Black Harvest

“What do you make of these?” Ryan asked Mildred, pointing to the bowls of multicolored pills.

Mildred shook her head. “I don’t know. Don’t recognize any of them.”

“Considering that these items are offered in conjunction with some truly excellent wines, I can only assume that they must be stimulants of some sort,” Doc said. “Perhaps even depressants.”

“Recreational drugs,” Mildred said. “In pre-Dark times, ecstasy was the drug of choice, especially among young people. Kids thought it was cool, but of course it was nothing but bad news.”

“So the baron’s a drug lord,” Ryan said, holding one of the pills, a yellow one, between his fingers. “Fireblast!”

Krysty eyed a tablet that was almost as red as her hair. “That’d be my guess.”

“Can’t say it comes as all that much of a surprise,” Mildred said. “He’s produced a lot of healing drugs. If he can do that, no reason he can’t make junk like jolt and dreem.”

“By the Three Kennedys, that would explain what bang is…and smash!”

“And now we know why his sec men have such good blasters,” J.B. offered.

“We’re leaving,” Ryan ordered. “Let’s get Jak.”

The friends turned to leave the dining room, but the doors at either end of the room opened up and sec men with blasters and scatterguns filed in.

“You can’t leave yet,” the baron said as he entered the room behind his sec force. He wore an immaculate lab coat and his clothes beneath it looked just as clean and fresh. “We haven’t even met yet.” There was a hint of disappointment in his voice, making it sound as if he were being sincere.

“We don’t associate with drug lords,” Ryan stated.

The baron put up his hands, almost in surrender. “It’s true, I do deal in drugs, but I assure you, only healing ones.”

Mildred gestured to the bowls of pills on the table. “Expecting some big headaches?”

“Ha, a sense of humor. I like that in my guests.” The baron moved toward the table holding the pills. “I’m merely trying to be a good host. Since I didn’t know what you liked, I simply offered you all that I have. I’m actually glad you don’t want to sample any of the drugs, since I don’t like them, either. Makes articulate speech rather difficult and compromises one’s judgment, two things I can ill afford as baron.” He waved his arms as if he were swatting unseen insects. “Take them away.”

A sec man hurried over to the table, picked up the bowls and carted them away.

“Now, if you’ll forgive my small mistake, let’s all share a meal, shall we?”

Ryan wasn’t in favor of joining the baron for dinner, but even if they wanted to blast their way out of the situation, they wouldn’t get very far. The sec men surrounding them could throw up a wall of fire heavy enough to cut down a small forest. There would be a fight, Ryan knew, but this wasn’t the time or place for it.

Reluctantly, he put away his blaster. The others followed his lead.

“Thank you,” the baron said.

The sec men also lowered their weapons.

“I better check on Jak,” Mildred said.

“Not to worry…” the baron’s voice trailed off.

“Mildred,” the doctor offered.

“Not to worry, Mildred. Your friend is fine, I assure you. Of course, you’re free to return to him whenever you like, but I wouldn’t be much of a host if I didn’t encourage you to eat at least a little something first.”

“I’ll take it back to eat in the room.”

“Fine, fine, now let’s get started. I’m starved.” The baron sat at the head of the table. Ryan and the friends took seats on either side of him.

At that moment, Moira entered the dining room, wearing a sundress and leather sandals.

“Ah, here she is now, the lovely Moira,” the baron said, “who I believe you’ve already met, down by the river.”

The friends watched the young woman enter the room.

J.B. leaned close to Ryan. “Sounds like they’re more than friends.”

“Mebbe she’s a big jack gaudy slut,” Ryan pondered.

“Isn’t she a thing of beauty,” the baron said, gesturing for Moira to take the seat next to him.

Moira appeared to hesitate, then reluctantly joined the baron at the table.

“She’s charming,” Doc offered.

Moira smiled in Doc’s direction.

Ryan had to admit that she was a good-looking young woman, especially now that she’d had a chance to clean up and put on some clothes. And the fact that Moira was the baron’s mistress explained why they had been treated so well since entering the ville. Any man would be grateful to the people who saved his lover from a gang rape. Still, if Moira was the baron’s lover, then why had she been so afraid of Robards and the sec men at the river? Ryan had never met a baron’s woman who didn’t act as if she ran the baron’s ville for him.

“Now that she’s here, perhaps we can begin eating.”

In minutes, a man and a woman were bringing in trays of food for them to sample. Most of it was grilled vegetables such as eggplant, zucchini and red and green peppers, but there was also some fresh corn bread, dried nuts and one small sausage each, the meat of which smelled like chicken but could have been anything from possum to snake.

Ryan was famished, and when the food began appearing on the table, he looked forward to eating his fill. However, something didn’t seem right with the picture.

Doc pointed out the problem to all of them.

“Uh, excuse me Baron DeMann,” Doc said, trying to be polite.

“Yes, sir,” the baron answered.

“Oh, I appreciate the compliment, but I assure you I’m not a member of any House of Lords. My name is Theophilus Algernon Tanner.”

“Theo…”

“Most people call me Doc.”

“Doc? Are you a scientist?”

Ryan looked at Doc, curious to hear his answer.

“Not exactly,” Doc said. “I have some knowledge of old sciences, and I dabble a bit in the new ones. I suspect I earned the nickname because I’m the only one in the group who can divide three-digit numbers without the use of a stick and patch of sand.”