T Parker: The border Lords

"He'd been taking performance drugs?" asked Hood.

"Years ago," she said quietly. "He experimented briefly but didn't like them."

"How often does he write?" asked Hood.

"Every day now. Sometimes two or three times."

"Does he have themes that repeat?" asked Bly.

"His mission-whatever it might be. That someone or something is protecting him, beside him, guiding him. Lack of sleep, terrible dreams when he does sleep. Hyperactivity. Sexual desire. Melancholy. Sensitive vision, sensitive hearing, sensitive skin. Sore muscles, sore joints. Thirst. Here, scroll through them. It's kind of personal but you can see for yourself."

Bly squared the laptop to her and chose from the in-box. Hood rose and stood behind the couch looking over her shoulder. Seliah turned and looked up at him and he saw the sheen of perspiration on her face and the fear in her blue eyes. The room was cool now from the air conditioner and still it hummed away. From: Sean Gravas [sGravas23@zephyr.net] Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 2:45 a.m. To: Gravas, Seliah Subject: Desire for YOU Dear Seliah,

I miss you so much I can taste your BREATH and feel your skin and your hair as my fingers stroke through it, yes, the EXACT way your hair feels on the bottoms and sides of my fingers. I can lie in bed for hours and remember things we've done, slow motion, every moment replayed like I'm a machine or something and I feel like I'm on FIRE for you… From: Sean Gravas [sGravas23@zephyr.net] Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 5:15 p.m. To: Gravas, Seliah Subject: HEART Hey Sel,

Broke 310 on the bench today. Business is good; very good. Miss you so much sometimes I want to cut my heart OUT just to make it stop aching… From: Sean Gravas [sGravas23@zephyr.net] Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 12:14 a.m. To: Gravas, Seliah Subject: REASON FOR BEING HERE My Dearest Seliah,

It's beginning to dawn on me what I'm here for, not here in this desert but on the PLANET, and I can't tell you everything but I must do two things and they are 1) perform GOOD ACTS and 2) DEFEAT the forces of EVIL. This is not a Biblical thing but a practical one. I'm beginning to see that there are actual ways to improve the world we live in. I talk to Joe about this and he agrees. Joe says it's better to take a journey than make a plan. I'm becoming more clear on the NATURE of my mission. I feel a lot of great energy building in me. I think that some of it must be used to help the weak and some of it used to destroy the BAD. More later…

"Who's Joe?" asked Hood.

"An Irish priest. He was building a library near Arenal. Sean and him hit it off. They talked and drank a lot. I told you we stayed up late partying one night. There were three Tucson reptile hunters and two American honeymooners, a bunch of German bird-watchers and French butterfly collectors, and Father Joe Leftwich."

"How often do you write back to Sean?" asked Hood.

"Four or five times a day," said Seliah. "Janet, scroll down to the 'weirdest thing ever' message. It'll be late last month." From: Sean Gravas [sGravas23@zephyr.net] Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 7:19 p.m. To: Gravas, Seliah Subject: WEIRDEST thing ever Dear Seliah,

I finished up work early today I was heading home and this truck on the road ahead of me hit a dog. Dog went FLYING. The driver didn't even stop but I did. It was a little black mongrel and she didn't look busted up but she was just lying there in the desert, breathing hard and BLEEDING from her ears. I took off my shirt and laid her on it and she didn't do anything but whimper. So I set her on the passenger seat up front of my Range Rover and figured I'd take her to the vet. I drove into town with one hand on her head just petting her real soft and talking to her. I even said a prayer for her, with my hand on her head. And I told her, you may not make it much longer in THIS LIFE but you'll have another one in HEAVEN if you've been a good dog. Like that. It took us a while to get there. Then, when I took my hand off her to make the turn into the vet parking lot, SHE SAT UP! I thought, well, okay, that's the last of her strength and now she'll lay down and die, but she shook her whole body like she'd just stepped out of a swimming pool, you know, nose-to-tail, and looked at me with one of those great, doggy, "what are we doing now?" expressions. I mean, there's BLOOD drops on the windows but she looks just fine. So anyway, was it a miracle? I think that's entirely possible. Do you? I hope you don't think I'm NUTS. I am nuts, for YOU! So now I've got this dog. I named her Daisy. Maybe she was just dazed by that truck, not really hurt bad at all. That must be it. I got some on video I'll send you. SEAN GRAVAS AND THE MIRACLE MUTT! I got her a basket and a pad and some food and I'll bring her home to YOU someday very, very soon. I MUST say that I'm feeling very strong and good today. In my HEART I feel MY great big JOURNEY is ready to continue. I'm ready. I'm more than ready. Your Dog Savior, Sean

Seliah stood again and snapped shut the curtains against the last of the sunset. She lifted her hair off her neck with one hand and fanned her face with the other.

As if on cue the laptop chimed and the in-box listings shifted down to make room for a new message.

"It's from Sean," said Bly.

"Read it to me," said Seliah.

" 'My Dear Seliah, I'm off into the wild blue yonder now. The mission is clear. Good acts and the defeat of evil. Blowdown will be in touch with you soon if they haven't been already. They will ask you to help them find me. Tell them what they want to hear, dear woman. But hold me in your heart. I will be with you soon. Sean.' "

Hood realized something that made his heart drop. There was a long moment of silence until Hood broke it.

"The wild blue yonder," he said. "Sean has a plane at Oceanside Airport, right? A yellow Piper Cub. Bobbie or Betty or something like that. The name is under the fuselage."

Seliah shook her head and held his look. "Betty. He moved her three weeks ago. He wouldn't tell me where."

"When were you going to tell me this?"

"Damn all of you."

Both Hood and Bly let the curse hang. Hood figured if Ozburn was in the wind, there would be few better ways to get around than in his own little aircraft. He'd stay away from commercial airports where he'd have to file flight plans. He'd find other ways. Oz could land a Piper Cub on a street, a dirt road, a level meadow, just plain old desert if it was flat and firm enough. Hood remembered Sean talking about his club, the Desert Flyers. He remembered that Ozburn had outfitted his plane with expensive lights but didn't bother with a radio or transponder. It was a private aircraft-made to be flown literally off the charts and under the radar.

"He cashed in his IRA last week," said Seliah. "Thirty grand after the penalties."

Hood thought he heard pride in her voice. "Will you help us find him?"

Seliah left the room. Hood heard her at the kitchen sink, running water. A moment later she was back, blotting her face with a wet paper towel folded into quarters. "I love him. I want to protect him. And now, after what you say he did this morning, I'll help you find him. But how?"

"Right now, just tell him the truth," said Hood. He turned the laptop to face her.

"Right now?"

"Right now."

"Are you going to tell me what to say?"

"Tell him the truth, Seliah. Tell him what you told us."

Seliah sat on the couch and set the damp paper towel by the computer. She looked at Hood, then at Bly, then down at the keyboard. She composed slowly, a phrase at a time. Five minutes later she turned the computer to Hood: From: Seliah [seliahoz@zephyr.net] Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 7:55 p.m. To: Gravas, Sean Subject: With You My Dear Sean,

My heart is so heavy for you, sweet husband. Charlie and Janet told me what happened in the Buenavista safe house today. They want me to help them find you. I don't understand your mission but I want to be by your side. I want to be with you. Six years ago, when I promised you for better or worse, that was more than a promise. It was a statement of unchangeable truth. Please let me come to you. Please let me come to you. Your joy is mine as is your pain and we are one. All My Love, Seliah