CHAPTER 20
The
separation of efforts quickly escalated.
Each dug at his own site and processed his own ore apart from the
others. Over time, it became apparent
that October’s site was paying off more than Tibbs’, who eyed October’s growing
pile of canisters suspiciously, comparing it to his own. Then when October
added his to Jake’s, Tibbs’ paranoia increased exponentially.
Tibbs began burying his canisters
somewhere outside of the camp. Each time
he filled another canister he took it out and slid it into a hole under a rock.
One night they were sitting around
the fire eating their rations. Tibbs looked with disgust at the packet of
mystery meat. “I can’t eat this crap any longer,” he griped.
Jake squeezed compressed meat
substitute out of tube. “I’ll pass your comments along to the chef,” he said.
“One of us could go for fresh
provisions,” October suggested.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you,”
Tibbs said accusingly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jake said.
“He knows,” Tibbs said jerking his
thumb toward October.
“What are you talking about, Tibbs?”
October said.
“I’ve seen you watching me.”
“What,” October said flabbergasted.
“You want to know where my ore’s
hid, don’t you.”
“You’re paranoid.”
“If you haven’t noticed, October is
out digging both of us,” Jake said. “Why
would he care about your share?”
“He’s a greedy old son of a bitch,
that’s why! What do we really know about
him, anyway? Maybe he makes a habit of
talking guys like us to help him find ore then he comes back alone.”
“You’re not paranoid; you’re crazy,”
October said.
“Crazy like a fox,” Tibbs said
slyly. “You ain’t never going to find my
share. I got it stashed where no one can
find it.”
October nodded to their right. “Oh,
you mean in the abandoned tusker hole under that flat rock,” he said.
Tibbs was incredulous.
“You keep sticking your hand in
that hole, you’re gonna get tusker bit, and there ain’t no antidote,” October
said as he bit off a chunk of jerk meat and chewed.
“You’ve been spying on me!” Tibbs
screamed as he threw his food in fire. “I knew you were up to something.”
Jake’s attention shifted as he
heard something in the distance. “What’s that?” he said.
There was the sound of clinking metal
on metal some distance from their camp.
They looked out over the valley below them and could see several figures
moving in their direction. Jake took a pair of binoculars from his pack,
focusing.
Eight men and a woman struggled
across the rock-strewn valley. Four of the men and the woman had a thick
leather collars around their necks and they were tethered together by a heavy rope. Two children walked beside the woman, holding
her hands. They looked starved and badly
beaten.
By their tattered clothing on the
four armed men Jake knew they were escapees from the penal colony. The four convicts
jostled their prisoners forward. He
shifted his view forward and refocused on a fifth figure. Jake thought it was the
ugliest, tallest, most gruesome creature in the galaxy.
“The one leading is Amasunto,” he
said as he lowered the binoculars.
“We’re dead if he spots us,” Tibbs
lamented.
At well over ten-feet tall, with long,
hairy, muscular arms that hung nearly to the ground, and a massive head
resembling a cross between a reptile and a wolf, Amasunto carried an assortment
of weapons, ranging from a five-foot, curved scimitar to a laser-guided rifle,
pistols, and a bandoleer of grenades.
Jake handed the binoculars to
October. “Anybody you know down there?” he asked as October peered through the
binoculars.
October studied the male prisoners.
He stopped when he saw the woman and children. He was stunned and turned to
Jake.
“We’ve got to help them,” he said
desperately.
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Tibbs jumped
in. “We don’t have to do anything. They might move on.”
“Is that your daughter and grandkids?”
Jake asked October who could only nod.
Tibbs looked over the rock ledge,
then back at Jake and October. “That isn’t my problem,” he said.
“No, it’s my problem,” October
said.
“I don’t think we should—”
“You in or out, Tibbs?” Jake
interrupted.
“This ain’t Mars, and you’re not in
SpecOps any more, Lane,” Tibbs challenged.
“I’m not about to go charging down there with you to be some kind of
hero.”
“Who said anything about charging?”
Tibbs looked uncomfortably at Jake
and October.
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