It's going to take one to get in.'
'No, you're not going.'
'Then I'll go by myself,' Nita said as she started to rise.
'Hold up.'
'Robert is out there, and I'm going to find him if you won't.'
'Why are you so sure he's there?'
'Can't you figure it out? What happened to me-and Robert-took place at Serpent Gate. He's always gone back; I never have.'
Before Kerney could respond a patrol officer entered the room and walked quickly to the table. He gave Nita a questioning glance and a tight nod before addressing Kerney.
'No luck so far. Chief,' he said.
'I covered all the major roads in a ten-mile radius.'
'Robert may come here,' he said as he laid some bills on the table to cover the meal and the tip.
'Pick him up if he shows. Don't scare him off. He doesn't like cops much. I'll be on my handheld radio if you need me.'
Kerney stood up, took Nita's coat off the back of the empty chair, and held it out.
'Let's go to Serpent Gate.' carlos tried to act cordial and relaxed with Felix and Delfino, but his attempts at small talk were rebuffed. He drove through the night while one man slept and the other stayed awake, watching him. Even when he had to take a piss along the side of the road, he had company. When he suggested a meal stop, the idea was rejected. Carlos had to come up with a plan to save himself, and soon.
The blizzard had made travel almost impossible. Felix had ordered him to take the interstate in the hopes that the road would be in better condition. But south of Albuquerque the highway became a nightmare, and Carlos missed the exit to Mountainair because of a fierce whiteout that obliterated the road signs. When he got back on track, it took hours to travel fifty miles to Mountainair.
Carlos drove into the village with a low sun in his eyes. It wasn't much of a town from what he could see: a cheap motel or two, boarded-up businesses, a school, and a main street that sputtered to a stop after two long blocks.
'I need some coffee,' he said to Felix as he slowed to let a crazy-looking man with missing teeth scurry across the street, the coat draped over his shoulders flapping in the breeze.
'We'll get some to go,' Felix said.
'I saw a sign for a hotel restaurant. It should be on the right, a block down.'
Carlos made the turn and saw the man in the flapping coat run across the road toward an abandoned warehouse next to some train tracks. In front of the hotel, a man, woman, and a cop came out the front door.
Carlos accelerated.
'That's Kerney,' he said as he passed the trio in front of the hotel.
He went around the block and returned in time to see Kerney and the woman pull away in a pickup truck.
'Are you positive?' Felix asked.
'Completely.'
'Don't follow too closely.'
The cop paid no attention as Carlos cruised by.
Carlos let several vehicles pass him, but kept the truck in view. The road had been sanded and plowed, but black ice slowed traffic. Several miles beyond the village, Carlos topped out at the crest of a hill and panicked.
The pickup was nowhere in sight. He started scanning for the truck off the roadway.
'You've lost them,' Felix snapped.
The highway divided a slender valley cut by wandering arroyos that gradually opened to a large pasture.
To the south, a half circle of hills hid the mainline railroad tracks from view. Fresh tire tracks entered a ranch road.
Carlos squinted against the glare of reflected sunlight on the snow and caught sight of the truck traveling toward the hills.
'There,' he said, pointing.
'Follow,' Felix ordered.
At the gate to the ranch road, the car lurched to a stop in the middle of a snow-filled ditch. Carlos tried backing up, and the wheels spun without grabbing. He got out to take a look and Delfino joined him.
The rear wheels were deep in snow to the top of the hubcaps.
'We'll have to dig the car out,' Carlos said.
'Leave it here,' Delfino replied.
'Open the trunk.'
Carlos unlocked the trunk and watched Felix and Delfino slip backpacks over their shoulders.
'Let's go,' Felix said to Carlos.
'I'll wait here,' Carlos replied.
'Move,' Felix said, stepping out to take the lead.
'The police will notice the car.'
'Today it is just another stranded vehicle in a snowbank,' Felix replied.
'Let's go.'
The sun gave no warmth and the glare off the snow was intense. Carlos followed Felix while Delfino stayed behind him. They walked single file at a fast pace in the ruts left by the truck. Behind him Carlos could hear the even breathing of Delfino close at hand.
Wind gusts seared against his face, his breath froze on his mustache, and his sunglasses fogged up. On the back side of the hills, the road dipped under a double set of train tracks. At the top of a rise beyond the tracks, Carlos spotted the pickup.
Felix saw it also. He bolstered his handgun, took off the backpack, and removed an Uzi submachine gun.
Delfino did the same.
'Take Carlos to the trestle and wait for me,' Felix ordered Delfino. He left the road and started a loop in the general direction of the truck.
From the tres de Carlos and Delfino watched Felix approach the truck.
He checked the bed and the cab, returned to the tailgate, crouched down, and signaled them to approach. With Delfino at his side, Carlos trotted to the pickup. Beyond he could see two figures moving toward a low ridgeline.
'Get down,' Felix said.
Carlos ducked behind the tailgate.
'How do you want to take them?' Delfino asked.
'Prom both flanks,' Felix said. The figures up ahead were small dots against a white backdrop.
'Carlos, you go with Delfino.'
Carlos took out his handgun, glancing at Delfino for a reaction.
'Take the point,' Delfino said.
Carlos broke trail through the crust of snow, his legs sinking into drifts up to his knees, slowing his pace. He looked back once; ten steps behind, Delfino had the Uzi pointed directly at him. He scanned the left flank for Felix; he was nowhere in sight.
Carlos was a sitting duck. All he could do was keep moving. from insidb the old grain warehouse, Robert watched the cop in the squad car. The man just sat in the cruiser with his engine running, tailpipe exhaust billowing like frost in the cold morning air. Robert knew if he went to the hotel, the cop would beat him up, just like Ordway had.
He didn't know what to do. Seeing Kerney and Nita together had left him with a mean, jealous feeling, and his head felt full of hissing snakes. He had to get away and never come back, but where should he go? He went out the rear of the warehouse and scrambled down a small embankment to the train tracks. Behind him stood the old train station. Maybe east, he thought, to Texas.
The hissing snakes whispered Paul Gillespie's name in his ear. He would go west to Serpent Gate.
He hurried down the tracks to the underpass. The cop never saw him.
