The Colonel felt tired. Beyond exhaustion, or even his age…it was an ache, a weariness, a sense of everything he valued slipping away. “Too late now.”

“No, it’s not, sir. Let’s just…walk away. Tell the crew it was another false lead. Couple weeks more and you can shut down the whole site and go home. The people love you, sir, not just your men. Your territory…it’s practically half the state now…people know you’ll protect them, treat ’em fair and not take advantage. Not many places in the Belt you could say that about. The thing you’re looking for in the lake…it’s going to change everything. There’s a reason the old regime hid it away down here. A reason they didn’t want anybody to find it.”

“I know.”

“So let’s walk off.”

The Colonel shook his head. “I have responsibilities. There are certain…expectations I’m burdened by.” He looked at Moseby. “I’m not the man I used to be, Mr. Moseby, not nearly…but I have to pretend. Memory is a ravening beast, sharp of tooth and with a special fondness for the soft spots…the tender places.” He squared his shoulders. “Tomorrow morning, start searching the lake.”

“He’s coming!”

“Damn.” Gravenholtz pulled out of Baby, yelped as he caught his penis hastily zipping his pants.

Baby laughed. “I was just kidding.” Bent over the couch, wedding dress pushed up around her shoulders, she wiggled her bare ass at him. “Come on, cowboy.”

Gravenholtz cursed her.

Baby squeezed the back of the couch, bucking back and forth, whinnying softly. She turned her head, slowly rotated her hips against the cushions, showed off her sweet pinkness. She watched as he carefully lowered his zipper, wincing as his foreskin came free. She turned back to the window, gasped as he drove into her. No subtlety from Lester. No finesse. No foreplay.

Gravenholtz grunted behind her, fists grabbing at the wedding dress, crinkling the stiff fabric as he unleashed a string of obscenities.

Baby worked with him, enjoying his passion, directing him to all the best spots. She watched her reflection in the window, excited by her flaring nostrils as he lifted her off the couch with his thrusts. She moved her head back and forth, sent her hair swaying against her shoulders, a light tickle as Lester groaned and snapped at the air.

“You fucking whore,” spat Gravenholtz, “fucking…fucking whore.”

Baby pressed her ass back against him, felt him shudder.

“Fucking…fucking whore.”

Always the same thing with Lester. Men were so predictable. She felt him increase his pace, taking short little breaths. She examined her face in the window, bit her lower lip, opening even deeper for him. Always from behind, that was the best way for Lester. She had caught a glimpse of his penis that first time…and that was enough. Ugly, ugly thing, freckled and bent, a blue-veined monstrosity. She half closed her eyes with pleasure, giving in, imagining herself with other men…the young sentry outside. He stood there with his back to the glass, rain sluicing off him like a beast in the field. She pressed down on the base of Lester’s penis as he lunged into her, held him for a moment, tighter…tighter…tighter still.

“Fuck…” Lester burst inside her, a scalding eruption of anger and loneliness. He sobbed for an instant, slid out, and lay on the floor, gasping like a dying fish.

Baby blew a kiss to her reflection, turned around. She picked up his shirt from the couch, wiped herself with it, and threw it on his face. “You didn’t ask me if you could shoot that nasty stuff inside me.”

Gravenholtz raised himself up on one elbow, still panting, his face like a red balloon.

“Next time you ask permission, Lester Gravenholtz.”

He stood up, still wobbly. “Someday…I’m going to kill you.”

Baby shook her head. “Not unless I say so.”

Gravenholtz pulled on his pants.

“The Colonel’s gone into the mountain.” Baby crossed her legs, admired her tiny toes. “Moseby called and said he found something and the Colonel hurried right over.”

He shrugged on his shirt, stuffed it into his pants.

“Moseby brings that old-days weapon out from the lake, you best be ready to make yourself useful.” Baby tucked her legs under her, watched him finish getting dressed. “You’re going to have to move fast when the time comes.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I been thinking…”

“That’s my job.” Baby could see the anger bubble to the surface of his face like swamp gas. She should slow it down, take it careful-like, but Baby had given up on slow and careful a long time ago. She had Lester on a choke chain-give him any slack and he might bite a piece out of her, just ’cause he could. “You leave the thinking to me, Lester. You try it, you might pull a muscle.”

Gravenholtz balled those big old hands of his into fists.

Baby reached for him, kissed those fists, kissed each and every knuckle while he breathed hot and heavy.

Gravenholtz had to step away from her to find his tongue. “New…new weapon or not, I’m not cut out to be what you want me to be.”

“Sure you are.”

“It’s the Colonel’s command,” Gravenholtz snapped. “The men are shit-scared of me, that’s not the problem-they seen me break enough heads to jump when I say so, but as soon as my back is turned…” He shook his head. “No, they’ll charge into hell itself if the Colonel gives the word, but not for me. Me, I’m born to be the hard case, the second in command that gets things done and don’t take excuses.”

She saw the shiny red hairs sticking out from his shirt collar, and the sight disgusted her. “That really all you aspire to, Lester Gravenholtz?”

“Ain’t such a bad thing. Colonel could take over the whole damn country with this weapon, and I’d be right there by his side. So would you. We could still-”

Baby sighed. She smoothed her wedding dress down, arranged and rearranged it until it was perfect. She looked up at him, shook her head. “Oh, Lester…aren’t you tired of sloppy seconds?”

Chapter 34

“Let’s just get out of here,” said Leo as Rakkim checked out their car.

Rakkim looked up, saw Malcolm Crews walking toward them, a few skeleton men trailing behind. It was late morning, the camp slow to get started after last night.

“Rikki?”

“Not yet,” said Rakkim, going back to work. “Can’t be in a hurry or you’ll ruin everything.”

“You don’t know what it was like after you tramped off with Malcolm,” said Leo, not making eye contact. “I got dragged along while they drove trails, howling and shooting guns…jacked up on methamphetamine, smoking whole chunks of it.” He scratched his arms. “Just being around them made my skin itch.”

Rakkim scratched the inflamed punctures on his arm where the rattler had bitten him. “I wasn’t having a picnic myself.”

“They…they took me to a…a body dump,” whispered Leo. “Sinville, that’s what they called it, like it’s some big joke. This old satellite relay station in the middle of the woods. Ground antennae was a steel dish fifty yards across and it’s filled, Rikki, it’s piled high with bodies, hundreds of them, tourists and townspeople, they don’t care. They’ve been adding to it for the last year. I didn’t even know what it was at first, because we were downwind and it was so dark, and then…one of the jokers…”

“It’s okay,” said Rakkim. “We’re leaving soon.”

“…one of the jokers tossed in a white phosphorus grenade, made this big flash, and, Rikki, there were so many crows, I’ve never seen so many birds in my life, and the sound they made when they flew up…it was like the earth screaming.”

“Did I hear someone say my name?” said Crews, all in black, fresh flowers in his hair.

Rakkim finished with the car. “Leo didn’t appreciate the trip to the body dump.”

“Softhearted, is he?” said Crews. “Don’t worry, he’ll get over it. Come the Judgment, the whole earth is going to be a body dump.” He peered at Rakkim. “How are you feeling this morning, pilgrim? Seem a little peaked.”