CHAPTER 20
FALLEN
Elizabeth woke up slumped in the back of a patrol car. It was getting dark, but not so dark that she didn’t recognize who sat next to her. Her skin crawled, for it was Small Bear. In the front seat Barns was driving, and monstrous Skunk sat beside him.
Her hands were handcuffed behind her and she was held firmly in place by a seat belt. She pretended to be still unconscious, but she couldn’t fool Small Bear.
"I want to thank you for coming with me to the gate, Elizabeth," began Small Bear. "You have been a problem, all in all, despite being a distraction which helped keep Johnny off the scent. You would have remained a continued inconvenience, maybe cause delays that would provide time enough for Johnny and the Tribe to do something to stop us. So thanks for coming."
"Why, Small Bear?" she asked.
"Why what?"
"Why betray your kin and friends? Why kill your Uncle and your Chief?"
"Why not?" he replied, without a hint of emotion.
"They both gave you chances. Two Bears stood up for you. He loved you. He is a great man."
A mask of hate slid over his usually placid and impassive face. "Right, the Great Two Bears! Many years ago he let both my parents die, after an accident that badly injured them. His own brother! He said they were far too badly hurt and that he couldn’t heal them, but I never believed it. My father was a great man, a hunter and Council member. He had the love of my mother, who Two Bears wanted for himself. He took me in after they died, but that was only what was expected of him. Then as I grew up, he forgave me all evil that I did, the idiot!
“But only to a point. I was of his own blood; he should have made me Apprentice Shaman, but he had no plans to do so, though I was smarter than any of them, and I kissed up to him and the Council for years. The best they could do for me was make me Tribe Police Chief? Dog catcher is a more important job on the Reservation. There is virtually no crime, aside from a little drug and alcohol use that I have been able to induce. My importance to the Tribe is a lie."
"You helped to guard Goth Mountain and the Tribe. That's important."
"Is it important to guard secrets that the Tribe is too stupid to ever make use of, except to let the all-mighty Goths and the Shaman have the real powers, while the rest of us got only crumbs? I had to hustle drugs on the side, just to make ends meet, which is how I met my blood brother Skunk. There is no Tribe-wide drug problem, as only my own men would even use drugs, but my little drug business got me contact with the Fensters."
"You have some powers yourself, don't you? You used them to fool everyone and get at Two Bears and Ann.”
"Of course. Even though Two Bears didn’t show me what I deserved to know, on my own I learned how to do some very valuable things, including how to lie well enough to fool even Two Bears, Chief George, and the Council. I can also make myself almost invisible to even Two Bears. I'm also very talented at setting fires. But that’s not enough. I could have been as strong as a Shaman or a Goth, if I only had the chance. After the Goth land is taken, I’ll get my chance at last. I’ll have their powers for myself.”
“Enough idle chit-chat,” said Barns, who tired quickly of hearing about Indian nonsense. “We have to figure out exactly what to do with you, then we’ll get at those big trees first thing in the morning."
"Trees!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "Is that all that you told them about, Small Bear? Don't they even know what this is really about?"
With a flash of anger Small Bear slapped her face, hard. "Enough talk, white bitch!"
"Don't hit her, at least not in the face," admonished Barns. "Lots of men back there saw us take her; that means that she has to be handled very delicately."
"I know just what to do with the tasty little bitch, and it don’t have to involve her face!" said Skunk, laughing.
"Shit, Skunk, I could do with some of that hot white girl myself," agreed Small Bear. "But Barns is right, we have to make it look like a damn accident, not a sexual assault."
"Damn waste of good pussy if you ask me," Skunk complained.
"Right, my brother," agreed Small Bear. "Prime white meat. But that can't be helped. Your bikers can bring us some more white girls when this is over, and we’ll party with the bitches for a month. Right now we have to get rid of this one.”
“Now boys, I don’t think that murder is necessary, and anything you plan needs to be cleared with Fenster first anyway,” said Barns.
“I don’t see why,” said Small Bear. “Fenster doesn’t clear all of his actions with me. Stop the car at this next turn, Barns; I have to take a leak."
Barns pulled over and Small Bear got out slowly and walked into the bushes, leaving the door wide open behind him. Elizabeth twisted in the seat and was able to reach her seat belt clamp. With a grunt she was soon out and running into the woods on the side of the road opposite Small Bear.
"Shit!" she heard Barns shout, while Skunk laughed uncontrollably.
"Come back, Ms. Winters, you'll hurt yourself," she heard Small Bear call out, not far behind her. She pushed through bushes and stumbled almost blindly through the dark forest as three flashlight beams started to sweep about behind her. There was a full moon, but scattered clouds and trees shielded most of its light. She could see almost nothing.
Consequently, she kept running into bushes and trees and stumbling over roots and rocks as she fled the lights. She fell down a dozen times, twisting frantically to avoid landing face-first against logs or rocks.
Once when she fell she was able to wriggle the handcuffs over her butt and get her legs through, so that her cuffed hands were in front of her instead of behind. That helped immensely, though several times she still almost knocked herself out against tree trunks or poked her eyes with branches.
All the while she could hear her pursuers behind her, shouting and laughing, but they couldn't quite catch up with her, even using their flashlights. They were simply toying with her, she soon realized. A sudden strange thought chilled her, but there was nothing she could do now except try to escape: perhaps Small Bear had planned for her to escape!
A great black emptiness suddenly yawned open before her and she stopped dead in her tracks. The clouds broke and for several seconds the moon illuminated the landscape well enough for her to see that an immense open black space dropped away in front of her; one or two more steps and she would have plunged to unknown depths.
"There, Barns, see how well that worked?" said Small Bear just behind her. “Create the right circumstances, and people cooperate to do themselves in."
"You're a damned master planner all right, Small Bear," said Barns. “But I don’t think Fenster will like this.”
“Tough,” said the big Indian. He stood just behind Elizabeth, blocking off any chance of her escape.
“Johnny called you his friend,” she said. He hadn’t, but she figured she’d give it a try.
Small Bear laughed. "My friend, the great Johnny Goth. He is learning now who has the real power. I have won. Everything he has will be mine, Elizabeth. Well, almost everything. I'll make do without you. My friend Skunk has been supplying me with all the women I need.
“Look below us, Elizabeth. Do you recognize Goth Valley, or are you too frightened and irrational? We're on the valley rim only a couple of miles from your beloved trees.”
Elizabeth realized that he was right. A few of the old logging roads climbed up to the rim of the canyon; they must have driven up one of those while she was unconscious. They were at least a hundred meters above the Valley floor below the Goth property.
“Here,” said Small Bear, “take a closer look."
As Skunk broke into maniac laughter, Small Bear pushed her gently from behind, just hard enough to make her stumble forward a step or two and over the cliff and into nothingness. She tumbled head-first down into the black depths towards death. She hadn't even had time to scream.
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