The Survivalist (Frontier Justice)

Chapter 19

Mason met back up with his deputies at the police station about an hour after his confrontation with Rommel. They sat around the briefing table, drinking tap water from Styrofoam cups.

Coon raised a cup to his nose and sniffed the water.

"Seems clean enough. I guess we should be thankful."

"Yeah," said Vince, "thankful." He looked over at the empty coffeepot. "Marshal, any idea when they're going to have electricity back on? I could really use a cup of coffee."

"It could be some time. Weeks, months, or even longer."

"That's a long time to go without a cup of coffee on the job," said Chief Blue. "We may have to build a fire pit or some other way to boil water here at the office. With hot water, we could make our own percolator of sorts. Men can be clever when coffee's on the line."

Without another word, Mason unplugged the coffeemaker and filled it with water from the tap. He grabbed a packet of coffee and carried everything out to his truck. When he returned, his hands were empty.

"You letting the Sun work some magic on the coffee, Marshal?" asked Don.

"Actually, I have an inverter out in my truck. It runs off a couple of spare lead-acid batteries in the back. Give it a few minutes, and we'll have hot coffee."

"Serious?" said Coon. "Marshal, don't joke about something like that."

"Only the best for those helping to keep me alive."

"I'm just glad we didn't have to shoot anyone today," said Don. "I had them in my sights though, just as you instructed. If it had gone south, I could have dropped two of them pretty quick."

"I had the other two," said Vince.

Mason turned to Coon.

"If they were covering the four gunmen outside, who were you targeting?"

"Marshal, sir, I had the fellow with the big orange target on his chest."

"I thought you were supposed to be a crack shot."

"I am," he said, confidently. "That fellow was awful skinny. I would've had to hit him right in the zipper to make sure he took a bullet."

Mason chuckled. "I see."

"You think they'll leave?" asked Chief Blue.

"No, I think they'll wait for us to come again."

"Not to question your leadership, Marshal," said Don, "but is that really the best strategy? When we show up in twenty-four hours, they'll be ready."

"Who says we're going to show up in twenty-four hours?" The others sat up and looked at Mason.

"But you said ... Ah, I get it," Don said, grinning. "We're going to let them sweat it out. Then when they figure we didn't have the nerve, we'll move on them."

"Maybe. Or maybe we'll just pick them off one at a time. When their numbers get low enough, they'll skip out in the middle of the night."

"I like the idea of keeping them on their back foot," said Vince. As he said the words, he caught himself staring over at Don's prosthetic leg.

Don saw him too and grinned.

"Just to be safe, we should keep an eye on them," said Mason.

"We could do it in shifts," offered Chief Blue.

"I'll go first," volunteered Vince.

"And I'll relieve you tonight," the chief said. "My wife won't like it, but I don't sleep much anyway."