Darkwind: Ancient Enemy 2 (28 page)

She knew Cole thought this might be a setup. And she had to admit that it had crossed her mind as well. But what other choices did they have? David needed help from a shaman … and he needed help fast.

Alice had been a little distant on the phone when Stella called her from the now-secure cell phone. The conversation replayed itself in her mind.

“It’s me, Alice. It’s Stella.”

“Stella …”

She could hear the shock in Alice’s voice, the trepidation, the uncertainty of what to say next.

“I know you’ve probably heard some things about me,” Stella said.

“The police have contacted me about you,” Alice practically hissed into the phone like she was keeping her voice low without being aware of it. “Not just the Tribal Police, either. The FBI, too. They’re looking for you. They’re saying that you might be traveling with a Navajo kid, David Bear, whose parents were murdered.”

“Listen, Alice. You know me. You’ve known me for years.”

Silence on the phone from Alice.

“Everything isn’t what it seems to be, and I can explain everything to you. I just need some help first.”

Alice was still listening. At least she hadn’t hung up.

“I need to find Joe Blackhorn,” Stella said.

“A difficult man to find.”

And Stella knew that was true. She had tried to get in touch with the reclusive Joe Blackhorn many times before but he was protected by the people he knew. Alice told Stella a few years ago that she had talked to Joe Blackhorn but she didn’t know where he lived.

“I know,” Stella said. “But I need his help.”

“You need a shaman’s help?”

Stella was getting frustrated, but she had to control the sudden anger and impatience rearing up inside of her. She also had to think of things from Alice’s point of view. “I just need you to put me in touch with someone who can introduce me to him. Someone who can show me how to find him.”

There was another long pause on the phone.

“Alice, please. I need help. David needs help. I swear I can explain everything.”

Alice seemed to be weighing it over in her mind.

“In person,” Stella told Alice. “We’ll meet in person. Just you, me, David, and someone who can help me find Joe Blackhorn.”

“David’s parents were murdered,” Alice said in a cold voice.

“I know,” Stella said. “I told you I can explain what happened.”

“You know who killed them?”

Stella hesitated for a moment, then: “Yes.”

“Then you need to tell the police,” Alice screeched into the phone.

“I will, but I have to protect David first. Will you set up a meeting? Anywhere you want. I can pay this person whatever he or she wants. And I can pay you, too.”

“I don’t need any money,” Alice said and Stella knew that was true. Alice came from a wealthy family—Old World money from oil and mining. They had more money than they could ever spend. Alice could’ve spent her life jet setting around the world and partying in world capitals, but instead she chose to spend her time out in some of the most remote locations and dig through the dirt for shards of pottery and pieces of bone. Alice’s family’s money gave her the freedom to pursue something much more valuable to her than money.

And then it clicked in Stella’s mind. She could offer Alice something much more valuable to her than money.

“I’ve discovered some things, Alice. Things about the Anasazi.”

“I’m listening.”

“These are major breakthroughs. Things that could rewrite history.” She could tell that Alice was intrigued.

“What is it?”

“Jake Phillips called me down to a dig site … a cave, and we found a city inside that cave.”

“A city?” Alice was getting excited.

“Yes, an undiscovered city. But there was more than that. An even bigger discovery.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to talk about this on the phone. Only in person.”

Alice took her time thinking it over.

“Okay,” Alice finally said. “I’ll call someone I know. It may take a little while, but I’ll call you back as soon as I get a hold of him. Is this number you’re calling from a good one to call you back at?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you so much, Alice. You don’t know how much help this is.”

“I just want you to know that this friend of mine will hear you out, but there’s no guarantee that he will decide to take you to Joe Blackhorn. Is that understood?”

It was the best she could do, Stella realized. “Of course.”

After Stella hung up the phone, she and Cole had had their disagreement about meeting with Alice and whoever else was coming with her.

Then, forty-five minutes later, Alice had called back and told Stella to meet her and her friend at a gas station on the outskirts of Sanostee off of Route 491 in two hours.

Stella told Alice that they would be there and hung up the phone. They could be at that location in an hour.

“I still don’t like this,” Cole said again. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“You don’t like what?” David asked from the back seat of the truck.

Stella spun around and smiled at David. “Look who’s finally awake.”

David smiled back at her. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Number one or number two?” Stella asked.

David held up one finger.

“I’ll pull over,” Cole said.

He slowed the pickup truck down and pulled off of the ribbon of blacktop that ran down through the breathtaking landscape all around them. The scenery looked both beautiful and dangerous at the same time.

Many people thought the southwestern desert was a barren and lifeless place, Stella thought. Many people thought it looked like the dunes of the Sahara or something, but these lands that she’d come to know so well were a beautiful place, a myriad of colors and layers upon layers of ecosystems making up one giant living world out here.

“It’s cold out there,” Stella told David once the truck had stopped. “Button up your coat.”

Cole got out of the truck, but he left it running. Stella knew he had his nine millimeter on him in his coat pocket and she had hers with her. She got out and opened the back door of the king cab for David who hurried out into the cold.

Stella walked with David away from the truck.

“Over there by that rock,” she told him. “Not too far away.”

He smiled at her and ran across the dirt and sand to the large collection of rocks. He stood there in front of the rocks and a moment later he was peeing.

Stella smiled. This almost felt normal, and she wondered if this is what being a mother felt like.

A snapping of brush startled her.

Stella’s hand was in her coat in a flash, her fingers curling around the gun handle.

“Cole,” Stella said in a low voice. She glanced back at the truck and saw that he had his hand inside his coat pocket like he was ready to draw. He was looking up at the endless blue sky where some buzzards were circling overhead.

Another snapping of brush. Louder now and closer.

“David, you almost done?” Stella asked as she walked a few steps closer to him.

“Almost,” he said.

There was something in the brush only a few yards away. More than one.

“I think we’ve got a problem,” Cole said from right behind Stella.

New Mexico—Navajo Reservation

C
ole had seen the buzzards land on the rocks all around them on both sides of the road. The buzzards just sat there, perched on the rocks, staring at him with no fear. Cole thought he could see an intelligence in those eyes.

He glanced up and down the road again; it looked like a black ribbon heading up into the rocky hills. No cars or trucks in sight, no sounds except the cold breeze and the rustling in the brush all around them.

Across the road he saw a coyote come out of the brush and stand at the edge of the road. The animal just stood there, its eyes on Cole the whole time. And in those eyes he saw the same intelligence that he saw in the buzzards’ eyes.

It was the Ancient Enemy inside that coyote … Cole was sure of it. Inside the buzzards, too.

Cole hurried around the back of the pickup truck to Stella, his hand inside his coat, ready to draw his gun.

“I think we’ve got a problem,” he told Stella, startling her.

But then they both looked over at the brush just beyond the rocks and saw the animals coming out slowly: two more coyotes, a jackrabbit, four rattlesnakes slithering forward. All of them were just staring at them, watching them with those same intelligent eyes.

David hurried back to them, staring at the line of animals as he ran into Stella’s arms.

“I think we need to get back to the truck,” Cole said. “We all just need to walk together very slowly.” He had his gun in his hand, his finger on the trigger. “I’ll watch the animals. You two just get back to the truck.”

Cole didn’t look at Stella or David—he kept his eyes on the line of animals, his gun aimed at them. The rattlesnakes had curled up into coils, their rattles shaking. He heard Stella and David running across the sand to the waiting truck, the motor still rumbling.

That thing can turn the truck off, Cole thought. It can destroy the engine in a second if it wants to.

But the truck was still running. Maybe David was blocking that thing’s power somehow. Maybe David was getting stronger with each confrontation with that thing whether the boy realized it or not.

Cole backed up to the tailgate of the truck, and then he backed up to the driver’s side corner. He turned his back on the animals from the brush and kept an eye on the coyote that stood motionless across the road. He shifted his eyes to the buzzards perched up on the rocks in the distance as he ran to the driver’s door.

He hopped inside the truck and then closed and locked the doors. He shifted into drive and peeled out of the sand and back onto the road, the rear tires spinning on the pavement for a minute, barking in the air before they caught traction.

“You see that?” Cole said as he sped down the road. “Those animals. That thing … it was in them somehow.”

“We’re okay,” Stella said and looked at Cole. “I think it’s getting more and more afraid of David.”

They locked eyes for a second, and then Cole looked back at the road.

Maybe she was right, Cole thought. Why hadn’t those animals attacked? Why hadn’t the Ancient Enemy shown itself just now? They were isolated out here in the middle of nowhere. What easier time was there?

But maybe it
was
David holding that thing back. It was still afraid of David, like Stella had just said. Maybe it was more afraid now than it had been in the cabin. More afraid than ever. Was David really getting stronger?

“I’m hungry,” David said from the backseat.

It was such a normal thing for a child to say that Cole almost barked out a laugh and a sob at the same time.

Stella turned around in her seat and handed David a McDonald’s bag. “Here’s a sandwich and some hash browns. They’re cold now, but still good.”

David didn’t complain. He took the bag from her. “Can I have one of the Yoo-hoos in the cooler?” he asked.

“Sure,” Stella told him.

David opened up the cooler in the back seat and cracked the can open.

Stella turned back around and stared out the windshield.

Things had gone somewhat smoothly since they had left the Mountainside Inn behind and the three dead bodies, Cole thought. The Ancient Enemy hadn’t shown itself again until now.

“I still don’t feel right about this meeting,” Cole finally spoke as he drove down the road, his hands gripping the steering wheel so hard it felt like he could’ve snapped it in his hands if he wanted to. He couldn’t seem to relax. Not only was there the threat from the Ancient Enemy, but they had the cops to worry about. He couldn’t let the cops take David.

“Alice is the only one I can trust,” Stella said. “There are some other people I could’ve called, but she’s the only one I can trust, the only one who knows people who can find Joe Blackhorn.”

“We’ll get to this gas station early. If anything seems funny …” He let his words hang in the air.

Stella just nodded. She was learning to trust Cole’s instincts. He had developed almost a sixth sense when it came to trouble from the cops. If something was wrong at this gas station they were going to, then she was sure he would be able to tell.

Cody’s Pass, Colorado

S
pecial Agent Palmer drove to the other side of Cody’s Pass to a neat little neighborhood that sprawled up into the foothills of the mountains which rose up sharply out of the valley. Some of the houses in the neighborhood were perched up several levels above the rest of the development. He drove halfway up into the hills and parked in front of a neat little middleclass home.

He got out and walked up a steep set of wood steps to the front porch where Cassandra and her parents were already gathered and waiting for him. He flashed his badge and ID at them as he walked up and introduced himself.

Cassandra’s parents welcomed him inside their home with nervous smiles and quick little gestures.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Cassandra’s mom asked as she closed the front door. “We just made a fresh pot of coffee.”

Palmer could smell the coffee mixed in with some kind of vanilla-scented candles burning somewhere in the house. He smiled at her. “No thanks.”

The parents sat down close to each other on a loveseat near the recliner where Cassandra sat. Palmer sat down on the last piece of available furniture—a couch against the wall right underneath some kind of abstract painting. Cassandra’s parents didn’t seem like they had any intention of leaving their teenaged daughter alone with him so he took his notebook out.

Cassandra looked nervous.

“How are you doing?” Palmer asked and forced a smile on his face—it felt like a foreign thing to him these days.

She smiled back. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

The parents seemed to beam with pride at how politely they had trained their daughter.

“No need to be nervous,” Palmer told Cassandra. “I just want to ask you a few questions about a woman and a boy who came through your checkout lane yesterday afternoon. I know you’ve already answered some questions for the police, but I just wanted to ask you a few more.”