns, and fill the packs up with rocks. He and Klu and Jigger had it all planned out.”

Howie groaned. He could finish the rest. Pardo had figured Monroe would try to trick him, somehow. If he didn’t have the guns with him, though, he’d have Monroe over a barrel. Monroe would have to come across with the money, and leave Pardo alone, or he’d never find out where the weapons really were. Only Pardo had outsmarted himself, this time. He’d never had the chance to put his deal to Monroe. The Loyalist officer had been hurt bad on the meat deal with Pardo, and he had never forgotten. He’d kill Pardo first—then take the guns.

Howie searched out Kari in the darkness. “If that’s so,” he frowned, “why’d Lewis have to put me through all that? If Pardo told him where the guns are, why, he can just go out an’ get them. He don’t need to cut a man all up for nothing!”

“He knows where they are, Howie,” she said patiently, “and he knows Pardo told the truth. Only…  he can’t really know for sure until he sees them, can he? And he can’t very well do that right now.”

“Why not?” Howie wanted to know, “what’s stopping him?”

“Well, the Rebels, of course,” she told him. “Don’t you even know what’s happening, Howie?”

“Only to me,” he said dully. “You want to tell me, or not?”

“Lewis says it’s the biggest Rebel army ever. And that they’ve chased the Loyalists clear out of the west, nearly. Everywhere but here. So there’s no one who can get through to find the guns. Maybe nobody’ll ever get them.”

That’s what it was all for, then, he thought grimly. Two-, three-, maybe four-hundred men had died out on the mesa. And neither side had one gun more than they’d had before. And when the Rebels attacked the city— how-many more would get killed over that? Someone would win. Then what?

“Kari…”

“I got to go, Howie.” He could see her shadow stand and move away from him, and hear the rustle of her clothes. “I’ll try to get back, maybe.”

“Kari, I want to know something. Did you… were you there when Lewis got all that out of Pardo?”

She was silent for a minute. “Did I watch? Is that what you mean?”

Howie didn’t answer.

“Some,” she said absently. “Why?”

Chapter Thirty-One

The first skirmish of the battle began just before midnight. It wasn’t much of a fight and it seemed to Howie there was more shouting than shooting. Mostly, it was a chance for the Rebels to let the city know they were there, and itching for trouble.

He watched from his window as long as he could, following the winks of gunfire out into the night. Now and