Latitude Zero: Book Summary
They stand together and look at the ruins of the redoubt which exploded at the end of Time Nomads. J.B. removes his sextant and checks it out, discovering that they are in New Mexico. The redoubt, from what they can see is a total right off. They decide to head towards Texas to see if they can locate the third Cryo facility mentioned by Richard Ginsberg before he died.
As they are travelling, they come across a large homestead. As they are watching it, they are attacked by a tiny mutant hawk. Mildred, in a display of unbelievable skill, shoots the hawk out of the sky, killing it.
They approach it, and are greeted R.G. Ballinger and his family. He has two sons, Larry and Jim, and a daughter named Christina, who has a gimped leg. They use the usual lie that they are traders who's wag broke down and are looking to trade for food, water, and horses. R.G. agrees to let them come in. He was worried that they may have been part of Skull face's gang of killers.
Over dinner they see just how badly R.G. and his two son's treat Christina. It's not their concern so they keep quite about it. After that, Ryan and Krysty leave to enjoy each other for a while. On their way back to the ranch they come across R.G. at the grave site of his dead wife. What he say's to his dead wife chills Krysty to the soul. It seems that he may have been directly responsible for her death.
That night, as they prepare to get some sleep, Christina warns Krysty and Mildred to keep the door bolted and their eyes open. The warning was not without merit as later that night the two Ballinger boys, Jim and Larry come calling. Krysty uses her mutie strength and kills Jim by breaking his neck. She then kicks Larry in the balls, knocking him out cold. Mildred finishes the job.
R.G. is outside, facing the bunkhouse where the men are staying. He has been drinking and is prepared to fire upon anyone leaving. He never gets a chance, as he grows impatient and heads to where Krysty and Mildred are staying. As he is about to enter, Jak hits him with one of his leaf bladed throwing knives, killing the sick bastard. Christina comes out, carrying a ancient Winchester repeater rifle. She asks if her family is dead. When she learns that they are, she simply say 'That's good'
The next morning after breakfast Ryan offers to take her with them, but she refuses, as the land is now hers and she had to pay a hard price for it. He accepts her decision. In the end they end up trading for six horses and a pack mule to carry the party, as well as food and water. Jak seems to be taken by the older woman and spends a lot of time with her before they leave. In the end, Ryan and the rest leave, a short time later Jak catches up with them.
Later that day they are caught out in the open when a terrible storm erupts. They are all drenched within seconds and are caught in a flash flood. They all make it through the flood intact, but the horses are lost and J.B. loses his MP-7. They have no choice but to continue on their way, and hope they find a source for food, water and fresh horses. Around nightfall, they encounter a wagon train and decide to approach it. At first, the settlers open fire on them but the head of the train, a man named Major Seth Ward allows the party to approach.
At dinner they meet the leader of the wagon train, a man named Reverend Vare and his daughter, who seems to have taken a shine to Jak. Seth ends up taking Ryan aside. He tells the one eyed man that he knows they are not traders and asks if they are Mercies. He offers to let them stay on as protection while they are travelling. He also tells Ryan about the fact that they found a ruined ranch where the attackers had been a combination of Stickies and Scalies.
The next day they come across an area where they should be able to load up on fresh water. Major Ward has a map which shows its location. After arguing with Vare, Ryan, J.B. and Krysty agree to scout ahead. Sure enough, they are attacked by a band of twelve scalies. Ward is quite impressed with their skill, but Vare isn't. Says the lord even takes care of the unbelievers.
Since the way seems to be clear, Doc and Mildred set out with empty water bottles to fill. Along the way Mildred talks about hoping to find the Cryonics facility. She wants to be able to talk to people from her own time. As they reach the water, they are attacked by a small group of five stickies. After dispatching the muties, they fill the water containers and return to the wagon train.
They spend the next day travelling. That night, as they are preparing to camp, Jak goes to relieve himself. When he returns he refuses to speak to anyone and goes to bed. Ryan goes to talk to him, to try and find out what is wrong. Turns out that Sharon, the daughter of Reverend Vare, wanted Jak to have sex with her, and to marry her. If he refused, she would go to her father, claiming that Jak tried to rape her. He still refused and she didn't make good her threat. They eventually go to sleep.
Next day they continue on their journey. By nightfall, they come to the ruined ville of Salvation. A set of rail road tracks can be seen running through the town, and just to be safe, they camp on the outskirts of the ville. So far, the map that Major Ward possesses has yet to let them down. They plan to head in after sunrise.
Spending some time watching the ville, they see that it is deserted. The six companions agree to head in on foot and scout it out. Krysty and Ryan explore a tiny mall, while the others explore the rest of the ville. When they meet up, the realise the fact that several of the homes appear to have been recently stripped of any useful items. Doc and Mildred mention that they found a sign stating that the old Locomotive had been refurbished and was ready to hit the rails. The sign was dated from before the Skydark. They find the rail road station, and the remains of the town's inhabitants. They died slow and hard. They all figure that it had to be this man Skull face they have heard about.
Returning to the wagon train, they report their findings to Vare and Ward. Even with the potential danger, Vare insists that they stay in the ville for three days, to rest and load up on any supplies they can salvage. He refuses to be swayed from his decision.
Ward mentions to Ryan that the map has the location of a mall that is supposed to be untouched since the Skydark. It appears to be only about a day's travel from the ville so he, Ryan, Krysty, J.B. and Jak head out on horse back to see what they can find. After travelling most of the day they finally stop and make camp for the night.
Back at the wagon train the only thing of interest to happen is a young fat man named John Ridley wants to be baptised. After he and Vare fall into an unseen hole in the stream, the baptism is held off indefinitely.
That night as Jak relieves Ryan from guard duty, they talk about Sharon Vare. He knows all she wants is to have sex and marry him, but mainly just to have sex. Ryan tells him that maybe he should consider settling down and leave this life of running and killing, and running again, as it's no life for such a young man. Jak wants to stay with the group, as it's the only place he feels like he belongs.
The next day they find the mall alright, what's left of it. The entire structure has been destroyed and is not worth the small party taking the time to explore it. Krysty gets the feeling that something bad is about to happen at the ville and insists that they return. Ryan, knowing that her 'feelings' are very rarely wrong, agrees and they turn around and head back to the ville and the wagon train.
During the day as Ryan and the others head towards the ville, the people of the wagon train see the smoke from the train. It stops in the foot hills a few miles from the ville and appears to just sit there. Doc and Mildred discuss the possibility that the train may be controlled by this man, Skull face, and that they may be in the middle of a well placed trap. Sure enough, after three blows from the trains whistle, the armed sec men burst into town and take everyone prisoner. Fortunately, Doc and Mildred were able to hide their weapons beneath a porch before they are captured.
Doc nearly loses it when he sees Strasser once again. As before, Cort Strasser was able to build a small army of cut throats and killers, including a man named Rafe and a woman named Rosa. He comes across reverend Vare and his daughter. After jamming his walking stick into Sharon's groin, Vare attempts to stop him. Strasser opens his throat from ear to ear. Doc loses it and confronts Strasser, much to the man's delight. Strasser it turns out, is Skullface.
Ryan and the others make it back to the ville after dark and are able to find a suitable house to hold up in while they decide what to do about Mildred and Doc being captured.
As to be expected, Strasser interrogates Doc, and he confirms that yes, Ryan and the others are around. He doesn't reveal the presence of Mildred. Satisfied, Strasser has Doc returned to the other prisoners.
In the morning, the prisoners are not fed, but they are given water. Strasser knowing that Ryan and the others may be somewhere in the ville, sends out his men to search for them. Within an hour, several of the men begin to give up searching for the band. It isn't that long before the remaining searchers get close to the building that they are in. Ryan slips outside and waits for them. Six of them decide to take a break. A pair of the guards, a man and a woman begin to have sex while two others doze off while sitting in the shade. Ryan kills the two coupling with his Panga, and shoots the other two in the head with his silenced Sig Sauer pistol. The other two guards are killed by Jak.
The dead are quickly found, confirming Strasser's suspicion that Ryan and the others are somewhere inside the ville. He decides to hold a lottery. Those who pick a black stone out of a barrel will be killed unless Ryan and Jak show themselves and give up. Six are chosen after an hour. He lets Ryan know that he has exactly One hour to come out, or he will begin to kill the hostages, one every ten minutes. As the hour ends, he executes his first victim. The others die shortly afterwards, including a young child and his mother. In the confusion and horror of the executions, Mildred is able to slip unnoticed to retrieve her ZKR and doc's Le Mat.
As the last two victims are killed, Mildred carefully chooses her targets and begins to kill the sec men. This starts a bloody fire fight in which over half of Strasser's men are killed, but at a heavy price. Over half the settlers are in turn killed in the fighting. No more than a dozen of Strasser's men reach the safety of the locomotive and escape into the hills.
They leave the surviving settlers. The settlers are happy to see the band leave as they blame the deaths on them. Ryan wishes Major Ward good luck. Sharon Vare wants Jak to stay with her and marry her, but he refuses, not being interested in the girl. They find a hand pump trolley and set out after Strasser and the remaining sec men.
They spend a good part of the day travelling after the surviving sec men. Eventually the hills become to steep and they are forced to abandon the cart, and continue their way on foot. They can see the smoke of the locomotive as well as the ruins of a ville in the distance. They find that the Locomotive crossed an old bridge before entering the ville. As they watch, Jak spots light reflecting off glass and they realise that Strasser knows they are near.
Strasser sends most of his remaining sec men on the wag to try and chill Ryan. He then spots an old shack near the tracks. He learns that its filled with old tools as well as grease. It hits him like a ton of bricks. He knows exactly what is going to happen. Sure enough, the train is unable to stop because of the grease spread out over the tracks and J.B. set a demolition charge on the bridge. He detonates it using his handgun, blowing the bridge and sending the train to the bottom of the deep gorge. Strasser and three of his men are the only ones to survive. They take an old refurbished armoured car and take off. Ryan and the rest stay in the ville to rest up.
Over the night, Strasser discovers that the trail they were on was blocked and was forced to abandon the wag. He kills one of his men for not telling him about this the night before, even though he tried. They continue on foot.
In the morning Ryan and the others find four single bikes and one tandem bike. They spend part of the morning learning how to use them and finally set out. After one minor mishap which everyone managed to escape serious injury they meet up with the abandoned wag. A short way past the earthslip they find the ruins of a hotel. This hotel used to cater to those who wanted to go hiking and white water rafting. Inside they find evidence that Strasser filled a raft and took to the river. They do the same.
After an incredibly exhausting day of negotiating the river, they pull ashore for some badly needed rest. Mildred is unable to sleep and goes for a walk after discovering a small path alongside the river that was exposed as the water level dropped. She takes it and is promptly captured by Strasser.
Jak wakes up to discover that she is gone. The others wake up as well. They find the tracks and the trail where she went. Ryan refuses to go after her as it would be far too dangerous at this time. A short time afterwards, just after dawn, they spot Strasser and Mildred heading down the river. They immediately give chase.
Throughout the day they are never more than a mile away from the other raft. Ryan won't take a shot, for the odds of hitting Mildred are far too great. The river becomes harder to travel on and before anyone can do anything about it, both rafts go over a water fall.
Mildred manages to strangle the woman Rosa to death, and at the same time she is able to grab her ZKR pistol. Strasser and Rafe push her on ahead and they try to put as much distance between themselves and Ryan's group.
A short time later they come across an area absolutely devastated by quakes, and can make out the ruins of a military redoubt in the distance. As they cross this area, Strasser's small band encounter a huge mutie wolf. He orders Rafe to attack and kill the wolf. Two more show up and tear the man apart. Strasser leaves him and uses the diversion to escape. They make it into the ruins.
Once they are in the ruins Strasser is about to rape Mildred when she tells him that she tested HIV positive and has aids. He keeps his hands off her.
At first light he continues to run. Ryan and the others are in the ruins and find the Cryonic facility. It was destroyed during the massive earth quake and the freezies died. They are greatly disappointed. Strasser fires at Ryan from across the bridge and misses, thanks to Mildred ramming into him and throwing off his aim. She receives a severe beating for it. In the end, he decides that he is sick of running and wants to end it. He offers to meet Ryan, one on one with knives.
Krysty does her best to stop him from accepting because she feels great danger in the confrontation, but he refuses to listen. He too, wants to end it here and now. They both head out onto the bridge, which is incredibly unstable. Ryan borrows J.B.'s Tekna blade for the fight, as his Panga is too big.
They meet in the middle and begin to fight. Ryan gets cut across the arm, but delivers a massive blow to Strasser's belly. The bridge is about to collapse, so Ryan forces it to do so. He is forced to drop the knife and manages to grab onto a cable as it falls into the quicksand below. Strasser lands right in the quicksand and begins to sink.
He asks Ryan to help him. Ryan refuses. Strasser then asks him to put a bullet through his head and end it quickly. Once again, Ryan refuses to do so, as he believes that Strasser deserves the fate he is about to receive. Strasser, in a rage, cuts his own throat and throws the blade at Ryan, barely nicking his shoulder. As he dies, he sinks below the surface of the quicksand. After all this time, its finally over.
They discover that this redoubt's gateway is still functioning and are ready to leave when Jak announces to them that he is going to stay behind. He want's to be with Christina. They say their farewells and Jak leaves.
End of Latitude Zero.