Xiatokte moved fast and straight into the Landau. When everyone had got in, they set out directly for the main road out of the Mountain. He didn’t expect to be intercepted in the city, but he didn’t get so old by being careless.

’Te reached into the secure compartment under the bed and pulled out the code book and the one-time transmitter. The code changed each second, so he had to work very fast indeed. Once he had the pre-arranged code numbers identified and picked a second as the go time, he did the encryption in his head, waited, and sent it.

Alright. Xiatoktok would know what happened in a few seconds. He watched the one-time transmission device disintegrate. He really wished they knew how to manufacture them. They only recovered a few dozen, down to just a handful now.

’Te hauled out the Dreadful Mrs. Crump and loaded it up with as much biomatter as it could safely hold. The instructions on that point were pretty vague, but it wasn’t too hard to guess “fill to this line, right here.” Then he carefully put the protective shrouding back in place and left it sitting on the sofa next to him.

He had done all he could. Now it was time to move. The Landau barged towards the road down the mountain, smaller vehicles having to scramble out of its way. It wasn’t a graceful exit from the city, but what it lacked in aplomb, it made up for in speed. The guards met the Landau just outside the city limits, falling into formation as it passed.

There was no sign of Collective regulars on the road as of yet. But it wasn’t regulars that had ’Te worried. There was a pull over an hour outside the city. The Landau briefly stopped there so everyone could be updated on the situation. It didn’t take long.

“Xiachoram, Xiachoii, you both can stay in the front compartment of the Landau for now. Guards, we push as fast and as far as we can safely manage in a day, and we keep doing it until we are back in Cold Garden. Everyone eat some fish jerky, drink some water, and get ready to move out in three.”

“Expert?” Xiachoram sounded tentative. “Should we find a Sky Runner’s outpost along the way? To make sure that Cold Garden knows what happened?”

“Good thinking. Already taken care of. Your seniors have some means. Now. MOVE.” They moved.

Xiachoii didn’t look over at Xiachoram. She didn’t even sneer internally. It was a quiet sort of thought. “You are scared. You want to yell for help. You think, somehow, a whole army can be deployed to escort you home safely, even though we are ten days away. You are scared. Weak. And even though I filled up on nibbles at the party, I am feeling… hungry.”

The first day out of the city passed without too much drama, as did the second. On the third day, they started noticing a real reduction of the number of other vehicles on the road. By the time they reached Elko, the roads weren’t quite deserted, but it was strictly local traffic. ’Te had a quiet word with the worried looking innkeeper of Elko.

“Everybody knows that the Collective is going to build a fort here, and on the other end of the pass. Now, they say that it’s to make sure that wagons can get through safely, but you know the Collective. Not a great respecter of other people’s stuff.”

“Right, right. So everybody is staying off the road until the situation clears up?”

“It’s worse than that. See, the bandits know the Collective is coming too. They’ve been going berserk. They haven’t hit the village yet, but… well… If there was somewhere else I could go, I would.”

Xiatokte looked around the almost deserted village. Elko was a nothing little hamlet without so much as a stockade to protect them. Bandits could ride up to their front door.

“Take if from a Xia. It would be terrible to loose the inn, but it would be worse to lose your life. I don’t know where would be considered really safe these days, but… don’t come north.”

’Te slept in the inn, just to throw the innkeeper a little extra money. It was something that he had learned a long, long time ago- it’s not the grand gestures that made you real friends. It was the consistent little things that showed you actually gave a damn. The innkeeper had always done a good job for him. This was the least he could do. And really, the beds weren’t that bad, even though something was making the back of his neck itch.

’Te woke in the middle of the night, the screaming whistles of the guards loud enough to deafen anyone nearby. Blindingly bright chemical flares went up and out, as the guards deployed their defenses.

The bandits came in on cheves, moving fast and shooting arrows. ’Te got down on the floor and quickly pulled together his weapons. Arrows smashed through the window and the thin shutters outside. Good bows, he thought. He crawled to the door and slipped out of the room. He didn’t want to be on the second story when the bandits decided to start burning things.

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The sound of the arrows were more muted inside the inn, though the thunder of hooves came right through. He only had six guards. First Class guards, though. The bandits had probably-

A keening scream pierced through the walls of the hotel, modulating into a sort of bubbling, wet begging for something, anything, then… it stopped.

’Te grinned nastily. Bows were fine if you had to use them, and slug throwers had their place, but the real killers of men used melters. And the First Class Guards of the Grand Redoubts Bank used the very best melters the Ma would sell. More screams started sounding out from around the hotel.

’Te hustled downstairs. At a guess, the bandits were learning that the guards’ armor was very good and could more or less ignore arrows. When combined with the enormous shields they carried on their cheves, they turned into miniature fortresses. On the other hand, they could be overwhelmed with numbers and once you got a man on the ground, it was only a matter of time before they died.

The Innkeeper was crouched behind an overturned table, holding her wood splitting ax with white knuckled desperation. The non combatants of the party- the CDO’s, the associates, his valet, were all there with her. He nodded at them, then walked towards the door.

“Getting behind cover is the correct choice, up to a point. Certainly when dealing with more mobile adversaries. On the other hand, the best choice is to kill them before they are in any position to kill you. That requires foresight and preparation.” He had to raise his voice to speak over the screams. Broken glass was raining down around him too.

“Now, while our guards are doing their work excellently, we can support them. Or rather, I can.” ’Te looked out at the landau, and whistled a certain tune. The door of his compartment opened without being touched. Over the sounds of battle, ’Te bellowed.

“The Dreadful Mrs. Crump is to deploy. Mission: Extermination. Target: Everyone on a cheve, five hundred meters of Operator.”

Something silvery blurred out of the Landau. It leapt up at a bandit, and the bandit just came apart. Head, limbs, pieces of the thorax all ripped apart in the skin of a second. Then the shape blurred away, and another bandit turned into a meat piñata. Then again. Then again.

The guards weren’t idle either, hard beams of radiation slashing out and cutting down any bandit they could see. You could have a flesh wound with an arrow or a rifle. Not a melter. Once the beam even grazed you, the radiation would start shredding a person from the inside. If you were barely touched, you might live a day or two in horrible agony. Otherwise…

’Te watched some of the bandits ride off screaming. He wondered if they were bandits, or “Bandits.” Well. Not like he was going to have anyone to interrogate.

“Madam Innkeeper, I hope you will not think me rude if I check out early? I think it is best we get on the road sooner rather than later.”

“Would you take a passenger?”

“I am afraid not.”

“I will pledge myself to your retinue.”

’Te hesitated a moment. “Do you… actually know what that means?”

“I know my wife died and the kids all moved away years ago. Nothing tying me down here, except the inn, and now that’s gone too.” She looked bleak. “I have some small savings, but not enough to take me somewhere safe and start over. Cold Garden is supposed to be nice, and the Xia famously pay well. And you’ve always been decent.”

Xiatokte looked over at the CDO’s and associates, who all looked quite curious. His valet was doing a commendably good job of being both invisible and disinterested.

“Everyone, pack up and get ready to move out. Coordinate with the guards. Do not get on a cheve before I recall the Dreadful Mrs. Crump.” He drew himself up, and looked over at the innkeeper. She was an older woman, thin, worn by life. There were millions like her but, as the Clan taught, her experience of life was not quite like anyone else.

“Pledging to my retinue is… not like getting a new job. Serving me would become your whole life. You wouldn’t be a slave- you would be paid and in theory can quit any time. But don’t kid yourself. We have been doing this for Epochs. In less than six months, you won’t even be able to conceive of the possibility of quitting.”

She made a brittle grin. “Well. Sounds like I would be alive in six months. So that’s something.”

“Write your name somewhere in the inn, then join us outside. I will give you a new one when you join my retinue.”

They sped away. None of the guards were seriously injured, their armor shrugging off the arrows almost casually, and none of the raiders were able to get close enough to do any damage with blades or spears. The Dreadful Mrs. Crump had a couple of buckets of well water tossed over it, to rinse off the worst of the blood and bile.

’Te had no idea what possessed it’s creators. Perhaps they thought it was good camouflage or just funny. But the Dreadful Mrs. Crump appeared to be a tiny woman of about eighty five, wearing a light jacket and trousers of some shiny, iridescent material. It had been given some sort of mask or eye covers of another, darker, iridescent material. Its dense, curly hair was so white as to be faintly blue. ‘Te had no idea if any of it was functional, beyond that the instructions said it all had to be equipped. He got it stowed in the landau quickly. Every minute of operation used up an alarming amount of very expensive tailored biomatter.

The newly dubbed Rochelle was sitting in the increasingly crowded front compartment. ’Te was a little irritated with himself. On the one hand, he wouldn’t be a Xia if he just ignored a free meal like that. On the other hand… He sighed. On the other hand, he didn’t have much of a use for her other than being a steady source of time. The Retinue system was, frankly, outdated. Simply employing people was more than enough to get almost the same effects, and you didn’t have nearly the same level of responsibility to them.

Could he be getting soft? Horrible thought.