“Not smart to be takin’ a loader through those hills”, one of their captors, a short-haired bearded man, grinned. “Sound bounces all over the place. Not hard to hear a motor like yours runnin’ around”. He paused before adding “Thanks for bringin’ our horses back, though”.

“We were gettin’ ready to come look for our boys”, the blonde-haired one broke in, “But since you took care of ‘em, more money for the rest of us I guess”.

“You got a funny way of showing gratitude”, Gerrin retorted flatly.

“Well, see, your boss owes some friends of ours some money and they sent us to get it”.

Both Gerrin and Reilly fought to keep from showing surprise at the word “boss”. “That why you killed him?”, Reilly asked stonily.

The blonde one shrugged “Boys got cocky”.

“Makes it hard for you to get your money, don’tcha think?” Gerrin quipped.

“Well, that’s the best part”, “Beard” smiled. “Those ‘friends’ are some Alliance connections, and they just wanted him caught. ‘Course if they don’t like that we killed him, they might not pay up. But that’s where you two come in: see, I’m bettin’ you two know more about where that money is than you’re lettin’ on, so if our friends chump out, we can cut our losses thanks to you”.

“What makes you think we know about it?” Reilly glared back.

“Oh, I’m bettin’ you know where it is, though,” “Blondie” crouched in his face. “Don’tcha?” He paused before adding “Tell us where it is and you might live”.

Gerrin shrugged. “Can’t help ya”.

“Beard” frowned. “Well then this ain’t gonna work out too good for you, then”.

* * * * * *

* * * * * *

“Yeah, this ain’t good”.

Aldous stood over the crippled loader assessin