Chapter 9 - Taken Before Dawn
Elias did not remember running down the stairs.
He remembered only the bracelet in his fist.
Aayoka's bracelet.
Blood stained one turquoise stone.
Judge Webb followed.
“Elias!”
He ignored him.
Outside, tracks led toward the northern road.
Three horses.
One wagon.
Major Mercer appeared.
“We'll organize—”
“No time.”
“You cannot chase armed kidnappers alone.”
“Watch me.”
Mercer grabbed his reins.
“Think.”
Elias turned furiously.
Then he stopped.
Aayoka's voice returned from memory.
Angry people make mistakes.
She had learned it from him.
Now he had to learn it from her.
He breathed.
“Fine.”
They examined the tracks.
A broken wagon wheel had left a distinctive groove.
Mercer sent riders to block the northern roads.
Elias studied the bracelet.
Something was tucked beneath its leather band.
A tiny piece of paper.
Aayoka had placed it there deliberately.
Three words.
OLD SILVER MINE.
Elias almost laughed.
“She left us a message.”
Webb knew the location.
An abandoned mine west of Tucson.
Harcourt owned the surrounding land through a shell company.
They rode before sunrise.
At the mine entrance they found Creed.
Alive.
Tied to a post.
Elias dismounted.
Creed's face was bruised.
“Harcourt took her below.”
“Why are you alive?”
Creed laughed weakly.
“He wants me to watch.”
“Watch what?”
“The mine collapse.”
Elias cut him loose.
Mercer protested.
Elias handed Creed to a soldier.
“If he moves, shoot the ground first.”
Creed looked offended.
“First?”
“I'm becoming generous.”
They entered.
Deep underground they heard voices.
Harcourt.
Aayoka.
“You cannot prove anything,” Harcourt said.
Aayoka answered calmly.
“You are trying very hard to destroy something that proves nothing.”
Elias smiled despite himself.
They crept closer.
Harcourt stood beside several crates of dynamite.
Aayoka was tied to a support beam.
“You people have blocked progress for decades,” Harcourt said.
“My people?”
“Settlements. Railroads. Industry.”
“You burned children.”
Harcourt's face tightened.
“History doesn't remember details.”
Aayoka stared at him.
“History remembers more than men like you wish.”
Elias stepped from darkness.
“She does too.”
Harcourt spun.
Elias's gun pointed at his chest.
For once, the senator had no speech.
Mercer entered behind him.
“William Harcourt, you are under arrest.”
Harcourt laughed.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No,” Webb said, emerging. “It begins with you.”
Harcourt reached toward his coat.
Elias cocked the revolver.
“Don't.”
Harcourt froze.
Mercer removed his weapon.
Elias untied Aayoka.
She rubbed her wrists.
“You took long enough.”
He stared at her.
“You were kidnapped.”
“Yes.”
“I was worried.”
“I noticed.”
“You could pretend to be grateful.”
Aayoka's eyes softened.
“I knew you would come.”
Those words affected him more deeply than he expected.
Nobody had depended on Elias in years.
Nobody had expected him to return.
He had always been the man who disappeared.
Now someone had known he would come back.
They escorted Harcourt outside.
Creed saw him.
The two men stared at one another.
Harcourt sneered.
“You're nothing without me.”
Creed smiled.
“Maybe.”
Then he looked toward Elias.
“But I'm about to become a very talkative nothing.”
The trial began two days later.
Creed confessed.
The captured raider testified.
Military records confirmed stolen weapons.
The ledger documented payments.
Aayoka described the attack on her settlement.
Elias testified about the freight robbery.
Harcourt's attorneys attacked every witness.
They called Aayoka unreliable.
They called Elias a fugitive.
They called Creed a liar seeking mercy.
Then Judge Webb produced the letter.
Harcourt's signature.
An expert compared it with official documents.
Match.
The courtroom changed.
After years of hiding, Elias watched truth become heavier than rumor.
The jury deliberated until evening.
Creed pleaded guilty under a federal agreement and received life imprisonment rather than execution.
Harcourt was convicted on conspiracy, theft, fraud, and charges connected to the attacks.
Further murder proceedings would follow.
Then Webb stood before Elias.
“The warrant against Elias Boon is vacated.”
Elias did not move.
The judge smiled.
“You're free.”
Free.
The word felt unfamiliar.
Outside the courthouse, reporters waited.
Elias avoided them.
Aayoka stood beneath the evening sky.
“So,” she said.
“So.”
“You can go anywhere.”
“Yes.”
“Fort Stanton?”
He remembered his original destination.
Freight work.
Another temporary room.
Another road.
“No.”
Aayoka looked at him.
“Where, then?”
Elias looked north.
Toward Red Mesa.
“Home.”
But when they returned three days later, smoke was rising from the canyon again.
May you like
And this time the fire was coming from inside the sacred mountain.
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