Serpent Gate kk-3

by Michael Mcgarity

  Close to town, with the sun just up and the glare off the snow bouncing into the sky, a state police car passed them. Robert turned his head to follow the car, thinking that if he got out and waited, the cop might come back and take him to jail. He shrugged off the thought and snorted. Cops were assholes.

  The driver gave him a strange look.

  Robert bummed another cigarette and stared out the window. He liked the way the snow covered everything and made things look clean. His feet started to hurt as the driver turned into the maintenance yard. It felt like somebody was sticking pins into his toes.

  He jumped out of the truck and went with the driver into the empty office.

  "Got any rubber bands?" Robert asked.

  The driver rummaged through a desk drawer and held out a handful.

  Robert pulled them over his boots.

  Maybe they would help keep the snow out.

  "What happened to your laces?" the driver asked.

  "I don't like them."

  The driver filled his thermos, gave Robert a cup of coffee, and went outside to load sand into the truck's spreader. When he returned the hitchhiker was gone. nita found Kerney sitting in the Shafier Hotel dining room picking over a light breakfast. The room was full of railroad workers just in from a night of clearing a freight derailment at Abo Pass. Snow and mud had been tracked into the room, and small brown puddles had formed under the tables where the workers sat.

  Nita dropped her coat over the back of an empty chair and joined Kerney at the table.

  "Good morning," she said.

  "Morning," Kerney answered, inspecting her outfit.

  She wore insulated boots, jeans, and several layers of sweaters.

  "Going somewhere?"

  "With you," Nita replied.

  "That's not possible."

  "Do you want to waste time trying to find your way to Serpent Gate, or do you want to get there in a hurry?"

  "There are a lot of other places Robert could be," Kerney said.

  "I've already looked everywhere else."

  "Then I'll start at Serpent Gate."

  "It's not that easy to get to. Do you have a four wheel-drive vehicle?

  It's going to take one to get in."

  "No, you're not going."

  "Then I'll go by myself," Nita said as she started to rise.

  "Hold up."

  "Robert is out there, and I'm going to find him if you won't."

  "Why are you so sure he's there?"

  "Can't you figure it out? What happened to me-and Robert-took place at Serpent Gate. He's always gone back; I never have."

  Before Kerney could respond a patrol officer entered the room and walked quickly to the table. He gave Nita a questioning glance and a tight nod before addressing Kerney.

  "No luck so far. Chief," he said.

  "I covered all the major roads in a ten-mile radius."

  "Robert may come here," he said as he laid some bills on the table to cover the meal and the tip.

  "Pick him up if he shows. Don't scare him off. He doesn't like cops much. I'll be on my handheld radio if you need me."

  Kerney stood up, took Nita's coat off the back of the empty chair, and held it out.

  "Let's go to Serpent Gate." carlos tried to act cordial and relaxed with Felix and Delfino, but his attempts at small talk were rebuffed. He drove through the night while one man slept and the other stayed awake, watching him. Even when he had to take a piss along the side of the road, he had company. When he suggested a meal stop, the idea was rejected. Carlos had to come up with a plan to save himself, and soon.

  The blizzard had made travel almost impossible. Felix had ordered him to take the interstate in the hopes that the road would be in better condition. But south of Albuquerque the highway became a nightmare, and Carlos missed the exit to Mountainair because of a fierce whiteout that obliterated the road signs. When he got back on track, it took hours to travel fifty miles to Mountainair.

  Carlos drove into the village with a low sun in his eyes. It wasn't much of a town from what he could see: a cheap motel or two, boarded-up businesses, a school, and a main street that sputtered to a stop after two long blocks.

  "I need some coffee," he said to Felix as he slowed to let a crazy-looking man with missing teeth scurry across the street, the coat draped over his shoulders flapping in the breeze.

  "We'll get some to go," Felix said.

  "I saw a sign for a hotel restaurant. It should be on the right, a block down."

  Carlos made the turn and saw the man in the flapping coat run across the road toward an abandoned warehouse next to some train tracks. In front of the hotel, a man, woman, and a cop came out the front door.

  Carlos accelerated.

  "That's Kerney," he said as he passed the trio in front of the hotel.

  He went around the block and returned in time to see Kerney and the woman pull away in a pickup truck.

  "Are you positive?" Felix asked.

  "Completely."

  "Don't follow too closely."

  The cop paid no attention as Carlos cruised by.

  Carlos let several vehicles pass him, but kept the truck in view. The road had been sanded and plowed, but black ice slowed traffic. Several miles beyond the village, Carlos topped out at the crest of a hill and panicked.

  The pickup was nowhere in sight. He started scanning for the truck off the roadway.

  "You've lost them," Felix snapped.

  The highway divided a slender valley cut by wandering arroyos that gradually opened to a large pasture.

  To the south, a half circle of hills hid the mainline railroad tracks from view. Fresh tire tracks entered a ranch road.

  Carlos squinted against the glare of reflected sunlight on the snow and caught sight of the truck traveling toward the hills.

  "There," he said, pointing.

  "Follow," Felix ordered.

  At the gate to the ranch road, the car lurched to a stop in the middle of a snow-filled ditch. Carlos tried backing up, and the wheels spun without grabbing. He got out to take a look and Delfino joined him.

  The rear wheels were deep in snow to the top of the hubcaps.

  "We'll have to dig the car out," Carlos said.

  "Leave it here," Delfino replied.

  "Open the trunk."

  Carlos unlocked the trunk and watched Felix and Delfino slip backpacks over their shoulders.

  "Let's go," Felix said to Carlos.

  "I'll wait here," Carlos replied.

  "Move," Felix said, stepping out to take the lead.

  "The police will notice the car."

  "Today it is just another stranded vehicle in a snowbank," Felix replied.

  "Let's go."

  The sun gave no warmth and the glare off the snow was intense. Carlos followed Felix while Delfino stayed behind him. They walked single file at a fast pace in the ruts left by the truck. Behind him Carlos could hear the even breathing of Delfino close at hand.

  Wind gusts seared against his face, his breath froze on his mustache, and his sunglasses fogged up. On the back side of the hills, the road dipped under a double set of train tracks. At the top of a rise beyond the tracks, Carlos spotted the pickup.

  Felix saw it also. He bolstered his handgun, took off the backpack, and removed an Uzi submachine gun.

  Delfino did the same.

  "Take Carlos to the trestle and wait for me," Felix ordered Delfino. He left the road and started a loop in the general direction of the truck.

  From the tres de Carlos and Delfino watched Felix approach the truck.

  He checked the bed and the cab, returned to the tailgate, crouched down, and signaled them to approach. With Delfino at his side, Carlos trotted to the pickup. Beyond he could see two figures moving toward a low ridgeline.

  "Get down," Felix said.

  Carlos ducked behind the tailgate.

  "How do you want to take them?" Delfino asked.

  "Prom both flanks," Felix said. The figures up ahe
ad were small dots against a white backdrop.

  "Carlos, you go with Delfino."

  Carlos took out his handgun, glancing at Delfino for a reaction.

  "Take the point," Delfino said.

  Carlos broke trail through the crust of snow, his legs sinking into drifts up to his knees, slowing his pace. He looked back once; ten steps behind, Delfino had the Uzi pointed directly at him. He scanned the left flank for Felix; he was nowhere in sight.

  Carlos was a sitting duck. All he could do was keep moving. from insidb the old grain warehouse, Robert watched the cop in the squad car. The man just sat in the cruiser with his engine running, tailpipe exhaust billowing like frost in the cold morning air. Robert knew if he went to the hotel, the cop would beat him up, just like Ordway had.

  He didn't know what to do. Seeing Kerney and Nita together had left him with a mean, jealous feeling, and his head felt full of hissing snakes. He had to get away and never come back, but where should he go? He went out the rear of the warehouse and scrambled down a small embankment to the train tracks. Behind him stood the old train station. Maybe east, he thought, to Texas.

  The hissing snakes whispered Paul Gillespie's name in his ear. He would go west to Serpent Gate.

  He hurried down the tracks to the underpass. The cop never saw him.

  Cops were stupid-too dumb to realize that the train tracks were highways, just like roads, only better.

  The cast on his arm banged against his broken rib as he ran, but the pain didn't bother him. He laughed until cold air rushed into his lungs and made him cough. tub snow at the top of the rise was too deep for the truck, so Nita and Kerney pushed ahead on foot. The storm had erased any footprints or tracks. Kerney scrutinized every drift they passed for telltale signs of Robert. He saw nothing. If Robert's body was nearby, it wouldn't be found until the first good thaw.

  The raw Arctic wind kept the temperature well below freezing, and the branches of the pinon and juniper trees cracked like gunshots as they snapped under the weight of the snow. Each step they took broke trail in the frozen crust, and they were knee-deep in drifts. Nita didn't tire or falter, but Kerney had a hell of a time with his bad knee. The tendons and few remaining ligaments ached every time he pulled the leg free to take another step.

  The ridge ran at a right angle to the hills. At the top, Nita held them up. Without warning, the ridge sheared off, revealing a granite monolith standing in the middle of a narrow gorge. A rockfall closed off one end, and the only approach seemed to be through a shallow arroyo that ran up to the ridge.

  Kerney guessed the monolith to be fifty feet long and ten feet away from where he stood. He looked into the shadows and waited for his vision to adjust. Fifteen feet below the drop-off, a slender ledge ran along the length of the monolith. Above the ledge, at about the chest height of a small man, a duplicate of the serpent on Pop Shaffer's fence had been chiseled in the stone. It was surrounded by images of birds, fish, and other symbols, including a horned demon.

  "How deep?" Kerney asked. The snow in the gorge stopped at the ledge of the monolith.

  "Less than twenty feet. Do you think you would have found it on your own?"

  "I probably would have fallen into it," Kerney said.

  "What's on the other side?"

  "More rock art and lots of rattlesnakes in the summer," Nita answered.

  "It gets good sun, and the snakes like the heat. I don't think Robert's been here," she added.

  "We'll poke around anyway."

  The wind died down and Kerney heard crunching sounds from behind. Out of the sun, two men were coming straight at them. Another man flanked them, cutting off any retreat. He saw weapons in their hands, and without thinking he pushed Nita over the ledge and jumped with her as the men opened fire. He crashed into a snow-covered shrub, branches whipping his face, and landed in a heavy cushion of snow.

  He scrambled to the ledge of the monolith, grabbed Nita by the hand, and pulled her to him.

  "Move," he hissed, freeing his handgun.

  "Get to the other side, out of sight."

  Nita gave him a petrified look. He pushed her to get her started.

  Automatic rounds sprayed the gully as he turned the corner. Nita was off the ledge, standing waist-deep in a drift.

  "What is it?" Nita asked.

  "What's happening?" It was all she could think to say.

  "Don't talk."

  The gorge was wider on the back side of the monolith, where the arroyo had eroded the ridge. Kerney heard the thud of two men dropping into the gorge, and looked for cover. Below the ledge circling the monolith was a crevice large enough for one person. He yanked Nita by the hand, forced her down, and shoved her into it.

  "What are you doing?" she whispered.

  "Curl up in a ball and be quiet," he said.

  "I'll come back for you." He pushed her knees to her chest and piled snow over her, trying to make the mound look as natural as possible.

  He held his breath and listened. Nothing. Three men were coming at him from front and back, and there was no place to hide.

  The mound covering the crevice was in deep shadows.

  Maybe they wouldn't spot Nita; maybe she could survive.

  A small conical cedar tree stood at the far end of the monolith, where sunlight had yet to reach. Kerney eyed it. About the height of a man, the tree would be the first thing a shooter would see coming around the front end of the monolith.

  Kerney took off his coat, went to the tree, wrapped the garment around it, and buttoned it up. At a quick glance, it might pass for a standing man. With his back against the monolith, he hunkered down and waited, listening for footfalls in the crusted snow, scanning left and right. He saw a long shadow flicker on the snow beyond the cedar tree.

  The shadow appeared again as the silhouette of a man.

  Automatic fire ripped through Kerney's coat. When the man stepped into view, Kerney shot him twice in the chest, checked his flank, and ran to the snow-filled arroyo that sliced into the side of the ridge. With any luck, he could belly-crawl to the top of the ridge without being seen, and swing behind his pursuers. delpino kept Carlos in front of him as they moved slowly along the ledge of the monolith, following the tracks left by Kerney and the woman. He stopped at the sound of Felix's Uzi and the two answering shots that followed. He waited for Felix to fire again. All was silent.

  "Something's wrong," Delfino said. He dropped off the ledge, stepped past Carlos, and chanced a quick look around the corner. He spotted Felix's prone body near a coat wrapped around a tree. There was no sign of the gringo or the woman.

  "Felix is down," Delfino said, turning the corner.

  Carlos followed and stopped by a mound of snow that filled a small crevice under the ledge. Ahead, Felix sprawled on his back, not moving, the Uzi clutched in both hands.

  "He's dead," Carlos said.

  "We can still cut them off," Delfino replied.

  "They must be up ahead. Go back the way we came, and circle around."

  Delfino glanced down and saw only one set of footprints in the snow-Kerney's tracks. Where did the woman go? Before he could look to find her hiding place, Carlos shot him in the back of the head.

  Smiling, Carlos picked up Delfino's Uzi, bolstered his pistol, and retreated. Now that the odds were even, he would follow Delfino's advice, backtrack around the monolith, find Kerney, and kill him. kbrney winced when he heard the pistol shot. He cursed himself for leaving Nita behind, reversed his crawl, and scanned from low to high ground as he moved down the arroyo. The sun was higher in the sky, but the monolith cast a fat shadow, and he could dearly see only the dead man by the tree, where his bullet shredded winter coat flapped in a light breeze.

  As far as he knew, two more men were still in the gorge, setting up a cross fire, which would be the smart thing to do. The arroyo gave him cover only if he stayed prone and low. He wanted to get up and make a dash to Nita. He forced himself to wait. The men stalking him controlled the action. All he cou
ld hope to do was counterpunch and survive.

  Cold and soaked to the skin, he burrowed into the snow and tried not to shiver. carlos workbd his way slowly and quietly through the snow until he reached the end of the monolith.

  Darkness still lingered in the constricted ravine, but the sun was in his face every time he glanced up.

  He took one more look at the ridgetop, and a snowball hit him in the face. He squinted into the sun, and started firing the Uzi at the moving shape above. It vanished before he could focus on it. He stepped forward to fire again and a bullet tore through his stomach and shattered his spine. He took another bullet in the chest as he fell.

  Carlos hit the ground and Kerney ran in a low crouch, zigzagging past the dead man by the tree, waiting for bullets to tear into him. He made it to Nita's hiding place and found another man with the back of his skull blown open, the snow around his head icy pink.

  He dropped his handgun, dug into the mound with both hands, and pulled Nita out of the crevice. She was pale, shaky on her feet, but unhurt.

  "My God," she said, staring at the body. She started to cry.

  "Not now," Kerney said sharply.

  "Robert is out there somewhere. Find him."

  She nodded and began to move. Kerney left her and went to check on Carlos.

  Carlos lay on his back staring into the sun until a shadow passed over his face. He felt the Uzi being pulled from his hands. He blinked and saw Kerney leaning over him.

  "You're a hard man to kill, gringo," he said.

  "You're dying, Carlos."

  "I was going to die today, anyway."

  "Is that why you killed one of your partners?"

  Kerney asked.

  Carlos nodded and coughed up blood.

  "Where is Nick Palazzi?"

  "He fucked up, just like me. De Leon had me kill him."

  "And Amanda Talley, did you do her, too?"

  "I never killed such a beautiful woman before."

  "Where's her body?"

  "No more body. Gone."

  "What about Gilbert Martinez?"

  "I thought it was you, gringo. I really wanted you dead."

  "You've been a busy boy, Carlos."

  Carlos gurgled once and died.

  "Did you kill them all yourself?" Robert asked.