Chapter 22

When I got back into the small chopper, the pilot immediately started winding up for takeoff. By the time I got the headset on, we were headed back out the same way we flew in.

"Hey, I just realized we been flying together all morning and I haven't even asked your name."

He looked at me kinda startled, then smiled before he answered me. "They call me Puddles, Marshal."

I must have looked at him funny because he started laughing and then explained how he got the name.

"I used to fly charters all over the east coast. Every time I landed, my passengers always seemed to step out of the chopper into the middle of a mud puddle whether it had rained or not. One of the company presidents I chartered for nicknamed me Puddles. As my bad luck reputation spread, the clients started asking for me and placed bets with each other on whether or not they would step out on dry ground or in the middle of a puddle of water. Over the few years I worked back there I think I only dropped one passenger on dry tarmac. Thus the name Puddles. It followed me out here when I hired on with the Border Patrol and has stuck with me all this time. Of course I don't have that problem out here in the desert."

I grinned at him as he chuckled at the look that must have been on my face. I didn't say anything else, just picked up the binoculars and started scanning to the side of where I was sitting, thinking about what Kittrick had told me about Safford and the woman who was leading the small population at Bowie. I didn't know what to do about her but I still thought we should napalm the prisons at Safford, just to be on the safe side. If we didn't strike before those things got out of the barbed wire enclosures, I had a gut feeling we would be asking for trouble. I was also wondering how much residual memory these things had and what they could remember about what they used to do.

"Marshal, I am going to come in over the truck stops and hover above each one. I want to try to get an idea of how many of them are wandering around. I think if I get low enough the noise should draw them out, if what we have been told is true. We should be approaching the first one in a few minutes. We saved a lot of fuel on the trip because we have a strong tail wind pushing us. I have to admit I don't like this idea, because I don't know what the reactions of these things will be, other than they are supposed to be attracted to loud noises."

"Well, just make sure you stay high enough that one of them can't jump up and hang off of the landing strut. I would hate to have to hang out the door and try to kick one off. I am too old for that crap."

We grinned at each other before he motioned towards the front. I looked out and we were just coming up on the first of three truck stops in the area. We flew in a slow circle around the parking area and didn't see anything, but several hundred trucks were parked anywhere there was room to pull in. I saw one, then two more looking up at us. Puddles moved to the front lot where it was fairly clear. We couldn't see any overhead wires and hovered about seventy five feet above the lot. I took the binoculars and looked inside through the windows and noticed that the main side doors were open. I didn't see any movement inside but all the lights were still on, and the inside, or what I could see of it, looked in order.