Page 44 of The Last True Hero
Adam gunned the bike and zipped through, a squirt of red dirt pinwheeling through the air behind him. Shit. Just what they needed. More reivers to contend with.
"Moko!" the reiver bellowed, gesturing to a one-armed man with scars slashed up his cheeks as if by a razor. "Come and show our guests where to park, then take them to Cypher."
Moko ambled over, moving oddly, as if his foot had been smashed at one point. His head gleamed bald, and his gaze kept lifting to Adam's then shying away, somewhat like a kicked dog. "Yessir. This way! This way! Hurry."
The electric gate kicked into gear behind them, and all the hairs on the back of Adam's neck rose, but he rolled the bike after Moko. They passed between the two gun turret towers and under a makeshift arch decorated with an old cow's skull and a pair of rusted wheels.
"That was easy," Jake breathed.
Adam couldn't stop himself from checking everything out. Ten, twelve reivers in the marshaling yard behind the gate towers... more strolling through the dusty streets beyond. Looked like a market back there, scraps of faded tents strung here and there, with street kids holding trays of food running through the crowd, trying to hawk their wares. Could be a couple of hundred reivers in the shanty city. Jesus.
"Getting in's the easy part," he muttered, idling the engine as he pulled up where the reiver gestured. A dozen bikes of various conditions waited there. "Getting out...."
"We'll deal with that when we get there," Mia whispered. "We're in. That's the first step."
"Hey you! Moko!" Jake called, resting his arm on the edge of the jeep's shattered window and peering directly at the bald man. "Will these be safe here?"
"Nobody will touch 'em," Moko replied.
"Yeah, well, I'm holding you personally responsible if my jeep goes missing. You understand?" Jake slammed his door shut, dragged his duffel and rolled sleeping kit out of the back of the jeep, and slung it over his shoulder. He jerked Ellie's hand, and she slid passively across the seat, slipping out of the car.
The scent of nervousness and determination rolled off her, but she kept her eyes lowered. Talk was cheap. Now she stood here in the heart of the reivers’ shantytown, Adam hoped her nerve held.
"Nobody steals in Rust City," Moko replied. "If they do, Cypher feeds them to the arena."
What the hell was the arena? Mia slid off the bike behind him, and Adam eased the engine off. The bike sighed into silence as he rested it on its kickstand.
"Got to hurry," Moko called, limping toward a small arch that led into a wire fence tunnel. "Cypher's got to start the War Games, so we don't have long. Doesn't like to be late."
Adam exchanged a long look with Jake.
"Nothing for it, I guess," Jake replied, eyeing the mesh tunnel with distaste too. Once inside they'd be sitting ducks.
Jake took the leash from his pocket and hesitated before he clipped it to the collar around Ellie's throat. "Sorry."
"Just do it," Ellie muttered. "The sooner we pay our respects, the sooner we can start looking for Thea and the others. I can be practical."
Mia's hand stroked the small of Adam's back. "Stop looking like you want to kill everyone here. We've got this. But if you greet Cypher with that look on your face, I'd expect fireworks. To rule this place he's got to think he's got the biggest dick around. You need to prepare to back down a little."
Adam let out a slow sigh. It was good advice. "Sorry. Just on edge."
"We all are," Mia murmured, and again she caressed his hip. "Think about how good it's going to be to set this place on fire."
Adam smiled. Yeah. That would be nice.
Mia slapped his ass, then shot him a wink. "That's better," she said loudly, in her reiver voice. "You look prettier when you smile, McClain. Maybe if you're nice I'll give you a rubdown later?"
Hell, if she wasn't the one thing that could make this ordeal better.
She'd intrigued him from the start with her no-nonsense attitude and stubbornness, but there was a gentler side to her too, a nurturing side that he hadn't expected. As if she were just as concerned with his feelings about this whole situation as her own.
And he had little defense against that.
He wanted to kiss her right now, to tell her with his mouth just how much she amazed him. To silently vow that he would get her out of this safely—no matter what he had to do—but there was no time. And he couldn't get her hopes up. Nothing could happen between them. Jake's discovery of his secret yesterday only reminded him of that.
It wasn't fair to her to start something he had no intention of finishing.
"Let's do this then," he murmured.
