Wretched Earth by James Axler

Author:James Axler
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781459233836
Publisher: Harlequin

Chapter Seventeen

Reed Wallen stuck close behind the big wedge-shaped back of Brick Finneran, Geither Jacks’s new sec boss to replace Bill Hapgood, recently deceased. His sturdy Savage 110 bolt-action longblaster felt as light as a feather in his hands.

He had been chosen to make history in the ville of Sweetwater Junction this day.

They had infiltrated deep into the northern half of the ville. Enemy territory since the night Reed, like so many of his sec brothers, had joined their beloved leader in an attempt to seize power from the failing baron Jeb before his crazy, corrupt slut of a wife and her weakling son could grab command.

White clouds feathered high across a wintry blue sky. A stiff morning breeze blew a breath of ice from the east. It whistled in the eaves of the brick houses as the ten-man team crept along an alley. It didn’t drown out crowd noises from ahead, or the cawing of the ever-present crows.

Jacks’s team had the enemy streets to themselves. Thinking about why excited Reed all to pieces. He knew where most people of the witch Miranda’s half of the ville were right now, making all that ruction. Same place all the taints that passed for her sec men now would be: in front of the old palace, at a ceremony in which Colton Sharp was being officially invested as heir to the ville.

When the wind shifted briefly Reed could even smell Sweetwater Junction’s signature delicacy: roast prairie dog on a stick, coated in a sweetish dough, deep-frying in grease.

Reed’s stomach rumbled. They’d got no breakfast that morning. Instead, Brick had led off before dawn with his picked team of chillers.

They’d made it without incident across the no-man’s land of the road that ran east-west through the ville. Then they’d holed up in an empty house to wait for the locals to head north to the open space in front of the palace for the show. They knew most of Miranda’s subjects would be there. She had made it triple-clear in official proclamations that not turning up would be taken as evidence of shaky loyalty. Since nobody wanted to have their bones broken with wrecking bars, and then be hung up, still alive, on one of the scaffolds outside town, attendance would be good.

And they had no idea what kind of a show they were in for.

* * *

IT CAME TOGETHER FAST, because Finneran was a real go-getter. He should’ve been Jacks’s main man from the outset, but Hapgood happened to be senior. Reed knew that the sawed-off little shit of an outlander, Dix, had done Jacks a favor by chilling Hapgood.

Reed had been on guard duty in Jacks’s sitting room the previous night when it all went down. Strike for him.

Jacks and his big brass were discussing Miranda’s upcoming ceremony. Finneran was talking up the need to make a decisive move, an offensive move, that could bring it all in one stroke.

The little mercie with the hat and glasses mentioned that the ceremony might look like an opportunity for a chill-shot against Miranda.

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