Read 05. Children of Flux and Anchor for Free Online Page A

just off there."
    "That's what they'll do. They know we can't cross this area, either. If I were them, I'd have one of 'em make their way back and get a couple of horses, then bring them up behind that smoldering ranch house there. Then the other could make his way back to it.
    "Yeah, that's what I'd do, but I wasn't given Flux orders, either, and I'm no butcher. Their decoy plan's spoiled, but they still don't know who or how many they're up against. They'll want to know to warn the main band. We've turned the tables on them, Grandson. Now they need one of us alive, so they can determine if we have sent off for the army or have communications equipment. If we do, that main group will have their backs to the Sea and be caught in a vise." He looked at his watch. "About an hour and a quarter until dark. They'll wait it out, knowing we have to come and get them."
    "Do we?"
    "Yeah, but not their way. Let's get back to the horses. I figure we can cut a pretty wide arc in an hour or so."
    "You mean, come in behind them?"
    "Uh huh. And with a little bait."
     
     
    *   *   *
     
     
    Two figures waited in the silence and the dark, one behind a watering trough, the other in the bushes between the front yard and what remained of the still-smoking ranch house. They were, perhaps, six meters apart, but they commanded a view of all approaches to the building, well, and remains of the structures. Anyone coming at them would be in the open as far as one or the other was concerned and a perfect target. They, too, had night sights.
    "Why the hell don't they come?" one of them asked in an impatient whisper louder than a normal tone of voice.
    "Shut up! Just means there ain't many of 'em. Maybe only one or two. Just hush. They'll come!"
    There was a sudden noise and both turned and looked through their night scopes. It was just one of the horses—a saddled horse, at that—slowly ambling back. The scope didn't give a hundred percent night vision, but it was hard to miss the horse, the saddle outline, and the fact that it was riderless.
    Both sighed and relaxed a little. "It's coming up on my side. I'll get her as she passes!" the first one whispered loudly.
    The other nodded and looked back out at the darkened and deathly quiet desert. Suddenly there was a noise, a thud like the falling of some heavy body, and a small, aborted cry, and the one near the house suddenly turned and pointed the rifle at where the horse now was.
    " Renie! You O.K.?"
    There was no answer.
    The raider looked into the night scope to see if anything could be made out, but the damned horse was not just standing there, it looked tethered now.
    Suddenly there was a massive groaning noise behind the raider, and something fell and collapsed part of the roof with a crash and a roar. The raider, startled, stood up for a moment, and suddenly there was a cracking sound and something dropped down and coiled around the raider's body in a tight, painful embrace. The rifle fell and clattered on the ground, and then there was a tug and the raider, helplessly bound, crashed down as well.
    "Got 'em!" Ryan called.
    "Mine, too," responded the younger man. An electric torch flared. "Holy shit! It's a woman!"
    A second torch went on. "Mine, too."
    The one with the whip around her was screaming and writhing and trying to break the hold, but could not. Her rage was so strong she was mostly unintelligible, but she appeared to be mouthing and growling a lot of graphic obscenities. Still, the leather whip had cut through her clothes and the more she struggled the more it bit into skin. She was getting bloody fast.
    Ryan pulled her up with an expert's move, and coolly rammed his fist into her jaw. Her head snapped back, then came forward limply. A trickle of blood came from the side of her mouth, but she was out cold.
    He undid the whip; then dragged her over to a hitching post, using leather straps from bridles to bind first her hands, then her feet around the post. She hung there like some