[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]"I'd have said it was more like some old crow, Doc, but I guess you got the right on your side." Mildred
sucked in her cheeks, miming starvation.
"Half an hour," Ryan insisted.
The friends were as close to open rebellion as he'd ever known them to be.
But Ryan was right.
Just when it looked as if Doc and Mildred were going to break ranks and go out alone into the village,
they heard the sound of men's voices, coming toward them from the direction of the river. Everyone
flattened, peering through the brush at a band of a dozen men, aged from midteens to midforties, walking
by, carrying the carcass of a deer slung over a pole.
Most of them were hefting old single-shot, long-barreled muskets, while a couple had primitive cap-and-
ball pistols. Several had long, broad-bladed swords.
They wore mostly a collection of ragged clothes and patched furs.
"Double-poor," Krysty whispered to Ryan. "Kind that might turn on strangers like rabid dogs."
He nodded his agreement. "Could be. Pesthole like this won't welcome outlanders."
J.B. had the same thought. "Wish we had a war wag with us," he said quietly.
Mildred was puzzled. "They look decent, honest people. Why don't we just go and ask for food? Explain
we gotten ourselves lost and we're hungry."
"Indeed." Doc licked his lips. "I find myself in agreement with my colleague. Surely they would not think
to refuse poor travelers sustenance?"
"Would they not?" Ryan asked wryly. "I wouldn't want to stake my life on that, Doc. I've seen dozens
mebbe hundredsof places like this. Tiny inbred communities, where everyone fucks everyone else and the
only thing they unite on is a hatred of strangers. Get more kindness from mad dogs."
"So, what we do?" Jak asked.
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"Talk loudly and carry a big stick," Doc suggested. "Is that not correct?"
Ryan smiled, standing cautiously and drawing the SIG-Sauer from its holster. "Put it your own way, Doc,
but I guess the idea's right. Go in fast and heavy. Get out quick."
"Want me and Mildred to circle around and come in from the other side?" J.B. was peering past the dirt-
poor houses. "Looks like a wider river through yonder. Could be boats. Take us away from here to do
some exploring."
"Right. Take four minutes fromnow! Move in and try and keep them under control. Just tell them we only
want to be fed and then we'll leave."
"Chilling?"
"If we have to. Now go."
J.B., carrying the reloaded Uzi ready at high port, vanished silently away to the right, followed by
Mildred. Ryan stayed where he was with Krysty, Jak and Doc, checking his wrist chron, counting off the
seconds.
"One minute to go. Remember that we have to make them think we'll blast them if they step out of line."
Krysty looked at him, her face dappled in shadow. "Well, we will, won't we?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we will." He looked again at the changing digital display. "Ten seconds. Let's get moving,
people."
THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE of six heavily armed strangers, coming in from both ends of their tiny
village, produced an instant panic. But to Ryan's great relief, the panic took the form of a passive
defeatism.
The disabled man appeared to be the leader of the ragged community and he was the first to see them,
spotting Ryan as the one-eyed man strode from cover toward the cooking fire. He immediately gave a
great ululating cry of despair, falling awkwardly to his knees, hands clasped in front of him.
"Don't kill us, mister."
"Everyone keep still and nobody do nothing foolish and nobody gets hurt." Ryan fired a single shot into
the air to confirm the threat, the sound of the explosion echoing flatly around the small settlement.
"What do ye want, mister?" The whole village was on its knees, eyes rolling, mouths sagging in fear.
"Food is all. We got ourselves lost in that maze of lakes back there. Deeply hungered. Smelled your stew
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cooking and figured you wouldn't let honest folks starve."
The relief could almost be tasted. The man's face lost its pallor, and he kept looking back and forth from
Ryan to J.B.
"Why, sure. Surely, neighbors. What we have is ye welcome to. Be ready to eat right soon."
"Ye can stay a night or more, neighbor," mumbled a toothless woman with a gaping sore that leaked a
colorless liquid over her neck and stained her torn cotton dress. "Any of ye with no bed warmers'd be
welcome to take ye pick."
Ryan nodded. "Thanks for that offer. But no thanks. A meal and on our way. What's the river yonder?"
Now that he was in the center of the village he could see it more clearly, making out a ramshackle jetty
with a couple of rafts moored there.
The man grinned, showing a mouth filled with rotting teeth that jostled and leaned against each other like
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