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Chapter 22

Sam looked at his watch and then at the sun.

Always, that blazing, glaring sun.

He'd lived in the desert long enough to hate the sun. Even when he'd lived in Florida, the sun was not as relenting here as in the desert. The sun beat down like the very drumsticks of God Himself, or perhaps even better, God's hammer beating on His anvil...

He remembered that scene from Lawrence of Arabia where Lawrence goes back for the man who'd fallen from his camel. The man was stranded on a vast, white playa with no water. The temperatures out there could - and did - reach 120 degrees. No shade. No hills. No water. No nothing - just the sun and the glaring white of the alkali flats reaching on in all directions forever. Lawrence was able to go back and rescue the man, in spite of all odds against both Lawrence and the man. The playa was called "God's Anvil"...

Later in the movie Lawrence ended up shooting the man he'd risked his own life to save.

Strange thoughts, thought Sam.

He looked around at his surroundings. At least, he thought, there were beautiful things to look at here. The red rock canyons were awe inspiring in their towering majesty. He'd heard that the local ranchers hated these canyons because they were perfect places for cattle to get separated from the relative safety of the rest of the herd and become prey for the mountain lions who also called this place home. Sam wondered how he would catch his prey.

What he really needed was more information. He'd driven the road where he'd found the tooth fillings but had found no additional insight. What the deputy had encountered out here was beyond anyone's imagination or conjecture. What could possibly cause someone's fillings to come out of their head like this? A bolt of lightning? Then what happened to the Bronco?

What he really needed was a way to get additional information quickly - cover more ground speedily and from a different vantage point. He needed a helicopter. He knew he could get one relatively easily. He even knew the pilot he'd requisition.

Sam returned to his vehicle. He didn't know that his every move was being watched, monitored for any action that seemed like it was threatening or that he was going to advance closer to the base. When he turned his vehicle back out the canyon, those monitoring him reported to their commander. They breathed a sigh of relief when the commander just told them to keep monitoring. Everything about this guy screamed "FED!" and they were not anxious to bring on the kind of retribution that was sure to come from eliminating someone like Sam.

If Sam knew what was waiting for him, he may have not been so interested in investigating further.

But then again, maybe he would, after all.

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