James Axler (34 page)

“Come on, lover,” Krysty said gently. “It’s time I saved you.”

The companions regrouped and, with the frightened child prisoners, made their way through the crowd and out of the burning station.

Outside, the sun was just tripping over the horizon in the east, a new dawn breaking.

Ryan leaned heavily against Krysty, but she took the burden with ease and good grace. Her strength had finally returned. “What happened there, in the end?”

Ryan asked, his memory of the final moments a clouded, impenetrable morass.

“The baron’s psyche was transferred into his machinery on death, I think,” Krysty told him, “and the whole process boosted his psionic abilities to a terrifying level.

Don’t ask me how—the guy was wired into his brain transmitter, and I’m damned if I can figure the whole logic of the thing.”

“The heck of it is,” Doc chipped in, “the confounded system actually worked, at the end.”

“For a while,” J.B. added as he herded the children out into the crisp, dawn air. They still wore chains at their wrists, but that was a problem to deal with once they were clear of the baron’s base.

Bringing up the rear, Mildred and a very tired-looking Jak made sure there were no stragglers among the child escapees. Jak had his Colt Python poised, keeping an eye out for anyone who was stupe enough to follow the companions. No one did. They were too busy saving their own skins from the burning building to worry about six outlanders and a handful of children.

“You think that was Burgess’s plan?” Ryan asked.

Krysty shook her head. “He gave up so much to achieve his dream, it was kind of touching when he told me, but he would never have given up his body like that.”

“So where is he now?” Ryan wanted to know.

Krysty took a deep breath, luxuriating in the fresh air as the sun rose in the distance. “He’s gone,” she said with finality. “The sedative was transmitted through the system, just like his alpha waves. When you put him to the final sleep, well, I can’t feel their agony anymore.

They’re all sleeping now.”

There were more than a dozen children with the companions, and many of them were sniffling quietly, tears running down their cheeks and mixing with the dried blood on their faces where they had suffered from the baron’s devastating mental attack. Humblebee, the eight-year-old girl with the lopsided bunches in her hair, tugged at Jak’s sleeve and asked him a question.

Her face looked sad and frightened, but she wasn’t crying, at least. “Will we see Maddie again?” the girl wondered.

Jak shook his head. “Asleep with others,” he told her, trying to sound reassuring. “Won’t come back.”

Humblebee thought about that, her mouth turned down sadly, and then she nodded. “I miss her,” she told him, a confident smile on her lips as she turned back to her ex-cell mates.

“Me, too,” Jak solemnly agreed, scanning the horizon. Loping along, the albino youth parted from the group and pointed to a small shack on the outskirts of the old military compound. “Stables,” he told them.

He was right. As Ryan and the others looked, they saw several riders mount up and head toward the mountain paths to the north.

J.B. spoke up as the companions and the children made their way across the scarred landscape toward the low buildings. “Reckon they take orphans at Fairburn?”

He indicated the children.

Doc smiled, thrusting his walking stick forward to keep his balance over the uneven terrain. “It seemed like a nice enough ville, so I should think that they will,” he suggested. “Perhaps even help some of these lost souls find their rightful families.”

“But not Maddie,” Jak growled, thinking of the poor girl who had shown such courage throughout the ordeal.

Ryan turned back to address his companions. “Then let’s head back to the redoubt in Minot, swing by Fairburn and make us a few apologies while we’re there, see if they have people who will take these kids in.”

Together, the companions each secured a steed and, with the children sharing two or three to a horse, made their way across the plain and away from the wrecked military base at Grand Forks. North Dakota, they agreed, was a hell of a place to visit.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-3 4

9 9-8

ALPHA WAVE

Copyright © 2009 by Worldwide Library.

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