FF_1006862
The Education of Robin Maxwell
The snow pack on the South Platte Canyon Road scrunched under Robin's Maxwell's boots. The last fire was far back in space and time and her feet were cold. No, freezing. Ham Tyler took all the care of her that he could, but she reminded herself that he couldn't change the weather. It's too bad he's saddled with a spoiled brat like me, she thought. I've tried not to complain.
That's another thing, too. The silence. Ham and Chris don't talk much when they're apart. When they're together they can all but read each other's minds. I have nobody to gossip with and nothing to gossip about. There's no use reminiscing. I'd be crying in minutes, so many of the memories are sad. I'll have to come up with a happy one. Maybe last Christmas. It was one of the best times I can remember in years. Right down to Ham playing Santa Claus. He even enjoyed it, she thought in amazement. There is something under that crust he wraps his emotions in.
Of course there is or he wouldn't be taking me to Chicago himself. He'd have gotten the World Liberation Front to do it.
He must have felt cooped up, she thought. LA is big but when you're used to roaming the world…
LA is where the action is, she thought. No, not true. There's action everywhere there's no snow, evil lizards fighting humans for control of this planet.
Why is he going to Chicago with me?
"Ham," she said, "don't take this the wrong way, but why did you come along?"
Ham raised his eyebrows. He couldn't figure out why Robin had imposed some sort of vow of silence on herself or why she was breaking it now. "It's taken us fourteen hours to reach Denver and now you ask?"
"I didn't want to babble like a kid."
Ham grunted. "As opposed to what?"
"Well, you and Chris aren't exactly known for schmuezing."
"No, I mean how did you think you would get to Denver, let alone Chicago?"
"The WLF still has some planes, right?"
"What makes you think you rate?"
"Oh, good point. But anybody could have gotten me there."
He grimaced, his stern face's version of a smile. "And tell Elizabeth what?"
"Whoever went with me would have let you know I got there safely."
"And if you didn't?"
"That's the war."
"No. You're part of my team. I take care of you. That's how it is."
"And you've done a wonderful job so far." Ham cocked an eyebrow. "Julie and I agreed that the two of you would find a way to get some action even if you were baby sitting me." Actually what Julie Parrish predicted was that Robin would be in constant danger. That hadn't materialized. They had headed straight for the snowy mountains where Julie's Red Dust toxin survived as virulent as ever against the sentient lizards from Sullam Voe. It was only in the constant warmth of LA and the tropics that the Red Dust broke down and lizards could survive, unless they could get the antidote also developed by Julie for friendly lizards.
"Ham." Chris came up behind them and nudged his buddy. "We're too close to Denver and it's too deserted here. The locals must know something we don't."
"Yeah."
Robin shut up. She began looking nervously around as they walked. If only I weren't a piece of luggage, she thought. But I never thought of having to leave LA.
I never thought much period. It was all handed to me, I didn't have to think. And then it was all gone, just gone when the Visitors started this horrible war. My home, my mother, my virginity, my daughter, my sisters, my father. And Julie had to snap at me to really wake me up. What a stupid kid I was. And I'm still helpless. That's going to change in Chicago. It has to if I want to see Elizabeth ever again.
"You can stop there."
Ham and Chris whipped into a stance which put them on two sides of a triangle and surrounded Robin. But they were caught on a stretch where the trees stood well back from the narrow road. The stranger had waited to speak until they got here, probably after stalking them for some time. Useless to ask how long. The only comfort was that this must be a human. Red Dust antidote went out of production when Nathan Bates negotiated a truce with head lizard Diana. The lizards concentrated their hunting in the warm areas but what they would do after mopping up there was anybody's guess.
"Lay your weapons down slowly and walk toward me."
"We don't know where you are," Ham played for time.
"Here." An arm waved briefly from behind a tree, then disappeared again.
Ham's brain ticked rapidly through the possibilities. Grenade? The stranger didn't have one or we wouldn't be alive. Or he couldn't afford to use it, it's his only one. Voice higher than usual for a guy. Woman who…doesn't shoot first and ask questions later. More afraid of us than we are of her. No, knows she has the drop on us. Doesn't have backup though. Or grenades. Or want to use her weapon. Peaceable. But not dumb. And no bluff about her either. "If we lay our weapons down will you step out?" Out of the corner of his mouth he growled to Chris, "Fake it and be ready to cover me." He squatted slowly and laid down his Uzi. The big man followed suit ten seconds behind him.
"Chris Farber?"
Chris froze in the action of squatting and stared into the trees. "Who's asking?"
A figure stepped out from the tree where they had seen the arm. Medium height, thin – of course, since everybody was on short rations. In a parka and well muffled up. "You can come back to my squat with me."
"With who?"
"Remember Nancy?"
Chris drew a deep breath. "Alice Penrose?"
"Come on."
They hesitated and the two men exchanged one of those telepathic looks of theirs. The guns went back inside their packs but both reassured themselves that they could reach their knives. Only then did Chris place his beefy hand against Robin's back and gently pull her along with them.
They had passed the grove without ever seeing it. It was just one more stand of snow-covered trees along the miles they had walked from the van. Probably nobody ever noticed it until too late. If there was such a thing. What was this woman doing out here and how did she know Chris? And will she help us or what?
That's how everybody measures everybody else now, thought Robin. Is this person going to help me or are they in a lizard's hip pocket. In a brief flash of analysis she realized it was just the same when she was a high school freshman three years and a million light years ago. Everybody ranked according to whether they were your friend or not, and sometimes you put whole groups of people in the "not" category. Like the teachers and the principal and the Trash 80 geeks and the Latin and math and chess clubs and the girls who ran the school store with that one kid everybody was sure was gay but nobody could accuse of coming on to any guys. You can't afford to put anybody into that category now, she thought, unless they pull a gun on you right away and in that case you probably don't have time to dis them because you are dead.
If she knows Chris and he's willing to trust her, she's OK, Robin reassured herself. Unless she's converted or on Procor or…shut up, shut up, shut up. I don't want to think about that.
Then the door of a cabin closed behind her. The wind was gone, the floor was boarded and the coals of a fire gleamed red in the hearth. Never in my life thought I'd feel this happy in a cabin in the woods, thought Robin.
"You left those coals and came outside?" Chris said in amazement.
"Coke was here when I left."
"How many are there?" Ham asked.
"Three. Axe is out getting wood and maybe dinner."
"Why?"
"Why he's getting wood should be obvious. Why we're here is we got tired of the crappy treatment they dish out in Denver. Too many refugees. Life is cheap."
"Can we sleep here?"
"I guess. Then what?"
"Gotta meet some people in Denver."
"And you came from….?"
"Why do you care?"
"Right. Ham, isn't it?"
Tyler nodded.
"Couldn't be anybody else Chris would take orders from like that."
"I didn't give any orders."
"Not out loud. The stories I've heard about you!" She turned to Robin. "And you, sweetie?"
"Why do you care?" Ham shouldered in again.
"Like that, is it? What's she worth and to who?" Ham showed his canines. "Yeah like I really expected an answer to that one. I'm no dummy. Ask Chris. And I'm no traitor, either." Ham dipped his chin in a half nod. "Proof in the pudding and all that, I'm so sure. If you got food, eat if you want."
They broke out some rations and sat on the still-warm hearth to eat. Alice pulled her bedroll near. "What can you tell me?"
"What can you tell me, Alice," Chris asked. "Where's Nancy?"
Alice shook her head. "Gone. We were escaping from Topeka. The car broke down so we were trying to make it here on foot. She got sick. I don't know, bad water maybe. I did everything I could but she died in my arms." She buried her hands in her short Afro. "I buried her the best I could. I didn't know how fresh lizards like their meat to be and I was taking no chances."
It's like this all over, thought Robin. You can't get away from it. Everybody has at least one story like that. Sometimes dozens because they're the only one left. "At least you don't have to worry about lizards," she said.
"What makes you think so?" Alice asked.
"Well, the Red Dust."
Alice sighed. "We've had a couple of whacko mothership commanders who thought they had latched onto a batch of the antidote and sent a team in to test it. Why they don't just get it from their buddy in LA beat hell out of me."
Ham grimaced. "Can't. He's dead."
"Bates? Good." Alice said when Tyler nodded. She had a soft round jaw and chin but now it set like granite. "You do it?"
Tyler rumbled in his chest but she misunderstood it as a negative.
"And I'll bet you regret that like mad."
"What's next, Alice?" Chris asked.
"I don't know. You staying in Denver?"
"Nope."
"Can I come with you? Coke and Axe are OK but sooner or later there'll be trouble. You know what I mean."
Chris grinned a bit. "But not with us, right?"
She gave Robin an assessing look. "If you haven't had any trouble yet, I'll be fine."
Robin chuckled. "You're thinking of the wrong kind of trouble when it comes to these two. Besides, they're like my…"
"Older brothers," Ham hurried to fill the gap.
Robin almost laughed. "I didn't know you could be that touchy."
He shrugged.
"Look, you can drop me anywhere when you think I'm inconvenient. In the meantime I can handle a gun or a knife and I can cook when there's something to cook."
"We'll think it over," Tyler said. "In the meantime, it's getting dark and where are your friends?"
Alice shrugged. "Maybe they've had enough of the weather and went back to Denver."
"Is there any more wood around?" Chris asked.
"On the porch, there could still be some kindling and sticks."
"If we're all leaving in the morning it won't hurt to get warm for a while and if those guys aren't back before morning, serves them right to have to relight it, don't you think?"
"Yeah."
…The van swerved sickeningly on the icy road. Oh, God, thought Robin. The explosives will go off and we'll all die. Oh, God, Oh, God.
"Jump, Robin," her father said.
"No!"
"Jump!"
"Not unless you do! I don't want you to die!"
"Robin, I'm dead already. Now jump!"
So she did, splat into the snow and ice and the van swerved all over the road, did a 180 and somehow came to rest against the steel ropes of a guide rail instead of going through the gap and down the mountain. She woke up gasping at the cold and realized, it wasn't Daddy who told her to jump. It was Ham. But in the dream…
"Are you all right?" Ham was poking at the coals of the fire.
"Did you get any sleep at all?"
"Enough. What's wrong?"
"I was reliving the whole wreck. In my dream, you were Daddy."
"Am I flattered or not?"
"Your choice," she smiled. "What's the plan today?"
"You want to retrieve your wheels?" Alice asked.
"Nope. Tire blew and we had no spare. Walking into town, find a new ride and head on out."
"So it was just you in the truck?"
Chris gave Ham an indecipherable look and Ham ducked his head thinking hard. Then he said, "That's not our primary mission." Chris nodded reluctantly.
"Something I can help with?" Alice asked.
"You can't just leave things the way they were," Robin said. "I know it will take us hours to get back there but…"
Ham looked her in the eyes. "You can stay here."
"No, I… maybe there's something I can do, even if it's just hold the guns while you guys work on the problem."
"Let me look at your feet."
Puzzled, she stripped off the thermal socks she had changed into at night, putting the previous day's pair near the fire to dry.
Ham inspected her feet. "Anything numb?" She shook her head, and he nodded. "Guess you can stand the hike. Get dressed."
"It's warmer," Robin remarked as they stepped out the door.
Alice picked up a shovel as they stepped off the porch. "Warmer weather has its own problems," she remarked. "If it's a thaw, it's the first one we've had so far, so hopefully the snow pack won't shift on us right away."
When they reached the van she said, "Nope, that thing will never move again. Lucky it isn't already stripped."
"I know," Ham said grimly. He used his Camillus Demolitions knife to chip through the ice on the back latch, then he and Chris unloaded the boxes and the crate that had jammed against the seat in the crash. He lifted his eyebrows at Chris.
"Blow," the burly man answered. "Don't know where we'd bury them."
Ham set his arms akimbo. "And the avalanche?"
"If you don't, somebody else will," Alice suggested.
"No, the damp will get into them. We'll open them up, sprinkle them down the slope, and push snow on top of them. Besides, I don't like the idea of who might hear and come investigate if we blow them."
They took turns with the shovel pushing ice and snow down the slope until they could hardly see the sticks of dynamite or boxes of gelignite. Then they moved more snow to cover the narrow swatches of asphalt that showed where the shovel had bitten deep. Alice picked up the top of the crate to carry back. "We may want a fire on the way and if we don't, we'll want one when we get to the squat." When they did, they were all glad she had brought the crate top; Axe hadn't carried through and there was no fresh wood on the porch. "They're gone," Alice said flatly.
"Not quite," said the man with the graying stubble who stepped out of the door. "Who are your friends, Alice?"
"Friends, Coke. Not lizards and not bureaucrats."
"Sez you. Axe ran."
"Thought so. Let's get warm and tomorrow – '
"Nope. Not sharing. If you don't agree, you can go."
That is just about enough, thought Robin. I'm cold and tired and hungry and this asshole … "Now, listen, you, get out of the way, because if you don't I'll go through you instead of around you," she said, walking up to him and practically standing on tiptoes to get into his face. His startled look was worth the frightened pounding of her heart, and he let down his guard and Ham snatched his gun, punched him out and walked over him. "Is there a rope in here?" he asked Alice.
"He's not worth it. Shove him outside the door and he'll either come to or stop being a problem."
Ham frowned at her, then looked at Chris.
"Alice," said Chris, "are you sure about that?"
She sighed. "No, I guess that's just the exhaustion talking. Roll him into the corner."
"Good work, Robin," Ham said.
"That was the exhaustion talking," she said, and grinned at Alice.
Denver showed up a few hours' walk down the road. Ham led them to a squat building next to an open space that was probably a park in good weather. He pounded, the door opened, he said "Cricket," and they got into the building.
"Where's your goods?" asked the stringy fellow who sat them down in the office.
"Forget it. By the time you reach them, they'll be useless."
"No goods, no get."
Ham grimaced with a dry chuckle. "You obviously think that's your decision. You're wrong."
"I got records," the guy said.
"You weren't kidding when you talked about bureaucrats, were you?" Ham said to Alice.
"This is nothing."
"Look," the guy said, "things are hard all over. You don't bring me even one stick of anything, and I got guys who'd bring me an entire crate if they had it just for one gallon of gas."
"One stick?" Robin said. "You want one stick?" She pulled something out of her left pocket, and something else out of her right. "How much do you want it?"
The look on Ham and Chris's faces was worth a million dollars. "Robin, be careful with that. You never handled explosives before and you don't know what you're doing." Ham did a very good imitation of shaking in his shoes.
"I think I know the basics. I light this," and she did, "and then I hold it against this." She moved the flame of the lighter toward the fuse on the dynamite.
"Stop, stop," the guy shouted. "OK, what do you want?"
"A van. Snow chains. Full tank. Rations. Couple of extra cans of gas. Canteens – full ones. Some rounds of ammunition." Ham glared at him. "Any more problems?"
The guy sighed. "And it goes on the WLF tab, right?"
"Right. Follow him, Robin, Chris." When they left the office Ham sighed.
"That's some little firecracker you've got there," Alice remarked.
"I'd better drill her before she finds out she's got more moxy than method and somebody gets hurt."
"She surprised you."
He nodded. "When this all started she was a little Valley girl, spoiled as they come. What she went through would have made anybody nuts – well, I guess she was for a little while – but she came out the other side."
"In love with her?"
"Nope."
"Give it time."
"Nope."
A table in a corner held a carafe of what looked like coffee and was at least hot. They indulged and then poured fresh cups for their buddies when Chris and Robin came back. "We all set?"
"Yeah." Chris gave him a significant wink and Ham nodded.
"Let's hit it." He held his hand out and Chris slipped him the keys to the van, and something more. Chris dropped back to clasp Robin's free hand; her other was buried in her pocket. Alice started getting weird vibes and searched her own pockets for the weapons she knew were there. They got into the van. Alice found wood squares leaning against the backs of the seats and moved the one on her side around to her left hand where she could jam it against the window. They think we're getting into a fire fight. Why?
The warehouse guy walked over to the garage door, squatted down, and pulled with no effect. "Must be frozen," he said loudly. "Wait a minute." He grunted and tried again to get up from his deep knee bend. No luck.
Ham and Chris exchanged glances. "You two get down and stay there," Ham said.
"Not a chance," Alice said.
"Then at least duck for now," he ordered.
Chris' arm went out the window of the shotgun seat and flourished in an arc. The guy stood stupidly when something landed against the middle of the garage door. He thought of jumping one second too late. The gelignite ball went off, Ham gunned the engine and two seconds later they were careening down the snowy street. Figures ran around the corner of the warehouse and fired a couple of magazines worth at them but it was no use.
"He was that upset about his damned records?" Ham asked Chris.
"I doubt it. More like he has customers on the side and we were cutting into his profit. I saw more boxes in there than the WLF has ever allotted to anybody that I can think of. And I don't think they have shooters stationed here to protect it."
"We going to let them get away with it?"
Chris grinned. "Do it, man."
Ham wrenched the van around the corner, boxed the block and came back to the warehouse. The shooters were waving their own van up to the exploded door. He screeched to a halt and jumped out. "That's WLF materiel you're handling there," Ham told them in a conversational way.
"Who gives a shit?" one guy answered, but he never finished pulling his gun.
Robin's hand hurt where the Glock bucked back against it but she ignored it and kept firing. I'm probably not hitting a thing, she thought, but at least I remembered to pump the chamber.
The shooter and his accomplices spun and fell under Ham and Chris's more accurate fire and soon all was quiet. Ham pulled out his mobile, spoke a few quiet words into it, then waved them all back into the van. "Somebody will take care of this soon."
They slept in the van and in the morning Robin said to Ham, "I want you to teach me what you know."
"Really?"
"I'm tired of just being along for the ride. I decided this the other day. If I ever want to go back to LA and see my daughter, I have to be able to protect the people who take me there. And when I get there, I have to be able to help. Everybody else does. It's my turn. Please, Ham."
"As a matter of fact, I was thinking the same thing myself. We'll start tomorrow."
"No, Ham. Today. It's way past time."
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