“Glad one of us is,” she murmured.
“Two, I think,” he replied. “We need time. Can we purchase such a commodity?”
“Only one way to find out,” she said, raising her blaster.
“Admirable,” Doc whispered, raising his own.
“THEY MAY BE POSSUM.” Corden gestured to his own blaster. “Shoot first.”
“Takes the fun out of it,” Demetriou snarled with a vulpine grin.
“Ain’t s’posed to be fun. S’posed to be business,” Chambers said from behind.
“Mix ’em up,” Thornton said with a snigger.
“Easy now,” Corden muttered as he stepped forward from the cover of the wag door. It was as much to himself as to any of the others. As soon as the coldheart broke cover, a shot from the wag ahead kicked up dust at his feet.
He fired a volley in reply as he stumbled back to the cover of the wag door. It whined as it hit metal and ricocheted into the blue sky.
“Possum it is,” Chambers said. “Gren?”
“Right, and whoever throws it is an open target, even with covering fire. ’Sides which, we blast that fucker and we lose what we’ve come out for in the first place.”
“So what do we do, then?” Thornton asked.
Demetriou smiled slyly.
“HOW WE DOING?” Krysty rasped as soon as she had snapped off a round.
“Fucked, but not chilled yet,” Jak replied. He had disentangled himself from Mildred and J.B., who were still struggling to clear concussed heads. Like Ryan, whose soft moans bespoke of his attempts to break through the concussive fog, they were temporarily out of action. It was down to the three who had clear enough minds.
“We can keep them at bay, but that’s about it for now,” Krysty said. “Reckon Ryan can get this wag going again?”
“Not likely,” Jak said shortly.
“So we can’t move, but they can,” Krysty whispered. “Big advantage.”
“A predictable one,” Doc countered, “as, I think, we are about to see.”
Sure enough, even as he spoke, the engine of the wag facing them sprang to life.
“YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS,” Chambers breathed.
“Why not?” Corden countered. “We don’t want them, we just want what they’re carrying.”
“But what if the wag goes up?”
“Won’t hit near the tanks,” Demetriou told him. “Side-on, near the tail. Spin ’em and scramble ’em. They ain’t got the firepower to stop us. Play with ’em a little.”
Chambers sat back, sighing softly. Crazies. Demetriou and Corden. Running with these stupes was doing nothing for his nerves. He felt his stomach lurch in agreement. Stealing and chilling was something he wanted to do because it was easier than breaking your back for Big Bal. Doing it with Corden’s crew wasn’t easier—no way.
Demetriou gunned the wag engine until it roared, put the wag into gear and released the brake.
Chambers closed his eyes as the wag shot forward.
“STUPE CRAZY bastards,” Krysty cursed. There was every chance that the idiots coming for them could total their own wag as much as they could overturn the wag—now a seemingly too flimsy shelter—in which she and her companions were clustered. It was as if these coldhearts didn’t care. Maybe their wag was the stronger. Maybe the front bars on the wag had been put to a test like this before.
It didn’t much matter. They had some firepower, but would it be enough to stop the oncoming wag, or at least to deflect it from its course?
“I think this may be one for me,” Doc said in her ear. He was whispering, but it still sounded loud and clear. Using the frame of the glassless window as a rest for the barrel of the LeMat, Doc took aim for the windshield of the oncoming wag.
If the coldhearts were crazies, then maybe they had met their match in Doc. The prematurely aged Tanner grinned, his strong white teeth reflective of the mad glint in his eye. This was a challenge he could relish. Only a fool would accept it. Doc was that fool. When you had seen all that he had seen, experienced three different eras and still been left alive, isolated and marooned, there was little else left but to accept the insane as the sane, and to rise to any challenge presented.
If the windshield was shatterproof, then the fire would harmlessly strike and be deflected. If the grille on the front of the wag was open enough to allow the inclusion of fire…
Squeeze that trigger soon enough, and maybe you could hit both targets.
All of that swept through the tangled and darkened skeins of Doc’s mind in the few moments it took him to rest the LeMat and squeeze. He didn’t worry too much about aim. Keep it straight, and the onrushing target would be hard to miss.
The impact of the shot charge held within the percussion pistol sounded loud and deafening in the confines of the wag. A cone of silence followed it as traumatized eardrums adjusted to the sudden concussion.
A single moment stretched to infinity and back as the grape shot of the pistol spread in the molten air, close enough to take all impact, distant enough to allow it to spread across the windshield and fender. By accident or design, Doc had picked the optimum moment.
The wag slewed away from its stationary adversary, throwing up a cloud of choking dust that obscured its path.
DEMETRIOU DIDN’T FEEL the shot and the glass shards that rained over his chest, face and thorax. All were hit head-on. Nervous jerks of a traumatized system made him spin the wheel, taking them off a collision course.
Corden had seen the raised and steadied barrel, had thrown himself down, yelling a blurted and incoherent warning, a noise that made no sense in syllables but said everything in tone. It was enough to make Chambers and Thornton dive to the ground.
Corden screamed in pain as he felt shards score his back. His head connected with the edge of door frame and dash, blurring those lines of pain. For a moment he almost lost the light, but his survival instinct kicked in. If this was going wrong and they had to fight back, then he needed to stay alert to stay alive.
Demetriou’s life snuffed as he fell heavily on the wheel. His foot hit the accelerator and the wag shot across the uneven plain. The jolting made it hard for the other three coldhearts to regain any kind of control, but that very lack of guidance saved them. One rut too many, and Demetriou’s corpse shifted in his seat, his foot sliding from the pedal.
The wag slowed.
THE DUST CLOUD SETTLED and Doc could see that his volley had met with some success.
“Even playing field, I think,” he murmured. “Level, the term might be.”
“Shut up, Doc,” Krysty replied. “Let’s see what they do next. How are we doing?” she questioned a little louder.
“Okay,” Jak stated.
“Not okay,” Ryan breathed in her ear. “Seeing bastard double. Stupe thing with one eye.”
“Watch our tails, then, lover,” she said gently. “No way are you going front line until that’s fixed. Mildred? J.B.?”
“Feel like a mule kicked me, but at least I can see straight,” the Armorer said wryly.
“Second that,” Mildred added. She looked beyond the confines of the wag to where their enemy had come to rest. “Real question is, how are they doing?”
“Badly, I hope.”