by David Wood
“They dissect them!” Bones said. “Have a little respect for the scientist from the other side of the galaxy, will you?”
“It’s just the people who get probed,” Amanda chimed in. “What is it with the probing, anyway? Are they all proctologists?”
“Screw you guys,” Bones said. ‘You’re not going to kill my good mood. I’ve been wanting to visit here for years.”
“You do seem pretty excited,” Amanda said, keeping her eyes on the road. “I guess this is like Mecca to you.”
“I don’t know. Graceland is up there, too.”
“Hey, check out the lampposts.” Jessie pointed to one of the streetlamps that lined either side of the main street. “They’re aliens.”
Sure enough, the bulbous lamps were formed in the shape of alien heads and adorned with large, black eyes that peered at passing cars with sinister intent.
“So cool,” Bones said.
“This guy we’re going to meet, Krueger,” Amanda began, “what can you tell us about him? Another UFO nut like you?”
Bones let the jibe pass. “Kirk Krueger. He helped me and Maddock out when we were looking for Atlantis.”
“Atlantis?” Jessie interrupted. “Oh my God. Tell me you don’t believe in that, too. It’s a myth.”
“We found it.”
The simple declaration left the young woman gaping. “You’re messing with me,” she finally managed.
“Nope.” Bones gave his head a single shake.
“This guy is full of secrets,” Amanda said, glancing at Jessie in the rear-view mirror. “And he doles them out like candy. He loves the attention.”
“That’s not it at all. Some stuff is classified, other stuff would be dangerous for people to know. Besides, ‘How’d you like to have a drink with the guy who found Noah’s Ark?’ is a lousy pickup line.”
“Noah’s Ark,” Jessie repeated, her voice flat. Her eyes flitted from Bones to Amanda, suspicion shining brightly. “I can’t decide if the two of you are serious or just trying to make me feel stupid.”
“I’m serious,” Amanda said. “And he is too. At least, he is about this.”
Jessie’s shoulders sagged. “Who are you, anyway?”
Bones sighed. “Just a guy who can’t stay out of trouble.”
“Don’t let him fool you,” Amanda said. “He loves every second of it.”
“Some of it’s pretty cool, but it can get bad. It’s definitely not for everyone.”
“So, this Krueger guy,” Jessie prompted.
“He’s an expert on ancient mysteries, Egypt in particular, but he knows his stuff, especially as it relates to contact with extraterrestrials. He’s been in hiding for a while now.” Bones stopped there. To explain further would require a lot more back-filling than they had time for at the moment. “Those are the broad strokes. He’s a good guy. If he had anything to do with the book’s disappearance, he’ll tell me.”
Ten minutes later, they strolled up to the Roswell UFO Museum. The turquoise marquee shone brightly in the New Mexico sun, looking like a 1950s movie theater façade. They paid their admission fee and proceeded inside.
The museum was heavy on reprints of newspaper clippings and government documents, especially those relating to the famed Roswell Incident of 1947, in which the government allegedly recovered a crashed UFO. Bones had read most of it before, but he soon found himself drawn in by the sheer volume of information on UFO legends and conspiracies.
“Do we just wait?” Jessie whispered.
“He’ll find us. I sort of stand out in a crowd.”
They continued to browse the exhibits: equipment from the 1940s, dioramas of spaceship crashes, and models of aliens. Bones was enjoying the relative silence when a mechanical rumble filled the room, followed by a high pitched whine. His senses on alert, he looked around for the source of the sound and relaxed when his eyes fell on a group of aliens standing in front of a dark backdrop. Steam rose around them and above their heads, a scaled-down flying saucer rotated in midair.
“Cheesy,” he muttered.
“True, but the visitors seem to like it.” Bones glanced down to see a thin man of medium height smiling up at him. He hadn’t met Krueger in person but recognized him from photographs. He’d dyed his hair brown, but his blue eyes and easy smile made him easy to recognize.
“You’ve got to be Bones.”
“I don’t really have much choice, do I?” They shook hands and Krueger ushered them into an office at the front of the building.
“You work here?” Bones said. “Won’t that make you easier to find?”
“Hiding in plain sight. Our mutual friend, Tam, thought it a good idea. Besides, things have calmed down on the Dominion front. I don’t feel like I’m in any real danger, but there’s no harm in playing it safe.”
At the mention of the Dominion, Jessie shot a sharp glance at Bones, but Amanda tapped her on the arm and mouthed, I’ll tell you later.
“So, you’re interested in the Book of Bones. I think I can...” He paused as the phone on the desk rang. “Excuse me.” He answered the phone and frowned as the person on the other end of the line began to speak. As he listened, the lines in his brow deepened. When he hung up, his face was pale. “I don’t know for sure, but I think we might have a problem. Some men are outside asking for you.”
Chapter 20
“Is there another way out of here?” As he spoke, Bones scanned the tiny office. No windows, no door other than that which led back into the museum.
Krueger shook his head. “Do you think it’s the Dominion?”
“I don’t know.” The Dominion, a powerful extremist group with ties in business and government, had dogged Bones and Maddock’s trail for years, and Krueger had found himself caught up in it. “I know they’re pretty much broken in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean they’re gone. All I know is someone’s been after us ever since Jessie and I started researching the incident at Halcón Rock.”
Krueger blinked. “I can tell you a little something about that too, provided you can get us out of here.” He moved to the door and peered out. “Two guys are coming this way. What do we do?”
Bones took another look around. His eyes wandered to the drop ceiling. “What’s on the other side of this wall?”
“A storage room. Why?” Krueger looked up, his focus sharpened, and he nodded. “Good idea. I’ll see what I can do to slow them down.”
While Krueger locked the door and wrestled a heavy filing cabinet in front of it, Bones sprang into action. He leaped up onto Krueger’s desk and beckoned to Jessie and Amanda to join him. He pushed aside a ceiling tile and boosted Jessie up. The athletic young woman clambered nimbly through the opening. Seconds later they heard a cry and a crash.
“I’m okay,” came her muffled voice. “Fell onto a box of toilet paper.”
A sharp knock at the door cut off Bones’ reply.
“Yes? Can I help you?” Krueger was pushing a bookcase against the door, and the strain was evident in his voice.
“FBI. Open the door.”
“Just a second, I’m...” Krueger clambered up onto the desk. “I’m looking at porn and need to put my pants back on.”
“Excuse me?” the voice said.
“It was all I could think of,” Krueger whispered as Bones boosted him up.
“Perfect,” Bones chuckled.
Thunk! Something heavy hit the door. The men on the other side must have sensed Krueger was stalling.
Thunk! The door held.
Bones climbed up into the dark space above the drop ceiling, crawled forward, and dropped down into the storage room, where the others waited by the door.
“Where does the door lead?” he asked Krueger.
“Back into the...” Krueger’s face went scarlet, and he cleared his throat. “Back into the museum.”
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.” Bones looked around the room for a weapon, anything that could get them out of this mess. His eyes took in the pi
les of boxes, the shelves, lined with cleaning supplies, the dirty sink, the mops, brooms, and buckets. He smiled as an idea came to him.
“Everybody grab a cloth, wet it and hold it over your face. Keep your eyes closed and wait by the door for me to tell you to run.” While the others hurried to comply, he began gathering the materials he’d need.
“This had better work.”
He hastily plugged the sink and began pouring in bleach. When the big sink was half-full, he opened several bottles of drain cleaner and added them to the mix. The reaction was immediate and overwhelming. His years of diving, as well as his general level of fitness, meant he could hold his breath much longer than the average man, and he’d need every second. He closed his eyes and kept pouring. His sinuses burned, and his skin began to tingle.
On the other side of the wall, a loud crash told him the men had broken through.
“Up there! They went through the ceiling!” Someone shouted.
Bones moved blindly toward the door, guided by the others’ rasping coughs. His sharp ears picked out the sound of feet thumping atop Krueger’s desk... a grunt as someone climbed up into the space above the ceiling... another set of feet on the desk.
“Go!” he rasped. “Hurry.”
Krueger pushed the door open, and they all burst out into the museum, knocking aside startled patrons.
Back in the storage room, someone cried out in surprise. Bones grinned as the sound died into a choking cough.
“Gas leak!” His raw throat gave the words a raspy tone, but he got them out. “Everybody out! Call the fire department!”
As was the case in any such situation, the people didn’t react immediately. They moved out of the way of the fleeing group. That was fine with Bones. They’d get out of there in a hurry once they realized what was going on, and in the meantime, they’d serve as an obstacle for their pursuers, who right now were probably finding it nearly impossible to see or breathe.
As they burst out into fresh air and dashed for the car, his vision began to clear, and his breathing eased. By the time they were heading out of town, their rear view mirror blessedly empty, he was feeling almost like himself again.
“What was that stuff? I look like I just smoked a bowl.” Jessie pulled her eyelid back and leaned close to the mirror set in the visor.
“Chlorine gas. I went all World War II on them.”
“You could have killed us,” Amanda said.
“And what would they have done to us?” Bones asked.
“Fair point. So, what do we do next?”
“We find a quiet place to lie low, while Krueger here tells us all he knows about the Book of Bones.”
Chapter 21
“My God, will these flies give us a break?” Amanda swatted in futility at the cloud of biting flies that swarmed around her head. “They don’t seem to be bothering you guys.” She cast a baleful look at the others who stood nearby suppressing grins.
Krueger let out a puff of bluish smoke in her direction, temporarily scattering the insects. “They don’t seem to like cigarettes. Have one?” He held out a battered pack of Marlboro Reds.
“I’ll pass.” Amanda waved the offer away but moved closer to the others.
“So that’s the final resting place of Billy the Kid?” Bones nodded at the simple headstone at the end of the sidewalk. Enclosed in a black cage and set in front of a large cane cholla cactus, the roughly carved gravestone was the only feature in the enclosed space behind the Old Fort Sumner Museum.
“Maybe.” Krueger shrugged and led the way toward the grave. “He’s buried somewhere in here. Back then, they used wooden grave markers and a storm washed them all away shortly after he was buried. This marker is just a guess.”
“Bummer,” Bones said. “Why is it caged like that?”
“Thieves and vandals.” They reached the gravesite and Krueger reached out to touch one of the bars. “The headstone was stolen more than once.”
“Why?” Jessie asked. “It’s not valuable, is it?”
“Who knows why? Same reason they have annual tombstone races here in town.”
Amanda cocked her head. “Tombstone races? Is that what I think it is?”
Krueger chuckled. “If you’re picturing people running around with eighty-pound slabs strapped to their backs, then yes. I can’t explain it. Something about Billy the Kid brings out the crazy in people.”
“It hasn’t brought out too many crazies today.” Bones’ eyes swept the empty horizon before returning to the gravestone.
The marker memorialized not only Billy the Kid but two others. At the top was inscribe the word “PALS.” On the left was the name Tom O’Folliard, at the bottom Charlie Bowdre, and at the right, William Bonney.
“William H. Bonney. Alias, Billy the Kid. Died July, 18 something,” Jessie read. “Looks like the vandals damaged the stone.”
Krueger nodded.
“I have to say, I’m not too interested in sightseeing,” Amanda said. “I want to know who the hell just came after us and how did they find us?”
“You know we had to get off the beaten path, and this place is as good as any,” Bones said. Krueger had chosen the place somewhat at random. It lay northeast of Roswell in the direction of the interstate highway that would take them back to Albuquerque or Quemadura, depending on what they decided. He let out a heavy sigh that made him feel like a deflating tire, turned, and leaned against the metal cage. The sun had baked the bars, and he felt their warmth through his leather jacket. “I have a theory about how they found us.”
“It’s not because you stand out in a crowd,” Jessie said, “because that wouldn’t explain how quickly they were onto us.”
Bones shook his head. “The incident at Halcón Rock has ‘aliens’ written all over it. If someone suspects, or knows, that I’ve been checking into something related to aliens, where’s the one place in New Mexico I’m bound to show up sooner or later?”
Krueger nodded thoughtfully. “So they sent someone to keep an eye on the place. That’s how they got ahead of you.”
“I guess Tam will have to change your identity again,” Bones said. “Sorry about that.”
“Maybe not. They came looking for you, not for Kraig Klemmer. I should be okay for the moment.”
“So, that’s how they found us,” Jessie said. “Any idea who they are?”
“I have an idea.” Krueger flicked his cigarette butt out onto the dry brown dirt of the graveyard. Catching Amanda’s disapproving glance, he hurried over, stubbed it out, and pocketed it. “Anyway, I can’t prove they exist, but I’ve long heard rumors of a group called STAR.”
“Let me guess,” Bones said. “It stands for something ridiculous.”
“Steering Toward America’s Roots.”
“That’s bad,” Amanda said. “A simple acronym for simple minds, I suppose.”
“If the rumors are true, they’ve got some bright and talented people among their ranks. Mostly ex-military, but they’ve got connections in other places as well, and their ranks are swelling.”
“Sounds like the Dominion,” Bones said.
Krueger nodded. “Somewhat, but their aims are not religious in nature. It’s purely political. Limited government, with the exception of the military, limited taxes, again, except for defense spending. Basically, keep the borders secure on the outside, laissez-faire on the inside.”
“I can’t say I totally hate that idea,” Bones said. “Then again, I’ve seen what powerful people inside the country already get away with. I don’t know about giving them freer rein.”
“But what do aliens have to do with that?” Amanda asked.
“Aliens?” Krueger asked. “Nothing. But alien technology, that’s a different story.” He slapped a fly that had landed on his neck. “Time for another smoke. Anyway,” he continued as he lit up, “I told you the group is filled with ex-military. At least some of them have to know about the government cover-ups and have heard the stories of highly advanced alien tech.
If they could get their hands on it...”
“Rebellion,” Jessie finished. “Overthrow of the government.”
“Perhaps,” Krueger said, “but they’d settle for establishing their own small nation. Part of west Texas, southern New Mexico, which has a large population of expat Texans, pieces of Arizona and northern Mexico. They’d have oil and natural gas to export, and with sufficient alien tech they could defend their borders.”
“Imagine the ripple effect that would have on the rest of the United States,” Amanda said. “If a region managed to successfully break off from the rest of the country, that would embolden separatists all over to rebel. Even if they failed, it would be a bloodbath. How many innocent people would die? What would it do to our economy and our long-term stability?”
Bones grimaced. Amanda’s words echoed his own thoughts. Such an occurrence would send ripples not only across the nation but around the world. That couldn’t happen.
“I think we all agree this STAR group sucks, but nothing you’ve told us has changed our goal. We need to get the Book of Bones before they do.” Bones turned to Krueger. “We heard it disappeared around the time you worked at Los Alamos. Any idea where it is?”
Krueger took a long drag of his cigarette and let the smoke out in a long, slow exhale.
“Yes and no. I mean, I did steal it, after all.”
Chapter 22
Halcón Rock loomed in the distance, only a bump on the broad, empty horizon. Matthew grinned as it came into sight. Today was the day.
The Jeep dropped hard into a rut as he guided it across the rough dirt road. Matthew winced, thinking of what he had stored in the back seat. It was a reflex born of irrational thought. It wasn’t like he was hauling nitroglycerine.
The road bent around a dense patch of piñon pine and juniper, and as he rounded it, he let his eyes and thoughts drift back to the rock, and the mysterious door beneath it. So distracted was he that he almost didn’t notice the olive-colored transport vehicle barring the way.
“Damn!” He slammed on the brakes, and the jeep fishtailed as it skidded along the hard-packed dirt road. It came to rest in a dust cloud only feet from the side of the vehicle. “What the hell is...?” The words died in his throat as two men, clad in body armor and carrying automatic rifles, approached his jeep from either side. Mathew swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and rolled down the driver side window.
