Tainted Trail (2 page)

Ukiah found the name, address, and phone number of Jesse Kicking Deer in the case report. Max had noted,
Description and location match, but age is completely wrong.
“I would love to go see this guy. I wonder if he's still at this address.”

Max picked up the phone built into the seat in front of them. “Let's see.”

The phone number listed in the file was no longer in service. Undaunted, Max called information and gave the name and address.

“I'm showing a Claire Kicking Deer at that address,” the operator said over the drone of the engines, “but that number is unlisted.”

Max thanked the operator and hung up. “With a name like that, it's a fair bet they're related.” Max consulted his PDA. “We're landing in Pendleton at five-thirty, if we don't miss the commuter in Portland. We'll need to rent the cars, load them, and then it's an hour drive down to the campground.” He tapped through a series of pages. “We're not going to be able to do any actual tracking tonight; I don't want to be stumbling around in the dark.”

“I can track at night,” Ukiah said.

Max gave him a cold look. “I know, kid, but I can't see in the dark. I'm not letting you track without backup.” Max considered the rest of the day. “Three is overkill for what we're doing tonight. Let's split up. We'll rent a second car. Kraynak and I will load the gear, find out what we can on the search-and-rescue efforts, and then check into the hotel. You can see if you can find Jesse Kicking Deer.”

Ukiah slipped both the photograph and the news clipping into his wallet for his meeting with Jesse Kicking Deer. “Is that okay with you, Kraynak?”

Kraynak didn't answer.

Glancing past Max, Ukiah discovered that the homicide detective was gone again. “We've got to make sure he takes something before we get on that commuter plane to Pendleton.”

Portland International Airport, Portland, Oregon
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Ukiah hated strange airports.

Any crowded place was an assault on his senses. Here, every person breathed out a cloud of information that trailed
behind them as they rushed to their destinations, every surface was layered thick with the histories of those who had handled it, and the very air vibrated with countless conversations. Over the years, he had learned to cope with crowds, keeping his hands in his pockets, filtering the effusion of air data to the point where he could ignore it. It only worked, though, in places where he had been before, and among people common to that area. He could only keep out what was familiar, as if there was something deep-coded inside of him, cautiously checking everything new for danger.

In a place such as this, where his surroundings competed with the crowds for attention, he was lost in the flood. Everything was new, even the faintly salt-tainted air, pressing in to be noticed, overwhelming him until he lost track of himself. Max kept a hand on his elbow, guiding him through the jostling confusion.

Once past the gates and into the public concourse, Max veered into a sitting area across from a Hudson News stand. Fifty or sixty seats made a pocket of quiet beside a children's play area in the shape of a jumbo jet. Max moored Ukiah in the far back corner, away from the foot traffic. There, Max put his hands to Ukiah's face and made him focus his gaze on his own.

“Kraynak and I are going to grab our luggage, guns, and equipment and check them with the commuter airline.” Max took out both their phones and turned them on. “Baggage claim is downstairs, and it's going to be a madhouse. I'm leaving you here. Stay put. I'll be back.” He paused, waiting for the phones to indicate they had a signal. “If you need me, call instead of trying to find me.” Max pocketed his own phone and tucked Ukiah's into his partner's shirt pocket. “Okay?”

Max waited until Ukiah nodded, then left. The flood rushed in again. Ukiah floundered, sorting through the stimuli. Slowly, enough became known qualities he could then ignore that he felt solid and grounded. As if welcoming him back to himself, his phone chirped. He dug it out of his pocket. A female security officer at Pittsburgh's airport had handled his phone when he passed through the metal
detectors, leaving behind a ghost presence of White Linen perfume, Coast soap, and her own unique genetic profile.

“Oregon.”

“It's me, love.” Indigo's voice competed with a gate-change announcement booming over the airport's speakers. Ukiah plugged the other ear with his finger, but still felt the words ripple across his skin. “How was the flight?”

“It was a bit rough,” Ukiah answered after the announcement ended. “We kept hitting storms. How's Kitt?”

Max had vetoed Ukiah's first choice of babysitters: the Dog Warriors. The twenty Pack members would have devoted themselves to Kittanning and guarded him armed to the teeth. Max, however, had never forgiven the Dog Warriors for kidnapping Ukiah at gunpoint and wasn't about to trust the alien outlaws with his godson. While Indigo cheerfully took Kittanning, she would still need to find daylight babysitters among her family or take vacation time from her work.

“He's being an angel so far,” Indigo told him. “We've had dinner and he went right to sleep. I'm reviewing forensic evidence files.” A quiet rustle over the phone indicated she had gotten up and moved across the room. “Rennie Shaw and Bear Shadow have this watch.”

He heard the slight tension in her voice. “I'm sorry.”

He had contacted the Dog Warriors to feed Mom Jo's half-breed wolves while he was in Oregon. He should have realized that Dog Warriors would track down Kittanning to watch over, regardless of Max's wishes.

“It's not like I haven't been through this before,” Indigo said. The Dog Warriors had guarded Indigo while Ukiah had been dead. “They're being very discreet. I needed my night scope to spot them. I suppose I better get used to it if we're getting married. It's kind of a package deal—marry the Pack's child, get the Pack keeping watch.”

Ukiah winced at the “if.” Usually she said “when.” He hoped it was a merely a slip of tongue. If he could hear the tension in her voice, then her legendary calm must be taking a beating. “Is something wrong?”

“Other than lack of sleep and being stalked by your
extended family? No.” She took a deep breath, released it slowly, and when she spoke again, the tension was gone. “Everything is fine. I called to ask you, though: Didn't Mom Lara say something about Kittanning having a doctor's appointment on Wednesday?”

Ukiah closed his eyes to summon up his moms' kitchen calendar. Printed in tomorrow's allotted square was Mom Lara's hieroglyphics of
K. Dr. 8:00 AM 2 m. check & shots.
He told Indigo the time. “I'm not sure why he has to go. I don't think he
can
get sick.”

“You think your immune system can handle anything, Wolf Boy?”

Kittanning was Ukiah's clone, created out of his blood. They were identical except for their age. Despite being born to a human woman, Ukiah's cells were vastly more complex, able to function both jointly and independently, to the point they were able to transform into small animals if separated from Ukiah. Earth viruses had no hope of breaching his alien-born defenses. Ukiah could remember being sick only once; when Pack leader, Rennie Shaw, gave Ukiah his memories in the form of a mouse. The ensuing cellular war—lasting until the Pack memories were added to Ukiah's own genetic memory—made Ukiah thankful that he didn't get sick.

“Aye, our immune system kicks butt.” He slipped into Rennie's slight brogue. “It spits on all puny earth viruses. Pooey. Pooey.”

“It may, but he still needs to go.”

“Why?” It defied logic.

“Ukiah, no preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or even college would let him in without proof of immunization.”

“Oh.” It amazed him sometimes what he didn't know about the world.

“Is he still going to the same place?” she asked. “Or did your moms move him to a place closer to them?”

He, his moms, Max, Indigo, and at times their lawyer, Leo Stepanian, held several war sessions trying to deal with Kittanning's sudden appearance. They walked a legal tightrope to get Kittanning a birth certificate, hampered by
the fact that he hadn't been born so much as made. The system required certain information such as mother's name and time of birth.

They set time of birth to be when Hex shot Ukiah. Shortly after that moment, the blood flowing from Ukiah's wounds formed into the mouse that would eventually be infant Kittanning. His moms refused to be named Kittanning's mother, pointing out that it would appear dangerously close to incest with their adopted son. Leo reminded them that if Ukiah wasn't listed as Kittanning's father, Ukiah would have no legal right to his son. In the end, Indigo volunteered to stand as Kittanning's mother.

Of course there was the slight problem that Indigo had never been pregnant. One reason they chose a busy multi-doctor medical association in the North Hills was the anonymity it gave them. While much of the information on Kittanning's birth certificate was accurate, they couldn't
prove
any of it.

“No, it's the same doctors. If it would be easier, you can just call and reschedule. You don't have to take him.”

“Yes, I do. He's my son, Ukiah. He was born because you came to rescue me. I made a commitment to him when we put my name down as mother on his birth certificate. I have responsibilities for him, even if we're not married.”

There was that word again. If.

It seemed they had fallen off an edge the day Kittanning was created. Ukiah had been killed protecting Indigo, and Indigo went on to rain cold vengeance down on those who killed him. Wedding vows seemed trivial after
I will die for you
and
I will make sure your sacrifice was not in vain
were made deed. Yet without those spoken wedding vows, how could
I love you now
become
I will love you forever
?

Max touched his shoulder, making Ukiah aware of him. Kraynak stood beside Max, fumbling with a bottle of Dramamine. Max tapped his watch.

“I need to go,” Ukiah told Indigo. “Do you want me to call you later?”

She mulled the question over with a long, drawn-out
“um.” “No. I don't relish trying to get Kitt back asleep if the phone wakes him. Call me tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” He mouthed “Indigo” to Max, who had queried him with one raised eyebrow and a glance at the phone. “We're three hours behind you, so I'll call before I start to track, see how the appointment went.”

“Be careful,” Indigo warned, and then added, as if in consideration of the dangers he might be soon facing, an earnest “I love you.”

“What appointment?” Max asked after Ukiah hung up.

Ukiah recounted the conversation as they threaded through the crowds. Max guided him to a distant wing of the airport catering to Horizon Airlines. Four abbreviated gates shared one large sitting area.

“You've got to marry that girl.” Max showed their boarding passes.

The woman at the counter said, “Gate eleven” and waved them through.

“We talk about getting married all the time.” Ukiah followed Max out to an open walkway. Every ten feet, the walkway had a large doorless exit to the tarmac. A turboprop airplane sat at each such “gate.” Behind Ukiah, Kraynak groaned at the sight of the small airplanes. Gate eleven was the last opening before the walkway ended. The door of the plane had been folded down to make a five-step ramp up into the aircraft.

“We're eight A, B, and C,” Max said. “We're the next to last row, two right, one left. And?”

Max prompted Ukiah back to the conversation. It was interesting, Ukiah thought, that Max felt so comfortable discussing other people's lives. If this were a discussion on Max's love life, it would already be over. Usually Max had to be drunk before he was willing to talk about his dead wife or the idea of dating again.

“Well,” Ukiah reluctantly admitted, “we actually kind of dance around the idea of marriage. I think we're both still scared about the idea.”

“What's to be scared of?” Max stowed his briefcase and took the left aisle seat.

Kraynak ducked through the door and paused in the front of the plane to talk earnestly with the flight attendant, dwarfing her with his bulk. Ukiah glanced back at Kraynak, and then whispered to Max. “Start with I'm not human and work your way down.”

Max gave him a hard, disapproving stare. “You
are
human,” he said in a quiet, uncompromising tone. “Go on.”

Ukiah sighed, stowing his carry-on. “My moms hate the idea of me marrying Indigo. They don't want us to rush into anything. They've never been really happy that Indigo and I had sex before we even had a first date.”

“Well, it was kind of sudden.” Max allowed.

“Mom Lara has this cascade theory, that Indigo seduced me because she overreacted to me saving her life and the Pack kidnapping me, and then she dated me because she felt guilty about seducing someone so young, and now she's pushing for marriage because I ended up with Kittanning by trying to rescue her.”