A Fistful of Trouble (Outlaws of the Galaxy Book 2) by Paul Tomlinson (free ebook reader for iphone .TXT) 📕

case the enemy tried a sneak attack. I stood at another of the room’s windows and peered through the glass.

“The Colonel’s got his men checking their weapons,” I said. “I think he’s trying to distract them.”

Floyd nodded. He was seeing exactly what I was seeing. He also knew that I needed to talk at moments like this.

“The waiting is the hardest part,” I said. Actually, being shot with a large-calibre bullet was probably a lot worse, but you didn’t have a lot of time to worry about it beforehand.

“Two men sneaking up on the east side,” Floyd said. “Another two circling around to the west.”

“I’ll take west,” I said.

“It’s that way.” Floyd pointed.

“I knew that.”

I crossed the entrance hall and entered the largest of the rooms on the west side. There was a big sash window in its western wall. I pushed it open and looked out. I could see the two men hiding in a bush about ten feet away. I looked around the room and selected a big china vase. I threw it overarm. It smashed somewhere close to the men, startling them.

“That could have been a grenade!” I shouted.

One of the men waved and gave me a thumbs-up. He and his comrade ran doubled-over, back the way they’d come.

Floyd leaned out of a window in the east wall. Just the sight of him was enough to cause the two men there to flee.

Floyd and I closed our respective windows and made our way back into the reception room. We stood by the same window looking out at the assembled army that surrounded the house. The robots weren’t making much effort to hide and even some of the people were visible. I didn’t like that they felt so confident. At any moment, the Colonel could give the order to attack.

“The Colonel has ordered the robots to move closer to the house,” Floyd said.

“I can’t see him, where is he?”

“He took one of the robots and went back to his vehicle,” he said.

“He’s up to something.”

“We have to remember that this is his house,” Floyd said. “He knows it and the landscape around it better than we do.”

“We know enough,” I said.

I looked down at my watch screen, hoping to see a message from Harmony. Nothing. I sent her another ‘Where are you?’ but there was no indication that she’d seen it.

“I don’t like this,” I said. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“There’s one to the left of the stairs in the entrance hall,” Floyd said. As I jogged away, he called after me. “The other left!”

When I got back, Floyd reported that the situation was unchanged.

“You know what we should do when we get out of here?” I said.

“Quit while we’re ahead?”

“No. We need money. I’ve got a great idea.”

“I’m not sure I want to know,” Floyd said.

“Wait until you hear it.”

“It was one of your ‘great ideas’ that got us into this.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“Good.”

“Camel racing.”

Floyd just turned his head and looked at me.

“Over in Sherwood county, they race camels.”

“You’d never run fast enough to beat one,” Floyd said.

“You ride them.”

Floyd looked down at himself. “Do they make camels this big?”

“Okay, not you. But I could ride one.”

“Don’t you need money to buy one?”

“Yes, but...”

“You’re not auctioning me off again. Ever.”

“If the positions were reversed...”

“We wouldn’t get enough to buy a camel,” he said. “Unless I turned you in for the bounty.”

“We’re not doing that.”

Floyd looked out of the window again. “Still no sign of Harmony.”

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” I said.

“You think?”

A message pinged on my watch screen. It wasn’t from Harmony.

“Danny has spotted the Colonel’s vehicle,” I said.

“Near the hill with the trees on?” Floyd asked.

“Yeah. He’s a sneaky one, isn’t he?”

If you build yourself a mansion house and an underground bunker, it stands to reason that you’re going to get yourself a secret underground tunnel. Maybe more than one. Harmony had accessed the original blueprints for the house but the tunnels weren’t shown. But if you point the right sort of sensors at the ground, tunnels show up like giant neon worms.

The Colonel had a whole network of them, some large enough to walk in and some you’d have to crawl through. Two of them linked the house and the demolished bunker, which meant they now went nowhere. Other tunnels led to underground storage spaces that were probably filled with all the stuff survivalists usually stockpile – dried food, barbed wire, ammunition, crates of old porn magazines, whatever. But of most interest to me had been an escape tunnel that snaked off to a hidden exit on a tree-covered hill about a mile from the house.

When we were sitting around planning our campaign, I had no idea if Colonel Hodge would enter the tunnel himself or whether he’d send some armed mercenaries or robots. I just knew we needed to be prepared for a sneak attack. Danny had rigged sensors that would alert us if anyone entered the tunnel and Harmony had tapped into the Colonel’s own security cameras to let us see who was coming.

The alarm was now chiming and I was able to call up images from the cameras on my watch screen. I wasn’t surprised that it was just the Colonel and one of his new robots striding along the tunnel. When you have a secret tunnel, you tend to keep it secret. Even from your own people. The Colonel was assuming that he’d soon be back in control of his home and wanted to preserve its mysteries. I admired his optimism. I’m sure there was an element of egotism involved too. He wanted to see my face when I realised that he had out-smarted me. And I’m sure he wanted to have the pleasure of shooting me himself.

While the Colonel was sneaking up on us, the soldiers out front didn’t seem to be doing very much at all.

“It’s very quiet out there,” I said.

I think they were waiting to see what we’d do next. I was waiting for that myself. I looked