“Guess who I heard from?” Alice was smiling. Gabriel hadn’t seen his wife genuinely happy for months.
He stared at his her tiny image on his screen. Gabriel was in his trailer in Southern Idaho, and Alice was using a non-encrypted videophone borrowed by her friends at tribal headquarters. “I’m afraid to speculate,” he said, his heart hammering.
“I talked to a person of interest. And I talked to an old friend. I can’t say more over this connection. So call me?”
“In a heartbeat.”
A minute later Gabriel was using a key encrypted line routed through a bank in Salt Lake City. “Hi,” Alice said. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. Out with it woman.”
“Fred Loud Owl and Snowfeather called from an encrypted phone—somehow, Loud Owl has access to this spy stuff. Fred wants to get Snowfeather to see you, Gabriel. I’m so jealous.”
“Just me? You should be there. It has been so long. When?”
“Actually we’ll all meet here at the Intertribal Center, if that can be arranged. Then she wants to get away with you and you slip out unseen. Remember, Gabriel, I’m working under an alias.”
“We can sneak off to our old camping place.”
“Now I really am jealous.”
“How did they find you?” Gabriel asked.
“Oh, you know Fred Loud Owl and his tribal connections.”
Holding the encrypted sat-phone in hand, Gabriel pushed his chair away from the counter where the laptop was set up and reached for dog food in the drawer under the sink. “So how did Snowfeather find him?”
“Good question. Turns out you did some business with a man named Roberto Kahn?”
“Yes. He is a lawyer based in Arizona that I consulted with on parts of the Habitat project. Nice young man.”
“Well he has also worked with Fred Loud Owl. And in one of those providential fate encounters, Kahn saw Snowfeather on a ferry in the San Juan Islands when she was on the run from Berker. He figured out who she was and gave her his business card. Eventually, she connected with him in Tucson and he called in Fred.”
“Sounds like providence was at work,” Gabriel said.
“I agree. Well anyway, Fred picked her up and used one of his Spirit Journey outings to give her some space to think. Fred always knows the perfect hideouts.”
“That sounds just like Fred,” Gabriel said, laughing. As he poured dog food into a tray at his feet, Fat Fox crawled between his legs, tangling the laptop power cord. “When can we see her?” The black chow began attacking his dinner with noisy enthusiasm.
“What’s that sound?”
“Fat Fox is having dinner under my feet.”
“Tickle him for me.”
“I will. Hey. I have some news, myself,” he said.
“Don’t tell me someone called you?”
“Yes. People do call me here. Bill collectors, old constituents, Cousin Steve, your Uncle Max. All to complain. But this was different. Are you ready for my news?”
“Ready.”
“I have found John Owen.”
“Thank God. He finally called? He’s okay? Out with it, Gabriel. Did John Owen call you or what?”
“His assistant Ken Wang did. By the way, Ken is John’s new son-in-law.”
“What? Isn’t that quick?”
“Yes, but consider Elisabeth’s situation. Her baby was born after Josh died in that Vector plant fire, and John sent her into hiding. It seems that Ken Wang was assigned to protect her. Well she had the baby, time passed, and the little guy has already had his first birthday. John told me that Ken and Elisabeth got married in Montana and Ken has adopted the boy.”
“Montana? That’s next door! Gabriel, it’s so hard to catch up. I wasn’t even sure John was alive. And Elisabeth… How is her little boy?”
“Fine. More to the point—safe. They call him Little Josh, after his dad.”
“Where is John?”
“Okay… He’s in hiding at a secret location.”
“Thank God. We heard that the blood and tissue the police found in that Seattle warehouse matched John’s DNA.”
“I know, but that’s not the whole story,” Gabriel said. “John was tied up at the scene of his kidnapping. He cut his way loose and early bled out as a result; but his people got him away safely to Canada. As of now, he’s off the continent, and I don’t want to know where. I’m hoping the G-A-N freaks think he’s dead. It was a pretty hairy kidnap, Alice. It was all about the Treaty vote. John escaped by cutting off his own right hand.”
There was a long silence. “Oh. My. God. Is he okay?”
“Yes. Minus his right hand.”
“John is amazing. Give him a hug from me…if you ever reach him again.”
“I hope I can. Ken Wang left me a couple of encrypted numbers and some passwords to use for emergencies. Oh, I almost forgot the other big story. John is restarting Edge Medical and Vector Pharmaceuticals…locations undisclosed, for obvious reasons.”
“So John is now an illegal drug dealer?”
“That’s about it. Aren’t you glad you married me?”
“My mother warned me about dating you.”
“So did mine,” Gabriel said, chuckling.
“Yes, she did, too, come to think of it…”