Steal the Sun by A E Maxwell

Author:A E Maxwell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780523480770
Publisher: Doherty
Published: 1981-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico

5 Hours 14 Minutes After Trinity

Kestrel drove the narrow desert with fierce concentration. Heat made his Indio makeup blur and run, but there was no one close enough to notice. Even so, he would have to pull off and change his clothes. A flimsy disguise was dangerous, and the need for this one was gone.

He sped toward El Paso and a public telephone that he could use to call Takagura again. The telephone call would be risky but necessary. He must have a reply to the message he had sent. If new orders had been issued he must have those, too.

Perhaps Ana had called Takagura, reporting the success or failure of Refugio.

Kestrel noticed his speed and slowed down, watching for side roads. In his haste he had already become lost once in the maze of dirt tracks threading through the Jornada del Muerto. He had bumped around for a long time before he had found a road leading back to the main highway. Now he needed somewhere to hide long enough to shed the Indio disguise.

He spotted a windmill and a dirt road, and swerved off the highway. The dirt track dipped into an arroyo deep enough to conceal his car. On the lip of the arroyo, the windmill turned lazily, filling a stock tank with water one deliberate revolution at a time. Scattered cows chewed on mesquite bushes, undisturbed by the dusty car that had coasted to a stop near the water tank.

Kestrel slid out of the car and watched the dirt track behind him. Nothing moved but thin spirals of dust rising into the sun. He stripped and scrubbed himself in the tank until no trace remained of his Indio disguise. The water was clear and surprisingly cold. The listless wind dried him as he walked back to ¿he car. Kestrel watched the dust puff beneath his feet and the horizon endlessly falling away beneath a hard blue sky. He marveled at the land’s immensity and austerity, its only inhabitants silver mirages twisting above the sand.

Kestrel stood unmoving in the pouring light, letting heat draw tension out of his body. After a few moments, he rolled the clothes he had worn and buried them in the arroyo. The cattle stared at him with languid eyes, then turned away, more interested in mesquite beans than in the enigmatic motions of man.

Dust from Kestrel’s long drive across the desert had filtered into the car’s trunk, but the clothes inside the metal-bound suitcase were still clean and neatly creased. Beginning with cotton GI underwear, Kestrel quickly pulled on the uniform of an American captain. He tied the narrow black tie in a knot that matched the one in his ID picture, tucked his shirttail in his tan pants, adjusted his belt, and unwrapped the shiny black shoes. They were too wide. He tied their laces so tightly the leather overlapped. He shined the toes on his sleeve in an American gesture he had acquired from his college roommate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.