Chapter 14
Twenty minutes earlier
Robert’s whole being was in shock. He shouldn’t be. After all, he’d been here from the start. He’d fought off these bandits when they had nothing but a hole in the ground and a group of tents set around a campfire. But this was his nightmare, playing out on the field in front of the wall.
So often, he had seen El Aguila send in many men, all of whom would return to him injured, if they returned at all.
How could the man justify sacrificing them like that?
Didn’t the men revolt? Didn’t they want to live?
Or were they so afraid of what El Aguila would do to them that they would rather be gunned down than go back to camp defeated and in retreat?
He didn’t understand the mentality, and that was the problem. He had to get into El Aguila’s head, and since he’d never met the man, it was proving difficult.
There were more bandits gathered and riding down toward the gate than usual.
What had changed? Why was El Aguila sending such a large force now?
And who was in charge? There had to be someone orchestrating this attack.
But it seemed so pointless. They couldn’t get to the gate.
The crew with the battering ram on the cart had been wiped out twice so far, and yet more bandits took up the job of moving the heavy thing to the gate in the hopes it would finally splinter and break.
The gates had been reinforced with enough metal to make them so heavy that Lizzy’s hydraulics were the only way to get them open or shut. This attack seemed so pointless that Robert didn’t like it. Surely El Aguila was smarter than this. He always had been.
He strode along the wall, calling out instructions, moving people to better positions where they could make more of a difference.
He spotted Lucy as he went. She had her focus completely on her shooting.
As he watched, she eased the trigger on her rifle, and a bandit’s head shot backward on his neck before he slid to the side in his saddle and crashed to the ground.
She turned her attention to the next one, loading a new bullet and waiting to take her shot.
Pride blossomed in his chest. What a woman!
Thank you, Lord, for bringing us together.
“Tim, come with me,” he called.
Tim smiled, and slinging his bow over his shoulder, he stood, ready for action. “What do you need?” Critter, on his other shoulder, chittered and washed his little face.
“We need to find someone,” Robert said.
“Who?” Tim asked as Robert steered him along the platform and around to the gate.
“See that cart coming down the hill?” Robert asked.
Tim nodded. “Sure.”
“It’s got something in it that’s going to be a problem,” Robert said. “We need to find the leader of this rabble of bandits and shoot him before that cart reaches the gate.”
Tim frowned. “And how are we going to do that?”
“With your keen eyes and a spyglass,” Robert said, thrusting one into Tim’s hands. “You’re our best spotter, Tim. You have to find this man for me.”
“And then shoot him?”
“No, I’ll get Lucy for that,” Robert said.
“Good idea; she doesn’t miss,” Tim said earnestly. “I’ve never seen anyone shoot like that.” He lifted the glass to his eye and began to scour the battlefield, looking for the bandit who was in charge.
There were just so many of them. Robert knew it was like trying to find one specific bee in a beehive or a particular ant in an anthill. It was quite a challenge, but if anyone could do it, it was Tim.
While he was busy, Robert went back down the line, looking for Lucy. He started in the spot where she had been, but neither she nor Anita were there.
Some people were heading down to the bottom gate. He found George directing them to go that way.
“What’s going on?” Robert asked.
“The bandits are splitting up, and some are heading to the other gate,” George said. “We’re sending some shooters down that way. Hold them off.”
Boom!
The sound just about shook every nerve in Robert’s body.
He realized that he’d been waiting for it, tense and ready.
Still, it was a bit of a surprise when it finally came, rattling him to the core as the sound rolled out over the town like an unwelcome gong.
The blood seemed to pool in his feet, leaving his head and heart in chaos without anything to sustain them.
He would have to deal with that. How?
No. His gut was crying out for him to do something else. There was something else that was amiss too.
Lucy.
Boom!
The battering ram was heavy and slow. They had to pull the dreaded thing back again each time before allowing it to swing back to hit its target.
That bought them time. Maybe he could find her in that time.
Maybe he could make sure she was safe, and then he’d be able to think of a plan.
At that moment, Robert had only one idea of how to stop the attack, and it hinged on finding Lucy.
No one else could make that shot; he was quite certain of it.
Robert stood, torn in two. On the one hand, he had to find Lucy.
He needed her shooting skill. Oh, who was he kidding?
Far more than her shooting abilities, he needed to know where she was and that she was okay.
If she was in trouble, which seemed to be the safe bet with her, then he had to help.
But there was also the giant thing trying to bring down his gate. What to do?
“Do you know where Lucy is?” Robert asked.
George seemed taken aback by the question. “Lucy? Why?”
“Because she’s the best shot I’ve seen in a long time. We’re going to need her,” Robert said. He didn’t add that his heart was screaming that she needed him. Suddenly, he was filled with terrible dread that had nothing at all to do with the booming at the gate.
Something of his panic must have been evident on his face because George shrugged. “I saw her and Anita heading down to the other gate. They were some of the first to go.”
“On the wall?” Robert asked.
“Lucy went on the ground.”
Robert nodded. He headed to the nearest ladder and began to descend.
“Robert, what do you need from us?” George asked. “What do we do now?”
“Find a way to stop that thing,” he said. “I’m going to find Lucy. Maybe she can pick off someone important in their ranks and we can end this.”
Boom!
“There are other shooters!” Goerge cried after him.
Robert ignored him.
Was he right? Yes, he was. There were others in Unity who could hit a target well enough, but he’d never seen anyone shoot like Lucy. She was a natural. Her father had taught her well to lead the target and make every shot count.
There was also the dread growing in his gut to contend with, and he had to listen to it. Being torn in two was no way to try and win a battle.
Boom!
By now Michael and Andrew had to be on the wall.
They could take charge. It was their town too.
He needed to do this. He needed to find Lucy.
He was somewhat surprised with himself to find that so long as he knew where she was and that she was safe, he was fine.
But he needed to know she was in one piece.
Nothing else mattered right now. Not even the town whose safety he was charged with upholding.
Unity was an eerie place when there were no people in the streets, shops, and offices. Most of the houses stood empty, the children having been rounded up in Emily’s house. As their teacher, she kept an eye on them during times of battle.
Robert whispered an urgent prayer that soon there would be no more such times.
He hurried along the path that Lucy was sure to have taken—through the mine and to the bridge.
Boom!
Was it him, or were those sounds getting louder?
He watched as someone on the wall reeled back, blood blossoming on their shirt as they dropped their gun and lay still on the platform. Who was it? He couldn’t tell from where he was, only that it wasn’t Lucy. He was certain of that.
He said a prayer for the injured person and hurried on.
“Lucy!” he cried as he neared the bottom gate. “Lucy!”
No reply. He headed for the ladder; maybe he’d be able to find her from up there.
“Lucy! Where are you?”
He passed by other shooters, picking off the bandits who had strayed down this way. They were a much smaller force, much easier to thin out dramatically. Lucy’s skill wasn’t needed here.
Boom!
How much more could that gate take? Lizzy and Troy had done a phenomenal job shoring it up, making it as solid as could be, but it was still a gate, a natural weak point in the wall.
Robert had to find Lucy. He had to find her now!
“Lucy! For heaven’s sake, where are you?”
“She’s not here!” Anita called from her post at the wall. She aimed and fired. “She went down into town, and I didn’t see her again.”
Dread like a solid weight landed in Robet’s stomach. “She didn’t make it up onto the wall again?”
Anita shook her head and fired her gun at a target that Robert didn’t bother to look at. There was a scream on the other side of the wall.
“I don’t know what happened,” Anita said. “I thought maybe she went back to the other gate.”
Robert shook his head.
Anita blanched. “We have to find her.”
“You keep fighting. I’ll find her,” Robert said. He hurried along the platform, moving away from the fighters.
Something had happened to Lucy. She would never just abandon the fight.
Even after being forced to flee all the way here to Texas, she had still been working on the case back in Boston, even if only in her head.
She was like a terrier when it smelled a rat in the kitchen.
It wouldn’t stop until that rodent was history.
A terrible thought entered his mind. What if the trouble in Boston hadn’t stayed in Boston?
“Dear God, I need you now more than ever right now!” Robert prayed as he hurried along.
He ran along the wall, but instead of casting his gaze outside it, he looked down into the town. Movement caught his eye. There! Between the bakery and the newly opened tobacconist. There was an alley, and he had a view right down it. Two shadowy figures were hidden in the shadow of the buildings.