Pickers 3: The Valley by Garth Owen Read Free Book Online Page B

into gun components, if we can find the right grades of metal."
    "You're going to quit as mayor and come in here to just make shit, aren't you."
    "I wish." Julien said with a sigh. "You saw how the vote went yesterday. The town is still about evenly balanced on opening up to the outside. If I stood down, I don't think there's as loud a voice for continued trade and contact. Catellin and her little gang would be happiest if we closed the tunnel and blocked ourselves in here again. It took a lot to get people to go out there. Your leaving didn't help, I'll tell you." Julien had more to say, but he was biting back an argument that was ten years old, and no longer worth having.
    "How are they going to feel when we bring back everything we find in the vault?"
    "Gutted, probably. They hope you fail. They'd probably be happy if you died out there and we never heard anything about you ever again. Then they could crow on about wasted resources and the dangers of contact beyond the Valley."
    "We're not going to die out there."
    "No. Please don't do that." Julien picked a triangular section file from one of the baskets, and studied the cross cut pattern in its surface. "Anyway, I thought you might like to see this, so you know we have the capacity, if you need anything making up as you convert your wagons."
    "We should have brought Maxine. She's the mechanical genius. I guess she got that from you. But she wanted to go off and explore. With young Meunier."
    "He's a good man, Meunier. Good family too. Trustworthy."
    "He had best be a good man. He'll be castrato if he tries anything Maxine doesn't want." Remy gave a little grunting laugh. "Though, if I know her, what she wants might be the same as what he wants. If he's too good a man, he'll just annoy her."
    "I'll make sure I warn him, then." Julien rolled the handle of the file in his hand, then put it back in its basket. "Those turbines in your wagons, what do they run on?"
    "Almost any flammable liquid. They just need adjusting at start up until they burn clean."
    "Let's go to the fuel distillery and get a batch so you can set them up."

* * *
    Maxine's shoulders and thighs ached. Hauling the mass of the bike onto the right line was a workout, and she hadn't ridden so far in one go since they had gone over the goat track. Even keeping to her promise of not racing, the path they had come back along had been more technical. She slowed and stopped before reaching the small square ahead.
    George's fuel burning bike was lighter than Maxine's electric one, but, with only one driven wheel, it was harder work to control. It was noisy, too. The rasp of its motor echoed between the buildings on the street as he twisted the throttle to race toward her. He leant forward and pulled a stoppie- waving the rear wheel in the air- just like she had earlier.
    "Let's not take that track on the way out." Maxine said, when Georges had killed his chattering motor and walked the bike over to her.
    "Definitely not." Georges swatted a chunk of mud off his trousers. He looked around. The few people on the square were turning away one by one, pretending they hadn't been watching, curious what the noise and movement were about. "So, er, we have a couple of bars in town. If we tell them early enough, they'll do a meal for us. Would you like to....?"
    Georges was uncomfortable again. Maxine fought back the urge to make him suffer. Besides which, she liked the sound of what he was suggesting. "Yes. I'd like to. When?"
    "This evening?"
    Why not? "Okay." Her heart had sped up again, and now she could feel the pulse somewhere lower as well. Her thighs squeezed the saddle for a moment, trying to chase that idea away, for now.
    "Okay. Let's get our bikes back, then I'll go and book us a table."
    Maxine stood on the pegs, balancing her bike before setting off. Georges stamped on the kick start of his ride, giving silent thanks when it turned over right away. Maxine whizzed away, and he spun the back tyre for a moment as he