Flight plans and old aviation charts covered the counter. He walked toward the back of the lounge and studied the framed black-and-white photographs hanging on the wall. Jack wiped the dust off, revealing a vintage photograph of two men standing in the desert. They both wore white shirts with short sleeves, ties and 1940-style fedora hats.
“Make sure to sign the register, folks.”
A white-haired man, hunched over with age, limped into the lounge. He firmly planted a wooden cane with each step, and his left arm shook with the symptoms of advanced Parkinson’s disease.
“You’ve got some interesting old photographs,” Jack said.
“I’m Luke. I run the whole darn operation.” He grinned, showing few remaining teeth. “At least what’s left of the airport.” Luke pointed his cane in the direction of the photographs. “Memories in them pictures, yes sir. We used to get all kinds of interesting people through here.” He gently clasped Leah’s hand and led her toward the wall.
Luke pointed to a picture of a man wearing black pants, white shirt and a fedora. “Here is J. Robert Oppenheimer himself. He always ordered a double cheeseburger with jalapeño and a coke.” He smiled mistily. “We closed the diner in 1959.”
Jack blinked. “You mean the father of the atomic bomb?” He leaned closer to get a good look through the dusty glass.
“Yep,” Luke said. “We had all them bomb builders in here from time to time.” He stepped back and stumbled, forcing Jack to reach for his arm.
“That must have been something — given how that has changed the world.”
“Yes-sirre-bob. At one time or another, they were all here.”
Leah interrupted, “You mean the men who will someday be credited with destroying the world.”
“Don’t mind her,” Jack teased. “She’s got a bad case of liberalitis.”
Luke sat on one of the couches and pointed a shaking finger at Leah. “Doc Oppenheimer agreed with you, once he saw the destruction it caused, the death and misery. Never saw him smile after that day; never saw any of them smiling after that.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Leah said. “Those weapons should be dismantled and the parts buried under a million tons of concrete.”
“It’s a deterrent,” Jack said with a straight face. He loved to get her blood boiling when it came to her liberal politics, even though he knew he’d have to pay the price. “It keeps the world at peace.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“You could never see fit to use a nuclear weapon, or any kind of weapon of mass destruction?” Jack asked innocently.
“Never in my lifetime….”
“I’d do it,” Luke said. His face twisted into a grimace with the effort it took to push his diseased body into a standing position. Once up, he lost his balance and stumbled toward Jack. “If it would’ve killed the scientists, wiped out the formulas and the laboratories, I’d have done it.”
Garrett stuck his face through the open door, breaking the awkward silence. He nodded in the direction of a corroded cash register. “Do you want cash or credit card today?”
The old man looked up and wiped his hands across the white stubble covering his face. “My treat….” He winked at Leah and Jack. “It’s not often I get such good conversation.”
“Thanks, then. I’ll catch you next time.” Garrett beckoned Jack and Leah. “Okay, you two. Let’s roll.”
Once the Cessna was airborne and trimmed, Garrett said, “I don’t know what you guys said to Luke, but it saved us about a hundred dollars in fuel.”
“We were talking about the scientists who invented and built the atomic bomb,” Leah said. “I guess in the 1940s they traveled through the airport on occasion.”
Garrett turned around and smiled. “Luke Derringer was Oppenheimer’s personal pilot. Luke has to be ninety-five if he’s a day. He scouted detonation locations for the first nuclear test. He spent hundreds of hours with the scientists, flying them over every nook and cranny of the desert. Ended up, they decided to detonate it in what’s now called White Sands.” Garrett turned back to the windscreen. “Luke stood next to Oppenheimer himself when they lit the fuse on the Gadget, as it was called. He said it changed everyone who saw it; couple of the guys even committed suicide, he says.”
“Does he still fly?” Jack asked.
Garrett shook his head. “He hasn’t passed a flight physical in decades. My guess is he still takes those Cessna 172 rentals up for a spin when no one’s looking.”
“New Mexico,” Leah sighed. “The home for thousands of years to the most peaceful people on the planet, and the birthplace of the end of the world….”
Garrett lined the Cessna up on the remote dirt landing strip, lowered the flaps to the number three position and set the small airplane expertly on the runway. He taxied over near Juan’s beat-up green Chevrolet Blazer and shut down the engine.
Garrett climbed out through the pilot’s door and made the introductions. “Juan and Marko,” he said, “meet Jack Hobson.”
Jack extended a hand to the big man. “I’m glad to hear Leah’s got someone to watch out for her.”
Juan grabbed Jack’s hand and squeezed firmly. “That’s Garrett’s job. I’m mainly just her sounding board.”
Jack grinned. “You mean she screams a lot.”
“Don’t bother turning on the charm, Climber,” Leah said. She pulled her backpack out of the aircraft. “All the sweet talk in the world won’t get you laid out here.” She swept past them toward the Blazer.
Garrett and Juan bit their lips to keep from laughing while Marko’s face turned a light shade of pink. Jack ignored her comment and extended a hand toward the young rock climber.
“It’s great to finally meet you,” Marko gushed. “I’ve been a huge fan ever since they did that article on you in Mountaineering.”
“Leah tells me you’re quite a talented rock climber,” Jack said.
Marko looked down at the dirt and kicked at it with his boot. “Just weekend stuff; nothing like K2 or Everest.”
“You two should get a room,” Leah said. She stuffed her pack into the Blazer and climbed into the front passenger seat.
Marko pushed his blond hair away from his face. “I’d love to hear climbing stories about Everest.”
“I’ll be happy to tell you all about it.”
“Hobson…. Our deal,” cautioned Leah through the open windows of the Blazer.
“What deal?” Marko asked.
“I don’t tell Leah mountaineering stories; she doesn’t play Lorena Bobbitt with a kitchen knife.”
Garret and Juan burst out laughing. Marko looked truly puzzled.
After twenty minutes the jeep trail mercifully ended. Juan engaged the parking brake and shut down the engine. “This is it,” he said. “Time to go from four-wheel drive to two-leg drive.”
“I’m looking forward to a long hike.” Leah pushed her way out the open passenger door.
“Since when did you want to strap on a backpack?” Jack asked.
“Are you kidding?” she replied. “After listening to you guys talk about motor displacements, synthetic oil, canned chili, and shaving cream, I was ready to blow my brains out.”
Garrett pointed toward the wash. It narrowed significantly as it entered the rugged terrain. “We have a hidden camping area a mile or so from here,” he said. “The canyon where we found the cliff dwelling’s another two miles beyond that.”
“Narrow in here,” Jack warned. “Is this the only way in and out?”
Juan nodded. “As far as we know — and we don’t want to hike along the rim of the canyon. We’d be spotted in a heartbeat.”
“This wash is a bad place for an ambush,” Jack said.