Page 46 of Thunder Pass

Gunnar snorted. “My father had seventeen years to explain that, if he cared to.”

“It sounded like he couldn’t. Maybe he didn’t want to put you in danger by giving you that knowledge. That’s another thing Luke used to say. ‘Knowledge is dangerous.’ I never knew what he meant by that, because we had to know all kinds of things to live the way we did.”

“I think he probably wanted to scare you into not trying to learn about the rest of the world.”

“That’s true. They created their own world, him and Naomi. And they wanted all their children, whether by blood or not, to believe in that world.” Ruth turned her head to gaze out the window at the cityscape of Anchorage. “But can you really just pretend the real world doesn’t exist?”

“Oh, he knew about the real world.” Gunnar pulled on his jeans and fastened them. Hunger was gnawing at his belly, and he remembered a small sandwich shop right around the corner. “How else do you think he recruited supporters, shipped in a massive amount of munitions, and found all those kids?”

“You’re right.” Ruth closed her eyes, shaking her head. “All that time, he was doing stuff in the real world while refusing to let us know a single thing about it. Wait.” Her eyes snapped open. “I did just remember something. I had a stomachache one night and I went downstairs, which you’re not supposed to do at night. I heard Luke’s voice. He was in the kitchen talking to a man I’d never seen before. I stopped and listened, hoping they’d leave so I could get some vinegar. But I couldn’t understand anything they said.”

He paused in the midst of pulling on his hoodie. “Were they speaking a different language?”

“They must have been, but at that point I didn’t know other languages existed. I just figured they were talking about things I didn’t understand, grown-up things. I never thought about it again until now.”

That could be significant, or it could mean nothing. Gunnar finished getting dressed, turning it over in his head. “How long did they talk?”

“A long time. I gave up and went back to bed.”

“Have you ever heard that language again? Could you identify it?”

“It’s hard to say. I think I might have heard it a few other times, when Luke would talk to an ornery cow or a horse he was trying to break.”

“Like what would he say? Can you recreate it?”

She closed her eyes again, summoning the memory. “Sort of like…” And she made a sound both guttural and lilting, and not anything he recognized.

If only he had a smartphone with a translation app.

He checked his phone, and realized it was time for them to head out for their meeting with Renata McBurney, with barely enough time to grab some food first.

“Come on, let’s go get some breakfast, or lunch, or whatever it is.” He reached a hand to her and when she grabbed it, hauled her out of bed. She was just as curvy and luscious as when she’d shocked him by stepping out of the shower stark naked; he hadn’t imagined it. He grinned at her. “Better get dressed quick or we won’t even make it to her office.”

She skipped into the bathroom, where she’d left her clothes, twitching her rear end at him, and he could hardly believe this was the same Ruth who’d barely met his eyes when she was younger.

Leaving that compound was the best thing she’d ever done, in his opinion.

On their way to Renata McBurney’s downtown office, where she now worked as a public interest lawyer, they picked up bagels and coffee at a drive-through kiosk. Ruth’s first bagel with cream cheese drew an ecstatic reaction from her.

“I don’t understand,” she kept saying. “It’s so simple, but it’s so good. It’s not just bread. It’s better than that. How? How do they make them so good?”

“You know something? We need to get a smartphone. I can’t keep up with all your questions.”

“What’s a smartphone?”

He was still chuckling at that when they walked into Renata McBurney’s office. She was a Native Alaskan woman in her late fifties, with stunning dark eyes and a gracefully rounded face. She ushered them into the seating area of her office, where they sat side by side on a low couch that made Gunnar feel like an oversized ogre. A delicate ivory carving of dancing cranes sat on her desk.

“Walrus tusk,” she explained, seeing the direction of his gaze. “Inupiat.”

“Beautiful.”

“Thanks, I’ll tell my grandfather.” She offered them both a welcoming smile. “How can I help you?”

Ruth pulled out the Post-It note. “We were sent to you by Ben Whistler. It’s about a piece of land near Firelight Ridge. The Chilkoot family lives there. He said you might have been investigating…”

She trailed off because Renata was already shaking her head, her friendly smile gone. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that one. I had just started to dig into that plat formation when I was pulled off the corruption investigation. It was always a dicey project, since it implicated a lot of Alaska power brokers, as you can imagine. No one was immune. I wasn’t surprised when they decided it wasn’t worth the heat.”

Ruth’s face fell as she listened. “Did you find out anything at all before you stopped?”

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