Blasphemy

by Douglas Preston

  The men seated to Yazzie’s left and right formed the so-called Tribal Council. One looked like a real live Injun, with a beaded headband, long hair tied up in a bun, velvet Indian shirt with silver buttons, and turquoise necklace. Two wore JCPenney suits. The fifth man, suspiciously white, sported a tailored Armani suit. That would be the guy to watch out for.

  “Well!” said Crawley. “I’m delighted to meet the new leader of the Navajo Nation. I didn’t know you were in town! Congratulations on your election—and to all of you, members of the Tribal Council. Welcome!”

  “We’re pleased to be here, Mr. Crawley,” said Yazzie, his voice low and neutral.

  “Call me Booker, please!”

  Yazzie inclined his head, but did not offer to be called by his own first name. Well, no wonder, thought Crawley, with a name like Delbert.

  “Can I offer anyone a drink? Coffee? Tea? Pellegrino?”

  Everyone wanted coffee. Crawley pressed a buzzer, gave the order, and a few minutes later his man came in pushing a cart loaded with a silver coffeepot, creamer, sugar bowl, mugs. Crawley watched with a shudder while teaspoon after teaspoon of sugar crystals slid into the blackness of Yazzie’s coffee, five in all.

  “It’s been such a pleasure for me personally to work with the Navajo Nation,” Crawley continued. “With Isabella almost up and running, this is truly a moment of celebration for all of us. We value our relationship with the Navajo people and look forward to working with you for a long time to come.”

  He leaned back with a friendly smile and waited.

  “The Navajo Nation thanks you, Mr. Crawley.”

  Nods and murmurs of approval went around the table.

  “We’re grateful for all you’ve done,” Yazzie continued. “The Navajo Nation feels a great satisfaction in being able to make such an important contribution to American science.”

  He spoke in a slow, deliberate way, as if he had rehearsed the words, and Crawley felt a small, cold place harden in his gut. They might want to chisel his fees. Well, they were welcome to try—they had no idea who they were dealing with. What a bunch of sand monkeys.

  “You’ve done an excellent job getting Isabella sited on our land and negotiating fair terms with the government,” continued Yazzie, his sleepy eyes raised toward Crawley, but somehow not quite on him. “You did what you said you would do. This is something new in our experience in dealing with Washington. You kept your promises.”

  Was that all this visit was about? “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that’s most kind. I’m delighted to hear it. We certainly do keep our promises. I have to tell you quite frankly that the project involved a lot of hard work. If I may be forgiven a little self-congratulation, this was one of the most challenging lobbying projects I have ever been involved in. But we pulled it off, didn’t we?” Crawley beamed.

  “Yes. We hope the compensation you received was a sufficient return for your work.”

  “As a matter of fact, the project was far more expensive at our end than we anticipated. My accountant has been in a foul mood these past weeks! But it’s not every day we can help American science while bringing jobs and opportunity to the Navajo Nation.”

  “Which brings me to the subject of our visit.”

  Crawley sipped from his mug. “Fine. Love to hear it.”

  “With the work completed and Isabella running, we no longer see the need to continue with your services. When our contract with Crawley and Stratham expires at the end of October, we will not be renewing.”

  Yazzie spoke so bluntly, with so little finesse, that it took Crawley a moment to absorb the blow, but he kept his smile steady.

  “Well, now,” he said, “I’m very sorry to hear that. Is it anything we did—or failed to do?”

  “No, it’s just as I said: the project’s completed. What’s left to lobby?”

  Crawley took a deep breath and set down the mug. “I don’t blame you for thinking that—after all, Window Rock is a long way from Washington.” He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Chairman. In this town, nothing is ever completed. Isabella isn’t actually online yet, and there’s an old K Street saying that goes, ‘There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.’ Our enemies— your enemies—have never given up. Many in Congress are still itching to kill the project. That’s the way it is in Washington—never forgive, never forget. Tomorrow they could introduce a bill that would cut funding for Isabella. They might try to renegotiate the lease payments. You need a friend in Washington, Mr. Yazzie. And I’m that friend. I’m the man who kept his promises. If you wait until bad news reaches Window Rock—it’ll be too late.”

  He watched their faces, but could read no reaction. “I would strongly recommend that you renew the contract for at least six months—as a form of insurance.”

  This man Yazzie was as inscrutable as a damned Chinaman. Crawley wished he were still working with the previous chairman, a man who liked his steaks rare, his martinis dry, and his women well-lipsticked. If only he hadn’t been caught with his hand in the tribal cookie jar.

  Yazzie finally spoke. “We have many pressing needs, Mr. Crawley—schools, jobs, health clinics, recreational facilities for our youth. Only six percent of our roads are paved.”

  Crawley held his smile as if for a camera. The ungrateful sons of bitches. They were going to collect their six million a year from now until doomsday, and he would get none of it. But he hadn’t been lying—this lobbying assignment had been a bitch-ride from start to finish.

  “If this ‘slip twixt the cup and lip’ should occur,” Yazzie continued, in his slow, sleepy fashion, “we would call on your services again.”

  “Mr. Yazzie, we’re a boutique lobbying firm. There’s just me and my partner. We take only a few clients, and we have a long waiting list. If you drop out, your slot will be filled immediately. Then, if something happens and you need our services again, well—?”

  “We’ll take the risk,” said Yazzie, with a dryness that goaded Crawley.

  “I might suggest—indeed I strongly recommend—continuing the contract for another six months. We could even discuss renewing it at a half-retainer. That would at least keep your seat at the table.”

  The tribal leader looked at him steadily. “You were well compensated. Fifteen million dollars is a lot of money. In looking over your billable hours and expenses, some questions come to mind. But that is not of concern to us at the present time—you succeeded and we’re grateful. We’ll leave it at that.”

  Yazzie rose, then the others.

  “Surely you’ll stay for lunch, Mr. Yazzie! My treat, of course. There’s a fabulous new French restaurant just off K Street, Le Zinc, run by an old frat buddy. They do a mean dry martini and steak au poivre combo.” He had never known an Indian to turn down a free drink.

  “Thank you, but we have much to do here in Washington and can’t spare the time.” Yazzie extended his hand.

  Crawley could hardly believe it. They were leaving—just like that.

  He rose to see them out with limp handshakes all around. After they left, he leaned his bulk against the great rosewood door of his office. Rage burned in his gut. No warning, no letter, no telephone call, not even an appointment. They’d simply walked in, fired him, walked out—a real screw-you. And they’d implied he’d cheated them! After four years and fifteen million dollars’ worth of lobbying, he had gotten them the goose that laid the golden egg, and what had they done? Scalped him and left him for the buzzards. This wasn’t how things were done on K Street. No, sir. You took care of your friends.

  He straightened up. Booker Hamlin Crawley never went down with the first punch. He was going to fight back—and an idea of how was starting to form in his mind already. He entered his inner office, locked the door, and removed a telephone from the bottom drawer of his desk. It was a landline phone registered in the name of a batty old lady in the nursing home around the corner, paid for by a credit card she didn’t even know she owned. He
rarely used it.

  He pressed the first digit, then stopped, tugged by the hint of a memory, the briefest flash of how and why he had come to Washington as a young man, bursting with ideas and hope. A sick feeling settled in his belly. But immediately the anger resurfaced. He would not give in to the one mortal sin in Washington: weakness.

  He punched in the rest of the number. “May I please speak with the Reverend Don T. Spates?”

  The phone call was short and sweet and the timing had been perfect. He hit the OFF button, feeling a surge of triumph at his brilliance. Within a month, he’d have those bareback-riding savages back in his office, begging to hire him—at twice the retainer.

  His moist rubbery lips twitched with pleasure and anticipation.

  4

  WYMAN FORD LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW of the Cessna Citation as it banked over the Lukachukai Mountains and aimed for Red Mesa. It was a striking landform, an island in the sky walled all around by cliffs, seamed in layers of yellow, red, and chocolate sandstone. As he watched, sunlight spilled through an opening in the clouds and hit the mesa, lighting it on fire. It was like a lost world.

  As they neared, details began to resolve themselves. Ford could make out landing strips that crossed like two black Band-Aids, with a set of hangars and a helipad. Three massive sets of high-tension power lines, strung on thirty-story trusses, came from the north and west and converged at the edge of the mesa, where there was a secure area, protected by a double fence. A mile away, a cluster of houses were nestled in a valley of cottonwoods, alongside green fields and a log building—the old Nakai Rock Trading Post. A brand-new asphalt road cut across the mesa, from west to east.

  Ford’s eye traveled down the cliffs. About three hundred feet down, a massive square opening had been quarried into the side of the mesa, with a recessed metal door. As the plane continued to bank, he could see the only road up the mesa, twisting up the face of the cliff like a snake clinging to a tree trunk. The Dugway.

  The Cessna nosed into a cone of descent. The surface of Red Mesa revealed itself to be riven and split by dry washes, valleys, and boulder fields.

  A THIN SCATTERING OF JUNIPER trees alternated with the gray skeletons of piñons, patches of grassland and sagebrush, and areas of slickrock pocked by dune-fields.

  The Cessna touched down on the runway and taxied up to a Quonset hut terminal. Several hangars stood behind, gleaming in the light. The pilot threw open the door. Ford, carrying only Lockwood’s briefcase, stepped onto the warm tarmac. There was no one there to greet him.

  With a parting wave, the pilot remounted, and in a moment the small plane was back in the air, a glint of aluminum shrinking in the turquoise sky.

  Ford watched the plane disappear, and then he ambled over to the terminal.

  A wooden signboard hung on the door, hand-painted in Wild West–style letters.

  He gave it a push with his finger, listening to it creak back and forth. Beside it, on metal posts sunk into concrete, a bright blue government sign spelled out, in dry bureaucratic language, pretty much the same thing. Wind gusted across the runway, coiling dust along the asphalt.

  He tried the terminal door. Locked.

  Ford stepped back and looked around, feeling like he’s dropped into the opening sequence of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

  The rasping of the sign and the moaning of the wind brought on a flash of memory—that moment, every day, when he would arrive home after school, lift the key from around his neck, unlock the door to the family home in Washington, and stand alone inside that vast echoing mansion. His mother was always off at some reception or fund-raiser, his father away on government business.

  The roar of an approaching vehicle pulled him back to the present. A Jeep Wrangler topped a rise, disappeared behind the terminal, and reappeared tearing across the tarmac. With a squeal the car leaned into a turn, then stopped hard in front of him. A man jumped out, wide smile on his face, hand extended in greeting. Gregory North Hazelius. He looked just like the dossier photograph, wired with energy.

  “Yá‘át’ééh shi éí, Gregory!” said Hazelius, clasping Ford’s hand.

  “Yá‘át’ééh,” Ford answered. “Don’t tell me you speak Navajo.”

  “Just a few words I learned from a former student of mine. Welcome.”

  Ford’s brief review of Hazelius’s file indicated the man allegedly spoke twelve languages, including Farsi, two dialects of Chinese, and Swahili. No mention had been made of Navajo.

  At six feet four, Ford routinely had to look down to meet other men’s eyes. This time he had to peer down more than usual. Hazelius was five feet five, a casually elegant figure in neatly pressed khakis, a cream-colored silk shirt—and a pair of Indian moccasins. His eyes were so blue, they looked like chips of backlit stained glass. An aquiline nose joined a high, smooth forehead, topped by wavy brown hair, neatly combed. A small package carrying an outsized energy.

  “I wasn’t expecting the great man himself.”

  Hazelius laughed. “We all do double duty. I’m the resident chauffeur. Please, get in.”

  Ford folded his frame into the passenger seat, while Hazelius slipped into the driver’s seat with birdlike grace. “While we got Isabella up and running, I didn’t want a lot of support staff hanging around. Besides”—Hazelius turned on him with a brilliant smile—“I wanted to meet you personally. You’re our Jonah.”

  “Jonah?”

  “We were twelve. Now we’re thirteen. Because of you, we might have to send someone out to walk the plank.” He chuckled.

  “You’re a superstitious lot.”

  He laughed. “If only you knew! I never go anywhere without my rabbit’s foot.” He pulled an ancient, vile, and almost hairless amputated appendage out of his pocket. “My father gave it to me when I was six.”

  “Lovely.”

  Hazelius jammed his foot on the accelerator and the Jeep shot forward, pressing Ford back into the seat. The Wrangler flew across the tarmac and squealed onto a freshly laid asphalt road that wound among junipers. “It’s like summer camp, Wyman. We do all our own work—cooking, cleaning, driving. You name it. We’ve got a string theorist who grills a mean tenderloin, a psychologist who helped us lay in an excellent wine cellar, and various other multitalented folk.”

  Ford gripped the handle as the Jeep slewed around a corner with a whine of rubber.

  “Nervous?”

  “Wake me up when we arrive.”

  Hazelius laughed. “Can’t resist these empty roads—no cops and sightlines that go for miles. What about you, Wyman? What are your special talents?”

  “I’m a killer dishwasher.”

  “Excellent!”

  “I can split wood.”

  “Marvelous!”

  Hazelius drove like mad, picking a line and taking it at maximum speed while totally disregarding the center stripe. “Sorry I wasn’t there to meet your plane. We’re just finishing up a run on Isabella. Can I give you a quick tour?”

  “Great.”

  The Jeep topped a rise at high speed. Fleetingly, Ford’s body felt weightless.

  “Nakai Rock,” Hazelius said, pointing to the stone spire Ford had seen from the plane. “The old trading post took its name from that rock. We call our village Nakai Rock, too. Nakai—what does it mean? I’ve always wanted to know.”

  “It’s the Navajo word for ‘Mexican.’ ”

  “Thank you. I’m awfully glad you could come at such short notice. We’ve managed to get on the wrong side of the locals, unfortunately. Lockwood speaks highly of you.”

  The road looped down into a sheltered valley, thick with cottonwoods and surrounded by red sandstone bluffs. Along the outside of the loop stood a dozen or more fake-adobe houses placed artfully among the cottonwoods, with postage-stamp lawns and picket fences. An emerald playing field in the center of the loop formed a vibrant contrast against the bluffs. At the far end of the valley, like a presiding judge, stood the tall hobgoblin rock.

  “Eventu
ally we’ll build quarters for up to two hundred families. This’ll be quite a little town of visiting scientists, their families, and support staff.”

  The Jeep swept past the houses, making a broad turn. “Tennis court.” Hazelius gestured to the left. “Barn with three horses.”

  They reached a picturesque structure made of logs chinked with adobe and shaded by massive cottonwoods. “The old trading post, converted to dining hall, kitchen, and rec room. Pool table, ping-pong, foosball, movies, library, canteen.”

  “What’s a trading post doing way up here?”

  “Before the coal company moved them off, the Navajo ran sheep on Red Mesa. The post traded food and supplies for the rugs they wove from the wool. Nakai Rock rugs are less well known than Two Grey Hills, but just as fine—finer, even.” He turned to Ford. “Where did you do your field research?”

  “Ramah, New Mexico.” Ford didn’t add, It was just for the summer and I was only an undergrad.

  “Ramah. Wasn’t that where the anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn did research for his famous book, Navaho Witchcraft ?”

  Hazelius’s depth of knowledge surprised Ford. “That’s right.”

  “Do you speak fluent Navajo?” Hazelius asked.

  “Just enough to get myself into trouble. Navajo is possibly the most difficult language on earth.”

  “As such it always interested me—helped us win World War Two.”

  The Jeep shrieked to a stop in front of a casita, small and neat, with a fenced yard enclosing a patch of artificially green lawn, along with a patio, picnic table, and barbecue.

  “The Ford residence,” Hazelius said.

  “Charming.” In fact, it was anything but. It looked crushingly suburban, this tacky little subdivision done up in imitation Pueblo-revival style. But the setting was magnificent.

  “Government housing is the same everywhere,” Hazelius said. “But you’ll find it comfortable.”

  “Where is everybody?”