Chapter 4 - The Man Who Should Have Died
The first tremor knocked Silas Creed sideways.
A rifle discharged in the darkness.
Someone screamed.
Elias did not wait to discover who.
“Aayoka!”
“Here!”
He found her hand.
“Amos?”
“Still too old for this!”
“Follow my voice.”
The cavern shook again.
Water surged through channels cut into the stone.
Creed's men shouted.
“Light!”
“Where are they?”
“Stop them!”
Another gunshot flashed.
For an instant Elias saw the cavern.
Creed was on his knees.
Two men had fallen.
The others were scattered.
Elias pulled Aayoka toward the opposite wall.
He remembered seeing another opening.
They found it.
Amos followed.
Behind them Creed roared.
“BOON!”
Elias almost smiled.
For once, he enjoyed hearing his own name shouted by the man who thought he was dead.
They entered a narrow tunnel.
Aayoka stumbled.
Elias caught her.
“My leg.”
“I've got you.”
“No. Take the ledger.”
He had shoved it inside his shirt.
“I'm taking both.”
The passage climbed.
Amos struggled behind them.
Water rose around their boots.
“This tunnel is flooding!”
“Keep moving.”
The darkness ahead turned gray.
Daylight.
They emerged halfway up the eastern side of Red Mesa.
Below stretched open desert.
Amos leaned against the rock.
“I'd appreciate never doing that again.”
Aayoka looked toward the cave.
“They will follow.”
Elias nodded.
“We need horses.”
“Back at the spring.”
“Then we circle around.”
Aayoka grabbed him.
“The records.”
Elias touched his shirt.
“Still here.”
“No. The sacred records.”
“We can't carry everything.”
“Creed will destroy them.”
Elias looked toward the cavern entrance.
She was right.
Creed had spent years erasing evidence.
Now he knew exactly where the remaining history was stored.
“We get help first.”
“From whom?”
Elias had no answer.
The territorial marshal was part of Creed's operation.
Local deputies could be bought.
The Army might investigate, but reaching a fort would take days.
Amos spoke.
“I know somebody.”
Elias turned.
“Who?”
“Judge Nathaniel Webb.”
“Federal?”
“Circuit judge.”
“Where?”
“San Rosario.”
“That's two days.”
“One if we ride hard.”
Aayoka looked back.
“My family's records could be gone by then.”
Elias stepped closer.
“If we stay, you'll be gone too.”
Her eyes hardened.
He continued.
“Creed wants you angry. Angry people make mistakes.”
“You know this?”
“Yes.”
“Because you're not angry?”
Elias glanced toward the cavern.
“No. Because I've made every mistake an angry man can make.”
They reached the horses.
Elias helped Aayoka onto Boone.
“You ride him.”
“What about you?”
“I'll take Pike's horse.”
Amos frowned.
“You brought it?”
“I don't leave good horses in the desert.”
They rode southeast.
By sunset, Red Mesa disappeared behind them.
They camped without fire.
Aayoka slept.
Amos snored softly.
Elias remained awake.
The ledger rested in his hands.
Page after page documented Creed's crimes.
Weapons.
Stolen land.
Payments.
Fake raids.
Names of corrupt officials.
Then Elias found something else.
A list of planned operations.
One location was marked for three days later.
SAN ROSARIO.
Beside it:
Apache raid. Twelve rifles. Burn warehouse. Civilian casualties acceptable.
Elias stared.
Creed planned to attack the same town where Judge Webb was staying.
If the town believed Apache raiders had attacked, fear would spread.
Creed could demand military intervention.
And perhaps gain control of Red Mesa legally.
Aayoka awakened.
“You don't sleep.”
“Not much.”
She sat beside him.
He showed her the page.
Her expression darkened.
“He will blame my people again.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two nights.”
“We stop him.”
Elias studied her.
“You say things like they're simple.”
“They are often simple.”
“Stopping twelve armed men isn't.”
“The choice is simple.”
She pointed at the ledger.
“Run or stop them.”
Elias looked into the darkness.
“Running kept me alive.”
“Did it?”
He frowned.
“I am looking at you.”
Aayoka touched his chest lightly.
“I mean here.”
Elias said nothing.
She looked toward the desert.
“My grandfather once told me that a person can survive for many years after they stop living.”
Elias smiled faintly.
“Your grandfather sounds cheerful.”
“He was annoying.”
That surprised a laugh from Elias.
Aayoka smiled.
It was the first time he had seen her do so fully.
For several seconds the burned village, Creed, the ledger, and the voices seemed far away.
Then Elias heard it again.
The whisper.
Stay.
He turned.
Aayoka heard it too.
She looked toward him.
“Different word.”
“Yes.”
“What did it say before?”
“You belong to me.”
“And now?”
“Stay.”
Aayoka considered this.
“Maybe it isn't speaking about the spring.”
“What else?”
She looked directly at him.
“You.”
Elias felt something uncomfortable move inside him.
Hope, perhaps.
He distrusted it more than fear.
At dawn they continued.
By afternoon, they reached a ridge overlooking San Rosario.
Something was wrong.
Smoke rose from town.
Elias pulled out the ledger.
“Attack isn't until tomorrow.”
Amos stared through binoculars.
“Creed changed his plans.”
Riders circled the outskirts.
Some wore Apache clothing.
But Elias recognized their horses.
Creed's men.
Aayoka's voice turned cold.
“They are doing it again.”
Gunshots echoed below.
Elias counted riders.
Eleven.
Maybe twelve.
Town residents had barricaded the main street.
The attackers were setting fire to a warehouse.
Amos grabbed Elias's arm.
“We need the judge alive.”
“Where is he?”
“Hotel.”
A rider broke from the group and headed toward a two-story building.
Elias drew his revolver.
Aayoka looked at him.
“What are you doing?”
For three years, Elias would have answered differently.
He would have said surviving.
Leaving.
Finding another road.
Instead he checked the cylinder.
“I'm done running.”
He kicked his horse forward.
Aayoka followed.
So did Amos.
They descended toward San Rosario at a gallop.
May you like
And for the first time since Silas Creed had shot him, Elias Boon was riding toward the men who wanted him dead.
---
