The Mission War (15 page)

Cardero spoke up. “He is Papago. I will ask him.” The bandit said, “You forget, it is the language of my mother's people.” The bandit spoke to the Indian who was reluctant to answer at first. Finally he did reply in a brief, angry spate of words.

Cardero translated. “His name is Fly Catcher. A Papago of the Canon del Dios. Squirrel was his cousin. Squirrel had sold out his own people to the slavers, to Mono. Fly Catcher's wife of two weeks was taken. His idea was to follow Mono to where his woman had been taken. He saw you and Ki taken prisoner. He determined to try to help you, but not at the risk of letting Mono take him as well. He was watching when Carlos attacked you at Tinajas Caliente. He killed Carlos. He would like to kill me, I think,” Cardero said. “He knows I was with Mono, knows that I have Papago blood in me. He calls me a—well, there's no English word for it—a sort of bastard traitor.”

“And what does he want now?” Jessica asked.

“To fight, only to fight.”

Ki said, “Tell him we need warriors badly. Tell him we welcome Fly Catcher to our war. Tell him this also, Cardero, that when this battle is over Jessica Starbuck and I are going to the ranch of Don Alejandro and then his wife shall be freed.”

“I will tell him,” Cardero said, “that all of us are going to see Don Alejandro. You haven't forgotten my business with the slaver, have you?”

“No,” Ki said with reserve, “I haven't forgotten.” But was that Cardero's real purpose for wanting to go with Jessie and Ki to the ranch of Don Alejandro? Or did he still have his eyes on the bounty that had been offered?

“We'd better get back to the church, Ki,” Jessica said.

“Yes. Things have to organized again and quickly. Diego, you and Fly Catcher will stay here to watch the cantina.”

“As you say, Ki,” Cardero said with a hint of mockery.

“Mono will be hesitant to try anything for a little while. We'll try to get reinforcements back here quickly.”

Cardero simply bowed from the neck; they saying something rapid and brief to the Papago, the Spaniard faded into the shadows once more, the silent Papago beside him.

“And what do you think now, Jessie?” Ki asked.

“Cardero?”

“Yes. Do you still trust him?”

“I want to, Ki. I want very much to trust that man.”

So did Ki, but he knew that wanting something and having it become a reality weren't the same. There was something too supercilious, too bold about this Cardero. He was a reckless, admittedly criminal man. And he was good with a gun—too damned good. Ki had seen him draw and whirl as Fly Catcher put an arrow into the back of the bandit in the stable, and he knew one thing about Diego Cardero. He was a man even Ki did not wish to face in a fight to the death.

Cardero watched Jessie and Ki go. He took up a post in the hayloft, smoking his usual thin cigar. The Papago had drifted away, but Diego wasn't worried about that one. He was a solitary hunter, a warrior of the shadows. He would do his part.

Diego realized then that he had forgotten in all that had happened to tell Ki that Halcón had ridden out alone just before the battle started. He turned that over in his mind, considered going after Jessie and Ki, and then shrugged the concern away. What did it matter what Halcón was up to. What did they have to fear from a single rider?

Cardero settled in with his cigar and his guns and watched the slow, bloody night pass.

Chapter 13

Surprisingly, the mission was ablaze with light, but then the need for secrecy was gone. Mono was beaten. He was beaten, but it would still be necessary to convince the inhabitants of San Ignacio that it was so.

Jessie put it into words. “If he decided to attack again, there won't be anything standing in San Ignacio. If he comes out of that cantina, Ki, he's going to destroy everything he sees, kill any person he enounters.”

She was right, Ki knew. He didn't mean to let it happen. Inside the mission a meeting of sorts was already being held in the rectory.

Rivera was holding forth and he was furious. “To throw your weapons away ...” he was ranting as Jessica Starbuck and Ki entered the room to view the ragged, disconsolate army that had gone out not long ago so full of fervor and courage. “You, Guerrero, where is your gun? Cristobal, why did you run away from your position?”

“You know why,” someone snapped. “Mono was attacking us. His men are killers. They have repeating weapons and they know how to use them. What were we to do? Stand there and be slaughtered?”

“Yes, damn you, if that's what it took!” The alcalde was wild with anger.

Ki decided it was time to take over the meeting. Maria Sanchez watched as her man walked to the front of the room—past the quiet eyes of the friar, the quizzical faces of the Mexicans.

“You did well,” Ki said. It was necessary to give them some scrap of dignity to cling to, to bolster their confidence in some way. Railing at them as Rivera had been doing wasn't very helpful. “You all did well,” Ki went on despite Rivera's groan, “but the job is not completed yet. Mono is beaten. We have to go now and finish the job, however.”

“Beaten? How can you say he's beaten?”

“Because he is.” Ki's voice was calm, reassuring.

“He drove us off, ran us out of our own town with his repeating weapons.”

“He drove you off, but he lost some men. He lost his horses and with them his chance of making an escape,” Ki said.

“How many men?” Rivera wanted to know.

“Three, I think. There may have been another killed. He has only five or six men left. And he's trapped in the cantina. He's got to be getting low on ammunition. He has no food for his men except the little that might be in the cantina itself. He's got nowhere to run.”

“Six men,” Rivera said, “and you are afraid of them!”

“It's understandable that you ran,” Ki said. “All men are afraid at times. But you must understand that you have this man beaten now.”

Ki looked them over. Their faces reflected every attitude from disbelief to renewed fervor. He went on, “All we have to do is return to our positions and keep him barricaded in the cantina. Some of our men were hurt tonight, some killed—this only happened because they didn't listen to orders. Standing up on the rooftops got at least one man shot. If we go about this properly and stick to instructions, no one will be hurt. Mono will have to surrender.”

“He'll never let himself be hung. They'll come out shooting.”

“Then,” Ki said, “we shall shoot them down. There are only five or six of them. We have the advantage of position. Stay down on the rooftops! You offer no target at all that way. Are you going to let this man off the hook now? Now when you have a chance to finish it? This is for your town and your families.”

“We will go back,” one man said quietly.

A murmured chorus followed that: “We will go back”; “Six men, we can defeat six men”; “We'll show those bastards they can't come to San Ignacio and run things.”

Rivera was satisfied, relieved. Jessica Starbuck was impatient. Only Diego and Fly Catcher were standing watch at the present time. If Mono tried to make his break soon, he was liable to succeed—at the cost of Diego Cardero's life.

“Ki,” she prompted, “there's no time for more talk.”

To the townspeople he said, “Now! Let us return to our positions. Stay down. You know what to do; now do it!”

Again they went out into the night. Jessica was tired. Her nostrils were still filled with the scent of smoke. The night was cool, the stars bright. Ki walked silently beside her as they worked their way toward the stable, every bit as cautious as they had been on the first excursion.

Diego wasn't there—and then he was, swinging lightly down from the loft to meet them.

“All still?” Ki asked.

“So far. Has our reluctant army returned?”

“Taking up their positions.”

“We've got the son of a bitch then,” Diego said confidently.

“So it appears.” Ki looked around. “The horses are still here.”

“I couldn't do two things at once. I'll get them out now. Jessie?”

“I'll help,” she responded.

“We'll take them back along the river—in the willows somewhere.” Diego hesitated. “There is one thing, Ki.”

Ki lifted an eyebrow. “What?”

“Halcón. He rode out before the battle started. I meant to tell you.”

“Halcón? Where in blazes would he have gone?” Jessica asked.

“He might have had enough of Mono,” Ki commented.

“I thought of that.” Diego Cardero was thoughtful for a moment. “Not Halcón. I don't believe it. There was something between those two. I wasn't there, but it seems to me that Mono pulled Halcón out from under the shadow of the hangman's noose at one time.”

“Damn it all,” Ki said very softly.

“Ki?” Jessica was surprised at the emotion in Ki's voice. “What is it?”

“Don't you remember what they told us, Jessica? I can't recall who, when, but didn't they tell us?”

“Tell us what, Ki?”

“Tell us that Mono can muster an army of a hundred
bandidos
any time he felt like it.”

Jessica was stunned into silence. Diego cursed under his breath. “It's true,” he said. “He can do that.”

“Halcón ...

“Halcón could be riding for help, probably is.”

“Of course, he is,” Diego said.

“How far does he have to ride? How many bandits can be within a day's ride? A two-day ride?”

“Too many,” Diego said. “Halcón will go there”—he lifted his eyes—“to the ranch of Don Alejandro. There are many bandits there, many.”

“How long will it take?”

“I don't know.” Diego shrugged. “A fast horse, a good rider ... twenty-four hours. Maybe much less.”

“This changes everything,” Ki said unhappily, staring at the empty street, the square bulk of the buildings against the night sky. “Mono is barricaded in there. Eventually he would have to come out or surrender. These soldiers we have trained, Jessica, are good enough for the job we have given them. But for storming that cantina, getting Mono out before Halcón can return...”

“If they find out what has happened, they'll run for the hills,” Diego put in. “I can't blame them. If Mono is reinforced, he'll turn San Ignacio into a pile of ashes. He's done it before. There won't be any mercy.”

“And he'll find us,” Jessica said with a deep sigh. “Well,” she asked the men, “what do we do?”

“There's nothing much to do,” Ki said, “except to fight—and to hope to God we're wrong about what Halcón is up to.”

None of them clung too strongly to that hope. Halcón could have had only one reason for riding out. Mono would have his army—and soon. That meant he wouldn't consider surrender, that he wouldn't step out of the cantina until he was reinforced. That meant that Ki and Jessica had persuaded a town full of simple peasants to offer themselves for the slaughter.

“We'll take the horses,” Diego said, as if that made any difference now. Still, there wasn't a lot to do but stick to the original plan.

Cardero and Jessica led the horses to the river and left them picketed there. Cardero didn't say two words the whole way there and back.

“What is it?” Jessie asked. The frogs still croaked along the dark river. The night breeze shifted the cattails. She hooked a finger in his shirt front and stood looking up at him.

“Nothing I wish to discuss,” he replied.

“Secrets?”

“If you like.” He smiled and kissed her smooth forehead.

Back at the stable, Ki stood watch. He glanced at Jessie and Cardero and then returned his gaze to the street.

“Nothing?” she asked.

“It's my fault, you know. I let Halcón go. I didn't want to fire a shot then, just before the battle.”

“You can't blame yourself,” Ki said.

Cardero didn't respond to that. Instead he said, “We've got the bear in his den but who's going to get him out?”

Jessica turned around with astonishment on her face. “You can't be thinking what I think you are.”

“Why not?” Cardero asked, looking to Ki for support.

“What else is there to do? Mono can't be left in the cantina. He's got to be driven out.”

“What good will that do?” Jessie asked a little frantically.“ If Halcón returns with more bandits ...”

“We'll deal with that when we have to,” Diego said. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and produced another cigar from his shirt pocket. He was looking at the cantina now, looking intently.