Chapter 28

It was farther than we had thought. We hadn't moved as much yesterday as we had guesstimated. Anytime we would find a stream Jade had me drink as much as I could and would refill the canteens. Just before noon we stumbled onto the rocks. I had her start across first. With full mobility it should be easier for her and I would see the places where she was having difficulty. It wasn't a rock pile it was shale. Layers and layers of rock slabs on top of each other. You had to be very careful as they would move under you. I watched her move about two thirds of the way across. She had slipped a couple of times but not bad and continued along. I started across. With my left arm tied down I was handicapped but the walking stick helped. I had to watch where I placed my feet and move with care but I was making progress.

Half way across I stepped on a piece of the shale that moved under my foot. I stayed as still as I could and let it settle. Again I put pressure on it but this time it stayed in one place. As I stepped through and was placing the right foot down it shifted again and I fell. I was able to catch myself a bit with my left hand but not totally. To make matters worse I slid down the rocks for several meters. Now I couldn't follow the trail that Jade had made, I would be making my own.

When I stopped sliding I gently got to my knees and then to my feet. A bit bruised but I seemed ok. I hadn't fallen on or reinjured the shoulder. Probing with my stick I started on across. Twice more rocks slid out from under me but with the stick and a lot of luck I was able to catch myself. I made it the rest of the way across but didn't see Jade anywhere. I moved on into the trees that were close by and concealed myself to wait for the sniper.

Forty-five minutes later someone started across the shale slide behind us. He was slight of build and moved well on the slide. Half way across I could see the crossbow slung over his back. When he got closer I could see that he was a she. She was nearly across when Jade stepped out thirty or forty meters higher up and started to throw large rocks into the shale. They clattered and bounced down towards the sniper but all missed. The sniper pulled her crossbow around and was trying to break it to cock it to shoot at her. Jade threw several more rocks and I could see what she was trying to do. She wasn't trying to hit the sniper but trying to get the shale to move. With each rock thrown several more moved, then she threw a large one that started several meters of the shale to sliding. They picked up company and soon it seemed a quarter of the face was moving down onto the sniper. She tried to move out of the way but couldn't move fast enough. The shale caught her and took her with it down the side of the mountain. She was bounced and tumbled about a lot. I moved down with her as she was tossed about.

Unrestricted Jade could move faster and she soon joined me. We followed the sniper until she stopped and we were able to inch out and grab her and pull her back. She was still alive but banged up. We took off her backpack and severed the cord she was using to retain the crossbow. Moving them out of the way we started to pat her down for more weapons. After we removed the second one Jade took my knife and started to cut her clothes off of her. We found five more concealed weapons. Throwing stars, small knives and a single shot pistol that look like a stylus.

Taking the cord she used to hang the bow I tied her hands together, palms out. Using the wire string from the bow I tied her elbows as close together as I could get them behind her back. The bow was broken from the fall and the tumbling so I tossed it away. I then started through her backpack. Other than normal camping equipment I found a data chip and a holographic cube of me. The cube had several shots of me both in uniform and civilian attire. It also had a complete description of me with height, weight, age, and color of hair and eyes.

"Mick, she's coming around."

She was groaning a bit and tried to move. When she couldn't she gave up trying and tried to sit up. I pulled on her hands enough to help her up. She shook her head a few times and looked around. That's when she noticed she was nude.

"Hey, how about some cloths. You one of those weirdo that gets his kicks abusing females?"

"First off, I'm not abusing you. Secondly you're not a female, you're a low life snake that shoots people from ambush. And thirdly how you're treated depends on how you act for the next few days. Now who the hell are you and why are you trying to kill me?"

"Why, Colonel, I'm just a poor female trying to make a living. Someone doesn't like ya and has a bounty on ya. I'm just trying to collect it."

"Who has a bounty on me?"

"For that we deal. Let me go and I'll tell ya."

"No! Later you're going to get thirsty or hungry or tonight you're going to get cold. You'll tell me and I won't have to do a thing to you."

With the rope from our tent I made a noose and put it around her neck. I cinched it up tight and hooked the other end to my belt. I now had a lead rope for her. I got her to her feet and we moved on down the mountain. We stopped a couple of times to take a break. Jade and I used the canteens but I didn't offer it to her. I didn't speak to her other than to tell her when to move and when to stop.

When evening approached we stopped. I sat her down by a tree and passed the rope around the tree and her neck several times and tied it. We then sat about making camp. With no rope we couldn't use the tent but it didn't look like rain so I didn't worry about it. I laid out the sacks and gathered wood for a small fire. While I was doing that Jade fixed something for us to eat. The small fire was going and we were eating when she said "Warlord Samsonov. He's the one who put out a bounty on ya. And on your General and on Colonel Jacobs. You're the biggest pain in the ass and caused him all the embarrassment with that message to the Coordinator. It doesn't do for a Kuritan to lose face and ya caused him to lose great face to his boss as well as to his subordinates. There's a bounty of 100,000 credits for the three of ya. You alone are worth 50,000 credits. Out like this, off guard, I had to try. Now could I have something to eat and some clothes?"

We fed her but didn't give her any clothes. She was too good at concealing weapons. While Jade was spooning food into her mouth I took the rope off of her neck, unfastened her sleep sack and after checking it as well as I could, draped it around her like a robe and sat her back down and retied her. I then pulled the sack so that it covered her better and put the ends in her hands. When I finished Jade moved back in and finished feeding her. We made ourselves comfortable and went to sleep.

The next morning we ate and broke camp. When she started to complain because of the aches and pains from falling and because we didn't feed her I told her the way it was. "You earn everything you get. What you told us last night earned you supper and the sack to cover up with. You want something to eat or something to drink today then you earn it. You think of something we want to know that will get you something to eat and drink. Otherwise you don't eat, you don't drink and you get very cold tonight. Because of you we aren't traveling as fast as before and it will take at least one more night."

"What do you want to know?"

"No! You think of something I want to know. I'm not going to tell you and if it's something I know already you're out of luck. Start thinking. You still haven't told us who you are. Start with that."

"Margaret Thatcher."

"No, I'm a history buff and you're not English."

I got her to her feet and retied the lead rope to my belt and started to walk. When I got to the end of the lead I gave it a tub and she stumbled forward.

"Fowler, Gretchen Fowler."

"Good. At our first stop you can have a drink."

We were through most of the forest and the walking was much easier. Before midmorning we intersected the trail we had been looking for and took it to the left to hit the main trail. It was shortly after that we stopped for the first time. I took the cup from her water bottle and poured it half full. I placed it on the ground and moved back.

"This is it. You do with it what you want but that's all your name earned. Spill it, drink it, pour it out, I don't care. That's all you get."

Her eyes flashed as she could see another plan was not going to work. It was a struggle but she got the cup up and drank the water I had offered her. When she finished I had her move away and while I watched her Jade retrieved the cup.

Jade then started to apply repellant lotion to her face, neck and arms. She looked over at Fowler and said, "The bugs are going to love you. This can be earned too." After I used the lotion we started up again.

When we stopped at noon for a rest and something to eat Fowler started talking. "There are two more here that are going after Jones and Jacobs. Bitsy Drake is going after Jacobs. Sergey Taylor is going after Jones."

"Describe them."

"Drake is huge. He's over two meters and weights over 135 kilograms. He has a scar at the corner of his right eye, it's faint, not real obvious. Taylor is about 180 centimeters tall and less than 80 keys. He is into disguises. I don't know what he will be made up as. He favors old people as they don't look as threatening."