Midnight Sun (21 page)

S
ienna didn’t need the mask to tell her where Rhys was. She’d seen him climb into the Zodiac. Such a brazen maneuver, she couldn’t believe he’d gotten away with it. But he had.

She’d removed the mask from her face when Nick entered the pilothouse, and now clutched it tightly to her chest. She had a feeling Jana had something to do with Rhys’s incredible timing and luck.

“I’ll be taking that mask from you,” Nick said with a sneer.

“Why? You ruined it when you shot Adam through it.”

“How do you know it wasn’t my brother?”

She shrugged. “I just do.”

Nick yanked it from her grasp. “It’s an ugly-ass mask, but it would have made us a fortune if you’d left it alone.” In a flash, his eyes darkened with rage, and he slammed the mask into her face. The blow knocked her sideways, and she hit the pilothouse door.

“There’s no need for that, son. We’re cooperating with you,” Archie said in a calm voice.

“Don’t call me ‘son,’ old man. You ain’t my daddy, and I ain’t no fucking ugly Indian like you.”

He raised the mask to strike Archie, but a shout from Doug interrupted him. “Fueled up. Now let’s get the fuck out of this shithole freezing village.”

“Untie the rear line and shove us off!” Nick shouted through the open window. To Archie, he said, “Fire up the big engine. Let’s roll.”

“You moron. Didn’t you hear anything I just told you? We can’t turn on the main engine until we’ve cleared the third buoy. It’s too shallow.”

“Then turn on the little one and haul ass.”

Archie powered the small engine, and, as promised, it sputtered. They inched away from the dock. “I’d better go check the fuel line,” he said in a convincingly resigned voice.

Sienna’s brain was still rattled from the blow, but she didn’t have the luxury of gathering her wits. This was it. Time to jump in arctic waters and pray she didn’t die.

“Doug, check on the fuel line to the small engine, will ya?”

Shit. If Nick stayed in the pilothouse, he couldn’t be caught in dropped rigging.

Doug disappeared belowdecks. It was now or never. “I need air,” she said and shoved at the door.

“No, you don’t—” Nick said, but he couldn’t grab her because his hands were full of the mask. He dropped it and lunged, but she’d darted forward and had just enough of a head start to get away. On the deck, she swung rigging in his direction, and a thick line caught him across the face. She shouted to Archie, “Drop the Zodiac into the Sound and go!”

They were picking up speed, and there was enough clearance from the quay for Archie to swing the Zodiac over the frigid water. She darted to the railing and reached it just as the rigging holding the small boat released. Rhys was a blur as he rode the boat down to the water.
 

She climbed on the rail to jump, but Nick caught her foot, stopping her. She caught sight of Archie at the rail closer to the pilothouse. He would make it.

She’d wanted to grab the mask but hadn’t really had a choice. She kicked Nick in the face, then launched herself into the sea.

The shock of water was so cold, it burned. Her whole body flushed with the sharp scorching pain. She took an involuntary breath and inhaled salt water.

This
was the burn of the vision. Not fire. Icy cold.

Archie. She had to find Archie before her muscles seized. He wouldn’t know which way to swim to shore. If her vision of flames was also correct, they needed to get away from the boat, fast. She caught a glimpse of Archie and tried to get her frozen muscles to take her to him.

The water was cold unlike anything she’d ever imagined.

She couldn’t swim. Couldn’t breathe. Archie was ten feet away, and she’d never reach him. The shore was thirty, forty feet away at most, but it might as well be a mile.

She would die.

“Sienna!” Rhys shouted from behind her.

She’d been so focused on spotting Archie, she’d forgotten to look for the Zodiac.

A hand gripped her wrist. Rhys pulled her into the boat in one smooth movement. She coughed and sputtered and her teeth clattered even as her skin burned. She tried to sit up, to help Rhys paddle to Archie, but her arms wouldn’t support her.

A moment later, Rhys had Archie in the boat too. She hugged the old man to her chest, and Rhys spread a canvas cloth over them. It was stiff and wasn’t warm, but at least it blocked the cool wind.

“Sonofabitch, I’m too old for swimming in Kotzebue Sound,” Archie complained.

Sienna laughed. “So am I, Archie.”

If Rhys hadn’t been in the Zodiac, she doubted she or Archie would have made it to shore.

As Rhys rowed to the quay, she looked out at Archie’s old fishing boat, not surprised to see that instead of returning to reclaim their hostages, the Pelligrews were heading out to sea. A glance back at the quay showed the line of feds, explaining the brothers’ hasty retreat. An ambulance siren wailed in the distance. She guessed Agent Upton had called when she and Archie had jumped in the water.

“Did you set the explosive?” she asked Rhys.

“Yes.”

“Damn, I’m going to miss that boat. But I’m glad those sonsofbitches will be taken care of.”

“When will it blow? Is it on a timer?” she asked.

“Sort of. When will they fire up the big engine, Archie?”

“Third buoy.”

“Any second now, then.”

Sienna kept her gaze fixed on the vessel as it headed for open water. It passed the third buoy, and a moment later, a massive explosion rent air and sea.

The boat fireballed, and flames licked at Sienna’s face. Not really, but she realized now it was the mask that flamed along the cheeks, the mask whose hair had burned. She’d put on the mask. She’d seen through its eyes and had felt the fire from its perspective.

She hoped Jana had gone to the other side before destruction of the mask closed her portal.

One piece of debris stood out as it arced through the air. Sienna frowned, uncomfortably certain it was the mask. Singed but not completely burned.

The small item flew far clear of the burning, floating wreckage, and she kept her gaze locked on it. “Rhys. The mask is floating over there. Should we go get it?”

“You and Archie need to get warm. We’ll get you into the ambulance, then I’ll go after it.”

But in the end, there was no need. Something moved rapidly toward the floating mask, and it took Sienna a moment to realize it was an orca fin. The incredible creature did a full arching breach over the mask, then swam back out into the open sound, taking the mask with it.

Epilogue

S
ix weeks later, Sienna was still cold. Sometimes it seemed the only time she was warm was late at night, when she was wrapped tightly in Rhys’s arms, their naked bodies as close as two people could be. At those times, she burned with heat and loved every moment.

Enough of the Pelligrew brothers’ remains had been plucked from the water to confirm not only that they were dead but also that they were the same white supremacist brothers who’d run afoul of both their supremacist sect leader and the FBI in Idaho a year before. It appeared they’d taken to selling the artifacts in an attempt to buy their way back into the movement. They’d hooked up with Adam Helvig because he’d apparently been performing artifact laundering services for wealthy collectors for several years, but he’d always handled pieces given to him and had decided to venture into procurement because he wanted a bigger piece of the action than his small laundering fee.

The FBI had offered Sienna a contract to comb through the museum’s files to find other items that had been laundered so they could go after both buyers and sellers. The contract would keep her busy for at least a year, a relief as her sister was still stuck in Hawaii with no sign she’d be returning soon. Somebody had to keep Aubrey Sisters Heritage Preservation afloat.

Sienna patted the air mattress she’d set up in the backyard of her Gig Harbor home and said, “Come to bed, Rhys.” They’d chosen her house tonight over Rhys’s because the city lights of Seattle would hide most of the meteor shower, which was a shame because, while it was early for the Perseids, it was a clear, moonless night, prefect for stargazing. And Sienna had another sexual fantasy she wanted to fulfill.

He smiled at her over the top of some sort of legal brief. “Almost done.” In the weeks they’d been together, they spent far more nights at Rhys’s house in Seattle due to his longer work hours, but this weekend, she’d lured him out to the wilds of Gig Harbor for some fantasy fulfillment. Eventually, Sienna would probably move in with Rhys in Seattle, but for now, with her sister gone for an indefinite period of time, she needed to hold down the fort, so they juggled the commute.

She settled inside the double sleeping bag then stripped off her clothes, planning to surprise him when he climbed in. She’d always wanted to make love outside, under a canopy of shooting stars.

While Rhys finished working, she stared up at the clear night sky. Later tonight, midnight Itqaklut time, the tribe would hold a ceremony to honor Jana, the shaman who’d shared his mask with her so she could complete her work, and the orca that’d transported both their souls to rest.

The night after the explosion on the boat, Chuck had had a dream. He dreamed about a shaman in ancient times, whose spirit inhabited his ritual orca-motif mask because his work in this realm wasn’t yet complete. Centuries later, the mask came to the attention of the Itqaklut collections manager, who knew it was special. One day, she returned to her life’s work—the gathering of her tribe’s heritage—and found men full of hate had desecrated the sacred collection. Those men killed her, but she died protecting the shaman’s mask. The shaman let the woman’s soul share his mask. But it wasn’t
her
mask, so it was difficult for her to remain on this side. She had no bond with the object to tie her down. But she did have unfinished business.

Trapped in a synthetic box—plastic, slippery, and suffocating—there was nothing the soul could do. Finally, a woman opened the box. This woman could hear the pleas of the desperate soul, and the spirit clinging to the mask set about learning the woman’s emotions, to determine how to get her to return the mask home, where her work could be completed.

And so the mask brought people together—people with the skills needed to solve the heretofore unknown murder of the woman and the murder of the museum curator, all while preventing even more deaths. The tribe’s entire cultural heritage was in danger, and the mask spirit ensured a man with the proper skills would save everything. Then, in the final moment, when the mask would have burned, the ancient shaman pushed the spirit of the woman safely to the other side. Her work was done.

The shaman’s work was done as well, and the mask was delivered to the sea, taken by the orca, which honored his spirit.

Chuck had woken up refreshed and exuberant, knowing deep in his soul he had the full story and that his beloved wife had passed safely to the other side, carrying his love in her heart. After the dream, he’d been healthier, robust again, and it appeared he wouldn’t need dialysis in the future. Chuck had shared what he could of the story with the tribe, and they’d begun to plan tonight’s ceremony.
 

Rhys and Sienna had been invited to participate, but they’d declined. This was a ceremony for the tribe, to close the spiritual wound opened by the Pelligrews. Sienna and Rhys had wounds of their own, but they were different from those felt by the tribe.

For the two of them, their healing came from being together and living up to the promises they’d made in Itqaklut.

The first meteorites began to streak across the sky when Rhys joined her in the sleeping bag. He grinned when he discovered she was naked. They made love under a sky full of shooting stars, and Sienna felt warm and loved.

So strange to think that the mask that had started by giving her nothing but grief had later ended up introducing her to her greatest joy.

Rhys held her as they watched light flash across the sky, and slowly, she drifted off to sleep. Sometime later, Rhys nudged her awake. “Sweetheart, wake up. I think… I think Jana is saying thanks and good-bye.”

Her eyes fluttered open, too groggy to see or understand.

“It’s midnight in Itqaklut. The ceremony has started. And look up at the sky. Jana is thanking you.”