Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [102]
Hella tracked the potential forward progress of the group. Depending on the relative speeds of the unknown pack and of the expedition, one or the other would intersect. “One of them is going to cut the trail of the other. If the expedition gets there second, Riley will see someone else has been there and put his team on high alert. That’s not a big deal.”
“But if the new arrivals are highwaymen, they’ll read the tracks as a possible target.” Stampede growled in the back of his throat.
“That might work out for us. They won’t be able to take the expedition all at once, so maybe we can use the distraction to get to the fractoids.”
Stampede snorted. “You say that like that wouldn’t also be an invitation to get shot dead by one side or the other.”
Hella couldn’t refute that.
Hours later, the unknown group, which had been making faster progress than the expedition, pulled up and settled in. The dust tattoo they’d left in the air vanished.
Hella studied the area through the binocs and grew frustrated with the thick forest that covered the group. She wasn’t able to see the expedition either, but Pardot and Riley were known quantities.
“Do you think they’re camping for the night?”
“Got an hour of sunlight left.” Stampede stood beside her with his telescope to his eye. “Would you stop to camp?”
“Depends on whether I was where I wanted to be.”
“How far do you think the expedition is from those people?”
Turning her binocs back to the expedition, which would come within a half klick of the unknown group’s position, Hella estimated the distance, the rate of speed, then the travel time. “Half hour.”
“Plenty of time for them to set up.” Stampede snorted in disgust. “I’d say they’re exactly where they want to be.”
“Do you think Riley or his scouts know they’re running into a trap?”
“They haven’t altered course or slowed down. What do you think?”
Hella didn’t bother to answer.
“Well, now. Who’s ambushing who?”
“What?”
“Look to the west. Up in the clouds. You have to be careful looking into the setting sun.”
Gingerly, Hella shifted the binocs and scoured the sky. She caught a couple of bright spots that made her eyes sting then she spotted what Stampede had seen.
Two zeppelins—no mistaking those cigar shapes—caught the sun and almost blended in as they sailed through the sky. Large fans on the tail assemblies and on the sides powered the aircraft.
CHAPTER 27
Hella stood frozen in wonderment. She’d read about the aircraft before and been fascinated, but she’d never before seen one. She’d heard they still existed, but no one in the Redblight used them, and no one had ever brought one there before that she knew about. Zeppelins were expensive to build and to operate, and unless whoever owned them had a secure place to keep them, they would have been primary targets for thieves.
The zeppelins glided through the air as effortlessly as a minnow through shallows and looked as graceful doing it. The sleek hulls bore no markings, no claim of ownership.
“You think those ships belong to Pardot?” Hella lowered her glasses. Once she’d fixed the locations of the zeppelins, they were large enough to be seen with the naked eye.
“Know anyone else that could call them out there?”
“They could be just sailing over.”
“Yeah. Want to bet on it?”
Hella didn’t. The cold realization that Scatter was going to be lost to them in a short time closed around her heart. She focused instead on the possibilities afforded by all the variables in play. “If Riley knew he was rolling into an attack, would he go there?”
“I wouldn’t. You wouldn’t.” Stampede shook his head. “But Riley? I don’t know, Red. He and Pardot concentrate on their own vision of the world and expect events to just line up behind it.”
“The airships are probably armed.”
“I would hope so. Maybe they’ll even have some armor. But they also make a huge target for anyone who wants to bring them down. The question is whether the ambushers are after Pardot’s expedition or the zeppelins. The real question is whether we want to take a chance and get involved.”
Guiltily