No Man's Land. James Axler

as they have the wherewithal to pay. As Earnie did have.”

      Erl’s thoughts flew like bats caught in a Deathlands twister. He tried to will them into some kind of plan. Some kind of way out.

      “I can pay you to cancel the contract!” he blurted. “Pay double! Triple.”

      Snake Eye reached up and twitched the patch onto his forehead. Erl froze in shock.

      The eye that was revealed was fully intact. And fully inhuman. Perfectly circular, staring and lidless, it was a blazing yellow with a black slit pupil.

      A rattlesnake’s eye.

      Snake Eye smiled regretfully and continued to tap the cold, thin steel edge against Erl’s quavering, helpless throat.

      The last of Erl’s resistance evaporated.

      “Listen, I can take you to the place! The hidden treasure! It’s not twenty miles from here.”

      “Is that so?” The blade was withdrawn.

      Erl almost melted in relief. His thoughts, contrarily, suddenly came together.

      “You’ll never find it without me,” he said in firmer tones.

      He felt a sudden sting across the front of his neck. It wasn’t until a red mist of his own blood sprayed out before his horrified eyes that he realized Snake Eye had slashed his throat with a single rattlesnake slash.

      “Why?” his lips said. All that came out was air gurgling from a cut windpipe, bubbling through blood.

      “I beg to differ, Mr. Kendry,” said the chiller, who had stepped neatly aside, out of the way of the pulsing blood. It was already dwindling before Erl’s eyes as he gagged and fought for breath. “If two idiots such as you could find the treasure once, I can find it now. And I’m sure I can track down other rumors about it to narrow the location further.”

      Erl’s vision was fading. He saw the hateful face of his killer smile.

      “As I said, Mr. Kendry—” the stoneheart’s words came as if shouted down a well that was somehow growing deeper as he spoke “—they always say too much.

      “And last of all—you should take with you, wherever you’re bound, the fact that I always, always keep my contracts.”