The soldiers arrived before dark.
Twenty-three cavalrymen rode into view beneath a flag snapping in the desert wind.
Their officer ordered the column to stop outside the Apache camp.
Caleb stood beside Nahko.
Elena stood on her father's other side.
"This could go badly," Caleb murmured.
Elena glanced at him.
"Another of your useful observations?"
"I'm full of them."
The officer rode forward alone.
Captain Warren Hale.
Caleb recognized him immediately.
That was becoming an unpleasant habit.
Hale had aged since Caleb last saw him. His hair carried gray at the temples, but his posture remained rigid.
"Mercer."
Caleb nodded.
"Captain."
"You remember me."
"Hard man to forget."
Hale dismounted.
His gaze shifted toward Nahko.
Then Elena.
"I was told a woman had been kidnapped."
"She was," Caleb said.
"I was also told Apache warriors attacked a legal freight operation and stole government rifles."
Caleb almost laughed.
"Silas works fast."
Hale's expression sharpened.
"Silas Crowe is dead."
"No."
"I saw the report."
"So did I."
Caleb stepped closer.
"Crowe is alive. He kidnapped Elena. He's trafficking weapons."
Hale looked toward her.
Elena spoke.
"He held me for three days."
"Can you identify him?"
"Yes."
Hale considered this.
Then one of his soldiers approached carrying a folded paper.
"Captain."
Hale opened it.
Read.
His jaw tightened.
"What?"
Hale handed the paper to Caleb.
A warrant.
Caleb Mercer.
Wanted for robbery of federal weapons, murder, and conspiracy.
Eight years old.
Caleb stared at it.
"I thought this was closed."
"It wasn't."
"Why now?"
"Someone delivered evidence at Fort Bowie three days ago."
Silas.
Caleb almost admired the cruelty of it.
Silas hadn't merely set a physical trap.
He had reopened Caleb's past so soldiers would hunt him too.
Hale said, "I have orders to arrest you."
Elena immediately stepped forward.
"He saved my life."
"That doesn't erase a warrant."
"No," Caleb said.
Everyone looked at him.
Caleb folded the paper.
"If you arrest me now, Crowe gets exactly what he wants."
Hale's expression remained unreadable.
"And what is that?"
"A war."
Caleb pointed toward the surrounding country.
"Silas wants to move weapons through the southern canyon. If he can convince the Army that Nahko's people stole those rifles, soldiers move against them. Apache warriors fight back. While everyone is shooting at each other, Silas moves his cargo."
Hale looked at Nahko.
"Is that true?"
Nahko replied calmly.
"It is what I believe."
Hale paced once.
"Belief isn't evidence."
Elena said, "I saw the rifles."
"So did I," Caleb added.
"Where?"
"Silas's camp."
"And where are they now?"
Caleb hesitated.
"Burned."
Hale stared.
"You destroyed the evidence."
"In my defense, people were shooting at us."
Elena almost smiled.
Hale didn't.
"I need more than your word."
A gunshot cracked in the distance.
Everyone turned.
Another.
Then three shots in rapid succession.
Caleb knew immediately.
Not attack signals.
A warning.
One of Nahko's scouts rode toward them.
"Smoke east!"
Caleb climbed a rock.
Beyond the hills, a dark column rose.
Hale used a field glass.
"Supply station."
Caleb's stomach tightened.
Silas.
A second rider appeared minutes later.
"Men attacked a wagon road. They wore Apache clothing."
Nahko's face became hard.
Elena whispered, "He is making it look like us."
Exactly.
Silas was building his war.
Hale turned toward his troops.
"Mount up."
Caleb grabbed his arm.
"If you ride toward that smoke looking for Apache raiders, you are doing exactly what Crowe wants."
Hale pulled free.
"And if I do nothing while civilians are attacked?"
"Then go after the right men."
"Can you prove who they are?"
"No."
"Then get out of my way."
Nahko's warriors began murmuring.
Tension rose instantly.
Caleb stepped between both groups.
"Everybody stop."
Hale looked furious.
Nahko's sons looked ready to fight.
Caleb knew how quickly one frightened man could start a massacre.
He had seen it before.
"We need Crowe alive."
Elena looked at him.
Caleb continued.
"Alive, with the rifles and witnesses."
Hale said, "And you know where he'll be?"
"Not yet."
"Then we're wasting time."
Elena suddenly spoke.
"I do."
Everyone turned.
She looked at Caleb.
"The canyon."
"What canyon?"
"The one where I was held."
"That camp is destroyed."
"Not that canyon."
She faced her father.
"Red Mesa."
Nahko's expression changed.
"Why?"
Elena explained.
"While I was captive, two men talked near me. They thought I didn't understand English."
Caleb blinked.
"You speak English better than half the cowboys I know."
"They did not ask."
"What did they say?"
"'Three wagons through Red Mesa before the moon goes dark.'"
Nahko nodded slowly.
"There is an old mining road."
Hale asked, "Wide enough for wagons?"
"Yes."
Caleb understood.
"Silas wants us looking east while he moves the guns south."
Hale studied him.
"Suppose you're right."
"I am."
"Suppose."
Caleb waited.
Hale finally said, "If we catch Crowe with stolen federal weapons, your warrant gets reviewed."
"Reviewed?"
"That's all I can promise."
"Fine."
Elena said, "I'm coming."
Three men answered simultaneously.
"No."
Her father.
Her brother.
Caleb.
She looked at all three.
"No one asked."
Tomas groaned.
Caleb rubbed his forehead.
Hale almost smiled.
Nahko said, "You were injured."
"I know what I saw."
"You can tell us."
"I can identify which trail they discussed."
Tomas stepped closer.
"I can go."
"You were not there."
"You almost died."
Elena looked directly at him.
"Which is why I will not sit here waiting while someone else decides whether I am allowed to protect myself."
Nahko closed his eyes briefly.
Then nodded.
"Go."
Tomas looked betrayed.
"Father."
"She is right."
Elena glanced toward Caleb.
He sighed.
"Don't look pleased."
"I am."
"I noticed."
By midnight, a strange alliance moved through the Arizona darkness.
Hale led ten soldiers.
Nahko sent Tomas and six warriors.
Caleb rode between the groups.
Elena rode beside him.
Men who would normally have distrusted one another now shared a single enemy.
It was fragile.
Caleb knew that.
Silas knew it too.
That was why the trap came before dawn.
A rider appeared ahead.
Apache clothing.
Rifle raised.
He fired at the soldiers.
Hale's men responded instantly.
"No!" Elena shouted.
The attacker disappeared.
Then shots came from the opposite ridge.
Tomas's warriors returned fire.
In seconds, confusion swallowed the trail.
Caleb rode directly between them.
"STOP SHOOTING!"
A bullet struck the ground near Buck.
Caleb dismounted and ran uphill.
He found one attacker crouched behind a boulder.
White.
Bearded.
Wearing stolen Apache clothing.
Caleb tackled him.
They rolled down the slope.
The man drew a knife.
Caleb caught his wrist.
Elena arrived and pressed a revolver against the outlaw's forehead.
"Drop it."
He did.
Caleb dragged him into the open.
"Look!"
Hale's soldiers stopped.
Tomas stared.
Caleb tore the man's borrowed shirt aside.
Underneath was a faded tattoo.
Crowe's mark.
A black raven.
"Silas's man."
Hale's expression changed.
Proof.
Small proof.
But enough.
They tied the outlaw.
Under questioning, he said nothing.
Until Hale mentioned federal prison.
Then his courage weakened.
"Red Mesa," he muttered.
Caleb crouched.
"How many men?"
Silence.
Elena stepped forward.
"Silas will kill you if you return."
The outlaw looked at her.
"He won't know you talked if he never sees you again."
The man swallowed.
"Thirty."
Caleb's expression darkened.
"Wagons?"
"Three."
"Rifles?"
"And ammunition."
"When do they move?"
"Tomorrow night."
Hale stood.
"We have him."
"Not yet," Caleb said.
Hale frowned.
"This man can testify."
"Silas will disappear."
"Then what do you suggest?"
Caleb looked toward Red Mesa in the distance.
"We let Silas think his plan worked."
Tomas understood.
"You want the soldiers and our people to pretend they're fighting."
Caleb nodded.
"Noise. Smoke. Gunfire from a safe distance. Silas hears what he expects."
Hale slowly smiled.
"And moves the wagons."
"Straight into us."
Nahko's warriors exchanged glances.
Elena looked at Caleb.
"You used to do this."
He knew what she meant.
Plan ambushes.
Think like Silas.
Caleb's face became distant.
"Yes."
"Then use what he taught you against him."
The following evening, the desert echoed with false battle.
Soldiers fired into empty hills.
Apache warriors answered from distant ridges.
Smoke rose.
Riders carried staged messages where Silas's scouts could see them.
Then everyone vanished into Red Mesa.
They waited.
An hour.
Two.
Darkness deepened.
Caleb lay above the road beside Elena.
"You should be farther back."
"You've said that six times."
"I'm hoping repetition improves your judgment."
"It hasn't improved yours."
Caleb smiled.
Then they heard wheels.
Wagons.
Three of them.
Silas rode beside the first.
Caleb's heart slowed.
Every sound sharpened.
Thirty armed men moved into the pass.
Hale's soldiers waited behind rocks.
Tomas and the Apache warriors held the opposite ridge.
The plan was simple.
Let every wagon enter.
Block both exits.
Demand surrender.
Avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
For one beautiful minute, it worked.
Then Silas stopped his horse.
Right beneath Caleb.
He looked up.
Even in darkness, Caleb had the strange feeling Silas could see him.
Silas smiled.
"You're getting predictable, son."
Caleb's blood went cold.
A whistle sounded.
Lights appeared on the ridge behind Hale.
More men.
Silas had expected the ambush.
Again.
And this time he had brought enough men to surround soldiers, Apache warriors, Caleb—
and Elena.
Silas raised his voice.
"I taught you everything you know, Caleb."
Caleb slowly raised his rifle.
"No."
Silas smiled.
"You taught me what I never wanted to become."
Then the canyon exploded with gunfire.