Chapter 2: Cattleman

I walked out on my wide porch and stretched as I looked around. It was peaceful here and my nearest neighbor was hours away. I turned at the chime of an arriving message on my comm. I walked back inside and opened the screen and frowned at the gibberish before narrowing my eyes as the cipher hit me. I read it and then wiped it before walking toward my bedroom.

I barely hesitated before opening a hidden panel and pulling out a large bag. I dressed quickly and started taking the weapons off the inside wall in the panel. I heard three almost silent beeps and paused before finishing what I was doing. I knelt and lifted the trap door in the floor inside the wall and slung the bag over my shoulder before turning to climb down.

I closed the panel before I was completely down and then the trap door. I went down another forty feet before I found the bottom. I reached to the left and pulled a pair of night glasses off a shelf. I turned and started walking down the narrow tunnel until I reached an intersection. I knew I should kept going but these assholes were on my ranch.

I sighed and set the bag down before turning right and walking towards a distant ladder. Beside the ladder was an ancient pad that was hardwired into several molecular cameras. I switched it on as I lifted the night glasses off. I watched the eight man team breach my house like it was in a textbook. Their shiny shuttle was behind the barn and corrals but it was empty.

I shook my head and went up and climbed out in a dark corner of the barn. I walked out back and into the shuttle before heading up to the shuttle bridge. I knelt beside the engineer panel and pulled it off. Inside I pulled several small molli circuit boards and crushed them under my heel. I left and moved back to the barn and went all the way to the front door.

I watched between two boards as two men walked to the barn as if this were their ranch. They walked through the big doors and into shadow and I pulled my silenced pistol and shot both in the head. I went to the back and slipped down into the tunnel and closed the trapdoor. I checked the cameras before grinning and turning to follow the tunnel back to the house.

I climbed the ladder and cracked the trapdoor before opening it. I climbed out and silently opened the panel and stepped out into the quiet house. I moved through it to the kitchen where I slipped up behind the two men at the back door. I pulled the two slim energy knives and struck. One went into a man under his ear and up into the brain and the other slipped up into the brain from beside the spine.

I turned and headed to the front as they fell and put the knives away before pulling my pistol. I was almost to the two men on each side of the door when one turned. I shot him between the eyes and then the other man in the side of the head as he spun. I holstered the pistol and reached to the rack beside the door for the large bore ranch rifle I was fond of.

I stood inside the door and to one side as I brought the rifle up. Two men were in the yard trying to use their encrypted comms but since I had broken the circuit boards on the shuttle they were not having much luck. Worse, what luck they did have was about to run out.

I aimed and fired and shifted and fired, the man’s head on the left exploded and the other man spun in time for me to shoot him in the throat and almost take his head off. I moved back and to the side as I glanced around. I knew there was probably a sniper and maybe two security men somewhere.

I moved back to the tunnel and climbed down and headed back to the barn. I climbed out and up into the loft before slowly and silently moving towards the wall facing the low ridge to the south. There was a board angled slightly leaving a small gap. I was not the team sniper but I did know my ranch.

I lay down and shifted until I was looking out. I relaxed and let my mind see the ridge as it had been for years. I shifted more as the difference struck me and lifted the rifle. When I squeezed the trigger there was a scrapping sound from the barn door. The shot echoed and crashed and then the loft floor splintered as rounds tore it apart searching for me.

I had seen the explosion of red on the ridge and knew the sniper was dead or seriously injured. I half rolled onto my side as I quietly lay the rifle down and pulled my pistol. A head peeked over the loft a few feet from the ladder which I had ignored. I fired and the head jerked as the back blew apart. The floor was being ripped apart as the man’s partner started a searching pattern.

I reached out and grabbed my rifle before tossing it several feet away. The fire from below shifted and I came to my feet and moved towards the loft edge. I did not even slow as I stepped off and dropped while twisting. The commando turned, his weapon shifting as I dropped. I fired four times through his upper chest and head before landing.

I rolled and came to my feet before walking to the man to make sure he was dead. He was down and gasping with blood bubbling up out of his mouth. I shot him between the eyes before heading towards the tunnel. I closed it after me and went to collect my bag before following the long tunnel. The first rest and vent station was twelve kilometers away.

A day and thirty kilometers away I climbed another ladder into what looked like a cave. An old hover-bed jeep sat in the middle and I checked it carefully before connecting the power supply. I sat my bag on the other seat and pulled my silenced assault rifle out. I checked and loaded it before setting it on the other seat with my bag and starting the jeep.

I pulled out slowly and started heading east using gullies and small groups of trees. I slipped across streams and rivers where it was shallow. It was evening when I reached the really wide river. I started across but the river was easily two miles wide and slow moving. When I reached the middle the ripples and breaking water began hitting the bottom of the jeep and splashing up the sides.

The jeep rocked and started bucking as I went through rougher water. Two men in new clothes were waiting in a new jeep as I drove out, one held an assault rifle. I smiled as I stopped, “That was fun.”

They looked at me and smiled, the younger of the two nodded back the way I had come, “This is private property.”

I smiled, “This is a public route.”