Mercenary Road Read Online Free PDF Page B

lust dimmed. They turned and headed for the door without saying a word.
    Once the door had shut, the hoarse voice said, “Those dopes don’t have any idea how outclassed they are—of course, I don’t think anyone but people like them would even try to take the Florence Highway. By the way they’re acting, they’ll probably tag along. I just wonder if they have any idea this won’t be a simple rescue mission. At any rate, the mayor set tomorrow morning as the time to head out. Until then, we should get our rest . . . Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
    D was picking up the saddle and bags he’d set next to the wall.
    “We’re heading out now.”
    “ What? ”
    “It looks like we might pick up dead weight otherwise.”
    “You’re right about that, but—gaaaaah!”
    After squeezing his left hand into a tight fist, D grabbed the saddle and headed for the door. The saddlebags were slung over his shoulder.
    The ringing of a bell made him halt. A phone hung on the wall. The town was quite proud of the fact that every house had a telephone installed. The power station was in the desert to their west.
    Setting down the saddle, D took the receiver with his left hand and held it to his ear.
    “This is the mayor,” he heard a voice say. “I’ve decided I want you to let those other two accompany you. Consider that an order.”
    “They’ll just be in the way.”
    “Well, the town wants to take every possible precaution,” the mayor said, his voice quavering. That was to be expected, given the man he was addressing. “Consider bringing them along to be part of what we’re paying you that million dalas for.”
    “Find someone else, then.”
    “I can’t very well do that.”
    “Then keep your mouth shut.”
    “Fine. I leave it up to you. But if they follow along, I don’t want you people killing each other!”
    Before the mayor could hang up, D replaced the receiver.
    “Ain’t they the tricky ones, tapping your line,” his left hand remarked with amusement. Someone could’ve been standing right next to the Hunter, listening intently, and they wouldn’t have heard a word. It was a strange dialogue only D and his hand were privy to.
    “What’ll you do?”
    “Just as I’d planned.”
    At D’s response, the hoarse voice seemed to laugh.
    “See you, then.”
    It was a second later that D’s left hand fell off at the wrist.
    Down on the floor, the severed limb deftly worked its fingers to crawl under the sofa.
    Putting the stump of his left arm into his coat pocket, D headed for the door. Halting just shy of it, he stepped to one side.
    A ferocious knocking drew a derisive laugh from under the sofa.
    “Guess I’ll be staying here a while.”
    The rapping soon ceased, only to be replaced by a voice like a broken bell that asked, “Hey, are you in there or what?”
    Following this, the doorknob twisted frantically.
    Before it could turn all the way, D asked, “What do you want?”
    The voice brimmed with delight as it said, “Oh, so you are in? It’s me. You remember me, don’t you.”
    “ Me isn’t a lot to go on.”
    “Gonna be difficult, are you? When you took care of that souped-up bio-man last night, I was at the end of the alley. I figured you’d know who I was.”
    “The big fellow?” said the voice from under the sofa.
    “Oh, you can do different voices, can you? I guess I should expect that from the man known as D.” He sounded deeply impressed. “It’s just because of stuff like that that I have a request for you. Open up. Come on. Open the door.”
    The door was struck again. The room shook.
    “Would you let me in already? This hotel is really falling apart!”
    —
    III
    —
    D reached for the doorknob. There was something crestfallen about the act.
    A veritable wall of human flesh wearing a heavy chest plate lumbered in. Six foot eight, he weighed nearly 450 pounds. At that size, his chest plate and gauntlets had to be custom made. Of course, all the top-notch warriors