LITMIR.BIZ

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a chemist, and Moira’s mother—”

      “All of which means nothing to me.” Robards grabbed her arm.

      “No, please don’t…” And then she cried out, “I’m sorry,” even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

      The sec chief laughed. “Oh, now you’re sorry. Your little adventure made a fool out of me in front of the baron.”

      “It was never meant to. I only wanted to spend some time with my daughter.”

      But the sec chief was no longer listening. He reached into a pocket on the thigh of his pants and took out a tiny syringe.

      Eleander saw the needle and cried out, “No, please… I’ll cooperate. Whatever you want.”

      But it was too late to change her mind.

      The sec chief jabbed the needle into the base of her neck.

      Almost instantaneously, Eleander’s body went limp.

      Robards tossed the needle aside and removed his belt.

      “Teach you to fuck with me,” he said, as he delivered the first blow.

      MILDRED WYETH MADE one last check on Jak’s wound. Although it wasn’t much more than a flesh wound, there had been some tearing to the muscle tissue that had to be repaired before she could close up the hole in his shoulder.

      Luckily, Katz had been able to provide her with a local anesthetic that deadened the area enough so that Jak wouldn’t be in too much pain while she worked. He’d jerked his body a couple of times when she hit a nerve, but there were no major problems considering where they were and the conditions the surgery had been done under.

      Jak wanted to sleep now, but Mildred wanted to join up with the others before letting him doze off. In a few hours his shoulder would feel as if it had been hit by a gren, and by then he’d be a lot harder to move.

      Mildred turned to Katz. “I came here with Jak and four others. We’re supposed to be guests of the baron—can you take us to where my other friends are staying?”

      “I’d be happy to,” Katz said. “Anything you need.”

      “Thanks.”

      “They’re probably in the old sec men’s quarters in the baron’s mansion. I’m going there anyway.”

      Mildred helped Jak to his feet and together they exited the building and started walking down a dirt road that knifed its way between rows of small clapboard houses and large steel shacks.

      “You do good work,” Katz said as they walked.

      “Thank you,” Mildred answered.

      “Mebbe you were a healer once?”

      “I know some.”

      “Bet it comes in handy out there in the Deathlands.”

      “Couple of times.”

      “You know, if you’re tired of being an outlander, and mebbe wanted to settle down somewhere, I know the baron would be thrilled to have someone like you around.”

      Jak, who had been struggling to keep pace, let out a slight laugh.

      “You think?” Mildred said.

      “Oh, I know it.”

      “Well, I’ve had similar offers before, and I’ve always turned them down. I’m not much of a healer really. More like a dabbler.”

      “A good one.”

      “I appreciate the offer, but I’ve been with my friends awhile now and we’ve become sort of a team. I’m not ready to break it up just yet.”

      “I understand,” Katz said, nodding. “But if you ever change your mind, you’ll be welcome back here.”

      “Thanks,” Mildred said politely. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

      “Here we are.”

      They came upon a pre-Dark-looking structure made of bricks. Its three floors rose up from the ground, towering above everything else around it as if it were a fortress.

      “Very nice,” Mildred said.

      “This is the baron’s residence. The baron lives here, of course, but your friends are staying here, too.”

      “Very nice.”

      Katz caught the attention of a sec man outside the front door of the building. “They’re guests of the baron as well. Take them to the others.”

      The sec men nodded. “This way.”

      Mildred said thanks and goodbye to Katz, then she and Jak followed the sec men inside, down several dark corridors until they came upon three rooms at one end of the building.

      As they approached, the middle door opened slightly to reveal J.B. standing there with his Uzi in his right hand.

      “Just us, John,” Mildred said.

      J.B. opened the door wide.

      The sec men left Mildred and Jak in the hallway, then headed back to their post.

      J.B. opened the door to the third room, where Doc was asleep on his bed. He helped Mildred take Jak to the bed on the far side of the room. The albino youth grimaced several times as he was eased onto the bed, but once he was stretched out, he closed his eyes and was asleep in seconds.

      “How is he?” J.B. asked, as he and Mildred exited the room.

      “Sleeping like a baby now.”

      “He’ll be all right, then?”

      Mildred nodded. “He’ll have some pain in a few hours, and there’s always a risk of infection, but he should be as good as new in a couple of days.”

      J.B. entered their room and put down his blaster.

      “Were you expecting trouble?” Mildred asked.

      “Not really. Just didn’t want you to interrupt Ryan and Krysty while you were looking for a room for Jak.”

      “Uh-huh,” Mildred said skeptically. She listened closely, and beneath the sound of Doc’s snoring, she could hear the soft moans of pleasure coming from next door. “That sound been giving you any ideas?”

      J.B. just smiled.

      Mildred began to get undressed.

      AFTER A SEARCH of the residence, Katz found Baron DeMann tending to some of his open-air plants behind the mansion. These were special projects that the baron was experimenting with. Most of them were new plants he’d grown from seeds traded for on their last trip to several eastern villes. Half the seeds had been planted in the glasshouses, while the other half had been planted outside in an attempt to see which conditions best suited which plants.

      Based on the size of the outside plants, growing them inside the glasshouses seemed the only way they could be grown large enough to extract sufficient amounts of active ingredients.

      Katz cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Baron.”

      Baron DeMann steadied himself on one knee and looked up from the leaf he was examining. “What is it, Katz?”

      “I’ve just come from the clinic.”

      “One of the guests was wounded, right?”

      “Yes, Baron, a shoulder wound. He was tended to by another one of the outlanders.”

      “And he’s doing fine now, I take it.”

      Katz nodded. “The dark woman who looked after him…”

      “Yes?” The baron got up to his feet.

      “I think we could use her talents.”

      “She wants to stay with us?”

      “I

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