“Yeah, home.” He paused, more words dancing on the tip of his tongue, but he bit them back. “See you soon.” It physically hurt to press the button to disconnect the call.
I should have told him.
There’ll be time.
***
Cherry lifted his fist, signaling for the column to pull to the side of the road. It had been ten minutes since they’d passed the last car, something Cherry found encouraging. He slowed to a halt, standing with the still-running bike between his legs. Pulling out his phone, he saw a call request waiting, and connected, twisting to look up into the sky.
“I see you but you can’t see me.” Pony’s laughter was loud. “I’m loving these new drones. The Rebels get the coolest toys.”
“How close are we? Within five miles?”
“Three point two. Good guestimate.”
“Detour in place? I shouldn’t even ask. Of course it is.”
Pony laughed again. “As planned, bossman. You want the rundown now?”
“Yes, please.” Cherry listened intently.
“Eight ASMC. That’s all that have stayed with Apollo and Dillinger. No old ladies, no kiddos.”
“Just assholes.” Cherry sighed. “Next you’ll tell me they’re drunk off their asses.”
“Nope. They even have two sentinels on the road headed into the clubhouse. Just as you turn on, and a half mile past.”
“Noted. Hey, do you have lethal action on that fancy drone?”
“Let me check into that, won’t take a minute.” He heard a keyboard tapping, and then Pony made a pleased sound. “Incapacitating action. Deployed now, and will do again before you get there if needed. I’ll park the drones above the individual locations.”
“Fuckin’ rad, brother. Have you been able to see the RC folks?”
Pony paused, voice coming out in a deep rasp. “Dead from what I can see on the drone video. I’m guessing they didn’t appreciate the invasion.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, do you have an estimate for the assholes’ guns?”
“Normal individual pieces, but the RC liked to do boomies, so there’s a fuckton of Tannerite. It’s just laying around on tables and shit.”
“Well, that is inconvenient. No random shots, got it.”
“Busk wants a call.”
“‘Dokies. Text me if there’s anything I need to know.”
“Yup. Shiny side up, brother.”
“You know it, Pony. Later, brother.”
Before he could do more than pull the phone away from his ear it was ringing. Busk.
“Brother?” Cherry didn’t elaborate on the greeting. He didn’t need to.
“Cherry, I just got off the phone with Twisted. He and Atlas came to an agreement. They will patch over. The Jacksonville club will be easy, straight patch ceremony. All the members are in agreement.”
