TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6) Read Online Free Page B

back and sighed. “Wish me luck, Dad.”
    I heard the catch in his voice. “Luck, son.”
    I broke the link.
    Now, I had to get to Black Mesa.
    The air turns cold quickly in the dry high plains of the Rockies. As night settled, I began to feel the chill through my jacket. I put on my knitted ski hat and muffled my face with my scarf. Traffic was heavy as lab workers headed home to the bedroom community of White Rock, and the towns of Espanola and Poquaque. I slid down the sandy ridge and walked along the road with my thumb out, using the headlights of passing cars to see my path.
    Finally, a bright yellow low-rider pulled up in front of me, by the side of the road. I trotted to the front door, opened it and slid inside.
    “Thanks,” I said and blew on my hands. “It's getting cold out there.” I took off my ski hat and scratched my itchy forehead.
    The driver, alone in the ground car, was a young Hispanic woman with large dark eyes and thick, black hair held back in a frilly pink holder. She smiled at me with lips too crimson to be natural, and fire-red cheeks, and swung the car back onto the road. “I can warm you up,
guapetón
.”
    “Sorry. No Spanish.” I rubbed my cold hands together.
    She shrugged. “It just means very handsome.”
    “Oh.” To be polite I asked, “How do you say very beautiful?”
    She gave me a broad smile and batted long lashes. “
Muy bella.”
    “Well, you're very
muy bella.
”
    She laughed. “
Mi nombre es
Lydia. What's your name, Blondie?”
    “Sam.”
    “OK. So where to, Blondie?”
    “Black Mesa. Can you drop me off there?”
    “What's there, besides a church, a few houses, and a long climb?”
    A church?
“Can you drop me off at the church?” It would be a place to stay warm. “I have to meet someone at five AM.”
    “I won't ask about your business,
guapo,
even though it's very strange, so early in the morning.” She put a hand on my knee. “Drugs?”
    I shook my head.
    “My two kids are staying with their
abuela,
their grandmother.” She rubbed my knee. “
Mi casa es su casa.
”
    I knew that one. “That's a great offer, but…” I lifted her hand off my knee. “I'll have to take a rain check.”
    She shrugged. “It could've been a fun night.”
    Sure,
I thought.
And it will be a real fun morning.
    * * *
    She left me off at an adobe church. The Mesa loomed darkly, like God's own table in the snowy night. It was a real cloud scraper that had been lifted from deep within the planet's mantle, probably by volcanic action.
    I said goodbye to Lydia and entered the church, and was struck by a sense of spirituality. Perhaps it was the pink adobe walls, lit warmly by a great chandelier suspended from the ceiling that cast a golden glow through the broad, solemn chamber. Perhaps it was the alcove that held an ornate altar of white marble columns with the Christ figure on the Cross looming above as central to the religious creed; the heart of the Catholic Church that beat throughout the world. Fresh-cut flowers adorned the altar and gave off a perfumed aroma on this winter night; a winter that had invaded my soul. Invisible organ music played through my mind as an overlay to this transcendent experience.
    I walked up the aisle toward the altar, drawn by its serenity in a world where turmoil and greed seemed commonplace.
    “For God so loved the world,” a voice said behind me, “that he gave His only son.”
    I whirled.
    A priest stood at an open side door, his hands folded across his chest. A young Hispanic man, tall and narrow, he smiled at me, looking like a column himself in his black vestment. “I didn't mean to scare you.”
    “No, that's all right, Father. Would it be OK if I spent the night sleeping in one of the pews? It's pretty cold outside.”
    He smiled and motioned to the door. “I can offer you a softer bed than a pew.”
    I checked my watch. Just past six pm. I had eleven hours before meeting the kidnappers. “Thank you.” I followed him through