by Aimée Thurlo
“I think that is the Masai tribe. But I personally don’t even like my steaks rare. Where did you put those granola bars? I ate two, but couldn’t find the rest without waking you up.” Diane looked over at him.
“I’ll hand you one. They’re on the floorboard behind your seat.” Lee reached between the two seats and brought back a peanut-flavored bar. “Want me to unwrap it for you?”
“Never mind. It’ll have to wait. They’re really slowing down. There’s a freeway exit ahead. Want me to go on past them?” Diane slowed down, hesitating.
“No. Pull over quickly, then turn off the lights.”
Diane took her foot off the gas immediately, checked in the rearview mirror, saw it was clear behind her for the moment, and worked the brakes, slowing quickly but keeping control. The Honda responded well, and they were soon on the shoulder of the Interstate, sitting there with the lights out.
“They took the ramp off, and are driving down to the intersection of the exits. Let’s wait until we see if they go north or south, or just parallel the freeway on the frontage road.” Lee squinted, then remembered and picked up the camera with the telephoto lens.
“I can’t see a thing,” Diane mumbled.
“They’re at the intersection, now they’re heading north . . . no, they’re going down the frontage road, continuing west. There are several small roads there, leading to a trading post, hogans, and wells. The turnoff to the Church Rock Uranium Mine is farther down.” Lee watched for another minute.
“Should I follow now?” Diane checked the mirror, let an eighteen-wheeler roar past, the wind from the big trailer tugging at the Honda, then she accelerated onto the Interstate again, headlights on once more.
“Right, but once we take the exit and reach the intersection, stop and we’ll switch places. I can drive with the lights off, remember?”
“Old owl eyes, right?”
“Owls are considered bad omens for Navajos.”
“Okay, Hawk eyes.” She chuckled.
A minute later, they played red-light green-light, running around the front of the car, switching places with the headlight and dome lights off. The moon was behind a cloud, so Diane couldn’t see very well and collided with the door as she was getting in. “Ow! I bumped my elbow.”
Lee was already inside and at the wheel. “Sorry. Ready to roll?”
“Yeah, dammit.”
He put the Honda into gear and accelerated, trying to make sure they didn’t lose track of Muller, their quarry. Somewhere ahead, in the distance, was the van, also running with the lights out. “Muller must be driving.”
“Unless his crewman is also a vampire,” Diane reminded Lee softly.
Within a minute they saw the vehicle again, stationary on the shoulder of the road about a quarter of a mile ahead. Lee pulled over to the side of the two-lane asphalt road beside a drainage ditch and stopped, turning off the engine. After hours of engine noise, the silence was deafening except for the soft tick-tick of cooling metal.
Diane rolled down her window, and listened. A truck roared by on the Interstate two hundred yards to their left. Then, as it rolled on into the distance, the night grew quiet again. The van was just sitting there, but she could hear the faint rumble of its powerful engine.
“Do you think they spotted us following them?” Diane whispered.
“I doubt it. They’re probably just looking for the right road, or using some equipment in the van to try to track the cargo. This is very close to where I hid it, less than two miles, I estimate. I wonder how they could have narrowed down the search so quickly?” Lee whispered, not taking his eye off the van. If anyone got out, he’d see them, but they’d also see the Honda too.
“They might have gotten lucky on an earlier search, before you found out Muller was back in New Mexico. Or maybe they had a way to do an aerial survey to narrow it down. Aren’t there aircraft geologists use to map the surface minerals with special instruments? There are probably instruments that can search for radioactive spots too,” Diane suggested. “I saw this film about minerals on public TV. They use the same technology NASA uses to analyze the surface of planets when doing flybys with space probes.”
“I should have thought of that,” Lee mumbled. “They may have the spot narrowed down to the size of a football field or less. At least it’ll take some time digging out the box, even if they do find it. And, while they’re preoccupied . . .”
“It’s around midnight already. Do you think they’ll try to work past dawn?” she whispered.
“Not a chance, unless the man with Muller isn’t a vampire. But Muller is going to have to stay in the van once the sun comes up, except for a few minutes at a time. Unless they brought a portable shelter or tent of some kind.”
The van started forward again, and the vehicle turned off onto a narrow rutted road leading up into the woods to the north.
“Is the hogan where the medicine man lived still there?” Diane reached down and checked her pistol while she spoke.
“Yes, but that’s farther down the road. Bowlegs, that was his nickname, abandoned the old one when a patient died in there, and constructed a new one close to where I buried the box. Later on, he died, and that hogan was abandoned as well. Remember, I’ve been checking up on the location from time to time.”
“Do you think the medicine man built his second hogan near where you hid the box by accident?” Diane asked.
“He could well have seen signs of where I’d been, or the truck tracks, and wondered. But he never messed with it. I would have noticed signs of digging, I think.”
Diane nodded. “Maybe he was protecting it too, in his own way. Did someone else move in after the medicine man died?”
“No. His relatives punched a hole in the north side to remove his body. Then the hogan was abandoned.” Lee thought about it a moment. “I just realized something from last time I was here. There were tracks around the hogan, and signs that somebody had been patching holes in it with mud. So a vampire . . .”
“Could hide inside the hogan during the daytime,” Diane finished. “That might be their base camp, a place no Navajos would go, if I’m right about the aversion to death. It’s a good place for them to take shelter from the sun, and still be in a great position to continue their search for the cargo. Are they heading in the right direction?”
Lee checked and nodded, starting the engine. “We’ll go down past where they turned off, then continue on a short distance until we find a place to hide the vehicle. I don’t want to get too far uphill. We could get stuck. There are still some shady, damp, low spots ahead where leftover moistness from late winter snows collects. The sandy ground in those areas makes it impossible for the tires to get any traction.”
Lee waited until he could no longer see the van, then drove slowly past where Muller and his companion had turned off, until they were out of sight of that position. Then he drove off the track and inched slowly uphill until they were hidden among some tall junipers.
Within a few minutes, they were standing beside their car. Lee had the rifle out now, loaded, and Diane was checking her pistol again. “The abandoned hogan is about a quarter mile upslope, roughly parallel to us if we were to head directly uphill. There is a small meadow around the hogan, and a few old fruit trees—dead, I think.” He was whispering, knowing how good Muller’s hearing must be.
“Other than some sagebrush,” Lee continued, “there is little cover within fifty feet of the hogan entrance, which is on the east side, according to custom. The hole punched in the side where the body was removed is on the north. If they plan on staying the whole day in that hogan, then they must have brought something to cover both that hole and the entrance to keep out direct sunlight.”
“Even if they already know where the box is, unless they plan on digging it out tonight, they’ll probably get the hogan ready first,” Diane speculated.
“You may be right. They’re not due back until Monday, so they might plan on getting set up tonight and doi
ng a little work, hiding out in the hogan tomorrow, then working tomorrow night, and maybe Sunday night as well. It would be too dangerous for us to make a move on them while they’re in the hogan itself since there’s only one way in. So let’s get close enough to see exactly what their strategy is for tonight.”
“Okay.” Diane nodded.
“Remember that Muller can see as well at night as you can in daylight, and we don’t know if his crewman is a vampire too. So stay hidden, and move around as if it was the brightest time of day. And their hearing is supersensitive.”
She nodded. “You want me to watch your back while you get close enough to take them both down with the rifle. Then we can move in and . . . cut off their heads?” She shivered at the thought.
“Something like that. If we can pull that off, I’ll still want to stay around to watch for a while, just to make sure Muller doesn’t somehow find a way to reattach his head.” Lee shrugged. “If that happens, I’ll burn the bodies, or put them out where the sun can do it for me.”
He wondered, now that he had said it out loud, if he could actually go through with it. He’d never considered himself an assassin, and despite the loss of all those soldiers, there had been a war going on at the time of the ambush, and the other Germans with Muller had all died that night too, some of them at Lee’s hands.
Then Lee remembered Benny Mondragon and his wife and young son, and he knew he had to go through with this. Muller had to be killed. Who knew how many people Muller had murdered since then, and why he wanted the plutonium now?
Muller may have gone back to what later became East Germany, and functioned as a spy or soldier for the communist government, gathering information from his original American contact. He might now be on his own, hoping to sell the plutonium to a government hostile to the United States. Or maybe Muller was simply a terrorist. He’d have had to do something underhanded to even get into the German Air Force with his little problem with sunlight.
“Let’s go. Just be careful, watch my back, and stay extremely quiet. Remember to move as if it were daylight. Watch my hand signals,” Lee said. “Ready?”
Diane took out her pistol and nodded. Despite her experience as a field agent, she looked positively grim at the moment. But he remembered her quick reactions and combat skills when the skinwalkers came in through the windows a few days ago, and knew she had the right instincts around danger.
He turned, looked around one more time, then moved silently uphill across the rocky ground and thin grass, his rifle loaded and the safety off. He had extra ammunition in his right jacket pocket, in a cartridge box so the shells wouldn’t rattle against each other. In his pants pocket was his medicine pouch, with the hunting bear and other sacred items Bowlegs had given him around the middle of the last century. And, just in case he got pinned down somewhere for a long time, there was that small plastic bottle of sunblock.
CHAPTER 14
As they climbed slowly up the slope, moving among the piñon and juniper pines, pungent sagebrush, and lean, pale green and yellow grasses, Lee kept a constant watch for the van and its occupants. He had to make sure they wouldn’t be walking into an ambush.
Lee’s instincts told him otherwise. Diane’s belief that Muller had narrowed down the search area using sophisticated technology, and perhaps an aerial survey, made sense.
Although he was used to moving quickly when no one was around to see, he’d slowed down so Diane could keep up. Exhaustion could impair her shooting accuracy and that was one problem neither of them needed.
He paused, standing still to listen. There were no vehicles operating nearby, but a mile or so downhill, the hum of a distant truck passing on the freeway was clear.
He turned, and saw Diane searching the area behind them and to their flanks. She caught his eye, and pointed toward a house or hogan about a half mile farther east and a little closer to the road. There was a light on there. It was the home of a Navajo family, probably someone related to old Bowlegs.
If Lee did any shooting tonight, whoever was in that house would certainly hear. But he doubted anyone would come to investigate unless they had cattle or horses running loose. It was possible they’d call the cops, but even then, it would take them a long time to respond.
He heard a vehicle door slam somewhere ahead, and Diane heard it too, judging on her reaction. He started toward the sound, and she followed, silently, remaining behind and enough to his right so that he could see her position by checking to his side.
Crouching low now, Lee inched forward, looking through breaks between the trees for the van or any figures on the move. Stepping beneath the branches of an ancient piñon, he glanced up and saw a barn owl staring down at him, its big eyes following his every step. He automatically touched the leather drawstring pouch in his pocket that contained his fetishes. A blessing from the Navajo gods would be welcome now.
Diane passed on the other side of the tree, and the owl flew off, its wings flapping in a quiet rush that couldn’t be heard ten feet away. She startled, and swung her pistol around toward the tree, but had the good sense not to fire without checking the target first.
She looked to see if he’d seen, and shrugged her shoulders when she saw him watching her. Diane was as nervous as a cat, for obvious reasons. He held up his hand, signaling that she should stay in that position.
He moved ten feet farther, and heard the distinctive sound of a zipper. Kneeling on the ground beside the van, about fifty feet away was a man removing a small electronic device, probably a radiation detector of some kind, from an athletic bag. It wasn’t Muller, Lee knew that right away. Where was the vampire?
Shifting slightly on his knees, Lee took a step to his left and looked again, sweeping the forested area ahead. Beyond the van was the old log hogan, an eight-sided structure larger than Bowleg’s first structure and suitable for ceremonies and the work of a medicine man. On top of the mud-sealed roof a man was spreading some kind of tarp over the smoke hole. It was Muller.
Lee turned to check on Diane’s position, and noted she was watching him. He pointed toward the men, and held up two fingers. She nodded so he’d know that she understood.
He checked back, and saw that Muller was inching down from the roof of the hogan. Raising his rifle, Lee got ready to take a shot as soon as the angle was right. He figured on taking Muller down with a head shot, switching to the crewman, then going in to finish Muller off before he could heal himself. If the other man was a vampire, he’d have to be decapitated as well, but Muller was the main threat.
Muller walked around to the far side of the hogan before Lee could get him in his sights, and he had to wait. Checking the crewman again, he saw the man was taking a second radiation detector from the bag.
As silently as he could move, Lee slipped past the trunk of a juniper and brought his rifle back to bear on the hogan. The next time Muller was visible, he’d take the head shot. A quick glance back at the crewman almost stopped his heart. The man was gone. He couldn’t have moved that last unless he was a vampire too!
Turning, he looked for Diana, who had whirled around to her right, her pistol up. The muzzle blast of a gunshot flashed somewhere to her left, striking the tree beside her in line with her shoulders. She fired two quick shots in return, and Lee heard the sound of movement from the location of the muzzle blast.
Expecting a quick reaction from Muller, Lee whirled to his right, anticipating his opponent. But Muller went forward, moving so quickly, he almost ran right past Lee.
Lee fired instinctively, grazing Muller, who dove to the ground and rolled.
Knowing he had little chance of getting a second shot, Lee crouched low and ran quickly to Diane, who was looking around wildly, her pistol extended in a combat stance.
“It’s me,” Lee said, warding off her pistol as she spun around at his approach, too late to hit him but sending another two rounds in the direction of Muller.
“I got one,” she yelled. “The crewman.”
Lee r
aised his rifle and sent another round toward Muller, who’d crawled to their right in the direction of the van. Muller snapped off two shots in response, and they whined overhead.
“Break off. I’ll follow.” He knew they’d lost the initiative and a night fight wasn’t a good idea. He pushed her in the right direction, then whirled, looking for Muller. The vampire was nowhere to be seen, so Lee decided to shoot both the front tires of the van. He got one shot off, then had to change positions when another shot whined by dangerously close.
He racked another round into the rifle, as he ran downhill. Suddenly, another gunshot rang out from up the hill. He felt a tug at his right shoulder and searing pain. His arm jerked in a spasm, and he dropped his rifle. Lee jumped down a small embankment and ran parallel to the drop-off for twenty feet, then continued downhill, catching up with Diane.
“Damn, you can run,” she gasped, aware of who it was before she could bring her pistol around.
A bullet whined past them just to their left, and Lee grabbed her hand, pulling Diane to the right just as another bullet struck the ground beside her and ricocheted off downhill.
“Forget going back to the car. We need to hide and set up an ambush,” Lee said as they ran around a low outcropping of rock, effectively hiding them for the moment.
He reached over with his left hand and pulled out his Beretta, then slumped down behind a waist-high rock resting between two sturdy pines.
She dropped down prone behind a nearby boulder, glanced back in the direction they’d come from, then looked over at him.
“My God, you’ve been hit. There’s blood all over your arm and shoulder,” Diane rasped, struggling to catch her breath.
He groaned. “No big deal, if we can keep them at a distance long enough, it’ll heal. I only wish I hadn’t dropped the rifle.”
“Forget about the rifle. We need to get you a little farther away. I hit the crewman squarely, and he went down. Is he a vampire? Will he get right back up?” Diane sat up and moved behind Lee, trying to see how badly he was hit.
