Borderlands: Unconquered by John Shirley Read Free Book Online Page B

pointed the pistols, “I don’t trust you. Why take a chance?”
    “I don’t trust you either—you were gonna get a job with Gynella.”
    She chuckled. “Nah. I just wantedto hang around ’em, see what their plans were. I heard Cess say that General Goddess’s Second Division would be pulling out of the area. So I came to tell Brick the good news. And what do I find . . .”
    “You find the guy who tried to save your ass from Broomy,” Mordecai said.
    “I didn’t need saving.”
    Roland could believe that. “Your arms are eventually gonna get tired. And my neck’s already gettinga crimp.” He turned to Brick. “You’ve been working with her?”
    “My partner in protecting the mine.” Brick gestured for Daphne to lower the guns. “Mining engineers pulled out this morning. I don’t think the bastards are gonna pay us our ‘kill fee.’”
    “We got a pretty good deposit,” Daphne said, holstering the pistols.
    Mordecai turned to look at her. “You and . . . Brick ?”
    “We both got hired thesame time is all,” she said. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
    Roland didn’t feel right about bringing Brickinto the mission if that meant bringing Daphne along. If she was who he thought she was, she was wanted by a lot of real sons of bitches, who wouldn’t quit till they found her. He didn’t want any distractions from the mission. And he had a feeling that if Brick went along, so wouldshe.
    “So what was it you wanted to talk tuh me for?” Brick asked.
    Roland cleared his throat. “Oh, just wondering if you needed any more help here. I could use the work. But it looks like it’s over with. We’ll be moving on, then.”
    Brick shrugged. It looked like a mountainside in an earthquake. “Bah, I’m gonna go into town and drink a keg or two. Hey—what’s that thing sittin’ in the outrunner?”
    “That’s Bloodwing,” said Mordecai.
    “That stinky buzzard bat of yours? You call that thing a pet?” He put his hand to the mummified dog’s paw. “That thing ain’t no fitting pet for nobody. Not like Priscilla.” Brick sniffled a couple of times and rubbed at his nose. He pointed off to the right, and Roland saw something stacked over there, almost like a lumpy log cabin, hard to make out in the darknessbeyond their small cone of light. “What I found out is, if you lay out dead fellas real nice and straight and let ’em go stiff, why, you can stack ’em just like toy blocks. I was makin’ a fort outta that bunch, the ones I killedoutta Gynella’s outfit. And Priscilla, when I was a kid, she used to watch me with my blocks, and then she’d smell ’em and knock ’em over, and we’d have a good laugh.Priscilla . . .”
    Roland glanced at Daphne—she was rolling her eyes. He hoped Brick didn’t notice that. He didn’t countenance any disrespect to Priscilla’s memory.
    “Where exactly are you two going?” Daphne asked, quite casually, as Roland and Mordecai climbed back into the outrunner.
    Roland frowned. On this planet, it wasn’t done to be too inquisitive about where a man was going. Especiallywith the demanding tone she was using.
    Mordecai glanced questioningly at Roland, and at last he said, “Ohhhh . . . out westerly. Check out that army. See if we can get Brick some more building blocks.”
    Roland started the outrunner, put it in reverse, backed it up, changed gears, and drove carefully but quickly out of the mining camp.
    “You decide against recruiting Brick?” Mordecai asked whenthey’d gone out of earshot.
    “We don’t need the distraction of that woman along, not in any damn way, and I figured she’d horn her way into our mission. She seems attached to Brick. If she’s who I think she is, she’s dangerous—dangerous as all hell. And I mean dangerous to the wrong people. You feel?”
    Mordecai said nothing. Bloodwing shifted onits perch and made a soft squawking sound, thensettled back to sleep.
    •  •  •
    “He’s got