It was only after the Desert King's men had tied them up, loaded them into the trucks, and driven off with them into the desert that Stu realized that Millie was missing. He had lost track of her in the chaos.
"What happened to Millie?" he asked Lucky. The two of them were sitting next to each other in the flatbed of the truck; Eldon was with them as well. Luna, however, had been placed in another truck, and her glider was currently being towed behind the other glider.
"I didn't see," he said. "She must have slipped away at some point."
"Stealth mode," Stu intoned. "Well, at least one of us managed to get away."
"This is bad," Lucky said bitterly. "This is very bad. What do you suppose they'll do with us?"
"They'll kill us," Eldon said miserably. He had his face buried in his hands.
"If they wanted us dead they would've killed us back in town," Stu pointed out.
"You don't understand. This is the Desert King we're talking about. He's a monster, a sadist. He only wants us alive so he can torture us."
"How do you know that?"
"Everyone knows that." He let out a horrible, ragged sigh. "They might keep your girl alive, but..."
Lucky shook his head stubbornly. "We'll find a way out. Any ideas, Stu?" He glanced at the handcuffs on Stu's wrists. "Do you think you could break those?"
Stu tested the chain holding the cuffs together. He was pretty sure he could break them, but what then? They were in the middle of the desert, surrounded by armed men. If he was by himself he might try to escape, but he had Lucky and Luna to worry about as well, and Eldon, too, and some of the townspeople. The Desert King's men had captured half the population of the little town; the remainder had either escaped or been left behind, probably because they were too young, too old, or too enfeebled to be useful to them. They had also looted the town, taking all the food, water, and ammunition they could get their hands on. The same thing had happened to Harbor, back in Meku City; the little settlements were always in danger of being attacked.
He told Lucky that he could break the cuffs, but that it would be risky. Lucky looked at him wearily and said, "If Eldon's telling the truth, we're on our way to be tortured to death. I think we're going to have to take some risks."
"I'm not worried about myself," he said. "But what if they start shooting? It's too dangerous right now. Let's wait until we get to this place. Maybe there'll be an opportunity then."
Lucky looked at the front of Stu's shirt, which was covered in his blood. "They've already started shooting. How the hell are you still alive, anyway?"
He had never told Lucky about the ICON system, and although the kid had seen him take massive blows and recover quickly from injuries, he didn't know the full extent of it -- that Stu's Regeneration skill could practically bring him back from the dead. He could tell him the whole story now, he supposed, but if Luna hadn't believed him, Lucky was even less likely to. "Just lucky, I guess," he said simply.
"I guess," the kid replied skeptically.
Stu leaned back and thought about the situation. How were they going to get out of this? Did he have a skill that might help?
Well, he had the Don Juan skill; he might try seducing and/or making an ally out of one of the two pink-haired women who had taken them prisoner. There were probably more women at the Desert King's headquarters as well. Making women fall in love with him, and compelling them to do his bidding, made him feel dirty, however, and anyway it was difficult to predict how these women might react if he bewitched them. They might be willing to help him...or they might not. For all he knew these two pink-haired women might simply lock him up in a dungeon and use him as a sex slave, if he used the Don Juan skill on them. That would be...less than ideal.
He had his strength and speed, of course, and Night Vision, Sniffer, Shadow King, Silence, and his defensive skills, but he couldn't see how any of these might help. It didn't matter how strong he was, as an individual; so long as he had worry about Lucky and the others, his hands were effectively tied.
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The truck -- which had very poor suspension; Stu could feel every little bump in the road -- rumbled along, and about forty-five minutes later the convoy entered a small outpost, where they stopped to put on gas and pick up more prisoners. Another forty-five minutes after that they arrived at the former military base where the Desert King had made his headquarters. A gate was opened for them, and they proceeded into the compound.
Stu's first thought was that it resembled a town more than a gang hideout; there were tents and favela-like shacks and structures scattered all about, and they drove through something like a central market on their way to the Vroom. It was a lively, bustling place, but there was an obvious authoritarian character to it all; mask-wearing men, equipped with guns, stood guard at various points, while others roamed the avenues.
The Vroom -- the crashed alien ship -- loomed over the landscape. Stu had seen plenty of amazing things since he had arrived in this world, but this was the first thing he had seen that completely astonished him, that filled him with awe. The ship had crashed into the sand at a ninety-degree angle, leaving half of it jutting high into the sky; this part of it was at least three hundred feet high and was visible for miles. It was a huge structure, black and gray, with a heavily greebled exterior -- raised panels, vents, conduits, and trenches crisscrossed its surface. There was a bulbous structure affixed to the rear of the ship, which might have been an engine or nacelle, or some kind of exhaust system.
Stu stared at the monstrous ship, his mouth hanging open. Where had it come from? How long had it been here? Why had it crashed? And if there were alien space-travelers in this universe, did that mean they existed in his own universe as well?
Lucky was equally amazed by the sight. "How could they have kept this a secret?" he muttered. "Look at that thing. Damn."
The convoy drove right up to the foot of the crashed ship; it soared above them like a tower. The Astrian army had constructed a large, expansive complex of buildings so close to the crashed ship that they almost seemed to be a part of it, the buildings spreading out from the point of impact like blood seeping out of a wound.
The vehicles stopped near the entrance of one of the buildings, and Stu, Lucky, and the other captives were ordered to get out and form a line. A tall man with a long, vulpine face, wearing a black hat and a dour expression, and accompanied by several armed men, came out of the building to evaluate them.
"And who do we have today?" the man inquired, sounding almost bored.
One of the pink-haired women spoke up. "Caught 'em on Route 106," she said, waving a hand at them. "I forget the name of the town."
"Delta," the other woman provided.
"Yeah, that's right. Delta. Rider town, but it's ours now."
The man studied the captives. "Not much to look at, are they?"
"They put up a pretty good fight," the first woman said, a little defensively. "And take a look at this glider! Is that not the prettiest damn thing you've ever seen?"
The man, who seemed incapable of smiling -- his mouth had fixed itself into a permanent scowl -- simply said, "It's nice." And then he went on studying the captives, with a critical eye. Stu, who was standing some distance away from Luna, at the other end of the line, exchanged a worried glance with her.
The tall man noticed her. "This one is pretty enough," he said. "The boss might be interested in this one, and that one, too, at the end of the line. Take them to Jayne." Immediately, and without ceremony, Luna and one of the other captive women were seized and taken away. Stu hesitated. Should he act? Should he try to save Luna? Whatever fate awaited her in the Desert King's clutches, it couldn't possibly be good.
But as she was being led off, she turned to Stu and gave him a confident, reassuring sort of nod. He nodded back, his mouth in a line. This wasn't the time. He would find her and he would rescue her, but to attempt it now was too risky.
Lucky, however, was unable to keep calm. "Where are you taking her, you bastards?" he shouted, and some of the men were forced to hold him back, to keep him from running amok. "That's my sister!"
The tall man regarded him without emotion. "Send this one to the camp," he said. "And this one, this one, and this one as well. But let Dr. Ketch know you're coming. He's been looking for a few new subjects."
Subjects? Stu didn't like the sound of that. He was not one of those chosen, however, so he remained in the lineup, while Lucky and the others were rounded up and marched off. He managed to confer with Lucky before they dragged him away: "I'll get free," he whispered to the kid. "As soon as I'm able, I'll come for you and your sister, just like I did back in Heart's Glow."
"Maybe don't take so long this time," Lucky grumbled. And he was led away as well, all the while grinding his teeth in frustration.
The rest of the captives were sorted out in a similar way, until the only two left were Stu and Eldon. The tall man looked down at them, his eyes narrowing.
"Those two are Riders," one of the pink-haired women offered.
"I can see that."
Stu frowned. "I'm not a Pale Rider," he protested.
"We found this on him," the woman said, handing the tall man the Rider's coin that Marshal Tempo had given him back in Meku City. He had kept it in his pocket for so long that he had almost forgotten about it, but the women had taken it from him, along with all his other belongings, after they had been captured.
"I'm not a Rider," he insisted.
"You're in league with them, at least," he said, flipping the coin, "and that's good enough. Take them to the Cage. We'll have some fun with them tonight."
What did that mean? But he had no opportunity to ask; the tall man's minions were already shoving him along, with Eldon, into the huge building that had been constructed at the foot of the spaceship.