Cibola

Chapter 17

Amanda closed her laptop and took a deep, calming breath. She definitely had something here. She could feel it. The next step was to convince the others that she wasn’t crazy. She fished her cell phone from her purse and punched up Bones’ number.

“Yo, ho! What up?”

“That is, without a doubt, the rudest greeting I have ever received,” she said, her voice not matching the smile on her face. “Try again.”

“Sorry, let me try again. You have reached the voice mail of Uriah Bonebrake. I’m sorry I cannot…”

“I forgot your real name is Uriah!” she said with a laugh.

“What? You think my mom named me Bones? Ah, forget it. What’s up?”

“I think I’ve come up with some promising leads,” she said. “Where are you guys?”

“We just ditched a car I stole,” he said. She couldn’t believe the calm in his voice. “Now we’re cruising out of the park and headed to Durango to meet up with you.”

“Great! Meet me outside the library. And try not to steal any more cars while you’re at it.”

“It really wasn’t my fault. They shot at me.”

“Sure,” she said. “What happened to your rental car, anyway?”

“That’s another reason I had to steal their car. They were bad guys. You wouldn’t have liked them.”

“I don’t know,” she teased. “Were any of them cute? I might want an introduction.”

“I wasn’t attracted to them,” he said. “I shot one in the butt. He probably won’t be able to keep up with you for a while.”

“I guess I could nurse him back to health.” She couldn’t believe she was engaged in such banter with a man who had just casually admitted to shooting someone and stealing his car. Of course, after what she’d experienced in the short time she’d known Bones, the extraordinary was becoming ordinary. “Then again, that’s too much trouble. I guess I’ll hang on to you as long as your butt is intact.”

“More or less,” he said. “Mine’s always been a little flat. Maddock’s the one with the booty.”

She heard a raised voice and laughter in the background.

“I don’t think he liked that,” she said. “Forget the anatomy. Did you find it?”

“Maddock and Jade did. It was in Square Tower House. They had a bit of trouble themselves, but we came out of it all right. You said you’ve come up with some leads. Entertain me.”

“Some of it I can’t really explain until you've seen what I found. I can tell you that I’m almost certain one of the next places we need to go is called Hovenweep.”

“Hovenweep? Never heard of it.”

“It’s actually pretty close to Mesa Verde. It’s not very well known, but it’s one of the finest known examples of Anasazi architecture.”

“Keep titillating me with examples of Anasazi architecture, you naughty girl. So you were able to match it up to that little image on the breastplate? The image was kind of generic, wasn’t it?”

“I matched the image to ruin at Hovenweep, yes. But I have another reason for believing I’m on the right track. That’s the part I’ll have to show you.”

“Sounds good. We’ll meet you at the library as soon as we can get there.” He paused. “Amanda?”

“Yes?”

“Be careful.”

The Elder reached for the phone on the first ring, then froze. It would not do to appear too eager… or apprehensive. He gave it two more rings before casually picking up the receiver.

“Yes?” he said, feigning disinterest.

“There is a Mister Anthon on the line for you,” Margaret said, her nasal voice made even more annoying by the note of suspicion that rang clear. “He declined to give his last name.”

“I’ll take the call,” he said, adding a sigh as if not interested in speaking to this semi-anonymous caller. The truth was, this was the call he’d been waiting for.

“What do you have to report?” “Anthon” had a real name, Jarren, but he was cautious about where and when he used that name. The Elder found his anticipation cooling as he listened to the report, until it finally froze in an icy block of frustration.

“You are telling me that not only did you fail to retrieve the artifact, but Mikkel was shot and your car was stolen?”

“That is correct. The Indian used a secret passage. They got out of the ruin before we could get to them. We chased them into the woods and he somehow got behind us. That’s when he shot Mikkel. As for the artifact, it did not seem to be at the site. That woman Jade must have lied to us.”

“If they have it, we will find out soon enough,” the Elder said.

“Can you get us out of here? The park rangers were easy enough to evade, even with Mikkel’s injury, but he can’t go much farther.”

“It would be easier to deal with were you still in Utah. I can send the helicopter to follow your GPS signal.” Another failure. Another headache.

“Perhaps I made a mistake coming after them,” Jarren said. “I could go back to letting them do our work for us. It has worked well for us so far.”

“Maddock has been useful,” the Elder replied with restrained patience. “He is clever and resourceful, and would also be the one to go to jail if he were caught. But we are getting close to solving the puzzle, and with this friend of his involved now… well, I don’t need to tell you what might happen. Maddock needs to be eliminated before the final clues fall into place, and his friend might as well be dealt with while we are at it.”

“Could we not simply let him find it, and then take it away from him?”

The Elder had to tread carefully here. Only he and a very few others knew what they were truly searching for, and if Maddock found it first… well, he simply could not think about that possibility.

“Maddock has become a threat. What were the odds that he and this Bonebrake would turn out to know one another and in fact join forces? If they manage to put their knowledge together…” He shook his head. “We must take great care in eliminating both of them. And then we will complete the search on our own.” It was important to avoid drawing attention just yet, but once they had it in their hands, no one would be able to stop them.

“I understand,” Jarren said. “I will, of course, make it look like an accident.” He paused. “Elder, with all due respect, do you still believe our source is reliable?”

The Elder’s cell phone vibrated and he glanced down to see that he had received a text message. What he read made his frustration melt away. “Yes,” he said. “In fact, I have just received further proof of the reliability of our source.”

“How so?” Jarren asked, his increased interest clearly evident the tone of his voice.

“When you and Mikkel are picked up, I am going to have them take you directly to a place called Hovenweep.”