Chapter Twenty-seven

Jack and Oscar were in Jack's room at La Fonda looking at Blue Wolf's building plans, which had been filed with the city. It had been easy to get them: a simple request from the FBI to city hall and within minutes they were looking at the old drawings.

The problem is they had been over and over them for hours and there seemed to be no way there could be a secret underground lab set up beneath the hospital.

Jack nodded and felt an intense frustration rising. Then he spotted something.

“What the hell? Look at this.”

“Look at what?”

“Look at the name of the engineer on the plans.”

Oscar looked down.

“Says approved by city engineer Gerald Hoffman.”

“Right,” Jack said, “and when I first met the Blue Wolf council I was introduced to a guy named Jerry Hoffman. He was Blue Wolf's architect.”

“Very interesting.”

“Isn't it? Let's say you're a young guy in Santa Fe and you have this cozy job as a city engineer. Not bad, as city jobs go, but maybe it's as high as you can get in city government. Then you meet a guy like Alex Williams who says Blue Wolf is going to be building for years and years.”

“Yeah, so you maybe don't worry about a basement they put in the building.”

“Or wherever it is. What we need is something that tells us more about the surrounding landscape.”

“I know exactly what we need.”

Jack typed into his laptop: “Geological Surveys, Santa Fe, New Mexico.”

A few minutes later they had found what they were looking for: geological surveys of Santa Fe from the 1800s to the present.

They quickly went through the first few, then found something interesting. It was a survey that had been done by an architect named Gerald Hoffman and a geologist named Gary Wohl.

Jack was stunned.

“Look at this. Wohl says in this survey that they were looking for one of the lost Tewa Pueblo Indian tunnels that the Indians had built to hide from the Spanish conquistadores. The caves were never found but are said to still exist. Wohl claims to have found remnants of the old cave and tunnel system.”

Jack looked at it and shook his head in amazement.

“It's odd, though. The rest of the report gives the soil and rock composition but never says whether or not they found the actual cave.”

“Come on,” Oscar said, “that's because there is no cave. Even if it had been there it would be gone by now. The sands out there are shifting constantly. Whatever existed probably would have caved in by now.”

“Maybe not,” Jack said. “Trey built those burial caves to last. They might have thought they would have to be underground for long periods of time. Let's say Blue Wolf found the remnants of a cave and then, if they had a need for secrecy, maybe they rebuilt it deep in the ground. Maybe no one but a few of the elect on the staff even knows about it. Then they could take people from Blue Wolf to the cave for the ceremony.”

Oscar shook his head. “But these are all just old legends,” he said.

“But remember that Tommy said something about ‘under.’ Underground. That's got to be it. Whatever is happening is happening out there. And I just thought of someone who might know a lot more about it than she let on.”

He turned off the computer and grabbed his shoulder holster.

“C'mon, Oscar, we got a party to crash.”

They roared out on the highway toward the mountains of the moon.

They were stopped by the guard at Blue Wolf, but Jack showed him his FBI card and they were quickly buzzed through.

They drove to the residence buildings, parked in the lot, and walked into the lobby.

Jack hit the buzzer and Kim Walker answered.

“Hi, Kim. It's Jack Harper.”

“Jack, what a surprise. But do you always just show up without calling? I'm afraid I'm rather busy just now.”

“This won't take long, Kim,” Jack said. “ I think I've found Jennifer and I really need your help.”

“Jack, I'm happy for you,” she said in a hesitant voice, “but I'm not at all sure what I can do. And I'm afraid I'm going out tonight.”

“This is a matter of life and death,” Jack said.

“Well, all right then, though I can't imagine what help I'll be.”

She buzzed the door and Jack and Oscar were inside, headed up to the fourth floor.

Kim Walker was dressed in a bathrobe, her wet hair combed back.

“Kim, this is my partner,” Jack said. “Oscar Hidalgo. I haven’t been frank with you, I’m afraid. We’re both FBI agents.”

She turned away and walked toward the bar.

“Is that right?” she said. “Well, that’s very interesting. But as I said before, I’m not sure how I—”

“I’ll tell you what’s interesting,” Jack said. “Kidnapping. Kidnapping is a major crime. Especially if there’s violence and guns involved. Don’t you agree, Oscar?”

“Si, es muy malo. You could go to prison for eight or nine years for just holding the person. Then, when firearms and violence are involved, well, that could make things much more interesting. Like eighteen years. And, of course, if the person kidnapped is a woman, well, many judges are very unforgiving. Could be maybe twenty-five years.”

Kim Walker’s hand began to shake a little. She poured a glass of white wine and sipped it.

“Now those are tough sentences,” Jack said, “but what is really tough is if the kidnapping victim is killed. Then the miscreants become candidates for a first-degree murder charge.”

“Murder?” Kim asked.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Jack said. “That you wouldn’t have anything to do with murder. But see, if you’re an accomplice to murder, meaning if you don’t tell us what you know about Jennifer Wu and if, tragically, she happened to be killed, then you would be a full accomplice to murder and suffer the same fate as the actual killers. Which would be life in prison. Many people think that might actually be worse than the death penalty.”

Kim Walker’s face looked pale as she quickly drank her wine. She pulled her robe up to her neck, as though she were trying to disappear.

“Well,” she said, “I don’t think this has anything to do with me.”

“That’s a good thing,” Jack said. “I’d hate to see you in jail as a lifer. They don’t have many massages in prison, unless you count the ones you get from the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound dykes who share your cell.”

“And to think I really liked you,” Kim said.

“Did you?” Jack responded.

He walked toward her and stared down at her.

“I liked you, too, until I started wondering why you were so anxious to meet me. Listen, Kim, we know something is going down tomorrow night. You tell us what it is and we’ll talk to the district attorney for you.”

“You have no idea what you’re getting into,” Kim said. “This isn’t a criminal gang you’re breaking up. It’s the most important discovery since . . .”

“Go ahead and say it,” a voice said from behind them. “Why be falsely modest? It’s the most important discovery since the beginning of human history.”

Jack and Oscar turned and saw Lucky Avila and two of his goons walk into the room. They held pistols in their hands.

“Drop your gun, Jack. I’d hate to have to kill you before you had a peek at what we’re talking about.”

Jack gave Oscar a quick look but neither of them had a real chance. They did as Lucky demanded.

Lucky smiled and went over to Oscar.

“I don’t know you, friend, but you’ve chosen the wrong side in this battle. Turn around.”

Oscar was slow to do it, so Lucky cracked him on the side of the head with his gun butt. Oscar went down hard on the condo floor.

Jack stepped forward to help him but was bludgeoned by one of the other boys and fell on top of his partner.

“Don’t they look peaceful there?” Lucky commented. “Well, they wanted to know what was really going on and now they’re going to find out. Roll them up in that rug and get their asses down the stairs to the car.”

Kim shook her head. “They’re FBI,” she said.

“Yeah, I know,” Lucky said. “If they weren’t, they would already be dead. This has to be handled with some tact and discretion.”

“Not your strong suit,” Kim said.

“Shut the fuck up before I decide to make you the star of the show.” Kim didn’t need to be told again.