J. Jance - Kiss the Bees

"How's Mom taking it?"

"About how you'd expect," Brian said. "Not very well."

"And Brandon?"

"He's better off than your mother is. At least he's able to do something about it. The last I saw of him, he was on his way out to Rattlesnake Skull Charco with Brock Kendall, an FBI agent."

"Rattlesnake Skull? Why there?"

"To meet Fat Crack. Wanda Ortiz called and said that according to Gabe, that's where we'll find Lani."

"Is that where we're going?" Davy asked.

"No. We're supposed to go to the house."

"If the charco is where the action is, that's where I want to be," Davy said. "Let's go there."

Brian cast a dubious look across the front seat toward his friend. "All right," he said. "But first let's drop Candace off at the house."

"No way," Candace Waverly said from the backseat. "Where did you say you're going?"

"To a charco to see if there's anything we can do to help."

"What's a charco?" Candace asked.

"A stock tank," Brian answered.

"A retention pond," Davy said at the same time.

Candace sat back in Brian's cramped rear seat and crossed her arms. "If you're going to the charco, I'm going too," she announced.

Davy looked at Brian. "I guess that's settled then," he said.

"I guess it is," Brian agreed.

"How can it be so empty?" Candace asked, as Brian's fully loaded Camaro swept west along Highway 86.

"Empty," Brian repeated. "You should have seen it years ago when Davy and I were kids. That's when it was really empty. There are lots more people living out here now than there used to be."

Candace looked out across the seemingly barren and endless desert and didn't believe a word of it.

Davy, meantime, seemed preoccupied with something else. "You told me about finding bones at the charco,and about Quentin's fingerprints showing up on some of them. What I don't understand is why Quentin would have taken Lani there. It doesn't make sense."

"Nobody says it has to make sense," Brian told him. "All I know is Fat Crack said that's where your dad should look and that's where he's looking."

"Who said that?" Candace asked.

"A friend of ours," Davy answered quickly. "His name's Gabe Ortiz. He's actually the tribal chairman."

"He's an Indian, then?"

"Yes."

"But it sounded like Brian called him by some other name."

"Yes." Davy rolled his eyes. " Gihg Tahpani," he said. "Fat Crack."

"So is Fat his first name and Crack's his last?"

Candace asked the question so seriously that Brian burst out laughing while Davy was reduced to shaking his head. Obviously he had failed miserably in preparing Candace for the culture she was stepping into.

"Fat Crack is a first name," Brian explained good-naturedly. "But it's also sort of a friendly name-a name used between friends. So when you meet him, and until you know him better, you probably ought to call him plain Mr. Ortiz."

They turned off onto Coleman Road. "What kind of shoes do you have on?" Brian asked, looking at Candace's face in the mirror.

"Heels. Why?"

"I was just over this road in a Blazer yesterday. If the Camaro doesn't high-center on the first wash, I know it will on the second."

"On the what?"

"Wash. It's a dry riverbed. A sandy riverbed. We're going to have to walk from here, so the car doesn't get stuck."

"That's all right," Candace said. "I have some tennis shoes in my roll-aboard."

Brian pulled over on the side of the road. The suitcase in question was one of the ones that had wound up in the backseat with Candace. While she dug through it to find her tennis shoes, Davy and Brian stood outside the car, waiting and looking off up the road toward the charco. Finding her shoes, Candace kicked off her heels and then moved to the front seat. She was sitting there tying her shoes when she saw something strange on the shoulder of the road a few feet away.

As soon as she had her shoes tied, she walked over and picked up a small medallion with a strange black-and-white design woven into it. "Hey, you guys," she called to Brian and Davy, who were waiting for her on the other side of the road. "Come see what I found."

Davy sauntered over. As soon as he saw what was in her hand, though, his jaw dropped. "Where did you get that?" he demanded.

"It was right here. Along the side of the road…"

"Brian, come here, quick. Fat Crack's right. Lani's been here. Look!"

Sprinting across the road, Brian Fellows stopped in his tracks the moment he caught sight of the basket. "You're right," he said. "She has to be here somewhere…"

The three of them were standing there in stunned silence, staring up the mountain, when they heard a cry. "Help."

The voice was so faint that at first they all thought they had imagined it. Then it came again. "Help. Please."

Brian Fellows was the first to start off up the mountain. Davy followed directly on his heels, with Candace bringing up the rear.

Tackling the mountain straight on, with no zigzagging to ease the ascent, made the going slow and difficult. From time to time they had to pause for breath, but each time they did, the voice was a little stronger. "I'm here. In the bushes."

"It sounds like Quentin, doesn't it?" Davy asked.

Nodding grimly, Brian Fellows drew his weapon. He was wearing a bulletproof vest. Neither Candace nor Davy were. "You'd better drop back and let me go on by myself."

"Like hell," Davy said. "Come on."

Frozen in terror, Lani crouched against the wall. The stalagmite that had once provided shelter was now a trap. If she moved away from behind it, he would see her and shoot her. She could hear him out there, crawling ever closer to her hiding place. She could hear him breathing in the dark. Now that he had located her, he came forward without bothering to squander any more of his precious matches, trusting that she would stay exactly where he had seen her last.

And the truth was, she didn't have any choice. She was so cold and had sat in one position for so long that her legs ached with cramps. The pressure was so great that she was tempted to come flying out of her hiding place and make straight for what had to be the passage to the outside. But she didn't do it.

Even as the thought crossed her mind, she realized that the darkness in I'itoi' s sacred cave was far stronger than Mitch's matches. If he'd had plenty of them, he would have been using them by now instead of scrabbling along in the dark. And without light, the power of darkness and the power of bats was far greater than the evil Ohb' s.

Deep in the cave, Lani had met Nanakumal. By touching her, Bat had taken away Lani's fear of the darkness and had infused her with his power. From now on Dolores Lanita Walker would still be Forever Spinning to some, but in her own heart she knew that she was changed. As soon as the bat's wings grazed her skin she was also someone else. From that time on, Lani would call herself Nanakumal Namkam — Bat Meeter, knowing that Bat Strength and Ant Strength would both be part of her strength.

Suddenly Lani's spirit was alive again, like one awaking from a deep sleep or else from death itself. Something Nana Dahd had told her was called e chegitog. The cold no longer mattered. She had come into her own just the way Nana Dahd had told her she would someday. No matter what Mitch Johnson did to her, he couldn't take that away.

The song spilled into her mind without her even being aware she was thinking about it.

O little Nanakumal who lives forever in darkness,

O little Nanakumal who lives forever in I'itoi' s sacred cave

Give me your strength so I will not be frightened,

So I will stay in this safe place where the evilOhb cannot come.

For years Betraying Woman has been here with you.

For years your strength has kept her safe