Part 6 (1/2)
He strode through the door of the Roadhouse as if he owned the earth.
The pipe liner with the pistol swung his arm in a perfect arc, so that the muzzle of the pistol came to rest on the trooper's forehead, directly between his eyes, centered perfectly below the two gold ta.s.sels.
Every eye, be it fascinated, horrified or approving, was fixed on the scene with equal intensity. For a moment no one moved or spoke. Then the trooper's deep, calm voice came clearly to them all. Directing his level gaze past the pistol and pistol holder, he addressed Bernie in a deep, calm voice. ”What seems to be the problem here?”
There was one more moment of tense silence, and then the pipe liner sighed. ”Oh f.u.c.k. It's Chopper Jim.”
”Who?” Otis said.
”The G.o.ddam trooper, you drunken b.u.m. Now what're we gonna do?”
The trooper stood motionless. The gunslinger's eyebrows met in a single busy bar above his eyes, which were unfocused; he was intent on the mental working out of some weighty problem. At last he leaned toward the trooper, the pressure of the gun muzzle against the trooper's forehead indenting the flesh, and said, ”Listen, Chopper, how many years'm I gonna get for pulling a gun on you? ”Cause, if it's life, I might's well shootchya, dontchya think?”
The trooper's voice was deep and soothing. ”I don't know, Davey, I think we could get it down to ten years or so, with time off for good behavior.”
The gunslinger considered this. ”Would they put me in with Otis?”
The trooper shrugged as much as he thought wise with a pistol at his head. ”Why not?”
”You hear that, Otis? Three squares and a bed and no more welding outside at f.u.c.king ten below.”
Otis plucked at Davey's sleeve and whispered. ”Oh. Chopper, Otis wants to know if he can bring Cherry there with him.”
”I don't see why not.”
”Such a deal.” Davey dropped his arm, tossed the trooper his pistol and a blinding smile. ”f.u.c.k 'em if they can't take a joke,” he added, and barfed his dinner, a fifth of Absolut, three quarts of popcorn and two light beers down the front of the trooper's immaculate uniform pants.
About that time half a dozen Alyeska Pipeline security guards roared up on snow machines and were all over the Roadhouse like a swarm of angry bees. They were full of energy in spite of their all-afternoon crosscountry excursion, and it was obvious that the only thing standing between the two prisoners and a distillation of some of that energy was Chopper Jim's calm, level gaze. The two pipe liners drunk but not entirely stupid, themselves demonstrated a reverence for the Alaska Department of Public Safety in general and a touching affection for this representative in particular. It became necessary for them to be restrained; indeed, they displayed a distressing tendency to grasp at Chopper's Jim's large frame with hands, arms, legs and teeth as they were being carried through the door by the Alyeska guards.
At the end of the third run at the door the gunman shouted, ”You'll never take me alive, copper!” which effectively destroyed the rest of Kate's gravity, and even Bernie turned away with his lips twitching. He tossed the trooper a damp towel and set up a round of drinks on the house. Everyone rushed for the bar, to knock theirs back and brag about how each of them had singlehandedly disarmed the four, no, seven, wait, wasn't it twelve armed desperadoes who had taken a hundred people hostage in Bernie's Roadhouse on this memorable evening. Chopper Jim mopped off his uniform and accepted a ginger ale.
”This must be the most fun those rent-a-cops have had since Pump Eight blew up,” Kate said to Jim Chopin.
”h.e.l.lo, Kate,” he said, still calm, hitching his gun belt up a notch over his hips, superbly unconcerned with the damp stains left on his uniform pants. ”Haven't seen you this far inside the Park in a while.”
”I'm looking for someone.”
”I know.” She said involuntarily, ”How the h.e.l.l could you know?”
”I do come into contact with a few members of Alaska's law enforcement community from time to time.” He grinned. Chopper Jim had a grin like a shark, wide, white and predatory, and knowing eyes that saw far too much. They had one effect on offenders of the law, and a completely different one on the opposite s.e.x.
Kate stared at that grin and suddenly remembered she was of the opposite s.e.x herself. ”Er, of course,” she said, giving herself a mental kick. I'm older than this, she reminded herself sternly.
Chopper Jim scratched Mutt's head with caressing fingers. She flattened her ears and wagged her tail slavishly. Make that the opposite s.e.x of any species. ”Found anything yet?” he said casually.
She hesitated. ”Nothing for you to act on,” she said cautiously. ”Some interesting coincidences.”
”Want to share?”
She shook her head. ”Not yet.”
”If you need help--”
”Katya!” Kate looked around and was overrun by what at first glimpse seemed to be a smaller, pudgier and younger version of herself. ”Katya, why didn't you tell me you were here? Why didn't you come find me?”
”I thought I had, Xenia,” Kate said, chuckling at her cousin's overwhelming enthusiasm, and put a little on her guard as well. ”Let's move to a table so we can talk. Nice seeing you, Jim.”
Xenia looked up at the big trooper from beneath long lashes and blushed. ”Hi, Jim.”
The trooper touched the brim of his hat with two fingers. ”Xenia.”
Xenia tossed her hair over her shoulders and said, still looking at him from beneath her lashes, ”You keep saying you'll come over to my house to visit the next time you're in Niniltna, Jim, but you never do. How come?”
The trooper looked her over from head to toe, slowly and carefully and thoroughly, the gaze of an experienced investigator trained to miss not the smallest detail. Sylvester looked at Tweety Bird that way. h.e.l.l, Kate thought, Atilla the Hun had looked at Rome that way. Xenia's blush became even rosier. ”How old are you now, Xenia?” the trooper said.
”Not old enough,” Kate said, pus.h.i.+ng between them. ”Good-bye, Jim.”
She took her cousin's elbow and steered her toward a vacant table on the other side of the room.
Xenia was dragging her feet, looking over her shoulder, and when Kate looked back Chopper Jim's teeth flashed again and he touched the brim of his hat. ”Snap out of it, girl,” Kate muttered to her cousin out of one corner of her mouth. ”It's not for nothing they call Jim Chopin the Father of the Park.”
They were barely seated before Xenia, her mood s.h.i.+fting mercurially, said in an urgent undertone, ”Katya, could you get me a job in town?”
”I don't know,” her cousin said, her eyes fixed on the girl's face.
”What can you do?”
”Anything,” Xenia said eagerly. ”I can type, I can file, I got my high school diploma this year.”
”Why this sudden urge to vacate the premises?”
”I want to get away,” the younger girl said pa.s.sionately. ”I want to get out of this place. I want to go where there are cars and movies and restaurants and other kinds of people--”
”Like, maybe, men in uniform,” Kate said, smiling a little.
Xenia colored and said defiantly, ”Yes, anyone that isn't a dumb Native.”
”Hold it now--”
”I don't care! If they aren't dumb, they're drunk, and if they're drunk they hurt people, they even--” She caught Kate's eyes and stopped suddenly. ”I want to get away,” she said in a plaintive voice.
The girl was young and fresh-faced and would have been pretty but for her sulky eyes and the petulant droop to her lower lip. ”I don't know that just wanting to get away is the best reason for moving to town,”
Kate said slowly.
”You've seen emaa, haven't you?” Xenia said with quick suspicion. Kate nodded, and Xenia said with a bitterness that alarmed her cousin, ”I knew it! I knew she'd get to you first and turn you against me and ruin my life! She wants me to stay here and learn how to weave baskets and carve ivory and spin qiviut and die of boredom! I hate her! I hate you!” Kate tried to say something and Xenia rushed on. ”It's all so easy for you, you made it out, you went to school, you worked in town, you have a choice! Old Snow White, that's what we call you in the village! And now I'm stuck here in this--”
”Xenia!” Kate's voice was like the crack of a whip, and Xenia jumped and gulped back tears. ”First of all, emaa didn't turn me against you.
She talked to me, and yes, she wants me to convince you not to go to town.” She held up one hand, palm out. ”I didn't say I would.”