Dasher went down first, followed by Gerald.
They lit a pair of lamps that were on either side of the room.
They found a work bench and what looked like equipment that was meant for working on circuit boards. Metal pipes that were capped at the ends were discarded as wires moved out from them. Clocks and watches had been taken apart; their shells were tossed to the sides.
"This doesn't look good." Dasher said.
"What about this?" Gerald said while showing him the photo of the schematic.
Dasher frowned. "That makes it worse."
"What is it?" Gerald asked.
"I first thought that these were some sort of rudimentary pipe bombs, but if these are used together, then it is most likely some sort of chemical dispersal device."
"So the Cult wants to gas people."
"Don't think about it like that. From everything we know, this Cult is no different than any terrorist organization in our world. They want to be heard, and they are willing to spread their message through fear."
"Hmm, chemical dispersion." Gerald mumbled to himself.
"It looks like an aerosol device. My guess is that they are operated with a timer. When the time comes, these tubes will disperse the chemical into the air."
Gerald frowned. "Everything I learned about this world shows that they are advanced in computer sciences and robotics, but their chemical development is far behind our world. Fuel for cars is already a pinnacle achievement for them."
"Dispersing fuel into the air would maybe make people nauseous or dizzy but it would be a great chemical attack. At least it wouldn't be anything compared to what we have seen at home." Dasher said.
Gerald shook his head. "To get fuel, they would have to go to the city. If that was the case, it would be easier to build and assembly the devices there. Why do it here? And why are they after livestock?"
"That's true. We are making an assumption in thinking that the people who bought from Hordan were with the Cult but seeing that the Cult took all the cattle from the Lone Pine ranch, it doesn't seem that farfetched." Dasher added.
"Selling them for money doesn't seem probable. Their first attempt to get the livestock involved them buying at way over market value. It seems that although they want money, the livestock is the actually priority."
"I still don't understand why they would plan to attack this tiny town when they have a big city a few days away. Why set up everything here?"
They closed up the hidden cellar and got back on their horses. They didn't think there was anything else for them to find there. They started to ride up and down the streets while keeping their eyes open.
"Maybe what we found in the cellar was just the area that they developed the prototype. They most likely have another base somewhere." Dasher said.
"Yeah." Gerald said with a chuckle. "It's not like we found any livestock in the manager's house."
"And they couldn't bring that many animals into the big city and remain unnoticed. They must have a hideout somewhere."
"The question is where. It would take us months to search all the surrounding hills." Gerald said. "Nah, searching for their hideout would be a waste of time. Let's assume that our target is following along with the cult's already made plans. There is no reason for out target to up and flee unless that is what the manager already planned, and it is in the interest of our target."
"Well, what are the interests of a doppelganger?" Dasher asked.
"Attention and power. It is always attention and power. From what we know, it seems like our target first took control of a member of the cult. From what the girl told me; our target was leading the bandits into the ranch. It then took control of the man behind the scenes when the manager showed himself. But the doppelganger will strive for more. Moving up the chain of command of this secret Cult satisfies its desire for power but hiding in the shadows and living on the run doesn't help it bask in attention. Sure, there is focus on it if the doppelganger makes it to the top of the Cult, but it wants to be openly accepted. That would mean the Cult would have to take over and be in charge. That seems like a lot of work for a creature who could just change into someone else."
The pair stopped in front of the Sheriff's office. They found Daniels inside.
"Were you boys able to get any rest? You both look like crap." Daniels said as they walked into his office.
"Not like you look any better." Gerald said with a smirk.
"What can I do for you?" Daniels said with a laugh. "If you are wondering about the girl, she is resting back at my house with the wife."
"Nah, we were wondering about the bank manager."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, he radioed in sick today and wasn't home. Does he own any property outside of the town or anything like that?"
"You think he had something to do with last night."
"Yes and no. Since we found another pile of goo, we are looking into anyone who disappeared over night. So far, the manager is the only person we haven't found."
Daniels thought for a moment. "What would the bank manger be doing out at Lone Pine?"
Gerald shrugged.
Daniels shook his head. "No, he doesn't have any property outside of town. At least none that I know of."
Gerald sighed. "Keep an eye out for him. If we are lucky, maybe he is resting in the bosom of a fling."
Daniels nodded. "We can only hope so."
The pair left the sheriff's office and continued to wonder around town while talking over everything they had learned. When the sun set, they rode back to their rooms and called it a night.
It was early morning when Gerald was woken by his radio.
"Sheriff calling Marshal, Sheriff Daniels calling the Marshals."
"Go for Marshal Acers."
"We just got call about some of the livestock from Lone Pine."
"Where?" Gerald said as he shot out of his bed. He could hear Dasher getting ready in the room next door.
"About an hour out of town, tucked between two hills. A travelling merchant brought a couple of pigs into town, he said the rest were just abandoned there."
"All the livestock?"
"No, just the pigs. I was going to have a couple of deputies head out and take a look."
"We will head there now."
Gerald and Dasher mounted up and rode out of town, meeting up with the deputies along the way. An hour later, they found what the merchant said was true. Hundreds of pigs were wandering between the hills. Each one was marked with the Lone Pine brand."
The deputies began to round up the animals and planned to bring them to the Horban Ranch for the time being, since it was the closet ranch.
Gerald recognized deputy Sam, the sheriff's son-in-law.
"Deputy Sam, has the sheriff been able to identify what livestock was taken from Lone Pine?"
"From what we know, it seems like it was a lot of cows and sheep, there was also a handful of goats. The pigs made up the rest, but here they are."
Gerald nodded. It matched the information that he knew. "Alright, we are heading back, ask the sheriff to contact us if any of the other livestock is found."
"Will do Marshal." Same said before getting back to work.
Gerald rode in silence most of the way.
"What are you thinking about?" Dasher asked.
"Do you know what cows, sheep and goats have in common aside from the obvious four legs?" Gerald asked.
Dasher shrugged. "Biology was always my worst subject."
"They are all ruminant livestock."
"Ruminant? I already told you biology isn't my strong suit."
"They all have multiple stomachs." Gerald said.
"And this is important because…"
"Don't you watch the news?" Gerald asked. "Aren't scientist saying the ruminant livestock may contribute more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere than even cars?"
"I do remember hearing something about that, but aren't people always looking to shift the blame to something else."
"Maybe." Gerald said. "But it is the type of greenhouse gasses that they produce that interest me."
"And that would be."
"A single cow can produce from fifty to one hundred and fifty liters of methane in a single day."
"Holy shit. Pun intended. If that was extracted that is a lot of flammable gas. Damn! That's it. Put into a dispersal device, if a rooms methane content was raised to 9%, a single match could turn the whole room into an extremely high temperature fireball in a split second. Everything would go up at once. Furniture, walls, people, they would be covered in flames in a split second and the fire wouldn't just be a flash in the pan. A room would explode. Windows would shatter and walls could be knocked down."
Gerald sighed. "That is bad. It looks like the Cult of Thomas is making methane bombs. But to what end?"
"I don't know, but when properly filtered and if they can extract pure methane, it is an odorless gas."
"So, the people in there target may be oblivious. Something like lighting a match, could torch everyone in the room."
Dasher solemnly nodded.
They both knew that with the number of livestock the Cult had, blowing up a room was simple, and taking out a whole building was completely within their capability.
They continued to watch the people of the town, but it was unlikely that their target was going to show before taking action. Helplessly, they could only wait.
The next day they had breakfast at their normal café.
"Does the crowd seem a bit odd toady?" Gerald asked Dasher.
The man nodded. "There are several cautious people out, but they look too clean to be bandits, like military of some sort. Do you think they the Cult?"
"Possibly, but from what I know, the Cult tends to operate in cells. They hire out bandits for their leg work, these people remind me of…"
*Bang*
Gerald slapped the table. "Do you remember what Daniels said when we first met him?"
Dasher's eyes widened. "He thought we were part of the presidential detail. He thought we were checking out the town before the president passed through."
Suddenly, the Cult's target became painfully obvious. They jumped up from their table when…
*Kaboom*
An explosion rattled down the street. The men they were eyeing suddenly started to run towards the source of the noise. They ran down the street to find the train station up in flames with a train stopped on the tracks beside it.