Clash of Mountains Read online

  “You know why I use bolt-action?” Sarah murmured.

  “No,” Thomas said slowly. She watched the man’s head through the scope, watchin’ his eyes. He weren’t thinkin’ about his shots. He were thinkin’ about the guy under his arm, the woman on the ground, yonder.

  “Stablest gun you’re gonna find for the distance.”

  She breathed out, feelin’ her heart as it throbbed ‘gainst the ground. One-two. One-two. Silent three.

  That’s where the bullet went.

  Silent three.

  The second man dropped, dead, on top of his hostage, who lay still. Thomas sprang to his feet, runnin’ to check the underneath man, but he were just outta sorts; he got up with no more or less than he’d had before.

  Sarah stood, pullin’ the bolt on her rifle.

  “Any more of ‘em?” she roared. The men, standin’, pointed. Sarah ran past.

  “How many?” she demanded.

  “One,” one of the men told her. “He took Apex.”

  “Where’s Thor?” Sarah asked.

  “Home,” another man said.

  “Get in the mine,” she said. “Keep guns pointed out.”

  “Mine’s down,” one of the men called and Sarah shook her head, cursin’ under her breath.

  Couldn’t kill Jimmy, next were killin’ the claims. Wouldn’t help nothin’, but it were downright annoying.

  She ran on, heavy boots on soft earth, heard Thomas behind her gettin’ men organized and down to the camp. Not great, but together and movin’ was better than scattered and stalled. The workin’ path ‘round the mountain petered out to nothin’ and she stopped, listenin’ for horses.

  Damned animals would give you away every time. Chatty.

  She heard the grunt and ran after it, watchin’ for motion in the trees and the wet, green earth. Four horses, ridin’ downhill, one mounted, one loaded.

  She lifted her rifle, waitin’ for the shot that didn’t go through branches, hittin’ the ridin’ man center-of-mass. He went down, and Sarah was movin’, keepin’ trees ‘tween him and her. Train ‘a horses broke up, horses lookin’ for cover what they weren’t gonna find nowhere. Rider was down, but weren’t no sign of him beyond that.

  She heard a groan as she got close and she stuck her head ‘round a tree to find another guy in a dumber-than-cows’-nest jacket layin’ against a tree. He were still armed, tryin’ to reckon whether or not he could shoot her ‘fore she got him.

  “You wanna live?” she asked quietly.

  “Screw you,” he answered. Coastal accent. Sarah shook her head. Dumber than singin’ pigs, sendin’ city boys to try to take on Lawrence. She wondered how he’d got the jump on Apex.

  “Blood comin’ out your belly is black,” Sarah said. “Means you got a couple’a minutes, not much more. Sorry ‘bout that. Should’a hit your heart and been done with it, but I misjudged the distance.”

  “Come out from behind that tree and gloat some more,” he said. Sarah smiled, pullin’ the bolt on her rifle enough to eject the casing, then proppin’ it against the tree and checkin’ the load on her handgun once more.

  “I respect the tough act,” she said. “Right to go down like that. But I wanna know how you found the site of this dig, and I reckon, so long as I got my chance, I ought to ask.”

  He coughed and she waited.

  There were a lot ‘a pain, with a shot like that. Body tried to go into shock, but a man what knew his way ‘round a gun, he’d fight it, try to stay up, stay right, take that last shot. But he knew. He knew he were dyin’.

  “I got a kit on my horse, back up the hill,” she said. “Can’t promise you life, but could promise a try, you throw your gun down where I can see it.”

  She’d shot men in the face at this distance. Takin’ life weren’t an easy thing, no matter what, but she’d done it enough to know how it felt and what to expect. Weren’t no sizzle to it no more, no surge of guilt, regret, playin’ it through, lookin’ for another way. Just a man and his one possession in life, himself, and Sarah Todd takin’ it.

  He coughed again and she bobbed her head around the tree. His skin was gray and his jacket weren’t tan no more.

  His eyes were roamin’, but he weren’t there no more. She came ‘round, movin’ the gun out ‘a his hand and knelt.

  “Took silver for a war you knew nothin’ about,” she said. “Can’t say I’m sorry for ya. Your men are dead. You failed. But ain’t nobody deserves to lay here, waitin’ death like this.”

  She stood, lettin’ a moment go, then shot him, and a tension went out of him. She picked up his gun and dropped the bullets in her pocket, then the gun in her other pocket, recoverin’ her rifle and walkin’ down to where the horses had pooled ‘gainst a tree castin’ enough shade to clear out the plants underneath. She took out a knife from her boot and cut the strap holdin’ Apex horsebound and stepped away as he fell to the ground with a groan.

  She checked him over, findin’ the mark on his temple what were gonna give him a headache for an age, but weren’t no other holes in him than what his momma left him.

  He put his hand to his face.

  “What happened?”

  “Couple’a city boys took you at surprise,” she said. “Can’t say I’m impressed.”

  “Sarah,” he grunted. “When’d you get here?”

  “Just in time to save you bein’ toted off horseback,” she said. “They was puttin’ down your men.”

  He groaned again, rollin’ to his side.

  She nudged him with a toe.

  “Ain’t nothin’ that wrong with you,” she said. “On your feet. Show your men you ain’t taken down.”

  He grunted and rolled to a crouch. She looked away, offerin’ him a hand, and he took it pullin’ himself up.

  Swayed against her.

  She waited, still not lookin’ at him, ‘till he right found his feet, then nodded.

  “You like the beasts?” she asked. He rubbed his face again, lookin’ at ‘em and noddin’.

  “Don’t see why not,” he said. “You take a shot at him?”

  “He’s down and dead,” Sarah answered.

  “Where am I?”

  Most of the way to the holler,” she said.

  He squinted up.

  “Rifle shot,” he said, and she shrugged.

  “What of it?” she asked.

  “How’d you know weren’t me you was shootin’?” he asked.

  Sarah lifted her head.

  “You even get a look at the guy what cooked you?”

  He shook his head and she gave him a dry smile, adjustin’ her hat.

  “Couldn’t ‘a weighed more’n a buck-thirty,” she said, lookin’ Apex up and down.

  Minin’ men were big, tough boys by design, but Apex and Thor were the biggest of the big. Didn’t rightly fit in their own minin’ holes, that big. Built like trees. Apex gave her a squinty look.

  “Don’t tell Thor.”

  --------

  “Are we going to do rounds, still, or do you want to go back and tell Jimmy?” Thomas asked after Sarah’d finished checkin’ Apex over.

  “Let’s go see the mine,” she said, pausin’ as the working boys tossed the two bodies down the side of the mountain.

  Weren’t much sentimentality, when a man would’a put a bullet to you, one more moment’s opportunity. Sarah nodded, and Thomas walked up the path next to her toward the mine’s entrance.

  Past two generations, absenta mines had been wildcat things, dug shallow, dug often. Stone’d glow blue under a methane lamp, if you’d hit the jackpot, and if not, you moved on.

  Pete’s theory about where and how to find the stuff was much deeper and much more specific. First sign of absenta had been dozens of yards from the surface, and the thick ore were another dozen yards on. Like as not only find it if you knew where you were goin’.

  No upside to that, other’n that it meant Sarah were about the only person goin’ who knew the trick of it. Surveys of the land were
Elaine’s, and then Sarah’s, when the Lawsons had left, so even the data she’d used to solve it were hers and hers alone.

  Downsides were plenty. Took more time, more energy to get to the absenta, and more effort to get it out without pullin’ a mountain down on your head. This particular mountain had been blowed up twice now, and that weren’t the kind of thing favorable to the art of diggin’.

  What the men had lacked in clothing sense, they’d made up for in explosives. Mine were collapsed no more’n a dozen feet from the entrance, and readin’ from the dust outside, it were in bits a long, long way down, too. Sarah shook her head.

  “Jimmy’s gonna need to know this,” she said. “And we need to get Thor up here, get things dug back out.”

  “I can manage,” Apex said, and Sarah looked back at him.

  “Not with a broke head,” she said.

  “You said weren’t nothin’ wrong with me,” he said. “We’ll get it open.”

  Sarah looked back down the hill.

  “Where were your boys with guns?” she asked. “We left you better guarded’n that.”

  Apex shook his head.

  “Don’t know, but I’ll know that, too.”

  “Money, Apex,” she said. “Money and access. You’re up against men with a lot ‘a both. You got to keep ‘em close and build ‘em loyal. Ain’t no more Lawrence boys to go around, so we gotta make our own. You make ‘em Lawrence. Us against them ain’t gonna win unless we got more of us than we do now.”

  Apex swallowed, still lookin’ at the mine.

  “I hear you, Sarah. Thor and me, we ain’t gonna walk away from the biggest score Lawrence has ever seen. Don’t care whose guts we gotta bust to do it.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “You’re the first. You’re gonna get it the worst. I’ll know how they found you.”

  “You get the other mines up, it’s just gonna get worse,” Apex said. “Too many strangers out in the world. We just gotta get strong enough to take care of ourselves.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “You do that. You got guys here you actually trust?”

  Apex finally turned, lookin’ out over the camp.

  “Don’t know which way they’ll break, lookin’ down the barrel of a gun for me,” he said. “Got a Joiner boy up here, though, and a Kirk boy.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “Sort ‘em out, Apex. Time ain’t a resource we got to spend, just now. You sort ‘em out, or I won’t be here, the next time someone tries to put a bullet to you.”

  He grunted, shovin’ big hands in his pockets. Looked at Thomas.

  “You worked up here, didn’t you?”

  “Before the auction, yeah,” Thomas answered.

  “Did a neat job,” Apex said. “Left things settled well.”

  Thomas nodded.

  “Don’t spend your whole life around mining without learning something about it,” Thomas said.

  “Gonna let Jimmy know what’s goin’ on,” Sarah said. “Stay alive and keep diggin’. I’ll send Thor up, soon as we get down to town.”

  Apex touched his hat, and Sarah whistled Dog in. He trotted up, nosin’ Apex then startin’ down the path ‘round the mountain.

  “Heard you got more kike him on the way,” Apex said. “Wouldn’t mind something to raise an alarm when the guards been paid off.”

  “Cost you dear,” Sarah said mounting up onto Gremlin. “Everybody else says the same.”

  --------

  “Should have been there last night,” Thomas said.

  Sarah looked over her shoulder at him.

  “Coulda just ended up as dead as the rest of ‘em,” she said. “Don’t question what coulda been. Never as simple as it looks.”

  “You were taking it easy on me,” Thomas said. “We could have prevented the whole thing, if you hadn’t camped early.”

  She turned in her seat to look back at him.

  “Thomas Lawson, you offend me. I ain’t bein’ kind to you. Wouldn’t be. We got a job to do, and I’m doin’ it best I can, you or anyone else ridin’ next to me. I pulled us up ‘cause it’s easy to shoot the wrong guy ridin’ up the side of a mountain in the dark. Don’t like takin’ guards by surprise in the shadow, so I like to come at camps - ‘specially the ones makin’ good money - in good light. Stop feelin’ sorry for yourself. Weren’t no hero way to save ‘em all.”

  He sighed.

  “Is that true, or are you saying it to make me feel better?”

  She snorted.

  “You ever known me to lie to spare a man’s feelin’s?” she asked.

  She heard him laugh, and she looked back again.

  “They say I don’t have it in me to kill someone in cold blood,” he said. “I’m not sure I still have it in me to kill them in hot blood.”

  “Never did,” Sarah said. “You do it, when Rhoda’s life’s on the line, or a Lawson’s, but your skill and your will ain’t talkin’ to each other otherwise.”

  “You just watched him, as he came at us, shooting,” Thomas said.

  “He weren’t gonna hit us,” Sarah said. “Too much goin’ on in his head.”

  “That’s what your life was, every day, after we left, wasn’t it?”

  She sucked on a back tooth, noddin’ and turnin’ back forward.

  “Odds ‘a my seein’ another day went way up, when you lot came back,” she said. “Absenta were in the ground. Pete proved that.”

  “You didn’t have to tell everyone where it was,” Thomas said. “It could have just been the one mine. Or none at all.”

  Sarah looked sharply over her shoulder.

  “You tell him I said this, I’ll run ya naked around town with a bullwhip,” she said. “Lawrence were dyin’, when you got back. Another absenta rush just woulda propped up the bandits, formed a bunch more of ‘em. Weren’t enough of us, and way too many of them. Bringin’ money back into this place were the only way to save it, and I know it just as well as Jimmy Lawson. Don’t see him in the eye on a lot of how he’s choosin’ to do it, but he’s doin’ what needs done, and I know it better’n most.”

  Thomas was only silent for a moment.

  “I’m gonna tell Rhoda you said yes,” he said, and she jerked to look at him again. He grinned. “You can call me a liar, and then it’s he-said, she-said, and Rhoda can choose to believe me over you, because everyone knows you lie, and Kayla will sweep in with a dress…”

  “Dammit, Thomas,” she muttered. “You get me outta wearin’ a dress, I’ll do it.”

  He laughed.

  --------

  There were four foundations on the hillsides ‘round the Lawson house by the time they got back.

  Jimmy weren’t kiddin’, when he said he was right to start somethin’. Sarah watched ‘em moodily, ridin’ up to the house.

  “You go get Thor,” she told Thomas. “Come back here when he’s mountain-bound.”

  Thomas nodded, leavin’ her at the road and keepin’ on as she turned up the hill to the house. She dropped to ground, lettin’ Gremlin and Dog find their own dinners. One of the house staff came out the door.

  “Mama had puppies,” she called.

  “How many?” Sarah answered, watchin’ after Dog.

  “Eight,” the woman said. Sarah nodded.

  “Now we see if any of ‘em are worth their table scraps,” she said. “Where’s Jimmy?”

  “They’re adorable,” the woman said, and Sarah tipped her head. “Sorry. He’s in his office.”

  Sarah nodded, kickin’ dust off her boots as she went up the stairs to the porch. She went in ahead of the woman. Front entry had a big, thick rug, black and red, one Elaine Lawson had picked out. Sign of affluence, the ability to keep a carpet like that clean. Sarah was torn over the whole thing.

  She turned to the right, considerin’ knockin’ at the door to Jimmy’s study, then just lettin’ herself in. He looked up.

  “Have you seen them?” he asked. She shook her head.

  “Them little bits of d
og-flesh ain’t gonna be interestin’ ‘till at least after the flood,” she said. The corner of his mouth ticked and he looked back down at the papers on his desk.

  “You’re back early.”

  “Three men,” she said. “Executin’ Apex ‘n Thor’s crew, blew up the mine.”

  He finished his line of text and set down his pen before looking up.

  “How many dead?”

  “Five, includin’ the three of ‘em,” Sarah told him, throwing herself onto the couch against the wall instead of sittin’ in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Peter Lawson, father to the lot of ‘em, had had firm taste in furniture, and Sarah still weren’t the biggest fan. Couch was better ‘n the grillin’ chairs, though. Jimmy stood from the desk can came ‘round to sit ‘cross from her at the other end of the couch.

  His thumb worked over his fingers, and Sarah took out a paper and rolled a cigarette, lightin’ it and handin’ it across to him. He looked absently over the back of the couch as he took a draw of it.

  “I think we could sell these, out east,” he said. “Maxim liked them.”

  “I ain’t right care what the fancy folk back east like to burn and breathe,” Sarah said, waiting. He’d get to the issue at the mine when he was ready. He looked at the cigarette between his fingers, then tipped his head to look at her.

  “Apex and Thor?”

  “Thor was home,” she said. “They was tryin’ to cart off Apex when I intercepted ‘em.”

  He licked his lower lip, then took another draw on the cigarette.

  “I see.”

  “Thomas told me you’re bringin’ cars,” Sarah said. The corner of Jimmy’s eye ticked, a hint of humor, and he blew smoke up at the ceiling.

  “Speak to me like the educated woman you are,” he said.

  “You tell me which education, I might try,” Sarah answered, taking the cigarette he offered her and putting it to her lips. The corner of his mouth went up again, not enough that most people would see it, but still friendly enough for her.

  “We need to talk about the flood,” he said.

  “We need to talk about a right lot ‘a things,” Sarah answered. “Sid’s tryin’ to organize a clinic to test for STDs.”

  He drew his thumb and forefinger down the corners of his mouth and looked over the back of the couch again. She went on.