Changing Woman (40 page)

Ella thought about the boy she’d known. “I can’t believe he’s involved in this. He was the most nonaggressive person I’ve ever met. I remember he got called out a few times but he refused to fight until the other guy threw the first punch.”

“Yeah, but once he was forced to fight, he always kicked their butts. This type of action isn’t really out
of character for him if you think about it. The situation the tribe is facing is making many of our people feel cornered.”

“Yeah, but if he’s anything like the kid we both knew, I can’t see him destroying that coal or blowing up the power plant.”

“The boy we knew and the man he is could be two very different people,” Clifford warned, reaching for a bracelet made of colored strands of leather.
“This is one of their trademarks. Wear it on your left wrist. It’ll barely show, but they’ll see enough of it to know you’re one of them.”

“Anything else?”

“Be wary of their leader. My patient assured me that he’s a dangerous man. I tried to get him to tell me more, but he refused.”

“What’s the person’s name?”

“I don’t know. What worries me is that I’ve never known my patient to be afraid
of anything or anyone before.”

“Do you think someone has threatened him?”

“Not him, but maybe his wife,” Clifford answered. “I did notice that when his wife went outside the hogan to get some firewood, he went to the doorway carrying his
thirty-thirty Winchester and kept an eye on her until she got back.”

“I’d give anything to know if the leader is Navajo or a member of one of the other tribes
in the area.”

“You’ll know once you hear him talking. When the
Dineh
speak English, they have characteristic pauses that all of us recognize easily.” Clifford handed her a
jish,
a medicine bundle in a leather pouch sealed with a drawstring. “This will protect you tonight.”

“Do they wear these?”

“Some do, I’m sure. They’re traditionalists.”

Ella fastened it to her belt, then looked up and held
her brother’s gaze. “I’m going to be careful, but if anything happens to me . . .”

“You know that Mom and I will look after your daughter,” Clifford answered.

“These days I’m never as afraid for myself as I am for her,” Ella admitted slowly. “My daughter’s father would want to take custody of her, but the way his family feels about ours makes that a bad idea. I also don’t think he’s prepared
to deal with her on a daily basis.”

“That’s not something that should ever worry you. You’ll be fine tonight. Your training and instincts won’t let you down.”

Ella said good-bye to her brother, then drove through Shiprock to the mine, which lay several miles farther east on the edge of the Rez.

After passing through checkpoints and a roadblock, she pulled up and parked by the line of police
units on the east side of the facility. The power plant itself was lit up like a carnival, but the facilities at the south end were in the dark.

Blalock came up to meet her as she walked toward the fence line separating the coal piles and conveyer system from the rest of the plant. “It’s been quiet so far. We’ve cut off the power leading to the conveyor tower and maintenance building, so by now
it’s probably pretty cold in there. We have a few night-vision scopes and,
from what we’ve seen, the
Hasih
sentries guarding the coal piles and storage bins are taking one-hour shifts so they won’t freeze standing outside. We’re doing the same with our officers. At least the ones guarding the coal have enough sense not to try and build any fires. Coal dust is supposed to be highly explosive.”

“Let’s hope they stay smart.”

“Payestewa offered to turn some of the power back on if they’ll release all the hostages, but they’re not ready to do that yet. Their answer was that if we don’t mind the hostages being cold too, it’s fine with them.”

“Have there been any reports of trouble anywhere else on the Rez?”

“You’re still thinking that this might be a diversion?”

“Yeah. It’s just a nagging
feeling I have,” Ella answered, reaching for the cloth hood on the passenger’s seat.

“We have a plan we think will allow you to get in,” Blalock continued. “Payestewa will get them on the phone and again offer a hostages-for-heat swap. At the same time, we’ll have two cops scuffle with a TV cameraman who’s gotten too close. The cameraman, of course, will be one of ours. While the
Hasih’
s attention
is focused on the scuffle and the phone call, you’ll have the chance to slide beneath the fence and get under the conveyor belt platform—that tower. The maintenance building has a door on that side.”

“Let’s hope they haven’t booby-trapped that door,” Ella said.

“We’ve watched with the night scopes. They’ve used the door a few times, but they keep it locked. We got you a key,” Blalock said. “One
last thing. I’d like you to be wired when you go in. That way if you’re in trouble, we’ll know right away and can try to protect you.”

“With all the heavy winter clothing I’m wearing, hiding the wire won’t be a problem, but transmission might be.”

“The Bureau has some new equipment that’ll do the
job. We’ll hear you. If you need us to move in but can’t say it clearly, tap your chest twice. The
mike will transmit that sound.”

“Got it.”

“We’ve been listening with our parabolic mikes, and they haven’t been talking very much to each other except a few Navajo words. According to Neskahi, who’s been doing the listening, they haven’t used any names either. It’s either that traditionalist taboo against names, or they’re afraid we’re listening.”

“Thanks. I don’t plan to do much talking inside
anyway.”

Staying out of sight inside a van, Justine helped Ella put on the wire and then adjust it.

“I wish you weren’t doing this,” Justine said. “The information we have about what’s really going on inside the building is too sketchy. There’s just no telling what you’ll be facing in there. I’ll be watching you through a night-vision scope on a rifle when you’re in the open, but if you’re in
the building or out of sight, we can’t give you any covering fire.”

“I wish there was another way, but we just can’t take the chance that they’ll decide to set fire to the coal piles and blow up the conveyor belts just for the hell of it. With luck, I’ll be able to get close enough to check out the explosives and see how they’ve been wired to detonate. If they have a remote and we can’t neutralize
it, we’re going to be screwed if we have to assault the place.”

“All ready here?” Blalock asked, knocking on the rear van doors. As Ella stepped outside, he handed her the key to the side door.

Ella slipped it inside her jacket pocket as Justine moved into position, rifle in hand. “Let’s get this show on the road,” Ella said, and slipped the hood on. “Just make sure our own guys don’t shoot
me.”

“Our snipers will be watching for you and they’ll keep you covered as much as possible,” Blalock said. “But
they’re the only ones who know you’ll be in there.”

“Okay, we’re all set. I’ll see you in a little while.”

Ella slipped into the dark shadows cast by the huge power plant, several stories high and fifty yards away, north of the fence. At the moment, the building and its immediate
surroundings were lit up like a Christmas tree. There were over a dozen armed security guards and officers making sure it remained out of the hands of the
Hasih.

She crept closer to the chain-link fence until she spotted the gap at the bottom that Blalock had told her about earlier. Justine was somewhere behind her in the bed of a pickup using the night scope, watching Ella’s green image against
the hazy background. She knew that the lack of heat from the metal buildings ahead would make it easier to track her.

Hearing the shouting officers and assured that the diversion was under way, she ran to the fence and scrambled underneath, crawling on her stomach to make sure she didn’t get hung up.

Ella rolled into the shadows and adjusted her hood again. It had twisted and she needed to position
the eyeholes so she could see. Reaching for the key in her pocket, she made a dash to the side door.

The first thing she’d have to do was neutralize and conceal one member of the group that had taken over the power plant. If their numbers were few it would be too easy to spot an extra person. Yet, despite Blalock’s warning, she wasn’t overly concerned about making sure that the one she put out
of commission turned out to be a woman. Wearing the hood and a bulky jacket in the dark, no one would be able to tell which sex she was anyway.

Ella slipped inside and closed the door behind her, leaving it unlocked. There was a faint glow from a battery-powered emergency light, obviously triggered by the loss of electricity. Time and the effect of the.cold on its batteries had dimmed its power,
fortunately. Two
people with assault rifles were huddled against a door on an adjacent wall labeled Storage. A big piece of wood had been wedged against the bottom of the door, and she deduced that was where at least some of the hostages were being held.

Behaving as if she had come inside to get warm, she glanced around casually. Nobody seemed much interested in her arrival.

The two hostage
guards weren’t wearing hoods, so she slipped hers off, making sure to keep her distance. It was still so dark that facial features couldn’t be distinguished except up close.

A tall, broad-shouldered man stood next to the window facing east, speaking on the phone. His hood was on, and he had two pistols jammed into his belt and an assault rifle with a sling over his shoulder.

“We’re not going
to shoot anyone unless that cameraman moves in closer.” The man paused, then holding the receiver close to his chest, repeated what he’d heard from Paycheck to another guy who stood in the shadows beneath the dim emergency lamp. Ella hadn’t even seen him until now.

Ella recognized the face the moment he stepped out into the zone where the emergency lamp was directed. It was one of the men she’d
seen with Coyote, the man with the pockmarked face and probably the “Indian” who’d hired the low-IQ Anglos to vandalize tribal property. Now there was no doubt in her mind that she was dealing with the Indian syndicate.

He made a slashing motion across his throat, signaling his spokesman to cut off communications.

The one with the phone quickly hung up.

“Let them worry for a while,” Coyote’s
companion snarled.

“I don’t know, Gary. This doesn’t seem right. We’re getting further away from our objectives all the time. We just wanted to get the public’s attention about the problems facing the tribe, not turn this into a war.”

“Whenever you’re forced to take a stand you have to be willing to risk everything,” Gary answered flatly. “Stop questioning my decisions. I know what I’m doing.
And don’t use my name. We know they’re using microphones to listen in.”

The two men walked away from the phone, which rested on a large metal desk. The maintenance building was essentially one big room containing much of the machinery needed to operate and maintain the conveyer belts. A small office cubicle was at one end. As Ella tried to plan out her next move, she saw one of the sentries come
in from outside and walk toward the ladies’ rest room, her assault rifle over her shoulder.

Ella moved casually in the same direction, grabbing a roll of duct tape she saw on a workbench, then followed the woman inside.

In less than a minute, the woman was unconscious, and in another two, handcuffed to the pipes in the stall, which Ella had locked from the inside. Her mouth was taped shut so
when she regained consciousness, she’d be able to breathe through her nose, but wouldn’t be able to yell. Ella had used the rest of the roll of tape to secure her legs to the toilet so she couldn’t kick the walls to make noise.

So far, luck was with her. Now wearing the woman’s jacket after transferring her own ammunition to it, Ella stepped back out into the main room. Carrying the assault rifle
in one hand, she moved toward the small office area. More men had come inside while she was taking out the woman, and were standing around the office door. Ella moved up behind the newcomers, but was careful to stay back far enough so that no one would be able to see her face clearly.

’The Tribal Council still hasn’t agreed to meet and vote on the gaming issue, and the police are stalling. It’s
time to demonstrate our sincerity. Are all the explosives in position?” Gary asked, looking from person to person.

He glanced at her only briefly, but knowing that Blalock
was probably hearing every word gave her a small measure of confidence. Even if she was discovered, at least the
Hasih
wouldn’t be able to achieve complete surprise.

“Yeah,” another voice replied. “I made sure on my last patrol.”

“All right. Then it’s time for our volunteer to go out and attach the detonators. Once he’s finished, I’m going to take one charge out into the middle of the road and set it off as a demonstration of our sincerity. Everyone except for the hostage guards needs to be outside in case one of the cops does something stupid, like trying to move inside the fence line. If that happens, the ones guarding
the charges will light the fuses and run like hell south or west.” Gary looked around the group. “Understood?”

“I better get started on the detonators, then,” someone answered.

She recognized her friend Clyde Tso’s nasal, highpitched voice. Even through the hood he now wore, it was impossible to mistake it.

“The line has been drawn in the sand,” Gary continued, “and we’ve stepped over and taken
control again. Set the charges, brother, then report back to me when you’re done. The rest of you keep watch. When you see me walking away from the bomb, count thirty seconds for the blast and look away so the flash won’t ruin your night vision. And remember—shoot anyone who tries to rush the fence, and if anyone gets through, blow this place to hell. Are you ready and with me?”

A murmur of assent
went around the room.

“Then put on your hoods, check your weapons, and get outside into position,” the leader said.

Ella went outside with the others, staying right behind Clyde. Now that Blalock had hopefully overhead what was about to happen, the risk of law enforcement overreaction around the perimeter was diminished. But she
had to do whatever she could to protect the coal and its delivery
system, the conveyor belts.