Lynx cackled. “Can I attack yet?” he yelled over the klaxons.
The two men in the white frocks opened fire.
Chapter Nineteen
Hickok reached the gate in the west side of the stockade and was greeted by a virtual sea of smiling faces.
“We knew you’d come back!” someone said.
“Took you long enough!” came from another.
“Get us out of here!” shouted a woman.
“Yeah,” added Geronimo, standing beside the gate. “Get us out of here!
I don’t like being cooped up like this!”
Hickok shifted his gaze to the right, finding Zahner, Bear, and Bertha.
“Hello, Hickok,” Zahner greeted the gunman.
“Hey, you loony sucker!” Bear beamed. “It’s good to see your sorry ass again!”
“Hi, White Meat!” Bertha said, grinning from ear to ear. “I missed you!”
“Howdy, folks!” Hickok addressed them collectively. “Right nice to see you too. We don’t have much time for small talk.” He deliberately refrained from looking into Bertha’s eyes. “Some of the soldiers got away and they may return at any minute. First we’ve got to get you out of this overgrown chicken coop.”
“Blow the lock off!” a Horn recommended.
“Are you nuts?” Hickok retorted. “The bullet might ricochet and hit one of you. Hold the fort. I’ll find something to bust you out with. Be right back.” He whirled, catching sight of a pained expression on Bertha’s face.
Blast it!
Just what he needed at a time like this!
He shut her from his mind and ran to Blade and Joshua. “I need to break the lock,” he told the Alpha Triad leader. “Don’t we have that metal doohickey in the back of the SEAL?”
“You mean the crowbar?” Blade asked him.
“That’s it. I’ll use it to pry the lock open.”
“Good idea,” Blade agreed, watching Joshua bandage his injury. “If that doesn’t work, take our rope and tie one end to the rear fender on the SEAL and the other end to the gate and tear the thing down.”
“Will do,” Hickok said, starting to turn, bolstering his Colts.
“Oh!” Blade thought to mention. “Your Henry is in that tent over there, along with Geronimo’s weapons. Tell him. Then have everybody gather near the troop transports. And keep your eyes peeled for any soldiers.”
“Want me to help you blow your nose too?” Hickok quipped, then raced for the SEAL. He quickly located the crowbar and returned to the gate.
“Stand back!” he told them, and slipped one end of the crowbar through the loop in the padlock on the gate.
“If you’re planning to use some muscle,” Geronimo suggested, “you should lean on it with your head.”
Hickok ignored him and exerted his weight on the crowbar. The padlock refused to budge.
“I still say you should shoot it off!” mentioned the Horn.
Hickok shot him a nasty look, then reapplied himself to the crowbar.
His sinewy muscles strained and strained, to no avail.
“Blasted lock!” Hickok muttered.
“Anyone have a deck of cards?” Geronimo asked.
Hickok leaned on the crowbar again.
“Here,” offered someone behind him. “Let me try.”
The gunman stood aside as Blade grabbed the crowbar in both huge hands.
“Be careful!” Joshua admonished, standing a few feet behind Blade.
“You’ll start that wound bleeding again!”
Blade pressed on the crowbar, his arms bulging with power. For a moment, it appeared as if the crowbar itself would snap in half.
“You can do it!” Bear said goading him on.
Blade grunted as he applied additional strength, gritting his teeth from the strenuous effort.
With a sharp metallic clang, the padlock snapped, the crowbar slipping as the padlock broke almost causing Blade to slip and fall.
Hickok caught his friend by the back of his belt and jerked him erect.
“That’s what you get for showing off!”
Blade flung the gate open. “All right! Listen up! I want all of you to form around those trucks, and I mean right now! Move it!”
The Nomads, Porns, and Horns immediately complied as Blade, Hickok, and Joshua stepped to one side. They were joined by Geronimo, Zahner, Bear, and a strangely quiet Bertha.
“Where is Reverend Paul?” Joshua inquired of Zahner.
“Dead,” Zahner informed him.
Joshua seemed shocked by the news. “How tragic,” he said sadly. “I liked him a lot. Who is the head of the Horns now?”
“I don’t think they’ve had time to select one,” Zahner revealed. “You might look up Brother Timothy. He was second in command under Paul.”
“I’ll do that now,” Joshua said, and departed.
Hickok, continuing to avoid Bertha’s probing gaze, nudged Geronimo.
“You’d better come with me, pard.”
“Where are we going?” Geronimo asked as he followed on the gunfighter’s heels.
“Blade says our guns and your tomahawk are in that tent over there,” Hickok said. “I don’t know about you, but the sooner I have my Henry back in my hands, the better I’ll feel.”
Zahner faced Blade. “What do you want us to do?”
“I’ll let you know in just a bit,” Blade replied, moving toward the trucks.
“Wait for me,” Zahner stated, and left with him.
Bertha and Bear remained behind.
Bear glanced at her, reading the sorrow in her face. “Well, what did you expect, babe? He’d throw his arms around you and give you a big kiss?”
“Somethin’ like that,” Bertha confessed.
“I kept tellin’ you not to wait for him,” Bear mentioned. “I told you no white boy is gonna fall in love with you.”
“It’s not that,” Bertha said slowly, reflectively. “Somethin’ is bothering him. I can tell.”
Bear snorted derisively. “Listen to me, woman, and listen real good.
Hickok ain’t for you. Don’t get me wrong. I like that honky. I like him a lot.
But I know he isn’t the one for you. And sooner or later you’re gonna wake up to the fact too. When you do, old Bear will be here if you need me. You know how I feel about you, and nothin’ will ever change that.” He placed his right hand on her left shoulder and gently squeezed. “I can see you’re in for a bad fall, and I want you to know I’ll catch you if you want.”
Bertha managed a wan smile. “Thanks, Bear. I appreciate it. Believe me, you’ll be the first to know if I get serious about you. Right now I’ve got me some heavy thinkin’ to do.”
“I understand,” Bear sympathized. He detected a movement out of the corner of his right eye and turned. “Say! Look at that! Blade is on top of one of those trucks. What’s he doin’?”
Blade was perched on the canvas roof of the first troop transport, his arms raised over his head, the Commando and the A-1 both slung over separate shoulders.
Hickok and Geronimo, their weapons reclaimed, stood below their Triad leader.
“Your attention!” Blade shouted at the assembled mass. “Listen up! This is important!” He waited for the crowd to quiet, then resumed. “I believe all of you know who I am and the reason my friends and I are here. We promised we would lead you out of the Twin Cities to a place of safety. Orginally, we intended to conduct the exodus in the spring, when the weather would be nicer. Also, it would have given us time to prepare, to set aside extra food and other supplies to make your transition easier. Now that is all changed. Now it’s impossible.” He paused to insure they were paying attention. Everyone was riveted on his every word. “You saw what the soldiers from the Civilized Zone did to your relatives and friends today. You may know they were planning to take all of you to a place near Denver called a Reabsorption Center and enslave you. Do you want that to happen?” he asked.