Davis Aurini - As I Walk These Broken Roads

Somehow he’d ended up leaning forward in his chair, engaged in a staring contest with the Captain. He forced himself to sit back, stretching out a kink in his neck. “So yeah, we were drinking. We overdid it. But we don’t have a problem. Does that answer your question?”

The Captain stared at him, her cheeks flushed. Wentworth matched her gaze, annoyed with himself, and the Mayor’s bemused expression. The Captain eyes flickered as she came to a decision. She looked down at the Mayor and nodded once. Wentworth toned down the glare, and waited to see what the Mayor would say next.

If she could piss him off so quickly, it probably meant that she was a good Captain.

“I’m glad to hear that Captain O’Neil approves of you.” He shuffled his papers out of habit, “The situation is this; as I’m sure you realize, the gated area which encompasses Hope doesn’t contain enough area to grow food for the population, and there are no ploughed fields nearby. You see,” he placed his elbows on his desk and steepled his fingers together, “Hope was founded as a partnership between urban refugees from the south and the local Mennite population, who have lived a rural lifestyle for generations. Our urban ancestors weren’t used to the same simplicity as the Mennites; and the Mennites, despite their ways, sill required the occasional product which only a city could provide; textiles, medical supplies, those sorts of things. I tell you this so that you understand how the two communities have come to rely upon each other. We provide an urban core which supplies the Mennites with the bits of tech they use, and they in turn provide us with a food supply from their many outlying farms. Anything that prevents them from farming directly affects us, so they are our concern even if they aren’t under our jurisdiction.

“Therein lies the nut of our problem: for some time the Mennites have been suffering at the hands of local bandits. We believe this group started off small a couple years back: theft and vandalism, that sort of thing, none of it amounting to any great effect. But as time passed they’ve gotten worse. They’ve upped their trouble making to raiding and murder; worse, their numbers seem to be growing. It’s beginning to have an impact on the crops shipped into Hope. The Mennites refuse to do anything about it because of a philosophy of pacifism and just last week — Patricia, this is yours to tell.”

“An entire squad of my men were killed, along with a damn good Sergeant. They were escorting a petroleum shipment en route to our generating station north of town. Families are grieving. We think it was the same group.”

Wentworth nodded, “I’m sorry to hear that. But why don’t you take care of them yourselves? I’ve seen the Constabulary around town; you’re well-armed, and it looks like there are enough of you.”

She shook her head, “The problem is the Mennites. They follow an old mysticism where they’re not allowed to respond to violence. ‘Turning the other cheek’ I think they call it. They view this Situation as a test from their god, some sort of trial. The idea’s gained momentum to the point where they won’t let us intervene.” She clenched her jaw. “If my Constabulary were to take action against these… individuals, in anything other than self-defence, they’ve threatened to cut off food supplies all together.”

Wentworth raised his eyebrows, “I thought you said they were against violence?”

She snorted, “I guess their god doesn’t mind them killing innocent people as much as it minds them killing criminal scum.”

“Patricia; we’re all upset by the loss of life. Nobody’s happy that the Mennites are being so… unreasonable. But that is the situation we have to deal with.” He turned to Wentworth. “You can see that our hands are tied, but a free agent might be able to… ‘resolve’ things. So what do you think, Mister Wentworth?”

“Just Wentworth.” He ran his tongue over his teeth, and thought for a second, “So you want us to take out these bandits for you. Alright, I have two questions: first of all, how many of them are there? There are only two of us. And second, what’s the pay? Despite what you may have heard, we don’t work for free; that was a special situation.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” the Mayor nodded, “There’s about twenty or thirty of them we believe. That’s about what you dealt with last time, wasn’t it?” Wentworth nodded, amazed that this man thought that thirty was a reasonable number of bandits for him to deal with. The Mayor took a piece of paper and wrote a price on it. “We hope that you’ll find this to be an acceptable amount. There will, of course, be a more thorough briefing if you choose to accept the commission.” It was nearly double the figure Vince had mentioned last night. Despite his better nature, Wentworth’s heart started beating faster and his brow got sweaty. It was a lot of money.

After looking at the paper he nodded, “All I can say right now is a maybe. That I’m considering it. It’s a probable maybe, but I need to speak with Raxx about this first. I’ll try to get back to you within the day, or tomorrow at the latest. Okay?”

The Mayor smiled, relief showing on his face, “That will be fine, of course you’ll want to talk it over, we didn’t expect you to make a decision on the spot. But please, if you decide you’re not interested in the offer come and see us to tell us that, because then we’ll need to find some other solution.”

Wentworth agreed to that and stood up. The Mayor insisted on shaking hands, and the Captain joined him this time. Her grip was firm.

Patricia waited until he’d left, then turned to the Mayor, abandoning her formal pose. “I still don’t like it, sir, dealing with mercs. Especially with that guy’s rep. Vince is the only one who’s said anything remotely positive about him.”

“You vetted him.”

“Yes sir. I hope I didn’t make a mistake… but I’ve seen some things, too.”

Talbot raised an eyebrow, causing her to break out in a dark blush.

“I don’t know why I let him get under my skin like that.”

Talbot smiled wryly, “That’s fine, Captain, You’re not here for your passivity. Just remember what I said, even if the worst rumours about him are true it’s better to have him on our side than anywhere else. Hopefully our impressions just now weren’t mistaken. If these two don’t take on the bounty I don’t know what we’ll do. Sending the Constabulary against Slayer and his men the way you wanted to would just make the situation worse than it already is.”

“Well, sir, I guess we’ll see.”

As Wentworth stepped out into the plaza a ray of sunshine peeked out behind the clouds. It was still muggy, but the light managed to bring some cheer to the square. He had no idea where Raxx might be so he decided to get a cup of coffee and a snack from one of the vendors. He felt good. He had a mission. The money problem had been pushed to the back of his mind.

After getting his drink and adding condiments to the hotdog he settled into people-watching. There was less traffic than the day before, but the local children were dauntless. A game of kickball was being played in the north side of the plaza. Running and jumping along with the children he saw Raxx, the man had a maniacal grin on his face. He stopped to watch from a distance while he ate his dog.

Raxx’s height made him lope about like an ape, and he was playing the fool for the children’s amusement. He chased the ball with a wide gait, arms outstretched. When he got to it he picked it up, looked both ways, and then bounced it off of his forehead to the other team. As he stood there Wentworth noticed a couple of women standing to the side, watching the man’s antics. They were smiling and whispering back and forth to one another. When he turned his attention back to Raxx the man was now chasing some of children, arms outstretched, letting out a growl. When he stopped chasing them the children remustered and started running back towards him. Raxx let out a shriek, and started running away. Wentworth burst out in laughter.