Aimée Thurlo - Restless Wind

“What’s in there?” she asked.

“Everything I might need,” he said, slipping it over his shoulder.

They walked down a side road, crossed the street, then stepped over to the six-foot-high adobe wall. Ranger went over first. “Come on,” he whispered a few seconds later.

She jumped up, scrambled to the top, then lowered herself quickly to the ground. “The dogs?”

“Don’t run, just walk-quickly-to the back of the house.”

Before she could take a step, the two guard dogs came running around the corner. Spotting intruders, their hackles rose, and they rushed at them, low to the ground, teeth bared, snarling.

Ranger stood in front of her, reached into his pocket and brought out a small reddish-brown spear point. Not looking at the dogs, he focused on the stone, whispering in Navajo.

Terrified, Dana closed her eyes and pressed her back to the wall. After only a few seconds, she couldn’t hear the dogs anymore. Opening one eye, she peered out. To her amazement, both dogs had stopped about four feet away and were now sitting, alert but calm.

Ranger then whispered something else, and both dogs lay down.

“It’s like they’ve been hypnotized. What’s in that stone?” she whispered to Ranger.

“It’s flint. The way light flashes off it represents lightning and predawn.” Without looking back at the dogs, they walked quickly around to the back of the large adobe home. “ Flint was created when the hides of the monsters that preyed on the earth disintegrated. It has power and can restore harmony.”

When they reached the corner, she glanced back, but the dogs still hadn’t moved.

Ranger walked over to the big wooden door, then pointed to a small sensor near the wrought-iron handle. “We’ve got to disable this before we open the door.”

He reached into his backpack, pulled out a slender piece of magnetized material, then stuck it to the sensor.

No alarms went off when they slipped inside. The house was old, with thick walls, but they could hear Agent Harris a few rooms away, hammering Trujillo with question after question. Trujillo didn’t seem overly disturbed, and spoke quietly in response.

Ranger gestured down the long hallway, and Dana followed, trying to move as silently as he did. They reached the master suite several seconds later. This room, with a brick floor, high-beamed ceiling and colorful area rugs, was as big as her entire house. The door was open, but Ranger closed it behind them, turning the small lever that locked it shut.

Ranger pointed to the painting over the dresser, then moved around in front of it, studying the setup. Again, using small magnets to trick the mechanisms into sending a closed circuit signal, he was able to pull back the hinged painting without triggering an alarm. Behind it was a small safe with a door the size of a piece of notebook paper and a dial that reminded Dana of a big combination lock.

Ranger reached down into his backpack again. She half expected him to pull out something high tech, like a laser blowtorch. When he brought out a stethoscope, she chuckled softly.

Seeing her expression, he whispered. “It’s a cheap, old design safe. I’ll be able to break into it fairly quickly. Go over to the door and listen for anyone coming down the hall.”

She stood by the door, listening, but all she could hear was Agent Harris’s voice. After a few minutes, she turned to see how Ranger was doing. The safe was already open, and he was setting bundles of cash on the bed. “We’re not going to steal it,” he whispered. “We’re only going to relocate the stuff. How about behind the cold air return vent?” He pointed to a grill just above the baseboard.

“I’ll unscrew it for you,” she said. “It sounds like Harris is still giving Trujillo some heat.”

He handed her a small mechanical screwdriver with several head choices, and while she transferred the money, he took a CD from the safe and put it inside a desk top computer across the room and made a copy. He repeated the process with two more disks, then placed the originals back in the safe and closed it up.

“Why didn’t you just take the originals?” she asked.

“I don’t want him to cover his tracks. I want him to think that one of his employees or goons was looking for a quick score and took his cash. I bet he’s got the combination hidden around here someplace anyway.”

As they slipped back out into the hallway, Dana could hear Agent Harris still grilling Trujillo. Judging from Trujillo ’s sarcastic responses, she was sure he believed he was untouchable. Maybe the loss of so much cash would get a reaction from the lowlife, and undercut his cocky arrogance. They needed to push him into making a mistake and exposing himself directly.

They stepped outside seconds later and to Dana’s surprise the two dogs were still lying down as if on “stay.” “Wow,” she whispered.

He held one finger over his mouth and hurried across the grounds toward the wall, his hand in hers.

Once they’d gone over the adobe wall, Ranger poked his head over and whistled. The Dobermans jumped up and ran over to the wall, barking furiously.

Dana said nothing until they were in Ranger’s truck almost a mile away. “That was really something back there…what you did with the dogs, I mean. You never cease to amaze me. Every time I think I know you, I discover something new.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

She smiled slowly and gave him an honest answer. “Not so far.”

Ranger took her to the one place he’d never thought he’d take anyone outside the brotherhood-the old reconverted barn deep on the reservation where new warriors trained. But he’d known it would be empty inside now. The brotherhood was in a state of transition. No one would be initiated anytime soon.

“What is this place?” she asked at they arrived.

“Kind of a private gym…and, at the moment, our place of refuge,” he said. “I needed someplace where I could study these CDs in relative safety.” And safe they would be. He’d felt the presence of some of his brother warriors, watching, as they drove up. The fact that they hadn’t been intercepted meant that he’d been recognized by at least one pair of eyes.

He led her into a small, unoccupied office that bordered a large arena, and got down to work almost immediately. Dana didn’t interrupt him while he loaded the CDs into his laptop and studied what they contained.

“This one looks like an accounts payable ledger, but it doesn’t list the last names of the payees-the people he hired,” he said at last. “A few months ago he hired someone by the name of Del. No last name, but undoubtedly the dead man’s partner,” he said, avoiding mentioning Marc Finch by name.

“Scroll down more. There’s a lot of information there,” she said, standing behind him and studying the entries.

It took them almost twenty minutes, but they finally found a separate accounting base and another entry that dated back ten months. “There you go. Del Archuleta,” she read off. “He’s a P.I., according to that. Have you ever heard of him?”

“No, but I can have him checked out.” Ranger dialed his brother, then waited. “I need some intel,” he said, then proceeded to tell him what they’d learned.

Hunter’s response was immediate. “I’ll get back to you. And Wind…? You’ll have to explain your choice of sanctuary to the brotherhood when all this is over.”

“Understood,” Ranger said and hung up. He’d known he was violating security by coming here with Dana and that would make him subject to disciplinary measures later. But, as always, he’d done what was necessary. “Let’s see what else these other accounts have to tell us,” he said, focusing back on the screen.