After the shooting exhibition the group wanders back to the camp with Cole Dust still over the hill listening to the telegraph.
The mood is now somber and Malo decides he’s bored enough and would like to get this charade started.
“So, what’s it going to be, let the rich kid go on his way or take him hostage and start loping off fingers?”
You could have heard a pin drop the camp became so still and quiet.
Silver asks, “You heard all that and still stuck around?”
“I’m pretty sure you kept an eye on me all night and would have just acted sooner if I tried to run.”
Big Inu butts in, “You got that right, we ran two watches last night, one for the camp and one for you.”
Silver closes his eyes until Big Inu talks himself out, “Correct, we would not have allowed you to leave. Nor will we do so now. As for finger loping, that’s up to you. Cooperate, you keep all your body parts, mess around and it will get ugly.”
“That sounds fair in a way. I guess I can allow this to continue.”
Silver incredulously asks, “What makes you think we need your permission to continue? Do you have a bodyguard that we haven’t met yet?”
Malo is having a hard time taking this seriously, “A bodyguard? What’s a bodyguard? Do they protect corpses or something? What good would that do me?”
“A bodyguard protects you from becoming a corpse. If you keep playing like a fool, you’ll be needing one real soon.”
Malo gives an enthusiastic head nod, “Got it. What are you stealing that needs two heavy wagons with a pair of draft inu for each?
“Is it something big or something heavy?”
Silver slowly responds, “That’s a strangely specific question, you seem to have knowledge of transportation and logistics. I don’t recall you mentioning being involved in any business requiring such knowledge.”
Malo sarcastically responds, “Or I’m smart enough to know you need heavy wagons to transport both big and heavy things.
“It can’t be livestock because you’d need more supplies… unless you plan on taking a break from beans and are only stealing food.
“Are you stealing food?”
Big Inu laughs and blurts, “I wish!”
Silver stares Big Inu back into silence.
“We are not stealing food. Why does it matter?”
“Why does it matter? Because it does. Stealing, the taking of something that does not belong to you is considered wrong in most situations, but not in all of them. You can pick fruit off a tree that doesn’t belong to you or anyone else, is it stealing?
“If you pick that fruit from your neighbors’ tree and you both share many other things, is it stealing? You pick up a coin from the street, you saw the man who dropped it, is it stealing? What if you don’t know who dropped it and someone claims they dropped it? If it’s stealing, who is the thief?”
“Stealing has more gradients and exemptions than any other crime. Which is why it matters.”
Cole Dust hollers the train is less than an hour out, it just tripped the third beacon and is still moving at 25 miles per hour.
Malo doesn’t know what that was about so asks, “What’s the third beacon, is it different from the other two beacons?”
Silver, Cinder, Viper, and Rusty are all focused on Malo, if he so much as shifted a butt cheek he’d be shot, burned, and struck by lightning before he could pass gas.
Since he’s not trying to move, Silver continues the conversation, “You see the telegraph line up there, it’s actually a bundle of wires. Two of them supply power, one from the east the other from the west. There’s a ground wire that is shared and there are four separate signal wires. One of those signal wires is connected to beacons, when a train wheel passes over it there’s a break in the tone on that line. Listening to them tells you where the train is, measuring the time between beacon signals will tell you how fast the train is traveling. That’s how the stations know when a train will be on time or late.
“Why do you know so much about the law and how it evaluates the degree of a crime such as theft?”
“I learned most of that by reading books.”
Silver looks relieved.
“I also learned a lot in my criminology class.”
Silver almost draws his pistol.
Cinder is already holding as much thermal energy as he can or he’d be drawing more right now.
Big Inu takes a step backwards and puts on a pair of shaded glasses.
Whisker is the first to speak, “Shouldn’t we be tying him up or something?”
Silver retakes control, “Yes, that’s a good suggestion. Viper, Rusty, shoot him in the head if he resists. Big Inu, secure the hostage.”
Big Inu approaches Malo, “Lay down on your stomach with your hands behind your back.”
Malo lays down on his stomach and clasps his hands together with his fingers entwined, while his captor lashes his arms together from his elbow to wrist.
After his arms are secured, they roll him over and do the same with his legs, lashing them together from knees to ankles.
Finished with his lashings Big Inu roughly lifts Malo back into his seat on the log he was sharing with Silver.
Silver picks the conversation back up where they left off, “Criminology class you say? Where was this class held?”
“As you can imagine I’ve attended many studies, the last one I attended, where I learned criminology was in Mammatus.”
“I can only think of one study in Mammatus that might teach criminology, what were you doing there?”
“Originally, I went there to hide, I’ve been on the run for nine years now. I learned early that often the best hiding places are in plain sight.
“Don’t you agree?”
Silver finds himself nodding in agreement even though he doesn’t.
Malo is enjoying the double speak, if he’d known lying was this much fun when he was a kid he would have been in a lot of trouble.
Silver shakes his head and demands, “Who are you hiding from?”
“I’d rather not say. I’d prefer to be ransomed back to my family than to the people chasing me. Truth be told, you’ll have a better chance of living dealing with my family than the others.”
Silver wants to know all his options, “Who are these others?”
“I’m not going to say. Selling me to them means I die. I don’t think you could kill me as painfully as they could on your worst day.”
He looks to the shooters, “A bullet would be merciful.”
Looking at Cinder, “Fire would hurt, but nowhere near as bad as what could come from them.”
Turning his head back to Silver, “It’s my family, kill me, or let me go. What’s the train transporting that’s so valuable… and heavy. I don’t think it’s big, you wouldn’t need two heavy wagons for one big thing. I think it’s a bunch of small and heavy things and you need two wagons to share the load.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Like gold. Is this a gold heist? That would be bang-up!”
Whiskers mumbles, “That must be one Free’er returned criminology class.”
“Oh, it is. You should meet the instructor sometime. Master Terius would be really intrigued by how you plan to transport and sell all that gold.”
Big Inu bemoans, “Of all the people to stumble on to us, it has to be a student of the Terror of Mammatus. Silver, I’m getting a bad feeling about this. He’s way to calm, considering his position.”
Standing up, Silver abruptly pushes Malo off the log onto his side, “We continue with the plan and will not make adjustments until we must. For all we know this is all lies. I’ve met talented grifters before. He’s been worming his way into our heads since he stumbled on us.”
Silver kicks Malo in the stomach, “I think he’s full of Inu scat and has been trying to gain any advantage he can to live through the day.
Keep an eye out for his Inu, if it really is from the Brust kennel it could be trouble.
Malo wants to laugh at how well this is going, “I can call her in if you like. You can tie her to a stake.”
Viper sneers, “or I can shoot her dead on the spot.”
Malo counters, “Even if it’s counterfeit, her brand and training will bring a good price. You’ll need that when you botch the train robbery.”
The five bandits freeze at that prediction, shake it off, and continue with the plan.
Silver coldly speaks, “Call in your inu. Big Inu, find a suitable rock and tie her to it, use three lengths of rope in case she’s trained to chew through them.”
Malo takes a deep breath and yells, “Chloe!”
Chloe appears immediately, she had been laying in wait just out of sight behind some scrub.
Big Inu approaches Chloe who raises her hackles and bares her teeth.
“Chloe, Kennel.”
Chloe looks disappointed but allows three loops of rope to be draped around her neck. After making a complex lashing around an oblong boulder, Big Inu is satisfied that Chloe is going nowhere.
Malo returns to his questioning, now that they should feel in control again, “What I can’t figure out is what you think you’re going to do with enough gold to require those two carts. Do you have a buyer or do you plan to live off it?”
Cinder is pacing and complains, “I don’t like the line of his questions, Silver. You won’t tell any of us what we’re doing after this haul. You keep saying to trust you and we’ll all be rich. Is that rich with somebody’s gold or rich with a payment from someone for doing this job? Why don’t you tell our hostage what you’re going to do with all that gold.”
Silver flicks his jacket back to reveal his own pistol but that isn’t his real threat. Malo can feel the build up of electricity in the sky above the group of bandits. The area around Cinder feels more purple than where Silver is standing, making it the best path to ground, if lightning strikes it will strike Cinder for sure.
He had been wondering what skill Silver brought, he’s a lightning caller. Cinder was predictably a firemancer, Rusty and Viper are shooters, Cole Dust is now perched near the top of his telegraph pole looking off into the distance, making him a spotter. That leaves Big Inu and Whiskers as the only unknown combatants.
“You can’t unload gold bars from a moving train. How you going to make the train stop?”
Cole Dust yells, “I see it, pay day in a little under ten minutes.”
Silver squats down next to Malo’s head, “You’ll love this part. You know how people don’t usually get hurt in a train robbery… not this time. We were hired to derail the train and kill all aboard and to transport the gold to a drop spot. You wanted to know. Now you know.”
Silver stands up and barks, “It’s time to earn our pay. Let’s move out.”
Malo watches as the murderous bandits join Cole Dust on the other side of the low hill. Unlacing his fingers allowing his wrists to come together, loosening the lashing around his wrist. Hooking a loop with his thumb he pulls the rope up, further loosening the ropes down his forearms. He wriggles his arms in opposite directions and works more loops to his waiting thumbs where he can now flip them over his hands effectively freeing his arms in four minutes. He free’s his legs with a few slices from his now accessible belt knife.
A glance over the low hill shows Cole Dust is still intent on watching the oncoming train.
Three flicks of his blade and Chloe is released from her make-shift leash.
“Chloe, Stay. I’m going to go over there and practice what Master Terius taught me about using appropriate force. I don’t want you getting caught in the crossfire.”
Chloe whines in protest but lays down as told because she’s a good girl.
Malo trudges to the top of the low hill and takes in the plan.
Cole Dust is watching the oncoming train and calling out its position. Everyone is standing inside the curve of the switch heading to Bearupper. The switch has been moved from forward to back, that means the train will make the turn to Bearupper.
What’s he missing? Oh, the switch indicator has been altered it shows that the train will continue straight. Will the train be able to survive making that turn at 25 miles per hour? They must think it can’t.
Malo says loudly, “Excuse me! I can’t let you kill a train load of people.”
Silver glances over his shoulder to see who’s yelling. Seeing Malo free he decides he’s done playing the long game and doesn’t need a hostage. He nudges the part of his spirit that is holding back the huge cloud of negative particles hovering above his crew.
Malo glances to see what areas are safest and realizes he’s in the worst possible spot. He knows he can’t outrun lightning and prepares to catch it.
A spiderweb of light forms over the head of Silver and arcs to Malo and disappears with a flash of green.
Malo can’t help himself, “Was that it? I thought it would be stronger with the way everyone seems scared of you.
Silver nods to Viper and Rusty who were watching with pistols in one hand and stone bullets in the other.
Malo is glad he had a chance to fire a pistol earlier, he read a report about the capabilities of these new weapons but found it didn’t do them justice.
Like lightning, he can’t outrun those slugs, he won’t get much warning of their impact either. Unless…
Time slows as a puff of smoke appears first out of Viper’s pistol followed by Rusty’s. He immediately feels the potential impact and fast travels to his left.
They two shots miss.
Malo narrows his attention of sound to the metallic sounds of the turning cylinder and the drop of the hammer. Each shot is followed by a slowing of time, and a dodge to the right or left. Twelve clicks, six dodges and Malo has now advanced to within five yards of the group of bandits.
Malo asks, “Will you surrender or do I have to hurt you?”
Another build up of static electricity is accumulating above Silver. Cinder is angling to keep his crewmates out of his line of fire.
An explosion of chaotic light suddenly surrounds Malo making it impossible for him to see as Viper and Rusty unleash a barrage of stone shots.
Malo doesn’t need to see the shot to feel the potential impacts. He could just take the hits; it would hurt but he has felt worse. Instead, he follows his training and captures the bullets kinetic before they strike and fires them back the way they came. He can’t see but he can feel the areas with positive charges and he’s standing in one now. He hears a nearby lightning strike and the blinding lightshow disappears abruptly.
Big Inu is on the ground, dead or unconscious. A glance at the line switch and he notes the signal now shows that the switch is in fact engaged, Big Inu was their dazzler and illusionist.
Another build up of lightning is occurring and he has to give Silver his full attention.
“Two minutes, somebody better kill that kid soon or the train is going to see that something is wrong.”
Cinder steps forward and unleashes a torrent of fire spanning the ten yards between them. It’s hot but no hotter than an average campfire.
“I see why they call you Cinder and not Blaze or Inferno. You should stop or I’ll hit you with my fire.”
Malo in demonstration, launches a fireball with a fifty-yard diameter, a quarter mile skyward before exploding it like a second sun.
Cinder nonplussed continues to pour his meager stream of fire at Malo.
Malo observes that even when their attacks are ineffective, they keep trying in hopes of a new result.
That observation makes it no surprised that Silver is about to unleash another lightning strike when nobody has moved. Malo is still safe in a pocket of low potential and Rusty and Viper shouldn’t be walking to Big Inu’s position while they reload their pistols.
But they do and Silver calls more lightning, and the two shooters join their dazzler on the ground.
Malo calls to Silver, “Do you even know what you’re doing?”
Cole Dust interjects, “One Minute Silver, are you done screwing around or do I need to come down there and show you how it’s done?”
Silver replies to Cole Dust, “You tell me? Does Whiskers have the other hostage under control?”
Cole Dust glances over the low hill from his perch and winces at seeing Chloe swinging Whiskers around in a circle by a leg, “Nope, he’s not under control. I repeat, not under control.”
Silver pulls his pistol and opens fire.
Malo flips the rail switch back to the forward position with a nudge of kinetic energy. Lead slugs slam into his body, capturing the kinetic prevents them from penetrating his body but they still hurt as much as expected.
Next, he knocks Cole Dust on the head with a targeted punch of kinetic energy and watches him fall hoping he doesn’t break his neck when he hits the ground.
Pistol empty, Silver breaks to his right, moving to the same place where he struck his three compatriots. He calls another bolt and predictably strikes himself, putting him down too.
Malo, feeling thankful for all his lessons, surmises that Silver believed the old saying about lightning not striking the same place twice.
The train should have been here by now. He looks and sees that it stopped two hundred yards ahead of the switch.
He walks back to the camp side of the low hill where Whiskers is still being mauled by Chloe and puts him down with a kinetic enhanced punch to the face.
Chloe looks especially pleased with herself as Malo drapes the unconscious robber across her back to transport him to the nearest wagon. He then leads the docile inu’s pulling the wagon around the hill and loads the rest of the bandits into it.
A representative from the railroad’s security detail is cautiously approaching, Malo greets him with a wave.
“Did you see the signal I sent?”
The representative responds, “You mean the giant exploding fireball? That was you?”
“Yes sir, these bandits where planning on derailing your train, and to kill your crew and passengers, before stealing the shipment of gold you have onboard.”
The railway agent is incredulous at his story but the letter granting Malo authority as an Agent of Mammatus Study, signed and stamped by Headmaster Paras Robles along with the evidence as presented left him no choice but to believe.
Malo asks for the bandits to be tried and promises an affidavit with his testimony will be left with the Bearupper officials per Defender custom.
“One more thing, I need these two wagons back. I’m pretty sure they were going to deliver the stolen gold to someone in Bearupper and I want to find out who.”