“Tom’s got a point,” said Pruitt, still watching Rakkim. “This man here can count as well as you can. He sidles in here, takes our guns, wakes us up. He’s not armed…might as well be naked as a jaybird. He’s got to have something else going for him.”

“Let’s talk,” said Tom.

Jeeter hefted the hammer. “Soldier up, Tipton. Fucking Billy Goat Gruff, if you had been standing guard like you were supposed to, none of this would have happened.”

“Now, boys, don’t argue over me,” said Rakkim. “The Good Book says blessed are the peacemakers.”

Tom sighed, walked over, and pulled out a single-bladed ax from the stump used as a chopping block. He took a few practice swings, the ax swooshing the air. Dust motes danced in the morning light.

Jeeter nodded at Tom. “That’s better. Now spread out.” He moved forward, tossing the hammer from one hand to the other, his eyes on Rakkim.

Ferris sidled forward, awkward, gripping the crowbar.

Tom closed in. Swung the ax high over his head, drove it down full force into Jeeter’s back. Slammed him into the ground.

Rakkim was as surprised as Pruitt and Ferris. All four of them stood there, watching as Jeeter’s fingers clutched at the dirt floor of the barn, the ax still stuck in his back as he tore at the dirt like he was trying to hide in the earth. They stayed there watching until the fingers stopped.

Tom spit on Jeeter. Looked over at Pruitt. “No matter what happened, he was going to blame me. You know he was, Pru.”

“It’s true,” said Pruitt. “That’s just what he would have done.”

Ferris dropped the crowbar. Stepped away from it.

“I ain’t facing Gravenholtz…I ain’t doing that.” Tom shook his head. “I’ll head out to Florida first, see if Cuban pussy is as good as they say it is.”

Rakkim rolled Jeeter onto his side. Patted him down until he found the phone, and then stood up. “You have about ten minutes until your eight o’clock check-in, Pruitt. Make the call and then you can all leave. That’ll give you some time before Gravenholtz gets the video. Enough time to put some distance between you.”

Ferris and Tom were already packing up their gear, hurrying. It didn’t take them long.

Pruitt walked over to Rakkim. “I’m not a deserter.”

Rakkim nodded. “I can see that, but it’s not safe here anymore. You can stay, but I’m taking the women where Gravenholtz won’t find them.”

“Does Leanne want to go?”

“They know they can’t stay here.” Rakkim watched Ferris and the sentry trot out the back door. “She spoke well of you…if that matters.”

“Yes, sir, it matters.” Pruitt looked toward the house. “I should have never joined up. I thought it would be different. The Colonel’s a good man…but he doesn’t know the things that go on. Gravenholtz…” He shook his head. “I didn’t sign up for-”

“Make the call.” Rakkim handed him the phone.

Pruitt ran a thumb across the keypad. “Right…yes.” He tapped in the access code: 7-8-3-6-0-9-5-3. Waited. A diode on the phone flashed. “It’s me. Yeah. Tell Gravenholtz everything’s fine.” He listened. “I’m stuck on the fucking bayou, that’s what’s wrong with my voice. Yeah. Talk to you tonight.” He closed the phone, handed it back to Rakkim.

“Hurry up, Pru,” said Tom from the doorway. “Time to go.”

Pruitt looked at Rakkim. “You don’t really know Gravenholtz, do you?”

“No, but I can’t fucking wait to meet him.”

Pruitt nodded. “Good.”

“Pru!”

Rakkim watched them run down the path to the main road before starting back to the farmhouse. He could hear Leo and Leanne chattering away as he approached, going back and forth like there was nobody else in the world. Inside he found Leo in a chair, a towel clipped around his neck while Leanne snipped away at his hair with a pair of scissors. The Ident collar lay on the table.

Annabelle scooped scrambled eggs onto a platter.

“What do you think?” Leanne said to Rakkim.

The kid looked good.

“He wouldn’t tell me who cut his hair last, but they sure didn’t know what they were doing.” Leanne cut a few more spots. Moistened her fingers in her mouth and slicked down a few errant hairs. “I’ll have to do a touch-up in a few weeks, but that’s the best I can do for now.” She whisked off the towel. Her hand lingered on Leo’s neck.

“We have to go,” said Rakkim. “All of us.”

Annabelle glanced back toward the barn.

“They’re already gone,” said Rakkim. “We’ll drive you and Leanne wherever you want. Someplace Gravenholtz won’t know about. Someplace safe.”

“John expects us to be here,” said Annabelle.

“I’ll tell him where you are,” said Rakkim. He saw her hesitate. “Annabelle, when Gravenholtz doesn’t get his eight p.m. check-in, he’s going to know something’s wrong. You can’t stay here.”

“We’ll bring your father back safe,” Leo assured Leanne. “I promise.”

Leanne looked him up and down, taking her time. “I believe you.”

Leo swallowed, reached into his pocket, and set a tiny metallic object on the counter, another cannibalized creation from the toy tank he had taken apart at Mount Carmel. One of the soldiers from the toy tank hung from a paper-clip trapeze. As the sun hit the soldier’s helmet, he started doing lazy flips, then faster and faster.

“We have a lot to do before we leave,” said Annabelle.

“Don’t take any more than you can carry,” said Rakkim.

Annabelle slammed a pan on the counter. “You think this is the first time I’ve had to leave my home in a hurry?”

“No…I’m sure you know what you’re doing,” said Rakkim.

“That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard you say all morning,” said Annabelle. “Now let’s all sit down for breakfast. With my good china and crystal and cloth napkins. We’re going to eat like civilized people. Then…then I’m going to make my bed and lock the door behind me.”

Leanne carefully picked up the acrobatic soldier, who continued doing flips while decorative sparks flew from the base.

“At the end of the routine he salutes,” said Leo. “I wanted him to be able to do a handstand too, but I ran out of parts.”

Leanne chewed her lip. “Maybe I…maybe I could help you. I’m good with my hands.”

Chapter 21

“I wish we could have stayed longer,” said Leo.

Rakkim kept driving. They had barely left Annabelle’s cousin’s house and Leo was already lovesick.

“What would it have hurt to stay another night?” said Leo. “No telling what they might have told us about Gravenholtz.”

“Yeah, you’re really interested in Gravenholtz,” said Rakkim. He had heard Leo creep down the hall from his room last night around midnight, heard him sneak back in around dawn. “Annabelle doesn’t know any more than she’s already told us. It’s time to get moving.”

“Why do you always get to decide where we go and when we leave?”

Rakkim didn’t bother answering.

Annabelle had assured Rakkim that no one would think to come looking for her at her cousin’s house. Her daddy’s side of the family had cut off all contact after she married Moseby. Racial attitudes in the Belt had softened greatly since the war, but there were still folks who didn’t take to mixing things up. She hadn’t seen her cousin in a long time, but she and Mary Thurston had been close once. Almost like sisters. Her cousin had been startled to see Annabelle at her front door, but invited her in, then hugged her, the two of them crying like kids over a broken doll. Rakkim and Leo stood around, watching Mary Thurston cry some more over how beautiful Leanne was, and is this your son-in-law? Leo blushed so hard it looked like his cheeks were about to catch fire.

“Mary Thurston said Leanne and I made a fine couple,” said Leo. “She does astrology, which is totally ridiculous, I know, but still, she said our signs were a good match.”

“Uh-huh.”

Rakkim drove on through northern Arkansas, speeding along a fancy strip of eight-lane freeway. Good work too, some sort of computer-assisted roadbed the Japanese had put in to speed goods between their fertilizer-processing plants in Arkadelphia and Little Rock, a ninety-mile stretch that tapered off to the cracked and uneven blacktop that formed most of the roads in the Belt.