[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

above the ankle where he'd been trapped.
"Hurts like a bastard," he breathed. "Would appreciate holding your hand again for a few
seconds, old friend."
Ryan gripped his fingers, feeling the shaking. "Hurts while the blood flows back. Give it
a while, then we'll take a look and see what the harm is."
They sat together in the cool stillness.
IT TOOK SEVERAL painful minutes to unlace the combat boot and slide it off the
swollen ankle. Ryan probed as gently as he could, making J.B. move the injured leg,
rotating the foot in both directions.
"How's it feel?"
The Armorer was leaning back against the bole of a half-grown pine, studiously polishing
his glasses, his fedora pushed back on his forehead.
"Not broken. Stiff. Slow me down some. Hinder-any tightrope walking I might be
thinking of. And it's going to take the edge off my famous, gold-medal-winning tango."
"Want to try standing?"
"No."
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Axler, James - Deathlands 33 - Eclipse at Noon
Ryan grinned. "Need a hand up?"
"No. Yeah." He reached for Ryan and heaved himself erect with a single movement,
spitting out a muffled curse and hopping around, keeping his bad foot off the ground.
"Best try and get that boot back on before the swelling gets too bad and you can't manage
it."
"You'd have done well as the grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, Ryan. Torture's
your trade. Help me sit down again, and I'll get the bastard thing on."
It took several more minutes of painful wrestling before the boot was on and laced. It was
halfway through the process that Ryan caught the sound of movement, behind them,
along the southbound trail.
"Patrol's coming back," he whispered.
"Didn't go far."
"Just checking a wide perimeter, I guess. Get down flat and keep still."
The sec men moved past, keeping silent, in an impressively well-ordered patrol,
vanishing through the open main gate of the forest camp.
"Think that's it for the night?" J.B. asked, finishing tying his boot.
"Who can tell? Wolfram's a wily rodent. And the Magus plays games nobody else
knows."
IT BECAME OBVIOUS very quickly that the leg injury was going to be too serious for
them to do anything combatwise for several hours. Ryan left J.B. resting among the
undergrowth, while he scouted deeper into the trees, finding a narrow, fast-flowing, icy-
cold stream. With support the Armorer was able to limp the quarter mile to reach it,
peeling off the boot again and bathing the injured limb.
"Feels good," he said, stretching it out and examining it by the light of the moon.
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Axler, James - Deathlands 33 - Eclipse at Noon
There were several deep indentations around the top of the ankle, black-purple in the
silvery glow, all of them badly swollen. There had been very little blood, but the bruising
seemed to have gone through to the bone.
J.B. kept moving the foot, wincing and muttering under his breath, trying now and again
to take some weight on it.
"Easier?" Ryan asked anxiously.
Time was passing, though he didn't want to put any undue pressure on his friend. They
hadn't eaten properly for some time, though the chilly stream water was reviving. It was
vital that they got their attack under way as soon as possible, taking the best advantage
that they could of the remaining few hours of darkness. It was already past midnight.
"Little bit better. I can walk, but I still can't run. When we finally make our plan, we'd
best take that into account. Put me somewhere to stand and shoot, and you do the chasing
around."
"Yeah. Guess we best come up with a finished plan and do it soon."
They both stared at each other and grinned at the absurdity of it all.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The wag rumbled up the trail from the south, bucking and heaving over the old quake
ripples in the surface. It was the rebuilt cab of a predark semi, dappled with old strips of
wasted chrome, and hooked up on the back was an armored flatbed piled high with
crates.
The moon was almost hidden behind some ragged clouds, and Ryan angled his wrist
chron toward it to try to make out the time. "Ten minutes after three," he whispered to
J.B. "Night's passing on by."
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Axler, James - Deathlands 33 - Eclipse at Noon
The Armorer had been dozing at his side, waking every now and again, wincing in pain,
biting his lip and massaging his badly bruised leg, trying to restore something close to
full movement in it.
"Wonder where they've been."
Ryan peered through the screen of trees, uncomfortably aware of the number of alert sec
men who patrolled inside the wire, as well as those watching through night glasses from
the range of tall towers around the perimeter of the fortress.
"Looks like they're stopping. Guards coming out and checking it. Don't think they were
carrying anything of great& Wait a minute."
"What?"
Ryan flattened himself in the short grass, staring intently. "Refueling it."
J.B. wriggled over alongside his companion, sighing as he dragged his injured foot across
the rough ground. "Fuel! Now, that could be "
"Could be really something," Ryan agreed. "Never noticed that they got gasoline here."
"In that small building without windows. Backing onto the kitchens."
Ryan nodded. "Yeah. Door's open to it. I can just make out a couple of real big tanks.
Could be a thousand gallons each. Could be."
"Full or empty?"
"If they're full and we can get inside the camp and at them, then we got us the biggest and
best diversion you could ever think of."
J.B. grinned, his teeth white in the darkness. "Bring every stickie running for fifty miles
around."
"Surely would."
The two friends watched as the wag was refueled, with a half-circle of sec men standing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]