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try to leave a trail behind so they can find me. The
cat is stolen property, so they’re obligated by law to
help locate it.”
“If they aren’t otherwise preoccupied hunting
down infiltraters or fighting invaders — or have you
forgot that finer point of the law?”
“They’ll find me. I have a feeling you’ll see to
it.”
“Stay here,” he said, taking her hand in his.
“There’s no telling what you’ll run into, tramping
through the desert at night.”
“I have to go.” She bent over and planted a kiss
on his steel forehead. “There’s more to this than I
thought. You take care, Tim.”
Before he could protest, she slipped from his
grasp and vanished into the night.
“I can’t believe it,” Smiley said, raising his night
vision goggles as he returned to the Viper. “This
area is thick with Mexs. They’ve set up a camp just
east of here. We’re going to have take the long way
around and hope they haven’t discovered our cave
so we can hole up in it.”
“What are they doing this far north?”
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“Damned if I know,” Smiley said, as he stood at
the open side door. “They’re going to get smoked
for sure if the border patrol noses around here.
They’re right in the open.” He swore. “If the New
Delhi reps see them around here, they’ll be spooked
for sure. Those Pakistanis are good at programming,
but they’re not brave. This is a sorry mess.” He
swore loudly and kicked the vehicle three times.
Joe sat quietly until his boss’s rage had
subsided. “Should we head for the cave then?”
Smiley sat down on the passenger seat and
rubbed his chin. “Yeah.”
Joe put the vehicle into gear.
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CHAPTER 23
iane slowly picked her way through the desert,
walking almost blindly with only the dim
starlight to guide her. She knew her destination
D
was toward the northeast. By locating the North Star,
she was able to travel at an angle toward her goal.
But she was constantly stumbling in the uneven sand
and snagging her clothing on the scrub brush which
she often failed to see until she’d trudged into it.
Is this completely crazy to be doing? she asked
herself. All she really had to go on was an old shaman
who only existed in her mind, as far as she could tell.
She stopped for a moment, and debated going back.
Turning around and backtracking would be the
sensible thing to do — and Tim could certainly use
someone to watch over him. What had she been
thinking,
leaving
a
man
with
severe
injuries
unattended?
She turned around and started to retrace her
steps. She had traveled only ten paces when she
became aware of the dim figure traveling alongside
her.
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She stopped, her heart pounding. “Who’s there?”
she asked.
“If you want to know who’s here,” a low voice
answered, “why not illuminate the area?”
“Who are you.”
“I think you already know the answer. All you
need is to imagine being able to see — and you’ll be
able to.”
“Ravenfoot?”
“Think about being able to see in the darkness.”
“This is crazy.”
“Think it.”
Diane closed her eyes for a moment. And opened
them to what appeared to be daylight, though the
blackness of the sky and the stars twinkling and
dancing in the cold atmosphere argued otherwise.
“Isn’t that better?” the medicine man asked.
“Impossible is what it is. I don’t understand
what’s happening to me. I see things — like you. I
know you can’t exist, that you’re impossible. And —”
“Your questions will be answered in good time,”
Ravenfoot said, holding up his hand. “Right now you
need to go and rescue the Silver Tiger. I need it to
complete my work.”
“Your work? If it’s your work, why don’t you go
rescue it yourself?”
“There are some things I can’t do.”
“Now
there’s
an
answer
worthy
of
a
hallucination.”
Ravenfoot smiled. “Come this way.” He turned
without waiting to see if she would follow, cutting
through the brush to ascend a low hill. Diane followed
behind, wondering where they were headed. As they
149
descended the mound, she spied the deep tracks of a
vehicle that had recently crossed through the sand.
“You
were
headed
the
right
direction,”
Ravenfoot said. “Your instincts are good. But if you
follow these tracks, they’ll take you directly to the
Silver Tiger.”
“I think I should go back to Tim. That’s the only
thing that makes sense. Besides, the military team
coming to pick Tim up could easily swing around and
follow these tracks to wherever they lead.”
“They will have to wait before going there. They
would be too late. The tiger is slated to be sold in a
few hours when daylight comes. The Army has been
delayed — fighting along the border.”
“How could you possibly know that.”
“I must go now,” Ravenfoot said, becoming
transparent. “Listen to your heart, not your head.”
“Wait!”
He was gone. In the distance was a brief
pounding of tribal drums, the likes of which Diane
hadn’t heard since she was a child. And then the
drumming was gone, too.
She closed her eyes and rubbed her aching
temples. What should she do? She hesitated.
Something was very wrong and she knew Ravenfoot
wasn’t what he appeared to be. Yet for some reason
she trusted him.
“Real bright,” she told herself. “You’re putting
your trust
in
something that’s most likely a
hallucination symptomatic of a mind that’s becoming
delusional.”
But sometimes faith is more important than
logic, she decided. If she was going crazy, why not go
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out in style? Abruptly the doubt was gone. Her mind
made up, she turned to her left, following the path
Ravenfoot had indicated she should take.
Tim awoke in the middle of a sand storm. “What
the devil,” he yelled, holding his hand in front of his
face to keep the debris from scratching his one good
mechanical eye.
Abruptly the storm lessened and the whopping
of helicopter blades revealed what was happening:
Rescue had finally arrived. He sat up and waved at
the chopper, hoping they hadn’t decided to leave
after a quick survey of the wreckage scene.
To his relief, he saw the twin-engine chopper
land some distance away. Before it had hardly
settled down in the gale of dirt it kicked up, five
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