wrist. Rourke had been gone for more than an hour. 'That woman keeps mumbling about a jeep,' Rourke had said. 'If there is one out there, that should mean food and water, maybe gasoline.'
'But she wouldn't have left it if it hadn't been out of gas,' Rubenstein had countered.
'People out here in the desert don't usually let themselves run out of gas.
Could have punched a hole in a radiator, severed a fuel line. Could still be enough gas to run these bikes into Van Horn. Otherwise, we've got a long walk ahead of us and we used our last water with her.'
'You're the survivalist, the expert,' Rubenstein had said, almost defensively.
'Can't you just go out there and find water?'
'Yeah,' Rourke had answered. 'If I take a hell of a long time doing it I can, and I can find us food, too— but not gasoline. Even if I discovered crude oil it wouldn't do us any good.'
And Rourke had mounted up and gone, leaving the Steyr-Mannlicher SSG rifle with Rubenstein for added protection, the light-gathering qualities of the 3-9
variable Mannlicher scope that rode it something Rourke had labeled 'potentially useful' if whoever had wounded the girl were still out there somewhere in the darkness. The thought of more violence-prone thieves didn't appeal to Rubenstein. He shivered in the darkness. The girl's body temperature was about normal, Rourke had said, and she wasn't really so much unconscious anymore as just sleeping, Rourke had cleansed and bandaged the deep flesh wound on her left forearm. Her right hand still had blood on it, but only blood from the arm wound, which Rourke had not washed away because of the water shortage.
Rubenstein shifted his position on the ground, hearing something in the darkness to his left. He turned and peered into the black, seeing nothing. He heard the sound again, pulling open the bolt on the Schmeisser, ready, his voice a loud whisper, saying, 'I know you're out there—I hear you. I've got a submachine gun, so don't try anything.'
'That doesn't do much to scare a rattler, Paul,' Rourke said softly. Rubenstein wheeled, seeing Rourke standing beside the sleeping woman, the CAR-15 in his hands, the sling suspending the gun beneath his right shoulder. 'Rattler—your body heat is drawing him. Move over.'
Rubenstein took a step left. Rourke raised the CAR-15 from its carry position, drawing out the collapsible stock and bringing the rifle to his shoulder. 'What are you doing?' Rubenstein said.
'I'm sighting with the iron—this kind of scope wouldn't be much good at this range.'
Rourke shifted his feet, settling the rifle, and suddenly Rubenstein jumped, as Rourke almost whispered, 'Bang!' then brought the rifle down and collapsed the stock.
'Bang?'
'Yeah—If I shoot that snake—unless he comes into camp and we have to, all I'm going to do is advertise to everybody and his brother we're here, we've got guns and we're stupid enough to go shooting at something in the dark. Keep an eye out for that snake and I'll bring my bike up.'
'Why did you leave it?'
'What if something had happened, somebody'd wandered into camp and gotten the drop on you?'
''That wouldn't have happened,'' Rubenstein insisted, his voice sounding almost hurt.
'Happened to her,' Rourke said slowly. 'After I found her jeep, I backtracked it. I didn't figure I'd have to go far. There was a bullet hole in the radiator and in today's heat the thing couldn't have gone far without the engine stalling out. Dead man. Either her boyfriend or her husband and they just didn't believe in rings. Throat slit ear to ear. Four other dead men there—bikers, well armed.
Looks like our ladyfriend there shot all four but one of them.'
'Maybe the other one's still out there,' Rubenstein said.
'No condition to do anything to us—looks like she broke his nose and drove the bone up into his brain. Professional young lady. I found a jacket that looked like it was small enough to be hers—had an interesting little gun in it. The dead man with his throat slit was carrying a Walther P-38K. Pretty professional piece of hardware— the muzzle was threaded on the inside for a silencer. I found the silencer back at the jeep stuffed inside one of the tubular supports for the seat frame.'
'Jesus,' Rubenstein exclaimed.
'I don't think that was his name,' Rourke said quietly, turning then and fading back into the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-One
Michael Rourke opened his dark eyes, squinting against the sun. His legs ached and he started to move, but then remembered the weight on his lap. He looked down at his mother's face, the eyes still closed. 'Momma,' he said softly. 'Wake up—it's morning.'
He looked across the flat expanse of ground and confirmed the rising sun. Millie and Annie were still asleep. The horses were still tied to the tree that he'd secured the reins to the previous night. Their saddles were still in position.
After his mother had fallen down and he hadn't been able to waken her, he'd had Millie and Annie watch her and he had loosened the straps under the horses'
bellies that held the saddles on—his mother called them 'cinches,' he remembered.
'Momma,' he said again, shaking her head gently. He closed his eyes. 'Millie, Annie! Get up— time to get up!' he shouted. Annie sat bolt upright, stared around her and then at him.
'How is Mommie?' she said.
