“We need to be able to settle for a few days in each place before we pick up and move on,” Parlan said. “We need that more now than we ever have before. Journeys from East Coast to West Coast aren’t possible anymore. We can’t even get out of this damn region. So we can’t put the clan at risk because Sweeney Cooke thinks with his dick.”
“Where are Sweeney and Charlie?” Judd asked.
Dalton shrugged. “Charlie had pulled up near the back door of the house, so Sweeney should have gone out that way.”
“I heard gunshots when we were driving away,” Lawry said. “Tire could have been blown out—or one of them could have been shot.”
“If one of them was shot and they managed to get away, they’ll have to hide or find a town that still has a doctor,” Judd said. “Either way, I think Dalton and Lawry need to lay low for a couple of days while I see what I can find out.”
“You good with that, Lawry?” Parlan asked.
Lawry nodded. “Nobody saw me, and I doubt they can identify Dalton, so finding a place to squat to avoid running into Charlie and Sweeney and have someone connect us to them is the best we can do right now.”
“You have mobile phones that work?”
“Yeah. Mostly. You lose the signal a lot when you get away from the towns, such as they are.”
“Try to find a place where you can check in daily.”
Parlan waited until Lawry and Dalton left his private car. Then he looked at Judd.
“We’re not the only ones trapped inside borders,” Judd said. “Been hearing about plenty of the boys who are finding it hard to adjust since that damn war.”
The boys. Judd’s code name for men who preferred to make a living on the wrong side of the law. Outlaws. Bank robbers and cattle rustlers. Gamblers and thieves. Killers.
“Used to be a man would settle in a town,” Parlan said. “He’d buy a house, have a wife and children, go to the Universal Temple on Earthday same as the rest of his neighbors. He didn’t dirty his own nest. He never did anything in that town that gave his neighbors a reason to think he was anything less than respectable. And what he did outside that town … That was nobody’s business but his.”
“You’re thinking it’s time to play the respectable con again?” Judd asked.
Parlan nodded. “Open a business, settle down. It will take a few years for the human towns to recover.”
“If they recover.”
Parlan nodded again. That was the hard truth. The towns he’d seen so far in this region were bleak prospects for a man like himself. Yes, it was time to find a place where the clan could settle down for a few years. More to the point, he was heading for the only place where they should be able to slip in with the rest of the newcomers.
“If we settle down to play the respectable con, Cooke and Webb are going to be a problem,” he said.
“They’re already a problem,” Judd replied.
“Can you take care of it?”
Judd smiled. “It’ll be a pleasure.”
CHAPTER 23
Sunsday, Messis 21
After an early breakfast at the hotel, Jana and Tobias crossed the street and strolled across the square. Alone, she would have taken the long way around by walking on the streets, not wanting to see the bloodstained grass or have her breath catch as she passed the spot where she’d shot the dogs. But Tobias had to get back to the Prairie Gold ranch and wasn’t sure when he’d be able to return to Bennett. He had a responsibility not just to the ranch but to the whole Intuit community, since the ranch was the main source of meat for Prairie Gold.
“Ah … ,” Tobias said.
Jana stared at the three Wolves—and her puppy—tearing into … “I left her in her crate. What’s she doing out here? And what is that?”
“Pronghorn antelope,” Tobias replied.
“She can’t eat that. Rusty can’t eat that.”
“Actually …”
Virgil, Kane, and John stopped tearing off chunks of meat and looked at her like she was nuts. Rusty, hearing her voice, grabbed the severed lower half of a hind leg and carried it to where Jana stood, wagging her tail as she dropped the present on Jana’s boot.
Tobias sounded like he had something stuck in his throat, but he said in a low voice, “Praise her.”
She didn’t want to praise the puppy. She didn’t want to find other kinds of presents—and some that might not be altogether dead—being dropped on her foot because she had reinforced this behavior. But a pack shared the meat, and since she wasn’t going to go down on her hands and knees and put her face in the antelope, growling at Virgil in order to claim her share, she praised Rusty and gave Virgil a look that should have singed fur.
Crouching, she wrapped a hand around the leg just above the hoof—and wished she’d eaten oatmeal instead of steak and eggs that morning, since oatmeal wouldn’t have scampered around the Elder Hills before becoming someone’s meal.
“Since she’s not used to it, it’s probably best not to give the pup too much fresh meat at one time,” Tobias said in a conversational tone, looking at the Wolves. “And if you’re planning to do more than sleep for a few hours, you all might not want to pack in too much meat either. Of course, you’d know better than me how your human form reacts to a full Wolf belly.”
John and Virgil stopped eating. Kane, having successfully yanked off part of the meaty rib cage, hobbled a few feet away and settled down with his prize.
After giving the pronghorn a wistful look, Virgil trotted toward the sheriff’s office while John headed in the opposite direction toward the bookstore.
“With me, Rusty,” Jana said, waving the pronghorn leg when the pup started to follow Virgil. “With me.” She indulged Rusty in a vigorous game of tug, which ended when Rusty pulled some hide off the leg and Jana, no longer having the resistance, landed on her butt.
“Need a hand, Deputy?” Tobias held out his hand.
“Don’t you laugh.”
“Not laughing. No, ma’am.”
Uh-huh.
She accepted the hand up, and the three of them walked to the sheriff’s office.
“Could Virgil have killed that animal?” Jana asked.
“Probably. He’s big enough and has the speed. But I doubt he’d have dragged it all the way back to the town square. If he’d been hunting last night in the hills—which would be unusual since regular wolves don’t tend to hunt at night, and from what I know of them, the Wolfgard don’t either—Virgil would have brought it to their house if he’d moved it from the kill sight.” Tobias stopped on the sidewalk in front of the sheriff’s office. “I don’t think the Wolfgard killed that pronghorn. Neither did the Panther who lives in town. None of them have had time to be out hunting for fresh meat. They’ve been making do with the supplies of fresh or frozen meat from all the houses, same as the humans here.”
“Who would kill something and then leave it for …” Jana stopped when she noticed all the birds heading for the carcass. Eagles, Hawks, Ravens, Crows. Even some of the Owls. Fresh meat. The kind of meat the terra indigene were used to hunting and eating.
Saul Panthergard, in his Cougar form, trotted up to the kill. Kane snarled, but Jana thought that it was for form’s sake. The birds fluttered and resettled, leaving Saul as the sole possessor of the hindquarters.
“Elders,” Jana whispered.
Tobias nodded. “That would be my guess. Kane’s hurt and Virgil’s keeping watch to make sure all the pesky humans behave. Someone needs to supply meat for the pack.”
And putting the carcass in the square allowed all the Others to have a piece since none of them had more right to the meat than the rest.
Jana waved the pronghorn leg, which Rusty took as an invitation to play. Holding it higher than the pup could jump, she said, “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“I’m guessing you don’t want to put it in the office refrigerator.”
“You guess right. For one thing, it’s an under-the-counter fridge—too small to hold this. For another thing …” Jana looked at the leg. “It still has fur and skin … and a hoof.”
“I’ll see if I can locate an ice chest and some ice. Or I can take it with me and return it to the rest of the kill if that’s what you want.”
“That would be better.”
Tobias tipped his hat back. “We feed the ranch dogs fresh meat all the time. It won’t hurt Rusty. In fact, it will be good for her—and it will be easier on you to feed her meat as one of her meals than fighting with Virgil every time there’s fresh meat. She’s pack, darlin’, and she’s furry. He might be able to wrap his mind around you not wanting to gnaw on meat that’s still on the hoof, but not providing food for a pup?” He shook his head. “One way or another, the Wolves will feed her. The only way for you to keep control of what she eats is if she gets most of her meals from you.”
She handed him the pronghorn leg. “I have to get to work.”
“Me too.” He smiled. “Too much of an audience for a good-bye kiss?”
Jana looked across the street. Everything with fur or feathers looked back at her. Watching her and Tobias. If she kissed Tobias in full view of everyone, Saul might keep it to himself, not seeing anything of interest. Kane might keep it to himself. Same with the Hawks and Eagles and Owls. But the Crows and Ravens? Everyone would know about a kiss before the breakfast dishes were cleared. And that was assuming the “news” didn’t travel outside Bennett.
“Definitely too much audience,” she replied.
The smile he gave her had enough heat to produce a nice little flutter. She wasn’t sure what to do about the flutter, but it gave her a boost of confidence before she walked into the office and had to deal with a growly boss.
* * *
* * *
Tolya Sanguinati studied the two maps. One was a large map of the Midwest Region as it had been a few months ago. Even before the Elders and Elementals had raged across the continent, the human-controlled towns had been sparse in this region. There were way stations indicated on the map—Carter’s Way, Silver Way, Shooting Star Way. Those places were little more than a stop for the freight and passenger trains and had a few dozen people living there at best. Other places were small Intuit or human communities that had a major roadway running through them.
And some of the more isolated places were ghost towns now, reclaimed by the terra indigene.
Many of those places—maybe all of those places—depended on Bennett’s survival in one way or another.
Tolya shook his head. Those other places weren’t his problem. Even if he had the outlandish idea that he should take some responsibility for them, he couldn’t do it, because he had enough problems right here.