C Box - Below Zero

“What do you mean?”

“Who really rules the world? Do you think it’s politicians? Lawyers? Presidents of the bank?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I never thought about it. All I know is it isn’t kids.”

He laughed. “Maybe this world would be a better place if you did. But no, April, it’s the accountants. Accountants rule the world. They can steal more with a pencil or a few clicks of a keyboard than a bank robber can with a gun or a politician can with a telephone. If the accountant is working for you and on your side, he can make you rich. But if he has his own dreams, well, he can secretly buy a ranch in Podunk, Wyoming, and live out his fantasy. He can be what he always wanted to be all those years in Chicago: a cowboy.”

With that, he rolled his eyes.

They both watched as Robert awoke in his sleeping bag. He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair and stretched.

Stenko said, “You know, I’ve really come to admire Robert. He’s still young enough to think he can change the world. He still has passion-maybe too much. I want to enable that passion before I go. That’s what this is all about.”

“He shot that man in the drugstore,” she said.

Stenko nodded. “He did it for me. So I could keep going.”

So he could get the money, she thought.

SHE FOLLOWED STENKO and Robert as they hiked up the hill. Robert had the gun in his belt. A pair of binoculars dangled around his neck from a strap. Stenko’s breath was labored from the climb, and he had to stop several times to steady himself against the trunk of a tree and rest.

When they reached the top, Stenko dropped to his knees, and for a moment she thought he’d collapsed. She reached out for him but Robert slapped her hands away. “Leave him alone-he’s fine,” Robert said. “Get down. We’re crawling the rest of the way. We don’t want them to see us.”

She was angry with Robert for treating her that way, but she kept her mouth shut. She’d remember it, though.

The three of them wriggled through the dirt and over rocks until they reached the top. A lush wooded valley opened up before them.

“Wow,” she said, pointing to a massive rock column in the distance. “What’s that?”

“Devils Tower,” Stenko whispered.

The column stood high above the forest like a primitive skyscraper. It was cylindrical with a flat top, and the sides were fluted.

She said, “I saw it in a movie once.”

Robert said, “Yeah-Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That’s where the aliens landed.”

Stenko said, “The legend is better than the movie, though. See, the Indians say there were seven sisters and a giant bear came after them. The bear was a bastard and had caused all kinds of trouble with the tribe. Well, this bear cornered the sisters and planned to kill and eat them, but they prayed to the Great Spirit, and as the bear got close, the earth started to rise. The sisters were on top as the column went up higher and higher into the sky. The bear got mad and still tried to get at them by trying to climb the tower. Those are supposedly his claw marks on the side. But he couldn’t get them.”

She asked, “How did they get down?”

Stenko turned to her. “They didn’t. They went to the Great Spirit and turned into stars. Have you ever seen the seven sisters in the sky?”

“No.”

“Me either,” Stenko said. “But it’s a good story. And you know how I know it?” he asked Robert. Before Robert could respond, Stenko said, “That damned Leo told me. This was eight, nine years ago. See, he wanted to buy a ranch out here that had a view of Devils Tower. He said land was always a good investment, and we had too much money tied up in the islands and in Indian casinos. He said we should consider something way out here as a quiet investment. He called it a ‘retreat,’ as if I’d ever retreated from anything. Apparently, Al Capone had a ranch out here in the Black Hills back in the thirties. So Leo made this pitch to me and when I asked him what the hell Devils Tower was he told me that crazy story. I don’t know why I remember it, but I’m glad I did. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have figured out where this place is.”

Robert was focusing the binoculars down on the valley floor. She tried to see what he was looking at and for the first time noticed a light square of flat green as well as a red roof partially hidden by trees.

“Tennis court,” Robert said, “and I see a couple of guys playing tennis. Unbelievable.”

Stenko took the glasses. He snorted, “Nathanial and Corey Talich. And there’s Chase standing off to the side like he’s the referee. Damn! We’ve found it.”

He swept the binoculars over the grounds of the ranch. “I don’t see Leo, though. He must be in the house.”

Robert said, “So how do we get through those guys to get to Leo?”

Stenko said, “We don’t get through them, son. We recruit ’em.”

Robert just stared at Stenko, shaking his head slowly as if witnessing the sad last act of a madman.

THEY TOOK THE CAR down into the valley. Stenko directed Robert to drive right by the ranch entrance that led to the front of the sprawling old Victorian home with the red roof. He told him to turn on a service road that led to the rear of the property where the tennis court was located. They saw no one.

“You’re sure you want to do it this way?” Robert asked Stenko.

“I don’t see that we have a choice,” Stenko said. “We’re outnumbered and outgunned. When that happens, you either run away or bull straight ahead. I always bull straight ahead.”

“Any last words?” Robert asked with sarcasm.

“Yes,” Stenko said. “Where’s my morphine? I need another shot.”

“I’LL STAY BACK AND COVER YOU,” Robert said as he pulled off the road and parked. “You know them. I don’t. They’d probably just as soon shoot me as look at me.”

Stenko chuckled but didn’t refute Robert. To her he said, “Do you want to go with me or stay here with Robert?”

It was an easy choice. Despite the danger, there was no doubt in her mind that she’d choose Stenko every time. Shooting an unarmed pharmacist in a white smock was one thing. Facing three tough men from Chicago was another. If things got rough, she was sure Robert would run. If it weren’t for the possibility of getting the money, she thought he would have run already.

Robert dropped behind them as they walked into the trees toward the tennis court.

She asked, “What are they like?”

Stenko said, “The Talich Brothers worked for me for years. They’re loyal if not imaginative. I always got along with them, but I didn’t try to get too familiar. I just paid them well and that was enough.”

She said, “But they’re gangsters, right? I didn’t know gangsters played tennis. It’s just not right.”

Stenko chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. She was familiar enough with him now to know the morphine was surging through him, cheering him up, making him feel strong. He said, “Gangsters do all sorts of normal things, April. We’re just businessmen with a different kind of business. We marry, we have kids, and we paint the trim on our houses. We put snow tires on the car and go to PTA meetings. At least most of us do. My theory is we’re all the same-the gangsters and the citizens-except maybe for one or two percent of our personalities. That one or two percent isn’t much difference when you think about it. Of course, the really bad ones, the psychopaths who can’t control themselves, well, with a few exceptions they don’t last long.

“Besides,” Stenko said, “what else are these guys going to do but play tennis? They’re from the city. Are they going ride broncs or something? Rope doggies? Sing around a campfire? At least they know tennis.”