CHAPTER TEN WHISPERS IN THE DARK
CHAPTER TEN
WHISPERS IN THE DARK
“It is hard to follow one great vision in this world
of darkness and of many changing shadows.
Among those men get lost.”Black Elk
9:00 PM
June 14th
Martin, South Dakota
Two men walked out of Bros Convenience Store in Martin, heading for their truck. They were both Native and, by the style of their hair, Lakota. One was in his early sixties, and the other was in his mid-fifties. Each carried a cup of coffee and moved toward a truck full of bags of feed.
“Well, lookee what we’ve got here,” said a voice from the shadows at the side of the building. “Looks like these boys got lost or something. This ain’t the Rez, asshole.”
Four men stepped out into their path, blocking their way back to their truck. They were all white and dressed roughly in dirty jeans, worn boots, t-shirts, and hats. Two wore dirty straw cowboy hats, while the other two wore baseball caps.
“Something I can do for you, gentlemen?” asked the older of the two men.
“What’s your name, old man?” asked the biggest of the group of men.
“Leonard High Hawk,” he said.
“And what is it you’re hauling?” the belligerent man continued. “That wouldn’t be fertilizer, would it? Planning on blowing up another oil rig?”
“It’s horse feed,” explained Leonard. “And we had nothing to do with what happened at the oil rig.”
“And what about today?” snarled the man.
It was clear that all four had been drinking.
“What about today?” asked the other Native man. “We’re just picking up feed, and we’re running late. We just stopped for some coffee.”
“Oh, you’re gonna be late, alright,” sneered another of the men.
“Whatever it is that you think we have done,” said Leonard, “you are mistaken. We work on a ranch over by Allen, on the Rez. We only came to town for feed.”
“We know it was you Lakota who blew up the oil rig and now the pump station,” snarled a third man.
“You’re wasting your breath, Len,” said the other Native American man. “They’re drunk and looking for someone to blame.”
“And what’s your name?” asked the first man.
“Wayne Iron Cloud,” he replied. “Why don’t you boys just go have another beer and let us be on our way?”
“How ‘bout we beat the shit out of you and send you packing back to the Rez?” rumbled the first man. “Or we just send part of you back to send a message to the rest of you. We’re not just gonna sit back and let you blow up oil rigs and kill people.”
“We’ve done nothing of the sort,” said Leonard. “Gentlemen, you are blaming the wrong people. I don’t know what happened on that rig and neither do you. Blaming each other before the truth comes out is pointless.”
Behind them, several motorcycles pulled in and stopped by the gas pumps. The men began surrounding Leonard and Wayne, pulling out clubs and brass knuckles.
“It’s time someone taught you a lesson, asshole,” slurred the first man.
“And what lesson would that be?” a voice behind them interrupted.
“Stay out of this unless you want…,” the man’s words trailed off when he turned to find Kade and his pack standing behind them.
“Want what?” asked Kade, menacingly. “Please finish that sentence for me. I’m dying to know what it is you think you’re about to do.”
“We was just having some fun,” muttered one of the men.
“You two,” Kade said, nodding at Wayne and Leonard, “go on home. They won’t bother you anymore.”
“Thank you,” said Leonard. “But no violence, please. It will only make things worse.”
“God forbid,” Kade said.
Leonard and Wayne quickly climbed into their truck and drove away. Kade waited until they were gone before speaking again.
“So, what exactly was it you were going to say?” Kade asked again. “Because I don’t think this is going to go the way you thought it would with two old men. Maybe it’s time to show you what happens when you fuck with a Lakota warrior.”
“Look, man,” said the first man. “We don’t want no trouble. We was just…”
“Just what?” Kade said. “Going to rough up a couple of old men? Maybe beat them to death? See, you don’t like it very much when you don’t have the upper hand.
Four of you against two old men, and you brought weapons.
That means you were planning on jumping the first Natives that you came across.
Well, we’re here. Why don’t you try it with us? ”
“Look, man,” the first man said. “We don’t want no trouble.”
“Oh, you sure did,” Kade replied. “You just didn’t want anyone who could fight back. Well, that ship has sailed. We’re here now, not a couple of defenseless old men. In fact, why don’t we just settle this, here and now. Try using that club on us and see what happens.”
“We don’t want no trouble,” the man said again, his voice almost pleading.
“Oh, but you found it,” Kade said, his eyes turning golden yellow as the change started to take hold.
“Kade!” said Raven, putting her hand on his arm. “Not here.”
Kade stopped himself but let the men see his eyes and extended canine teeth that had already started to grow.
“What the fuck are you?” whined the first man.
Kade stepped forward and grabbed the man by the shirt with his right hand, lifting him off the ground like he didn’t weigh an ounce.
“I’m the stuff of nightmares, my friend,” Kade said, then sniffed deeply. “Now, I’ve got your scent.”
He reached around behind him with his left hand and took his wallet. He opened it and looked at the South Dakota Driver’s License picture and information.
“Timothy Dale Kruger,” Kade read aloud. “Not a very flattering picture. It makes you look like a drunk, racist asshole. Oh, wait. That makes perfect sense now. It really did capture you after all. I see here you live over on Chestnut. That’s only a few blocks from here.
I wonder? Do you live alone or are you married?
I wouldn’t think that any self-respecting woman would want anything to do with you.
Then again, she’s probably just some wa?í?u piece of shit, like you. I’ll tell you what, Timothy.”
He enunciated every syllable of the name, drawing it out slowly.
“If I so much as hear of any Lakota stubbing their toe in this little shit-splat of a town,” Kade said menacingly, “I’ll come to your house, find whoever is there, and kill them all.
Right in front of you. How about that? Does that sound fair to you?
I mean, it is exactly what you were planning on doing to those two elders, am I right?
Or better yet, if I hear of anyone hurting one of our people in this town, I’ll wipe out everyone here, starting with the four of you.
How’s that sound? For every one of ours you hurt, I’ll kill a thousand of yours. Sounds reasonable to me.”
Kade tossed the wallet to one of the pack, and he caught it without missing a beat. He opened the wallet and took out the money and the ID, tucked it into his pocket, then tossed the empty wallet aside.
“Thank you for the donation to the Native American protection fund,” Kade said, slowly putting the man back down on his feet. “I’m assuming the rest of you would like to donate as well. Your donations are mandatory. Cash or blood. Your choice.”
They all quickly emptied their wallets and handed the money to Kade.
“Wow, the generosity of you wa?í?u really touches me,” Kade said. “Not in my heart, but somewhere, I’m sure. Such a display deserves something nice in return. I know. I’ll let you live. That only seems fair.”
“Th…thank you,” whined the first man.
“But…,” Kade said, not letting go of the man. “I never said anything about letting you go unscathed. In fact, the best lessons in life are always learned through pain. And I want you never to forget this night. The night I almost ripped your fucking hearts out and showed them to you.”
The men turned pale.
“Mason, Jonah, Evan, Tashunka,” Kade said.
“Yeah,” said Mason, the biggest of the pack.
“Take them around back and break their legs,” Kade said, then let go of Timothy and calmly went back to the bikes.
He started refueling the tanks as if nothing had even happened.
He was oblivious to the cries of pain coming from the darkness behind the convenience store as his pack did exactly as they were instructed.
Little did Kade know or care that two of them were broken so badly that they might never walk again.
Raven came over and stood next to him, staring at him with a dark expression on her face.
“You disapprove?” Kade asked.
“No, they deserved that and more,” Raven said. “But doesn’t this worry you at all?”
“Doesn’t what worry me?” asked Kade. “I’m not wrong. We could shift and wipe this town off the map if we chose to.”
“And I’m not disputing that,” Raven said.
“Then what’s the issue?” asked Kade.
“The two oil rig attacks,” she said, frowning.
“Technically, one was a rig, and the other was a pump station,” corrected Kade. “What about them? Someone did our work for us? So what?”
“And those attacks will get innocent Natives hurt or maybe killed,” Raven said. “If we hadn’t been here, they likely would have beaten those men to death. These attacks will be blamed on the Rez. I’ve seen it before.”
“And we’ll deal with it,” Kade said.
“You don’t understand, Kade,” Raven said angrily. “We can’t be everywhere. Innocent people will die.”
“Innocent people die every day,” Kade replied, “but I see your point. We need to find out who or what is behind these attacks.”
“So, how do we do that?” asked Raven. “It’s not like we can just ride up to the oil rig and ask for copies of the information they’ve gathered.”
“No, we can’t do that,” Kade said. “But if the local idiots are blaming the Lakota, that means others are as well. And that means my brother is trying to find out what happened, too. Maybe we should have another chat.”
“Do you really think he’s going to want to talk to you after last time?” asked Raven. “You sucker-punched him and left him unconscious in his car.”
“Sucker punch is such an ugly way to put it,” Kade said, grinning. “Not wrong, just ugly. Not to mention hurtful.”
“If I were him,” Raven said, “I wouldn’t be too happy to hear from you.”
“Well, maybe not,” Kade said, “but listen to my logic for a second. We have no idea what destroyed the two oil facilities. But if I were my brother, I’d probably be thinking we’re behind it.
And by we, I mean our pack. Honestly, it makes sense.
If it was an attack, his pack or ours would be more than capable of pulling it off.
I just wouldn’t have left any evidence. Now that I think of it, neither would he.
So, we have a conundrum. If it wasn’t us and it wasn’t them, what the fuck is killing wa?í?ui around here?
Not that I’m against wa?í?ui death, by any means.
But, as you say, it’s going to get dangerous for people on the Rez when they inevitably get the blame for the attacks. ”
Kade paused for a moment.
“Not that attacks on the Rez wouldn’t push more people into supporting our cause,” Kade said, “but if we can prevent another Wounded Knee, then we’re going to. Even if that means working with my brother. At least until this thing is settled.”
“Will he trust us to work with them?” asked Raven. “I wouldn’t, if I were him.”
“Oh, I don’t think he’ll have much choice,” Kade said. “Because if there’s another pack operating in this area, we’re all targets.”
The others returned, and they quickly refueled all the bikes. As Kade was preparing to start his motorcycle, Raven stopped him.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked.
Kade looked confused.
“What?” he asked. “Are you hungry? Surely you’d prefer venison over convenience store trash they call food. Although, I will admit those deep-fried burritos are pretty tasty.”
“Not that,” she said, jerking her head toward the side of the store.
“Oh, that,” Kade said, mildly annoyed. “There’s a payphone over there on the end of the building. Call 911 anonymously. Tell them some men are needing medical attention behind Bros.”
Raven walked back over to the corner of the building and quickly made the call. Moments later, she slipped onto the bike behind Kade, and he gently squeezed her thigh.
“Feel better?” he asked.
“A bit,” she replied.
“Good,” Kade said. “Now, let’s get out of here before the cops show up.
Not that I’m afraid of them or anything, just that it would be better for all parties involved if we didn’t rip apart a bunch of cops in front of the convenience store.
Now, I’m hungry. Why don’t we head back to the cabin and go hunting?
I could go for some fresh venison. Or a few of those burritos. ”
They roared off into the night, and their taillights faded in the distance.
A few moments later, two squad cars and an ambulance pulled into the parking lot.
They went around the building and found the four men right where the caller said they would be.
It was strange, but all four of the men insisted that they’d fallen.
They all knew what would happen to them if they informed on Kade.