and we’ll find it.”
“I know. I just can’t stand it.”
“We lost two more men because we couldn’t wait.”
“I know. I know. We’ve gone over this.”
“Until we know where they went, you need to get your mind off it and give the appearance of Anna Wade going about her business as usual.”
“Yeah, well, you can just haul your cute butt down to my studio party.”
“I said I would ride in the limo.”
“But we aren’t going if it will in any way affect the hunt for Jason.”
“Absolutely.”
Anna began eyeing the small couch in the back of the jet’s cabin.
“Lie down if you like,” Sam said.
“Will you come back so we can talk before I fall asleep?”
“Sure,” Sam said. He took a mint-green blanket and white pillow from a forward baggage compartment, ushered her to the back of the plane, and sat in an upright seat across from the couch. Anna, already in her stocking feet, lay down.
“Why don’t you sit here?” she said.
Sam got the idea, moved over, and put the pillow in his lap.
“Tell me about the letters in the picture book,” she said.
“Maybe I should be the one on the couch.”
“Come on, Sam.”
“The thing with the sat phone and the New York Times. I didn’t like it.”
“It was just a bluff. You were being a butt head. Let’s not digress.” She put her hand on his arm and patted it.
“No.” He said it with a tentative tone to soften what was not soft.
“I know. I was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I won’t do it again but I’m sure I’ll be tempted.”
“One of the letters was to my son. It was in English so you know what it said. Mom found it in his things.
The other was in the language of my tribe. It was from my grandfather to me.”
“And what did it say?”
“It was very similar to the letter I wrote to my son except for the last line. My grandfather didn’t mention the sunset or the beer.”
“And?”
“It said ‘Do not neglect the gift that I have seen.’ Loose translation.”
“What is that gift?”
“I have dreams. Sometimes hunches. They are just normal things. Most people have them.”
“Your Grandfather was a Spirit Walker?”
“Yes.”
“And he had these dreams and hunches?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Methinks you doth protest too much. In the cabin when you jumped up and said we had to get out. Was that one of those dreams?”
“Yeah.”
“When was the last time you had one?”
“Before getting in the seaplane at the lodge; on the roof of the Dyna Science building before getting in the helicopter. But you know that was logical. It had only one engine. I usually use one with two turbines.”
“When before that?”
“When I was sailing past the mouth of Devil’s Gate. I turned in.”
“It’s how you saw me.”
“Well, it made it easier.”
“Come on. Would you have seen me if you’d kept going?”
“Probably not. I had the same bad feeling about putting you in the seaplane.”
“So what is this?”
“It’s nothing.”
“What did your grandfather mean?”
“My Grandfather Stalking Bear decided that I inherited the Spirit Walker thing.”
“Fascinating.”
“It’s intuition pure and simple.”
“Did all Indians around these parts believe the same?”
“Well, there were some distinct differences. Only my tribe believed in Spirit Walkers, but all the tribes had the spiritual leaders known as Talth.”
“So tell me your tribe.”
“You can keep your trap shut?”
“Of course.”
“You threatened me with the New York Times.”
“I said I was wrong. I concede.”
“I’m a Tilok.”
“What’s your name? Your real name.”
“Oh, no.” He shook his head. “Let’s go back to Indians. Even in things as basic as language there were differences. The Yuroks spoke a language related to the Woodland Algonquian tribes of the northeastern United States, while the Karuk spoke Hokan, the oldest language in northwestern California, and the Hupa spoke the Athapaskan, which was a language common in the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest. Pretty amazing to have such diversity in one small area of northern California.”
“What do the Tiloks speak?”
“A dialect of the Algonquian tribes, but Mom says it’s pretty different. Before English, none of these tribes could talk to each other without a multilingual translator. Their economies, social structure, and spiritual beliefs were similar but there were differences. My mother can tell you what was common and what was not. Tiloks were travelers, not so much lowland Indians except seasonally. In spring and summer Tiloks went to the high country. They were hunters, trackers, and traders.”
“Why does she say that your soul lacks harmony?”
“I told you that you need to leave me with a few secrets.”
“Okay, just a little more. Tell me about your dad.”
“He was the penultimate tough guy. Life was about holding out the proper facade no matter what. Laugh at adversity, joke when others cry, never have a really serious conversation, and never under any circumstances be vulnerable.”
“Must have made a heck of a one-man platoon.”
“He was a parajumper. The bad-ass rescue patrol. The president or a cabinet member goes down, needs rescuing, or a pilot behind enemy lines, or a hiker on Mount Denali… the toughest rescues around are given to the parajumpers. That’s what you wanted to know.”
“I’m not spying on you, Sam. Relax.” She squeezed his arm. “I do, though, fully intend to find out everything there is to know about you.”
“Curious creature, aren’t you?”
“I am,” she said, and quickly drifted off to sleep.
He didn’t really doubt her. It seemed that he was seriously losing his grip with this woman.
He used the plane’s satellite phone to call the office.
Typhony answered.
“How’s it going?” Sam asked.
“Really good but I can’t talk now, so I’m giving you Paul.”
That’s weird, Sam thought.
