Electric Cowboys: Pike Evans Adventure Series, #4

By Suz Eglington

When the guy you are stuck taking care of is a replica of the one man you can't stand, but you need him to save your clone, and keep him hidden from the mad scientist.

What started out as a simple mission turn upside down fast. Dead team members, towering fire monsters, and finally back at base.

Now Pike needs to figure out how to smuggle the extra clone out from his sleeper cab with a bunch of scientists combing the hanger, and find him someplace safe to hide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suz Eglington
• Release date: Mar 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798224888641

Book preview

Electric Cowboys

Pike Evans Adventure Series

Suz Eglington

If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

—Obi-Wan Kenobi

Electric Cowboys Copyright © 2023 by Suz Eglington. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. 

Cover designed by Suz Eglington 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. 

Suz Eglington

Visit my website at www.suzeglington.com 

Printed in the United States of America 

First Printing: March 2023

Independently Published 

Editing : Edwards Editing

Assigned to G.H.O.S.T. 1st

One Shot 2nd

Thunder Struck 3rd

Electric Cowboys 4th

Contents

Electric Cowboys

Hiding the Truth

The Wrong Dead Guy

What’s That Smell?

Lights Out

One Foot in the Grave

How to Babysit a Clone 101

New Day, New Plan

Better to Ask for Forgiveness Than Permission

Staying Alive

When the Sparks Fly

Hello? Anybody Home?

Childhood Memories

Ex’s and O’s

Can’t Do This Alone

The Price of a Good Favor

Walks Like a Human

Electric Cowboy

100-Acre Woods

Deep Roots and Mud on Boots

Okay, Let Me Explain

Been Here Before

Don’t Freak Out. Call with Anything Suspicious.

I Wanna Go Fast

The Raven

Hiding the Facts

Look Who Finally Showed Up

Timeless, Not Ageless

Not All Family Forms from Marriage or Birth

Blood, Sweat, and Gears

The Advantage of Being Captain

Walking Dead

Weekends Are Made for Virginia

Thursday Night Fights

Terms of the Negotiations

Stranger Things

Money, Money, Money

Future vs. Past

Who’s Your Daddy?

Missing Information

Monday Before the Storm

The Secrets of Wade Domings

Hiding the Truth

THIS WAS NOT ON THE agenda.

Seventy hours of driving with a fully-armed escort platoon in G.H.O.S.T., a division of the Department of Energy’s classified cargo unit, traveling the highways from North Carolina to Colorado Springs and back.

What had started out as a simple test run for the high-tech tires Cooper Neumann specifically formulated for the new super-rig truck-and-trailer combo instead proved the department’s top guards were unequipped to deal with an advanced attack on their mission.

The result was dead team members, a towering fire-monster, and the team returning with a clone created from Pike’s DNA. There was also another clone, regenerated from Hanskon, which Pike and 49 only knew about.

Hanskon wasn’t an ideal subject to replicate, in Pike’s opinion. He couldn’t stand the original, let alone having his newly cloned twin to look after.

Pike Evans didn’t remember there being experimental stuff involving him directly written into any of the paperwork when he signed his contract.

It was simple, neat, and tidy. There were two rules: Protect your unknown cargo and don’t ask questions.

The cargo was government freight. It was always going to be highly classified, no matter whether it was a dummy load for a shell-game scenario or something of top importance. The trucks were always running, with or without cargo.

The super-rig, back from the test mission and parked inside Cooper’s hanger, was severely damaged. The cab remained mostly intact, but the trailer was a twisted wreck.

Despite the condition of the vehicle, the tires Cooper had invented were still the perfect shade of powder blue. No black road marks. They were unaffected by the miles and hours of travel between here and Colorado.

Everything else about the trailer was destroyed. The metal doors hung from the back, distorted and bent. The shell of the trailer bulged out in places, like the Hulk himself had been trapped inside and trying to smash his way out.

The driver’s-side trailer frame was bent, distorting the sea-container-like model of structure. One scientist walked around the truck slowly with a camera, documenting in pictures while writing notes.

The tractor part of the rig had little damage. Nothing severe, mostly cosmetic.

The oversized sleeper cab of the tractor-trailer remained in excellent shape. Cooper had designed it well. It was perfectly suited for the three of them to travel comfortably.

It even came equipped with a small, RV-type bathroom, in which fake Hanskon was hiding at the moment.

The additional clone had come in hot, damaging and warping the rear trailer. Once moved to the sleeper part of the tractor, he seemed to be behaving and doing what he was told.

Pike scrambled toward the switches to kill the running lights inside the cab. He didn’t want Cooper’s team to find out about their extra passenger just yet.

Pike searched. Nothing made sense inside this truck. Up was down and down was up. Cooper had designed it from a scientist’s perspective, not for the regular guy who would be driving it.

Pike found a plastic panel in the center of what a light-switch cover should look like. He grumbled to himself about not paying better attention during Cooper’s initial tour of the rig when they were launching it for the test run.

Plan B. He pressed, tapped, and then hit it with his fist. He pressed harder, listening for some kind of clicking sound under his index finger. Nothing. Not a millimeter of give.

He figured the trick must be the amount of pressure he applied. He jabbed into the strip several times, cursing and stretching his neck toward the cab doors.

Pike clenched his teeth, staring in frustration and fighting the urge to punch the black strip again.

He narrowed his eyes and let his jaw go slack, shifting it left and then right, pressing his lips together as he stared at the stupid strip.

He exhaled with a huff.

Come on you son of a ...

His finger slipped, jerking up. The lights brightened. He covered one hand over the other, his head jolting up and then to the walls from the brightness.

No, no, no, no, no! he cursed angrily while rapidly sliding his finger down, making the lights completely fade out.

His heart thumped in his ears as he tried to listen to what was happing outside the cab.

49 fought against his instincts, giving in to Pike’s decision to keep that thing—the other Hanskon—a secret.

49 had his own stake in this plan that Pike was hatching out. Where things stood right now, this felt like a really stupid decision.

He stretched his arm out, blocking Maggie from entering the cab of the tractor-trailer.

He stumbled for conversation, hoping to buy Pike some time. What do you think they are going to do to Adam?

Adam? Who is Adam, Agent Kittrick? She glanced at his hand resting on her arm.

Pike’s clone.

Her head tilted, frustrated. She didn’t care what in God’s name they were doing with the product.

49’s jaw tightened, watching as Cooper led the other scientist to the rear of the hanger where the special guns were kept along with most of Cooper’s highly classified experiments.

They had all been non-human experiments until now.

Or so he thought.

This was the first time a breathing body was being wheeled on a gurney back there.

Or was it?

49’s expression turned grave at the thought that perhaps this wasn’t the first time. Maybe there was a reason this was a state-of-the-art facility, and why someone like Cooper had millions of government dollars to spend at his disposal.

Maybe it was time to get the hell out of here.

He heard Cooper calling out orders as two men wearing what looked like lead vests walked toward the scientist in the white lab coat.

49 watched. They were the kind of lead aprons they wrap patients in when taking an X-ray.

The men secured a thick, black, wrapped bar at the foot and head of the gurney that stood straight up like the pipe stacks on the truck.

Both men pointed instructions and called out orders, taking over the gurney and pushing it deeper into the hanger.

The wheels crunching on the concrete echoed like a floor jack being dragged across a garage as they disappeared around the corner.

Maggie straightened up, turning back toward Kittrick. I didn’t get a good look at him. Why does he look like Pike?

You don’t know?

I am not supposed to know, Agent Kittrick. She studied Gus, What is going on?

The rules didn’t exist on this mission.

That’s not good.

Rule number two went out the window the moment we arrived at pick-up.

He set his shoulders back, waiting for some logic to come to him. We know, Maggie. Nothing was a secret. It was very clear Cooper set this up and he called all the shots. No one man is supposed to have that much authority.

Maggie reasoned in her head how this could be. Suddenly she was more concerned about Pike right now and grew irritated with 49 standing in her way.

Gus, remembering certain parts of the operation, stepped closer to her. Why didn’t they tell her? She was the operations commander.

Kittrick was so fed up with Cooper’s antics that he downright called his superior out and accused her of playing ignorant. You mean to say with all the other BS that has happened on this trip, you did not know the cloning part?

I want to see Agent Evans.

He’s not ready to see anyone.

I need to speak with him.

The best thing you could do is oversee Adam. Make sure he doesn’t get harmed.

I am your commanding officer. I demand to see Evans.

If you are going to pull rank, use it to stop them from taking Adam.

Maggie glanced back over her shoulder at the team taking Adam. That thing is not ours to be concerned with.

49 furrowed his brows. What do you mean?! He was born from the kid’s DNA. I saw it with my own eyes. They put us in with that ... orb. Or whatever you want to call it. It is now Adam, and he is harmless. Good-natured, even. The kid has been worried this entire assignment for his clone’s wellbeing. You think his gun issue was a problem? How do you think this is going to go over?

You are telling me this is a problem, Agent Kittrick? Right now? Here in front of me? Did this team breach orders? She stepped back in disbelief at his words, fiercely jabbing her finger toward the ground as she spoke.

49 tried to regroup. He had picked the wrong approach to deal with Maggie. He was giving her too much information. Too much detail. Too much invested interest.

No. This is a unique situation. I am just saying this delivery was more than we bargained for. Never have I seen what we witnessed out on the flatlands. Never have we been allowed to see our cargo.

He stepped closer to her. Hunching his shoulders, curving his back slightly. There was a reason they allowed this. Was she in on whatever was going on?

49 had never known Maggie to lie to him. He wanted to be sure right now.

Why is that? Why were we allowed to see what we were carrying? Was this a setup?

Maggie exhaled heavily, bringing a hand to her forehead and rubbing. "I don’t know. They had me buried in paperwork since you left. This entire assignment was as hush-hush as it can get around here.

It was supposed to be a simple trial run for the new rig and tires. Then it was a simple pick-up while you were heading in that direction. Then it became a security breach. That’s all I had been told until your text came in. Cooper was in charge from the beginning. I didn’t have access to his files or any information, and I tried. Believe me, as soon as you texted, I tried to collect any information I could.

49 leaned over, quietly whispering, Adam is one of us. He is Pike’s clone.

She stepped back accusingly. You need to stop thinking that thing is human. It most likely borrowed his DNA. God have mercy if whatever that is can replicate that quickly. Pike could be contaminated. I need to check him.

She stepped to the side. 49 mimicked her.

What are you doing?

What? he spoke innocently.

I need to see Agent Evans.

He’s not contaminated.

I have to make sure we all understand this situation.

49 invaded her space. Look, Mags. We have exhausted the 72-hour rule. Let’s call it a day.

She studied his poker face, then stepped back. Has he been exposed on the front line? Any change in him? Mentally or physically?

Other than the nightmare we all just experienced? He shifted his weight. Look, Cooper doesn’t seem to be worried about the contact we had with any of this. Let’s not make something out of nothing.

She turned back, looking at the doors to the lab. No one was coming out. All was quiet. She was done arguing with Gus. I want all three of you at the hanger first thing in the morning.

We will be there.

Captain Jacobowski glanced down, lifting and twisting her wrist to read her watch. Kittrick wasn’t wrong. The crew hadn’t slept in who knows how long, and there was no denying the ordeal they’d been though.

She blew a breath out through her nose and gave up, frustrated.

She glanced back into 49’s eyes. It had been a long trip for them driving, and a long wait for her anticipating their return.

She felt just as spent as they were, knowing more than she was leading on, and didn’t want to show Gus the worry she had gone through.

Call me when you guys get up. Plan on a few hours with me. I want details. Explicit details. She then jabbed her finger in the air, pointing to the rig. If anything happens—I mean anything, from now until morning—you call me immediately. Me. You call me.

49 nodded. Fair enough. Copy that, captain.

She scolded. You better not be mocking me, agent. I will have you retired before your extension date begins.

He smugly answered, Then we can finally drop this lie.

Her phone buzzed. Peering at the number, she answered and brought it to her ear. Captain Jacobowski turned, not giving 49 another opportunity to speak, and quickly strode away.

Her steps fell heavily as she loudly spoke into the phone, I am on my way. She then broke into a jog toward the exit, aggressively pulling the door open.

49 watched. Something was happening. He needed to get Pike and the other clone out of here right now if this was their plan.

Pike heard the sound of Captain Jacobowski’s boots stomping against the coated cement flooring. He waited until the sound became fainter, and then quiet. She was gone.

The driver’s-side door cracked open. Pike stood at the ready, not trusting anyone.

It was 49 climbing in. Look, kid, there is no time left. What’s the plan?

Pike held Clair’s lacy thong in one hand and a spare T-shirt from 49’s bag in the other.

He scowled. "Are these our choices?

Between you and Clair, I’ve never been so disappointed in how you both pack for a trip, he continued. Adam has all my spare clothes. I had a full extra set. You brought a T-shirt and this is the only thing from Clair’s bag that can be of any use. By the way, didn’t your mother tell you to pack an extra pair of underwear when traveling? You brought a T-shirt. What the fuck, dude?

Pike shoved out his hands, still holding the garments.

Don’t tell me you are one of those dudes that have stained underoos? he said. My uncle always joked, yellow in the front, brown in the back.

49 seemed insulted.

I always pack light. Truck stops carry all that stuff. I buy them when I need them and throw the worn ones away. Wait, I don’t need this jumpsuit anymore.

49 removed his specialty jumpsuit. Here, this might fit him. Hanskon? What are we calling it? Doesn’t matter. We need to get him out of here right now.

It didn’t fit. They both stared, there were no words. The lace panties left Hanskon’s ball sack dangling down from the string that continued to the back and up his butt crack. The lace panel only covered half his manhood.

Pike was disappointed. Jesus, do you think ...?

49 held up his hand, stopping him. Not going there. How about my sweatshirt? Tie it in the front to cover his willy.

Pike pulled his sweatshirt off. Good idea. Make it like a kilt. We can cover up his junk, front and back.

Pike poked his head out of the cab. All seemed quiet. He waved for 49 to bring Hanskon forward.

Just then they heard the door open from the entrance of the hanger. Pike saw Valentine walking in.

Fuck, it’s Valentine. He’s still here?

49’s face lit up. Is he in his jumpsuit?

Pike caught on. Valentine was about the same size as Hanskon. Pike turned back from the cab to the approaching Valentine.

Oh good, glad I caught you. We need your jumpsuit. Cooper asked for them.

Valentine started undressing. Other guys as well?

Pike reached out, taking it from him. Thanks man, yes. Can you round those up? Just leave them with Captain Jacobowski back in the hanger.

Valentine nodded. Sure thing. Delivery accomplished?

Pike paused before answering, As far as I know.

Valentine was concerned about the mission. The trailer was all banged up. Doors mangled and twisted in the back, charring inside, dents and bulges to the body.

He searched Pike’s eyes. Don’t take all the blame. If you don’t start sticking up for yourself, it will get worse before it gets better.

Pike tossed the jumpsuit back to 49 and held the door as close to shut as he could, directing his attention back to Valentine.

What? Pike corrected himself. His new commander was talking with a little sympathy. I will. And thank you for trying to help Clair and myself by bringing Cory. He’s probably the only guy I would have picked. Good choice.

Pike heard 49 ranting, Christ, step! Lift your leg. Get your willy out of my face. No. Come on!

Pike closed the door to the cab.

Valentine reassured him, Remember, you are a Double Negative. You’re not alone. We have your six.

Pike nodded, pointing his index finger at Valentine. Appreciate it. And thank you.

Valentine felt satisfied that Pike understood he was part of the team. He kept it simple as he turned to head out of the hanger.

Pike opened the door, climbed back in over the seat, and walked back to the sleeper cab. 49 held his head in one hand while the other stayed latched on Hanskon in the jumpsuit.

Pike flashed a wide grin that Hanskon copied. It fits. Quick-thinking there. Good job.

49 muttered, I will never ... His willy was in my face. It touched. He was looking at me like he enjoyed it.

Pike couldn’t help but laugh. It’s Hanskon. He probably did. Come on, we need to get him out of here and in your jeep. I will follow in Clair’s.

My jeep? No. He can go in hers.

I might need to pick her up at the hospital, Pike protested.

I don’t care.

She just lost Hanskon. I doubt she will be pleased to see him sitting in her vehicle.

Not my problem, kid.

Come on. I need you. Please?

Of all the situations ... Fuck ... This is shit. Fine. Where am I bringing him?

Pike paused for a moment. I guess Clair’s condo?

The Wrong Dead Guy

PIKE GATHERED THEIR bags as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to leave anything in the cab. While checking the floor for missed items he scooped up his hat.

Here. He placed it on Hanskon. Now he looks more like the jerk he was in his human days.

Pike smiled. Hanskon smiled.

Dude, that’s annoying. Why couldn’t he have chosen someone else. Anyone else. You. I could handle two of you. He pointed to 49. But this turd?

49 bent over and moved side to