They remained by the fire the rest of the
night, stretched out on the floor and facing each other. They tried to
get a few hours of sleep, but neither of them were able to get any
decent amount of rest. Haulk awoke every hour and tuned his ears
for any strange or unusual noise. Although he knew the equinoid would
alert him at the slightest provocation, he feared Yarnell may have
concocted a device to nullify the animal’s sensors. Haulk wouldn’t put
it past the man. Several of those times, he observed
Remi’s restlessness. Twice she opened her eyes to silently stare at him,
and he knew she was just as nervous as he was. He tried to smile. “I guess my time’s up.” She gave him a confused look. “Midnight,” he elaborated. “You were only
mine until midnight.” She rolled onto her back and stared at
the ceiling. “It would have cost you more to stay until dawn.” “How much more?” She gave a little shrug. “I don’t know.
I’ve never had a man stay longer than it took for him to get his load
off.” “I’m sorry.” “Don’t be. You’re the one helping me to
bring Yarnell to justice.” Remi rolled onto her other side,
presenting her back to him and the fire. After a few moments, he
realized she’d fallen back to sleep. Haulk closed his eyes and followed
her. He had no idea what time it was when he
awoke, feeling chilled. The incendiary bar was nearly used up. All that
was left were a few embers. He noticed Remi was curled into a ball for
warmth. Getting stiffly to his feet, he walked
over to the equinoid to retrieve another bar from the saddlebags. As he
rummaged inside, he glanced out the grimy window to observe a slight
brightening on the horizon. False dawn. In the distance, a bird hovered in the
cloudless sky, kept aloft by the thermals. Haulk paused to observe it,
finding an odd sense of serenity at the way it seemed to float nearly
unmoving, never flapping its wings. The bird turned slightly… Haulk slammed his back against the wall.
His sudden movement and sound aroused Remi. She started to rise, when he
motioned for her to stay down. “What?” she whispered. Picking up her
blaster, she slid across the floor to join him. “There’s a dirigible outside. A small
one, I’m guessing. It must be one of Yarnell’s security airships. It
looks like a bird with wings on the side. I’ve never seen another like
it.” “Yep, that’s one of Yarnell’s eyes. He
has a rear room full of screens where a guy keeps constant watch over
what’s being transmitted back.” “Is it equipped with infrared?” “I don’t know, but I would assume. I
wonder how long it’s been out there.” “I don’t have any idea. I thought at
first it was a bird. It seemed to be drifting away from us, but then it
turned in our direction.” Remi’s expression hardened. “It must have
spotted the cabin and is coming over to investigate. We have to run,
Haulk.” “We can’t. If we do, it’ll relay our
position to Yarnell,” he argued. “And if that thing has infrared, it’ll
see our heat signatures inside here,” she countered. He paused, weighing the risks. “Remi, how
fast can those things move?” “Do we want to hang around to find out?”
She nodded at the equinoid. “Can that thing run while it’s juicing up?” “A better question would be, can it
outrun that air drone? Guess there’s only one way to know for sure.” He
reached out to her to help her up into the saddle but she waved him
away, grabbed a handful of her skirt, and hoisted herself up. He checked
outside to find the aircraft had moved closer to the cabin. Pressing the
button on his collar, he tried to hail his ship. “Juliet?” Silence. “Damn!” He cast his eyes over to Remi. “I
don’t suppose you have any suggestions where we could go?” She pressed her lips together. “Are you
sure you want to hear it?” Haulk glanced outside, judging the
distance between the blimp and the cabin. “Are those things armed?” “I don’t know.” Frowning, he turned back to her. “You
know this planet better than I do. What do you suggest?” “Go back to town.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re
serious.” “What can we do out here? Hope that we’ll
eventually get far enough away for your ship to come pick us up?” He grudgingly admitted that was what he’d
been thinking. “Have you regained contact with the
ship?” “Not yet.” She gave him one of those “well?” looks.
He gave a quick nod and chanced another look-see out the window. The
dirigible was close enough for him to see the antennae protruding from
the airship’s belly. He roughly guesstimated the thing to be three
meters in length. Too small to be physically manned. Definitely remotely
controlled. “And go where in town?” he almost growled
irritably. Remi grinned. “To hide in plain sight.” “You mean, blend in with the natives?” “They hate Yarnell to a man. They’ll be
more than happy to help us blend in. Of course, you’ll have to leave
this baby behind.” “If we leave her at the stables, then
Yarnell’s men will know we’re back.” He eyed the equinoid. “I have
another idea. Get off.” She obeyed and waited for what he’d do
next. He removed the saddlebags from the
creature, then took out another incendiary rod before handing the bags
to her. “Here. Hold these.” Breaking the rod, he struck the ends
together until flames burst from the tips. Haulk jammed the blunt ends
under the edge of the saddle. “I get it,” Remi murmured. “You’re
betting the tracker can detect a heat signature. So you’re going to send
your horse out to lure it away so we can backtrack to town.” He flashed her a smile. “This rod puts
out an incredible amount of heat. Hopefully more than the two of us
combined. Between the heat and the movement, it should be enough to lead
the airship away from the cabin. Come on, old girl.” He patted the
equinoid’s neck and opened the small panel at its shoulder. She watched him adjust a few controls.
“Will it go without a driver?” “All I have to do is set a direction and
speed.” “Will you be able to retrieve it later
on?” He closed the panel. “After we get back
to my ship, Juliet will be able to track it. She can also override the
programming to bring it back to us. All right.” Haulk looked at her,
glancing down at her long skirt. “You ready to run?” Remi handed the saddlebags back to him,
grabbed the fabric, and tucked the hem into her waistband. “I’m ready.” “Let’s see if this works.” He slapped the
animal’s rump, triggering it to move forward. The creature leaped off
the porch, stopped, then turned around to face away from the cabin. The
equinoid gave a shake of its head before taking off at a fast gallop. In
the early morning light, the bright, hot flames coming off the two
pieces of incendiary rod enveloped the animal in a white halo. Haulk and Remi
watched from inside the cabin to see
what
the dirigible would do. As they’d hoped, the airship spotted the
movement. It gradually turned around and began to follow it. From the
window, Haulk could barely make out the whir of the ship’s engines as it
sped up to keep the equinoid in range. He reached over to tap Remi on the arm.
She jerked away from him and immediately apologized. “Sorry. I…” He tried to hide his disappointment. Why
would he think she would be any different? “At my signal, stay behind me.” He saw her nod when a barrage of shots
rang out. They stared in shock out the window to discover the pursuing
blimp firing at the equinoid. Projectiles peppered the ground as the
mechanical animal continued onward, neither slowing nor swerving to
avoid being hit as it followed its original programming.
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