Warchild, p.1
Warchild, page 1
Warchild
Last Stand
Book Seven
Blaze Ward
Knotted Road Press
Contents
Scene One
Scene Two
Scene Three
Scene Four
Scene Five
Scene Six
Scene Seven
Scene Eight
Scene Nine
Scene Ten
Scene Eleven
Scene Twelve
Scene Thirteen
Scene Fourteen
Scene Fifteen
Scene Sixteen
Scene Seventeen
Scene Eighteen
Scene Nineteen
Scene Twenty
Scene Twenty-One
Scene Twenty-Two
Scene Twenty-Three
Scene Twenty-Four
Scene Twenty-Five
Scene Twenty-Six
Scene Twenty-Seven
Scene Twenty-Eight
Scene Twenty-Nine
Read More
About the Author
Also by Blaze Ward
About Knotted Road Press
Scene One
Wyatt didn’t figure his opinion mattered all that much, so he kept it to himself. If they cared, they’d ask.
As it was, Abigail hadn’t done too bad a job, getting some old clothes she’d picked up somewhere, then taking them in and generally adjusting things around with her sewing machine.
Like everything else, Abigail was an amazing tailor, too.
Constanz stood there, somewhat transformed. Wouldn’t ever look rough and tough, even with acting lessons, but the fellow certainly was far less dude ranch poser in that outfit than he appeared in a suit.
Even if he secretly was a she. Amazing what short hair, glasses, bowler hat, and straps to compress her small chest could do.
Tessa looked up at him now, eyeballing Constanz in the new outfit.
“Thoughts?” Captain asked.
Wyatt sighed, but only inside. Constanz looked awful nervous about the whole affair.
“Still don’t know why I can’t go with you,” he countered, turning his eyes to Tessa.
“’Cause I don’t trust the situation,” Tessa replied flat. “Don’t know who we’re meeting with here.”
Hard eyes. Constanz could fake that occasionally, but Captain had it natural.
Hard woman.
Wyatt shrugged.
Constanz McLaren, once upon a time Miss Doctor Presley Horowitz, had on boots more fit for riding a horse than walking a dozen kilometers, but that helped, as they had an extra amount of heel that got the man almost to Tessa’s height.
Anybody who knew better would know the truth, because Wyatt was half a head taller and a lot of kilos bigger than Captain Sladek, but as she said, strangers who had passed along a request for a meet.
Faded blue dungarees in a tough cotton weave, with a bit of a flair at the calf to fit over the boots. Pale blue shirt buttoned up the front with a foldover collar that buttoned down. Brown leather vest that looked like one of Auntie’s, with a pocket watch fobbed across the front to a gold chain.
Long sleeves came down to soft gloves to protect the man’s hands. Delicate hands, as befit a badass surgeon. Not rugged enough for this job, but he was playing a part.
Brown leather belt around the middle with a holster on the right. Hunk of crap revolver they’d kept at some point after taking it away from the yahoo holding it. Tessa had dug it out, so Wyatt wasn’t sure which fight it had come from.
They all worked. He’d seen to that. And it didn’t rightly matter, at the end of the day. No way in hell that Constanz McLaren could hit anything with it. Mostly there to look tough, because they were expecting Tessa, and if they’d done any research, they’d know she normally took Wyatt with her on these meets.
Wyatt turned to Abigail, standing off to one side.
“He needs a kerchief tied around his neck with the knot in front,” Wyatt offered.
Abigail’s jaw dropped, but she closed it up and studied Constanz.
“Yes, I have just the one,” she said, turning and disappearing aft.
Probably running up to her shuttle to dig one out of her own closet.
Didn’t need much. Constanz was close.
Not close enough.
“Lemme see your scowl,” Wyatt told the man.
“My what?” Constanz replied somewhat indignantly.
“Your game face,” Wyatt tried instead. “How tough you’re gonna be when them yahoos get to feeling frisky.”
“Oh,” Constanz replied. “Of course.”
Then he did something. Wyatt was pleasantly surprised.
Weight came forward. Not much. Didn’t need much.
Shoulders rolled up, over, and down, adding a little hunch of aggression to his posture.
Head came down a bit, but more forward. Like a critter fixing to take a bite out of you if you stopped paying attention.
Face didn’t change much, but there was a hard, cold bleakness to it that hadn’t been there before.
Wouldn’t ever fool anyone that knew him. Would certainly get the bad guys thinking carefuler thoughts afore they did something stupid.
Add Tessa’s spare armored vest underneath meant that you could shoot him and not drop the fellow. Maybe just knock him over.
Helpful, that.
“Yeah,” Wyatt nodded. “That. Keep that up and I might have to teach you to actually shoot that thing, one of these days.”
“I took an oath to save people, not kill them,” Constanz growled back in a nice tenor voice with a rusty sawblade edge underneath.
“Sometimes, ya gotta triage dumbasses,” Wyatt nodded. “Can’t save ’em all, ’cause some don’t wanna be saved. We all get up in the morning and occasionally make bad decisions.”
Constanz nodded at that.
Fellow had made the hardest ones Wyatt could think of. Gave up her entire life as a top surgeon in the top hospital in the imperial capital. More money than she could ever spend.
Threw it all in the trash to rescue her sister. Then fled into the deep hinterlands of another country, way the hell out here in Hawkswold Sector.
Then turned herself into himself, because the goobers would be looking for a pair of sisters on the run, rather than a young, married couple on a long honeymoon promenade to the stars.
It had worked so far.
And Fin needed to fly the ship, so Constanz was the only other male around here got to pretend to be Wyatt for a meeting.
Hopefully, it would work.
Abigail returned with a faded red bandana that she wrapped and tied.
Yeah, that was it.
Fin walked up at this point, a jar of pickles in hand and a helpful smile on his face.
“Little help, big guy?” Fin asked.
Wyatt contained the eyeroll, lest he pull something.
Fin kept him around to open pickle jars. And pull them down off top shelves. Helped that Wyatt was a full head taller.
He took the jar and gave it a hard tap inverted before gripping and ripping. This most recent batch had been done at a different atmospheric pressure, so they were damned hard to pop open. He’d have to remember that when they started to run out and bought more cucumbers.
It popped but took a little work. Fin nodded and pulled out a spear that he ate with almost pornographic pleasure.
Wyatt didn’t understand pickles. He understood guns.
Looking around, Tessa had her revolver but not her rifle. Constanz was armed, for what it was worth.
Wyatt had Brunhilde on his hip and Doomripper in the rack, just waiting for trouble.
“You sure about this?” he asked Tessa.
She didn’t give him a bullshit pep talk, which told Wyatt just how bad she thought it would be.
“We’re doing it,” she replied instead.
Wyatt nodded.
He’d have to be extra prepared today.
Scene Two
Tessa had explained it all to Constanz. Helped that he was enough of an actor already to slip into a new role. Didn’t know guns at all. Even less than Fin did.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem today, as Wyatt would be off in the distance, watching everything through a scope and ready to potshot dipshits getting out of hand.
Tessa had no worries about Wyatt Nakada shooting folks. Constanz might pull his trigger. Might even hit something smaller than Last Stand on a lucky day.
Wyatt would do most of the killing, if it came to that.
Didn’t help her humor that they hardly knew anybody on Leagrove. Out of the way place. Not rich enough to be important. Not poor enough to notice. Kind of place you noted on a travelogue as having been there, and unable to remember much about it save tourist crap you picked up and forgot to throw away later.
Nice enough climate, here around the equator. Probably colder than shit at the poles, but both were under oceans, so she was never visiting.
They’d parked Last Stand back a couple of ridge lines. Not that she couldn’t have landed right in the middle of things, but she wanted time for Constanz to get into character. And Wyatt to get into ambush.
Middle of nowhere valley was where the contact had asked to meet. Dry enough to be scrub, rather than jungle. Excessively brown, occasionally broken up with golden haze and red rocks.
Still a dull place.
“How are you holding up?” she asked Constanz.
Zero complaints from the man, in spite of hiking over hard terrain in boots that he hadn’t had a chance to break in yet. Extra socks would help, but he’d probably still bruise his soles.
“Well enough,” Constanz replied. “As long as you don’t expect me to magically turn into a pistolero on you.”
She grinned.
Constanz McLaren was the LAST person she would expect that from, but she didn’t say that. She’d had a need. He’d volunteered even before she’d finished explaining the situation.
But then, she supposed that he was starting to fit in. To make this crew something of a family.
Brianna would have been better. Deadlier. But she would need to be even more transformed to pull it off. Same with Laney. Neither of them could easily disguise as a man.
Constanz was slender enough to pull it off.
And willing.
Wyatt would have their backs, as well.
“Are meetings such as this common in such circumstances?” Constanz continued.
“No,” Tessa replied. “Quite irregular. That’s why we did it this way. If I’d had more time, I might have acquired two more long rifles for Brianna and Laney, as I suspect they’d be almost as good as Wyatt at a minimum. Might even teach that boy a few tricks.”
“I see,” Constanz noted. “And yet, you pursue this course of action anyway?”
“Do,” Tessa nodded. “Too many people in this sector. Not enough jobs. Folks get forced to turn to crime to make ends meet. I’ve tried going straight. Didn’t get me anywhere. Bao Li is a nice enough fence and middleman, but I don’t want to be entirely beholden to her organization, in case something happens to it.”
“As occurred with your friend Raven on Alfann?” he asked.
“Exactly that,” Tessa replied. “Flip side of crime is that a lot of the economies out here in Hawkswold Sector only work because of the smuggling and such that goes on. When the Governor of Alfann decided to crack down, he arrested all them folk and caused his own economy to crater almost overnight. At some point, I expect the Ergrove authorities to recall the man. Assuming nobody shoots him first.”
“Would they?” Constanz asked. “Assassinate the man, I mean.”
“Likely,” Tessa nodded.
The terrain around here was a wash, so relatively flat. Late morning getting warm, but not too bad. Just the two of them, as far as she could see, but they were still a bit off from the meeting point.
“Fellow like that probably never leaves his palace for exactly that reason,” Tessa continued. “Worse now, because even the average folk of Weinsefeld City are starting to feel the pinch, last I heard. They’ll grow restive by winter. Then ugly.”
“Are we likely to return to Alfann in the near future?” Constanz asked with a bit of trepidation.
“Not unless someone dangles a stupid amount of money in front of me,” Tessa laughed. “Half upfront, at that. “We’re known associates of Raven. Won’t go back until the current governor is gone, however that happens.”
“That pleases me, Captain,” Constanz nodded. “I appreciate the risks you have taken in transporting us thus far and would not like to see official retribution descend upon you for it.”
Tessa grinned. Constanz and Brianna McLaren were worth a stupid amount of money if turned in.
Or rather, Presley and Nataliya Horowitz were, though Tessa had never met those two.
Just a pair of travelers on a honeymoon to the boondocks.
She spotted the three scrub trees in the distance that were part of the destination marker.
“That’s it,” she nodded, gesturing with her nose rather than a hand. “You ready for this?”
“Absolutely not,” Constanz grinned. “However, if it comes to that, I shall attempt to punch in a far heavier weight class than one might expect.”
Tessa nodded.
About all that any of them could do when trouble came knocking.
Scene Three
Wyatt settled himself in. Because he was usually standing next to Tessa, he didn’t often dig out the various spare parts that he had acquired or built for Doomripper.
Today had felt like an all-in kind of day.
So he had attached the bipod to the front where a bayonet could go if you were hunting wild boar. Flash suppressor screwed on to the end of the barrel, just so nobody could find him in the tall grass if he had to start shooting.
The glass on top was exceptional stuff. Nowhere close to the factory-issued scope the army had used, but the guy who’d been using it before had stopped having a need, so Wyatt had been able to liberate it and change out mounts for himself.
Day was bright. Clear skies with hardly any breeze moving things around, so he’d had to stalk with a great deal of caution, uncertain who might be out there watching for dust getting stirred up by someone that might need to be taken care of.
Wyatt had a small towel down under him. Not quite as brown as the grass and dirt he was wallowing in, but nothing that stood out against the grass and shrubs.
He assumed some dumbass trying to get the drop on Tessa, so he’d also loaded up all four grenades in the launcher, as well as carrying a spare magazine to slam in if he had to take on a small army. And them in semi-armored vehicles.
He’d stick to bullets against folks on horseback. Horse generally didn’t have any choice about the asshole on her back.
Wyatt settled and scanned the area around those trees with the scope, but nothing stood out. He moved on and started quartering the sorts of places he would have gone if he was fixing to cause trouble, but they were empty as well.
Hell, those folks might even be on the level, and just have some weird fetish about meeting out in the middle of nowhere, a day or more hike from the nearest village, rather than meeting in a bar like civilized folk.
Would have been nice to bring a spotter with him, but Wyatt had chosen to walk this one alone. Laney didn’t really have the wilderness trailcraft for something like this, having spent most of her time in docks, cities, and impersonating pirate and smuggler crew.
Brianna was pretty good, but she still had the crazy eyes, occasionally. Plus, her husband was down there, and Wyatt didn’t think she could step back fully and ignore him while looking for trouble. Fool woman would want to be closer. And maybe too involved.
Then Wyatt snorted quietly and realized that he really was too much of a loner. Tessa was as much of a partner as he could deal with, and she was still more of a boss that way.
He was on her wing.
Wyatt wasn’t ready to have someone on his, weird as that sounded.
Maybe he needed to work on that. Wasn’t like he didn’t have access to some immensely dangerous folk. Just hadn’t wrapped his head around it until now.
We all get up in the morning and make dumb choices some days.
He kept to quartering.
Lots of empty, with somebody out there maybe looking to be a pain in his ass.
Scene Four
Tessa settled her butt against one of the trees and pulled a canteen from her belt. Still a little cool from the ship, she drank and handed it to Constanz.
He was holding up pretty well. A little sweaty, but not nearly the funk of Wyatt in the same situation.
Not that she’d mention that to either of them.
Constanz handed the canteen back after a few gulps, then pulled out the watch.
Every world did time different, on account of rotations and orbits. Some places had more hours and they were all the same length as others. Others stretched definitions.
Trying to use the same watch on various worlds pretty much required a lot of complicated math in your head or swapping out the gears inside and basically having a different one for every planet you might visit.
They’d cheated here and used one from Beaumonde that Abigail had in her disguise chest. Wasn’t set for Leagrove, but they’d converted times, so they knew when to expect company.
