第14节

Hannah shut the door behind them.

As they went down the stairs, there were a million questions buzzing

around in Steve's head. It had been a shattering experience. His legs

were like jelly but he tried to sound casual. 'That was quite a stunt

you pulled back there. I'm impressed."

Roz, two steps below him, glanced back and smiled.

'This is just the beginning."

The smile was the smile he had always known, but the look in her eyes

belonged to a stranger. And there was something else. He had done all

the talking while she listened, but for most of the time he had been

nothing more than a mouth-piece. Roz had put the words into his

head.

There are forces at work here I don't understand, thought Steve. And

for the first time in his life he felt frightened of his kin

sister...

CHAPTER THREE

Cadillac stirred as the effect of the sleeping-pills began to wear

off.

Griff, the breaker who had been guarding the smooth-boned Mute, stood

up as Malone approached.

'Another five or ten minutes and he should be on his feet."

'Good. Get saddled up. I want to make the most of this moonlight."

'If it's okay with you, I'd prefer to walk and just use it to carry my

gear."

'I don't give a lump's ass for what you prefer,' snarled Malone.

'You'll get on that fuckin' horse and learn to ride like the rest of

us!" 'Wilco!" Griff stepped back out of range of Malone's fists and

feet then ran towards the line of tethered horses they'd inherited from

a strange trio of travelling Mutes.

These three, who had come out of the east, didn't act like your normal

run-of-the-mill lump-head. In fact, to judge by the amount of time

Malone had spent talking to them before the air strike, they were

something extra-special.

Griffs curiosity about the matter ended there. Malone was one tough

hombre, and if, for some reason, he'd decided to cosy up to a bunch of

Mutes then that was strictly his business. The guy knew what he was

doing and anyone who poked his nose where it wasn't wanted got a short,

sharp lesson he never forgot. Any breaker foolish enough to forget the

first lesson, didn't survive the second.

Like most breakers, Griff didn't like Mutes but he'd learned to live

alongside them. And provided you didn't kill 'em. they left you

pretty much alone. The clans preferred you to stay off their turf but

if you went on through their boundary markers and were challenged by a

posse of warriors you could usually buy 'em off by giving them a few

bits of junk to hang on themselves. And if you handed over any

crossbow bolts you'd found - because they did sometimes miss when out

hunting - then you really made their day.

The bolts, like the crossbows that fired them, were highly-prized items

made by a bunch of ginks over in the east. Mutes even traded their own

people to get hold of them, so a handful of free bolts was a big

bonus.

They'd start laughing and leaping around, shouting and crowing.

But in amongst all the jibber-jabbering, they used real words, strung

together - and which made sense.

That had been his biggest surprise on encountering Mutes during his

first tour of duty as a service engineer in a Kansas work camp. And

ever since becoming a breaker - the moment when he'd been obliged to

treat Mutes as equals and not as sullen slaves- Griff had been

constantly amazed to discover how normal they were. Okay, they had

lumpy skulls and multi-coloured hides, but they were like Trackers in

so many ways. Griff could never figure out how they could act the way

they did and yet not be human beings. It was a real mystery.

This trio Who'd come riding out of the east at the head of a whole

bunch of horses was a good example. They spoke regular Basic and their

brains were as sharp as a knife. And if you stripped away the dark to

light brown patches on