Renewal 5 - an Untimely Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

control. Too little and they spun. Too much and they spun faster and lost contact. Terry kept trying, picking up the knack for tugboat driving on the fly. He eventually pushed the barge back around the bend in the river and caught sight of the salvage yard docks.
    Nick announced this fact with the excitement of a baseball announcer faced with a grand slam. Bill looked at John, and said, “Told you.”
    Terry had picked up some finesse in his short time as a tugboat captain, and managed, in a series of tedious maneuvers, to nudge the barge back up against the pier. Nick jumped aboard and tied the barge off with some loose line on the deck. Terry backed away one last time and wedged the bow of the tug between the bank and the end of the concrete pier. He shut down the engine, and with a giant whoosh of breath, relaxed tension he hadn’t even noticed. He left the key in the ignition and hoped he was done with boats for the day. Nick leaned down to help him up onto the pier and gave him a painfully enthusiastic slap on the back. Terry wanted to sit down somewhere.
    Rob completed a hasty  bandage job on John, and went back to put a few stiches into Bill’s carefully cleaned wounds. John picked up the job of watching the Grand Dragon, who was beginning to sound a lot like the blustering Judge back in Coffee County. He did not seem to understand that he was surrounded by men who would not follow his orders and scramble to meet the old man’s every whim. Terry was interested in what kind of excuses he was going to hear, but John put an end to that.
    “Terry, take Seth and go get Bertha,” he said, tossing the keys to Terry in an underhanded arc. “We’ll keep the old bastard talking until you get back,” John added with a sly wink.
    Terry lunged to his feet, gathering for another run. He picked up his rifle and set out for the western fence. Seth called him back and gestured for Terry to follow him through the front gate. “Faster this way,” Seth told him between breaths.
    John was nursing a burning pain in his side, but he wanted to free the police as soon as possible. He walked up to face the Grand Dragon, and said, “Give me the keys to the cages.”
    “I don’t have the keys, Defiler. The sergeant-at-arms keeps the keys.”
    John ignored the name, since he knew it wouldn’t mean anything to him, but still had to stifle the urge to kick the old man in the nuts. “Alright, Your Holiness, which one of these corpses is the sergeant-at-arms?”
    The old man lifted his double chin, and pulled his shoulders back, stretching his white shirt tightly over an impressive set of man boobs. “The correct address is Grand Dragon of the Knights of the White God.” The name was delivered to impress, but failed miserably. The man pretended not to notice.
    “Well then, King Flying Lizard, if you could point me to the corpse with the keys, I promise to remain as white as your god,” John replied with a straight face. “Oh, and since your little show last night was witnessed by all those police officers,” John swept his arm towards the cages, “I don’t know if they’ll be happy if I ask nicely again. Ever been shot in the foot?”
    The Grand Dragon took an involuntary glance at his feet, and John waited, stone still, until the old man sagged and gave up. “In the car... back seat. You shot him yourself.”
    “He got off easy.” John said simply. He gave Nick a sideways nod, a tacit order to go check it out, and turned back to the Dragon. “You cooperation is noted. You may want to stay in that frame of mind, since you were unfortunate enough to survive the day.”
    Nick came around the corner of the building in less than thirty seconds, dangling a massive ring of keys in his upraised hand. John smiled with relief, since he was not feeling up to cutting his way into the heavy steel cages. Nick trotted onto the barge and began the tedious process of trying keys until he found one that opened the first cage. It was made