Tainted Trail

  “I’m going to need at least a shirt,” Ukiah said, fingering the holes in his shirt, crusted with dead blood cells, reluctant to put it back on.

  “We’ll see if Sam has something.” Max handed his multi-pocketed vest to Ukiah.

  Ukiah put on the vest and zipped it up against the morning chill. “We’re going to see her?”

  Max fished out the Blazer’s keys and tossed them to Ukiah. “I’ll get us down to the main road, and you can lead us to her place.”

  Ukiah caught the keyring. They had discussed Ukiah saying good-bye to his newfound family and decided it would be too dangerous. It had become common knowledge that Ukiah was somehow related to the Kicking Deers and the Ontongard could be watching them. “Isn’t it risky to see her? Everyone knows we’ve been working together.”

  “You said that her place is fairly secure.”

  “She said.”

  Max allowed that difference with a lift of his shoulder. “I need to talk to her one last time. I’m trusting that she can shake anyone watching her.”

  Although his voice was low, he said it with an intensity that surprised Ukiah, as if his need equaled something much greater than simple talk. Ukiah considered the times he had seen Max and Sam together, and realized, between the moments of desperation, Max had been happier than he had been for a long time. It was possible, while Ukiah wasn’t paying attention, Max had fallen in love.

  If that were the case, then there was no way Max would leave Pendleton without Sam. Perhaps the five tickets weren’t all a ruse.

  “Are you going to ask her to come back to Pittsburgh with us?”

  “I think I want to marry her.”

  “Really?”

  Max laughed at his reaction and cuffed him. “Maybe. I don’t know. Hell, I’ve known her for, what, a week? And I’m nearly ten years older than her. Indigo has nothing on me for cradle robbing.”

  Ukiah wasn’t sure what to say. He and Max worked well as partners. During the last few days, there had been moments where he felt he was the one that was intruding, not Sam. Ukiah hadn’t dwelled on it, because in the back of his mind he knew that he and Max would go home, and things would go back to normal.

  But if Sam moved to Pittsburgh, then he and Max might never be the same again. “She would be a full partner?”

  Max shook his head. “I’ll offer her a job and moving expenses. I can’t expect her to come to Pittsburgh without at least a job. No strings attached. No expectations. If she and I don’t work out—well, we need another investigator anyhow.” Max paused, and then looked anxiously to Ukiah. “That is, if you agree to it. You’re full partner, you have an equal say in her working at the agency.”

  For years, he’d seen Max quietly grieve for his wife. Kraynak spoke honestly of a time, before Ukiah knew Max, when Max walked a suicidal edge. Ukiah couldn’t say no, not to Max. “We need someone. There won’t be any surprises with Sam.”

  “It might mean a lot of changes for you, kid.”

  “I plan on getting married to Indigo; I’m slated for changes already.” Ukiah squinted as he considered additional ramifications. “Do you think Sam and Indigo will like each other?”

  “Indigo and Sam?” Max shuddered. “God, one hopes that they can at least stand one another! Life could be hell if they can’t.”

  “What are we are doing here?” Rennie’s thoughts touched Ukiah’s mind as they climbed the driveway to Sam’s small, A-frame cabin. The Blazer’s dashboard clock showed it was ten to five, and no lights were on.

  Rennie trailed Max and Ukiah at a discreet distance on his motorcycle, watching to see if they were followed. When they turned off the main road, however, he closed in on them. Ukiah could sense Rennie’s faint concern.

  “This is Sam’s place,” he told Rennie, parking next to Sam’s Jeep. Her Harley was tucked into a small half-filled woodshed. “Max needs to talk to her.”

  “All this madness, and still we have proclamations of love. Ah, humans are amazing.”

  Under the sarcasm, Ukiah felt Rennie’s fondness for his birth race.

  Max scowled at Rennie as he stopped his motorcycle beside the Taurus. “Could you give us a little privacy?” Rennie’s eyes slid over to Ukiah and asked a silent question. “He’s my partner. He’s part of the deal.”

  Rennie grinned but swallowed down any snide remark that flitted through his mind, just out of Ukiah’s reach. “Go pitch your woo. I’ll check the main road.”

  He walked his bike backward until he could pull in a tight circle and head back down the steep driveway.

  Max knocked on the door. “Sam?” He knocked again and glanced to Ukiah, who was on the other side of the doorway.

  Ukiah listened carefully. “Someone’s coming. Sounds like Sam.”

  It was an armed Sam that cracked the door and eyed Max warily. “Bennett?”

  “I needed to talk to you before I went back to Pittsburgh.”

  “How did you find this place?”

  Max tilted his head to indicate Ukiah, just outside her range of vision. “The Kodak kid led.”

  Sam flung the door completely open. “Ukiah! Oh, thank God!” She stepped out into the cold morning air and crushed him in a hard embrace, ignoring the fact she wore only a T-shirt, panties, and a nine millimeter in a shoulder holster. Her hands moved up and down Ukiah’s back, as if measuring the whole of him, confirming he was all there and not a scarecrow dressed in his clothes. “I was sure you were dying. I kept kicking myself for leaving you with that lunatic.”

  “Thanks,” Max said.

  “I meant Shaw.” Sam ran her hands over Ukiah’s back again, slower this time, as if looking for something. Finally she pulled away from him, frowning, to zip open the vest.

  “Sam,” Max murmured. Ukiah couldn’t tell if it was a protest, warning, or plea for understanding.

  Sam ignored Max, silently examining the healed-over entrance wound, and then, pushing Ukiah through a half-turn, the exit wound. “Quinn put that steel bar through you.”

  “I heal quickly.”

  She framed Ukiah’s face with her hands. “You were dying.”

  “No,” Ukiah said, not sure what to admit to her. “It takes a lot more than that to kill me.”

  “Good.” She scrubbed her hands through his hair, and then released him. Turning, she swatted Max on the shoulder. “You shit, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I tried.”

  “Not in a way that I’d believe.”

  “What would have you believed?”

  “How about the truth? Why are people I’ve known for years suddenly turning into serial killers? Why did all-life-is-sacred, tree-hugging, vegetarian Dennis Quinn chase Ukiah clear across town and nail him to a wall? Quinn never laid eyes on the kid before, and yet he stomps all over Jared and Cassidy, trying to kill Ukiah. Hate like that does not come out of nowhere. How does Mr. Most Wanted, Rennie Shaw, figure into this? Normally you don’t need someone of his caliber for protection in Pendleton. And if the kid can get nailed that bad, and still be up and around the next day, why the hell are you giving up on Alicia Kraynak? Just level with me, Bennett.”

  “I-I don’t even know where to start,” Max said.

  Sam crossed her arms over her chest. “Start by telling me what your partner is.”

  “My partner,” Max said, quietly but firmly, his eyes like cold steel, “is a good, moral, decent person. He has exceptional abilities. He uses those abilities to help people. I can’t count the number of times he’s put his life on the line to save another person. Normally I wouldn’t give a shit what people thought of his abilities. Now is not a good time, though, to be known as more than human.”

  “With everyone UFO-crazy since that thing with the Mars Rover?”

  “Exactly. With the exception of serial murderers trying to kill him, Ukiah’s never hurt anyone in his life. I’m not going let some nutcase, who has seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers one too many times, hurt him.”

  “Do you know what he
is?”

  “He’s a good kid.”

  Sam laughed softly, a ghost of a chuckle. “Your kid, Rennie Shaw be damned?”

  Max nodded slightly, and then clarified with, “My partner.”

  “And the rest of it? Come on, Bennett, you can’t run out and leave me in the middle of this without a clue of what’s going on.”

  “Come to Pittsburgh, then,” Max said. “We still need someone to drive Kraynak’s van to Pennsylvania. And there will be full-time position waiting for you, if you’re interested. Health insurance. Retirement plan. Two weeks vacation. Paid sick days.”

  “You’re offering me a job?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is this an attempt to keep my mouth shut about the kid? Under your thumb, dependent on you for money?”

  “No!” Max snapped. “Look, I just want you out of harm’s way. Pendleton isn’t safe any more. I don’t want you hurt, and I certainly don’t want what happened to Alicia to happen to you.”

  “Sounds like you care what happens to me.”

  “I care a hell of a lot.”

  They stood staring at each other.

  Max broke the silence first. “Say you’ll drive the van to Pittsburgh. See what we have to offer. We’ll pay for you to stay at a hotel, or you can crash at the office if you want, there’s a bed there you can use.”

  “All business?”

  “If that’s the way you want it, yes.”

  Sam glanced behind her at the small, lonely cabin with the overstock flooring and mismatched furniture, then out into the thick pinewoods, with the double strand of electricity and telephone wires as the only mark of civilization. “Oh, hell. I pitched everything to come to Pendleton with my ex. I’ve tried hard not to hate this town because of him, but I haven’t really succeeded.”

  “Come to Pittsburgh.”

  Sam looked at Max, then slanted a look at Ukiah where he’d stood silently this whole time. “What about you, kid? Do you have any say in this, or is it all his plan? Is he just saying anything to get into my pants?”

  “It’s his plan,” Ukiah admitted. “But it sounds like a good one. We work well together. I don’t think he wants your pants—they wouldn’t fit.”

  Sam crowed in surprised laughter.

  “She wants to know if I want to have sex with her, Ukiah, and please, don’t answer her.”

  “Why shouldn’t he?” Sam asked.

  “His honesty cuts both ways. I haven’t asked embarrassing questions about you, please don’t ask embarrassing questions of me.”

  She sighed. “Okay, I’ll drive the van to Pittsburgh. I’ll check out the job, and if I like the offer—well, we’ll deal with it then.”

  Sam found a T-shirt for Ukiah, then showered and dressed. The Volkswagen’s keys were in Kraynak’s personal effects at the hospital. By riding with them to Pendleton, Sam could get the keys and pick up the van without abandoning one of her own vehicles in town.

  Rennie waited for them at the bottom of the driveway, tucked behind a large boulder that screened him from the main road. Max stopped beside Rennie to discuss plans for the addition of Sam to their group.

  “Ah, tall, dark, and scary,” Sam greeted Rennie. “I wondered where you were.”

  “They said I couldn’t come up and kibitz.”

  “I see. You’re out here, supposedly, to protect Ukiah. If I come to Pittsburgh, am I going to see you as much?”

  “No, not likely.” In Pittsburgh it was harder to spot the Pack as they kept watch over him.

  “Good.”

  Rennie laughed, and said mentally to Ukiah. “It will be interesting to see how this plays out.”

  They stopped at the Chevron station just after six a.m. As the gas station attendant filled the cars, Max ducked into the convenience store to pick up traveling supplies.

  Sam came to lean against Ukiah’s door. “If Kraynak doesn’t pay, are you guys going to be in a lurch?”

  “A lurch?”

  “Desperate for money.”

  “Max has been paying for this out of his pocket. If Kraynak pays him back, Max will make out. If not . . .” Ukiah shrugged. “Max feels like he owes Kraynak for sticking with him during the rough times after his wife died.”

  “I really hate to have to ask this, but you guys can afford to pay me to drive the car back, right? I’m not going to get to Pittsburgh and find everybody is dead broke after this.”

  “We can pay you, no problem.” Ukiah wasn’t sure how much money Max had. He had protested once over Max giving him half the company, which had assets totaling close to a million dollars. Max claimed that the company was nothing compared to Max’s total worth.

  “Good.” She looked over Ukiah’s shoulder. “God, your father is just like a dog, here one moment, gone the next, then back again.”

  Ukiah startled, thinking Sam meant Prime, and then remembered that they had introduced Rennie as his father. His so-called father pulled into the gas station, his mental hackles raised.

  “What is it?” Ukiah asked.

  “Crow.” Rennie pulled out his pistol, aiming out over the river.

  Ukiah spun and looked. The black bird sat several hundred feet away, watching with beady black eyes. “One of Quinn’s?”

  “Can’t tell at this distance.” Rennie pulled the trigger. The report shattered the early morning quiet.

  Sam jumped in surprise. “Jesus Christ! What the hell?”

  The crow exploded into a flurry of black feathers. It’s limp body, however, fell into the river. Both Ukiah and Rennie swore.

  “Maybe it was just a bird,” Ukiah thought.

  “I’ll go see if I can find one of the feathers.” Rennie pulled out of the gas station and rode away.

  “I don’t know,” Sam sighed, watching Rennie go. “I don’t think Max can pay me enough to live in the same state as him.”

  Max had seen Rennie fire his pistol and then drive away. Ukiah wasn’t sure what Max said to the clerk in the convenience store, or if this type of thing was common in Oregon, but whatever the reason, no police arrived to investigate the shooting. When Max came out, asking what Rennie had been shooting at, Ukiah tried to explain with facial expressions and gestures while Sam ranted about his lunatic father killing innocent birds.

  When they pulled into the parking lot of St. Anthony’s Hospital, Rennie drove up to join them.

  “You are taking him with you, aren’t you?” Sam asked.

  “Sort of.” Max ducked the truth. At the airport, they planned to split up, Rennie going to fetch the Demon Curs. Max glanced into the car beside the Taurus. “I thought I recognized it. Tell Shaw that the FBI is here.”

  Ukiah nodded and crossed to where Rennie was parking his motorcycle. “Did you find any feathers?”

  “No,” Rennie said, which was bad. Alien feathers would transform and crawl away before Rennie found them.

  “The Crown Vic is a federal car. There’s no telling where and how many FBI agents are inside.”

  Rennie frowned at the hospital. “Now is not the time I want to be messing with the FBI. When is your flight?”

  Ukiah checked his watch. “In a little over an hour at seven-thirty. We’re going have to hurry to make it.”

  Rennie sighed. “I would like to see you onto the flight, but you’ve got your partner, and his love, and I’ve checked out the local FBI agents. They’re human.” He started up the motorcycle, and it rumbled to life. “I’m going to find Degas and the Curs to let them know that there’s Ontongard in Pendleton. Make sure you get on that plane, even if it’s without Kraynak.”

  “I will,” Ukiah promised. He reached out and gripped Rennie’s shoulder. “Be careful.”

  Rennie leaned over and crushed him in a bear hug. “Go home to your lady of steel and your little one. Keep safe. It’s good to finally have children to return home to.”

  “What do we tell Kraynak?” Ukiah asked Max as Sam paused at the café for coffee. Except for the occasional nurse, the hospital seemed empty,
the slightest noise echoing up the hard tile hallways.

  “Well, we’ll have to tell him something close to truth, we owe him that,” Max sighed. “Basically the same people that kidnapped the FBI agents in June also took Alicia. They injected her with the same virus that killed the agents.”

  Hex experimented with an immunity-suppression drug to increase the chances of host survival. The result had been a slower transformation rate that drove the newly made Get, Janet Haze, mad. She had lost the remote key to the mother ship, which Hex needed to release the crew who Prime had locked into cryogenic sleep. Ukiah found the key without realizing its importance. Sure that the key had been recovered by a law enforcement agency, Hex had first raided the Pittsburgh police’s evidence room. When that turned up nothing, he kidnapped FBI agents and tried to make them Gets so they could retrieve the key from wherever it was being stored.

  The agents died without transforming. As the homicide detective assigned to the murder cases, Kraynak would know what Alicia had faced.

  Max shook his head. “He’s not going to want to go home until he has her body.”

  “I can’t believe this has happened.”

  “We’ve known Alicia was probably dead since you were shot.”

  “I know,” Ukiah whispered as Sam came out of the coffee shop, still intent on stowing pocket change. “But this is worse than dead.”

  They had gone to Kraynak’s room to find him gone. The nurse at the station told him that he had been signed out already and taken by wheelchair to the first floor. The private investigators hurried to the emergency-room exit first, as they had just come from the main entrance. When Kraynak wasn’t there, Sam headed them toward a little-used side exit.

  They were still two hallways away from the exit, when Zoey’s voice, sharp and thin, echoed from around the far corner.

  “His heparin lock needs to be taken out. I’m sorry I didn’t notice earlier. Let me call the nurse.”