Chapter 13 - General Voss
General Nathaniel Voss looked like a monument to himself.
White hair.
Blue uniform.
Gold braid.
Back straight despite sixty-seven years.
Father Ruiz walked behind his horse with wrists tied.
Colter rode nearby under guard.
Captured.
Cade counted eighteen soldiers.
Creed’s riders remained farther back.
Two forces.
One purpose.
Voss called:
“Cade Thorn!”
Cade remained behind rock.
Elias Ward lay beside him.
The young soldier whispered:
“He’ll call you murderer.”
“He already did.”
Voss continued.
“You are holding a civilian and have attacked United States troops.”
Nalin looked at Gabe.
“Civilian?”
Gabe smiled weakly.
Cade shouted:
“You forged the order!”
Voss did not react.
“Release Mr. Mercer and surrender the stolen federal records.”
Cade looked at Elias.
“What happens if we surrender?”
The young soldier stared toward his general.
For the first time, his answer came without military certainty.
“I don’t know.”
Good.
Cade shouted:
“Send Ruiz and Colter up!”
Voss laughed.
“You are not negotiating.”
Nalin said quietly, “Everyone negotiates.”
She searched Gabe again.
Found three cartridges.
A matchbook.
An ivory grip screw from his lost Peacemaker.
Nothing useful.
Then Gabe whispered:
“There’s a tunnel.”
Cade looked at him.
“What?”
“Old mine cut behind the ridge.”
“Why tell us?”
“I don’t want Creed to kill me.”
Nalin smiled coldly.
“You suddenly understand consequences.”
Gabe ignored her.
“Entrance is thirty yards west under brush.”
Cade looked at the terrain.
Could be a trap.
Could be real.
Voss called again:
“You have one minute!”
Nalin said, “Tunnel.”
Cade nodded.
They could not carry Elias quickly.
Elias understood.
“Leave me.”
“No.”
“I’m Army.”
“So?”
“Voss won’t shoot me.”
Nalin looked at him.
“You sure?”
Elias stared at Father Ruiz’s tied wrists.
“No.”
Gabe said, “I can walk.”
Cade looked at his wounded shoulder.
“Barely.”
“Still faster than him.”
Elias gave Gabe a murderous look.
Cade made a decision.
“Gabe carries Elias.”
Gabe laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
Nalin cocked the revolver.
Gabe sighed.
“Fine.”
He lifted Elias across his good shoulder with difficulty.
Pain showed immediately.
No easy strength.
Cade and Nalin moved west.
Voss noticed.
“Advance!”
Rifles fired.
Bullets struck rocks.
Cade found the brush.
Tunnel entrance.
Narrow.
Dark.
They entered.
Gabe nearly dropped Elias twice.
Nalin went first.
Cade last.
Inside, the air cooled.
Old timber supports creaked.
The tunnel smelled of bat droppings and dust.
Gunfire echoed behind.
Nalin whispered:
“Where does it go?”
Gabe panted.
“Other side.”
“Specific.”
“I never walked it.”
“Excellent.”
They moved deeper.
Cade lit one match.
Old mining rails appeared.
Silver operation.
Probably abandoned decades ago.
The match died.
Darkness swallowed them.
Nalin said:
“I can see light.”
Ahead.
Faint.
They moved.
Then Gabe stopped.
“What?”
Cade asked.
“Wire.”
Nalin crouched.
A thin cord stretched ankle-high.
Attached to what?
Cade lit another match.
A crude warning bell.
Not explosive.
Someone had recently rigged the tunnel.
“Creed knows about it,” Gabe whispered.
Cade cut the wire.
They continued.
Behind them voices entered the mine.
Voss’s soldiers.
Nalin reached the far opening first.
It emerged halfway down the eastern slope.
Open desert beyond.
No horses.
Elias could not walk.
Cade scanned.
A supply wagon sat below near Army camp perimeter.
Two mules.
“Can you shoot?” Cade asked Elias.
“From sitting.”
“Good.”
Nalin looked at Gabe.
“He comes?”
Cade nodded.
“We need his testimony.”
“I hate evidence.”
Gabe laughed.
“So do I.”
They descended.
Elias fired two covering shots while Cade and Nalin reached the wagon.
Cade cut the mule traces enough to free movement.
Gabe limped down.
A bullet struck the dirt beside him.
He shouted.
“Your friends!”
“Not anymore.”
They loaded Elias.
Gabe climbed.
Nalin took the reins.
Cade jumped beside her.
The wagon lurched.
Rifle fire followed.
One bullet struck the rear board.
Another tore through Cade’s hat.
He felt the wind of it.
Nalin drove the mules hard but not impossibly.
Wagon wheels bounced over desert ground.
Behind them, soldiers mounted.
Cade looked back.
Voss emerged from the mine entrance.
Father Ruiz and Colter were not with him.
Cade felt a knot in his stomach.
Nalin saw.
“He will not kill the priest.”
“Why?”
“He needs someone respectable to believe his story.”
Cade nodded.
“And Colter?”
She looked at him.
“Voss needs your brother for something.”
Cade already knew what.
Colter had built the legal structure around Creed’s land purchases.
Kill him, lose knowledge.
Keep him, control the cleanup.
They rode south until the mules began slowing.
Elias’s bleeding remained controlled but serious.
“We need a doctor,” Nalin said.
“Closest?”
“Bisbee is too far. Dry Creek has one.”
Gabe laughed.
“You go back there, Vale arrests you.”
Cade looked at him.
“Maybe.”
Nalin understood.
“Vale let us escape.”
“Not exactly.”
“He missed.”
“Yes.”
“He chose.”
Cade looked toward the west.
Dry Creek.
Back to the trap.
But this time they knew the room.
Elias said weakly:
“I need a doctor.”
Decision made.
They turned the wagon toward Dry Creek.
As sunset approached, they saw smoke rising from town.
Too much.
Cade’s stomach tightened.
They crested a hill.
The Silver Dollar Saloon was burning.
So was the jail.
People ran through the street carrying buckets.
Nalin whispered:
“Creed.”
Cade scanned for Vale.
Then he saw a body hanging from the telegraph pole.
Sheriff badge still pinned to the vest.
Amos Vale.
A board had been tied around his neck.
One word painted across it:
TRAITOR.
Gabe looked away.
Cade did not.
Vale had spent years helping Creed.
One late act of resistance had not erased that.
But Creed had made the punishment public.
A message.
Nalin looked at Cade.
“Now what?”
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Cade watched flames consume the saloon where the trap began.
“Now Dry Creek stops pretending it isn’t involved.”
