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With a half dozen grim men around her, Anna set off through
another Dead Zone into a dark zone that lay on the verge of Lord Penn’s turf.
Each of them carried a plastic credit with Penn’s face and Royal Palm emblem.
An hour ago there were two others, cut down in a firefight. The men lived but
were too wounded to go on.
The leader slowed. He hissed. A guard stepped out. Eyes cool, he
looked them over.
“Who be ya, man?”
“Dan Powers o’ the Free People. This is the Light Woman come
from the no’th seeking her son.”
The guard eyed Anna. “Don’t mean nothin’ to me. Why you
entering the kingdom?”
Powers nodded at the jungle of ruins. “Her boy be in they. She
seek him ‘cause the Lords o’ Light send her. He in terrible trouble.”
The guard spat on the ground. “Don’t mean no nothing, man. The
feds is stalking around here, too. Trapped five o’ them and maybe you was sent
here to throw us off the mark. Beat it, Powers.”
Powers scowled and swelled. Anna lay a hand on his arm.
“Sir?” Anna stepped forward. She opened her coat so he could
see she carried no more armaments than the average zone dweller. “My son is in
danger–“
“Git!”
“I’ll see you dead and burning in hell first.” Anna’s
voice sank husky and biting. "A night stalker is looking for him, as well.
It looks something like a bear and kills quickly, so fast it’s lightning. It
can be shot and killed, but when the sun sets again, it comes back to life to
kill again, and again.”
The guard’s eyes were growing wide. He backed away holding a
hand up to her. He glanced back, into a hidden doorway.
His whispers were frantic and shaken.
“The werewolf–“
A deep, smooth voice answered, but the words were too low of
Anna’s straining ears to hear.
He came back and said, “You can kill this thing? Ain’t messed
with Lord Penn’s folks much, but ain’t cool, having it running around. Makes
the cops come hasty and nasty.”
“No,” she said. “I can’t kill it.”
“Then what good it do, you coming here?”
“It wants my son. If I can get him out of here, it’ll follow
us back to the mountains. My people can take care of it there.”
A large, hard man ducked out from the doorway.
“Lady, you speak true?”
“I do not lie,” Anna said, her eyes flashing. “I’m a
traditional, and we don’t have a word for it. And yes, we know how to deal with
things like it is. We have a long tradition of werewolf killers in the
longhouses.”
One eye cocked in near disbelief, the man nodded.
“Got passes? I got some here iffen you be need them.”
“We got us passes,” Powers said. “Got ‘em from Penn’s
ambassador.”
The man nodded and stepped back.
“Go wit’ God, lady ‘o the Light. But don’t expect to find
you boy living in our turf.”
One of the policemen kicked the rutting man in the leg.
“Atten-shun!”
Spilling coffee and food, the men jumped to attention.
The rutter leaped to his feet scowling. He turned and, his eyes
wide, stiffened at attention. A captain’s bars were tattooed on one cheek,
along with a bar code.
“Judge Harrison, sir?”
Henri steadied Harrison. The judge tried to shrink behind Henri,
but Henri gave a broad grin. He clamped a hand on Harrison’s arm.
“Sure is the judge. He ain’t feeling too well right now,”
Henri said, edging them through the men. “Had a bad night. All those poor
folks suffering.”
The officer was following them. With a small frown, Henri glanced
down, and the officer scowled, then closed his pants.
“I was, ah, accepting the courtesy of Baron Harrison’s
home,” the man said. His face was burning. “Excuse this intrusion into your
gracious home, Judge.”
“Oh, he does, he does. Yes, sir.” Henri glanced at the girl.
She was huddled near the stove.
“Jasmine, get to bed.”
“Yes, Mr. Henri,” she whispered. Alma started after her. A man
stopped her, but Henri tightened his grip on the judge.
“Let her go.”
Alma dashed after Jasmine.
“Sir,” the captain said, speaking to Harrison but his eyes
shooting cold sparks at Henri. “I have the honor of presenting you with the
barony, a gift from President le Joie.”
Henri beamed at the man. “Lord, now I got the blessing o’
serving royalty! All hail Baron Harrison!” He glared at the servants. For a
moment blank faces stared back, then they cheered Harrison. “You a god now,
Judge. Bless us, but now you one o’ the gods.”
©2004 StoriesByEmail.com
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