“I wish. I see that these people are all trying to be top dog in the Twin Cities, but I don’t know the reason they’re fighting. Does anyone know?”
He turned to Bertha. “Is there anyone who knows when and why all of this started?”
Bertha was thinking. “There might be one man. He’s the oldest Nomad.
Almost forty years old.”
“That’s old?” Hickok glanced at Blade. “Are you dying off early because of advanced senility?”
“What do all of them words mean?”
“Old age?”
“Naw. No one lives to old age anymore. Most of us are killed by the time we’re thirty.”
“None of this makes any sense,” Blade repeated. “I need to do some serious contemplating. We’ll have a conference in the morning and consider our options.”
“Don’t strain your brain.” Hickok grinned.
“Hey! Wait a minute!” Bertha said to Blade as he stood. “I’ve got a heap of questions of my own. Who’s going to answer them?”
“I’ll let Hickok handle the task.” Blade smiled. “Joshua should be up here soon with your soup. You rest. We won’t be leaving until you’re fit to travel.”
“Travel?”
“We need you to take us to the Twin Cities,” Blade informed her.
“I don’t know about that, honky.” Bertha shook her head. “I’m finally free of that mess, and I’m not sure I want to go back. You can’t know how bad it is there.”
Blade walked to the doorway. “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. We won’t force you to come with us. But it would make it easier on us if we had someone who knew their way around the Twin Cities.”
“Why do you want to go there anyway?”
“Hickok can fill you in. I’m going to check our perimeter and insure the SEAL is secure. See you in the morning.” Blade walked off.
“I like him,” Bertha said to Hickok. “He’s got a way about him.”
“That he does,” Hickok agreed.
Bertha rolled on her left side, facing Hickok. “I like you, too, White Meat.”
“You certainly don’t beat around the bush none, do you, girl?” Hickok admired her finely chiseled features.
“Life’s too damn short to beat around the bush,” she said sadly. “You gotta grab what you want, when you want it!”
“That’s some philosophy.”
“Tell me about yourself,” she urged him. “I want to hear everything about you, and the others here with you, and where you come from, and what you’re doing here, and why you want to go to the Twins.”
“Anything else you want to know?” He grinned.
“You got a woman?” she bluntly demanded.
Hickok hesitated.
“Well, you got a woman or not? A simple yes or no will do just fine.”
“No,” Hickok said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t have a woman.”
“Hmmmm.” Bertha frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
Joshua came into the room, carrying a steaming bowl of soup and a handful of jerky.
“Food!” Bertha struggled to sit up. Hickok assisted her. “I could eat a horse!”
“You’re hungrier than when I left.” Joshua placed the soup and jerky on the floor next to her legs. “I hope you enjoy this repast. I tried my best.”
“Honey,” she said, grabbing a stick of jerky, “this could be week-old dead skunk and I’d still gulp it down.”
“I don’t know if I could cook week-old dead skunk,” Joshua said seriously.
Bertha smiled. “I like you too, beefcake! I like all of you.”
“There’s one of us you haven’t met,” Hickok told her.
“Oh? What’s he like?”
“Ever heard of a book called The Last of the Mohicans?”
Chapter Seven
The Alpha Triad and Joshua met for a conference early the next morning, sitting around the card table. During the night the lights had flickered several times, and finally the entire building had plunged into darkness.
Blade had made a torch using a piece of cloth and a board, and they had ventured downstairs. He had studied the generator and found a cap on top of a tank, a cap similar to one on the SEAL, and had recalled watching Plato remove that cap and place an oil additive into the engine. Blade had twisted the generator’s cap off, and had placed his nose over the hole. He could smell a strong, acrid odor. A metal container had rested on the floor.
Acting on a hunch, Blade had opened the container and discovered a liquid with the same scent as the generator tank. Joshua had held the torch to one side as Blade poured some of the liquid into the tank. He had placed the cap back in position and examined the front of the generator.
Three black buttons were situated to the front. Arranged vertically, the top button was labeled START, the center button STOP, and the third something called CHOKE. Blade had pushed the START button several times, and the generator had coughed and sputtered. He had stabbed the CHOKE button twice, had hit the START button, and had been delighted when the generator caught. The lights had come back on.
After breakfast, at the table, Geronimo complimented the Triad leader.
“That was a neat trick last night,” he said. “Where’d you learn to start a generator?”
“Lucky guess,” Blade replied. “I remembered Plato telling us about the fossil fuels the engines ran on before the Big Blast. When I saw the tank, and the container, I put two and two together.”
Hickok yawned loudly. “Let’s get this meeting over with. I need some more sleep.”
“Poor baby,” Geronimo ribbed him. “Serves you right for staying up most of the night.”
“Bertha was asking more and more questions. Never saw such a curious woman. Wouldn’t let me leave. I came down after she fell asleep. You sure she’ll be all right?” He faced Joshua.
“She has suffered extensive surface damage,” Joshua explained. “The beatings were severe. Fortunately, her vital organs were not injured. A few days rest, and plenty of nourishment, and she should be as good as new.”
“Which brings us to this meeting.” Blade got their attention. “We can use her. She knows the Twin Cities. She could make our job there a lot easier. Last night she told me she might not want to go back. Do we force her to against her will?”
“Definitely not,” Joshua responded.
Geronimo shook his head.
“If the gal doesn’t want to come with us, pard,” Hickok said harshly, “she doesn’t go with us.”
“You’re getting attached to her,” Blade stated frankly.
“Bull!” Hickok said in denial. “She’s a good kid. She needs a friend, is all.”
Blade suppressed a grin. “I didn’t intend to force her to accompany us. I wanted to be sure how each of you felt. How long do you think we should stay in Thief River Falls? Until she is fully recovered? Until she’s fit enough to travel, if she does elect to come with us?”
“I don’t want to abandon her until she can take care of herself,” Hickok said, expressing his opinion.
Blade tapped his finger on the table, pondering. “Agreed. We won’t leave her until she’s fit. I don’t like the delay it’s costing us, but we don’t have any choice.” His eyes ranged over each of them. “We do have a more serious problem to evaluate. Bertha told us about the Twin Cities last night. I couldn’t understand everything, but enough to gather our trip there is going to be extremely dangerous. Several warring factions are fighting for control of the city, and we could find ourselves caught in the conflict. I’m not very optimistic about finding the equipment Plato needs either. Still, we’ve got to try.”
“What about the Watchers?” Hickok asked. “We’re bound to run into more of them.”