03. Gods at the Well of Souls (31 page)

Julian sighed. "Look, I'm going to go down the tracks and see if I can pick them  up. Oh, don't look so alarmed! I'll be careful, and I won't do anything, only  locate them and get back here. They won't be expecting anybody to do it,  anyway." 

"I don't like it. We've already got one wounded member, and he was in many ways  the handiest of us all," Anne Marie said, shaking her head. 

"You said it yourself about Campos," Tony reminded her. 

"I know, I know, but don't you see? It's something I can do. Something that  makes sense that I can do better than either of you. And of all of us I'm the  most expendable, anyway. You two have futures when you finally get back home,  and even Gus has the girl here in a kind of sweet, Platonic way. I can't go  home, and you know what they did to Lori. Mavra Chang might be my only way out  of this. Don't worry." She paused, then added, "But even if for some reason I  don't come back, don't give up. I'm going to do what seems best at the moment. I  don't intend getting caught or shot, but no matter what, you find them. You find  them and get them to that Well." 

They knew that nothing they could say and nothing they could do short of tying  her up would change her mind, so they let her go. 

Once outside, Julian looked around until she found what had to be the messiest,  gooeyest mass of dark brown mud anywhere and then got down and rolled in it  until she was literally covered with the stuff. There was a heavy mist starting  up; it wouldn't dry out very easily. 

Then, on all fours for maximum traction, she started off up the tracks in the  direction of the end of the line somewhere far off, searching less for  individuals than for hope. 

Juana Campos was thinking as they made their way slowly and laboriously down the  mountainside, almost tree by tree. The girls had acquitted themselves well in  their first real trial; for the first time, she was beginning to have actual  respect for their potential. 

All along I have been thinking like a woman, she told herself. I have been  thinking like the mistress of the local don. I am more than that. That I am a  woman I cannot change, but I am also Juan Carlo Rodriges Campos de la Montoya,  son of Don Francisco Campos, the greatest man of modern Peru. If I am a woman,  so be it, but I will not think like one. Taluud, you will not be the one to  rebuild in Clopta, this I swear! Before I am through, they will bow and scrape  to me as they did to you. Here begins the future of power in Clopta! No more thinking small, of amnesties and rewards. Those who truly had the power  in this world would have to acknowledge her, or a certain little birdie would go  visiting the Well. Take it or leave it. 

Those amateurs hunting for their friends would not climb up the mountain again,  and the only real threat from them had been taken out. Gen Taluud would not be  so timid. He would send his men up there and find them gone. Then they would see  the signs and figure out what she'd done, and they'd come hunting. Hunting on  their big, fat horses. If they could shoot an invisible thing, then how much  easier to shoot them off their mounts! Hell, just potting Genny would probably  do it. 

Once down the hill, she'd find the perfect place, and there they'd camp and lay  their ambush. They would wait until the others came. Then whoever was left would  have to deal with her! 

And part of that price would be completing the set. Then it would all be right.  Then this world would also dance to a Campos melody! 

It was easy to find the railroad; a train came by every hour by day and every  two or three by night. Whatever they traded, the Mixtim sure traded a lot.  Finding the spot in a light rain before darkness fell would be more difficult  but not impossible. The trees and rocks around there were almost made to be  natural fortresses, and she knew how Genny and his men thought. The other two listened in amazement to the plan, but with growing excitement.  Not just Kuzi, the new supreme lieutenant, but even Audlay was saying, "Can I  have a gun this time, Juana? Please? I been wanting to shoot some guys for the  longest time!" 

"Pretty one, if I thought you could even hit a mountain with a gun, I would  gladly let you," Campos told her. "But you can be just as important and cover  the one area that neither Kuzi nor I can. Just be patient. We must find our spot  and prepare it well tonight. I think they will come tomorrow."   

Julian had worked her way slowly along the tracks until well after dark before  she decided that she had to have gone too far and started back. At that, she almost missed them. They were quite well dug in and nearly  invisible from the road. It was only the fact that they expected their trouble  to come from the southeast that betrayed them at all. Once or twice the one on  guard looked out from this direction toward the freight yard, and when that  happened, Julian's infrared vision abilities caught a glimpse of a head. Now that she had found them, though, she didn't know quite what she was going to  do. Something inside her told her that no matter what situation she was in, she  simply could not take offensive action. It was something inside her that was  part of what made her a very different person from the one she'd once been. She  could instinctively defend herself-that she'd discovered in the complex-but to  go in there and harm someone not trying to do immediate harm to her-it just  wasn't in her. 

She had no weapons, anyway. In fact, she had come with nothing at all, her  earrings and nose ring being the only artificial things she had. That and her  brain, which was at least working efficiently-or was it? She'd had this idea to  come here and find them, but that efficient thinking machine hadn't a clue as to  what to do with what she'd discovered. 

She wondered if she could get around them and spot where Lori and Mavra were and  what their situation was. It might give her an opportunity. She moved into the  forest and up and around the Cloptans' camp. 

They had picked their spot very well. No matter what the angle, Julian couldn't  quite get in back of them or above them with any kind of clear view. She knew  better than to try to get in really close. They'd trapped Gus somehow, so what  chance would she have? 

She realized she was making excuses for herself, but it didn't matter. She was  still too much the Erdomese female to be capable of aggression or even of doing  most things on her own. It was like knowing everything there was to know about  flying a plane and then discovering that she had acrophobia. In fact, although  she knew that the only rational course was to go back and warn the Dillians, she  found herself unable to bring herself to risk detection by the ambushers. For  all the false bravado at the complex, she still had nightmares about it, in  particular about being jumped from behind. She'd done it once, because that had  been the group and she'd gone with the group, but she doubted she could do it  again-especially on her own. 

I'm as much of a freak as Mavra, Lori, and those poor things back in the  complex, she thought miserably. I'm still the same scared, wimpy little Erdomese  cow I was before, only they made it impossible for me to like guys who can  defend me. 

She tried to figure out some way to actually act, to make something happen, and  came up with a hundred different things, but she just couldn't do any of them. She wondered what she would do if the Dillians came walking up the tracks into  the ambush. Would she have the nerve to warn them, or would she be forced to  watch them be cut down? 

Shortly after dawn there was a change in the camp. Voices and the sound and  scents of things being prepared for a breakfast. 

Women's voices, unmistakable even with that Cloptan rasp. 

Julian envied them even as she hated them. It wasn't fair, she thought, finding  tears of self-pity rising within her that she was also powerless to stop. A  bastard like Campos gets to act decisively, and I can't even work to save my  friends! About two hours after dawn came the unmistakable sound of horses, and  Julian feared she was about to witness what she'd worried about all night.  However, it wasn't the Dillians who were coming up the tracks but somebody else.  Those voices were definitely all coming from men. 

"Only three Cloptans!" Campos hissed. "Three and that blob thing." She looked  over at Kuzi, who had her rifle out and poised, and then back at Audlay. "You  ready?" They both nodded. 

"Hold it! I hear a train coming-from the south, I think!" Campos whispered.  "Wait until the train is almost to them. Then take out the two on this side  first. The noise might keep the other two from even noticing the shots. They  won't have a clue where we are or even that we're here until the train passes,  and then we've got them cold." 

Gen Taluud heard the train as well. He and the colonel were on the far side of  the tracks, and the other two were on the near side. As the train approached, he  said, "Let's all get over there and let the train pass! There's not much  maneuvering room for horses over here!" 

Campos could hardly believe her good fortune. "Back two first! Same idea!" she  hissed, and Kuzi nodded again. 

Suddenly the train was upon them, belching steam and smoke, the Mixtimite  engineer sounding the whistle as a warning. 

Campos and Kuzi fired their rifles from braced positions dead on, and the two  gunmen in back fell off their horses. One of the horses bolted forward,  startling Taluud and unbalancing him, and Campos's squeezed-off shot caught him  in the shoulder instead of the head. He whirled in the saddle and screamed at  the colonel. 

Kuzi's shot struck the colonel dead in the "chest" area of his manlike riding  form, but it passed right through and didn't seem to do much more than knock him  a little off balance. 

Campos had expected that, but now she actually stood up, fully exposed, as the  train rumbled off into the distance, and shouted, "Hey! Genny! Over here, baby!” The big boss of Clopta looked up from nursing his wound, saw her aiming directly  at him, and shouted, "No! Doll! Wait!" 

She fired, and his head nearly exploded, with brains flying as he toppled off  the horse in a heap. 

"That is very impressive," the colonel shouted to them. "But you may shoot me as  much as you like. It is very difficult to find my vital spots, you know, and I  am coming up there to embrace you all!" 

The shape got off the horse, and Kuzi pumped five heavy-caliber shells into him  before his manlike shape dissolved and he began flowing toward them up the side  of the sheltering rock. 

Suddenly it was not the two shooters but Audlay, teeth showing, who stood atop  the rock holding a pot filled with something. "Hey! Blobbo! Want a little bath?"  she asked, and emptied the contents of the pot on top of the colonel. The colonel froze, then asked, "What is this? Do you think this will stop me?" Campos and Kuzi emerged from either side of the rock outcrop. Both of them were  holding torches. 

"No, sir, it is more like a relative of kerosene," Campos said. "Would you like  a light?" 

The colonel didn't have a ceiling or corner to run to, and he had no knowledge  that Audlay wasn't at the top with a torch of her own. 

"No! Wait! You need me!" he cried out. "How do we need you?" Campos came back,  hesitating and wondering if she was a fool to do so. 

"I had a deal with Taluud! He was going to run everything! The whole show! I was  to get my own home hex as absolute ruler!" 

So that was it. "So why do I need you now?" 

"You don't know who to talk to! I do! I know who pulls the strings up to the  councillor level! You can only deal with the government up front!" "Oh, yes? And perhaps we put out these torches and you eat us, huh? I think  perhaps we do not have enough guarantees. We will do this ourselves!" "My word was always good to a Campos!" he retorted. "I am Colonel Jorge  Lunderman!" 

"Lunderman? The one who worked for my father!" 

"Si! Si! Yo siempre encontre su padre para ser un hom-bre mas honorado! Y el, a  la vez, tuvo no razon para me dudar. No una ves!" the colonel said urgently. Campos was impressed. "jYo tengo su palabra ahora, como estuvo con mi padre, tan  estard entre nosotros tambien?" 

"Sobre el honor de mis ascendientes y antes de el Dios y el Virgen Santo, si!" "Colonel, this may be the one fatal mistake I make, but I believe you," Juana  Campos told him. "Kuzi, it is all right. Put out your torch. The colonel and I  have just come to an agreement." 

Kuzi looked hesitant. "You're sure? What was that you were saying in that funny  language?" 

"Nothing is certain, but I think so, yes. I asked the colonel if he was willing  to pledge his service to me here as he did for my father back where we both come  from. He agreed and took a most solemn oath to that effect. Now, go see if you  can get the horses back. We can use them. It is all right." 

The colonel oozed nervously back down the rock and reformed facing Campos. "I am  honored that you would trust me still," he told the Cloptan. "I am, however, a  bit amazed. At this very moment I could reach out in a second and swallow you,  and what could you do about it? No, no! Do not worry! I am a man of honor. I ask  of you no more than I asked of Taluud, and I might tell you that I feel that  things will be much better in your hands than in his. I am just curious as to  why you trusted me at this point." 

Campos gave a Cloptan smile and looked up atop the rock. "It is all right,  Audlay. You can put your torch out now, too!" she called. 

The colonel started quivering like gelatin in an earthquake, and soon peals of  laughter issued forth from the mass. Finally he said, "I do believe, madame,  that this is the beginning of a most wondrous partnership."