Chapter 14 - Helena's Road

The key opened a locked cabinet beneath the old Torne barn.

Inside were survey maps showing an abandoned freight trail through the mountains.

Helena had used it years earlier to carry supplies to Dry Creek families without Gideon knowing.

The route cut fifteen miles from the journey north.

But portions crossed steep canyon ground.

Mara chose ten riders.

Corvin, Jonah, and Pike would accompany them.

Pike refused to stay behind.

"My survey proves when the copper was found and who knew."

"You can barely sit a horse," Corvin said.

"Then tie me to one."

By dawn, they entered the canyon.

Mara rode ahead.

Corvin watched her navigate turns barely visible in the rock.

"Your grandfather taught you this too?"

"Helena did."

Corvin stared.

"You met my mother?"

Mara nodded.

"I was nine."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You did not ask."

He almost laughed.

"What was she like?"

Mara considered.

"Angry."

Corvin laughed for real.

"That sounds right."

"She was angry often."

"Also right."

"She believed anger should pay rent."

"What does that mean?"

"She said if anger lives inside you, make it work."

Corvin looked ahead.

Helena had been reduced in his memory to warm bread, music, illness, funeral flowers.

Hearing Mara describe her as fierce restored something.

At midday they found the trail blocked.

A rockslide.

Fresh.

Jonah examined drill marks.

"Voss."

They could turn back or descend into a dry wash.

Mara chose the wash.

Halfway through, rifle fire cracked from above.

Ambush.

They scattered among boulders.

Corvin returned fire at shadows.

Mara climbed the opposite slope with two riders.

Within minutes the attackers retreated.

One man fell from his horse and was captured.

He was not Voss's employee.

He carried a deputy badge.

Rourke's.

Corvin confronted him.

"Where's the sheriff?"

The man stayed silent.

Mara looked at the horse's saddlebag.

Inside was a written order.

Prevent Torne party from reaching North Line telegraph. Lethal force authorized if necessary.

Signed Abel Rourke.

Jonah smiled grimly.

"That's useful."

Pike tucked it inside his coat.

They continued.

At sunset the telegraph poles appeared.

Then smoke.

The station was burning.

They galloped.

Two operators lay tied outside, alive.

The telegraph equipment had been smashed.

Mara stared at the severed wire.

"Can it be repaired?"

One operator examined it.

"Equipment, yes. Line? Maybe."

"How long?"

"Hours."

Corvin looked south.

They did not have hours.

Jonah asked, "Can we send from somewhere else?"

"Army relay station at Fort Mason."

"Distance?"

"Thirty-eight miles."

Pike groaned.

Corvin looked at the setting sun.

They would ride overnight.

Then one operator said, "There's another problem."

He held up a dispatch recovered before the station burned.

It came from Hawthorne Capital.

REPRESENTATIVE ALREADY EN ROUTE TO CARRICK. FINAL REVIEW SUNDAY.

Corvin frowned.

"The buyer's coming to us."

Jonah smiled.

"That could help."

Pike shook his head.

"Or Martin kills him."

Corvin looked south.

The entire board shifted again.

They no longer needed to send evidence out.

They needed to reach Carrick before an eastern investor stepped into a conspiracy large enough to kill for two million dollars.

Mara mounted.

Corvin joined her.

"You tired?"

"Yes."

"Good."

He smiled.

"I was beginning to think you weren't human."

She looked at him.

"I thought the same when you gave water to an armed stranger."

"I wasn't sure you were armed."

"I had two knives."

Corvin blinked.

"Where?"

For the first time, Mara smiled.

"Exactly."

Then she kicked her horse forward.

Behind them, Pike laughed so hard he nearly fell from the saddle.

They rode south through the night.

None of them noticed the distant rider following from the ridge.

A man with a scar beneath his ear.

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