- -
- 100%
- +
MILLS & BOON
Before you start reading, why not sign up?
Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!
SIGN ME UP!
Or simply visit
signup.millsandboon.co.uk
Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.
To Mary Buckner, RN, and Linda Metzler,
Physician’s Assistant, friends. Thank you for your
help and support over the years; I couldn’t have
gotten this far without you. George Abbott, we
couldn’t ask for a better neighbor. In a day and
age where respect, honesty, integrity and courtesy
are dimming in our society, you shine with these
wonderful human qualities. We’re lucky we live in
the same canyon with you.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER ONE
“THE VICE PRESIDENT of the United States needs to die. Now!”
Rogan Yalua Soquili, known as Fast Horse, was insistent as he stood triumphantly outside the circle of twelve Native American women. Their rapt attention fixed on the Cherokee métis medicine man, they sat in their ceremonial garb. Rogan placed his hands on the strong, capable shoulders of Blue Wolf, a Shoshone woman near his own age of forty-five.
“Make it happen,” he declared, his voice booming.
The Sierra Nevadas in early June took on a shadowy, menacing aura as midday thunderclouds grew above them. Rogan looked around gleefully. They were nestled within the Eagle’s Nest, his compound built high in the mountains, on a cliff. The wooden walls provided them sanctuary as they stood on the hard-packed earth. It was the perfect place to carry out their task. The air around them leaped and throbbed with living energy.
In the center of the women’s circle, a light feathery mist began to gather. It moved counterclockwise, never touching any of the participants. Rogan watched, mesmerized, as the wispy cloud became darker and began to resemble a doughnut whose hole was closing. Cauliflower-like towers grew upward from the sluggishly swirling clouds, and when flashes of lightning occurred, Rogan’s jaw dropped in awe. Surely, the ceremonial Storm Pipe and these women were connected to the most powerful magic he’d ever seen. Excitement coursed through him.
The women chanted as one, their voices rising and falling as the thundercloud built with the whipping wind. Rogan’s hair fell across his face, but he didn’t feel it. His eyes were on the cloud invoked by the sacred pipe Blue Wolf held in her hands. With each chant, the intensity increased and the thundercloud turned more malevolent, eventually shooting skyward to thirty thousand feet. It was coming from the pipe; Rogan could see the energy flowing out of its bowl.
As he stood behind her, he dug his fingers into Blue Wolf’s sturdy shoulders. The rhythmic chanting ebbed and flowed, ebbed and flowed. The very pulse of the building storm responded to the women’s voices, which rose in a powerful crescendo.
Rogan’s order echoed throughout the cedar structure on the side of the mountain. Standing in the west, the position of death, he kept his firm contact with Blue Wolf’s elk skin-covered shoulders. Like a bolt of lightning, heat and electricity coursed through his hands, leaped up his arms and shimmered throughout his tense body. Keeping his knees slightly bent, Rogan closed his eyes, took a deep breath into his abdomen and then slowly released it.
The thundercloud manifested by the pipe and the women was inspiring to Rogan. He’d never seen anything like this. Oh, he knew ceremonial pipes were powerful, but to create a mighty thunderhead in a matter of minutes…that was awesome. Lightning continued to radiate from the dark, churning mass far above them. Most of the electricity, millions of volts, was held within the cloud. Rogan knew that the powers involved with the pipe would not allow any of it to harm the circle of women. It would be contained within the building storm overhead.
Rogan gazed around at the seated figures. Their knees touched one another to maintain physical contact. In doing so, they became the container for the Storm Pipe’s power, and helped direct the energy and the building of the thunderhead.
Blue Wolf lifted a very old pipe made of catlinite, its red bowl glowing in her hands. The smooth, polished oak stem was decorated with small seed beads depicting a thunderstorm with a lightning bolt. She began to sing a ceremonial song to invite the lightning that flashed above them. Her hands grew hot and felt as if they were burning; they were merely responding to the power amassing through the powerful ceremonial pipe.
The women gripped one another’s hands at the right moment, as the electrical charge within the churning clouds swirled, growing in strength. The two sitting next to the pipe carrier each placed a hand on her waist, for Blue Wolf needed her hands free, to hold the pipe upward in supplication.
Her voice rose and fell, like a howling wind moving within the circle. She felt Rogan grip her shoulders more tightly with anticipation. He couldn’t hold the pipe himself, for the ceremonial object belonged only to women. If he touched it, he’d die instantly. He could focus the energy, however, and direct it to whomever he envisioned in his mind.
Today, the vice president would die. Blue Wolf smiled inwardly as she sang from her heart and soul.
Their song became more strident, in accord with the energy unveiling itself before them. The Storm Pipe felt almost too hot to hold any longer, but Blue Wolf focused, as she had been taught. All the women in the circle felt the same heat, she knew. They held the pipe’s energy, carrying the power, just as a womb cradled a growing baby.
Rogan smiled inwardly as he maintained his grip on Blue Wolf’s shoulders. She was trembling physically now. The building energy made her sweat freely, as it did him. Her singing changed in pitch, and at that moment, Rogan pictured the vice president’s face in his mind. Focus! He must focus one hundred percent.
Dizzy from the gathering, spinning energy, Rogan was trembling so badly he collapsed to his knees. As if he were a lightning rod, an electrical current leaped and flowed through his hands, up his arms and through his body. That was Rogan’s mission as he understood it: to ground the power of the Thunder Beings that trod restlessly across Father Sky. He began to slip into a deep, altered state as the chanting continued. It was all Rogan could do to stay mentally connected.
Stealing the Storm Pipe had been the key, he thought with satisfaction. His body was vibrating now, so fast he felt as if he were shredding apart, cell by cell. Too powerful an energy could make a person vanish into thin air. It wasn’t happening to him due to the great strength and long training of these twelve women, he knew.
Sweat poured down his tense, kneeling form. His deerskin shirt and breeches were soaked through. Then Blue Wolf moved her arms and pointed the pipe eastward, toward Washington.
Now! he screamed to her mentally. Visualizing the face of the vice president, Rogan issued his final order. Force the pipe to release its charge now, Blue Wolf! Now!
He was unprepared for that very thing happening. As the release was triggered, a flash of light occurred, and he was flung six feet backward. Scrambling to his hands and knees, he looked around, stunned. The sky remained turbulent. Angry purple-and-gray clouds still churned above them. But already the thunderstorm, created by the twelve women’s intent, with the help of the pipe, was beginning to dissipate. Had the ceremonial pipe done its deed?
FBI AGENT DAVID COLBY WAS standing next to Vice President Robert Hiram when an incredible wave of heat surged like a tsunami through the large office. His boss, Mort Jameson, was in the middle of his daily report when the bulletproof window began to glow like sun-scorched rocks in a desert, followed by an earsplitting boom. Thrown off his feet, Colby slammed into the wall and was knocked semiconscious. The agent heard the vice president scream. Momentarily blinded, Colby slowly crawled to his hands and knees, disoriented. Automatically, he pulled the revolver from his shoulder holster beneath his dark suit jacket.
As Colby staggered to his feet, sweat trickled off him. He felt as if he was in a steam room! Mort Jameson was groaning and trying to sit up. That’s when Colby noticed the vice president lying flat on the carpeted floor, mouth open, eyes staring sightlessly toward the ceiling.
Beyond the massive cherry desk, the window was still intact. There’d been no sound of a bullet being fired, only that deafening boom. What was going on? What the hell had just happened? The agent holstered the gun.
“Colby! Call for backup!” Mort yelled as he stumbled to his feet and ran over to the unmoving vice president. Dropping to his knees, he yanked the man’s tie loose, then pressed his fingers against his neck. “No pulse! Get help!”
Colby lurched. His ears were ringing, so much he could barely hear the shouted orders. Why wasn’t everyone piling into the room? The door was still shut.
Confused, he grabbed the doorknob. Surely someone had heard the awful booming sound? He swore he’d seen a bolt of lightning lance through the only window in the office.
Saliva dripped from the corners of Colby’s mouth as he yanked open the door. He had little control over his body. Unable to stand, the FBI agent called for help and medical personnel, then sagged against the jamb.
His eyes were blurred and unfocused now, his legs quivering uncontrollably. As his muscles gave way, he slowly sank to the floor.
“THE VICE PRESIDENT IS dead,” Dr. Scott Friedman announced to the small group of men in business suits. “From what I can tell, it was a heart attack. An autopsy will be performed shortly and we’ll know for sure.”
“My God,” Mort muttered, wiping his face with a linen handkerchief. The knot of men stood in a room adjoining the vice president’s hospital suite.
Mort’s frown deepened as he glanced at Agent Colby. Thirty-three years old and one of his best agents, the man was pale and shaken. In fact, after examining him, the doctors had told him to stay in the hospital because he was weak and disoriented, but Colby had steadfastly refused.
“This is…such a shock,” the President’s press secretary, Burt Daily, stammered. “What are we going to tell the media?” He kept his clipboard and pen poised as he scanned the group.
Mort Jameson glanced at the head of the CIA, Bucky Caldwell, and then at the Chief of Staff, Rodney Portman. The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Myron Klein, a marine, looked grim. “The doctor said it was a heart attack,” Mort repeated.
“But…” Daily looked around the group “…the vice president didn’t have a history of heart trouble. The man had low cholesterol, for chrissakes! He’d just had his annual physical two weeks ago. At fifty, he was healthy as a horse. Do you think the American public is going to believe this?”
“I don’t have the answer you’re looking for,” Friedman told them. “I’m just as puzzled over his death as you are. The autopsy will reveal more. I gave the vice president a clean bill of health.” Shrugging, he added, “His heart just gave out.”
“Agent Colby?” Mort zeroed in on the man. Colby had the face of a lean wolf on the prowl. His gray eyes were focused, the irises large and ringed in black.
Colby shifted his attention to him. “Yes, sir?”
“Escort Dr. Friedman from the room, please?”
“Yes, sir.” When he gestured toward the door, the doctor took the hint, said goodbye and left. Colby made sure the door was shut, then turned and walked back to the cloistered group.
“Something hit us in that room, sir,” Colby stated, giving each man present a serious look. “I felt heat, burning heat, building up seconds before that bolt of lightning, or whatever it was, struck the vice president. At first, I thought it was a summer storm. But we had blue skies and sunshine. From what I can tell, it wasn’t weather induced.”
Mort grimly nodded. “I need your help, gentlemen. I had the very same experience Agent Colby did. There was tremendous heat in the room. It hurt to breathe in that superheated air. And then—” Mort clapped his hands together “—there was a tremendous booming sound, something you might hear right after a lightning bolt struck close to you. The sound still has my ears ringing. Something came through that window, but the window’s still intact. Somehow this bolt killed the vice president, and it knocked the hell out of me and Agent Colby in the process.” He rubbed his jowls and studied the other men in the circle. “You got any ideas?”
“No,” the CIA director, Caldwell, said, “but I have my agents combing the room with the most sophisticated gear available. We’re trying to discover what the hell went down. Was it an act of terrorism or an act of God? I’ve got agents talking to the weather service gurus to find out if lightning can strike out of a blue sky and leave a window unbroken.”
General Klein, built like a short but powerful pit bull, lifted his green eyes to the group. “Gentlemen, I’d be looking for a more concrete explanation. It was an attack.”
“Jesus,” Daily whispered. “You’re standing here telling us this was a terrorist attack?”
“It’s possible,” Mort snapped, irritated by the press secretary’s whining demeanor. “You think we like what happened? Or the implications? If whatever it was can strike the vice president dead on the spot, whoever or whatever could do the same to the president. Which is why he and his staff have been put into hiding until we can figure this out. None of the ramifications are lost on us, believe me.”
Caldwell held up his hand. “Look, everyone stand down. We’re all shaken—badly shaken—but we’re working on this as fast as humanly possible.” He glanced at his Rolex. “I expect to have preliminary results in about thirty minutes. You’ll all be privy to whatever we find.”
Colby said, “I believe we’re dealing with something sophisticated.”
“Russian?” the press secretary asked, his face pained.
General Klein growled, “Either that or terrorists have suddenly gotten ahold of the most advanced laser equipment known. The Russians have developed them for defensive purposes. Star Wars technology scared the hell out of them, and they put their focus on weaponized development as a way to counter what we’re doing. Lasers are capable of this kind of destruction. We know that Russia was preparing to mount these on their satellites out in space.”
“Yes,” Caldwell said in a strangled tone, “and they’ve been testing their version of SDI in the Pacific against our military aircraft off and on the last two years. We have five blinded pilots in different military cargo aircraft who were targeted. We can’t prove it, of course, but the Russians are the only ones who have this kind of know-how and technology.”
“Laser technology is ready to be used,” General Klein agreed wearily. “And all fingers point to them.”
“Could it be other terrorists, though?” Daily insisted. “We know that the Russian labs in Moscow were looted six months ago. President Kasmarov never said what was stolen by the Chechens. Could it have been their laser equipment? Could they have gotten that stuff into our country unseen? Used it against the vice president?” He gave them all a desperate look. “My God, if that’s so…”
Holding up his hand, Mort said, “Don’t go there yet, Burt. We need time to do a thorough investigation. Right now, we’re all treating this as an attack from an unknown enemy.”
Shaking his head, Burt scribbled some notes on his clipboard. “The American public will panic if that’s what has really happened. Lasers loose in the country! My God…”
Chief of Staff Rodney Portman stirred and opened his hands, which had been clasped tightly in front of him. “Look, gentlemen, we all have our work cut out for us. I’m going to put in a call to the Russian ambassador about this, discreetly, of course. We have no proof they did anything.” He sighed and added, “I’ll make some preliminary forays with the ambassador and be back in touch.”
Klein snorted. “I’ll tell you what. You should, in the strongest terms possible, issue a communiqué to Kasmarov and let him know that he’s in our gun sights.”
Gray eyebrows raised, Portman gave the man a thin smile. “Diplomacy is a must here, General. You realize that. We’re not going in with guns blazing. We don’t have proof—yet.”
“I don’t need any,” Klein said. “No one in the world has advanced laser weaponry except those sons of bitches. This is them or the terrorists, and my hunch is it’s Kasmarov pushing his weight around. The president has put us at Defcon Three. And we’re staying there until this gets sorted out between all of you.”
“Dammit.” Daily groaned mournfully and shook his head.
“Go lie to the American public,” the CIA director ordered the press secretary. “Heart attack. Pure and simple. No big deal.”
“Got it,” Daily agreed, his voice grim as he scribbled more notes on his clipboard.
“Our job,” Mort told the group, “is to protect the president from any future attack. So, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen? We will remain in touch with one another to unscramble this debacle.”
Colby followed his boss out of the room. He was still feeling out of sorts, the dizziness assailing him off and on. He made sure he was near a wall whenever possible so he could reach out and stabilize himself. Something was wrong, but what? Was it really the Russians? Why would they do this at a time when Kasmarov had his hands full with internal problems of his country?
“Director?” Colby called as they walked out the doors of the hospital into the dusk. “I’m going back to the vice president’s office. I want to see if our team has come up with any clues.”
“Good idea, Agent Colby. You sure you’re up to this? You look like hell warmed over.”
Grinning tiredly, Colby said, “I’m a lot better off than the vice president, sir. I’ll be fine.”
“Go for it.” Mort smiled and walked down the sidewalk to an awaiting black limo.
Colby avoided the flock of reporters still hovering around the E.R. doors on the other side of the hospital. He reached the parking lot, opened the door of his dark-blue Toyota hybrid Camry and climbed in. Sitting there, he took a couple of deep breaths. Whatever had happened in that office had made him feel spacey, dizzy and out of his body. It was hard to focus, to stay grounded.
Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Colby realized he was lucky to be alive.
CHAPTER TWO
DORIS RED TURTLE, a medicine woman of the Cheyenne nation, scanned the circle of elderly women. They all sat without expression, even though the eight-sided hogan, windows open, was stifling as the Arizona summer sun beat down upon it. They had gathered in the Navajo nation, at a special place among the red sandstone monoliths near Monument Valley.
The medicine woman’s brows, thick and white with age, drew downward. “Rogan Fast Horse murdered the vice president of the United States four days ago. That is why I issued a plea for all of you to come here. He’s sworn to kill others in the president’s cabinet, and then the president himself.”
“Why should we care if he kills them?” Sparrow Hawk, an Apache medicine woman, spoke up. Her hair hung in two thick, gunmetal-gray braids. She wore a knee-length, blue calico gown, and cradled a pipe bag made of elk skin in the crook of her left arm.
Doris held the flashing black eyes of the Apache. “This is no time to thrash over the history of what whites have done to our nations. Rogan is a threat to all people, no matter what their skin color or gender.” Her gravelly voice dropped lower in warning. “As you know, two years ago, Rogan stole the Storm Pipe from the Hokahto, Blue Heron Society, of which we are all members. He acquired this sacred ceremonial pipe by murdering our sister, Cora Thunder Eagle, who carried it.”
Doris grimaced and added, “Rogan killed her daughter’s husband, Hal, as well. This is not news, of course.
“We were all worried what he’d do with this pipe. Sell it to a collector? Try to use it himself? But why would a man want a woman’s sacred pipe, which can only be handled by one of the sisters? Men can never access that power, no matter how hard they try. We all wondered what would happen. Well, now we know what he was planning to do with it.”
The women, who ranged in age from sixty to almost a hundred, all nodded in agreement. There were twelve of them present, representing a dozen Native American nations. Each medicine woman had been chosen, trained and appointed ambassador to this supersecret and sacred pipe society.
Doris looked to her right, her gaze settling on a tall, thin Navajo. “Agnes Spider Woman, who is our oldest member, will speak now. Grandmother?”
Agnes gave a slight smile of acknowledgment, her light-brown eyes watering, the lids sagging heavily at the corners. Her gaze moved slowly in a clockwise direction around the assemblage. Each medicine woman sat cross-legged on Navajo rugs that Agnes had woven by hand during her long life. Beneath the colorful rugs, the red clay was hard-packed, a reminder that Mother Earth lived with them in harmony. The rocks represented her bones, and the soil, her flesh. The only door to the hogan was open and a slight breeze entered, easing the stifling conditions. There were two small windows, one in the west and one in the south, that were open to allow a breeze. “Thank you, my sister Doris Red Turtle.”
Like Sparrow Hawk, Agnes cradled a ceremonial pipe in her left arm, for the Navajo nation. Veins stood out dramatically beneath the coppery skin of her hands. She moved her arthritic fingers gently across the beaded deerskin pipe bag that carried it. “Greetings, my sisters. I had asked Red Turtle, who is a powerful voice among our nations, to bring you here.” Her voice was reedy but still strong for her age as she exclaimed, “May the Great Mystery bear witness to our plight and give us direction to change it.”
Slowly lowering her birdlike arm, she said, “Rogan Fast Horse, a Cherokee métis medicine man from Nevada, plotted to steal a pipe from our Blue Heron Society. He made his intentions clear many, many years ago, but we gave his threats little attention. Our mistake was in not taking him seriously. We know there are some arrogant, power-hungry medicine men among the nations. Few, but they are there. Usually, they are blowhards, with no action behind their threats or bragging.”
Looking down at the pipe bundle in her arm, the beading of which showed a great blue heron standing near water, Agnes shook her head. Then she gazed around the circle. “Our society was created so long ago that we have no way to know how old it really is. Doris and I figure it may have begun three thousand years ago. We are nations with oral history, not a written one. And from all I have been told, the Hokahto Society is very, very old.”