Billy shook his head,
‘ ‘Fraid we don’t play, and besides, we don’t have any money.’
Burt the Medicine put the cards away.
‘That’s too bad. I don’t get too much company out here. In fact, I ain’t had a good game since the last time Quinn was here.’
‘Quinn?’
Burt the Medicine looked surprised.
‘You don’t know Quinn? I thought everyone knew Quinn.’
‘I don’t recall ever meeting anyone called Quinn.’
‘If you’d met him, you’d remember. When Quinn gets here, everybody jumps for joy.’
‘Maybe we should meet him.’
‘You ought to. Where are you fellas planning to go from here?’
Billy shrugged.
‘No idea, we’ll just travel on until we come to something.’
Burt the Medicine looked surprised.
‘You’re weird.’
‘Maybe.’
‘Still, it takes all kinds.’
He struck himself on the forehead.
‘Here I am, chattering on, and you’re probably starving.’
Billy and Reave both nodded.
‘We are kind of hungry.’
The albino stood up.
‘I’ll see what I can do. There should be something in on the stuff beam.’
‘You’ve got stuff beams out here?’
Burt the Medicine put a hand on his hip and pouted.
‘Well of course. This isn’t the outback.’
‘We didn’t mean that. It was just that they didn’t have any stuff receivers in Dur Shanzag.’
‘Well, they wouldn’t, would they?’
Billy looked confused.
‘No, I suppose not.’
The albino disappeared inside the shack, and returned with a laden tray.
‘Here you go, boys. It’s all cold, I’m afraid. I got a bit wary of hot stuff down the beam. The war zone, you know, it sets up some kind of interference. A roast chicken went wrong one time, and that’s how I grew these tits.’
Billy and Reave looked suspiciously at the food, but Burt the Medicine waved aside their fears.
‘Eat up, fellas. I guarantee nothing won’t happen to you.’
Billy took a speculative mouthful.
‘Tastes all right.’
‘ ‘Course it does.’
They began to eat. Reave looked questioningly at Burt the Medicine.
‘Must have been quite a shock, growing those tits and all.’
The albino finished chewing.
‘It came as a kind of a surprise at first, I can tell you, but I soon got used to it. After a while I quite got to like it.’
He jiggled one of his breasts.
‘I mean, I never was the sort of guy who had much truck with women, so it didn’t make that much difference, if you know what I mean.’
They went on with the meal. They had just started on a dish of ice-cream and stuff beam strawberries when a high-pitched buzz started away in the distance. It grew louder and nearer. Burt the Medicine leaped to his feet.
‘Fuck the bastards. It’s another one. You two better get down on the ground.’
After their experiences in battle, Billy and Reave didn’t ask any questions. They dived from their chairs and hit the dust. A small red propeller-driven airplane with multiple wings was coming straight at the oasis, almost at ground level. It sprayed a burst of machine-gun fire at the shack, and pealed off, circling for another run.
Burt the Medicine leaped to his feet and ran to the edge of the trees. He whipped the cover off a pair of tripod-mounted, twin field lasers and swung them towards the plane as it came in for a second low-level attack.
Twin pencils of white light sprang from the lasers as the albino pressed the triggers. They sliced neatly through one of the sets of wings, and the plane rolled over. It dropped like a stone, hit the ground and exploded, scattering pieces of wreckage across the sand. Burt the Medicine replaced the cover on the laser and came back dusting off his robe.
‘Well, that takes care of another one.’
Billy and Reave got up off the ground.
‘What in hell was that?’
‘Quin-plane auto-pirate.’
‘What?’
‘It’s some little gizmo they dreamed up over in Dur Shanzag a while back. Automatic killers. They let ‘em loose and ever since, they’ve been buzzing round looking for live targets. I’ve taken out maybe a dozen so far. The control system ain’t too smart, so they’re quite easy to deal with.’
He sat back down at the table.
‘Guess we might as well finish our meal. I really hate being interrupted while I’m eating.’
They finished their dessert, and then the albino produced Turkish coffee and a bottle of Stuff Central’s best cognac. The sky was already starting to dim, and by the time the bottle was drunk it was quite dark. The albino stood up and yawned.
‘I could sit here talking with you boys all night, but it’s past my bedtime. You two look like you could use some sleep.’
Billy and Reave both nodded. The brandy had wiped out what little was left of their energy. The albino cleared away the remains of the meal, and started to rig up a hammock between two of the palm trees.
‘There’s room for one of you to sleep in the shack, and the other can sleep in this here hammock. It’s plenty warm enough on account of how it zips up like a sleeping bag.’
He demonstrated. Billy and Reave looked at each other.
‘Who’s going to take the hammock?’
‘We could flip a coin for it if we had a coin to flip.’
Billy shrugged.
‘I’ll take the hammock, I could sleep anywhere.’
‘If you’re sure you don’t mind.’
Billy tested his weight on it.
‘No, I don’t mind.’
Billy took off his jacket, boots and gun belt.
‘You can take these into the house with you. I’d hate to lose them in the night.’ .
‘Sure. Goodnight.’
Reave took Billy’s things and followed Burt the Medicine into the shack. Billy zipped himself into the hammock, and within minutes was asleep.
It was light again when Billy woke up. He felt better than he had at any time since leaving Pleasant Gap. Even the memory of the Shirik had diminished to a dull nightmare. He pulled down the zip on the hammock and swung his feet to the ground. Neither Reave nor Burt the Medicine seemed to be up and about yet. He walked over to the pool and had a leisurely wash.
Feeling clean and refreshed, Billy looked round for some sign of life, but nobody had yet emerged from the shack, so he walked to the partly open doorway in his bare feet.
The interior of Burt the Medicine’s shack had none of the makeshift appearance of the outside. Although it was only one room, the floor was carpeted and the walls were hung with tapestries and finely wrought brasswork. Light filtered in through Venetian blinds over the windows. It revealed that the room was crowded with ornate furniture and objets d’art.
At one end of the room was a huge bed made of dark, carved wood. Billy moved quietly towards the bed. To his surprise he found, naked under the covers, Reave and Burt the Medicine curled up together in each other’s arms. They were sound asleep.
Billy backed quietly away from the bed, grinning to himself. He’d never thought that Reave was that sexually adventurous. His boots, belt and jacket were lying on a chair, so he picked them up and tiptoed out of the shack.
He sat by the pool for nearly an hour before anybody emerged. The albino was the first to appear. He wore a white brocade robe and oddly dainty silver sandals. He came over to where Billy was sitting.
‘Breakfast?’
‘Yes please.’
‘Be ready in a few minutes.’
‘Great.’
Burt the Medicine strolled back to the shack. A while later Reave appeared. He walked over and joined Billy. He looked a little sheepish.
‘You got your stuff out of the shack, then?’
‘Uh-huh.’