Chapter 14 - Edwin Pike
Pike looked nothing like a criminal.
That bothered Eli.
He wore a charcoal coat despite the desert heat.
Gray hair rested neatly above his collar.
No gun was visible.
Six armed men stood behind him.
Harlan Voss was among them.
So was Caleb Rourke.
Pike looked down into the canyon.
“Eli Crane.”
His voice carried easily.
“You have your father’s posture.”
Eli kept one hand near his revolver.
“You have his land?”
“Not yet.”
Pike smiled.
“But legally, by morning.”
Tala held the map behind her.
Pike saw the movement.
“Miss Tala.”
Her expression changed.
He knew her name.
“And your sister Mira. Injured, I’m told.”
Tala’s hand tightened.
“If you touched her—”
“I haven’t.”
Pike looked toward Voss.
“Harlan’s men have been unnecessarily theatrical.”
Voss’s jaw tightened.
Not partners.
Not equals.
There was contempt between them.
Eli noticed.
Pike continued.
“I want a conversation.”
“Then send the rifles away.”
“No.”
“Then talk from there.”
Pike sighed.
“Your father and Nantan made an agreement about water. Noble. Impractical. Neither understood what Arizona would become.”
“And you did?”
“I understood that railroads bring towns. Towns bring industry. Industry requires water. Water requires control.”
Tala said, “People require water.”
Pike looked at her.
“People require order.”
“Your order?”
“Someone’s.”
Eli recognized the logic.
He had heard versions of it in the cavalry.
Someone must decide.
Someone must control.
Someone must be sacrificed.
Pike said the Crane ranch sat above a geological channel fed from underground springs near Copper Wash.
His surveys suggested enough water to support thousands of cattle and a future rail depot.
Control that water, and a man controlled settlement.
Eli understood now.
The fraudulent ranch acquisitions were not random greed.
Pike had been assembling an uninterrupted corridor.
“What do Tala and Mira know?”
“Routes Nantan refused to put on paper.”
“And Sarah?”
Pike’s eyes shifted.
“Sarah was intelligent.”
“Was?”
“She mistook intelligence for immunity.”
Eli drew his revolver.
Every rifle above aimed down.
Daniel grabbed his arm.
Pike did not move.
“Did you kill my wife?”
Pike considered.
“No.”
Eli’s finger tightened.
“Did you order it?”
“No.”
Rourke looked away.
Eli noticed.
Pike continued.
“Sarah died because several frightened people made bad decisions in rapid succession.”
“That sounds like a man avoiding a word.”
“Murder?”
Pike’s face showed no emotion.
“If that comforts you, use it.”
Eli wanted to shoot him.
Tala stepped closer.
“Not yet.”
Again.
The same words.
Pike smiled faintly.
“Your father chose allies better than Sarah did.”
“Where is Nantan?”
“Alive.”
Tala’s breath caught.
“For now.”
“What do you want?”
“The map you found. Sarah’s index. The bank papers. And both sisters.”
“No,” Eli said.
Pike’s eyes moved to him.
“I wasn’t asking you.”
Voss spoke for the first time.
“This is enough, Edwin.”
Pike glanced at him.
“Is it?”
Voss’s face was tight.
“These people aren’t worth a war.”
“No war. A transaction.”
Eli saw something important.
Voss was afraid.
Not of Eli.
Of Pike.
That meant leverage.
Eli shouted upward.
“Harlan!”
Voss looked down.
“How much do you owe him?”
Pike’s expression cooled.
Voss said nothing.
Eli continued.
“Your land isn’t yours, is it?”
Rourke shifted.
Pike raised one hand.
Silence.
Voss’s companies had borrowed millions against titles Pike controlled.
If Pike withdrew legal support, banks could call notes.
Voss’s empire would collapse.
Eli guessed.
The anger on Voss’s face confirmed it.
Pike looked at him.
“You are more perceptive than your brother.”
Daniel flinched.
Eli said, “And more expensive.”
Pike almost smiled.
Then Tala suddenly kicked loose stones down the canyon slope.
Daniel fired into the air.
Eli grabbed the iron tube.
They ran.
Gunfire erupted.
The canyon twisted narrowly.
Bullets struck rock.
Tala led them through a split in the wall invisible from above.
Her shoulder wound reopened.
Blood spread through the bandage.
Still she ran.
They emerged into brush behind Pike’s riders.
Three loose horses stood tied.
Eli cut them free.
They mounted.
Rourke appeared between rocks.
He fired.
Daniel’s horse stumbled but kept moving.
Eli returned one shot.
Rourke ducked.
They escaped into darkness.
Two miles later Tala nearly fell from the saddle.
Eli caught her.
Her face was gray.
“You’re bleeding again.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked behind them.
“No riders.”
Eli opened the iron tube.
The map remained.
But another item had slipped free.
A tiny folded paper he had not noticed before.
His father’s handwriting.
Daniel must never know where the second marker is.
Eli read it.
Then slowly looked at his brother.
Daniel saw his face.
“What?”
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Eli folded the note.
For once, he became the brother keeping a secret.
