Satan's Forge (Star Sojourner Book 5) (15 page)

“You're leaving, aren't you? I knew it!”

“Leaving? Where would I go?”

“God only knows, with you.”

“I…I'm trying to say –” I took a breath and looked into her indigo eyes, her chiseled features, her wide, full mouth, so alluring, yet child-like in its sensitivity. I rubbed my hands through her thick curly black hair. “I…I'm trying to say I love you too. I want us to be together.”

Her eyes widened. Her lips parted. “You
mean
that?”

“I think so. Yeah. I do.”

“Oh my God! Oh, Jules.” She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. “Babe,” she whispered, “I'll never love another man as long as I live.”

I thought about that. “OK.”

She chuckled. “Good enough.”

I kissed her wet cheek, the tip of her nose, her mouth. “My beautiful Sophia.”

She lifted to her toes and pressed against me. “Let's celebrate.”

“Wine?”

She took my hand and led me deeper into the woods. “Better than wine.”

“There they go again!” I heard Big Sarge say.

I was bone-tired, but I would try to please my lady.

We found a grotto in the darkness of woods, entered, and gently undressed each other.

She had to work at it a bit, but finally, I was ready for her. I knew I'd never have an orgasm, so I just followed her lead and when I felt she was reaching it, I held her tight and moved with her.

When it was over, she cuddled against me and I stroked her arm. Until I fell asleep.

It was morning when I awoke. I was still naked, but wrapped in a bedroll, with an air pillow under my head and a note next to me.
Sweet Dreams, Babe.
Sophia had brought me a bucket of water, a washcloth, towel, soap, shaving kit, toothbrush, and a comb. I used them all. But I shivered in the cool morning air as I washed, and quickly dried myself and got dressed. I peeled off the rest of the tattoos, and shrugged into my jacket.

Outside the grotto, the air was moist and full of the scent of plant life and the chirping of forest creatures. The sky was overcast. Again. I wondered if it would ever shine pink again on New Lithnia.

I walked back to camp with the folded bedroll and the other stuff under my arms.

The group was gathered, having breakfast. “Got a horse you don't want?” I asked Sunny, the old, bent cook, sunken-chested, and quick, with a smile in his blue eyes, as he ran one of the sous chef units.

“If horses laid eggs,” he said. “How about some pancakes instead?”

“OK. Stack 'em high, Sunny. I'm starved.”

He ripped open an ingredient packet. “I'll make them extra large.”

I walked over to where Joe, Chancey, Bat, Huff, Big Sarge, Attila, Apache John, and Priest sat in a circle, studying a wrinkled map on the ground.

“Morning. Anybody seen Sophia?” I asked.

“I have seen her,” Huff said.

I waited. Finally, I said, “Huff, do you know where she is?”

“Yes.”

Chancey chuckled.

“She's riding her horse in the woods,” Joe said. “She the mare needed exercise. Sit down.”

Huff moved over and I sat between him and Joe. “Did you sleep in the well?” Huff asked.

“What?” I said. “Oh. Sleep well. Yeah, thanks, Huff. You?”

“Me?” he answered.

“Did you sleep well, too?”

“Yes, my Terran Jules friend. I slept as though in a black well.”

I looked around. The four vehicles were gone.

“You wonderin' about the crafts?” Big Sarge asked.

I nodded.

“Couple of the boys went out to meet the arms merchants. They made planetfall last night.”

I shifted position. “Then we're getting close to invading the mine?”

“Don't be so hasty,” Sarge said and gestured toward the map. “We're planning our first operation.” He stroked his drooping beard. “I want to know every step you took from the time you left camp to your return here. It just might prove useful.”

“OK.”

I was halfway through relating my experiences when Sunny sauntered over with a plate stacked with extra large pancakes. He put it beside me with a tube of syrup. “This should fill your gut for a while,” he said. “I just put on a fresh brew.”

“Thanks, Sunny.” I continued telling the group of my experience at the pier.

Chancey reached past Huff, picked up a pancake, rolled it and ate it.

Priest nodded solemnly at the pancakes. “You have one more you don't need?”

“Sure.” I stopped talking and passed him one.

“They look pretty good,” Bat said.

“Oh, here.” I gave one to Huff, who sat to my right, and he passed it to Bat. “Syrup?” I asked.

“Sounds good,” Bat said.

I handed the tube to Huff. He licked it and handed it to Bat. “So,” I said, “when I got to the beach, there was a group of –”

“I wouldn't mind trying one,” Joe, who sat to my left, said.

“Help yourself,” I told him.

He took one. “Pass me the syrup, Bat.”

He did. Huff licked it again on its way to Joe, who wiped the tube, squeezed out syrup, rolled the pancake, and ate it.

“I would help you eat your flat bread,” Huff told me, “but it would not fit well in my Vegan stomachs.”

“Don't worry about it!” I told him. “So,” I said, “it turned out that the divers are in Slade's pocket, like everyone else in Wydemont Creek.”

“I was afraid of that,” Sarge said, and pulled on his mustache. “Throw over one of those pancakes.”

“Sure.” I did and he caught it. Joe passed him the tube. “So I stole their Bear Cub and headed back to –”

“Hey, Star,” Attila said to me, “flip one over here, would you?”

I took a pancake from my dwindling stack and threw it like a Frisbee to Attila. He snatched it out of the air with a motion that was a blur. “Want one?” he asked Apache John, who sat next to him.

John hunched forward and grinned crookedly. “White man's food. OK.”

Attila handed him the pancake. “Hey,” he called to me, “got another one?”

I looked at my last pancake. “Why not?” I flipped it to him. “So somebody turned on the On Star unit and the craft –”

Sunny returned and set a cup of coffee next to me. “I guess you were hungry!” He picked up the empty plate and started back.

“Wait a minute,” I called and he paused. “Another stack, if you don't mind.”

“Are you serious?” Sunny looked at the group. “Where does he put it all?”

Joe swallowed and wiped his mouth. “He's a growing boy.”

“Very funny!” I said.

Priest allowed himself the crack of a smile. I saw Chancey's shoulders shake as he lowered his head and laughed.

I picked up the cup and extended it. “Anybody want my coffee?”

“No,” Huff said. “Thank you, my Terran good friend, but I am waiting for the fat'n eyeballs Sunny promised to me.”

“Mack and his people are a pack of whores,” Sarge stood up and brushed off his pants. “They swindle their employers, and they don't want to fight.”

“That seems like a contradiction,” I said.

“If they fight and win,” Sarge informed me, “they're out of a job. So they stretch it out as far as possible.” He shrugged. “Then again, some employers try to swindle their hired guns. It's a dirty business.”

I thought of all the deaths.
No kidding?

The whine of vehicles reverberated through the woods. The men stood up and unholstered their weapons. But our own four land and air craft bounced through the dirt path in single file and pulled into camp.

Except for Bat and Huff, my group got up and went to the vehicles with the rest of the men.

I was about to follow when Sunny plunked down another stack of pancakes in front of me. “Now don't eat them all at once.” He shook his head. “Make yourself sick!” He walked to a vehicle.

“OK,” I called back, “I won't. Thanks.” I dug into the pancakes. “You know, you're looking better,” I told Bat. “How are you feeling?”

He nodded. “Better.”

“The medic taking good care of you?”

“Ty. That boy knows what he's doing.”

“Glad to hear that. Want another?” I gestured toward the pancakes.

He shook his head and smiled through puffed lips. “I already owe you too much.”

“You don't owe me anything.”

“If it weren't for you, I'd be in an anonymous grave somewhere outside the mine.”

“True.” I speared a pancake and chewed. “And if it weren't for you, I'd be in the next grave.”

He lifted his brows. “It was touch and go there for a while.”

We watched the men slide out long boxes from the back of one vehicle.

Bat gestured toward them. “You better have a full credcount with all the hardware they're unloading.”

“I do. But I let Joe take care of the business details. I can't keep my credcount balanced.”

He chuckled.

“What's so funny?”

“Oh. Just picturing Joe hunched over a credcount report, muttering, and trying to make heads and tails of it. Only you could turn him into an accountant.”

“It wasn't easy.” I glanced back at the vehicles, with the men crowded around them now, and stood up. “If the gods and those weapons be with us, Boss Slade and his lackeys will be in those anonymous graves, or running for their lives.”

“Bubba.”

“Yeah, Bat?”

“Let Sarge's mercenaries do their work. That's what you're paying them for.”

“I want him, Bat. I don't think I can sleep until the slaves are free, and Boss Slade's paying for their torture and deaths.”

Bat closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them. “And if that happens, how long will you sleep with all the other injustices in the known worlds?”

“This one's different.”

“How so?”

“It's a plate that was laid before me.” I stood up. “A cold plate, begging for revenge. Guess I'll go take a look at the goodies I'm paying for.”

I turned and saw Sophia ride out of the woods on her Arab mare, Stormy.

She rode bareback, dressed in a white Buccaneer blouse with puffy sleeves and silver filigree, and gray, fitted pants. Her black hair was draped around her soft shoulders as she guided her steed into camp.

I paused and stared.

What is it about a beautiful lady riding bareback on a white horse? It must evoke some archetype in our subconscious. She seemed to ride out of a romantic era, fashioned in gentler times, with shafts of sunlight breaking through clouds behind her. Whatever the allure, it was damned sexy. Some of the men turned to stare.

I strode to her and smiled.

She bent low over Stormy's shoulder and we kissed. The men turned back to the weapons.

“Did you have a nice ride, Soph.? I missed you.”

She smiled. “It was beautiful, but not perfect.”

“The cloudy sky?”

She touched my cheek. “I'm used to cloudy days. It was my love that was missing.” She ran her fingers through my hair. “You need a haircut, love, like flowers need rain.”

I laughed and gave her my stock answer. “Naw. It keeps my neck warm.”

“Pretty soon it's going to keep your sweet derriere warm.”

“You'll be the first to know when I decide on a haircut. OK?”

“Jules!” Sarge called from the back of a vehicle and held up a stingler holster. “Put your weapon in here before you blow off the family jewels.”

“Got to go,” I told Sophia.

“I'll come with you.” She rode next to me on her horse as I walked to Sarge.

The trunks of the vehicles were stuffed with long boxes. A few were open and the men were checking out some pretty heavy artillery.

“Well,” Big Sarge said to me, “what'dya think? Did we put your creds to good use?”

“I guess so. This hi-tech stuff is Greek to me.” I ran my fingers along a silver launcher that looked to be all business. “As long as it gets the job done.”

Sarge handed me the holster. I pulled the stingler from behind my waistband, strapped on the holster, and slid the weapon into it.

“It'll get the job done,” he said, “with the right tags behind it.” He waved at the boxes. “Since you're paying the bill, you get first dibs.”

I shook my head. “I'll stay with my trusty stingler. So now we've got the means. When do we go in and do the job?”

“I told you, don't be hasty. The first operation is hit and run. And when they chase us, they fall into our traps. Make the crotes spread themselves thin guarding the terrain around the mine.”

“OK, Sarge. The ball's in your court.” I walked to where Bat was sitting up, watching.

I looked back and saw Sophia talking to Sarge and pointing to me.

Sarge glanced my way, grinned, and nodded.

“Looks like Christmas morning in the garrison,” Bat commented.

“What?” I asked. “Oh, yeah.”

Sarge walked over to us, while Sophia dismounted and tied Stormy's reins to a sapling. She went to Chancey, who was peering through the sights of a beam rifle, pointed at me and said something to him.

He looked my way and nodded.

“Hey, pretty boy,” Big Sarge said, as Chancey and Sophia went to a tree stump, “your lady and the tiger want to talk to you. C'mon.” He motioned toward them.

My gut feeling said they had devised some sort of a plan. “Tell them to come here.” I looked at Bat.

He shrugged.

“It's a private conversation.” Sarge took my arm and pulled. “C'mon.”

“OK!” I went with him to the stump. “What's happening?” I asked Sophia and Chancey.

“Sit down,” Chancey said.

I looked around. “Why?”

“Because,” Sophia said and pulled a scissor and comb out of her back pocket, “you need a haircut.”

“I told you, love,” I said, “I'll let you know when I need a haircut. Now cut it out, all of you!”

Sophia snapped the scissors. “That's what we intend to do.”

“Over my dead body!” I said. “I'll decide what I need, and when. This isn't even funny anymore.” I turned and started to walk away.

Sarge gripped me around the chest.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

“I told you,” Chancey said airily, “he was going to turn this into a holy crusade. He's good at that.” He unwound a coiled length of rope that he'd held behind his back and tied it around my chest, pinning my arms. “Now sit.” He pushed me down, onto the stump. “Your lady wants you to get a haircut.”

Joe and Huff came over.