Page 3 of Freedom Fighters
The guard was firingtoward the back of the train and wasn’t looking at her. She took her time with the shot and got him in the torso. He reared back and clutched his side. Someone on the other side of the train—Ledo, by the sound of the light shot—took him in the head. He tumbled backward and disappeared.
Carmen holstered her gun and worked on the latch of the box car. It was rusty and gave way with a groan. Thenshe pulled the door aside and whipped her gun out once more for there were three more Insurrectos in the car. The door on the opposite side of the car was also opening.
The three men were pressing against the back of the car, peering through slits at the box car behind this one. The sound of the door opening alerted them. They were slow to turn.
She shot all of them in the knee, a shot apiece.They dropped, clutching their legs and screaming.
A fourth guard lurched into the doorway, bringing his rifle up to aim at her. Carmen squeaked in surprise. She swung her gun to point at him.
Before she could fire, another shot sounded. It was Garrett’s .45 bellowing again. The bullet whizzed past her like a miniature thunderclap.
The guard clutched his belly, looking down at it, surprised.Then he toppled sideways, revealing Garrett standing inside the other door, the .45 in his hand.
“You didn’t quarter the room, did you?” he said, his scowl back.
Angelo swung into the car from above.
“Take care of the driver,” Garrett told him. “Let’s stop this thing and check it out. There’s something strange going on here.”
Carmen agreed that this was odd. Six armed guards, only two carsand an unscheduled run?
Angelo nodded and swung back out onto the side of the car. He would work his way along until he reached the engine, then get the driver to halt the train. Depending on whether the driver was a Loyalist or not, Angelo would either use force or just ask nicely.
Garrett studied the three guards rolling on the floor in agony. “You should have gone for the head,” he said,“and made sure of them.”
“Listen to the doctor,” Carmen mocked. “I spared them. Sue me.”
The other five members in their team all swung into the car from either side. None of them was injured.
A rifle cracked, from outside.
“Guess the driver isn’t a Loyalist,” Ledo remarked with a grin.
The train’s brakes squealed and the train slowed.
Garrett was moving around the car, questing like a beaston the hunt. “It’s empty.” He turned on one heel to take in the whole car.
“Except for the rags over here,” Carmen said. She walked over to the pile of rags pushed up into the corner. They were musty, stained and ragged. She gave them a kick and her boot thudded up against something solid beneath them.
She looked at Garrett and raised her brow. Then she leaned and picked up the rags and tossedthem away.
A small metal box painted army green was revealed. There were two padlocks, one per clasp and yellow stenciling on the cover.
“That is what six guards were watching?” Ledo said, as the train came to a shuddering halt.
“Wait,” Garrett said. “First, move the Insurrectos out of the car. Tie them to trees if they’re still alive. Carmen, give Ledo your zip ties.”
Carmen pulled the half-dozenplastic strips she had out of her pocket and handed them over.
“Do the same with the driver and anyone in the second car,” Garrett ordered as Ledo jumped down to the ground and the others followed.
Then Garrett moved to stand over the box, studying it. “The rags were misdirection. If the guards failed, they hoped the pile of rags would go unnoticed. As if the guards wouldn’t tip off anyone whotried to get in here, in the first place.”
He looked up. “We take it with us. Search the other car, take anything worthwhile that isn’t too heavy. Let’s move. I want to reach the camp in thirty minutes. I don’t want to be anywhere near this train when the Insurrectos find it.”
He bent and picked up the handles at either end of the long flat box and lifted…or tried to. He got one end up, thendropped it. “Well, that’s interesting.” he murmured to himself.
He looked up as Angelo jumped back onto the car.
