Footprints (21 page)
Shock froze the scarred and battered face of the man sitting next to Annja. But experienced reflexes made him immediately throw his left elbow directly at Annja's face. She had just enough time to shift to her left to avoid the blow.
The man followed it by letting his left hand swing free, chopping Annja across the bridge of her nose. She grunted and heard the bone snap and then the blood started to flow. Annja tasted the copper and frowned.
"Bad move."
But the man sitting next to her didn't stop. As he punched at her with his left, his right hand clawed at the door handle, trying desperately to get out so he could order his men to open fire.
"You're not going anywhere," Annja said. She hauled him back and the truck started to shake.
Annja flipped him around and he head butted her in the face. Annja wondered if he'd cracked some of her teeth. She heard the dull sound of a blade opening in the close space between them.
I need room to move, she thought.
The man stabbed at her heart, pumping the blade in and out fast.
Annja deflected his arms and the blade,
then
punched straight into his solar plexus, trying to disrupt his diaphragm so he wouldn't be able to breathe properly. He grunted and tried to slash her across the throat.
Annja leaned back over her seat and then felt her own door swing open, sending the upper part of her body out into the rain upside down.
Instantly, the doors on the other car opened and men started to pour out. All of them were armed with submachine guns.
This is not good, Annja thought.
She slid out of the truck and then rolled behind it as the first bullets ricocheted off the asphalt near her. Annja closed her eyes and summoned her sword. I hope I'm strong enough for this, she thought.
The man Annja had been fighting with came out of the truck screaming. "Shoot her, shoot her! That's not Sheila!"
The men wasted no time. All around the Tahoe, the air exploded as bullets pinged and splanged off every surface. Annja huddled near the back, trying to use the truck's bulk to shield her.
I can't stay here. They'll close on the truck and cut me down, she thought.
There was a brief pause as magazines ran dry and some of the men started shouting that they had to reload.
Annja came out of her squat and ran around the side of the truck, holding the sword high. She swung and cleaved the closest man who was busy fiddling with his magazine release. He glanced up, saw Annja and screamed as she cut through him, spilling his blood in a splash on the ground.
Annja kept moving, her eyes rapidly cataloging the scene.
Six men.
All armed.
The next man was faster than his predecessor and he snapped his magazine home, ratcheted the slide and started to bring up the barrel of the gun as Annja ducked down, spun and cut horizontally, nearly slicing him open across the chest. She heard a sickening gurgle in his throat as he started to drown on the explosion of blood and bile erupting from the heinous sword gash.
Annja leaped into the air, bringing the sword high overhead and cutting down at the next man who was armed with an assault rifle with a much longer barrel. But instead of trying to shoot at her, he anticipated the downward cut and used the barrel of his gun to deflect her move to the side.
She cut back horizontally, trying to take him across the midsection. But he jerked his legs back, gaining distance from Annja.
I'm exposed here, she realized. Annja dove forward, narrowing the distance between her and the man as more shots rang out. She felt a nick by her ear and felt a warm flow of blood as a bullet or a piece of asphalt cut her.
She rolled and came up under the arms of the man in front of her. Annja stabbed straight up, but again the man arched back, letting the blade fly past his sternum. He used his momentum to pivot, drop and kick Annja squarely in the chest.
Air flew out of Annja's lungs as she struggled to regain her breath. She aimed a fist at the man's head and this time scored two blistering punches on his nose. She heard the crack and smiled. Now she'd given him something to think about.
Annja dropped low and then plunged the sword in deep, hearing the sharp release of air. She yanked the sword free as the man slid to his death on the asphalt below.
But she had an immediate problem punctuated by the sound of rapid gunfire. She jerked the sword up in front of her and felt the bullets slam into the blade, making it twist in her hands.
Annja kept moving, certain that if she stopped, she'd be a dead mark. She ran toward the closest gunman and slashed his hand. She heard his weapon fall to the ground with a clang and then swung her blade back up, slicing into the man from his hip up to his neck. He started to retch and gurgle as he slid to the ground dead.
Annja was in her zone now. Her eyes impassively surveyed the scene, assessing every remaining target. By her count, she had just three to go and then this band of drug dealers would be vanquished from the earth.
She felt the stab of a bullet puncture her thigh.
"Dammit!"
There was no way to tell if it was a bad hit or not. She knew if the round struck her femoral artery, she could be bleeding to death even as she closed with the man who had shot her. His eyes widened as Annja screamed and drove the sword at him, cutting down and then back up, using her momentum to slice the air faster than he could even try to keep up with.
He staggered back and Annja pressed her attack until he tripped and fell. Annja impaled him with the sword, running it into his chest and his heart. He stiffened and then dropped his gun and died.
Annja's reflexes took over and she jerked her body to the right, tucking into a tight ball as she rolled and came up, launching her sword at the last of the henchmen. He started to dodge but the blade hit him first, thrusting into his midsection. The momentum of the throw drove it all the way to the hilt. The man looked down and his eyes rolled back. He slipped to the ground on his own blood.
Annja pulled the sword free and finally turned to the last man standing in the parking lot, the man who had initially been in the truck with her.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Annja Creed."
He watched her for a moment. "Have we done something to you or to your family?
Something that drove you to come after us like this?
Because I can't remember leaving anyone alive who could take out my guys like this."
"You don't know me," Annja said. "But I know the disease you help spread.
The pain and the heartache."
"
A man's got to make a living."
"Not like this."
He smirked. "So, what, you're some do-gooder out on her own little mission to clean up the streets? Is that it?"
"What if it is?"
"It's a horrible cliché."
Annja shrugged. "I don't much care what it seems like. I've lost a close friend tonight because of the drugs you were going to buy from Tom and Sheila."
"
Tonight?
Your friend died tonight?"
"That's right."
"
Because she got involved with Tom and Sheila?"
Annja nodded. "And she got seduced by the thought of all that money you were going to pay them."
The man smiled. "We weren't going to pay them a dime. We were going to kill them. The higher-ups don't like it when folks decide to retire early.
Messes things up for the rest of us.
What we worked so hard to get in place here. People are making money. They don't like when someone fucks that up."
"I told them you'd kill them if they came down here," Annja said.
The man nodded. "Yeah, you got all the answers, huh? So where are they? They take the smack and run away? It's not going to help them. If they double-crossed us, the bosses will find them.
Doesn't matter where they go.
Everyone can be bought."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, even you, babe. I'll bet you've got a price. I name a number and if you like it, why don't you and me work something out? I'll even let you take over Tom and Sheila's route if you want. You can do
good
with it."
"I can't be bought," Annja said.
"Because some things aren't worth any money at all."
"
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Whatever.
So did Tom and Sheila think you could kill us and that would be it?"
"Tom and Sheila are dead."
He eyed her. "Anyone else told me that, I wouldn't believe them. But seeing what you just managed to do to my guys, I'm inclined to think otherwise." He spat a wad of bloody spit onto the ground. "You killed them?"
"Just Tom," Annja said.
"And Sheila?
Who killed her?"
"
My friend.
The one who died tonight."
The man laughed. "Sounds like you guys had quite the party up in the sticks. Anyone left alive?"
"You mean Dave."
"You know about Dave, too, huh?"
"Yes."
"All right, is he still breathing?"
"Not after Tom used a shotgun on him."
The man whistled. "I always knew that guy had more than a few screws loose.
Shotgun, huh?
Messy."
"
I had to clean it up."
He smiled. "Was that before or after you killed Tom?"
"
Before."
"
No shit."
He looked around. Six bodies were spread out near the car they'd driven up in. The stench of death hung in the air, a tension of violence still eager for one last victim to call its own.
"Just you and me now, huh?" the man said.
Annja nodded. "Not for much longer."
"That's some blade. How come I didn't see it when I got into the truck with you?"
"It was raining."
"So you gonna do me with that the way you did my guys? Stab me through the heart?
Some sort of symbolic death?"
Annja shook her head.
"Nope."
"
You're not?"
Annja nodded at the truck. "I think I've got some stuff that belongs to you."
The man regarded her for a minute and then walked over to the Tahoe. Annja gripped the sword in her right hand and eased the back door open with her left. Inside, piles of bags filled with cocaine lay on the floor.
His eyes lit up. "Yeah, that's the stuff. Looks like you brought all of it, too. Good girl."
Annja frowned. "This is what you wanted, right?"
"
Yeah."
Annja used the sword blade to slice open one of the bags and display the contents. Brilliant white powder spilled out.
"Pretty sight," the man said. "Some people call it heaven."
"In that case," Annja said. "Why don't you pay it a visit.
"
"What?"
Annja grabbed the back of his head with her left hand and shoved him face-first into the powder. He struggled but she felt the rage coursing through her veins at the thought of how something so stupid had so easily seduced Jenny.
She could hear the coughing and retching as the man was forced to inhale the cocaine. His body trembled and his legs jerked in an awful death spasm before Annja finally let him slide away to the ground.
He landed face up, coated in the white powder he'd ingested.
"I hope you like heaven," Annja said.
She spent the next few minutes gathering the bags into a pile and then she found a lighter in the glove compartment. She used the spare gas can to soak the entire parcel and then set it all ablaze. In seconds, the drugs were cooking in the drizzly night air.
Annja took a final look at the scene and walked away, leaving it all behind her.
"So the leg's okay?"
Annja sat in the police station looking at Ellen.
"Seems to be fine.
Luckily, there was no damage to the artery." Annja smiled. "That uniform looks good on you."
Ellen grinned. "I'm still getting used to people calling me Sheriff, and I don't exactly know if it feels right, all things considered."
"What do you mean?"
Ellen shrugged. "Well, here I was working right under Dave and yet I had no clue that he, Sheila and Tom were all involved in the drug business. I mean, I was more than a little shocked."
"No one sees everything all the time," Annja said. "That's just the way it goes." She smiled. "In any event, you'll have plenty of opportunities to make sure things go well here in town now."
"Davis and Connor said you left in an awful hurry when they last saw you."
Annja nodded. "I had some unfinished business I had to attend to. They know where to reach me if they need to."
Ellen eyed her. "I heard something interesting on the police bulletin wire. Apparently there was a scene at some parking lot down in the city.
Seven dead bodies, a few abandoned cars, including one belonging to the late sheriff, and a smoldering pile of luggage with chemical residue consistent with cocaine."
Annja looked around the office. "Yeah, well, you know how dangerous life can be in the big city."
Ellen nodded. "That I do. It's one reason I stay out here in the backwater of civilization."
"Maybe you'll have a chance to get some more folks coming through here now. Pick up the joint a little bit."
"That'd be great. We've got an abandoned hotel down at the end of
Might be nice if someone bought it and reopened it for business."
Annja smirked. "Not me. I've got too many other things I need to take care of."
Ellen's eyes glanced down to the package on the desk. "That her stuff?"
Annja looked at the envelope containing Jenny's personal effects. "Yes. I have to take them to her family and explain what happened. I figure it's the least I can do for her, considering all the stuff she went through."
"We never really know, do we?"
"What's that?"
"What people are
like.
We make friends, we live with them, we love them, but deep down inside they're always a mystery. And sometimes the only way to unravel it is when they die on us."
Annja nodded. "Sometimes death is no solution to any mystery.
Only the start of it."
Ellen stood. "You come back anytime, you hear? I'd be honored to call you my friend."
Annja shook her hand and then gave her a hug. "Consider it my honor, as well. You take care of yourself, Sheriff."
Annja scooped up the envelope and walked outside to her rental car.
Joey was leaning against the car with his arms crossed. "I heard you'd come back to town."
"I was going to come see you."
"Were you?"
Annja smiled. "Come on, I'll give you a lift."
Annja climbed into the car and started the engine. As she slid the car into gear, she looked at Joey. "How are you?"
He shrugged.
"Fine.
Everyone's trying to get over the shock of what happened. Even though Dave never necessarily came out and kept everyone under his thumb, people still felt it. And since Tom and Sheila were in on it, that just reinforced the effect. With them gone, things will blossom."
"
Blossom?"
"Yeah."
Annja smiled. "Nice choice of words." She paused. "I found out that it was David who killed Cheehawk. He must have been tracking us that night."
"I eventually figured out it was him, as well. I'm glad I tried to blow up his truck."
Annja whirled. "That was you? Jenny and I were in that truck!"
"Yeah, I didn't know you two would stumble across him or that he'd switched vehicles with the Feds. Obviously, I never meant for that to happen to you."
"Yeah, thanks, pal." Annja had to laugh. "That was a close one."
"Sorry, okay? I was so upset when Cheehawk
died,
it was all I could do not to freak out."
"I'd have to say that trying to blow up someone's truck comes pretty damn close to freaking out."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Why didn't you confront him on it?"
"What, and risk him shooting me?"
"He almost did, anyway."
"Good point."
Annja nodded. "When you're an adult you'll learn all about foresight."
"
But apparently not the dangers of hitchhiking."
"Wiseass.
So where are we going?"
"I know a place, and I want to show you something before you leave town for good." Joey gave her directions and Annja drove for about two miles outside of town. Joey motioned to a spot near a sharp rock face.
"Park there."
Annja slid the car into park and they both got out.
"I think you need this. From up here, we can see for quite a distance. It's one of my favorite places to come.
Whenever I need to be with my friends."
Annja smiled. "I think we all need a place like that." She walked to the edge of the precipice. Far below, she could see the swirling waters of the river that had nearly claimed their lives. She could see the mountains and the forests that had both ravaged and sheltered them. And overhead, clouds and sun mingled in the pale blue sky.
"It's time to say goodbye, Annja."
Annja nodded. "I wish things could have been different at the end with Jenny." Annja wiped her eyes. "See you on the other side," she said quietly.
Joey stood out on the edge and whispered a chant of some sort before turning back to Annja. "If it's all the same to you, I think I'll stay here for a while."
"
Really?"
Joey nodded. "I'll find my own way back home."
"I know you will."
"It's been an adventure, Annja Creed." He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight.
Annja smiled, fresh tears flowing out of her eyes. "It sure has, Creeping Wolf. You take care of yourself," she said.
He looked at her. "Don't forget the journey you took when you were here. We're connected now, you and me. We'll keep each other's secrets. Don't ever forget."
"I won't," she said.
He nodded. "In that case, it's time to say farewell.
For now."
Annja kissed his cheek and turned back toward her car. "Be well, Joey."
"
You, too."
She walked to the car and slid into the seat behind the steering wheel. A thought occurred to her and she got back out of the car. "What's your secret, Joey?" she called out.
She looked around.
Joey was gone.
But something nearby drew Annja's eye. She walked to the edge of the path where the grass met it and crouched down. In the dirt, she could see the marked impressions of a track.
A big track.
Five splayed toes topped a footprint that must have been at least fifteen inches long. And some distance farther on, Annja found another one, leading off toward the same rock face that she and Joey had just climbed.
Whenever I need to be with my friends.
Joey's words came back to Annja. She smiled. He knew all along, she thought. Creeping Wolf wasn't just some crazy kid who liked to run around in the woods. As he'd said himself, he was the caretaker of this place, this little piece of
No wonder he'd been so quick to dismiss the reports and the sightings and everything else that went with the legends. To say otherwise would have meant a rush of thrill seekers. And that would have meant the forest and the creatures—all the creatures—that inhabited it would be at risk.
Annja walked back to the car and got in. She put her hands on the steering wheel and stared off into the world around her for a moment. Then she started the engine, slid the car into Reverse and backed up, swinging it around until it was aimed back toward the main road.
And the world beyond it.
She took one final glance over her shoulder. "Your secret's safe with me," she said.
