第55节

I needed someone to talk

to."

Malone favoured him with another twisted smile. 'I've got to hand it

to you, Brickman. Aren't many people around able to survive on their

own the way you have.

Handling animals too. You learn fast."

'I always have."

'I bet..." Malone called Bar to him. The wolf cub ambled forward

wagging his tail playfully. Malone pulled a dried meat twist from the

tucker-bag slung from his waist, snapped a piece off and held it up so

that Bar had to leap for it. 'Tyson teach you to hunt grizz?"

'Yes,' said Steve.

Malone's voice suddenly hardened. 'Hold him!'

Two renegades grabbed Steve and put him in a double arm lock. Malone

grabbed the wolf cub by the neck as it turned back towards Steve and

pulled out his air pistol.

'No!" shouted Steve. But it was too late. As the cry left his lips,

Malone placed the muzzle against the back of the cub's head and put a

bullet through its skull.

'Okay, let him go,' snapped Malone. He lobbed the limp body of Bar

towards him. 'Skin it."

Steve stood there trembling with rage, the dead wolf

cub clutched to his chest. 'You sonofabitch..."

'Save your breath, Brickman. And please, no heroic gestures. You're

in enough trouble already."

Steve drew Naylor's combat knife from the scabbard strapped to his

right calf, threw a murderous look at Malone, then set to work. The

razor sharp blade had been specially worn down to look as if it had

been hand-sharpened on primitive grinding stones. Steve skinned the

cub with a judicious mixture of skill and clumsiness. His instructors

at Rio Lobo had spent hours coaching him on how to act naturally, and

they did not relent until he could perform the whole range of mundane

tasks connected with basic survival with the unaffected ease one would

expect from somebody who had spent more than nine months marooned on

the overground. He peeled the fur from the bloody carcass and threw it

down at Malone's feet.

'Now butcher it,' said Malone imperturbably. 'And when you've done

that, light a fire and cook it for me."

Steve exchanged a look with Jodi Kazan. It was clear he had her

sympathy but she made no move to intercede on his behalf. Given the

real facts of the situation, Malone and the other renegades had every

reason to be suspicious but, by the same token, it meant that AMEXICO's

overground operations were not as secret as Karlstrom might have wished

them to be.

Inserting his knife between the rear legs, Steve slit open the carcass

up to the rib cage and set about removing the intestines, heart and

lungs, wishing, as he did so, that he could ram the whole stinking mess

down Malone's throat.

The threat of any revenge attack by Steve appeared to be the least of

Malone's concerns. He and his men returned to the task of ransacking

the hide. Malone got the pick of what was found, the rest was

distributed to the members of the group according to need.

Yellow-Cap returned with the grave-digging detail and confirmed the

presence of two corpses. Steve busied himself with lighting a fire.

Malone left Steve under guard and went to inspect the bodies.

While he was gone, Jodi gathered up some kindling and brought it over

to Steve. 'Listen, don't do anything stupid. Just hang in there.

It'll all work out."

'Were they this way with you?"

'No, but. the circumstances were a little different.

I wasn't in any shape to argue."

'Okay, okay,' muttered Steve. 'So he's the honcho.

He wants to prove he's a hard man. Point taken. But you told him what

the score was. Why's he giving me such a hard time?"

'I don't know. Could be the radio set."

'It's not mine, Jodi. I swear it. Come on - you know there isn't any

stuff like that aboard the wagon-trains."

'That's true. But since I've been free-basing with these guys I've

discovered there's a lot of things I didn't know about."