'You won't win the tribes over by just making pretty speeches,' said the brave standing by the door. Everyone turned to look at him. He was not the tallest of braves. He was maybe five-foot eight in height, five-nine at a push. He was stocky though, with a powerful upper body and sturdy, muscular legs.
He had no authority to speak at this meeting. Indignant, Hinto was about to reprimand the brave for addressing the council, but Hiamovi raised his hand. He wanted to hear what the brave had to say.
'Principles are all well and good, but only a handful of people will fight and die for their principles,' the brave said. 'If you want the tribes to stand together side by side with you then you've got to terrify them. You've got to make them think that they, their families and their whole way of life is under threat. They need to believe that the only thing that can protect them from this threat is the UTN. Then they'll do anything to join you.'
'You don't found any kind of lasting powerbase on fear,' said Cheveyo. 'Fear turns to anger and when the people you're leading find out you've mislead them, that anger is turned on you.'
'It isn't misleading to say that our lodges and our tribes are under threat,' said the brave, his face radiating defiance. 'Every day our borders are attacked by one klan or another and our belongings stolen by scavs. You think that threat is going to go away if we all simply hold hands? The stronger we get the more of a target we become. We're not misleading our people when we tell them they ought to be afraid. Fear is what unites us.'
For the first time since he'd known Cheveyo, Hiamovi saw anger in his face. 'Who are you to address the council in this way?' Cheveyo said. 'What right do you have to speak to us of these things? Who do you think you are?'
'I am Ahiga and I have the right of every man who's prepared to fight and die for the principles you're so fond of. Why don't you tell me what right you have to address this council? Because you maintain your power by flattering our leader with honeyed words. That is the Hopi way. A Navajo earns his standing through the truth of his actions.'
'How dare you!' Cheveyo sputtered. Ahiga's words had blindsided him. Hiamovi, and the rest of the council were well aware of the long standing feud between Navajo and Hopi. It went back centuries, to when the two tribes were forced onto reservations that bordered one another. There had been many bitter territorial disputes over the centuries. Disputes not even a devastating plague could resolve.
'This is not the place for such divisive talk.' Onatah said. 'The UTN transcends all tribal disputes and differences. We are all brothers and sisters in the cause.'
Ahiga raised his hands in deference. 'I beg the council's pardon, I don't want to disrespect you or the UTN. I simply want to exercise my right as a loyal follower to have my voice heard.'
'You have no right to be heard by this council,' said Cheveyo.
'I have the right of challenge,' said Ahiga. 'You spoke of principles and their importance to the UTN. Isn't one of our principles that we uphold and honour the customs of all the tribes within our nation?'
'Yes, but no tribe has a custom allowing foot soldiers to slander a council member.'
'No,' said Ahiga. 'The Cheyenne have a custom though, one that is shared by the Sioux and the Blackfoot. When a member of the tribal council is unfit to hold his seat another member of the tribe can replace him if he beats that council member in a fair contest of wills.'
'I am not unfit to be on the council,' said Cheveyo. He looked around the rest of the council for support. 'This is nonsense, let us end it now.'
'Your words prove you are unfit,' said Ahiga. 'You want us to build a powerbase and defend ourselves with nothing more than speeches. You want to put our leader in constant danger by forcing him to appear out in the open at all times, where any of our enemies could reach him. That's why I'm challenging you for your place on the council.'
Cheveyo had the look of one who has just woken to find the world has become a nightmare. He turned to the rest of the council and Hiamovi. 'Are you going to let him continue? Do you not see what he is doing?'
Before Hiamovi or the council could respond, Ahiga said: 'Hiamovi, your people the Cheyenne have a rite called the Challenge of the Four Arrows. I ask your permission to challenge Cheveyo to this rite.'
All eyes turned to Hiamovi. He took a moment to consider the situation. He was impressed by Ahiga's impertinence. He liked the brave's courage in addressing the council so brazenly, in seizing the initiative. Hiamovi had an intuition, as he often had about these matters, that Ahiga would become important to his plans in the future. Cheveyo was an old friend however. Hiamovi had come to depend on the Hopi's wisdom, even if, in this instance, he agreed with Ahiga about Cheveyo's views.
Hiamovi turned to Cheveyo. 'Old friend, I do not want to lose your wisdom on this council. I do not want to turn my back on our customs either. So I will allow the challenge with one proviso. Ahiga is not challenging you for your place on the council, just a place. If he succeeds he may join his voice to ours. If he fails you will have silenced him.'
'And if I refuse?'
'Then you will be a coward,' said Ahiga.
Cheveyo's stiffened with indignation. His fate had been sealed.
Somewhere off in the distance, out of the hearing of the rest of the council, Hiamovi caught the sound of a coyote laughing.
CHAPTER THREE
Downtown Laramie had changed a lot since Samuel Colt had last blown through. They'd stopped crucifying non-believers outside the railway station on Superior Court for one thing. The gallows on North Third Street, one of the busiest in Wyoming just a few years ago, seemed to have fallen into disuse too. It looked as though scavs had half dismantled it when Colt and his honour guard drove past. Laramie had done some serious moral back-sliding, Colt was sure of that much.
Same could be said of the Good Shepherds. Time was when they were one of the fiercest, most effective branches of the Neo-Clergy. Raised, like most of the top Klans, from a street gang into part of a ruthless international organisation. When the plague had finished wiping the sinners from God's green earth, the Neo-Clergy had risen like a beacon from the ashes of a dead and corrupt world. In its heyday the Apostolic Church of the Rediscovered Dawn, to give the Neo-Clergy its proper title, had controlled three continents. That was before the forces of Satan had brought it low and killed their leader John-Paul Rohare Baptiste.
Jack Mills ran Wyoming back when the Neo-Clergy were in power. There was a man Colt could do business with. A man who made God something to fear again and had terrified the whole state with His holy name.
Not like Benny Cooper. Benny grinned his shit-kicking grin and offered Colt the semi- automatic. 'D'ya wanna have a little fun with 'im, 'fore we finish 'im off?'
Colt looked at the godless wretch on the ground. He was pissing blood from at least twenty wounds and still he begged for his life. He was already on his way to see Satan. No amount of pleading could stop that.
The man's brothers lay dead at his feet. Their blood congealing on the floor of what used to be Laramie's biggest mall. When the Neo-Clergy took over it became a stockade. Worship of the Almighty Dollar turned to worship of the Lord. Now Benny was in charge, it had turned to worship of idiocy.
Colt declined the offered weapon. 'I'm not here for fun.'
'Suit y'self,' said Benny and put one in the wounded man's gut. He doubled over, trying to scream, but the lack of a stomach wall and the blood in his throat stopped him. He would be dead within the hour.
The entertainment had started soon after Colt and his men arrived. They'd pushed some prisoners into a lower level of the mall and blocked off the walkways so they couldn't get out. Then Benny and his guests had leaned over the balcony of the upper level and picked them off with their rifles.
'We're gonna show Colorado we know how to hold a party,' Benny had said with a fool grin on his face.
Colt knew he was just trying to show him how big his dick was now that he'd stepped into Jack Mills' shoes.
'Take these bodies an' hang 'em up in Optimist Park.' Benny said. 'Let everyone see what happens when I don't get ma tributes.'
'But Boss,' said one of his lackeys. 'We didn't bring these guys in for not paying their tributes.'
'Did I ask for your opinion boy?' said Benny, pissed at being corrected in front of his out-of-town guests. ''Cos
