CHAPTER 11 #2
Joaquin didn’t understand. “Why would they call us? If she escaped, why not call the U.S. consulate or the State Department or the police? Why is she hanging out with this loser?”
Marc met his gaze. “This loser may have saved her life.”
“There are lots of reasons they might be lying low rather than contacting the authorities.” Julian powered down the computer. “The cartels have infiltrated law enforcement and government at all levels in Mexico, and it’s hard to trust—”
The door opened, and Kat appeared, her long dark hair tied in a knot on the back of her head, a look of excitement on her face, a notebook and pen in her hand. “It’s Navajo code talk.”
“Have you deciphered it?” Marc pulled out a chair for her.
Kat shut the door behind her, shaking her head. “Only partly. It’s more complicated than that. I used a code-talker dictionary, but it still makes no sense.”
Julian cleared a space on the table. “Show us what you’ve got.”
She sat and looked at her notes. “Here’s the first part: ‘Escape from ant leg tooth apple ram.’ ”
Joaquin shook his head. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Well, ‘escape from’ is clear enough, but the rest of it . . .” Julian shrugged. “Do the words have any significance in code talk beyond their literal meaning?”
“Yes, but that didn’t make any sense either.” There was an apologetic tone in Kat’s voice, as if she felt she’d failed them, her pretty face lined with stress and fatigue.
It was almost one in the morning, and she had a baby at home.
Joaquin reached out, gave her hand a squeeze. “Hey, it’s okay.”
For a moment no one spoke.
Then Julian grabbed a notebook and a pen. “Give us everything you’ve got. Let’s go over every word, look at every possible meaning.”
An hour later, they’d made no progress, the message just as incomprehensible as it had been when Kat first read out the strange list of words.
“Maybe we should call it a night.” Julian leaned back, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but my mind’s not getting any sharper.”
“I hear that,” Marc muttered. Then he frowned. “What if these aren’t just words. What if they’re a mix of words and words that stand for letters that spell other words?”
Kat looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well, ‘Escape from’ makes sense. Then it turns into gibberish. What if the other words spell words?”
“But how do we know which letters to use?”
Marc turned to a new sheet of paper. “They wanted us to be able to figure this out, so let’s make it simple and use the first letter of each word to start with.”
“So that’s ‘Escape from a-l-t-a-r.’ ” Kat frowned. “Are they in a church?”
And then Joaquin knew.
He looked up, met Julian’s gaze. “No, not an altar like inside a church. Altar.”
He saw understanding dawn in Julian’s eyes. “That’s it.”
Marc shook his head. “All-tar? What’s ‘all-tar’?”
Joaquin answered. “It’s a town not far from the border, a jumping off place for drug smugglers and others trying to cross illegally into the U.S.”
“Way to go, Joaquin.” Julian raised an eyebrow and looked at Marc as if impressed. “Well, I’ll be damned, Hunter. You might earn your paycheck this week.”
“Fuck you, Dickangelo.”
“Not gonna happen, Hunter. Sorry.”
Joaquin knew they weren’t really angry at each other. For all their insults, they were as tight as brothers.
To his right, Kat was working furiously, scribbling words. Then she looked up, eyes wide. “I think I have it.”
Julian’s head whipped around. “Let’s hear it.”
“Escape from Altar. Then the words ‘infiltrate,’ ‘shadow’ and ‘wolf.’ Then ‘Tohono.’ ” She looked around the room at them, the expression on her face telling Joaquin these words meant something to her.
Julian’s face went dark like a thundercloud. He stood. “Son of a bitch!”
Joaquin looked at Marc. Marc looked at Joaquin.
They both looked at Julian and Kat.
“So do either of you feel like filling us in, or are you having a private moment here?” Marc asked, clearly irritated and as much in the dark as Joaquin.
“Escape from Altar. Infiltrate Shadow Wolf. Tohono.” Kat put the message together, worry on her face. “I think it means they’re going to try to make a desert border crossing from Altar onto the land of the Tohono O’Odham.”
“The toe-ho-no oh-damn . . . what?” Marc looked at Joaquin as if to see whether this made any sense to him.
But Joaquin was too appalled at the thought of Natalie trying to cross the unforgiving desert in the heat of high summer to say anything.
People died out there every year, their lives lost to hunger, dehydration, heatstroke, not to mention cartel violence.
As Joaquin had learned during the SPJ conference, the Sonoran Desert along the border was a no-man’s-land of cartels, coyotes, and fugitives.
It was Kat who answered Marc’s question. “The Tohono O’Odham—an Indian nation whose land extends into Mexico. They have a border guard unit known as the Shadow Wolves, Indian federal agents who are the best trackers in the world.”
“So he’s bringing her across the desert?” There was an edge to Marc’s voice now.
“If he doesn’t get her killed first.” Joaquin swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, anger like acid in his stomach.
Marc looked over at Julian. “They didn’t just tell us this to say, ‘Hey there. Having a great time. Call you when we get there.’ They told us this so that we can meet them, get them out of the desert, act as backup, be a welcome wagon.”
“Agreed.” Julian met first Joaquin’s gaze and then Marc’s, letting out a long, slow breath. “I can’t go. Tessa needs me. If she loses this baby . . .” He dropped his gaze to the floor. “We lost one six months ago. It tore her apart. I won’t leave her.”
Stunned silence.
“I’m sorry.” Marc stood, rested a hand on Julian’s shoulder. “I didn’t know.”
Joaquin thought back six months and realized that Tessa had dropped out of the picture for several weeks. At the time, he’d thought nothing of it. “Lo siento. I’m so sorry.”
“That must have been so hard for both of you.” Kat’s hand rested on her lower belly, a woman’s empathy for another woman’s loss.
“We hadn’t yet told anyone she was pregnant. She didn’t want anyone to know about the miscarriage. She thought she’d be able to deal with it better if no one knew.”
More silence.
“I’ll go.” Kat stood. “I have a friend in Sells whose brother is a Shadow Wolf.”
“You don’t have to go, Kat.” Marc stood, pushing his chair in. “You’ve got a baby girl at home who needs you. If you can help me connect with these Shadow Wolves, I’ll head down and—”
“You’re not going without me.” Joaquin rose to his feet, the words out before he realized he’d spoken.
Marc and Julian looked over at him as if sizing him up. Then Marc nodded. “Sure, Joaquin. You can come along.”
And Joaquin found himself feeling like someone’s kid brother. Marc would allow him to tag along but wasn’t expecting anything from him.
And why would he? What can you do besides get in the way?
Kat picked up her things. “I’ll call my friend first thing in the morning.”
Julian leaned back against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest, his brows furrowed, clearly trying to puzzle something out.
“A man comes out of nowhere, connects with Natalie, maybe even helps her escape from cartel thugs. He’s familiar with Navajo code talk, knows Mexico, believes he can get her across the desert.
” Then Julian looked up at Marc. “Who is this guy?”