Serpent's Tooth. James Axler

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      Marauders lunged at Lombard, seizing him tightly.

      “Whatever is easier for you,” Kane said, pushing his Sin Eater back into its holster on his forearm.

      “God damn you!” Lombard shrieked as his men hurled him over the cab of the truck. He crashed into the dirt road, then clawed swiftly to his feet. Angry eyes glared at Kane, and he tensed. “This piece of shit isn’t so hot!”

      “Then prove it!” another bandit shouted. “You got a Sin Eater. Show us you’re worth following.”

      Lombard looked around, confused. He eventually rested his eyes on Kane, who stood, arms folded, shaking his head.

      “Not a good idea, man,” Kane warned.

      Lombard glanced toward Brigid.

      “Don’t look at her. She’d just as soon shoot you, but she’s not paying for the bullets,” Kane snapped.

      Lombard’s eyes flicked to the Sin Eater on his forearm. One flex, and the autoweapon would rocket into his hand. Kane knew, though, that a fast draw with the hydraulic holster was a perishable skill. The movement would be fast, but getting the first shot on target required regular practice. Lombard was a thief who attacked unarmed doctors, not a master gunslinger who constantly honed his skills.

      In the meantime, Kane had just proved his lethality against younger, hardier men. Lombard reached slowly for the straps on his Sin Eater, unfastening them. The machine pistol landed in the dirt at his feet, and Lombard dropped to his knees, lacing his fingers behind his head.

      Kane turned to glare at the truckloads of remaining bandits. “Go.”

      The new leader of the robber gang looked at the rest of his men. The diesels roared as the wags ground into Reverse, backing away from the edge of the town.

      “They’re not slowing down,” Grant confirmed. “They’ve taken the hint.”

      Kane walked toward Lombard, pausing only to scoop up the renegade’s fallen weapon. “What to do with you…”

      “Grant…” Lombard snarled. “That big ape—”

      Kane took a swift step forward and kicked him in the face. The impact split a seam of skin from eyebrow to the corner of Lombard’s mouth. Blood flowed from the fresh gash.

      “Talking about my partner like that is always a bad idea,” Kane said.

      “You’re crazy!” Lombard snapped. His hands covered his battered, bloody face. “What are you going to do with me?”

      “We’ll see if Dr. Phillips needs someone to do grunt work,” Grant said, rejoining his partners. “Though nothing too complicated.”

      “You lied when you said there weren’t any other ex-Mags,” Lombard complained.

      “And you were dumb enough to not recognize me,” Grant countered. “Your bandits were plain and simple outsmarted. We had the communication, we had the knowledge, and now you’re just a footnote. Twenty marauders with big trucks and big guns, taken down by three people, two of them who you’d disarmed.”

      Lombard grimaced, then noted that Kane was disassembling the surrendered Sin Eater, handing magazines and the holster to Grant. They looked distracted by the menial task as they whispered softly to each other, probably discussing plans. Lombard reached down to his boot, coming up with a gleaming little pistol in his hand.

      The deposed bandit leader pulled the trigger, but his gunshot jerked into the sky as Brigid pumped a single Copperhead round into Lombard’s chest.

      “Fool,” Brigid muttered. “So busy concentrating on you two, he forgot all about me.”

      “Well, that solves the problem of what to do with the asshole,” Grant said with a sigh.

      Kane smirked. “A self-resolving problem, most likely. Thanks, Baptiste.”

      “What thanks?” Brigid asked. “I need one of you two to grab that last wheelbarrow full of meds. I’m not busting my back for it.”

      Kane chuckled, kicking the gun out of Lombard’s dead fingers. “I love you, too, Baptiste.”

      Brigid returned the smile. There was an uncomfortable pause, but she regained her composure. “Let’s go. We should get back to Cerberus to see if anything new has come up.”

      Kane nodded. “No rest for the wicked.”

      Chapter 4

      Mohandas Lakesh Singh stood just outside the anteroom of the mat trans chamber as Kane, Brigid and Grant returned from their sojourn to Cobaltville. He waited alongside an impatient Domi, who paced like an anxious panther in a cage.

      Kane looked the two people over and knew that whatever was going on, it couldn’t be good. “Who showed up? Erica? Sindri?”

      “Why would it be them?” Lakesh asked.

      “Because Cerberus is still standing, but you’re chomping at the bit to let us know some shit’s up,” Grant answered for Kane.

      “Neither Erica or Sindri,” Domi answered, her voice quick and clipped. “Ran into a millennial guy crawling around our back door.”

      Kane sneered. “Millennial Consortium? They found us here?”

      “I know that they said they have extensive files on us, but I’m surprised that they know the location of Cerberus,” Brigid stated.

      “Why not? Erica knows. So do Sindri and the overlords. And the consortium has done business with each of them in the past,” Kane said. “In fact, Erica’s calling them allies now, after that blowout in China.”

      Brigid frowned. “And you let him in?”

      “He wasn’t in uniform,” Domi replied. “No coverall. No button. No Calico. But he’s consortium. I feel it.”

      Brigid glanced at Lakesh. “Any corroboration?”

      Lakesh shrugged. “Nothing definitive. However, he’s hale and healthy, with evidence of having received professional medical treatment. A recent scar on his arm confirms to DeFore that a real doctor stitched it up.”

      Reba DeFore was the redoubt’s chief medical officer. With the influx of staff from the Manitius Moon Base, the position didn’t weigh on her skills as much as it used to, but in the years preceding it, she’d gained a sharp eye toward medical treatment. The stranger’s apparent access to such treatment left few options open as to his affiliation. The Millennial Consortium was a budding technocracy, seeking to rebuild America in its own image. Those in charge of the consortium paid lip service to the creation of a utopian society, but their ruthlessness in the pursuit of that goal had brought them into savage conflict with the Cerberus warriors on multiple occasions.

      The consortium wanted a utopia, and its representatives were willing to kill every person who stood in the path to that objective. Unarmed foes were just as open to murder as the Cerberus personnel.

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