deal. Even if you do, you'll be a hunted man forever. You've got the journals, haven't you? We've figured it out. Okay. We're pissed, but you've got something we need, so let's deal.'
Kier believed that they had figured out nothing except that some guy in a white camouflage outfit was killing and maiming their people. Tillman had perhaps twenty men, probably ex-soldiers. Maybe Special Forces men who couldn't find anything else to do in life-hired mercenaries, pumped up with some concocted story about how they were doing the world a favor. Or maybe such people didn't care for abstractions.
At a flat-out run, Kier took the trail directly to the Donahues'. Even if Jessie had traveled at a much slower pace and had covered more than twice as much ground, she should have long since arrived and departed. But he had to make sure.
From the densest thicket, as the last light faded, Stalking Bear scrutinized every detail. He placed the object that would be the salvation of his people in a safe place-a place where, if need be, one other would find it. With it, he left a written note.
Now Stalking Bear was pulled in two directions.
A pregnant Claudie and her two little boys, Bren and Micah, climbed into Kier's truck. Theirs was the immediate peril. Tomorrow would always lie with the children. Even if the Donahue boys were not Tilok, they were friends to the Tilok. And Stalking Bear's grandson had no greater friends than Jack and Claudie Donahue.
Moving like a shadow with easy strides, Stalking Bear vaulted into the bed of the pickup truck as it passed. He folded himself into one of several storage compartments barely large enough for him, making himself very small, and slowed his breath, his heartbeat. He became the sleeping bear. The tension flowed out of his body, and he listened, dreamed.
'Sorry I startled you.'
Kier piled into the driver's seat of the Volvo as Jessie slipped over the center console.
'What the hell happened?' she asked.
In the backseat, Miller groaned.
'I didn't kill anybody, but Miller's friends killed one of their own.' Kier glanced at his watch. 'You were supposed to be gone two minutes after you got here.'
'So I'm a slow walker. Only one dead?' she asked, her voice sharper now.
'I think so.'
'It sounded like a war. I'm sure you saved our lives.'
'See how long that lasts,' Miller said.
'Miller here is getting quite a reputation,' Kier said.
'You mother-'
'We better get you out of here fast.' Kier stepped out of the car and opened the back door. 'These guys want to carve you up.' As Kier dragged Miller back to the car trunk and locked him inside, he watched the treeline in the last of the gray light.
'We need to hide for a while. We have to figure out what the journals mean,'' Kier began, back in the car. He turned the car left, toward Johnson City, driving as fast as he dared, forcing the Volvo over the drifts and the chained tires into the roadway.
''We've got to head for civilization,'' she said, her fist gently tapping the side window. 'Why can't we just try for Johnson City like Claudie?'
He didn't answer. Instead, he looked for a turnaround. They came to a drive marked mollander. It was the only nearby dwelling-a summer cabin about a half mile from Claudie's, usually unoccupied this time of year.
'You're not talking.'
'I'm thinking.'
When he reached the end of the narrow roadway to the cabin, he turned the Volvo around and got out.
'Now what are you doing?'
'I'm still thinking.'
'You're lying in the snow.'
'I'm removing the chains.'
'What if I want the chains to go to Johnson City?'
'They'll have men at the pass. They'll kill you. If you try to walk around them, you'll die in the snow.'
He removed the tire chains quickly and dumped them on the floor in back.
'That's my choice,' she said.
'Uh-huh,' he said. He would hog-tie her if he had to, but he certainly wasn't going to say so.
' 'Uh-huh.' What's that mean?'
'It means I'm listening.'
'You're driving back toward my sister's and away from Johnson City.'
'If we go back without the chains, it'll throw them off, at least temporarily.'
'We need to get to a town, to telephones. I've got to insist.'
'This side of Elk Horn Pass you're off the grid. No power except home generators and no phone but cellular. With luck, they're confused. They'll suppose that people fleeing would more likely head toward Johnson City than away from it. Our only choice is to lose them in the wilderness and come out in our own time and our own way.'
'What about the cell phones?'
'There's one in my truck. Claudie's got one. We don't have either of them, and they won't work unless you're higher on the mountain. We can't drive that high in this snow, even if we had one, which we don't.'
''Listen, that plane was full of some medical research, including every disease in the Merck Manual. They could be experimenting on those Tilok girls, for God's sake. We've got to tell the world-'
'You can't tell anyone anything if you're dead. They might let Claudie past, but they're never gonna let us through. And this car won't make it over the pass anyway. No chance.'
'So we should run off into the mountains in a blizzard, maybe with some deadly disease? These people could be back out on the county road by now just waiting for us around the next bend. I say we make a plan that moves us toward town, even if we walk.'
'That's what they expect. They'll likely have snowmobiles. It won't work.'
'Why?'
'Resources. I saw their truck tracks. They weren't driving around with empty trucks. Either they have a lot of men, or men and snowmobiles. Whatever they have will be directed at Elk Horn Pass if they lose our tracks.'
''If we aren't going to make definite progress toward a phone, maybe I should go by myself.'
Kier slowed down and looked at her.
'You do that and the odds are very high that you will die. Be patient. I will get you to civilization. I promise.'
Her jaw hardened, and he knew she was trying to control her anger.
'So I've got to live with you because I can't live without you. That's what you're saying. So what are the odds of an epidemic of some sort?'
'I have no idea.' He paused. 'Those guys were killing each other before the jet crashed, right?'
She nodded.
'There was a firefight in that plane.'
'Okay,' she said with a reluctant tone. 'And you're going to say the grenade guy feared Tillman enough to die killing us-or just to keep a secret, or for some other damn reason. So we ought to be a lot more afraid of those guys who'll kill us instantly than a disease that will take time, and that we may not even have. That's your point?'
'Something like that.'
For a time Jessie didn't say anything more. Finally, 'What makes no sense is the private army. How did they know this jet would crash in these mountains?'
Kier shrugged.
'I think this decision making needs to follow democratic principles.'
'I think that before I let you kill yourself we're going to have a serious fight.'
'I've got a gun.'
