Messiahs by Matt Rogers (bookstand for reading txt) 📕

glimpse of an unarmed woman in a peach-coloured farm dress.

It rattled him more than if it had been an armed hostile.

He gestured to King, who flipped the bedside lamp on. In the timid glow, Slater mouthed, ‘It’s her. She’s unarmed.’

He watched King mask a shiver and lower the Mossberg to the other side of the bed. They were both fully dressed, anticipating an ambush by one of the many parties they’d pissed off in Gillette, so Slater opened the door right away.

In character, he said, ‘Do you know what the fucking time is? Who are you?’

Maeve was like a robot wearing human skin. She smiled through the insult, not fazed in the slightest. ‘That’s not how you should talk to a potential employer.’

‘What?’

‘I have a job offer for you,’ she said. ‘It’s incredibly lucrative. I suggest you hear me out. If not, I’ll walk away and you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what might have been. Your call.’

She was good.

He pretended to think about it, then said, ‘What’s the offer?’

‘You expect me to deliver it to you out here?’

‘That’d be preferable,’ he said. ‘I need my beauty sleep.’

‘No you don’t, dear,’ she said. ‘You’re a specimen. Those eyes…’

She winked at him.

She was good.

He lowered his guard and stepped aside. ‘Come on in, then.’

He opened the door wide and she sauntered through, where King sat on the bed he’d already made. He looked up, his hair tousled and shaped by the pillow. ‘What is this?’

She said, ‘I have a job offer for—’

‘I have ears. You think I didn’t hear that?’

She smirked. ‘You two are a sight to behold, aren’t you? Look at you both.’

King didn’t react. It was the first time he’d laid eyes on Maeve Riordan, and he understood the appeal. She had flawless features for a woman in her late thirties, and under the dress her curves were voluptuous. It no doubt added to the mythical temptation, and would help convince her followers she was Gaia reincarnated.

You couldn’t sway people effortlessly unless you were beautiful.

Something she clearly understood, judging by how her face lit up when she looked at them.

Slater said, ‘Answers, please.’

She said, ‘This job, if it’s right for you, will make you richer than you can ever believe. Think of it as paramilitary work for a wealthy benefactor.’

‘Paramilitary?’ Slater said, eyebrows arched. ‘You run a militia, do you? You look like you run a stable.’

The tightrope he had to walk was thin. If he was too eager, Maeve would see right through it, and back at the commune Alexis and Violetta would be in dire jeopardy. But if he was too standoffish and ended up insulting this woman who thought she could bend every man, woman and child to serve her … well, she might become enraged.

She maintained her composure. ‘One of us has to get to the chase, don’t we? Otherwise we’ll be going around in circles all night, teasing each other.’ She glanced at King. ‘Actually, I might like that…’

She was doing everything right. If they were testosterone-fuelled ex-soldiers like she thought they were, they’d bite at her flirtations.

So King did.

He pushed his hair off his forehead with one hand and said, ‘Maybe we should get that out of the way first, then. What were your words? “You’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what might have been.”’

She thought she had him in the palm of her hand. She smiled. ‘Not just yet, darling.’

She turned back to Slater. ‘So?’

He said, ‘Go ahead. We’re all ears.’

She said, ‘Do you hate your country?’

Silence.

44

Slater said, ‘Interesting way to start.’

‘You haven’t answered the question.’

‘There’s no easy answer.’

‘Are you angry about what they made you do overseas?’

Slater hesitated. Then said, ‘Maybe. How’d you know we were overseas?’

‘You stirred up your fair share of trouble in town,’ Maeve said. ‘One of you mentioned that you served. Gossip made its way to my ears. I consider myself somewhat switched on, so I put two and two together. I see a pair of disgruntled veterans furious about the state of the world, taking it out on the small-time criminals here in Gillette. Am I far off the mark?’

‘“Disgruntled” could be construed as an insult,’ King said.

She scoffed. ‘Spare me the sob story. You want to know what I know?’

‘What’s that?’ Slater said.

She said, ‘I know what you two are truly capable of. Given the right motivation, I know what you could accomplish. And all it’ll take is stepping away from this ridiculous illusion we call civilisation.’

She left it there, allowing their imaginations to run wild in the ensuing quiet.

King said, ‘Sounds extreme. What if we’re not interested?’

She shrugged. ‘Not my problem. I’m simply here to show you a path. It’s your choice to walk down it or not. And I can see, plain as day, that you are men of extremes. So this offer is perfect for you.’

She’s good, Slater thought again.

He said, ‘What’s the path? What’s the offer?’

‘I lead a movement in Thunder Basin, away from society. It’s grown faster than I ever could have imagined, and we’re onto something. We’ve stumbled upon solutions to humanity’s problems, and we’re gaining new members faster than we can handle. That comes with a smorgasbord of security issues. The powers that be are going to have a vested interest in oppressing us, but I’m ready to tell them to stick their concerns where the sun don’t shine. To do that I need muscle. I need men that know their way around confrontation.’

‘A “movement”?’ King said.

‘I’m not here to sell you on our beliefs,’ Maeve said. ‘I respect you both, so I won’t pitch it to you right away. I’m simply here to offer you jobs, independent of the movement. But at the same time I know eventually you’ll see how beautiful our message is. One step at a time, my dear.’

Slater said, ‘What sort of work will it involve? I don’t want to get there and find out you’re going up against the police and the military.’

‘Do you think I’m stupid?’

‘I