The Best of Penny Dread Tales (23 page)

I smiled to myself, rocking back and forth with my nag’s movement, enjoying the silence with the stranger. Since neither of us had spoken yet, we could still enjoy each other’s company and not fret the accounting that was most likely coming. Despite being in the lowlands, we were still surrounded by dense green foliage and a beautiful day, though ’twas coming close to evening. I figured we’d roll into Khon Kaen proper around dusk. After that it should be easy enough to track Tiger down, since Khon Kaen City was more a collection of small villages than a proper city.

My travelling companion grunted, pulling some dried meat out of his saddlebags whilst slowing down. I nodded in return, slowing with him, and pulled some bread, cheese, and a skin of tea out. We stopped and dismounted for about twenty minutes or so, sharing our foodstuffs in silence.

Once we had packed up and were getting ready to ride back out, the tall fella looked at me thoughtfully then grunted. “Inazuma.”

I chewed on that for a moment then nodded. “Hummingbird.” What with that out of the way, we both mounted back up and rode out towards Khon Kaen.

Afternoon passed into dusk, and purples and pinks started to lace the sky, with the sun still a half a hand or so over the horizon. We rode into Khon Kaen and immediately noticed something wrong. The streets were empty, dust and leaves blowing gently in the wind. Silence like a graveyard stretched across the town. I glanced at Inazuma. He was warily scanning the streets and empty windows as we rode forward, looking for some sign of life where there weren’t none to be found.

I clicked my tongue, slowing my nag from a slow walk to a complete stop. Inazuma stopped next to me, and I pointed down the long main street to the town center, a couple hundred yards away. There were about twelve bodies, each nailed down to an X made of two crossed pieces of wood. I recognized four of them as other bounty hunters that worked my neck of the woods back in Guangzhou.

I dismounted, tethering my nag to a post in front of the building next to me, and let my left hand hover over my pistol while Inazuma dismounted. It didn’t need saying between us that we were allies now, at least until we managed to get out of there in one piece with the bounty. The eerie silence was growing heavier as the sun finally touched the horizon, splashing the village in reds and oranges.

I glanced at Inazuma as he finished tying off his horse and cocked my head towards the center of town. Whatever the hell Tiger had done to this place, ’twas time to go find him and figure out what was going on. Inazuma grabbed the sheath of his katana with his left hand and let his right hand hover over the handle, much the same way I did with my Colt.

We ghosted down the red streets of the dead town, careful to stick close to the buildings till we got to the center of town. I started checking side streets to the left, making sure we were clear, while my new friend did the same to the right. There weren’t a trace of anyone or anything here. What the hell?

I glanced back around and realized that Inazuma was staring at the furthest hanging man from me. He shook his head and sighed. That’d be the second most noise either of us had made this afternoon. I couldn’t see the man he was looking at, since his back was to me, so I walked over to stand beside Inazuma and get a better look.

Oh, hell. There was Tiger, all trussed up. He had managed to get himself dead by the looks of it. I couldn’t see any obvious reason for his death, but his chest was completely still, without the slight motion of someone trying to hide breathing. So, he was real dead. I sighed and pulled the wanted page out of my pocket. Always best to double check. A quick double check showed me that the man in front me was the same as the crude drawing on the page. Damn it. He was worth two hundred dead, rather than two thousand alive.

I nudged Inazuma with my elbow while staring at the corpse. “Two hundred pesos dead for me. You?”

He pulled a similar sheet from his kimono and glanced down at it. “Two fifty in Tokyo. Extra travel not worth it. We bring to Guangzhou. Step back.”

I obliged the man, giving him a bit of space. Eighty pesos for two days work, after travel expenses, was some handsome wages. Even though I had been looking for two thousand, I weren’t gonna spit on the eighty. Inazuma drew his sword damn near as fast as I draw my Colt, slashed the four bindings holding Tiger’s body up, and resheathed in one motion. Damn. The man had style. Tiger’s limp form slid to the ground.

He motioned for me to carry the body and started scanning the area. My hackles went up at the same moment. Something was watching us. “Not yet. I feel it too.”

I glanced briefly at him as another thought occurred to me. “Besides, when we do take him, ain’t gonna be me lifting. He’s gotta outweigh me by a hundred and change.” ’Twas true too. Tiger was about six feet and looked like he weighed upwards of two hundred and fifty pounds. All muscle and plenty of it.

Inazuma nodded. “Fair, gaijin.” He was interrupted by the ground shaking. ’Twas one good rattling, like one of them giant Buddha statues had just taken a step nearby. Then there was a second tremor, but this time with a huge thud sound that seemed to come from all directions at once. Then another, and another.

I desperately scanned the surroundings, but there was nothing to be seen out there. I could feel it in the ground’s shaking though, so I opted to go with feeling. I took a slow, deep breath, closing my eyes, and extending my senses into the ground. As my thoughts cleared, everything slowed and I could feel it. The tremors were coming from about a hundred very heavy footsteps all in tandem. What was worse, we were surrounded.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Whatever they were, I could feel them getting closer. I opened my eyes back up, standing up straight. “Get ready, Inazuma. They’re gonna be visible soon.”

He nodded, getting into his fighting stance. One foot slid back, angled outwards from his body while the other stayed in front of his mass. Both knees bent as he centered his weight, and his right hand crossed in front of his body to hover over his Katana handle. His head dropped and he tilted it to the side. I was impressed—he looked ready for business.

I got into my fighting stance too. I leaned casually against the recently emptied X that’d held Tiger and started cleaning out the gunk under my nails. Some might say that it’s a bit of a cocky stance, but I’ve found that action flows stronger from a relaxed body than a tense one. My tai chi lessons taught me that.

We were both ready for a fight, but I don’t think either of us was ready for what came around the corners and flooded the area around us. Clockwork men, monstrosities of brass and steel with steam whistling out of their joints, surrounded us. A clean hundred. They clomped to a stop a dozen yards away, poised with their fists in front of them, level with the foreheads of their featureless faces. Each of them was balanced on one foot, with their other leg pulled up in front of them.

Now, I’ve only been to Siam a couple times, but I recognize the pose they were in. Muay Thai is a vicious sport, and one of the bloodiest fighting forms I’ve ever seen. “Well. Ain’t this gonna be fun. You wanna do this fifty each?”

Inazuma laughed, the first emotion I’d heard in his voice. “Tiny gunfighter, but big heart. Bullets will be a waste though. You have a blade?”

I shook my head. “Naw. Don’t reckon as I need one.” I pulled the leather gloves I was wearing off, exposing the dragon scale steel on my mechanical arm. Adjusting the brim of my Stetson, I watched the mechanical men. “Whaddya suppose they’re waiting for?”

Inazuma tilted his head to the other side. “I wonder … let us try experiment.” He cleared his throat and spoke loudly. “We take Tiger now.”

The Automatons all took a step forward together.

I glanced around in surprise. “Well ain’t that interesting? Maybe third time is the charm. You grab Tiger, I’ll clear a hole.”

Sure enough, three mentions of moving Tiger was the magic number. The automatons charged forward at us, the closer ones running and the further ones flipping through the air. I launched myself to intercept the ones closest to me. As I closed with the first one, a snap kick came barreling towards my head. These suckers moved fast, but I was in the calm zone, and they weren’t half as fast as me.

I let my body flow in a circular motion, catching the kick with my metal hand and twisting. The leg ripped off at the hip seam, cogs flying everywhere. I let it drop to the ground as I finished the circle, bringing my hand up in a slicing motion that tore through its body. As the torso came apart, I realized what was about to happen just in time to roll to the side, landing on my back. Whatever steam engine drove these things, I had shattered it. The thing exploded, taking out two more of the mechanical fighters.

A metal foot stomped down, narrowly missing my head, and I came up at the thing’s groin, using my metal arm to shred it. Three seconds or so had passed, and I already had a second to take stock. Glancing over, I saw that Inazuma was keeping up with me, elegantly sliding through the bodies pressed around him, that katana flashing like lightning as it arced back and forth. Oops! Shouldn’t have stopped to gawk, he was two up on me now. I grinned and got back into the fight, launching myself forward at the next group.

I took a kick on my fleshy side, tucking into it to try to absorb the blow. It still hurt a bit, but it bought me a second to drive my right hand into the mechanical fighter’s chest. I jerked my arm as hard as I could, flinging the automaton over me into a pack of four more of them, right as it exploded. An elbow caught me across the chin, and I felt the skin part. Letting the force of it move my body instead of resisting, I flipped through the air, catching another fighter’s head and twisting as I landed. It came right off, and I tossed it to the side, turning back to my previous assailant.

A kick hit me square in the center of my back. As I flew forward, my gut landed right on the knee of the one in front of me, and I realized that the heads on my opponents were just for ornamentation. Didn’t matter that I had taken off the head of the one behind me, the machine had still put one right into me. The fighters were all controlled by whatever that engine in their guts was. An elbow came down into my spine, and as I watched my Stetson bounce onto the ground. I decided that I’d had just about enough of these things.

I rolled off the thing’s knee where I was bent over like a child ready to receive a spanking, spinning on the ground as I twisted my way back up to my feet. Imagining an invisible ball between my hands, I spun it around as the rest of my body moved. My fighting buddy ducked briefly into my fight while I was recentering, and his katana slashed through the mechanical body in front of me. Inazuma spun back away from me, having dispatched the immediate threat.

Everything slowed further, until ’twas almost comical looking. I shook my shoulders, bouncing from foot to foot, then cracked my neck a bit to loosen up. My fists came up into a loose boxer’s stance, and I watched the horde of fighters coming towards me. This is where I earned my name, time and again, in the zone where the whole world but me was moving nice and slow.

My fists flashed as automaton after automaton tried to swarm me. They flipped through the air towards me, metal feet, elbows, knees, and you name it all trying to smash into me. I floated through it all, impersonating my namesake, flashing from automaton to automaton like a hummingbird darting between flowers for nectar. Torso after torso was ripped to shreds under the lightning fast hammering of my right fist, while my left hand deflected the incoming blows and my body moved on its own in a liquid dance of avoidance.

The whole fight was done afore the sun had finished setting, leaving piles of metal and cogs strewn about the town square.

I bounced from left to right again and let my fists fall open at my sides, shaking my hands. Time sped back up, and I retrieved my Stetson. I brushed some dust off it and looked up to Inazuma, grinning. “Fifty one.”

He nodded and sheathed his sword. “I am impressed. Unarmed and you still destroyed them faster than I.”

I flashed a cocky grin. “I figure that there ain’t much difference between fifty one and forty nine. Though I did pause for a break …” He looked around the square, taking in the hanging bodies and destroyed clockwork army. His gaze finally lit on the prone form of Tiger. “You figure it out too?” He asked me.

“Ayup.” I walked over to Tiger and planted a foot squarely in his ribs.

He grunted in pain and curled up to protect his ribs, hallow eyes staring at me.

“Nice little game friend. But it’s done.” I pulled out the wanted page, studying it. Something was bugging me. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and on instinct I pulled my Colt and shot twice. The first shot took the Peacemaker right out of Inazuma’s hand as he pulled the trigger, making his shot go wide. The second shot took the head off the prone Tiger, the fake, revealing the mechanical workings inside.

I kept my Colt leveled as he nursed his injured hand. “Just so you know, Tiger, the picture I have coulda’ been either of you.” I held up the wanted page. “It’s hard to see if he is from China or Japan.”

He nodded once. “Very well done.” Now there was a surprise. He sounded British now. “I am a man of honor, believe it or not. I will go peacefully with you. But I will break out again, and we will talk once I do.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Forgive me if I keep the pistol on ya anyway. What the hell is with you sounding like you’re British now?”

He laughed. “Of course you have questions. Shall we head to Canton? I’m eager to escape again, as I have business to finish. I’ll be more than happy to explain on the way, provided I have your word it stays between us alone.”

I agreed, so we packed up and rode out of town, leaving a mass of spare parts behind us. Gettin’ him back was easy enough. He turned out to be good to his word and didn’t try to escape. We spoke a lot on the trip to Guangzhou, and I actually rather liked the fella. We learned a lot about each other, including that the fast, if silent, friendship we had shared on the ride to Khon Kaen was the real deal.