Chapter 2

Back in Kansas, Rolly spent the next month getting in shape and researching unconventional makeshift weaponry. His military training had focused on hand-to-hand survival combat; how to take a man out quickly with what was available. So he looked for ways that would counter opponents carrying weapons common on Chaos. He was not too worried about fitting in with the customs since he had been successful working undercover in Afghani villages. The trick was to be as nondescript as possible, keep your head down and your mouth shut.

Finally, he felt he was as ready as he was going to be, and the thought of succeeding in the mission, whatever it turned out to be, cancelled out any thoughts of free pussy. Susan's professionalism and demeanor had helped him in that regard.

He once again arrived on Crossroads wearing sweatpants and flip-flops, and was soon greeted by Susan, and taken to his suite. A little color had been added to the suite, but it was still more along the lines of functional comfort rather than luxury.

Rolly asked to hear about the simplest missions available. He wanted to spend as much safe time in hostile territory as possible to get used to the place before making a move. Susan suggested two damsels, and the distress could be called minor for both. One was being held in a trapper's cabin by a scumbag from a nearby village. Her captor planned to sell her to a pimp named Phil in the nearby city of Barton, but the pimp would be out of town for several weeks. That gave Rolly nearly a month before her situation deteriorated.

The second damsel was working as a tavern wench in what passed for a large city. The tavern's new bouncer liked to get rough with women. The danger of bodily harm was greater, but the probability of action by the bouncer was low at the present time.

There was more opportunity for employment in the city; Rolly might starve in the countryside. Nevertheless, they decided on the country mission.

Planning was pretty straight forward. Go to town, see if the locals needed a muckraker for a few pinches, head off to the village, and then see if it was better to go through or go around the scumbag to get the damsel.

He spent a lot of time asking Susan about the limitations of the rules. And Susan, ever the encyclopedia, pointed out actions that had been common place in the time of the first heroes, and were even employed by some of the more brazen current day heroes, that were generally not part of the official reports. She said that modern heroes tended to follow literary chivalric codes rather than the historical actions of true medieval knights, and since the civilization on Chaos had been transported lock stock, and barrel from Earth in the 1200s there was historical precedence for some actions even though they were officially frowned upon. The portals were the final judge of the matter, but the popularity of heroes in the Cassandra media needed to be taken into consideration.

Susan also stressed that many behaviors of modern heroes would have been seen as uncivilized back in the day. Modern armies no longer lined up and faced each other in the open. Deception and subterfuge were the norm now. 'Do unto others with good intentions, and don't get caught if you have to do something messy, ' was the take-away message Susan gave Rolly.

Just before departure, Susan looked to the ceiling and said, "clothes: brown pants, rough cotton tunic, leather boots, leather vest."

The clothes materialized. Rolly examined them and said, "Can I get these altered a bit?"

"Certainly, I can get you anything you want, but for Chaos they must be within certain parameters regarding materials, and their quantity must be within reason. You can't ask for a turban made out of thirty feet of fish netting."

"You said 'for Chaos, ' you mean I can get clothes for here."

"Certainly. You didn't ask me for any so I though you preferred what you had on."

After realizing her mistake Susan looked as if she were about to cry.

"Oh, Brother! Don't worry about it now. What is done is done. After I get back I think we are going to have to work on some things. Just remember that you are just as responsible for the damsel's positive experience as I am, so while I'm gone brush up on what other caretakers do. Now for the clothes, these are too nice for what I want, make the trousers much more worn, the tunic is OK, the boots need to look almost brand new. Replace the vest with an oversize, well worn coat with toggles, large side slash pockets, and interior patch breast pockets; and I would like a well-worn wide brimmed felt hat, and a large neckerchief. Also I want a double length rope belt for both the jacket and trousers.

Susan asked for the items and they appeared as requested, except for the belts, which were single length.

Susan looked at the outfit and said, "I wonder why they didn't give us the belts to your specifications?

"Because they were thirty foot long fishing nets. The excess length wasn't needed for the function of the clothes."

I see. So, you have a plan for the rope."

"Among other things."

Rolly got dressed, looked at himself in the mirror, moved a bit to get a feel for the clothes and said, "OK, I'm ready."

Susan walked him to the portal where he turned and planted a totally unexpected fuzzy bearded kiss on her. "See Ya," he said as he turned and stepped into the portal.

Rolly appeared in the bank chuckling to himself, wondering what effect the kiss had had on little Susan. He pictured her wiping off her mouth with the back of her hand the way his little sister had done when she was ten. He had planted a good one on her when she was being a pest, just to see her reaction.

After removing his hat and coat, Rolly held his head high and made his way from the bank to the nearest stream. There, after scouting the area, he gathered up three rocks, one the size and shape of a goose egg, one about the size of his fist, and one about twice that size.

He chipped the largest rock into a very crude hand axe, and then he found a sapling about two inches thick.

He went to work hacking through the sapling with the edge of the rock. It took several hours to work through the lower stem, and then more time to hack off the top. He then stripped the bark off, took the strips of bark and carefully rolled them up, and set them off to the side to dry. Then he went to work with his rope belts. After a bit of creative unraveling, knotting, and splicing, he had made a very functional pocket weapon out of his goose egg rock that could be used as either a slungshot or as a sap.

When he finished with the sapling he took some mud and rubbed it on his new staff to give it an aged look. He also rubbed a bit of mud on his face and clothes.

Before giving his dirt covered hands a final rinse in the stream he ran them through his hair and beard. A day's worth of sweaty work gave him the look and smell he desired.

He put his bandana inside his hat, strategically placed the partially dried rolls of bark on it, and folded the cloth to keep them in place. Hopefully that would protect him somewhat if he got clubbed on the head.

Last of all, he took time to clean up his boots. They would be the bait for his trap. Good boots were valuable things.

He put his coat and hat on, affected a limp and made his way back to town, hoping that honest people would choose to ignore him and dishonest people would notice his footwear.

After slowly making his way through the seedier part of town begging and pretending to have a mental handicap, he made his way behind the buildings as dusk came on. There he began to rummage through whatever refuse he could find.

He conveniently left his walking stick to the side when working around dark corners to appear more helpless. Pretty soon his quarry showed up. As he had hoped, they were two of the n'er do well looking men he had approached while begging.

As the men came near, Rolly moved his search of the garbage to an area free from cover so he would have more space to move. He hoped that the two men were alone, and dumb enough to make sport of a cripple rather than just go for the kill.

He was right. The smaller man was the talker while the larger man stood back, holding a piece of firewood.

"Hola my man. Where did you get such fine boots? The price must have been right. I'd like to have a pair like that."

"I found them."

I don't think your wobbly legs need such nice boots. I think you should give them to me."

Rolly cringed down with his hands in his pockets to look like he was protecting himself from a beating. "Leave me alone."

"I don't think so, if you know what's good for you take those boots off before we take them off for you."

"Go away! Leave me alone!"

The talker turned his head to his partner and said, "Boka, get his attention."

Rolly swung his fist-sized rock and connected with the smaller ruffian's temple. He followed that with a move he had practiced back home on the farm, a close quarters pitch that smashed the big man in the face.

Quickly, the goose egg sap was transferred from left pocket to right hand and Rolly beat the big man unconscious with it. He performed the coup de grace upon the two men using Boka's improvised club.

While stripping the bodies, Rolly decided that a second good rock would be useful. The military taught him that you can never have too much firepower.

Other than the men's clothes, which he would try to trade in the morning, Rolly found two small knives, a fire kit, and a total of four shells and one quad in coin.

He gathered up his belongings and made his way back to the creek to get a second rock, hide the would-be muggers' clothing, and set up his next trap.

After dark, he made his way to the seediest of the taverns he had passed earlier, and while still playing the slow-minded cripple he ordered food and watered wine to sustain him. Once the evening crowd had gathered, Rolly paid for a tankard of ale and put on the act of a drunken fool. With the aid of his ratty beard wet with ale, he was soon able to look and smell the part of a sloppy drunk beggar.

After wearing out his welcome, Rolly staggered back towards the creek. He looked back occasionally, and before he was out of sight of the tavern three men came out and headed in his direction.

The obvious place for the drunken beggar to camp for the night was on the rocky beach where Rolly had worked earlier in the day. There were three trails leading to the beach. Rolly lay in wait along one of them, hoping that the men would split up.

Rolly's hopes were realized when he heard the sounds of only one man coming down his trail.

As the would-be robber walked by Rolly's position, Rolly stepped from behind a tree, slipped the rope of his slungshot-sap over the man's head and silently garroted him to death.

After letting the body down, Rolly quickly made his way to his chosen ambush point on the second trail.

Again he tried the garrote, but the second man heard him and Rolly missed his chance. Thinking fast, Rolly dropped the end with the weight and swung. The sap connected with a muffled thud. Rolly swung again and again in the near darkness until the man was down. He then finished the man off by strangulation like the first.

The third trail was the longest, and it came out at the far end of the beach so Rolly didn't have time to get into an ambush position on it. The man sneaking in that way would have to be drawn to Rolly so that he wouldn't try to go back towards the other trails to find his friends. The best way that Rolly could think to do that was to let the man know where he was, so Rolly quietly made his way to the end of the beach and made noises as if he were emptying his bowels before settling down for sleep.

He then shambled to a good spot for action, and after placing sticks strategically across his trail, he pretended to settle in for the night. After about five minutes he began making snoring sounds.

Two downfall limbs at knee height a few paces away notified Rolly of the thug's presence.

The man maneuvered over the first obstacle and inched closer. When Rolly heard the man trying to step over the second one, he jumped up and swung his staff.

The blind swing connected with the man's shoulder. The thug tried to charge, but with one leg on each side of the obstacle he was held up long enough to receive a second blow.

Rolly kept swinging until the man quit trying to get up. The garrote finished him off as well. It was too dark to swing anything accurately for a bludgeoning coup de gras.

After stripping the three bodies and leaving their clubs behind Rolly headed off into the countryside to find a safe place to sleep. From what he knew about Chaos, the good town's folk would most likely not look for justice against whoever killed five known or suspected ruffians.

The next morning Rolly took inventory. One more knife, a fairly decent dagger, another fire kit, another six shells and three quads, and five sets of clothes and boots.

After bathing, and straightening himself up, he entered town to trade for food, a bar of soap, and a knapsack. A clean man trading clean clothing stood a better chance of success, so he planned on washing the clothes before trying to sell or barter them. He kept the trousers and one of the vests from two of the larger men. The trousers were nicer than the ones he wore. At six feet one inch, Rolly was quite tall for Chaos, so he was lucky to find something that fit. Cleaned up and wearing a different outfit, no one would suspect that he was the beggar recently come to town, he hoped.