Crouch made a face. “It’s accurate, but both Utah and Arizona are big places. The poem should help with the Arizona location, another reason to go there second. With Utah, although the timeline gets us fairly close, I think we need boots on the ground and see what pops.”
Caitlyn waved a hand at the screen. “The map Healey copied has several markings. I guess they’re landmarks, and pretty distinctive even in Utah. How closely did you copy the map, Zack?”
The young man shrugged. “I’m a field agent that occasionally relies on being able to read and make sense of a map to save lives, including my own,” he said. “Pretty closely.”
“Then we have a starting point,” Crouch said. “If you guys are ready to try Utah I’ll make the arrangements.”
“One thing’s for sure,” Caitlyn said, glancing around the room. “It can’t be more dangerous than where we are now.”
Alicia winced. “Damn. Now you jinxed it.”
“Story of my life.” Russo snorted.
“Ah, so you’re our jinx?” Alicia shot back. “And here’s me thinking that sunny disposition might qualify you for being our mascot.”
“Life’s a bitch,” Russo murmured. “And so’s our boss.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Nah. It’s glowing praise.”
“Thought so.”
Crouch closed his laptop. “You ready?”
Healey bounced to his feet, shining with enthusiasm. “Let’s go track it down!”
FIFTEEN
Kanab, a city of Kane County, Utah, is located a tad north of the Arizona state line. Founded in the 1800s there are now over three thousand people living there. Arguably best known as a location for many old westerns, including Stagecoach, The Lone Ranger and The Outlaw Josey Wales, its attractions also include much of the Grand Circle — the Vermillion Cliffs and Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and Lake Powell.
After several hours of research, Crouch called the others to full alert in the cramped confines of the small private plane.
“It seems in 1914 a man arrived in Kanab saying that in his research he found that the great treasure of Montezuma was hidden in the mountains around the town. After much searching and digging, a plan was formed to drain the lake in the hope that the treasure lay in an underwater cave. This plan was later blocked by the government because it was one of the few refuges of the ambersnail.”
“Underwater cave?” Alicia raised her voice. “I’m about as happy in water as I am in the desert. Which means — not.”
Russo grunted. “I have a little training, not so much experience.”
“I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Crouch said. “The map we have doesn’t even show a lake.”
The plane landed with a bump and a squeal, taxiing speedily to the hangar. When Crouch and the team had cleared customs they headed into downtown Kanab. Alicia stared at the single-story hotels, the wide streets, pawn shops, western-themed restaurants and photo shops; the tall, lush green trees and the mountainous, red-hued backdrop, the Utah monuments towering over all, and came to a single conclusion.
“In this town,” she said. “A secret’s gonna be hard to keep.”
“Wow,” Healey said. “The closer you get to that mountain the more impressive it becomes.”
“You sound like my last girlfriend,” Russo said with a rare outburst of humor.
Alicia soon quashed it. “They found a female Sasquatch then?”
Caitlyn laid a hand on Healey’s arm. “Fantastic country. I know exactly what you mean.”
Healey beamed at her. Alicia thought back to the long plane journey from Mexico. Healey had taken it upon himself to begin Caitlyn’s induction into the art of self-defense. Nothing major at first, he’d told her.
“I’m a fast learner,” she’d said.
Healey had nodded. “Yes, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.”
Caitlyn had pointed to the raw cuts and bruises around her wrist. “Overwhelm me.”
Alicia knew there was a vast difference between being taught by a civilian instructor and a special-forces soldier, just as there was a vast difference between the actual knowledge they gave you to start with. Preservation of life and helpfulness to the team was of major import. With the Army there were no colored belts.
Alicia had watched Healey train Caitlyn and had offered her own advice. Lex had watched proceedings closely and even Russo came up with a trick or two. Lex had leaned over the back of his chair, saying, “When he’s shown you the soldier’s way I’ll show you the biker’s. It’s quicker.”
Alicia saw Healey as the kind of guy that could achieve big time, but needed the security of more experienced people around him. The skills were there, the willingness was unquestionable, but the true man would never break out unless it was nurtured properly. In the brief time she’d had to glean his file she’d put this down to a warring family. Back home, Healey had been the youngest in a three-sibling family, mother, father and siblings always at each other’s throats with Zack usually the scapegoat. This affected his behavior at school, which led to worse grades and more reprimands; more humiliating abuse from his older brothers. The Army had offered a way out, a chance to learn from greater, responsible figures. It had given him his life back.
Alicia compared Healey’s story to that of her own. It wasn’t the same, but it had many parallels and offered up those same two fundamental questions: Why were some parents so blind to their own children’s difficulties and why weren’t they more aware of and responsive to the situations they themselves created?
Alicia didn’t dwell. Zack had won, in her mind. And so had she. The pain she lived with every day could be shrugged off, the old anxieties buried beneath unending action. It was at uneasy moments like this that she piped up and offered her own sarcastic slant to almost any conversation.
Kanab lay sun-blasted beneath an azure sky. Huge old American cars prowled the wide streets, Buicks and Chryslers and Cadillacs; the relatively short trees and towering backdrops gave the place a wide-open, insecure kind of feel, offering little shelter. Straight roads bisected the place, leading from the main street to the many houses.
Crouch aimed their car toward the largest restaurant. “Let’s get some food,” he said. “And start asking questions.”
“Think that’s a good idea? Won’t Coker and his South African widowmaker be on the chase?” Russo asked.
“We cut out of there kinda sharpish.” Crouch shrugged. “Flight plan was bogus. It’ll take them a few days. I hate to leave Coker in that situation,” he added as he parked. “But we don’t have the resources to take on a criminal kingpin just yet.”
Alicia slipped out of the car. “Coker will show his head again. If I don’t have to blow it off I’ll find out why someone’s controlling it.”
Cruz followed the conversation in silence, his thoughts seemingly lost in the surrounding wonders.
The restaurant was almost empty, the waitresses standing around bored. As the team took their seats a smiling woman sporting schoolteacher glasses and pigtails ambled over to them.
“Help ya?”
Crouch reeled off a set of drinks, then waited expectantly for her to write it all down. The waitress grinned and tapped at the side of her head. “Memory like Microsoft. Drinks will be right up. Name’s Rosie by the way.”
She ambled off, taking her time. Crouch looked from face to face. “Maybe we should have ordered food at the same time.”