1969-

“Are we sure this is the place?” Doug Fleming looked out of the plane’s window as

it soared over a one horse town in the middle of nowhere.

“The readings say so.” Barry Nicklaus smiled. One hand checked the parts built into

his body. He would be ready to go by the time they landed. “If it isn’t, we’ll cross it

off our list and go to the next one like we’ve done before.”

“Doesn’t look like much.” Marty Morgan climbed up in the seat and looked out the

window over Fleming’s shoulder. “I don’t see a strip.”

“There probably isn’t any airstrips.” Barry checked his loads for his pistol. “We might

have to land and walk in.”

“All right guys,” said Daryl Honeycutt. “We’re coming in for a landing. Strap in.”

“You heard the lady, Marty.” Fleming pointed out seatbelts to their youngest member.

“You don’t want to be slammed around when we hit the ground.”

“Okay.” Marty took a seat and strapped in.

“This is usually where the missile battery opens up on us.” Barry strapped himself in.

“Why do you say things like that?” Doug shook his head. “This should be a milk run.

Why do you have to tempt fate like that?”

“I like to give bad guys ideas so I can find them faster.” Barry smiled at the

expression on his friend’s face. “It makes it easier to punch them.”

“It makes easier for them to shoot at us.” Fleming shook his head.

He pulled on a flight helmet. He kept the visor up, but it would protect his head in

case something went wrong.

Daryl was a great fighter, but she liked to plop her planes down so someone would

start making trouble. The faster they got things sorted out, the better the group liked

it.

Hopefully Marley would keep her from being too reckless.

His mental abilities should bolster hers so she didn’t drive the plane into the ground,

or against anything solid.

“Going in.” Daryl reported. “Keep an eye out in case we need them.”

Marty hoped things went smooth. He didn’t want to fight for his life because

everyone else was thinking how great it would be. He would rather have an

uneventful look around rather than a search and destroy.

Search and destroy led to a lot of collateral damage that he didn’t think looked good

when you were supposed to be sneaking around as best you could.

The plane shuddered as Daryl touched ground. She rolled the plane to a gentle stop

on a country road. She cut the engines.

“Everybody out.” Barry undid his belt and stood. He rushed to the door and pushed

it open so he could kick the ladder from its niche. He liked to be the first person out

because his quasi-robotic body was generally tougher than the rest of them.

Bad guys liked shooting at Barry because they knew if they took him down, the rest

of the group would follow easier.

Doug and Marty joined him at the door. Marty held out a hand. A bird leaped from

it, flying away on gray wings. That gave him an eye in the sky while they looked

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around.

“Let’s see how bad things are.” Barry dropped down to the ground. One hand rested

on his pistol. He didn’t draw it yet. There was still a chance they were wrong.

Doug slid down the ladder. He moved cautiously under the belly of the plane to look

at the other side of the road. He didn’t see anything. Maybe no one wanted to go to

a plane parked on the local road because they knew it was a lost cause.

He didn’t like it. It meant trouble of one kind, or another.

Marty climbed down the ladder. He looked around as he tried to follow the input from

his bird. It hadn’t seen anyone on the streets. Farming seemed to be out too.

“I don’t see anyone.” Doug didn’t like the fact that not even the crops were moving.

“I don’t see anyone either,” Marty reported. “Where is everyone?”

“Don’t know.” Barry took a bearing. “Maybe we should go into town and see what

we can stir up.”

Daryl dropped from the door and bounced to a stop. She took on a human form

wearing their uniform colors. She smiled slightly.

“Doesn’t look like anyone is home.” She shielded her eyes with a hand. “Which way

do we go from here, guys?”

“People are in the town. They are clustered in the diner.” Jim Marley drifted from the

door, keeping himself off the ground by two inches. “There is something there that

makes them afraid to leave the building.”

“Where is Cortez?” Barry knew his mental ace was working on that. They hated each

other, and tried to kill each other as soon as they spotted one another.

“I have a signal in the fields beyond the town.” Marley floated forward. “I don’t trust

it.”

“So how do we do this, Barry?” Doug cracked his knuckles.

“We need Jim to figure out what’s going on with the signal.” Barry grimaced. They

had lost the element of surprise. He knew that he should be expecting Cortez’s armed

forces and his lieutenant, but nothing was going on.

He didn’t like that at all.

It smelled like a trap.

“Doug, take Daryl and Marty and scout the diner. Jim and I will check out this

signal.” Barry hated dividing up their forces. He should have recruited more people,

but for now he had to make do with what he had. “If there is a problem, send up a

flare. We’ll try to rescue you if we’re not having problems of our own.”

“There’s going to be problems.” Doug waved at the other two to follow him. He

headed into town, scanning the buildings for sentries.

“I agree with Doug.” Jim floated next to his leader. “There’s going to be problems.”

“We have to make do with what we have.” Barry shrugged. “Let’s see if we can scout

our problem before we close with it.”

Barry drew his pistol. He pulled out a round from his arm storage and loaded it in the

only clear chamber. His designs required something sturdy without a lot of moving

parts, so he had opted for modifying a revolver to do what he wanted. He checked the

direction of the wind.

“How far to this signal, Jim?” Barry’s mechanical parts allowed him to hit anything

within the range of his pistol. Some of his rounds were modified with boosters to

carry them further than a normal projectile.

“A couple of miles that way.” Jim pointed. “I don’t think you can hit it from here.”

“I don’t think so either.” Barry sighted along the frame of the pistol. He checked the

windage again. “But I can put a bug in sight of the signal so we can get a partial look

at it.”

He pulled the trigger. The pistol puffed a cloud of smoke out the barrel. He waited for

the projectile to hit before he started moving. If it came down and was destroyed, he

would have to think of some way to get around what he would suspect was a

magnetic field.

His body would be rendered inert by any magnetic field strong enough. And Cortez

knew that.

“It’s giving me data.” Barry started down the road. “It looks like some kind of sensory

array. I don’t think it’s designed for radar, but I could be wrong. I’ll have to take a

closer look.”

Jim didn’t say anything. He let his senses range out to look for other things, or

people, who might be dangerous to them. Something was there at the diner. He didn’t

know what it was, but it was there. He hoped the others didn’t get in trouble while

Barry and he were investigating the signal in the field.

He had a feeling that the signal and the presence were connected. He didn’t know

what it meant. He needed to check the signal, then the presence. Maybe a closer

examination would tell him what was wrong with the picture.

He spotted the others heading toward the diner. They would be there before Barry and

he made it to the signal.

“We better hurry.” Marley sped up his floating. “The others are almost in position.”

“We’ll go faster but we have to make sure to still try to keep the direction we’re

traveling a secret.” Barry broke into a jog. He kept to the edge of the road as his

heavy body moved smoothly along.

Jim floated quietly behind him. He kept his scan going. Cortez already knew they

were there. All they needed was for him to attack.

Of course, he might have fled with whatever he wanted by now.