The brothers returned to their idling sno-gos, but they didn’t leave right away because another sno-go was approaching them from the direction of the Bunyan place. The boys waited until they could identify the driver, and then they dismounted again, and Adam returned to Jace, who was standing where they’d left him. “Looks like it’s your lucky day,” Adam said as he lowered Jace back into the sled.
A strange face hovered above. “Is he conscious?” someone said, blinding Jace with a light. “Why don’t we trade rigs. I’ll take him home and get him warmed up.” He bent closer and sniffed Jace’s breath. “Hello, ranger,” he said in a loud voice. “I’m Chas Bunyan, Dell’s son. Just lay back now and hang in there, and we’ll go to my dad’s place. All right?”
FC8 1.0
IN THE FAR recesses of the rug room, cloaked in darkness, Deut sat up and for a moment didn’t know where she was. Some sound had awakened her, and there were voices coming from the other end of the room. Two men, Chas and the pastor, were helping a third man take off his parka. They sat him down in an armchair near the wood stove and removed his boots and leggings.
It was the ranger.
The cute one.
Was he hurt?
The pastor left the room and returned a few minutes later with a china mug. Chas helped the ranger sit up and sip from it. The pastor left again and returned with a saucepan, which he used to refill the mug. Then he gathered up the ranger’s things.
The children sleeping on bear-rug islands surrounding Deut made hushed sleeping sounds in the darkness. Deut was too far away to hear what the Bunyans were saying, but the ranger seemed to be sick or something. The pastor and Chas left the room, left the ranger alone with his mug of soup.
It crossed Deut’s mind that it might be improper for her to be staring at a man the way she was staring at the ranger, but she found that she couldn’t turn away. When her father entered the room, she ducked down, though surely he couldn’t see her in the dark. He loitered in front of the ranger for several moments, not saying anything.
When her father left, Deut got up and tip-toed across the room. The ranger was asleep. The china mug had fallen from his hands and spilled what looked like cocoa on the wood floor. Deut crept closer. She came so close that if he happened to open his eyes he couldn’t help but see her. She wasn’t very presentable. She was wearing the same old clothes she’d worn all day in the bus, and her hair was a mess.
But he wasn’t a pretty picture either. There was a week’s worth of stubble on his cheeks and chin. His long brown hair was spiking out in all directions. His eyelashes were matted with melted ice. And there was a cocoa mustache above his upper lip, which she had to admit was kinda cute. She crept a little closer.
What made some men handsome and others ordinary? People always said her brothers were handsome, especially Adam and Proverbs, but she couldn’t see it. They looked so ordinary to her. Mama, before she went to Heaven, had told her that Father God makes some people attractive to other people so they knew who He wanted them to marry. But the last person in the whole world she would be free to marry was a flat hat. So why was he so disturbingly beautiful?
He had a nice nose, straight, narrow, and with a chisel tip. His eyes — she’d never seen his eyes up close, and now they were shut. She didn’t know what color they were, but she guessed brown. Her own were blue. His voice she had heard on only one occasion, and then he’d only spoken a few words. But it was enough to tell her that his voice was warm and melodic. His skin was darker than any of her brothers’. Certainly darker than her own. With a racing heart, she extended her arm to place her wrist next to his. What a contrast in size and color. She almost wished he did open those eyes of his and see their hands so close together. What would he think about that? What would he say?
A sound in the hall alerted her to someone’s approach. She darted across the room to her rug, barely avoiding the sleeping lumps along the way.
FC9 1.0
POPPY WAS NODDING off at the kitchen table. He roused himself when he heard a sno-go enter the Bunyan yard. He opened the kitchen door and waved at the rider, who turned out to be Adam. Adam pulled up next to the back porch. He was driving Bunyan’s machine. He came inside and shut the door.
“Is the ranger here, lord?”
“Yeah. Dell’s boy drug him in. What happened out there?”
“Not sure, but Proverbs found something you should see.”
“What is it?”
Chas came into the kitchen just then. He greeted Adam and said, “I’m almost ready to go out again.”
“Thanks,” Adam said. “We still have a lot to move.”
Chas turned to Poppy. “Well, we got the guest room set up for you. Any time you’re ready . . . Oh, I hope you don’t mind. We’re putting Ranger Kuliak in there too. It’s a king-sized bed, so I hope you’re okay with that.”
Poppy snorted. “I never slept with a man yet, and I don’t plan on starting now.”
“In that case, I’m sure we can find—”
“Don’t bother. I don’t plan on sleeping until the work is done and then sleeping in my own bed.”
Poppy climbed back into his arctic gear and joined Adam outside. They left the Bunyan rig next to the kitchen porch and retrieved their own from the front yard.
“You were telling me something,” he said to Adam.
“Yes, lord. The parkies are up to something out on the flats since we were gone.”
“What is it?”
“Not sure, lord, but we should maybe check it out.” He helped his father into the sled and covered him with sleeping bags. “It’s out by Proverbs’ cabin.”
FC10 1.0
ADAM IDLED THE old Polaris next to the renovated trapline cabin. He switched on his headlamp and led his father to the top of a little rise overlooking the valley. “Look over there.”
Below them lay an ocean of darkness, and upon it sat a little island of brilliant light. Adam handed his father binoculars, but they didn’t help much.
“What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know, lord. A work camp of some sort?”
“How far would you say?”
“Two, two and a half miles.”
As they watched, the light dimmed and faded to black.
“Can you find it?”
“We can follow the ranger’s trail.” Adam tilted his head to illuminate Jace’s tracks in the snow.
“Then let’s go see what those federal dicks are up to.”
“Now, lord?”
Poppy returned to the sno-go. “Now.”
FC11 1.0
THE HEADLIGHT CAUGHT something shiny in the snow alongside the trail, and Adam stopped the sled next to it. It was a rider’s helmet, abandoned or lost.
They continued on without speaking and soon came to an area where multiple sets of tracks, both human and machine, crisscrossed the trail in an orderly pattern. Adam pointed them out to Poppy without slowing down. Finally, they came to the ranger’s abandoned sno-go, and they stopped. They knew it was the ranger’s sled because it had a decal emblazoned on its side with the despicable arrowhead logo of the National Park Service.
“Warm enough, lord?” Adam said, helping him off the seat.
The old man ignored the question and went to work inspecting the area with a flashlight. “They’re looking for something,” he said, illuminating the labyrinth of tracks. “Must be pretty important.”
“Lord,” Adam called. “Over here.”
“What is it?”
“I . . . don’t know.”
It was a wonder that Adam had found the thing in the darkness at all, so thin and insubstantial it seemed. It resembled a tall glass reed. No ordinary glass either because, Adam confessed, he had accidentally stumbled into it.
“And it didn’t break?”
“No, lord. It’s stronger than it looks.”
With their flashlight and headlamp they picked out purple threads embedded in the glass, like tiny, spinning pinwheels. Po
ppy shined his light along its length to the bell at the top.
“What do you think it is, lord?” Adam said.
“One way to find out.” Poppy reached under his parka for the socket wrench he always carried in his bib pocket.
“What are you doing, lord?” Adam said. “Don’t break it.”
“Have faith, boy. You didn’t break it when you ran into it, did you?” He handed his son the wrench. “Here, hit it.”
Adam accepted the wrench but only lightly tapped the delicate-looking object with it.
“I said hit it, boy. Give it all you got.”
“Yes, lord.” Adam hesitated but swung the wrench and delivered a good smack. The object clanged but did not shatter.
“Harder!”
Adam swung again with no more effect.
“Honestly, you swing like an old woman.” Poppy took the wrench and delivered the heavenly object a resounding blow. The impact stung his hand through his glove, and the wrench flew out of his grasp. It landed in the snow and was buried.
While Adam searched for the wrench, Poppy pushed the snow away from around the bottom of the object. It was rooted in solid ice.
“We need to dig it out,” he said.
“Why don’t we wait for daylight? We could bring tools with us. And besides, there’s still freight to move tonight, and it’s cold.”
“We can’t wait. The rangers already found it. It’s too important to let the government have it.”
They used a screwdriver and hammer from the sno-go tool kit to chip the ice away. Every few inches they dug, they tried pushing the object over. It was strong enough to take their combined weight. Eventually, they felt something give, and they rocked it back and forth until it came free from the ground.
A Vial of Wrath
VW1 1.0
JACE WAS TRYING to piece things together. He was in a strange bed in a strange room in his underwear. A nice room, to be sure, with embroidered pillowcases and wall-to-wall carpeting. The last thing he remembered of the night before was confronting the Prophecy boys on the trail. Had they brought him to their place after all? No, this couldn’t be their ramshackle house.
His clothes were draped over the back of a chair. He was getting out of bed, feeling more tired than he ever had in his life, when the door opened and a young man looked in. “Good, you’re up,” the man said. “Breakfast is ready.” He looked Jace over and added, “You okay? Need any help?”
“No, I’m good, uh . . .”
“Chas Bunyan,” Chas said. “Dell’s my dad. I’m home from the Navy. You might be a little confused. I think you might have got a little hypoglycemic last night on the trail. Are you diabetic?”
“No.”
“I wasn’t sure. Anyway, breakfast is on the table. There’s a toilet down the hall. Get dressed and come on out to the kitchen.”
ON HIS WAY to the kitchen, Jace peeked into the rug room. No one there but dead bears and a lynx or two.
Flapjacks, sausages, scrambled eggs, canned peaches, and coffee. Seconds, thirds, another percolated pot of coffee — there was no bottom to Jace’s appetite.
Chas joined him at the table, but all he had was coffee.
“Thank you,” Jace said, “for taking me in.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m only glad we caught you in time.”
“We?”
“Adam and Proverbs had you loaded in a sled. I brought you here and poured sugary cocoa into you. That seemed to perk you up.”
Jace remembered something about a sled, but it was hard to fathom the boys actually helping him. “You’re in the Navy?”
“Yeah, I’m a SEAL.”
Jace’s estimation of the man rose. He seemed — level-headed — like his father but without all the religious hooey. He seemed — trustworthy.
“By the way, ranger — ”
“Call me Jace.”
“By the way, Jace, I’m curious. What were you doing out there on foot?”
Jace wondered if he should confide his secret to this man. After all, they were both uniformed agents of the same Uncle Sam. Until that moment he hadn’t given much thought as to how to proceed. There was no question that he needed experts to take charge of the alien artifact. But maybe not the military. Anyone who ever watched sci-fi films knew that the military’s first impulse was to smash whatever it didn’t understand, not study it.
“I was doing some field work on the Mizina,” Jace said, “and my machine quit. It’s a long walk back.”
“I’ll say. But don’t you guys have backup or something?”
“Well, I filed a trip plan,” Jace lied, “but Masterson wouldn’t come looking for me unless I failed to show up this morning. Which reminds me, I’d better call in. Do you have phone service out here?”
“We’re on the edge, and it’s spotty. But at these temps it’s usually pretty good.” Chas rose from the table. “I’ll get my phone. And then I’ll take you out to fetch your snowmachine.”
“Not necessary. Masterson will do it. About time he started earning his keep.”
“Masterson, eh?”
“Yeah, our LE Ranger.”
“I’ve heard about that one.”
“Better hide your kittens.”
They both got a chuckle out of that.
WHEN JACE REACHED Masterson on Chas’ cell and told him about his mechanical problems, Masterson said, “Leave it where it is. Weather’s supposed to warm up in a few days. We’ll get it then. I’m up to my tits in Nips right now. Ask Dell to bring you in.”
“I think we should get it now.”
“What’s the rush? Sounds like it’s not going anywhere.”
“The Prophecys know it’s out there.”
“The Prophecys left for Anchorage.”
“I know that, but they returned last night. They saw me on foot on the trail, so they’re bound to figure out my ride was crippled. You want to give them time to go out and put a bullet through the engine block?”
It was a shame to use the Prophecy card, but it was effective, and after a drawn-out pause, Masterson said, “I’ll be there in an hour. I’ll bring tools.”
“Bring gas too.”
“You ran outta gas? That’s your so-called mechanical problem? You got high and forgot to fill up before you left?”
“No and no. Bring a come-along too and about a hundred feet of tow rope.”
“Just what kind of mechanical trouble you have anyway?”
“And binoculars. Bring binoculars. And a camera with a telephoto lens if you have one.”
VW2 1.0
DAWN LIGHT TRICKLED through the frosted window of the prayer cabin. The sound of sno-gos entering the yard awakened Poppy. He lingered under the warm heap of comforters trying to remember why he had chosen to sleep in the prayer cabin instead of the house where it was warm. The boys had continued to work through the night transferring their critical supplies from the rental truck, and it sounded like they were still at it. He remembered telling Adam to build a fire in his stove, but it must have gone out hours ago, leaving none of its heat behind.
Poppy heard multiple voices in the yard, laughter, bickering. He braved the bitter cold of the cabin to scrape ice from the window and look out. His children were home, but it wasn’t his sons who had brought them. The Bunyans had, the pastor and his daughter, Scarlett. The old crybaby had finally gotten the playdate for his kid he’d been angling for at Mail Day.
There was only one thing for Poppy to do — restart the fire and go back to sleep until the Bunyans left. But when he searched the floor for his slippers, his foot bumped into something, and it all came flooding back: the strange light on the flats, the tracks in the snow, the heavenly object they had brought here so he could pray over it. It was nearly as long as the cabin itself. He reached for his trousers and unsnapped the Bible holster. If this thing was what he thought it was, he’d surely find mention of it in Revelation.
VW3 1.0
IF ANYTHING, SARAI had grown bossier while the
y were away. “See-Saw, you bunk with Cora, and Revie bunks with Frankie.”
“Nuh-uh,” Cora said. “No way. Let her bunk with Myrrh. I’m the elder, and I’m not sharing my bed.”
“Not fair,” Myrrh said.
“Not fair,” echoed her twin.
Sarai threw up her hands. “Fair? You want to talk about what’s fair in this house?” She told Deut to deal with them and stalked out of the bunkroom. The girls all turned to Deut.
“It’s only for a little while,” she said. “Ginger’s only here for a couple of weeks, and Adam will figure out something for Sue.”
“It’s okay,” said See-Saw, the littlest girl. “Can I sleep with you?”
“Sure,” Deut said. “You and me, sister.” She turned to Cora, but Cora was fifteen years old and dreamed of having her own bedroom to herself. So she looked at the twins.
“Fine,” Frankie said. “We’ll take turns. Revie can sleep with me one night and with Myrrh the next. Satisfied?”
“Thank you,” Deut said. “I’m glad you’re all being so helpful. Elder Brother Jesus must be smiling.”
The girls went back to unpacking their little travel bags but stopped to watch when their guests came in. Ginger had a carry-on bag and a duffel, while Sue wheeled in two large suitcases. She set them in the middle of the room and scanned the beds. “Which one’s mine?” she said.
“This one,” Deut replied, patting See-Saw’s bunk. “As soon as we get the sheets changed.”
“Don’t you have a top bunk,” Sue said. “I don’t like bottom bunks.”
Revie’s bed was also a lower bunk. “Fine,” Frankie repeated. “I’ll trade her.”
“Thanks,” Sue said. “In the meantime, I’ll take a shower. After yesterday, I’m pretty rank.”
The girls giggled. “We don’t have a shower,” Myrrh said. “We have a bathhouse.”
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