“What’s wrong with a woman on guard detail?” she raged. “I was the only one with guts enough to fight.” She glared at the other two prisoners, still helplessly bound and gagged.
“That would have caused a lot of shooting. Here in the village and out in the fields, too. A lot of people would’ve gotten hurt. We’re not trying to hurt these people.”
“Not much!” She pushed him away and scrambled to her feet. “You’re just trying to steal their food and weapons. Leave them hungry and defenseless.”
“No,” Alec said firmly. “What I want is what I came to Earth for: the fissionables. We’ve fought our way across the country all summer to get here. I know he’s not far from here, and the fissionables are here too.” He took her by the arm. “Where is he?”
She looked at him. There was a silly scrap of straw clinging to her cheek. She brushed it away. “He’s not far,” Angela said. “And when he finds out what you’ve done he’ll find you.”
“That’s fine,” Alec said. “One way or the other, it doesn’t matter. But I still want to know where he is now and where the fissionables are stored.”
Angela shook her head. “It wouldn’t do any good, even if I told you. You’d just get yourself killed. You can’t storm the base with a dozen men.”
“I can get more.”
She turned away.
“All right.” Alec hopped off the wagon, then turned to help her down. She jumped down on her own. Frowning, he turned to Jameson. “Find an empty hut and lock her into it.”
Chapter 20
The Sun swung down and touched the western hills. In small groups the village men came back from their fields, to be taken and disarmed—their faces slack with shock—by Alec’s men. By nightfall the entire village was safely under guard.
“Hey!” Gianelli shouted in the flickering light of the fire they built in the center of the village square. “We found the wine!” He waved a wicker-covered jug over his head, then put it to his lips.
Alec was sitting by the fire, eating with Jameson. “Better make certain that no more than a couple of those jugs are opened,” he said. “Put the rest under guard or break them. And keep the villagers inside their huts. I don’t want any of our men grabbing their women. I want to stay as friendly with these people as we can.”
Jameson nodded, finished scraping his plate clean, then moved off into the shadows.
Alec spent a fruitless couple of hours questioning the village men. None of them admitted to knowing where Douglas’ headquarters were, except that it was west of their valley. For years they had been sending grain over the western road in exchange for protection.
They spoke seriously and politely. They shared the wine from several jugs together. They would reveal nothing. They spoke of Alec’s father as “the Douglas,” like “the Lord.”
“You can see,” Alec said, being careful to allow a long time between sips of wine, “that he isn’t keeping his end of the bargain. Where is your protection?”
“It will come,” one of the elders said sullenly.
“Protection should protect,” Alec countered, “not revenge. My men could have burned your village, raped your women, murdered all of you.”
“Ahhh...” said the old man who had been napping by the gate. “The Douglas knew that you were no ordinary raiding band.”
“What?”
“He told us weeks ago that his son might pass this way.”
“Shut up, you old fool!” a younger man snapped.
But Alec waved him down. “Douglas came here and warned you that his son might raid your village?”
The old man looked troubled now, uncertain. “Eh... it was something like that... perhaps I’ve got it wrong... I forget a lot nowadays...”
So he’s expecting us, Alec thought.
They changed the subject, or tried to. Alec steered it back to the location of Douglas’s headquarters. Jameson joined the circle around the fire, but still the villagers would admit nothing. Finally Alec bade them goodnight; they got up and returned to their huts.
Watching them drift into the darkness, Jameson murmured, “Be easier to guard them if we packed them all into one or two huts.”
“Let them sleep in their own beds,” Alec said. “We have their weapons, and they don’t want any trouble.”
Shrugging, Jameson said, “They didn’t tell you much, did they?”
“Not much,” Alec admitted.
“We have the wagon crew. They know where Douglas’ headquarters is.”
“Yes.”
“And they know that we know. A little persuasion would open them up.”
Alec said nothing.
“I could... um, talk with them. The two men, that is. I wouldn’t bother the girl.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Alec said. “Maybe I can convince her...” He let the thought trail off.
