The Warrior's Way. Jenna Kernan
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us about your plan to create a makeshift dam with a series of controlled blasts at the narrow point of our canyon.”
Her eyes flashed to Jack’s and held. “That was not at all what I advised.”
Gill continued as if she had not made an objection.
“We feel, that should the Skeleton Cliff Dam fail, we would not have time to evacuate our people.”
“I can assure you, it is very safe, protected by our Bureau and the state highway patrol.”
“Yes, we know. We have seen them and our warriors have gotten past them. Back to my point—if the dam was to fail, how long would we have to evacuate?”
Gotten past them? That wasn’t good at all.
“That would depend on the scale of the breach.”
Gill lifted his thin brow at her. “Total breach.”
She drew a breath and released it. There was no way to deliver hard news but directly.
“Minutes,” she said.
* * *
JACK WATCHED SOPHIA’S face as she delivered the news that the two settlements along the river, Piñon Forks and Koun’nde, would not have enough warning to evacuate.
“But they could be moved to higher ground now. You have three towns. Those in the lower two could move to...” She lifted her gaze to the ceiling as she tried to retrieve the name of their third and smallest town.
“Turquoise Ridge,” Jack said.
She smiled at him and his stomach trembled in a way that he hadn’t experienced since middle school, when all his hormones had been popping in different directions. He grimaced. The woman was near desperate to be clear of them all. He knew that, but still he could not deny that, even knowing she couldn’t wait to be rid of him, he was still imagining what she’d look like out of that suit.
“They could relocate there,” said Sophia.
Zachery Gill took that one. “We have only sixteen hundred members. Over nine hundred live on the rez, nearly all of whom live along the river. Turquoise Ridge is for our miners and loggers. There’s nothing up there but rock and ponderosa pine.”
“But it’s high ground,” she said.
“It’s impossible. We even asked FEMA for temporary housing. I’ll bet you can guess the answer.”
Judging from the pressing of her full lips, Jack felt that she did. FEMA would not provide emergency housing before an emergency and the federal and state officials had indicated that all was safe regarding the reservoir system.
“Did you say you got men past the security?” she asked.
“Men and women. The road across the top of the dam is blocked with one concrete barrier on each side and a state police vehicle on the east side. We were allowed on tours with only our tribal identification cards and saw the inner workings of each dam during public tours. We were allowed to walk up to the top of the dam.”
“Single individuals could not carry enough explosives to destroy a dam. At worst they’d damage the power station.”
“We have a twenty-four-foot police boat, which had been seized from the property of a drug dealer convicted on their rez. We use it for water rescues and search-and-rescue.”
He had her attention.
“We were able to bring it and a flat fifteen-foot Zodiac with a load capacity of 250 pounds simultaneously within ten feet of the base of the dam. We were there nearly forty-five minutes before there was a response.”
Sophia was no longer meeting the director’s gaze. Instead she was staring into space. A moment later she reached for her phone.
“I need to check in.”
“You’re on leave,” reminded the shaman.
“But if what you say is true then I need to report this.”
Zach smiled. “We tell you this for two reasons. One, because we wish you to see that we are vulnerable.”
They waited but Zach said no more. Sophia glanced at Jack, the look of confusion evident. He did nothing but glance back to the executive director. But now there seemed to be a steel band around his ribs squeezing away the air from his lungs and making it hard to draw a full breath. If just looking at her did this to him, he really, really needed to avoid touching her. Yet he could think of nothing else.
Sophia inadvertently rescued him by directing her expressive dark eyes at Gill.
“What is the other reason?”
“You are here and you are listening.”
“Yes, but I can’t help you blow up the canyon. It would be an ecological disaster for the river, not to mention destroying the water supply to both Red Rock and Mesa Salado Dams below this position.”
“We disagree,” said Kenshaw. “Creating a temporary dam of rock and debris would actually save both dams from the flood and debris that would at best test the limits of their infrastructure. All reservoirs are at their limits now after a record rain. We believe this is what BEAR has been waiting for. The rains have come and gone and the water is high.”
“I can’t help you do this.” She folded her arms. The action lifted her breasts.
Jack stared and when he finally tore his gaze away, it was to meet Ray’s knowing glance. Jack wanted to knock the smirk off his face. Ray had settled down since marrying Morgan and taking on the role as father to Lisa. They were now expecting their first child, but there was still devilment in him. Ray leaned toward Dylan Tehauno and whispered something. Dylan’s gaze snapped to Jack, and he stared with wide eyes full of surprise. Jack had a reputation for being very selective when it came to women. Jack shook the thoughts from his head and realized Kenshaw was speaking, his voice as hypnotic as the wavering notes of a flute.
“No need to decide and no action to take. Tonight we will pray and dance and perhaps then know better what direction to go.”
“Folks will be arriving soon,” said Gill to Sophia. “You are welcome to join us. Tomorrow Jack will take you to the reservoir system. You can see if you think the protection is adequate. After that we will talk again.”
Sophia stood. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I think I will turn in. Early start tomorrow.”
Actually they would start late. Jack wanted her to see the day tours, but also night surveillance because Kenshaw was right. It was not that hard to get past one state police car parked at one end of each dam. Closing the bridge spanning the dam was a predictable security measure. But one Humvee followed by a tractor trailer could knock the concrete barrier aside without even slowing down.
There were many things Jack wanted to show Sophia Rivas. But he would stick to the ones relating to the reservoir system. For now.
Jack followed Sophia out of the council lodge. He paused to grab her kerosene lantern. The lantern was unnecessary really, because of the waning moon, now in its quarter. The silvery light reflected back on the placid surface of the Hakathi River.
“You forgot your lantern,” he said and offered her the handle.
She made a sniffing sound. “I don’t like them.”
“Lanterns?”
“Yes, lanterns—they smell,” she said.
“I like it—it smells like—”
“Poverty,” she said, finishing his sentence.
He cocked his head at the odd association. Did she mean that people used kerosene when they had no electricity? For him the association of the lantern brought back memories of camping along the river as a boy, but perhaps she did not have electricity in her home on Black Mountain. His tribe had some homes on propane up in Turquoise Ridge,