Michael McGarity - Serpent Gate

"There," he said, pointing.

"Follow," Felix ordered.

At the gate to the ranch road, the car lurched to a stop in the middle of a snow-filled ditch. Carlos tried backing up, and the wheels spun without grabbing. He got out to take a look and Delfino joined him.

The rear wheels were deep in snow to the top of the hubcaps.

"We'll have to dig the car out," Carlos said.

"Leave it here," Delfino replied.

"Open the trunk."

Carlos unlocked the trunk and watched Felix and Delfino slip backpacks over their shoulders.

"Let's go," Felix said to Carlos.

"I'll wait here," Carlos replied.

"Move," Felix said, stepping out to take the lead.

"The police will notice the car."

"Today it is just another stranded vehicle in a snowbank," Felix replied.

"Let's go."

The sun gave no warmth and the glare off the snow was intense. Carlos followed Felix while Delfino stayed behind him. They walked single file at a fast pace in the ruts left by the truck. Behind him Carlos could hear the even breathing of Delfino close at hand.

Wind gusts seared against his face, his breath froze on his mustache, and his sunglasses fogged up. On the back side of the hills, the road dipped under a double set of train tracks. At the top of a rise beyond the tracks, Carlos spotted the pickup.

Felix saw it also. He bolstered his handgun, took off the backpack, and removed an Uzi submachine gun.

Delfino did the same.

"Take Carlos to the trestle and wait for me," Felix ordered Delfino. He left the road and started a loop in the general direction of the truck.

From the tres de Carlos and Delfino watched Felix approach the truck.

He checked the bed and the cab, returned to the tailgate, crouched down, and signaled them to approach. With Delfino at his side, Carlos trotted to the pickup. Beyond he could see two figures moving toward a low ridgeline.

"Get down," Felix said.

Carlos ducked behind the tailgate.

"How do you want to take them?" Delfino asked.

"Prom both flanks," Felix said. The figures up ahead were small dots against a white backdrop.

"Carlos, you go with Delfino."

Carlos took out his handgun, glancing at Delfino for a reaction.

"Take the point," Delfino said.

Carlos broke trail through the crust of snow, his legs sinking into drifts up to his knees, slowing his pace. He looked back once; ten steps behind, Delfino had the Uzi pointed directly at him. He scanned the left flank for Felix; he was nowhere in sight.

Carlos was a sitting duck. All he could do was keep moving. from insidb the old grain warehouse, Robert watched the cop in the squad car. The man just sat in the cruiser with his engine running, tailpipe exhaust billowing like frost in the cold morning air. Robert knew if he went to the hotel, the cop would beat him up, just like Ordway had.

He didn't know what to do. Seeing Kerney and Nita together had left him with a mean, jealous feeling, and his head felt full of hissing snakes. He had to get away and never come back, but where should he go? He went out the rear of the warehouse and scrambled down a small embankment to the train tracks. Behind him stood the old train station. Maybe east, he thought, to Texas.

The hissing snakes whispered Paul Gillespie's name in his ear. He would go west to Serpent Gate.

He hurried down the tracks to the underpass. The cop never saw him.

Cops were stupid-too dumb to realize that the train tracks were highways, just like roads, only better.

The cast on his arm banged against his broken rib as he ran, but the pain didn't bother him. He laughed until cold air rushed into his lungs and made him cough. tub snow at the top of the rise was too deep for the truck, so Nita and Kerney pushed ahead on foot. The storm had erased any footprints or tracks. Kerney scrutinized every drift they passed for telltale signs of Robert. He saw nothing. If Robert's body was nearby, it wouldn't be found until the first good thaw.

The raw Arctic wind kept the temperature well below freezing, and the branches of the pinon and juniper trees cracked like gunshots as they snapped under the weight of the snow. Each step they took broke trail in the frozen crust, and they were knee-deep in drifts. Nita didn't tire or falter, but Kerney had a hell of a time with his bad knee. The tendons and few remaining ligaments ached every time he pulled the leg free to take another step.

The ridge ran at a right angle to the hills. At the top, Nita held them up. Without warning, the ridge sheared off, revealing a granite monolith standing in the middle of a narrow gorge. A rockfall closed off one end, and the only approach seemed to be through a shallow arroyo that ran up to the ridge.

Kerney guessed the monolith to be fifty feet long and ten feet away from where he stood. He looked into the shadows and waited for his vision to adjust. Fifteen feet below the drop-off, a slender ledge ran along the length of the monolith. Above the ledge, at about the chest height of a small man, a duplicate of the serpent on Pop Shaffer's fence had been chiseled in the stone. It was surrounded by images of birds, fish, and other symbols, including a horned demon.

"How deep?" Kerney asked. The snow in the gorge stopped at the ledge of the monolith.

"Less than twenty feet. Do you think you would have found it on your own?"

"I probably would have fallen into it," Kerney said.

"What's on the other side?"

"More rock art and lots of rattlesnakes in the summer," Nita answered.

"It gets good sun, and the snakes like the heat. I don't think Robert's been here," she added.

"We'll poke around anyway."

The wind died down and Kerney heard crunching sounds from behind. Out of the sun, two men were coming straight at them. Another man flanked them, cutting off any retreat. He saw weapons in their hands, and without thinking he pushed Nita over the ledge and jumped with her as the men opened fire. He crashed into a snow-covered shrub, branches whipping his face, and landed in a heavy cushion of snow.

He scrambled to the ledge of the monolith, grabbed Nita by the hand, and pulled her to him.

"Move," he hissed, freeing his handgun.

"Get to the other side, out of sight."

Nita gave him a petrified look. He pushed her to get her started.

Automatic rounds sprayed the gully as he turned the corner. Nita was off the ledge, standing waist-deep in a drift.

"What is it?" Nita asked.

"What's happening?" It was all she could think to say.

"Don't talk."

The gorge was wider on the back side of the monolith, where the arroyo had eroded the ridge. Kerney heard the thud of two men dropping into the gorge, and looked for cover. Below the ledge circling the monolith was a crevice large enough for one person. He yanked Nita by the hand, forced her down, and shoved her into it.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Curl up in a ball and be quiet," he said.

"I'll come back for you." He pushed her knees to her chest and piled snow over her, trying to make the mound look as natural as possible.

He held his breath and listened. Nothing. Three men were coming at him from front and back, and there was no place to hide.

The mound covering the crevice was in deep shadows.

Maybe they wouldn't spot Nita; maybe she could survive.

A small conical cedar tree stood at the far end of the monolith, where sunlight had yet to reach. Kerney eyed it. About the height of a man, the tree would be the first thing a shooter would see coming around the front end of the monolith.

Kerney took off his coat, went to the tree, wrapped the garment around it, and buttoned it up. At a quick glance, it might pass for a standing man. With his back against the monolith, he hunkered down and waited, listening for footfalls in the crusted snow, scanning left and right. He saw a long shadow flicker on the snow beyond the cedar tree.