“I hope I'm not interrupting anything.”
Eddings’ eyes snapped open as the coffee cup fell from his limp fingers. It was the Indian from earlier today. How could he be here? He got a grip on himself and forced a smile.
“Not at all, you just gave me a start, that's all.” He sat up, letting his feet fall to the floor. “Did you find the battlefield all right?” The Indian didn't appear to have a gun, just a backpack. Still smiling, Eddings let his hand drift toward the bottom drawer of his desk where he kept his .38 revolver.
“Keep your hands where we can see them.” Another man had slipped through the door while Eddings' eyes were on the Indian. He was shorter than the Indian, not quite six feet, with close-cropped blond hair, blue-gray eyes, and a calm demeanor that was somehow even more intimidating than the seething rage that boiled behind the Indian's eyes. He held a pistol trained on Eddings, and it was readily apparent that the man had both the ability and inclination to use it if he so desired.
Eddings recognized the gun. “So your plan is to kill me with Carter's gun and hope it gets pinned on him?” He forced a laugh. “You two don't understand. This is bigger than me. Bigger than this town, even. The Trident will come after you.”
“Who the hell is the Trident?”
“A group of powerful men who are very interested in the battlefield. Carter works for them.”
“You mean ‘worked’ for them.” The big Indian grinned.
Eddings’ heart raced. “If you kill me, you'll just be sticking your hand into the viper's nest.”
“Funny you should mention snakes.” The Indian deftly unzipped his backpack and upended it, spilling two twisting, black-banded forms onto the desk. Timber rattlers! They were each a good four feet long, and they both immediately coiled as if to strike, rattles buzzing, and eyes locked on Eddings.
“What is this?” Eddings tried to keep his voice calm, but it came out as a hoarse whisper. “Do you think you can make these things do your bidding?” The thought was absurd but, seeing the way these snakes kept their eyes trained on him, he believed, against all rational thought, the Indian could do exactly that.
“Oh, you wouldn't believe what I can do.” The Indian pulled a black stone from his belt and slowly drew the blade across his palm. He squeezed his fist and let the blood drip down onto the triangular stone, which seemed to sparkle as if shooting stars whirled inside it. The Indian’s eyes remained locked on Eddings as he raised the stone to his lips and whispered a single word.
The snakes struck as one. Eddings screamed as the fangs bit into him again and again, hot pain searing his body, burning through the numbing disbelief that clouded his senses. The agony seemed to go on forever. And then it stopped.
He watched through cloudy eyes as the rattlesnakes slithered off his desk, dropped to the floor, and disappeared. As light and life fled, he saw the Indian make a mocking bow, turn, and walk away.
Chapter 13
Maddock turned the triangular stone over in his hands, examining the carvings etched in its surface. Despite the warmth of the day, it sent a chill through him. It was difficult to believe that through it, one could indeed control animal behavior, but he’d witnessed it first-hand. Besides, he had to admit, it wasn’t the craziest thing he and Bones had experienced.
“The animal carvings are shallow, like whoever carved it barely managed to etch them in.” He held the stone out so Bones could take a closer look. They sat on a sagging picnic table in a small campground somewhere in the mountains of North Georgia. They’d wanted somewhere off the beaten path to lie low and plan their next move, and this place, little more than a gravel drive running alongside a mountain stream, with a few turnouts for parking, fit the bill. They didn’t even have to provide names or an electronic form of payment — only a few dollars stuffed in an envelope and dropped into the payment box. Even better, they were the campground’s only visitors.
“I wonder what this thing is made of.” Bones took it and swung it back and forth in half-speed cuts. “It’s heavy as hell. Almost like a meteorite or something. And even though it looks kind of like flint, it doesn’t seem brittle.”
“I had the same thought. It’s very strange stone.”
Without warning, Bones raised the stone, point down.
“Bones, wait!” Maddock shouted as his friend drove the point of the stone into one of the warped boards of the table top. It bit deeply into the wood and stuck there.
“Dude, you have got to chill.” Bones waved away Maddock’s concern. “I’m conducting an experiment here. You know, science?”
“What if it had broken?” Maddock pulled it free and returned to scrutinizing its surface.
“Then we’d have known for sure that it really was brittle. I was testing my hypothesis.” Bones stood and stretched, his back popping loudly. “Sleeping on the ground sucks. My back is one giant mass of knots. You think they’ve got a massage parlor in that town we passed through last night?”
“Maybe, but do you really want to get a massage from one of the locals? This place has got a Deliverance vibe to it.”
Bones shuddered. “You’re right. It’s probably like that topless place south of Cheyenne I stopped at that one time. I will never, ever unsee that. Stretch marks for miles.”
“You stopped during the lunch shift. What did you expect?”
Bones grimaced and shook his head. “Let’s get back to a happier topic.”
“You mean like, ‘Why is someone willing to hurt your grandfather just to obtain this artifact?’”
“Yeah, that.” Bones did a few toe touches and then returned to his seat. “Where do we go from here? The only way to get the Trident, whoever they are, off my grandfather’s back, would be to either give them the stone, or let it be known that we’ve found it.”
Maddock nodded. “Obviously, we can’t hand it over. Its power is incredible and we don’t know its limits. We have no understanding of what this thing is or what else it can do. Nor do we have any idea who the Trident is and what they want with it. Bossing around animals can’t be the full extent of it.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d heard the name “Trident” before.
“In a perfect world,” Bones said, “we’d learn its origin and give it over to the tribe that has the best claim on it, assuming it’s a Native American artifact. But if we do that, I’m sure the Trident will just steal it.”
“Agreed.” Maddock had contemplated that very thing. “Obviously, we should try to learn all we can about this thing before we make any firm decisions.”
“Obviously,” Bones said. “We’d do that regardless.”
“Right. Second, we need to find out who the Trident is. If we’ve got another Dominion on our hands, I want to know about it.” The Dominion was an extremist religious group of whom Maddock and Bones had run afoul many times. “We also need to know if Tyson and Ahmed are connected to that group or if they’re free agents. It would be one heck of a coincidence if they’re unrelated.”
“Should we check with Tam Broderick? She’s a Fed who deals with this kind of stuff. Maybe she’s heard of the Trident.”
“I don’t know.” Maddock scratched his chin, eyes still fixed on the stone. “We just got out from under her thumb. I’m not sure I want to go to that well unless we absolutely have to.” Tam was on the right side, but she always had her own agenda and she seldom shared it with anyone else. She also never failed to call in a favor owed.