Free Phantoms of the North: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 6) by Mainak Dhar Page B

veered away and galloped away at top speed.
    ‘What do you think that was about?’
    Salil’s face was grim as he
answered.
    ‘Can’t be anything good. Let’s get
back and let Alice and the others know.’
    Salil drove as fast as he could
and when they reached the farm, they ran out, weapons at the ready. Haroula was
there, a bemused smile on her face.
    ‘What happened, kids?’
    Salil was still breathing hard
from his sprint to the Jeep and then to the farm and looked around with visible
relief.
    ‘I thought they…’
    Brittany sought out Patricia and
Phoenix who had been on guard duty.
    ‘Did you see any horsemen?’
    Both shook their heads, which didn’t
reassure Brittany much. If the horsemen had been in close proximity and managed
to get by the farm unseen and unheard, then they knew their stuff better than
the average bandit.
    When Alice heard on the radio, she
came right away, with Bunny Ears along. With the birthday celebration coming
up, they decided not to spook everyone but to take a closer look at what had
happened. An hour of tracking made it clear. The two intruders had kept their
horses about a kilometer away and then come on foot, perhaps crawling the last
two hundred meters, judging from the marks in the sand. They had hidden behind
a small dune and watched the farm before going back the way they came,
retracing their tracks. As Alice watched the tracks, she felt a new stab of
concern. These were not ordinary bandits, but men who knew what they were
doing, trained in the ways of surveillance and war. The distance at which they
had surveyed the farm meant that they would have seen little detail with their
naked eyes. That meant they had scopes or binoculars. Their footprints showed
heavy soled boots, not the tattered footwear of ordinary bandits.
    Just who were these new enemies
and what did they want?
     
    ***
     
    FIVE
     
    The Khan lay curled in a fetal
position and coughed again, covering his mouth with his hand, trying to muffle
the sound as best as he could. When he removed his hand, he saw blood on it.
    He had long known it would perhaps
come to this. Many of his men had met a similar fate over the years, others
fallen sick suddenly and died. They were illiterate tribesmen, well trained in
the art of war, but with no real idea of what had happened to their bodies.
    The Khan sat up and looked at his
reflection in the mirror, and then took out a faded photograph from his pocket.
It showed a blond, handsome man with his arms around a beautiful woman. Then he
put the photo back. That had been a dream, something he did not often try and
remember, because remembering the past never helped him cope with what he had
become and what he had to do. The world of his past, one he had devoted his
life to, had betrayed him, and he had been reborn as The Khan. In this new
world he would make sure he was never again as vulnerable and helpless as he
had been in the old world. In the early days, he had yearned for what he had
lost, and he had remembered who he had been. Matt Kobold. That name meant
nothing to him now.
    The patrol was due back soon, and
he was keen to hear what they had learned. In a way, he admired this girl
called Alice. They were more alike than not—both survivors, both having become
something very different from what they had been. The Khan put on his mask and
cloak and stepped out of his tent. His men were practicing below. Rashid was
putting them through their paces, and over the last couple of days, The Khan
had asked Rashid to increase the tempo of exercises. That served two purposes—to
not give them much spare time or energy to grumble about the drying up of the
supply of humans and also because The Khan suspected they would be tested in
battle sooner rather than later.
    Rashid’s horse peeled off from the
others and he rode towards The Khan, coming to a stop mere feet away, and
dismounted in one expert, fluid motion.
    ‘My Khan, our two scouts have been
sighted. They should be here