The echoes of the shoot lasted a disconcertingly long time, rippling down the valley in decreasing amplitude. I whispered a silent prayer of thanks to the machine spirit of the Helix 2. That much I felt I could still do without feeling like too much of a fraud. I was impressed by my luck with the weapon so far, esspecially considering at the end of a long afternoon practicing with rifles, Clara's response had been to sigh and remind me I could always club someone with it. The big gun hissed on its suspensor field which I took for an acknowledgement. The mutant I had shot looked more or less human, if you didn't count the extra eyes on his arms neck and legs. I didn't doubt there had been additional eyes on his chest, but those had been burned to jelly by the discharge of my weapon. 

"Ve mast move," I declared in my aristocratic accent, but instead of action there was a general murmer of discontent from the local guide. I turned and snapped my fingers.

"Ve are vasting daylight," I glowered, but the locals were crossing arms over chests, a few even fingering weapons. Clara had picked up on the tension and had rather nonchalantly turned so that her carbine covered our hirelings. Well Hadrian's hirelings I suppose, given that their contract was with an ersatz big game hunter who was in inquisitional custody.

"We did..." one of the porters blurted, then paused and knuckled his forehead when he saw the blaze of anger in my eyes.

"That is, yer ladyship, we signed on to hunt Carnadons, not trespass on some feral burial ground, not to fight mutants, nor tangle with no ferals what had las guns," he continued, his voice gaining conviction as he ran on and he received murmurs of approval and agreement from he fellows.

"How dare you," I snapped continuing to simulate area, "are the men of Havenos so bereft of testicles zat they are afraid of primitives and subhumans?" I made a broad sweeping gesture to encompass the valley.

"Old zuperstitions?" I scoffed. It was a masterful performance, exactly what an aristocratic huntress would do and maybe if they hadn't seen the bloody hands it might even have worked. That wasn't my purpose however. I had to make a decision because they thought I was the leader, but it was up to Hadrian as to how we played it.

[i]Let them go.[/i] His thought came softly but clearly. We had practiced speaking mentally during out time at his estate. He was getting much better, though initially I had used much to complicated mental metaphors that left him scratching his head or laughing out loud.

"Very vell, if you are not men, you may stay and guard ze ve-hicles," I sneered, "those of us with spines will explore for a few days, zen we shall return."

I turned my back on them and Clara, Selenica and Lazarus began unloading gear from the half tracks. That would have had to be done anyway, unless we wanted to knock the wall down in order to bring the vehicles through. It would have been faster, but it would certainly mean fighting every mutant in the valley. I toed the one I had shot, his mouth lolling open to reveal black teeth filed to points. The must have been outcasts, cursed by custom or greatest need to live in this horrid place. I walked a little ways a way and made a show of scanning with a pocket auspex glass I kept in a pocket.

"Do you think they will actually stay with the vehicles?" I asked as he came close. He inclined his head and I followed his gaze. I noticed Lazarus seemed to be spending a little more time near the engine manifolds than necessary. 

"He is convincing the machine spirits to run for a few minutes and then deactivate. I'll wager this lot will try to bolt the second we are out of sight," he said.

"Do you think our enemy might have an agent among them?" I asked, voicing a thought I had been mulling over for a while. We were well out of vox range of the settlement, but it was possible one or more of our local allies was a spy, either for our enemy or just freelance. There would certainly be spies back in the settlement who would be happy to get a story of what the big game hunters were up to for the price of a free drink, possibly warning the enemy that we were coming.

"They wouldn't be much of an enemy if they didn't," Hadrian said sounding very sexy and inquisitorial to my ear.

"Two days to the end of the valley, maybe one more to the dark of the moon," I mused, "we will be cutting this kind of fine."