Armageddon's Children - Terry Brooks [11]
“Something else?” Hawk stiffened. “What are you talking about, man? That’s a fair trade I’m giving you.”
Tiger looked uneasy. “I mean, something more. I need a couple of packs of pleneten.”
Hawk stared. Pleneten was a heavy-duty drug, effective mostly against plague viruses. No one outside the compounds could get their hands on it unless they happened to stumble on a hidden store. Even then, it usually wasn’t any good because it had to be kept cold or it would break down and lose its curative powers. Unrefrigerated, its shelf life was about ten days. He hadn’t seen any pleneten in all the time he had been a Ghost.
Except once, when Candle caught the red spot, and he’d had no choice but to ask Tessa.
“It’s for Persia,” Tiger said quietly, looking down at his feet. “She has the splatters.”
Red spot. Like Candle. Persia was Tiger’s little sister. The only family he had left. He wouldn’t be asking otherwise. Hawk could sense the surfacing of the other’s desperation, radiating off him like steam leaking through metal plates, white-hot and barely contained. Hawk glanced back at the other Ghosts.
All expected an exchange to take place and would be disgruntled if it didn’t.
The fruit was a treat they had been looking forward to. Some of them would understand, some wouldn’t.
“Make the trade,” Hawk told the other. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Tiger shook his head. “No. I want the pleneten first.”
Hawk glared at him. “It will cost you a lot more if you don’t make the trade now. A lot more.”
“I don’t care. I want Persia well again.”
There was no reasoning with him. But Hawk would lose face if he gave in to what was essentially blackmail.
“Make the trade now,” he said, “and you can have the pleneten for nothing.”
Tiger stared at him. “You serious?”
Hawk nodded, wondering at the same time if he had lost his mind.
“You can get it? You give me your word on it?”
“You know you got my word and you know it’s good. Make the trade or you can forget the whole thing. Find someone else to get you your pleneten.”
Tiger studied him a moment longer, then nodded. “Deal.”
They touched fists, and the deal was done. Both signaled to their followers to bring up the stores, the Cats the boxes of fruit, smaller than Hawk would have liked, but still sufficient, and Candle and River sacks containing the cells and flashlights. The stores were exchanged and their bearers retreated to their respective positions, leaving the leaders alone.
Hawk looked up at the sky. The rain had passed and the clouds were breaking up. It would get hot before long. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at Tiger.
“Came across a Lizard down past the Hammering Man on our way here,” he said. “A big one. It was all torn up. Dying. What do think could have done it?”
Tiger shook his head. “A Lizard? I don’t know. What do you think did it?”
“Something new, something we don’t know about. Something really dangerous.
Better watch your back.”
The bigger boy pulled back the edge of his slicker to reveal a shortbarreled flechette hanging from his belt. “Found it a few weeks back. Let’s see anything get past that.”
Hawk nodded. “I’d be careful anyway, if I was you.”
“Just get me that pleneten,” the other growled, dropping the slicker back into place.
“Tomorrow, same time, same place.”
“I need three days.”
Tiger glared at him. “Maybe Persia doesn’t have three days.”
“Maybe that’s the best that I can do.”
Tiger stared him down a moment longer, then wheeled away to join the other Cats. They slouched off up the street in a tight cluster and didn’t look back.
Hawk watched them until they were out of sight, thinking about the bargain he had just made, wondering how he could justify asking Tessa to risk herself yet again when he knew the danger of doing so.
Chapter THREE
CHENEY WAS CURLED up in one corner of the big common room between the old leather couch and the game table, his massive form most closely resembling a giant fur ball, when Owl rolled her wheelchair through the kitchen door and crossed to the bedroom