His skin had a gray undertone. His breathing was shallow. His hand shook slightly where it gripped the post. "You did it. " Jesse said. "We did it.
Your plan worked. " "Morrison came through? " "Better than expected. He arrested half the auction attendees. The investigation will destroy Crane's whole network. " Jesse nodded, then his eyes moved to Swift Bird and the warriors, reading something in their expressions. "But you're not done. Two sisters remain, Winona and Ayanna, in Mexico. " "How far? " "2 weeks ride, maybe more. " Jesse was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, "I can't go with you. You know that. " "I know. But I can help you plan, help you prepare, help you succeed. " "Jesse, you should rest. You should I should use what time I have left doing something that matters. " His voice was firm despite its weakness. "Your father gave me a second life.
I'm not wasting it lying in a bed waiting to die. " Nala studied his face, saw the determination there. Saw also the truth, he had weeks at most, maybe days. But those weeks could be spent in purpose or in surrender. And Jesse Walker had never been good at surrendering. "All right. " she said quietly.
"Then help me plan. Help me bring my last sisters home. " They spent 2 days in preparation. Jesse, despite his failing body, proved invaluable. His military experience gave him insights into siege tactics, entry points, taming He questioned every assumption, tested every plan, found weaknesses they would have missed. Diving Hawk contributed her knowledge of Mexican territory and contacts.
Swift Bird and the warriors provided intelligence gathered from Mexican traders passing through. Slowly, carefully, they built a plan that might actually work. The night before Nala was set to leave for Mexico, she found Jesse sitting alone by the fire. He was writing in a small journal, his hand moving slowly across the page. "What are you writing? " Nala asked.
"Letter to my son, Ethan. Trying to explain, trying to say what I should have said years ago. " "Will you send it? " "If I can. Diving Hawk knows someone heading toward Texas next month. They can carry it. " Jesse closed the journal. "I'm telling him about you, about your sisters, about your father.
I want him to know that his father's last act was something worth doing. " Nala sat beside him. For a moment, they simply watched the fire. "Jesse, after this is done, after all my sisters are safe, will you She stopped. The question she was about to ask felt too large, too heavy. "Will I what? " Jesse prompted gently.
"Will you help me build the school? My father's school, even if it's just for a few weeks. Even if it's just planning and laying foundations. I want you to see it begin. " Jesse looked at her. In the firelight, his face seemed younger somehow, less worn by pain and time.
"I'd like that. I'd like that very much. " "Good. Then you have to stay alive long enough to see it. " "I'll do my best. " They sat in silence for a while longer. Then Nala said, "Jesse, I I want you to know something. When this started, you were the man who owed my father a debt.
But now, now you're family, not by blood, but by choice. And that matters more. " Jesse felt his throat tighten. "Your father would say that's the Chiricahua way. Family made by choice, not chance. He would, and he would be right. " The next morning, Nala rode south with Swift Bird and five of Diving Hawk's best warriors.
Seven riders heading into Mexico to attempt what reason said was impossible. But they'd done impossible before. They'd do it again. Jesse watched them go from the ramada, where he held his teaching sessions. Beside him, Keona and Yazzie and Chenoa stood together, three sisters reunited, waiting for the last two to come home.
"Will she succeed? " Chenoa asked quietly. "Yes. " Jesse said with absolute certainty. "Your sister doesn't know how to fail. " The journey to Hermosillo took 8 days of hard riding through territory that changed from Arizona desert to Sonoran scrubland land. Nala and her warriors moved like ghosts, avoiding federales and bandits with equal care. Diving Hawk's contacts guided them from safe house to safe house.
Mexican families who remembered kindnesses from Apache traders in better times. On the eighth day, they reached the outskirts of Hermosillo. The city sprawled larger than Tucson, 20,000 souls living under the Mexican sun. And 15 miles to the east, on a hill overlooking cultivated fields, sat the hacienda of Martin Vega. Swift Bird scouted the compound first.
He'd learn reconnaissance from Crane, and now he used those skills for better purpose. He returned after dark with a hand-drawn map and grim news. 22 guards, not 20, he reported in whispered Apache. High walls, 12 ft topped with broken glass. Dogs patrol the interior at night, four at least, maybe more.
The slave quarters are on the north side, separate building. Winona and Ayana are there with maybe 30 other captives. Nahla studied his crude map by firelight. Gates? Two.
Main gate on the south, heavily guarded. Service gate on the east, only two guards, but visible from the main house. Vega himself lives in the central building with his family. His men bunk in the western structure. Weak points?
Swift Bird pointed to the north wall. Here. An old cistern built into the wall. The grate is rusted. A small person could squeeze through.
Up winds into a drainage ditch that runs behind the slave quarters. Nahla looked at the youngest of their warriors, a 16-year-old Paiute boy named Red Cloud. Small, thin, quick. Can you do it? Red Cloud nodded without hesitation.
I can fit through, but I cannot carry two grown women back that way. You don't need to carry them. You just need to open the door. They spent two more days preparing. Diving Hawk's contact in Hermosillo, an old Mexican woman who'd lost her own children to slavers, provided what they needed.
Keys copied from a bribed servant, information about guard rotations, and most importantly, a distraction. On the 11th night, a fire broke out in Hermosillo's market district. Not large enough to threaten lives, but smoky enough to draw attention. Six of Vega's guards rode into town to help, worried the fire might spread to their employer's warehouses. That left 16 guards at the hacienda.
Still too many, but better odds. Nahla's team struck at midnight. Red Cloud went through the cistern grate, squeezing his thin frame through rusted metal with agonizing slowness. It took him 20 minutes to reach the drainage ditch, another 10 to crawl along its length to the slave quarters. While he worked, Nahla and Swift Bird approached the east gate.
The two guards there were bored, half asleep. They never saw the arrows that took them down, swift and silent. Nahla dragged their bodies into shadow, while Swift Bird took one man's uniform and hat. He walked to the gate, opened it from the inside, let the others through. Four warriors now inside the compound.
Four against 16. But they weren't there to fight. They were there to rescue. Red Cloud reached the slave quarters and used the copied key. The lock clicked open.
Inside, 30 people slept on thin pallets, exhausted from a day of brutal labor. Red Cloud found Winona and Ayana by their moon wing tattoos, barely visible in the darkness. He shook them awake, hand over mouth to prevent screams. Whispered in Apache who he was, who had sent him. Showed them Nahla's knife as proof.
Getting out was harder than getting in. The drainage ditch was too small for grown women. They had to go through the compound, past the main house, past the barracks, to the east gate where Nahla waited. They almost made it. A dog barked, then another.
Within seconds, every dog in the compound was howling. Lights blazed in the main house. Men shouted. Guards poured from the barracks, half-dressed, but armed. "Run! " Nahla screamed in Apache.
Winona and Ayana ran. Red Cloud ran beside them, guiding them through shadows. But the compound was chaos now. Men everywhere, dogs giving chase. Swift Bird fired his rifle, not at the guards, but into the air above their heads.
Drew their attention, bought seconds. One of Diving Hawk's warriors threw a torch onto the barracks roof. Dry thatch caught immediately, bright flames climbing into the night sky. In the confusion, the five of them made it to the east gate. Nahla was there with horses, already mounted.
She pulled Winona up behind her. Swift Bird took Ayana. The warrior who'd thrown the torch took Red Cloud. They rode hard for the wall. Someone fired a shot.
A bullet whined past Nahla's ear, close enough to feel. Another shot hit one of the horses, but not fatally. The animal kept running despite its wound. They crashed through the service gate, already opened, and vanished into the Mexican night. Behind them, Vega's men tried to mount pursuit, but the fire was spreading to the main house now.
They had to choose between chasing the slaves and saving their employer's home. They chose the home. Nahla's team rode for 12 hours without stopping. By dawn, they were 40 miles away. By sunset, they'd crossed back into Arizona territory.