The sprat talks

The feral scout, handcuffed to the Conquistador, keeps his sullen silence. He does not even give his name. At some point Zed Memphis has had enough “Quite the joker you are. Not only do you bring spears to a gunfight, but you also enter a motorcycle race on foot. Then you enter question time and don’t say a word.” As he strolls over to his trail bike, he glares viciously at the captive “Maybe I should chain you to this here bike and drag you through the shrubs for a bit. Maybe then we can talk, huh?” The others look on uncomfortably, but no one says a word. Zed seems to be quite serious “What do you say? We talk now, or I use your sorry ass for clearing bushwork and we talk then.”

The young man swallows. Zed fiddles with his bike and a tow cable. “Alright. Alright. I am Spinoza, with the HanHan.” Mal Porter nods at Zed and says “Okay. Zed, I’ll take it from here. Spinoza, we just want some info, and if you don’t lie to us, nobody is going to harm you. But if you start to bullshit us, I’ll leave you to Zed’s tender mercies. Do we have a deal?” “Alright. I am Spinoza. I came to the road because a saw a large dust cloud moving west. I am the lookout and wanted to see if there were any tracks, or if the vehicles dropped something. The hollows here are a good hiding place.” “Yes they are. Have you ever seen someone wearing clothes like this?” Mal points at Rod, who shows his benefactor garbs. “No?” “Are you sure?” “Yes.” “You live at the old junkyard, don’t you?” Spinoza nods “Had any visitors lately?” “Some hunters tried to drop a lone traveler a month back or so, but he was able to convince them somehow to bring him before our chief, Ghost Eye. Ghost Eye struck him dead.” “What?” “Ghost Eye is our chief and our greatest warrior. He looked upon the man, and before the stranger could even speak, Ghost Eye went for him with bare hands, and the stranger defended himself. But it was over in a second – Ghost Eye struck the man’s neck with his fist and he fell down. I saw it myself.” Mal ponders this “Did this visitor have any strange gear on him?” “I don’t know. He was dragged into Ghost Eyes tent, and when we burned the body it was naked.” Mal glances at the others. Dan seems to be impassive, but the others seem to share his impression that this visitor might have been their false benefactor. “This Ghost Eye – how did he come to be your chief?” “Ghost Eye – he is more than a man. The old women say that he is a demon made from sunlight and dust, but he is the best chief we ever had. Two years ago, he just enters the junkyard. It was a hard time then. Men coming from the jail had killed or chief before that, and we were suffering. Some old warriors even talked about giving up the junkyard and trying our luck elsewhere, maybe go into the Dog Mountains. He sneaked by all our guards and just walked up to our chief of the time. He challenged him to a duel mano a mano – that’s how we elect our chief. He punched the guy just once, and he fell down, puking blood. And thus he became our leader.” “And he does good in that position, huh?” “He is not only a great fighter. He is also very smart. He knows medicine and saved many HanHan with his art. First, the women talked that he was a stranger, a demon. But when he saved their children from the fever, that talk stopped. He also gave us new rules – Who to attack on the road and how. That didn’t sit well with the warriors, but he made them understand that the men from the jail would come again and again if we kept up our old ways. He said that we would still raid, but only selected targets. Those traveling alone. Those not belonging to the jail, or any other big group. He said we would raid smarter and better. He said that nobody cares if five percent are missing. We did as he said, and we prospered. The last two years were good years.” “Five percent?” “That’s what he told us.” “A nice guy all around – What can you tell me about the guards at the junkyard, traps, fortifications, that kind of stuff? Come on, don’t be shy!” While Spinoza was quite outspoken on the achievements of his great leader, he now returns to stony silence. It seems to be dragging time, but Mal Porter relents.

He leaves the captive and huddles with the others “I think we have found our false benefactor, and he is dead. But Ghost Eye seems to belong to the same club. The mindset, the skills…he fits the profile of these agents perfectly. So one false benefactor is in the ground, and the other is on the throne.” Rod nods “The question being: Why is he doing what he is doing? Is he grooming the HanHan for greater things? Is he trying to destabilize Refugium by aiding their closest enemies?” Zed chimes in “But why did he kill the other the guy, if the belong to the same team. Spineboy here said they didn’t talk for a second. Ghost Eye sees the man and decides to kill him then and there, and that’s that for our benefactor.” Rod says “Well, one of them off the table and that is always good news. But I would like to learn more about this Ghost Eye. How do you propose we proceed?” Mal says “We return to Refugium and share the good news. Spinoza comes with us and stays in custody, or he’ll wander back home and warn Ghost Eye about us. The monks can keep him in one of their many, many jail cells.” Nobody objects, and the men walk to their vehicles. Another talk with Ling awaits.