Rebecca,
An hour till sun up. Whole thing is settled, as far as I can see, but Micah says he don’t trust it, someone’s gotta be there to make sure. Javier was already waiting in his four-by at the trailhead. Heidi was in there with him, no surprise. They think that way. Rebecca, you hardly let me come. What you didn’t know wouldn’t hurt you. I told you for every deal that goes down there’s fifteen goes fine, but go ahead and worry. Thats what I’m telling me now, watching purple desert turn into grey turn into orange.
There was a point when I became what happened, when all the things that had been rolling around in my mind were called forth by events in the outside world and made real, and they also became part of what happened.
Javier put the hazards on truck on, three flashes. The signal. I could see his silhouette cast onto the windshield by the pre-dawn light. Heidi in the middle seat. Moisture on the glass.
I expected to hear them before anything, but I saw them first. They came from the east with the dust behind them huge and pink and passed the cattle crossing without a rattle. A sedan and two sprinter vans. Now that their lavender wake was rolling over all of us, I pulled up Micah’s number on my phone, laid it on the dash without pressing call. What was going through my mind, Rebecca? I was worried about the federals, sure, but what really worried me was the thought that eventually the bottom falls out and, when it does, it pulls the top down with it.
I got out first. They were Briar and Union guys. You were right.
Big Clive.