Encounter: Book Summary
The novel begins with a recon wag being ambushed by a group of inbred in the Shens. The inbred all have the same general appearance and several are wearing TOCON, or totalitarian concept badges. The three crewmen of the recon wag are given over to a fog which is almost identical to the guardian of the Cerberus redoubt.
Trader Shabaz is the man who sent the recon wag to investigate the redoubt. He has been scavenging the Deathlands, trying to become as successful as the Trader himself for over ten years. Several times over the past years he had locked horns with Trader and each time he lost.
They captured a man who had information on the location of the redoubt. They also found out about the guardian fog from the captive and that was the reason they sent the recon wag, was to test the defenses.
Traders convoy is near Virtue Lake and they are preparing to head in for a weapons trade. The Trader is going over the modifications and booby traps that JB had set up. He is quite pleased with the work the Armorer did.
Trader comes across Ryan arguing with a man named Poet. Ryan doesn't like the other man as he is one of Traders war captains and he covets the position the man has. The Trader learns that many of the people in the crew are unhappy with the trade that is going on at Virtue lake. He has the group assembled and tells them that none will be forced to go into the ville and that they will not be looked down upon. But if they don't they will lose their share of the profits.
Baron Zeal and Shabaz are enjoying themselves, forcing the captive to lick his feet. They then force the captive to tell them about the Spearpoint redoubt again.
The next day finds Ryan in a recce buggy overlooking Virtue Lake. The ville is actually an oil refining facility that was built before the skydark. He reports back to the Trader. The Trader notices that Zeal had upped his sec forces as they prepare to head in. Before he leaves, Trader gives the convoy standing orders that if anything happens to him that they are to use the war wag rockets and level the refinery.
When they enter, several Sec men try to strong-arm Samantha The Panther. As to be expected the tactics don't work and a car is sent for the Trader and the others. They are also given Virtue Ville tokens to use in anything they want. It is clear that the people despise the sec men.
Trader meets with Zeal to arrange the trade. Trader isn't happy because the gold that was promised as payment was only partially good. It was things like gold fillings and other items. He was supposed to get fifty pounds but it is worth far less than that. Trader drops his original trade from one hundred guns to ten plus fuel. Zeal has no choice but to accept it.
Ryan and several others of the crew go into a Gaudy where they see an immensely fat woman performing. When things get rowdy, Hun fires in to the ceiling putting an end to the situation. They find out that the trouble makers are part of Trader Shabaz's crew.
They leave the gaudy. Outside they encounter the group again. A fight is about to take place when Zeal's sec men arrive. They back up the other Crew. Things get ugly fast and at the moment that Ryan was about to start a fight Trader arrived.
The Trader forces the sec men to put away their weapons after telling them that it would cost Zeal a hell of a lot of profit. The sec men do so and leave.
They are outside of the ville again. Poet, Hun and Ryan are together. A giant scorpion attacks and Ryan kills it. They find that it was protecting a nest of baby scorpions and Hun wipes it out with a blast from her Shotgun. She wants Ryan and tells Poet to take a walk. As they screw Poet is off on his own and spots a vehicle heading deep into the brush. It doesn't take a genius to tell that trouble is brewing. He gets the other two and they head back to the convoy.
Shabaz and three of his men are in the wag and are carrying about 20% of Zeals nerve gas stock. They come across one of Traders sentry's and act like they are simply hunters until they kill the man and then lob the gas into the convoy.
Trader spots the attack too late to prevent it and he is overcome by the agent.
Ryan and the other two watch in helpless rage as Shabaz and his people pull the bodies out of the wags and stack them like firewood. Ryan blames Poet for the disaster. They draw on each other. Hun steps in to prevent it. Poet tells Ryan that despite what happened he doesn't hold it against the younger man and that he isn't Ryan's personal demon. The younger man knows that he is right.
Trader comes to. He sees a fat sec man trying to strip Samantha, but as he is working on her she wakes up and breaks his neck before the other guards are able to restrain her. The sec man survives but Shabaz kills him none the less. Trader is pleased to see life among his crew but notices that about a dozen were killed by the gas.
The survivors are chained and taken into Virtue Ville where they are pelted with all manner of garbage. A mean little bastard of a man named Better is able to arm on of the Booby traps on the convoy before Shabaz's men kill him. The crew are taken to the prison which is nothing more than holes in the ground.
The wag that Better had armed blew up, surprising the hell out of Zeal. He goes to see Trader and he knows that the Trader has him by the short and curlies. He decides to try and force the man into talking.
Ryan and the others are heading deep into the territory when they stumble upon a naked Ex slave named Paste who just killed a rabbit. They offer to pick him up on the way out after hearing his story. The three of them pass through the villes Shanty town and run into a kid that tried to get Ryan's Panga earlier. Ryan offers the weapon to the kid in exchange for leading them to where Trader and the crew are being held. The kids name is Guy-Ito agrees.
Wiseheart, one of Traders men is slowly roasted alive in a huge metal drum. He refuses to talk and is finally killed. When Zeal orders another one of Traders people to be taken, they all volunteer to be next. Again Zeal knows that Trader still has him beat. He has no choice but to do what Trader demands.
Ryan and the other two manage to avoid one of Zeal's sec patrols and are given shelter by the fat woman they had helped out earlier. The fat woman had ridden with Wolfram until Zeal forced him to turn over his best acts for safe passage through his territory. She has been in the ville for over a year.
Ryan gives the Panga to the boy after completing his side of the bargain and the kid takes off.
Shabaz and Zeal are with the cook who is preparing Traders meal. Zeal opens a container that has the radioactive symbol on it's casing. It is supposed to be Plutonium dust but as fate would have it there is only a tiny fraction of the radioactive material inside the container. The cook spreads it over Traders food. The meal is brought to Trader and he wolfs it down.
Once again Ryan and the others are now near the area where Traders wags are being stored. They see the surviving crew as well as Trader himself. They go after some perimeter guards and take them out.
The Trader is feeling awful but is not killed by the radioactive meal he consumed. This shocks Zeal and Shabaz.
Hun Signals a wag to pull over and they kill the guards. They use the wag to get into the refinery where they pose as workers coming to work the next shift. Once they are inside the start to plant explosives that they had taken from the wags around the refinery. After that is done they rest.
Trader chooses the people he needs to run his wags. Zeal first unloads all of the cargo the man is carrying so they could load up once they breach Spearpoint. The sound of the passing wags awaken Ryan and the others.
They use the stolen sec wag to break into the jail and release the rest of the crew that were not taken by trader. During the breakout, two more sec wags are captured for their use. Using all three they assault the main gate. The sec men stationed there are wiped out.
The convoy is near the redoubt and comes under attack by the inbred guards. They use a primitive tank trap and a rock slide which almost succeeds in wiping them out. But the attack is repulsed.
Shabaz gets the prisoner to head into the area protected by the guardian. He has two metallic spheres that provide him with safe passage. Shabaz's group follow a little way behind the former prisoner. Once the man is inside the redoubt he re-activates the guardian which promptly wipes out Shabaz and his crew.
Ryan and the rest of the crew are passed by Zeal on the way back to the ville. They let him go and meet up with Trader. When the man learns of the explosives they head back to the ville to deal with the man.
Zeal finds the explosives just as Trader detonates them. The ville is destroyed. The survivors of the blast are killed by the nerve gas that Zeal had stored there. Traders goods are wiped out and Ryan finds no trace of the boy he gave the Panga to but does find his weapon.
End of Encounter