Deathlands 067: Death Hunt by James Axler

Author:James Axler
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0373625774
Publisher: Gold Eagle
Published: 2004-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Nine

Bones fiddled nervously with the screwdriver in his left hand, trying to balance the vid camera in his right while he screwed the battery pack into position. During the time he had spent repairing the old tech he had used the electricity supply that was fuelled by the gas-powered generator Ethan had given him for his sole use. The camera had been damaged during the last hunt, and it had taken the old man some time to get it repaired. Ethan wasn’t the most understanding of men, and so Bones had stalled for time when the baron had asked him if it was ready. He had hoped that he would be able to fix the problem without having to incur Ethan’s wrath by telling him of the delays.

It was a delicate balance: Ethan’s threats and the possibility that he may find punishment before the hunt, against a certain chilling—and possibly a painful one—if it wasn’t fixed by today and the baron discovered this. It was a tightrope that the old man was loath to walk, but just lately Ethan had been getting far too intoxicated by the power and wealth that the hunts and the old tech had brought to him. He was starting to make plans to build an empire. Bones had shown him some old vids that he had taken from a house in the ruined city. Most tape had decayed over the time since skydark, if it hadn’t been eradicated in the nukecaust, but some, hidden in dark corners of old apartment blocks and offices, had survived by fluke.

There were some vids that showed what life was like before the nukecaust. It seemed like a land of milk and honey to the old man, with limitless jack and tech to make life easy and comfortable. But there were some that seemed eerily prophetic of what life was like now, as if ancient seers had made these vids to warn the people of what could happen. In some of them, barons—not called that, but barons all the same—had taken over great tracts of land using that which they had plundered from the past. They ruled with a cruelty and a ferocity that was legend in their time. And they faced enemies like the ones Ethan was using for the hunt. Enemies who would wipe them out and restore a kind of justice.

Ethan used these as a kind of template for what he wanted. He would come with Horse and sit in Bones’s house, watching these vids and telling Horse that this was how it would be.

Bones had no idea what the sec chief thought of this. The dark man stayed impassive, made only the noises that Ethan wanted to hear. Why not? That was exactly what the old man did, as well. It was easier that way; but it became harder as Ethan’s ideas became more and more inflated, like his ego.

What if these people he was using in the hunt were like the ones

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