Flash Gold (4 page)

“
Be ready,” Cedar whispered.

Branches shivered, and Rock left cover, angling for a snow-covered boulder. The second fellow tramped back downhill and moved laterally through a small gully that hid him from view. They were angling to surround her. They must not know her exact location—or that she could see them. Cedar had probably slipped in without attracting their notice either.

Rock was not fully hidden by the boulder, not from her position. His side poked out. Kali picked a target that should not be life-threatening if his comrades cared enough to tend to him. She let out a breath and squeezed the trigger. The man howled, clutching his butt, and staggered away from the boulder. That ought to take the fight out of him. She lowered her weapon.

The man seemed to realize his mistake and lunged back toward cover. Too late. Cedar’s rifle cracked. His bullet took the man in the neck. He pitched sideways and lay still, blood spattering the snow around him.

Kali stared at Cedar. “He wasn’t going to trouble us again.”

“
They’re criminals.” He watched the gully without glancing her direction. “Bandits who work for gangsters and crime lords. They’ve killed before and would do so again. The authorities would issue them the same fate.”

Maybe so, but a warning twanged in the back of her mind.

“
How do you know who they are?” she asked. More importantly, did he know what had brought them out here after her? Did he know about the flash gold? Maybe he had questioned the other two. They could have revealed everything to him. Or maybe he had known before he signed on with her. Maybe the only reason he was here was because—

“
Look out!” Cedar pushed her out of the copse.

A fist-sized black oval with wood fins sailed through the trees. It bounced off a branch and landed in the copse behind her. Curious, Kali craned her neck, trying to get a look.

“
Go, go,” Cedar barked. He shoved her again, then crashed into her from behind, bearing her to the ground.

The fall did not hurt, but it startled her. Cold snow scraped her cheek. Kali tried to push up, but Cedar pressed her face down.

“
What are you—”

An explosion roared, hammering her eardrums. Wood splintered and snapped. Branches and needles pelted the snow around them.

“
What was
that
?” she asked when Cedar rolled off her.

“
Grenade.” He patted the snow. “Tarnation, where’s my gun?”

Her ears rang, and she barely heard him. A rifle fired, the sound puny compared to the previous blast, but a bullet burrowed into the snow inches from her face, reminding her how deadly the threat was.

Kali rolled to her back. She had retained the grip on her rifle, and she lifted it, searching for the gunman.

Cedar, sword in hand, plowed down the hillside, churning snow as he high-stepped through the powder. The man in the gully popped up, rifle pointing toward Kali, but he shifted it toward Cedar.

Not able to target him from her back, she lunged to her knees. She feared she would be too slow to help Cedar, but somehow he anticipated the gunman’s shot. He hurled himself into a roll, and the bullet flew harmlessly high.

Kali fired, aiming for the man’s shoulder. She clipped him, but he did not go down. He howled in pain—or maybe anger—and turned his rifle on her. He pumped the lever, but she fired again first. Once, then again. Both shots took him in the chest.

Eyes bulging wide, he stared in disbelief. His rifle fell to the snow, and he slumped out of view behind the gully wall.

Dead. By her hand.

Kali propped herself on her rifle for support and closed her eyes, chin drooped to her chest. It was not the first time she had wounded someone, but it was the first time she had killed. Self-defense or not, it did not sit well in her gut. As if becoming a killer added some measure of truth to the imprecations the townsfolk sent her way. Evil witch, they whispered. Harbinger of death and misfortune.

Snow crunched as Cedar approached. He had sheathed his sword and located his rifle. “How do you fire so quickly?”

Her surprised “Huh?” frosted the air before her eyes.

“
Those rapid-fire shots. It almost sounded like a Gatling Gun.” His gaze fell to the lever of her Winchester. “How did you chamber the rounds so quickly?”

“
You’re worried about how my gun works when we just killed a pile of men? Are weapons the only thing you care about? What’s wrong with you?”

His eyebrows rose at her outburst. Maybe it was not wise to berate such a proficient warrior.

His response was mild though: “Much, I’m told.”

Kali eyed the desecrated copse. The grenade had mauled the evergreens, leaving one knocked over and several with broken or missing branches. Her first feeling was one of indignation—the Mounties were supposed to be limiting firearms in the Dominion of Canada—but her second feeling involved inquisitiveness. She was tempted to see if anything remained of the grenade so she could take it with her to examine later. She caught herself before moving more than a step that direction. If her thoughts could shift so quickly from killing to tinkering, perhaps she was no better than Cedar.

He was watching her, though not, it seemed, with judging eyes. He simply waited for an answer to his question.

“
I modified it to be self-loading.” Kali lifted the rifle.

“
Do you do custom work for people?”

“
Of course. That’s how I scrape together enough money to buy bacon and flour. It’s also, I suspect, the main reason nobody’s tried seriously to drive me out of town. I’m useful.”

Cedar nodded. “I’d be interested in some of those smoke nuts.”

“
I thought you had no money,” Kali said, thinking she might catch him in a lie.

He spoke without hesitation. “We’ll win, and then I’ll have one hundred dollars.”

“
Not if we have more delays like this.”

Cedar squinted at something below. “There’s a woman, too, isn’t there?”

Kali winced. She had forgotten. “Yes.”

They picked a route back down the river, following the trail of already-broken snow. Wind gusted through the valley, and powder skidded sideways. With the exertion past, Kali shivered as sweat-dampened skin cooled. She clawed at the moisture that had frozen in her eyelashes and under her nose.

The woman was nowhere in sight. Cedar gestured, and they split up to see if she was hiding behind the sled. They closed, rifles raised, but nobody hunkered there. Blood dotted the ice, thanks to her smoke nut, but not enough to imply a mortal wound.

Cedar followed a set of tracks toward the far shoreline.

Kali checked the sled for damage. Dents from bullets pockmarked the boiler and smokestack, but none had ruptured a crucial part. Kali patted the side of the sled, glad she had not, in her quest to achieve lightness, skimped too much on the boiler design. If they returned to the trail immediately, they might have a chance at catching up.

She shoveled coal into the firebox. Cedar trotted out of the trees and rejoined her on the ice.

“
The woman went over the hill.” He pointed. “Back the way they came. I could catch her, but I noticed you preparing to leave.”

Kali lifted the brake, and the sled rumbled forward, runners scraping on ice. “The race is more important than killing people, however irritating they’ve proven themselves by trying to kill us. If I don’t win that prize money, I’ll be stuck in Moose Hollow forever.” Or until someone succeeded in dragging her off to some crime lord for torture. More than ever, she needed to get out of town.

“
In other words,” Cedar said, jogging beside the sled, “you’d leave me if I went after her.”

“
I’d toss your bag of supplies out so you could make it back to town.”

“
Magnanimous.”

Kali twitched a shoulder. “I’m sure you can take care of yourself. Besides, she ran away. Unless she’s got an airship waiting for her, we won’t likely see her again before we get back to town.” She gave him a sidelong look. “You didn’t have some specific reason for wanting to capture or kill her, did you?”

“
I doubt she’s anybody important. It’s simply unwise to leave enemies around to take a shot at you another day.”

As they chugged down the frozen river, Kali continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye. Maybe her previous experiences were making her too suspicious. He had been nothing but helpful so far, and he had not even demanded to know why those bandits attacked her. Whatever his motivations, he was risking
his
life on
her
quest.

“
Thanks for your help with those bandits,” Kali said. “You’re not as much of an unwelcome burden as I thought you’d be.”

“
That’s...a compliment?” A mischievous glint entered his eyes.

“
Maybe.”

“
You’re a hard woman to win over.”

“
I’m not looking to be won over,” she said. The last time that happened, she ended up losing. Big time.

“
I see.”

Kali clammed up. She did not want him seeing. She did not want anybody seeing.

When Kali designed the tent, she had not been thinking of sharing it with anyone, especially not a six-foot-something man with broad shoulders and feet the size of snowshoes. She shifted, trying to figure out how she was going to find enough space in the dug-out hollow to lie down. For the third time, she adjusted her blanket, grimacing at a damp corner. Before leaving, she had worried about being too cold after dark; apparently, she should have worried that keeping the furnace running all night would melt nearby snow. Her next tent would be freestanding, not a lean-to designed to use the sled’s metal frame for support.

A dog yipped outside. Deep in the forest, a wolf howled in response. Low voices spoke nearby. Kali and Cedar had caught up with several sled teams after dark, and they were camping on a popular beach.

She shifted again, still looking for a comfortable spot. Her shoulder clunked against the sled, sending a jolt of pain through her. She spewed Hän curse words.

“
Don’t say anything,” she told Cedar, who had been watching her with a bland expression that did not quite mask his amusement.

“
What would I say?” He lay parallel to the sled, tucked into some fancy all-in-one bed-blanket-pillow he called a Euklisia Rug.

“
Sorry for being so big?”

“
My size is usually an advantage.”

“
You must not share tents very often,” she muttered.

“
Not often.”

Kali adjusted her position again, almost knocking their single lantern on the ground. She caught it with a lunge before kerosene could spill. Snow found its way onto her blanket. She sighed, scooping it off.

Finally, she settled on a spot, her back against the sled, knees scrunched to her chin. Though not comfortable, she did not know Cedar well enough that she wanted any of her body parts touching his body parts. They were both fully clothed, but she had known too many men who took such things as an invitation. Men who would ignore her in town, where there were witnesses ready to tease, got squirrelly notions out on the trail. And Cedar was watching her now, a thoughtful expression on his face.

“
Could you make your modifications to the loading mechanism on the 1873 work on the 1890?” he asked.

Kali blinked. All that thoughtful gazing, and he’d only been thinking about her ability to tinker with weapons? A stab of disappointment went through her. She squashed it. She didn’t
want
him thinking of anything else.

“
Maybe,” she said. “May I see it? I haven’t taken apart one of the slide-action ones before.”

The rifle lay beside him on the blanket. He nudged it her direction.

She started out examining the firing and loading mechanisms, but ended up simply sliding a wistful hand along the barrel and running a finger over the inlays. Expert engraving decorated the frame on both sides. She held it to the lamplight. A floral scroll ran around the outside while a circle in the middle framed a tree. She squinted. A cedar tree? She supposed that made sense, though... “Who’s MK?” she asked, tapping initials. Given the value of the weapon, she wondered if he had taken it—through force, gambling, or theft—from someone else. Though his clothing and gear were high quality as well, and it all fit him.