Liberty (Flash Gold, #5) Read Online Free Page A

all of the
good
Cedar had done for the Mounties.
Granted, he had been paid well for the bounties he had collected,
but he couldn’t help but feel bitter that the Canadians, his own
people, wouldn’t believe him over some interlopers from another
country.
    “Commissioner,” Cedar
said, not letting his disappointment and frustration show.
    “Kartes,” Steele said,
his voice as cool as his face.
    Another thump came from
above. Cedar kept his face neutral, though panic flashed through
him. If that
was
Kali…
    But the commissioner did
not bat an eye at the noise. “They arrived more quickly than I
expected,” he said. “I haven’t talked to Detective Thomas yet, but
I get the impression they were already sending someone up to look
for you.” For the first time, Steele’s gaze shifted upward.
    “They’re coming in
through the roof?” Cedar asked, that sense of panic increasing
within him, not because he worried about Kali this time, but
because the ramifications of Steele’s words were sinking into his
skull. He was about to be transferred to the custody of the
Pinkertons.
    “Their airship is docking
up there. Apparently, nobody in Dawson thought to build a better
place for aircraft to come in. Not that we get many people who can
afford to come over the pass that way.”
    Cedar barely heard him.
The thumps on the roof had taken on a new meaning. He didn’t know
whether it would be easier or harder to escape from the Pinkertons
than the Mounties, but he did know that he wouldn’t have anywhere
to go if he escaped while aboard an airship. It wasn’t as if he
could grab a life preserver and hop over the side.
    “Sir,” Cedar said, “I’m
not a criminal. I was wrongfully accused of the murders in San
Francisco.”
    “Yes, criminals are
always wrongfully accused. Especially when they’re behind bars or
the hangman’s noose is settling around their necks. Besides,
witnesses saw you shoot a man in the back outside of a mill that
you lit on fire.”
    “That was Cudgel Conrad.
Surely, you were able to identify him once you had the body.”
    “And what about the
people in the cave? And the men who were killed in the mill, as
well?”
    “Those were
his
men. If they weren’t known criminals yet, they were working for
one.” Cedar gripped one of the bars, his fist tightening. Steele
hadn’t denied that they had identified Cudgel. So, what was this
about? Though he was getting the sense that his arguments were
pointless, that Steele had taken a dislike to him from the
beginning, he added, “If you let them take me, you’re losing
someone who’s been helping your people catch
real
criminals.”
    “The law’s the law. The
United States already found you guilty in a trial. The punishment
is death. They’re here to take you back and ensure you pay for your
crime. Even if I approved of your vigilante justice, I wouldn’t
interfere with them. Dawson is growing into a respectable city.
We’ve no call for bounty hunters here.”
    Steele snorted, stirring
his mustache, and walked out of the room.
    Other arguments floated
into Cedar’s thoughts, but he kept his mouth shut. Steele had made
up his mind, and Cedar wasn’t going to beg.
    As more thumps sounded,
followed by the cordial voices of fellow lawmen greeting each other
in the front office, Cedar leaned his forehead against the cool
bars. He wouldn’t give up. He didn’t know how long an airship took
to travel from the Yukon to San Francisco, but he had that much
time to figure out how to escape. He just wished Kali would be at
his side to help with that figuring. The worst part about all of
this was that he wasn’t going to get a chance to say goodbye. She
would simply come in to visit the next day and find out that he was
gone, taken in the night, never to see her again.
    “Damn it,” he
whispered.
    For the first time, he
allowed himself a pang of regret, to feel that all the years he had
spent chasing Cudgel might not have been worth it.

Part 2
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