“What do you make of that?” she asked whoever was around her.
Logan stood up. “It looks like a race. Is there anything of value around here?”
She thought immediately of the rock south of Yellowstone. The cars were heading west, which was the same way they were aimed. It was possible they were all going there, too. Or, perhaps they were getting away from somewhere else.
“I think it’s nothing we have to worry about,” she said, trying to sound confident.
A couple of minutes went by, but the cars were still there. To her eyes, it appeared as if they’d stopped, rather than being a slow-moving line. As she took more time to watch, she became convinced of it. “Maybe it’s the police come to check on reports of a truck being fire-bombed by a crazy helicopter on the interstate?”
An engine’s whine surprised her. A truck appeared fifty yards away. It was coming at them from the direction of the highway. It had its lights off, suggesting it was trying to be sneaky.
“Watch this truck!” she shouted to her friends.
Logan picked up his rifle.
Asher let go of Diedre and did the same.
“Wait a second,” Shawn insisted. “I think I recognize that motor. It’s a Windsor seven-and-a-half liter V8 pushing two hundred forty-five horsepower. I’d recognize it anywhere.”
“Really?” she said, shocked.
He listened for a few more seconds as the truck got closer. There didn’t seem to be anything distinctive about it, but Shawn chuffed as if he’d solved a riddle. “It’s my brother-in-law’s ’85 F-150. He talks up the specs of that old piece of junk every chance he gets.”
“Calvin Tames Horse?” she asked, remembering the man’s distinctive name. He’d been the mechanic who’d gotten her truck running properly. He’d also put the wooden barricade in the back seat, welded on her rear door, and replaced some window glass. As much as anyone, he’d made the rest of her trip possible.
“The one and only,” Shawn said, puffing out his chest.
A white pickup truck came out of the darkness. She recognized it as the one Logan had used to drive her and Asher to the small piece of asteroid which had fallen on Crow lands.
Logan and Shawn both waved. The driver put on his parking lights, illuminating the men. When he had parked, the skinny driver leaned out his window. “Logan? You there?”
“I’m here,” the boy replied.
Cal hopped out, obviously happy and excited. “I can’t believe we found you.”
Logan ran over and hugged his uncle. “How the heck did you do it? We’re in the middle of nowhere right now.”
When they separated, the skinny uncle came over to Shawn, who hadn’t moved. “His mother is with us.”
Shawn held out his hand and shook with his brother-in-law.
Calvin continued. “She’s not happy at what you’ve gotten her son into.”
The Crow leader maintained his poise. “I’ll have to explain it to her. Things are more serious than any of you know. Who else is here? I need to tell you all what is coming our way.” He leaned to see around Calvin, expecting someone to be in the truck with him.
Calvin pointed back toward the highway. “I brought the whole tribe.”
Grace whistled in amazement. “All those lights are with you?” The traffic jam remained where it was. She assumed they were lined up for miles along the shoulder of the interstate.
“Everyone who can carry a rifle. When the chairmen requests your presence, you mount your ride and hit the trail. We’re here to help.”
They spoke with Calvin for several minutes about the logistics of getting the bulk of the tribe together. In return, Shawn explained their situation on the rails. The burning boxcar provided the backdrop for the danger still remaining above them.
“It’s clear what we need to do,” Shawn finally said.
She’d been thinking about their fortunes over the last few hours. Nerio could fly around without a care in the world, save for one unwieldy anti-tank gun which seemed to do little more than scare her away for a short time. What they needed was a more permanent way to take her out of commission.
Grace looked to the engine glimmering in the darkness.
Without thinking, she spoke aloud. “We need to use the engine as a trap.”
The Crow leader became silent.
She turned to him, realizing she’d stepped on his presentation. “Oh, sorry. I was just—”
He waved her off with good humor. “It’s all right. I was about to say that very thing. The only way to end this is to trick her into committing to the wrong target. She has no idea who we have on our side now.” He shifted on his bad leg to look toward the highway. “My people.”
Kansas City, MO
Ezra brought Susan’s Grace around the bend in the river, but the scene ahead looked like they’d driven into the core of a nuclear reactor. A black orb was half-submerged in the middle of a giant lake. The black waters contrasted with the inferno of lights being held above the rock by cranes sitting on flat barges. Other watercraft hovered near the edge of the rock, as if eating away at the core.
“It’s the asteroid fragment. It came down right next to downtown.” Ezra pointed toward the skeletal remains of the tall skyscrapers sitting on a hillside to the south.
“What are they doing there?” Haley asked, still sitting low in the boat.
“Mining,” he said automatically. There was no other reasonable explanation for the operation. A recovery effort would be focused on all those people on the shore, not
