Coyote's Revenge

by Vannetta Chapman

  After a minute, she pulled away and swiped at her nose. “I dripped snot on your shirt.”

  “One of the downfalls of being a maître d’.”

  “Right,” she tried to laugh, but only managed to gulp back a few more tears. “What kind of food do you serve at this restaurant?”

  “Only the best. We have energy bars, water, and, well, more energy bars.

  “Exactly what I was daydreaming of.”

  Madison sat on the blanket, reached for a bar, and leaned back against the wall.

  “How did you know about this cave?”

  “I used to hike this mountain with my dad.” Aiden tried to push the memory away, but he was tired of avoiding it, weary from fighting the guilt. “We hiked nearly all of Glacier as I was growing up, but this side was our favorite.”

  Aiden chose a bar, forced himself to chew, and swallowed.

  “Why was it your favorite?”

  “More rugged, less tourists. Also, more dangerous. Twenty years ago, the trails weren’t as well-defined. Once you did achieve the summits though, the glaciers were an amazing sight to behold, and the wildlife was something else–-moose, elk, bear of course. Always the bear.

  Aiden picked up a bottle of water, then handed it to Madison. Chose another bottle for himself. Every move caused their lights to create patterns on the ceiling. As Aiden gazed up, it reminded him of the dance of life. Suddenly, sitting there with Madison, he sensed his father’s presence. The guilt slid away and the lights hinted at the celebrations of life still to come.

  For the first time in a long time, and against the odds he would give them, the lights seemed to promise hope and a future. Isn’t that what his mother had talked about, even after the accident? Some verse out of the Old Testament about God promising a hope and a future. He shook his head, but the words remained lodged firmly in his heart.

  “What is it, Aiden?” Madison moved closer to him on the blanket so her thigh pressed against his, her head rested against his shoulder. “Are you thinking about the men following us?”

  Aiden leaned his head back, pulling her even closer as he slipped his arm around her. “Not really. I was remembering something my mom used to say to me. Can I tell you a story, Maddie?”

  “Is it a bedtime story?” she asked sleepily.

  “That might depend on whether you like the regular fairy tales or the Grimm Fairy Tales.”

  Madison circled her arm around his waist. “You’re talking to an English teacher. Any story that captures the imagination is a good story, and I love a good story after an excellent meal.”

  “I was fifteen the last time I climbed this mountain with my dad. We were in the woods you and I just passed through. It was late afternoon, and we were planning on making it to a cave to camp when we came upon a mother bear and her cub—a silvertip grizzly. We’d seen bears before, but never that close. We both knew what to do. You don’t make eye contact, try not to threaten the bear in any way, especially when there’s a cub involved. Just quietly back away, which we were doing when my dad stepped on a twig.”

  Aiden paused. His heart rate accelerated as he remembered that day, the bear, and how quickly life is taken.

  “She was on him in an instant. I tried to draw my rifle, but it hung up in my pack. By the time I pulled it out, she had collected her cub and was gone. My dad, he was hurt real bad. He could talk, barely, and he had me pull him into this cave.” Aiden stopped as he realized Madison was shivering. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, warming her and warming himself, then continued because he needed to.

  “So I did. I made a gurney of sorts. I was such a kid. I knew first aid, or thought I did. But it was my dad. At that age, you think your old man is indestructible, but mine bleeding to death before my eyes. I tried to bandage him, stop the hemorrhaging. I wanted to pull him down the mountain on the gurney, but he insisted I climb up to the ranger station for help.”

  Madison reached up and wiped away the tears he hadn’t realized were falling.

  “It was night by then. The bear might have still been out there. I half hoped she was. Wished she would kill me like I knew she had killed him. But she didn’t. So I stumbled on to the ranger station. Got help. By the time we made it back, it was the next morning. It was too late.”

  He paused and took a deep breath. It was the first time he’d talked of that night so many years ago.

  “Aiden, I am so sorry. What a terrible thing for a boy to go through.”

  “I’ve spent the last seventeen years trying to make up for what happened that night. I know now it wasn’t my fault. There was nothing I could have done. A bullet wouldn’t have stopped that bear, wouldn’t have saved my father’s life. But it’s taken me a long time to see it.”

  “So you’ve been trying to make up for your father’s death?”

  “I’ve been running from ghosts.” Aiden looked around at the shadows of life dancing on the roof of their cave. “There are no ghosts here, and I’m through running. I’m through running from life. Have I told you I love you?”

  She reached up and kissed him tenderly, but he wasn’t through confessing. If something happened to him in the morning, and he knew there was at least a fifty-fifty chance something would, she deserved to know the truth about him.

  “I wanted to join the military when I graduated from college, but by then my mom was sick. When she died, I thought I was too old. I joined USCIS instead. We’re a branch of the US government that tracks international and domestic terrorists.”

  “You’re a spy?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Wait a minute. Is that what you were doing on the plane to Salt Lake?”

  “Yeah. I was tracking the man who is chasing us tonight. His name is Coyote, and he’s a leader of a group of terrorists. Their current operation is called Dambusters. He’s responsible for what happened in Virginia.”

  Madison scooted a little away from Aiden where she could look directly at him. “Back up a little. When I saw the man step out of the car today, I thought I recognized him. He was on the plane to Salt Lake?”

  Aiden nodded and waited for her to remember.

  MADISON REACHED FOR the water bottle and took a long drink. There was something she remembered about that trip. It seemed so long ago. What was lurking at the edge of her memory?

  “He sat beside me in the plane.”

  “Yes. He did.”

  Madison looked at him curiously. “Why would he do that?”

  “We don’t know why he sat by you. Terrorists have to sit by someone. Our best guess is you looked innocent. Maybe you were distracted because of your move and the recent death of your mother, so you didn’t pay as close attention to the people around you.”

  “I remember the handle had broken on my suitcase. I was ready to throw the stupid thing when he offered to help me with it. I thought he was such a gentleman.”

  Madison fiddled with the label on her water bottle. There was something else, beyond the corner of her consciousness, like the tickling of a feather.

  “Wasn’t there a big storm that night?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And I’m still so afraid of flying after Peru.”

  Aiden nodded.

  “He agreed to change seats so I could be near the aisle. Mancini. His name was Sergio Mancini.” She looked at Aiden. “That’s not his name though, is it?”

  “He goes by many names. Sergio Mancini is one.”

  “He was such a gentleman. But then he changed. He found something. I don’t remember.”

  Madison stood up and began pacing around the cave.

  “He found a button thing on my sweatshirt, and then he turned into this madman.”

  “The button was a listening device I put on your sweatshirt, Madison. We had to know if he was going to hurt you in any way.”

  Madison stopped and stared at him. “You what?”

  “If we had arrested him then, we would have lost our best contact for the plan to detonate dams
in ten American cities. We couldn’t risk that happening. We also couldn’t let him hurt you. So we had to place a listening device on you to gather information and be sure he didn’t plan on hurting you in any way.”

  Madison walked across the cave and sat cross-legged in front of Aiden. Her voice was barely a whisper as the memories came flooding back.

  “He threatened me, then took me in the bathroom and searched me. He said he would kill me, slowly, if I called for help. He said he would blow up the plane. I tried to pull away, but he forced me to take a pill. I don’t remember anything until I woke up with this terrible headache and saw—”

  “You saw me. I suspected he had drugged you with Mexican Valium. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands, and I still do. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have my chance.”

  “I remember you carrying me through the airport.”

  “I wouldn’t have left you, Madison. Please believe me.”

  “And then you stayed with me until we reached Kalispell.”

  She ran out of words as the flood of memories stopped. The tickle gnawing at the back of her head all day had eased. It was a relief to finally remember.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, sweetheart. In most cases of amnesia, it’s better to wait until the person remembers.”

  She didn’t say anything, but continued to stare at him.

  “I hope you can forgive me,” Aiden said.

  She stood and walked back across the cave, thinking of all they’d been through in such a short time. She looked down at the ring on her hand. Finally, she walked back to Aiden and knelt down in front of him.

  She placed her hands on his face, pulled his forehead to hers, and whispered, “You are my guardian angel, Aiden Lewis. You’ve been watching over me since the moment we first met. I want you to catch Coyote or Sergio Mancini or whatever his name is tomorrow. I want you to end what began in Dallas. Then I want us to continue the life we were meant to have together.”

  She let him hold her then, and there was nothing between them. Their lives had come together completely and although there was still fear there was also the knowledge that they would face whatever the next day brought together. Somehow, it was enough.

  AIDEN SHOOK HER AWAKE when his watch beeped at 4:00 a.m. “We need to go.”

  It took her a moment to wipe away the cobwebs. She sat there with a befuddled look as he gave her water and a breakfast bar.

  “Sure you can do this?”

  A trace of defiance came back into those lovely brown eyes. “Don’t even think about leaving me in this cave, cowboy. It’s cozy, but it’s not that cozy.”

  Then he had to take a moment and pull her into his arms, feel the warmth and strength of her. “You’re an amazing woman, Maddie.”

  “Maybe that’s why I dig amazing men.”

  Hand in hand they stepped out into the darkness.

  Aiden estimated the temperatures to be in the twenties. When they left the warmth of the cave, the first breath of the night air was a painful one. Looking up at the moonless, star-filled sky, it was nearly worth the danger and the cold.

  “You don’t see those stars in Dallas,” Madison whispered as Aiden checked the rope one last time.

  “The final ascent will take about two hours. The snowpack is going to be tricky with the temps this low. I assume you’ve never climbed in ice?”

  “I’ve never climbed.”

  “I’ve rigged you a harness, and you’re tied to me. You can’t fall. Step in my step. Coyote will be expecting us to approach from the north. This will be harder, but we’ll have the element of surprise. Unfortunately, we’ll have to do it in the dark. We’ll use our lamps until we reach the top. I think by then there’ll be enough light to switch them off.”

  Madison nodded. When he looked in her eyes, he saw only trust.

  “What’s the smile for, cowboy?”

  “You’re my best girl. What else?”

  And then they were climbing into the night. Madison learned quickly how to clip on to his holds and pull up behind him. They climbed close together in the darkness. Aiden decided the lack of light was probably for the best. He was thankful Madison couldn’t see the sheer drops beneath them. He remembered them well enough from his childhood. It surprised him how it all came back with such clarity.

  His hands found crevices that were still there. His feet reached for footholds that had held hundreds of climbers and would hold hundreds more.

  These weren’t the trails for tourists or the climbs most guides would take paying customers on. These were the paths locals used, had used for years, and would continue to use. One day Aiden would bring his own son here. The thought caused the breath to catch in his chest as he reached up to find the next hold, and instead his fingers found the ledge. Rather than pulling over the top, he lowered down to Madison.

  “What’s wrong?” she whispered.

  “We’re at the top. I want you to switch off your lamp and wait here while I take a look.”

  Aiden looked down the two-thousand-foot slope they had climbed since yesterday. In the gradual morning light, he could barely make out the Continental Divide and the Many Glacier area. He wanted to tell Madison to turn and look, wanted her to feast on this vision before them.

  He didn’t want her fainting on the rope though. She had done an amazing thing climbing this in the dark. Where had she found the courage? Maybe there were guardian angels after all. He sure wasn’t one, but maybe they did exist.

  “Don’t look down,” he whispered.

  Madison didn’t need two warnings. She nodded, eyes as big as silver dollars, swinging in her harness and clutching her rope with both hands.

  He climbed back up, skimming the top with his night-vision binoculars, looking for a good two minutes more even after he was sure no one was there, then climbing back down to her.

  “Looks clear. When you scale the top, I want you to lie down flat while I unclip us. When I tell you to go, run in a low crouch to a cluster of boulders to the west. Clear?”

  “Which way is west?”

  “To your left.” Aiden tried not to smile.

  “You are not laughing at me.”

  “There’s an orienteering class in your future, sweetheart.”

  “I can guess who the instructor is going to be.”

  “You’ve got that right.” He reached out and touched her face, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Can you do this in the dark? All you have to do is turn left and run. It’s a clear field. There’s enough starlight for you to see by.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said softly, reaching out to kiss him gently.

  Then they were climbing up. He pushed her over the top, prayed the sound of bullets would not pierce the morning air. When he’d joined her he said softly, “Go.”

  They both ran left, just shadows in the darkness before dawn. No one could have seen them, unless they were watching with night scopes. The cold morning air pierced their lungs, and the sounds of their packs rattling and feet slapping the earth rang out across the top of Mt. Gould.

  Aiden pulled her down between two of the rocks.

  “Now you can look at the view.”

  Aiden turned her back toward the direction they had come. The night sky spilled out before them where thousands upon thousands of stars stretched out and fell into an endless chasm.

  “We climbed out of that?”

  “Yes, we did. I guess you’re over your fear of heights.”

  “It’s a little easier when you can’t see the fall that will kill you.”

  “Roger that.”

  “It’s magnificent, Aiden.”

  He nodded. “It is. The ranger station is half a mile from here. Easy hike.”

  “No rope necessary?”

  “No rope.”

  They set out at a brisk pace. Ten minutes later the outline of the station rose out of the darkness. Aiden’s heart sank as soon as he saw it. No smoke came from the chimney. There wasn’t a single light visible from the windo
ws. Quite obviously, no one was home.

  THEY STOPPED TWENTY feet shy of the ranger station in a grove of trees.

  “I’m guessing the ranger isn’t home.”

  “Good guess, sweetheart. Luckily, I have a key.”

  Aiden dropped his pack to the ground, shuffled through it, and removed a set of picks. Then he pulled out a rifle, chambered a round, made sure the safety was off, and handed it to Madison.

  “Watch through the night scope. If you see anyone approaching, you shoot. Brace yourself against this rock, steady your arm with your left hand. This is a semi-automatic so it will continue firing as long as you keep pulling the trigger. You have plenty of rounds. Don’t worry about running out. You keep shooting until they go down or take cover.”

  Madison nodded, scared but determined. The rifle felt heavy in her hands, deadly. She remembered the way Coyote had touched her. The memories had been coming back to her all night, all through the climb, and she knew without a doubt she could kill him.

  From her stand in the trees, she watched Aiden walk to the back door of the ranger station, drop to his knees, and begin to pick the lock. He’d been there less than fifteen seconds, had opened the door, and was motioning for her to follow when a tall figure stepped out of the woods behind him.

  She stared at the figure approaching Aiden. He had his weapon drawn and was saying something. She watched the scene play out as if it were a video set on slow motion. She couldn’t make out the man’s words, didn’t need to know exactly what he was saying. It didn’t really matter. She knew she couldn’t shoot this man.

  Aiden raised his hands, never glanced her way, no doubt hoped she would shoot or run or hide.

  Madison knew she couldn’t do any of those things. She’d recognized this man the moment he’d stepped into the crosshairs of her scope. He looked so much like the pictures she’d seen. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

  Even in the darkness of this night, she knew that after all her searching, she’d finally found what she’d come to Montana looking for.