第56节

its presence pierce the core of his

being, Steve had found it increasingly difficult to hold his tongue.

He had even pushed his luck with the President-General.

Well, his luck had finally run out. KarlstrOm had warned him that

renegade groups had become extremely cautious about picking up stray

Trackers. They had good reason to be. Like all graduates from Rio

Lobo, Steve had been well-prepared for such an encounter. His

knowledge of the area was encyclopaedic, his appearance could not be

faulted, his cover story was watertight, and the two carefully-planted

corpses were conclusive evidence that every word of it was true. Even

the radio had been part of the carefully rehearsed scenario.

Running into Jodi Kazan had been an unexpected bonus. Her word alone

should have been enough to allay any doubts about his story. But, for

some reason, her companions seemed reluctant to believe her. Indeed,

in Malone's case, his suspicions bordered on paranoia. The only way to

satisfy him would be to admit the truth of his accusation. Not a good

move. Given the renegade leader's simmering hatred of the Federation,

it would be a graveside confession. He just had to hang tough and take

whatever nastiness Malone was preparing to hand out.

When the earth had been stamped flat leaving four feet of post sticking

in the air, Steve was hustled over and forced to kneel with his back to

it and with a leg on either side. He was then pulled tight against the

post by ropes that went around his waist, chest and neck. Steve

wondered why his hands had been left free. The full horror of what lay

in store soon became apparent. The week-old corpse of the cee-bee that

Steve had shot and buried was dragged over and manhandled into a

kneeling position facing Steve. Two renegades grabbed Steve's wrists,

pulled his arms around the corpse and bound his wrists tightly

together.

Steve pulled his head away from the grey, dirt-streaked face of the

dead cee-bee and tried to avoid looking into the gaping eye sockets.

'Hey, guys,' he croaked through swollen jaws. 'What is this? Come on,

give me a break."

Yellow-Cap leaned towards him. 'Friend, if you want to do yourself a

favour, tell the man what he wants to hear."

'I already told you! I been out here since I powered down over

Wyoming! It's Tyson and this guy who are the Feds!" 'You may be

right,' admitted Yellow-Cap. 'So why are you doing this to me?"

'We're just trying to get to the bottom line, Brickman.

You claim you shot this guy -' 'That's right ' 'Yeah... but which one

of you got off the plane?"

'He did I' 'So you say - but can you prove it?"

'Christo! What d'you want - a videogram from the P-G?! I know this

area like the back of my hand. I got traps out everywhere. I can take

you back to where I stashed what was left of Blue-Bird -' Yellow-Cap

cut him short. 'If you wanted to get back home why didn't you use

Tyson's radio?"

'I thought it was broken. I didn't know how to fix it." yellow-Cap

responded with a sardonic smile. 'Come on, you can do better than

that. You're a wingman. You people are supposed to be sharp."

'We are. That's why I didn't try to call anybody. There was no

point.

Tyson had already screwed my chances of getting back home."

'Yeah, well, we only have your word for that."

'What was I supposed to do? Work my ass off keeping both of 'em alive

until you guys decided to drop by?"

Yellow-Cap nodded. 'Good point. Maybe you are a genuine drop-out.

You just can't tell these days. For all you know we might be

undercover Feds ourselves." He grinned. 'That would be a real joke,

wouldn't it?"

'Yeah, terrific,' said Steve sourly. 'I always wanted to meet one."

The two renegades who were securing the ropes pulled the corpse's arms

over Steve's shoulders and tied them around the post. Yellow-Cap

checked the bindings to make sure Steve could not wriggle out of the

grisly embrace then undid the straps holding the combat knife to

Steve's calf. 'Guess you won't be needing this..."

Steve watched them all walk away with a mixture of despair and