Trail of Lightning

Chapter 18

The Thirsty Boy orders us off the road. No need to fight them. Not only do they have superior weapons and numbers, but I’m curious why they’re stopping us. The boy who orders us to pull over and kill the engine won’t tell us. Just orders us to wait.

When Hastiin finally shows up at my window, he’s decked out in the same uniform as the rest of the Thirsty Boys—blue fatigues, big black boots, and his skull bandanna hanging loose down around his neck. His face is hard and lean in the dawn light, all knife-edged cheekbones and deep shadows, shorn skullcap and day-old beard. The rumor is that he served on the front lines of the Energy Wars, one of the original Protectors at the Transcontinental Pipeline protest camp, the one that saw the first mass casualties. They say he breathed in a lot of nerve gas and it ruined something in his brain, so now he can’t keep still. His fingers tap absently against my window’s edge, all that energy focused on us.

“Hastiin,” I greet him.

His eyes don’t even flicker in my direction. Instead, he’s focused on Kai, like I didn’t even speak. He introduces himself to Kai, holding out a lean scarred hand.

Kai shoots me a questioning glance before he reaches over me to shake the other man’s hand. “Kai Arviso.”

“That’s a nice tie, Kai. You headed somewhere fancy?” His voice grates like tires on loose rocks.

Kai lifts up the silver striped tie, looks at it, and lets it fall. “Thanks. Formal occasion was yesterday. Just like the tie.”

Hastiin nods. “Sorry we have to delay you, but my Boys have had some reports of strange things going on down in the valley. We’re taking it upon ourselves to warn people coming through.”

“Strange things?” I ask. “What kind of strange things?”

Hastiin’s still looking at Kai when he says, “Seems there was a monster sighting about an hour north of here near Lukachukai. A girl was killed, and there’s rumors of more monsters like this one roaming the mountains.”

Kai frowns. Looks between us both for a clue as to why Hastiin seems so intent on pretending like I’m not there. I shake my head in disgust, but Hastiin keeps on ignoring me, and he offers Kai a flash of teeth that I think is supposed to pass for a smile.

Kai gestures toward me. “Do you know Maggie here?”

“I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you to stay here with us for a tick. Shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. Hate to inconvenience you, but I’ve got a scouting party out and until they show, I can’t have you out there.”

“That’s kind of you,” Kai says.

“Nothing kind about it. I can’t risk extra men to go rescuing you if you get in trouble, and I can’t have you feeding the monsters and encouraging them either, if you know what I mean.” Another flash of teeth. “So if you’ll indulge me and my little request, it would be appreciated.”

I fight the urge to make a gagging sound at Hastiin’s overblown manners and say, “We know about the goddamn monsters. I killed the one in Lukachukai when your Boys didn’t show, and we saw what they did to Crownpoint. I know better than anyone what you’re up against. If you had half a brain, you would ask me about it instead of ignoring me.” Hastiin’s still staring at Kai like I didn’t speak, and I have to fold my hands in my lap to keep from slugging the man. Seconds pass by, and the Thirsty Boy doesn’t even blink. But his busy fingers have stilled and he’s gripping the edge of my window, the only sure sign he heard me.

“You are such an asshole,” I mutter. I lean back and stare at the ceiling of the truck, asking the heavens for help dealing with men with their heads up their asses. I’m pretty sure no help will be forthcoming, but I feel the need to ask anyway.

Kai’s eyes are a little big. He nods slowly at Hastiin. “I appreciate your concern. But I’m feeling pretty confident Mags and I can handle it. So we should get going.”

“There’s also reports of a fire south of here in Tse Bonito. Expect they’ll be evacuating. Best if you turn around.”

I sit up. “Fire?” Tah is in Tse Bonito. Granted, the chances are slim that the fire has anything to do with the old medicine man. He’s in the middle of town, surrounded by friends who can help him. Most likely it’s a brush fire along the freeway. Common enough. Still dangerous in this drought, though, and I’d like to get through it in case it spreads across the road and traps us on this side of the mountains.

“We should go,” I say to Kai as I reach for the keys in the ignition.

Hastiin’s hand shoots out, quick as a snake strike, to grip my steering wheel. Now he looks at me, eyes hard and uncompromising. “I’m afraid I wasn’t asking.”

“Now you want to talk to me?” I shout, exasperated.

A muscle twitches in his cheek.

I rein in my irritation and summon all my calm to say, “If there’s a fire in Tse Bonito, we’ve got to get down there.” I sound entirely reasonable.

He shakes his head no. “Too risky.”

“Too—”

“You should let us go,” Kai interrupts. He’s leaning forward, sunglasses off, eyes locked on Hastiin. “We need to go and you should let us go. We won’t be a problem. Please.”

Hastiin rubs at his cheek, fingers scratching across his beard. He’s staring at Kai, and his mouth’s open, like he’s going to say something. But he snaps it shut, steps away from the truck, and without another word, motions us through.

I don’t wait. I start up the engine and move forward. Past all the mercenaries with big guns.

“I really thought he wasn’t going to let us go,” I mutter, eyes on the Thirsty Boys we pass, who only look at us with the bored expressions of men used to taking orders.

“Sometimes you just need to use the magic word,” Kai says, leaning back in his seat. He looks over his shoulder at Hastiin standing there. When Kai turns around, I catch a small smile on his lips. He slaps the truck console, making me jump. “So what do you think?” he asks.

“I think nobody cares when I say ‘please.’ ”

“No, about the monster reports. Think we should head back to the mountains? Find that scouting party he mentioned?”

I shake my head no. “If we see monsters, we’ll kill them. But it’s a waste of time to run down every unsubstantiated rumor when we have a lead on the source. Let the Thirsty Boys look for the monsters. We need to find the witch creating them. Chasing monsters is like cutting off the limbs of the tree when we need to take out the trunk.”

He’s looking at me, something unreadable in his eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just, I’m impressed.”

“Why, you think I’m all point gun and shoot, ask questions later?”

“A little.”

“Thanks.”

He laughs. And I smile along with him, some of the earlier tension between us melting away. “So you think that fire he mentioned is anything we need to worry about?” he asks.

“Probably not.”

He shifts in his seat. “Yeah, you’re right. But do you mind if we swing by my grandpa’s place? Since we were thinking of stopping in Tse Bonito for batteries anyway.”

Longarm’s warning to stay out of Tse Bonito should give me pause, but the Law Dog’s threats have never meant much to me. We’ll be careful and stay out of sight. Besides, if there’s really a fire, the Law Dog is bound to have his hands full with that.

Kai shudders, rubs his hands up and down his arms.

“You okay?”

“You ever get a chill, like someone walked over your grave? I’m sure it’s nothing. Just . . .” He shivers again.

I don’t say anything, but I do give the truck a little more gas.

We’re silent after that, both of us lost in our own thoughts, until Kai says, “So what did you do to make that Thirsty Boy so pissed off?”

I roll my eyes. “That man can hold a grudge until the end of time.”

“No kidding. I thought that Law Dog hated you yesterday, but this guy . . .”

“Yeah.” I wave a hand in the air, like our encounter with the Thirsty Boy has left a haze behind that needs clearing. “Everybody hates me. I get it.”

“What did you do to him?”

“Why do you assume I did anything?” I ask, mildly outraged.

He chuckles. “I’ve known you twenty-four hours and even I can tell that you have a gift for pissing people off. Are you saying you didn’t do anything?”

“Fine. I cost him some money once, a few months back. That bounty hunt I told you about. It’s a long story, and it’s stupid, if you ask me, but he will not let it go.”

Kai nods thoughtfully. “Did you pay him back?”

“Pay him? It doesn’t work like that. It was a bounty that went wrong. I don’t actually owe him anything.”

“But you said—”

“Then I misspoke. Forget it.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Yeah, maybe.” He shrugs. “Maybe I’ll help you fix it.”

“It’s been six months. How are you going to fix it?”

“Leave it to me.”

“I don’t want you paying—”

“No, nothing like that. I’ll just talk to him.”

“Talk? You might have been able to bullshit Longarm yesterday, but Hastiin is a whole other story. He’s not an idiot like that Law Dog. He’s just . . . annoying. Stubborn.”

“Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it. Damn. Look at that.”

I follow his gaze out the windshield in front of us. We’re pulling up to the Tse Bonito turnoff of Highway 134. Before us, thick black smoke billows skyward, sickly clouds marring the otherwise immaculate blue sky.

“What is that?” he whispers as I slow my truck to a crawl. It’s not a brush fire, that’s for sure. “Is that . . . ?”

Foreboding floods my body, gripping me in the gut and sending blood roaring through my head. The fire is rising up from somewhere near the heart of the warren of shops, near the place where Tah lives.

“Oh . . . ,” I hear myself say.

Kai’s voice sounds a million miles away, wrapped in cotton, down a well, deep below water, when he says, “I think Tah’s hogan is on fire.”