State of Peril (State of Arizona Book 3)
Page 22
Borrago ran around the second boulder and there was no serious cover for over a hundred yards along the creekside pathway he had been following. He stopped and put another round down his back trail. Taking another look at the country in all directions he saw a fairly well used trail up the side of the ridge toward the fence around the school he had passed just before bailing out of the Mustang. Up he went.
About thirty feet up, the trail split. The straight ahead portion went over a hump and then up a small canyon to the school fence. He didn’t want that one. The other went to his left and into a cave. “That could be interesting. I could always hide in there while that loco hombre searches all over for me and then gives up or I could go over the hump and back down making my own trail. That would make a lot of noise, Armado, a lot of noise.”
He entered the cave.
In the evening sun, the cave was well lit for the most part. He moved along for a dozen feet or so and came to a window looking out over the creek. Below the window was Tan still on the creek side trail Armado had just left. Borrago thought of taking a shot. He was not an accurate shooter except with the rifle and the rifle was still in the back seat of the Toyota in the school parking lot. The forty feet or so to Tan was a long distance for him shooting, and the shooting would only alert Tan to his presence in the window.
Borrago moved further into the cave hoping for a dark corner to hide in. A sudden drop in level caught him by surprise and he fell face first into the dirt. The gun went flying somewhere in the dark. Something like a centipede was crawling down his cheek. He brushed it aside only to come up with blood on his hand. He felt with finger tips. There was a fair sized split on his cheek bone. “Damn.”
He looked out a second window. Tan was gone.
He could hear nothing. His head hurt. Borrago got down on hands and knees looking for the gun.
#
Tan came around the second boulder to see all that open country and no Borrago. The trail was easy to see for long yards in the distance and there was little cover. A chopper lifted from the airport. He heard the radio in his hand.
“All units. Chavez Crossing Campground is empty. Neither Inspector Brown nor our suspect is visible. Air 5 is moving into a position above us. The road out the other side is blocked and two officers are moving in from Red Rock Campground. Local police are patrolling the top of the rim along the school side. Mr. Brown are you listening?”
“Hear you loud and clear. I am a quarter mile downstream from the campground where the valley opens up. Our man has not crossed the creek and has gone to ground somewhere near me.” As Tan talked he noticed the trail up the hill toward the school. Signs of very fresh use were clear in the gravel of the slope. As he studied it a few pebbles broke loose and rolled down. “I think he went up the hill from here toward a chain link fence I can see with buildings behind it.”
“That would be a school. We have men patrolling along that fence.”
One of the patrolling officers looked through the fence and waved at Tan.
“Okay. Saw an officer. He has shrugged his shoulders like he cannot see anything from his position.”
A new voice broke in. “There is a cave there at the top of that climb. If you go straight you can hit the fence or circle all the way around the school under pretty heavy cover until it breaks out into scrub high desert foliage. If our man makes it that far he is gone. There are a hundred different ways to go and no way of seeing more than a couple at one time.”
“Ten-four. This is Brown. I will check out the caves. Get this area surrounded.”
“It is surrounded except for that area beyond you. The chopper is patrolling there and up close to the water around you.”
“Got that. I’m going in the cave.”
Tan put the radio on a rock as he started the climb up the gravel. He reached the top and saw what had been described to him. The cave had to be it. He checked the ground. Fresh spots of gravel recently disturbed were easy to see. His photo sensitive driving glasses had become so dark he could see nothing once he entered the hole. He took them off and set them on the dirt outside the cave. Two hands were needed to follow the walls of the cave, he tucked his gun in his belt at the back.
Arriving at the first window he realized what a dead duck he was if someone had used that window for a firing port as he walked below. Why had Borrago not fired? Did he think he was hidden that well? Tan moved past the window and into the next section with both hands dragging along the walls. Each foot went out and found solid ground before he put real weight on it. On his fourth step his lead foot found nothing.
He sat and slid forward, two feet dangling in the void. The walls closed in slightly. His hands remained on the floor of the cave as he slid more and more into the void beneath his feet until he was carrying his weight with his hands pressed on small ledges beside the hole. His feet hit solid ground just as he began to lower himself with his arms. The drop was only waist deep.
He went back to his old method of testing walls and footing, one step at a time. His eyes were becoming more accustomed to the darkness, but it didn’t help much.
A second window helped a lot. He kept moving thanking God that Borrago had not shot him from the windows as he came to this place. Below him he could see two officers standing on the far shore of the creek. He waved and they returned the wave. Obviously, they knew about his spot and were watching right where he would show.
Ten feet further in he came to a dead end. He felt the walls as far up as a solid ceiling would allow and as far down as his feet. No more cave to be found. Turning he kicked some gravel that rolled a foot or two and stopped. He checked again with hands and feet.
Nothing.
Borrago was not here.
He stood in the second window shrugging his shoulders. He received the same sign from the men across the creek. The only option was that Borrago had taken the other route out of here and the recent prints coming in the cave were from campers that had used the campground recently. Tan began the slow journey out of the cave.
He climbed up the drop off and moved out of the door. There were no fresh signs going up further or down the other way into the hundreds of ways to escape. He sat on the ground and fingered his radio. “I don’t know where he went. He’s not in the cave and there are no fresh tracks going beyond the cave.”
#
Borrago smiled in his hiding spot. He had them all fooled. The loco hombre was so frustrated by the tone of his voice that he would dig through the rock to find Borrago with his teeth. Only he did not know where to dig. Borrago knew he didn’t have to dig.
His leg was cramping. He stretched it out causing a little gravel to roll toward the first window. He froze.
#
Tan heard the gravel roll. It was behind him in the cave. Borrago was in the cave. But, where. Tan went through the whole trip again. No part of the cave was left unchecked. Or, was it? There was one spot that maybe, just maybe was the hiding place but it was like sticking your finger in a mouse trap. If it was loaded, you’d have a very sore finger. In this case, a very dead body. He stood and motioned to the men below that he was going back inside the cave. They started climbing. He motioned them back.
He entered the cave again, only this time he went on hands and knees. When he got to the drop off, he pulled his gun from his belt at his back, laid down on his belly, stuck the gun over the edge and pointed in back under the edge, and said, “Mr. Borrago, I have a .45 aimed into your hole right now. It has three rounds left in it. Do you have any idea what three .45 rounds can do in a confined space like your little spider hole. There will be nothing left of you but pieces. Tell me you surrender and come out slowly, gun first.”
There was no response. No movement. No words.
Was he wrong? He waited.
A good ten minutes went by without a sound until, “I’m coming out and I have no gun.”
“What were you shooting down on the trial?”
“I lost it in the cave.”
/> “Come out until you are clear of the overhang and stick both hands in the air.”
“I’m coming.”
Tan listened carefully. He pulled his gun back so it couldn’t be grabbed. The two hands came up as Tan reached out looking for them. He took one hand and put a cuff on it and reached for the second.
Borrago pulled and Tan, being off balance on his knees, was pulled over Borrago’s head and into the depths of the cave. Tan landed on his back with his body sliding feet first out of the second window where the ground was thirty to forty feet below, and most of it was fair sized rocks.
He grabbed for handholds knowing that he’d at least break both legs if he fell. One hand found an edge to latch on to. Borrago hit him in the shoulder. Tan swung with the loose hand connecting with Borrago somewhere. Tan swung his body until he was on his belly again and pulled his knees up under himself, lifted a hand, and reached for Borrago.
The dope dealer hit him in the chest with a glancing blow and Tan returned the favor by head butting him as he scrambled to get his feet under him. Borrago was stunned for only a moment.
Each man worked hard to get to his feet and gain the advantage over the other. Neither was doing too well at it until the more desperate one, Borrago, threw himself head long into Tan just as the former Marine was gaining purchase on the gravel floor. The two met with a crash akin to two big horned sheep rams in battle for the fair lady of their desires. Borrago pushed Tan back as he pumped his feet on the loose gravel floor.
At a moment of realization that he was going out the window again, Tan threw a punch and reached for Borrago at the same time using what little traction he had to land a solid blow in the man’s soft belly and grab him at the same time by his shirt front. Borrago fell back pulling Tan with him until he lay on the floor and Tan landed knees first on his chest.
Tan took a second swing that missed and planted his left hand in the gravel of the cave floor. Borrago expelled his last meal in Tan’s direction with most of it falling back in his own face. Tan, without thinking, pulled back allowing Borrago to plant a foot in the investigator’s face.
Borrago drew a hand up and wiped his face, flinging the puke across the cave floor. “You ready to quit now,” Tan asked wiping blood from his own face.
“No. I will kill you and escape.”
“That will not happen. There are men outside the cave entrance waiting for you or me to come out. I will be greeted. You will be captured and tried and given a lethal injection.”
“But, you will be dead. Your daughter will never know her father.”
Borrago swung from his knees.
Tan dodged as best he could in the confines of the cave before taking a healthy swing himself.
Borrago caught the blow in the chest and backed against the waist high ledge, gaining leverage for his next blow. He kicked out like a martial arts trained man and caught Tan in his bad knee. Tan lunged for Borrago and grabbed both his slippery ears, head butted him again making his face a total disaster.
Borrago tried to back, but couldn’t because of the ledge. Tan hit him again and again. Borrago pushed him away.
Both gasped for breath, but Tan was mad, really mad. He was remembering again who this was he was fighting. He swung and connected. The follow up was a knee to the man’s groin. Another hit in the face stood Borrago up setting up two more blows to the body which brought Borrago to his knees.
Tan laid a straight right to the swarthy man’s chest right over his heart.
Borrago went down with only one hand cuffed allowing Tan to quickly close the remaining cuff on the other wrist.
It was over. Tan gasped for air in the confined space that was now full of dust kicked up by the fight. He yelled, “Coming out.”
A voice from beyond the darkness said, “Come ahead. We’re ready. Anybody hurt.”
“Not bad enough to worry about.”
Tan pushed Borrago toward the light as he climbed up the ledge. Just as he was standing Borrago bowled him over backwards, jumped down off the ledge, one foot landing on Tan’s thigh the other on his chest, as he ran to the second window and dove head first to the rock strewn ground. It sounded like a sack of watermelons falling from a four story building when he landed.
The Governor’s Investigator and Joan’s protector was on his knees as he looked down at the pile of man below him. He stood and hobbled slowly, bent over, toward the entrance to the cave.
“Thanks, Lord. In some situations losing is not an option.”
Epilog
Tan borrowed a flashlight and retrieved the two firearms from the cave before standing in the sunlight to call his wife.
“How are you, babe?”
“Just fine as frog’s hair. We now have a bouncing baby girl. The Governor stood by me the whole time and wants it named after her. What do ya think?”
“I told her I didn’t think Governor would be a good girl’s name.”
Joan laughed.
Tan said, “How about Governess?”
“No, silly boy. We could use the Gov’s first name or her middle name.”
“Okay, use her first name.”
“Will do.”
“I’ll be there in 3 or 4 hours.”
“Okay.”
“Tell the Gov to send the women to California.”
#
Rachel went to cop school, after typing all the reports.
#
For the first time in history, the Legislature of the United States of America censured a sitting President of the United States for sitting on his butt and not supporting a state of said United States being invaded by a foreign power, Mexico. The house lacked 2 votes for articles of impeachment. The SCOTUS threw out the suit against the Federal Government filed by the State of Arizona.
#
Tan and Joan took their new family member home, referring to her as Gov Junior most of the time.
#
Pastor Walt never did catch his vandals.
End
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Table of Contents
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11
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Epilog