Chapter 15

Clara gagged the man for me and Bogdi tied his wrists with rawhide. Then I plopped him down on his ass, next to the gate into the compound. With that taken care of I went hunting. Seeing that the door to the upper level was open, I decided to try my luck there.

The stairs were steep. They led up to a hatch in the ceiling that was like a hatch on a warship. It had a big metal wheel that you turned to open the hatch and then you pushed it up. The hatch was already open and secured in place by a latch connected to the interior wall of the upper level. I went up the stairs slowly with my carbine at the ready. As I popped through the hatch I went weapon first.

The hatch opened into a kitchen. The room was lit, and I could make out everything clearly. There was a fridge, a combination stove and oven, a microwave, and a coffeemaker. There was fresh brewed coffee in the pot. There was a fold out table connected to the interior wall. There was also a kitchen sink, with several cupboards above and below it. To the right of the kitchen was a doorway leading into a passageway that I assumed ran the length of the container. It was lit by overhead florescent lights. I decided to check it out.

The next room looked like a communication centre. I’ll emphasize ‘looked like, ‘ because most of the hardware that should have been there was missing. I could tell where things were supposed to be mounted into workstations. The cables were there, but the computers and monitors were missing. It looked strange to me. Naturally, that room was connected to another, so I moved on.

The next room was a duty room of sorts. It contained two sets of bunk beds. These were attached to the interior partition walls. The room, like all the rooms, had lighting. The upper bunks folded up when not in use, which was partly the case at the moment. I found the place occupied. There was a tribal woman tied up, face down, on the bed closest to the communications room. She was naked with her ass in the air. It was clear to me that she had been recently raped.

I stepped around her, carefully, and glanced down at the woman’s face. She was awake and she was looking at me in a terrified manner. Her mouth was gagged so she couldn’t make a sound. I just left her where she was and moved on. There was another room beyond this one, and I needed to check it out first, before I did anything else.

The next room was the last room in the place. It was the combination bathroom and laundry. There wasn’t anyone there. While I was there, I tried the taps. There wasn’t any water. It didn’t make any sense!

I went back to the girl/woman and I knelt down beside her face so I could look into her eyes while I spoke to her. I tried the three languages I knew; English, Gort’s language, and the dialect spoken by the Horse People. I struck out all three times.

I couldn’t just leave the woman there. I put my finger to my lips and I did the international sign for not making any noise, hoping that she’d understand it. Then I pulled my combat knife out of its sheath on my webbing. The woman’s eyes went wide with fear. I tried to reassure her that I wasn’t going to hurt her, but I got the impression that the woman just didn’t believe me. I hoped she would once I’d cut her bounds.

I cut her wrists free and then I helped her into a sitting position. Then I put my finger to my lips again. After a second’s wait I removed her gag. She didn’t scream. She did, however, jump me.

I’d gotten careless. I hadn’t expected the woman to attack me. I had just slipped my knife back into my belt sheath when all of a sudden the woman pounced. She leapt at me from the bed and knocked me backwards, sending me sprawling onto the floor of the room. She’d taken me by surprise. Reflexively, I rolled with the blow, coming up in a defensive crouch as I recovered just a few feet away from her. Then I spotted her heading out of the room and back the way I had initially come. She was making a break for it.

I let her go. I did grab up my carbine, and go after her; but I didn’t pursue her. I let her stay well ahead of me. I wanted to see what she did when she hit the ground.

The woman went out the door without even looking around. She ran across the inner square to the next container, heading straight for the door in it. I was several paces behind her. She flung the door open and raced inside. I didn’t follow her. I stood and glanced around. It was quiet.

“Who was that?” Clara asked coming up beside me from where she’d been standing guard on our prisoner, “and where the hell did she go? Oh, fuck, you’re bleeding.”

“It’s nothing but a scratch,” I told her dismissively as she tried to take a look at my injury. “The woman scratched me when she bolted. I’ll be fine. I can’t say the same about her. From what I could tell the woman was buddy’s entertainment last night. He had her tied up in a bed, up on the second storey. From the look of it, he’d been raping her. As for where she went, she’s in the next container. Why, I don’t know, but from what I can figure out from the expression on buddy’s face I’m not going to like what I find in there.”

When I said this, I said it looking scathingly at the man. His face told me the answer without me having to remove the gag he had stuffed in his mouth to answer. Whatever was in the next container wasn’t pleasant. I didn’t really need to ask the next question, but I did. My gut was already telling me the answer.

“You’ve got other people in there, don’t you, asshole?” I asked the man pointedly, my voice rising as I spoke. At that point I didn’t care if there were any more like him about the place. If there was I’d kill them, too.

After a second the man nodded yes.

“Who’s in there,” I inquired angrily, “women, children, boys, girls, or all of the above and more?”

The man couldn’t really answer with the gag in his mouth. However, the way he finally nodded his head I knew that all of the above was probably the answer.

“Bastard,” I muttered half under my breath. “Do you speak her language?”

This time the man shook his head no. I just spat at him in response to that.

“The woman didn’t understand anything I said to her,” I told Clara. “She must be from another tribe. She wasn’t completely all there when I freed her. I doubt that she’s in the mood to do any chatting, but I have to try. Can you stand by just in case she attacks me again? It would be appreciated.”

“How about I make you a better deal than that, cher,” Clara suggested. “I will go in and talk to the woman. It might make matters easier.”

“It might,” I answered her with a sigh, “but it’s my job to protect you, not the other way around. Besides, I’m betting that it isn’t very pretty in there. You might want to stay out here.”

“I’ve probably seen worse, Jake,” Clara scoffed dismissively. “You might have fought in wars, but I’ve been there as well, cleaning up the messes left behind by dictators, warlords, and their tinplate troops. I’ve dealt with rape, genocide, and everything else under the sun, including epidemics. I’ll be fine. Just give me a water bottle and food. That might make her a little more cooperative in the end. If not, then you can come in and rescue me.”

Clara was right. A woman’s voice helped more than me striding in with my carbine up and at the ready. It still took some time to convince the woman and the others with her to come out and join us in the open. The good thing was that no one else popped up while we were waiting.

Eventually Clara came out leading the woman who had attacked me. She glared at me angrily when she saw me standing off to one side, still armed and still looking as menacing as I could. It took Clara some effort to get her to come all the way out of the container. Then Clara pointed to the man we had bound up on the ground by the gate. Her eyes went wide when she saw the guy gagged and restrained. Then she went crazy!

The woman ran at the man and she started screaming at him in some language I hadn’t heard before. She kicked the bastard in the balls causing him to grunt and flop over in pain. She kept kicking the man until Clara was able to pull her off. It took her a lot of effort, but she wouldn’t let me interfere.

The woman was still frothing at the mouth and wasn’t too happy to listen to Clara, but eventually she backed off once she got tired. Then without a look at me or the boys, she took off to the container, again screaming at the top of her lungs.

“That went well,” I muttered sarcastically as the woman disappeared from sight. “I hope the asshole is still alive. I’d like to ask him a few questions before we string him up.”

Clara didn’t get to answer my comment. A second later the door to the container burst open and other people came running out. They didn’t get far. When they saw me they came to a screeching halt. There were three more females of various ages, a youth who looked like a teen, and two little girls who were being carried by two of the older women. They all made Ramie look good the first time I saw them. None of them had any clothing on.

The woman started screaming again, the moment her pack of friends came to a halt. I got the impression that she told them to ignore me, because that was what they did. One second they were terrified of me, the next they were rushing over to where our prisoner was trussed up. All of them took a turn kicking him, though some inflicted more pain than others. The youth was really pissed off.

“Okay, enough!” I shouted in an attempt to restore order. I cried it out in the common tongue that my people used. It brought everyone to a halt.

That was when the pantomime started. There was a picnic table off to one side of the interior of the enclosure. It was covered in beer bottles. I motioned to the people to follow me. After a few attempt, I got them to do that. When I got to the table, I cleared it off and I motioned for everyone to sit. Then I turned to Clara and spoke to her.

“I want you to start learning their language,” I stated in a tired, exasperated voice. “I’m going to go and make some food. That’s what’s in the storage boxes. There are cans of stew, chilli, beans, and much more. I’m going to make these people some food, and then hopefully we can find them some clothing. Just keep them talking. If you need help, call me.”

I left Gort guarding the prisoner. The bastard was still alive and conscious, but he was battered and bruised. I was tempted to show him how I felt as well, but my training kicked in, and I thought twice about it. Instead I made certain that his bindings were nice and tight.

I put Bogdi to checking out the rest of the place. It was now clear that there wasn’t anyone else hiding in the compound. If there had been, and that person had been armed, they’d have come out with guns ablazing and we’d be all dead by now. I still warned him to be extra careful and not to go into any of the containers, if he couldn’t see into it. He told me he wouldn’t.

I then went and grabbed what I needed to make a fast stew. I took everything up to the kitchen area and started cooking. While I cooked I had a coffee. The bastards even had cream to go with it. God it was good! Thirty minutes later I was carrying the pot out, and calling for help. Bogdi came and got the pot. He carried it over to the picnic table as I went and got bowls, spoons, and cups for them to have something to drink with their meal. I had Gort bring me a canteen as I went by.

Clara had names and a few words under her belt by the time I got to the table. I handed over the bowls. I simply left her to it. I did give a bowlful of food each, to Gort and Bogdi. They took it and ate it willingly. While they filled their faces, I went to have a conversation with the asshole who was our prisoner.

I didn’t talk to him where we’d left him tied up. Instead I grabbed him by the hair, and dragged him to his feet. Then I marched him over to the vehicle bay and tossed him into it, in a less than graceful manner. He ended up landing on his ass by the trailer.

“I’m going to be asking you some questions. Your life depends on how you answer them,” I told the man coldly. “I’ll start off by telling you that you’re on your own, now. I’ve already killed Donavan, Meyer, and Blackmore. I also killed the joker who was with Blackmore. I don’t have a name on him, but that doesn’t matter much, does it? My point is that you need to cooperate with me, because unless you’ve got an ace up your sleeve ... and I doubt that very much ... you’re on your own. If you cooperate you get to live. If you don’t I’ll simply kill you now.”

The man started to sweat. I just smiled in response, which seemed to make him sweat more. I stepped over to him and pulled the gag away from his mouth.

“Please don’t hurt me,” the man begged. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

I ignored the man’s pleading. Instead I walked over to the back wall of the vehicle bay and I started looking at the tools that were on the wall. Most were general gardening tools: shovels, hoes, rakes, and other items like that. There was also a sledgehammer, an axe, a pickaxe, and a large scythe. I looked at that and mused for a second that we really could have used that instrument last week, when the kids were cutting hay. Then I moved on.

There was a large mechanics tool chest anchored to the end wall of the bay. I went to it and dug around until I found what I wanted; a pair of vice-grip pliers. I turned about and showed them to the man.

“I’m not averse to torturing a person,” I told him coldly, stepping towards him as I spoke, “especially if the person I’m torturing is a raping, abusive bastard. I wonder if I can crush your balls with these pliers.”

“No, please don’t,” the man wailed as I opened the pliers and then closed them again, working them in front of his face. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”

The man knew a lot of nothing. He could tell me his name, and why he was there, but he couldn’t tell me what Quantum was up to, or why Quantum had gone gunning for me. He did clarify that Gabby was the primary target, though he couldn’t tell me why. All he could tell me was that Gabby was a threat to Quantum’s long term plans; and that Blackmore and his party had been sent to kill her, and anyone with her. We were expendable as far as the corporation was concerned. His answers didn’t make me happy.

I asked the man a few more questions. His name was Henry O’Quinn. According to him he was the Mission Leader at this base. Blackmore and company had been sent there to defend it and to track down Gabby; but overall authority resided with him. That was fine with me. I’d killed Blackmore and his goons too quickly for my satisfaction. O’Quinn would just have to take responsibility for the attack on my people. That meant he’d suffer a lot before he died.

I pressed him for more information. He told me the mission had started falling apart from the moment they popped the seals on the storage bays. That was when they found out that all their hardware was missing, including the new anchor point that they’d been sent back to install.

I asked why a drone hadn’t been sent and O’Quinn just shrugged his shoulders and said in response, ‘a new operating procedure that had come down from the top’. Somebody wanted boots on the ground and not just a robotic system to do the job. I just nodded my head and wondered aloud who had given the order. O’Quinn said it had been Ridgeway. I found that very interesting.

The new anchor hadn’t been the only thing missing from the storage bays. O’Quinn told me that the compound had been sent back as a self-contained, fully self-supporting command post, that Quantum wanted garrisoned to protect the anchor point from any future damage. The compound consisted of the four containers: the command post, the barracks, a field kitchen, and a laundry and bath unit. To keep them running, each unit had a solar array mounted on top of the container to generate solar power. Each array was supposed to be linked together, to optimize the generation of power and to channel any excess power into a bank of batteries that was located in the kitchen unit. The problem was that the cables were missing and so was the bank of batteries. In addition to the missing cables and batteries, the communications equipment wasn’t there. All the computer monitors and towers, all the appliances, plus a rocket system that would have put a small satellite into orbit, were missing. It got worse after that. Whoever had stolen all the gear or mislaid it, had forgotten the plumbing for the units as well. The bath unit had a ROWPU system [Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit] intended to pump water up from the river and purify it for the use of the kitchen and the command post as well as the bath unit. The hoses were missing. So were the waste disposal hoses. No one could use the toilets, showers, or sinks. There wasn’t a drop of water in the place, except what had been hauled in using some pots and pans, for use in the kitchen.

It sort of explained the mess we’d found in the inner part of the compound. O’Quinn and his people had pulled the bays apart looking for the missing equipment. It didn’t explain why O’Quinn was alone with a bunch of locals tied up and being abused by him. I asked the man the question and he tried not to answer me. I persuaded him to speak. It really wasn’t hard. When he told me, I just shook my head in disbelief. According to O’Quinn the answer involved a lot of drinking and the need to get laid.

Eventually I got tired of asking O’Quinn questions. I left him trussed up and tied to the trailer. I did warn him that if he attempt to escape I would nail his scrotum to the deck of the trailer. I think the man got the message.

I went in search of my people. I found Gort curled up in his bedroll sleeping by the gate into the compound. Bogdi was sitting next to him, technically standing watch. He looked exhausted. He also looked out of sorts. I asked him why.

“Strange place,” Bogdi replied in a strained voice, glancing about nervously as he did. “Who made this place? It feels bad.”

I told the kid the truth. I told him my people had made the place, but that the place wasn’t bad. Instead I told him that the men in it were bad. I don’t think it helped much. Bogdi hadn’t been with me more than three weeks, and in that time he hadn’t really been exposed to that much new technology. I could see that the place had unsettled him. For now there wasn’t much I could do about it. I’d speak to both him and Gort later and try and help them through it. For now I figured that he should get some rest. With that in mind I sent him to bed. It had been a long day yesterday, and a long night last night. He needed some rest. That other could wait.