throat. She probed the glands in her neck for swelling. Her skin felt clammy.
Was that a symptom of something? Poking her stomach, she thought maybe it felt tender.
Stop! she told herself. There was nothing to be done.
Kier had now removed the door plug. When he pushed his clothes through the opening, she turned out the light, knowing he would be naked. Outside, she could tell, it was dawn. His wide shoulders were silhouetted when he came through.
'I could use a little light,' he said.
Okay, so he didn't care about being naked. She turned it on. He came through the opening inches from her nose. There was a bronze smoothness to his skin that made him seem earthy.
Kier replaced the plug, sealing them in. He spread his clothes next to hers at the head of the hut, then slipped in beside her. She doused the light. Still wrapped in her blanket, she lay spoonlike, six inches from his back. Falling to about the level of her calves, her impromptu wrap left her well covered. Only her feet and shoulders were actually exposed to their mutual bed.
The chill from Kier's entry still hung in the air; no longer was she completely warm. Of course, the solution was obvious. But she couldn't imagine herself just cuddling up to his body as if they were lovers. She would give no false messages about wanting him.
'I could hug your back and you would be much warmer,' he said out of the darkness.
'Uhm.' She cleared her throat. 'I think maybe that would be uncomfortable.' She felt him roll over and face her. In the black, she tried to see his eyes, but couldn't.
'Relax. You don't have to like me to keep warm.'
'I never said I didn't like you.'
'You're chilly and mad. I propose to solve only the first problem.'
'Cute.' There was silence. 'It's not as if I don't have a good reason.'
His hands went to her shoulders. 'Turn over,' he said. She rolled, disquieted, but saying nothing. She felt his large body behind her, enfolding her, and it was blessedly warm.
'What do you use for lust suppression?' she asked, trying to determine if she was going to allow this.
'Your tender disposition should do fine.'
She let her body move a little closer. Waiting, she felt no pressure from his thighs. After a few moments, she let her body mold itself to his shape, luxuriating in the warmth of it. She was careful not to sigh.
'This togetherness-for-warmth business changes absolutely nothing.'
'I believed you would die if you came out of that trapdoor right after I did.'
'I could have died staying down below. Why does your risk assessment apply when it's my life we're talking about?'
'When it's someone you care about and you're in a hurry, you just do it. You don't convene a debate.'
'Someone you care about. Me?'
'Bizarre, isn't it.'
There was a long silence that let the need for a conclusion hang between them.
'So you're saying you think in some sense you care about me?'
'You're sister to my best friends.'
'And that's the way you care about me. As a relative of your friends.'
'Well, at least that. I suppose I'm feeling some chemistry that is obviously one-sided.'
'Obviously,' she said. 'What do you mean you 'suppose'?'
'You don't know the meaning of 'suppose'?'
'So you're really mystified about what you feel?'
'Let's get some sleep.'
'Chicken.'
'Uh-huh.'
Tillman leaned back in the chair and took a sip of black coffee. This time he sat alone at the table.
The Indian had finally done as expected and taken off for the high wilderness. Climbing rocky ridges where the snow played a constant game of musical chairs, tracks wouldn't last long. Tillman probably could have followed if he had done so immediately, but most of his men would have been incapable. And Tillman was not yet ready to commit to the chase. Kier had the woman with him and therefore could not travel at his full potential. He would walk most of the night, then rest. Probably he would go to either a natural or a man-made shelter. In the morning it would be smart to press him with the troops and wear him down a little.
After visiting the charred cabin and watching his men chase about like angry beagles, Tillman had left in disgust and returned to the Donahues'. He and Doyle had spent only about twenty minutes to sort out the real trail. He wondered whether the all-night march and the chase would wreak havoc on the woman's nerves. Maybe she was really tough. Tillman could almost hear them bicker under the stress.
As he savored the acid taste of the black coffee, he decided exactly what he would do.
'Doyle, Brennan,' he barked.
He took another sip while he listened to their heavy-booted footfalls come from the family room.
'I want you'-a nod at Brennan-'to take snowmobiles and go to the Tilok reservation tonight. Just start knocking on doors. Tell them that a plane crashed and Kier went into the mountains looking for survivors. Tell them we need to know the shelters up on Iron Mountain where he might stay. Offer them money if you think it'll help. Get them to show you on a map. If you think it's absolutely necessary, offer to pay one of them as a guide, but only take one Indian and no more.
Keep in mind that whoever you take will have to have a serious accident.'
'What if they come up here on their own looking for their buddy?'
'Tell them that Kier doesn't want people walking around because it will interfere with tracking survivors. Tell them we need to find him only because we've lost radio contact and need to get him another radio. Explain that the government is using armed soldiers to keep everybody out of this area to allow Kier to do his job unhindered. Then, if you have to, that's when you offer to take one as a guide and representative.
'Doyle, you'll stay here. Brennan, you will then lead one of three groups up the mountain. He'll go the route we consider most likely after interviewing the Tiloks. We'll put two other groups up on different ridges in the next most-likely areas. Everybody will look for tracks. In some of those snowfields any idiot can see tracks.
''I'm going to head out by myself on the heels of Brennan's group. No one is to know this. Absolutely no one. Tell the men I've returned to Johnson City. Brennan and I will talk on a scrambled channel. Doyle will stay here at the command post with the other men.'
'You're going to hunt Kier while Kier hunts Brennan's group,' Doyle said.
'Precisely. You'll have a chance to test your defensive skills against one of the best,' Tillman told Brennan.
'How many men will I have?' Brennan asked.
'Ten starting from the cabin,' Tillman said. 'You may have to split up, because there is more than one ridge. But when you find him, if you find him, we'll bring them all together and bring in the other two groups.'
'If the men don't know you're out there, they may confuse you with him.'
'I'll worry about that. You and I will talk. I'll know where the men are at all times. If we have to tell the men someone else is out there, we'll just tell them it's a hired tracker, working alone.'
Kier approached the hut, proud of the food he had managed to gather in such a short time. She had slept through the early morning and into the afternoon. He had taken fairly lengthy naps, and as soon as they ate he intended to sleep several more hours.
Concerned that he would startle her from a deep sleep by slipping into the hut, he pulled the plug and whispered: 'It's okay.'
'You found a phone booth?'
'You have a cozy house with food. Technology is overrated.'
'Did you say food?'
'Turn over on your belly and sniff straight ahead.'
''Gosh, I didn't know starvation could do that to your nose.'
