Righteous04 - The Blessed and the Damned Read Online Free PDF

rubbing the edge of the quilt. Then abruptly, she stood, set it on the chair, and went into the motor home. The door banged shut behind her.
    Jacob and Eliza walked back to the car, which had been baking under the sun. Jacob turned the AC up to full blast, and Eliza and Jacob stood outside while the car cooled down.
    “So. Dark Canyon?” Eliza asked.
    “It fits the axes. A lot of wood chopping, somewhere high on the plateau, probably above six or seven thousand feet, where the forests grow.”
    “That’s still a big chunk of land,” she said.
    “Not as big as what we had a few minutes ago.”
    “Is it even worth it, that’s what I keep asking myself.”
    “I’m not giving up on those people,” Jacob said. “And I’m not sitting around to wait for him to attack us, either. We’ve got a lead—let’s go after it before he gets wind that we’re looking for him and finds a new hiding place.”
    He turned over the map of this stretch of Utah in his mind, from the eastern shores of Lake Powell to Blanding and beyond, then down to the Arizona border and the northern limits of the Navajo reservation. It was several thousand square miles, an areathe size of Massachusetts, but with a population of only a few thousand people. It was no wonder they hadn’t made any progress.
    Dark Canyon was official wilderness, with no roads. Deep, narrow canyons, and pine and fir in the higher mountains. There would be fresh water and plenty of places to hide. A hundred square miles, and a couple hundred more of semi-primitive land surrounding and buffering the region. He wondered how they got their supplies in. Maybe they had horses.
    “It’s a great place to hide,” he said. “Some of those canyons have never been properly explored. They could go years without seeing a single hiker. They’re still discovering Anasazi ruins in the cliffs.”
    “And what if we find the guy?” she asked. “Do we threaten him, call him out in front of his followers? I tried that once with his brother, and it didn’t work out so well.”
    He thought of the people burning alive in the trailer outside Las Vegas, a horror that was still fresh. Caleb Kimball had been willing to sacrifice his followers rather than lose them. “No, it didn’t. Any other ideas?”
    “We could drop it, let the pros handle it.”
    “You mean Agent Krantz and Agent Fayer?”
    “Why not?” she asked. “It’s a job for the FBI, not a couple of amateurs. They still want Taylor Junior on fraud charges. His father got five to ten, but Taylor Junior has been on the run. Don’t you think they’d hit him harder? Once he’s arrested, we’ll save the rest. And Taylor Kimball can rot in prison.”
    Jacob shook his head. “The FBI doesn’t have a good track record here. It could be another Zarahemla raid. Can you imagine the helicopters swooping in, the screaming women and children,the followers grabbing guns? Or maybe they’ll burn themselves alive like Caleb’s cult.” He shook his head. “I don’t care if Taylor Junior goes down in a blaze of glory, but we’ve got a chance at those other people.” He thought about it a moment longer. “Do you think Krantz and Fayer would let us tag along? They can take Taylor Junior. Aaron and Eric, too, and any other fugitive Lost Boys.”
    “And we can help the rest of them.” She nodded. “Let me call Krantz. He’ll listen to me.”
    They climbed in the car. As Jacob backed out, he saw Charity Kimball coming out of the motor home to take her seat again on the plastic chair.
    She had a pair of scissors and a hand mirror and was cutting off her hair, which fell in gray clumps to the ground.
    * * *
     
    They stopped to gas the car in Tropic, just outside Bryce Canyon. Eliza paced the parking lot looking for cell coverage. Jacob had been quiet on the drive from visiting Charity Kimball, and she could tell that he was deeply troubled by what he’d done. Not like they’d had a choice. Charity Kimball was a hard old woman