Tag: pinkertons
Agents of the Vault – Part 22
Part 22 of The Agents of the Vault is here! Grisom and Charlie realize the hotel is on fire!
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Agents of the Vault
Part 22
By Grant Baciocco
Both Charlie and Grisom had heard something come crashing into the kindling dry lobby room below them. They both reached for their guns. Grisom winced as he drew his and then again he attempted to lift himself up off the edge of the bed.
“You should sit.” Charlie chided, helping Grisom steady himself.
“If Jane ends me today, I’ll be on my feet when she does.” He said through grit teeth.
Both Charlie and Grisom kept their guns trained at the door, expecting Jane and her Pinketons to come busting through at any second. They both held their breath, fingers on their triggers and it wasn’t until they exhaled that Charlie made the discovery.
“Smoke.” He said, looking down at the whips of black smoke coming up through the thin floorboards under them.
“She’s burning us out.” Grisom said, looking around.
“How are we getting the trunk out?” Charlie asked, looking towards it.
“We don’t.” Grisom replied, grabbing spare bullets out of his bag at a great deal of pain that he tried to ignore.
Charlie stood dumbfounded. “It’ll burn.”
“It won’t.” Grisom said, stuffing the bullets into his pockets. “The trunk has enchantments on it. No harm will come to it. It can’t be opened, it can’t be burned. Let’s just hope it the desk survives the fall when this building burns and it falls to the ground floor.”
“There’s no way out of here but down the steps and out the front door, if it ain’t blocked by fire yet.” Charlie said, gripping his pistol tight.
“Then that’s the way we go out, I’ll go out first, draw their fire, you follow behind, but we going out one way and one way only.”
“How’s that?”
“Guns blazing.”
Charlie nodded and helped Grisom towards the door. Thick smoke was wafting up the stairwell. As they got to the top of it, they could see the fire was to the right of the stairs and they had a clean shot to the door.
Charlie smiled, “Let’s hope the stairs hold out otherwise, we might fall into the fire.”
Grisom smirked, “I think the real fire is waiting for us out on the street. The flames downstairs might be the easy way out.” Grisom pulled the handkerchief tied around his neck up over his face. Charlie followed suit.
Charlie helped Grisom down a step at a time. Both tried not to choke on the smoke as it filled their lungs. Blinking their eyes to keep them clear. When they’d reached the bottom step, Grisom took his arm from around Charlie.
“Okay kid.” Grisom said, “Let’s do this. On three.”
Charlie nodded.
“One.”
Charlie gripped his pistols in either hand.
“Two”
The heat from the fire in the room behind them grew, about to propel them out into the street.
“Three!”
Grisom was out the door and into the street. Charlie crossed the threshold of the hotel as he heard the gunshots begin. Unsure if it was Grisom’s or Jane’s gun that was firing, he raised his guns and stepped out on to the porch of the hotel.
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com
Agents of the Vault – Part 17
Part 17 of The Agents of the Vault is here! Now in Trinity, Grisom, Charlie and Doris try to come up with a plan to deal with Jane and the Pinkertons. They also need to figure out what to do about Leland.
If you want to subscribe to the Grantcast, you can do so with iTunes, or by using this feed in your favorite podcatcher. Enjoy! And let me know what you think of the story in the comments here, as we go along.
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Agents of the Vault
Part 17
By Grant Baciocco
The cart carrying Charlie, Grisom and Doris rumbled into the small settlement, down the road that had, at one time, hoped to the be the main thoroughfare of the bustling city of Trinity. Weeds grew wildly in all directions and large tumbleweeds piled into the streets having come to rest on the side of the buildings. The buildings were in various states of dilapidation. The blue sky could be seen through the walls and the rooftops. Grisom steered the horses towards the tallest of the buildings, the hotel. “When we stop, Charlie, you help me get the Vault trunk up to the top floor of the hotel.”
“Right.”
“And me?” yelled Leland over the roar of the wagon, “What about me, dammit?”
“We’ll come back down for you.” Grisom spat. “The desk is our main concern. We will untie you and arm you, but we need to make sure the desk is safe.”
Leland continued to grumble his displeasure at playing second fiddle to the crate, but neither Grisom nor Charlie payed him any attention as they unstrapped the trunk with the desk in it from the back of the wagon. Both men strained as they carried it up onto the rickety old porch of the hotel. Grisom kicked the door open with his foot. The dilapidated door, nearly coming off its hinges as it swung wide and slammed into the inside wall. Grisom pulled the crate towards the staircase that looked even worse for wear than the door.
“Those stairs gonna hold us and this crate?” Charlie asked, trying to disguise the waver in his voice.
“Here’s hoping.” Grisom grunted as he mounted the first step.
The stairs were shaky, but, luckily, they held as Charlie and Grisom climbed them. At the top of the stairs, Grisom made a left and then another left and headed for the hotel room that overlooked the street, or what there was of it.
“I want you up here kid,” Grisom said as they sat the trunk back up against the wall furthest away from the windows. He was out of breath and took a second to catch it. “With your aim, you’ll be better advantaged from up here.”
Charlie nodded. “Where will you be?”
Grisom looked out the window pane, out across the prairie where five specks grow bigger and bigger by the minute. He figured Jane to be 5 miles off or so. “I’ll meet them in the street.”
“What?” Charlie said, “That’s suicide. You know Jane will shoot you on the spot.”
“She won’t shoot me until she knows where the trunk is and it’s in her possession.” Grisom said, turning to Charlie. “That’s why you are the last line of defense.
Charlie lowered his head and then looked across the room at Grisom, “And Leland.”
“I’ll arm him. I’ll post him on the stairs.”
“You trust him?”
“What choice do we have?”
“And Doris?”
At the sound of her name, Doris popped a head up out of the saddle bag slung over Charlie’s shoulder. She looked at Charlie, then Grisom, clearly understanding the gravity of the situation.
Grisom looked at her. “Doris, if Jane takes the stairs, and gets into the room, you get out through the window, get to ground and burrow. You do not surface until you don’t hear any sound for three days. Understand.”
Doris was clearly troubled, but nodded her understanding.
Grisom smiled at her. “You are more important than what’s in the trunk. You cannot get captured by Jane.”
Doris whistled in agreement.
Grisom looked back up at Charlie. “Look, kid, it’s going to be all right. There’s only five of them. You and I have faced steeper odds. We can take them.”
“And if we can’t?” Charlie asked.
“We will.” Grisom said, nodding his head. He crossed the room to the trunk and, with his finger, began tracing symbols on the padlock that kept the trunk sealed. “I’m also going to call for back up. I just hope they make it here in time.”
The padlock on the trunk popped open and Grisom slid it off the latch.
“Go down and get Leland untied and bring him up here.” Grisom said as he popped the latch on the trunk. Charlie nodded and headed downstairs. Doris at his heels.
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com
Agents of the Vault – Part 14
Part 14 of The Agents of the Vault is here! Jane and the Pinkertons are hot on the trail of our heroes when they encounter the Pawnee indians themselves.
If you want to subscribe to the Grantcast, you can do so with iTunes, or by using this feed in your favorite podcatcher. Enjoy! And let me know what you think of the story in the comments here, as we go along.
Also, if you prefer a PDF version of this part to read, CLICK HERE for that.
Finally, if you’d like to support my projects, visit www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia
Agents of the Vault
Part 14
By Grant Baciocco
Jane and her men had trailed the cart tracks to the spot where Grisom, Charlie and Leland had camped out before. It didn’t take long after that to discover the field full of fired arrows and the buffalo hides. Most important of her discoveries was the pool of blood back where they had camped and the tracks that indicated they’d left in a hurry. Someone had been injured in the confrontation with the indians. That meant they would be more desperate to find medical attention. Being more desperate meant more apt to become careless. That meant it’d be easier to find them. Find them and get the trunk.
After discovering all this, Jane pushed her men hard. They rode south at a blistering pace. They were headed towards the Platte river. But why? What was at that river? What took Grisom and Charlie half a day took Jane and her men half of that time. Of course, they weren’t pulling a cart loaded down with stolen gold so their horses could move faster
They were a mile off from the Pawnee camp when there was a loud war cry from directly in front of them. Jane pulled hard on the reigns of her horse, causing her to rear up. Her men did the same. Once their forward progress had stopped, Jane scanned the horizon in front of them. Her horse panting hard under her. Suddenly one single figure stood in the tall grass before them. A Pawnee brave. He held his bow, loaded with an arrow at his waist in front of him.
Jane held up a hand to her men, who she knew were already reaching for their pistols. Jane calmly hopped off her horse and began walking towards the brave. When she was now only 3 yards from him, he raised his arrow as if to fire. Jane continued walking but raised her hands.
“We are looking for two men who came this way in a cart.” She said in perfect Pawnee.
The Pawnee, stone faced said nothing. He held his bow aimed directly at her heart.
“They are bandits. Thieves. We have come to take them back with us.”
Still the Pawnee brave said nothing. Only stared deep into Jane’s eyes. She continued to walk directly towards him. “We mean you no malice, but if you are hiding the thieves, it will mean severe punishment for you and your tribe. So I ask you, have you seen the men we are looking for?”
The Pawnee brave said nothing, but suddenly, from out of the tall grass, a group of twenty braves stood, bows ready to be fired. Jane and her men were completely surrounded. This made Jane stop.
She looked around. Her men, nervous, fidgeted anxiously on their horses. Jane never broke eye contact with the brave once she’d taken in her predicament. She nodded and slowly turned to go back towards her horse. As she did she gave a shrill whistle and in a flash turned, gun drawn and shot the brave dead. Before the rest of the braves knew what had happened, Jane had killed 5 more and was reloading. Her men took the cue and began firing as well and soon Jane and her men stood in a bloody ring of dead indians and not a single arrow had been shot in return.
Jane holstered her gun as she strode back to her horse. She climbed up into the saddle and looked at her men. “We take the whole village.” She said, adjusting her hat.
Brenner turned to her, “The whole village?”
Jane ignored the skepticism in his voice.
“Yes.” Jane shouted, turning her horse to face her men. “Is General MacCallister’s calvary unit still stationed in Independence?
“I believe so.” Brenner replied.
Jane looked at Conners, “That’s about an hour’s ride east from here yes?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Conners, Ride there now and get him. Tell him to bring the whole calvary. Executive order.”
Conners was headed east before Jane said the word order. Brenner and the other Pinkerton watched him ride off, hell bent.
Brenner cleared his throat, “That’s a least two hours before they return.”
Jane nodded. “It is.”
“What do we do if the Pawnee come out looking for their braves?”
“We give them more of the same.” Said Jane as she climbed back up on her horse. “I want that trunk. If the Pawnee know where it is or have even seen it recently, I will know or I will burn their village to the ground and spill every last drop of blood under their red skin.”
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com