Dennis Yates - Red Mountain

“Don’t play me, Robert. I’m talking about a little oblong-shaped box that speaks to you through its carvings. And inside the box there’s a map. As it turns out, all of you great grandsons of Horn got one. But if you didn’t bring it with you, well, I’m afraid things will get tragic very fast around here.”

Robert took a step closer. Will grabbed him by the shoulder and held him back.

“If he sets if off Bobby there’s going to be nothing but a crater here for the locals to come and gawk at…”

Will glanced over at Marsh, who seemed to be enjoying himself.

“He has the fucking map.”

Marsh closed his eyes and smiled. “Your pal is a wise man, Mr. Crain. It must be nice for you to know someone who can keep a cool head.”

Robert sucked in a deep breath and gradually stopped straining against Will’s hand. Then the curtains in the window behind Marsh began to flutter. A moment later he saw his wife looking out at him from inside the shadowy house.

Peggy…

It felt like a lifetime had passed since he’d last seen her. Three evenings ago she’d kissed him goodnight while he lay on the couch doped up after his car accident. He had been restless and incapable of falling asleep that night. Worried about how Nugget was doing at the emergency clinic and concerned he was keeping Peggy from studying for her final exams.

Robert wished he’d gone back to bed as she’d asked. Maybe he would have been able to ward off the attackers.

Maybes just don’t cut it now.

Marsh followed Robert’s eyes and turned his head to see Peggy behind the glass. He wagged his tongue at her suggestively.

“Hello Peggy. Can you hear us?”

“Peggy nodded, her eyes locked on Robert’s.

Marsh turned back to face Robert.

“Good. This is the deal, folks. Robert and I have a place we must go. But unfortunately the rest of you are not welcome to tag along…”

“I’m not going anywhere without my wife and son,” Robert said.

Marsh glared up at him. “Don’t be unreasonable. We’ve come so far now it would be a terrible shame if I just ended everything where it now stands. So look hard into that window Crain, and tell me you don’t care if everyone dies.”

While Marsh caressed the dynamite with his hand, Robert stared into his wife’s eyes and saw everything she’d been through. Connor stepped beside her and lifted his hand. Robert waved back. Then Peggy motioned her son to leave before raising Wilbur’s pistol in both hands and aiming it at the back of Marsh’s head, waiting for Robert to give her permission. Robert wished he could have said yes but the chance Marsh could still set off the bomb wasn’t worth the risk.

He shook his head at her not to try.

When his eyes returned to Marsh he could feel his insides tearing apart. Peggy swayed back from the window, tears streaking through the dirt on her face. A woman Robert did not know came and led her away to the rear of the house where she could no longer be seen.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe,” Robert said.

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” Marsh said, “But before we progress any further with the festivities, you two can start by disarming yourselves.”

Reluctantly, Robert and Will did as they were told.

Once he was satisfied they had completely disarmed, Marsh got up from the loveseat and walked off the porch with the two men moving cautiously beside him, their eyes never leaving the bundle of dynamite.

When they were out on the graveled driveway, Marsh ordered them to remove their cell phones and stomp them to pieces. Then he handed Robert a hunting knife and told him to slash the tires of Will’s truck.

Just as Robert was about to slash the last tire, they heard a vehicle rumbling up the road toward the house. A black SUV skidded to a dead stop within a few feet from where Marsh and Will stood. Mr. Frosty slid out of the passenger seat and limped up to Marsh.

“About time you got here,” Marsh growled. “What the hell happened to you boys?”

Mr. Frosty raised his arm and pointed. “Those sons of bitches almost killed me.”

“Is this true?” Marsh asked.

Robert and Will didn’t answer.

“What about the others?” Marsh asked.

“We lost three back at the railroad tracks.”

“And how did you luck out and the others didn’t?”

“I got jumped. Then they took me home and stuck me inside a freezer so they could get me to talk.”

“So that’s how they found out where I was?”

Frosty lowered his head like a dog about to be punished.

“I didn’t tell them anything. Not right away. Then I got so damn cold I couldn’t feel anything anymore. I thought I was going to die. I’m sorry Mr. Marsh. I didn’t want to.”

“Not to worry Gomez. This is all going to work out just fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. In fact, I’m going to give you a chance for a little payback. So go help yourself to one of those guns up on the porch.”

Frosty nodded happily and ran off.

“I think that about does it,” Marsh said. He tossed Robert a set of keys. “Now be a good boy and fetch me my truck. You’ll find it parked behind the house.”

Robert nodded and walked away while Marsh laughed to himself. “I’m sure glad he’s come to his senses. I’ve got a lot I want to do when this is all over.”

“Then you better hope we never meet again,” Will glared.

Splashes echoed up from the bottom the well after Mr. Frosty dumped their remaining weapons. He turned around and walked toward them with Robert’s .38 pointed at their heads.

Marsh bent next to Mr. Frosty and whispered into his ear. “As soon as we’re gone I want you to mop this place up for me.”

“What?”

“Kill the sonofabitch and everyone inside the house. Then burn it all to the ground...”

A wicked grin cracked across Frosty’s face. “I’ll do it, Mr. Marsh... And after that?”

“Meet me up on the mountain. I’m going to need your help hauling that gold out of there.”

CHAPTER 53

With the sun beating overhead, Carol and Marco were lowered down into the pale blue chasm of the glacier. The ice near the top was thick like milky quartz, but as they made their way inside it became luminous and otherworldly.

“This is fantastic,” Carol shouted as she repelled deeper. She soon reached the shelf of ice where Marco was waiting for her.

“It’s only the beginning,” Marco said, unclipping her from her line. Being the first ones down, they took a moment to kiss before Marco took her by the hand and led her through a twisting corridor of ice.

When they reached the cave, Carol felt as if she was entering the crystalline heart of a giant thunder egg. She couldn’t believe the colors she was seeing now, how the surface—at least two stories above them—absorbed the sunlight above and transformed it into fractal-shaped jewels.

In all the years she’d spent studying glaciers, she’d seen nothing like this. She wished she’d remembered to pack her camera.

They followed the cave to the end where the light in the ice grew weaker, until they came to a dome shaped room with a pit scooped out of the ice, the inside of which was blackened with the remnants of charred wood. Along the base of the wall they saw evidence of candle wax drippings preserved under a layer of ice.

“What is this?” Carol asked, shivering with excitement.

“Don’t you think it looks like a kind of shrine?”

“Well if that’s the case, then I don’t understand its purpose.”

“Hold on and I’ll show you…”

Marco walked around to the other side of the fire pit and set down his pack. After a few minutes he lit a propane torch and began to wave it across the mostly clouded wall in front of him like a wand.