Page 91 of Thunder Pass

With that, he kissed her until the world spun around her, and she didn’t know what was the end and what was the beginning, and it didn’t matter anyway, because it was all glorious.

44

Everyone had a story to tell, and everyone wanted to tell it at the same time. After a few days, the militia had broken apart. Unable to communicate, leaderless, and faced with angry locals, they’d peeled off in twos and threes and pretty soon there was a convoy of camouflage trucks heading to Blackbear, where a full array of law enforcement agencies met them with a stockpile of handcuffs.

After order had been restored—as much as it ever was in Firelight Ridge—the entire town gathered at The Fang, where Bear was dishing out free potato leek soup to anyone who came by.

Which was everyone. Even Shoeless Joe, the notorious hermit some had assumed was dead by now, ambled into The Fang. Barefoot, of course.

“Some Russian fella tried to keep me from checking my traplines,” he announced. “I got him tied up to my well pump. Anyone want him?”

“Still? I’ll take care of it,” said Anthony, sharing a resigned glance with Gunnar.

“I let out my entire flock of sheep,” Martha declared from her stool as she raised a glass of white wine. “Three of those idiots got trampled underfoot.”

Anthony lifted his glass to her. Was that a spark of something between them? Or was that just Gunnar seeing romance everywhere, now that he was so much in love?

Pinky Bannister refused to be outdone. “Me and old Solomon pulled out some prime Stoli vodka and got five of ’em drunker than donkeys.”

Next to Gunnar, Ruth giggled. “Do donkeys get drunk?” she whispered. The two of them sat at a table close to the bar, holding hands over the tabletop. No secrets for them anymore. Everyone knew that Gunnar and Ruth were officially a couple. Somehow, magically and organically, everyone behaved as if they’d been a couple all along.

“We threw apples at them from the upstairs window!” shouted Noah, jumping up and down so everyone could see him. The other kids, including Sarah—everyone’s hero since her big adventure—clustered around him and Maura, who’d allowed her entire “classroom” to attend this post-occupation town meeting.

“Half my fall harvest,” grumbled Birdie, the Granny Apple’s caretaker. “You kids owe me some apple-picking next fall.”

The kids seemed to love that idea. Every reference to a future in Firelight Ridge seemed to thrill them. Their situation was still a little unsettled, but the State of Alaska had finally stepped in. The older children would go to Blackbear, where they could attend an actual high school, along with private tutoring as needed. The caseworker was working on finding families in Firelight Ridge to foster the younger ones, and so far had more than enough volunteers. The town had really taken the kids into their hearts.

That meant Ruth and Gunnar wouldn’t be raising all those children after all. Gunnar had to admit it was a relief. Ruth needed time for herself. They needed time together as a couple. But they were both committed to staying in Firelight Ridge to provide the kids with some stability.

Luke would never be allowed near the kids again, even if he emerged from the coma he’d been in since the showdown in Thunder Pass. Anthony’s bullet wasn’t to blame for his condition; Dmitri’s men had slipped him some kind of poison before he was airlifted to the hospital. Apparently they’d been trying to stop Luke from telling all to the CIA.

It was unknown whether he would ever regain consciousness. Ani Devi had privately told Gunnar and Ruth that she thought his odds were low.

She and Gil, Lachlan and Maura were holding down a table near the bar. All of them, along with Nick and Charlie, had acted heroically during the tense few days of militia occupation. They’d kept everyone calm, tended to injuries, and passed messages. Bear had shut down The Fang, which the militia had wanted to use as a kind of headquarters, and scared them off with grapeshot.

After that, Bear and Sam Coburn had gone on a mission to free the airstrip. They’d almost succeeded when the militia’s comms went down and chaos broke out.

As for Lila, she’d been babysitting the Chilkoot kids when the militia first marched through town. She’d never left their side during the entire time.

And Molly…Molly had fearlessly spoken with every militia member who spoke any English and laid out exactly how many federal and state laws they were breaking. Gunnar had no doubt that she’d contributed to the panic the soldiers felt when the comms went down.

Unfortunately, in the chaos, Dmitri Turgenev had escaped back to Russia. Although he had provided the funding to purchase the tracts of land where the gold had been discovered, Luke was the primary owner of Chilkoot LLC. Since he and Naomi were now divorced, and he’d never bothered to do anything as official as make a will, everything he owned would go to the State of Alaska if he died.

Moreover, a giant question mark hung over those plat maps. The FBI was now officially investigating the changes that had been made. The prevailing theory, according to Anthony’s sources, was that Russian operatives had infiltrated the state government to do Dmitri’s dirty work. They’d covered their digital tracks so well that it would take some time to identify them. But it would happen.

In the meantime, the Ahtna were already planning a lawsuit to assert their rights to the land where the gold had been discovered.

“This’ll take years to work its way through the courts,” Molly had explained to Gunnar and Ruth. “Thanks to you guys, no one’s opening a mine here anytime soon.”

“That’s right.” Anthony had been listening closely. “And we avoided an international incident thanks to you guys. That Dmitri, what a piece of work…”

Dmitri Turgenev’s interest in the gold was even more sinister than Luke’s. By bringing in a Russia-aligned private militia, he’d wanted to spark an armed confrontation with the U.S. federal government. That would provide an excuse for Russia to funnel troops to the border with Alaska, heightening tensions between two nuclear powers.

Insane, but crazier things had been known to happen. Geopolitics was not for the faint of heart, Gunnar had realized.

“The CIA thinks that Dmitri Turgenev was part of a long-term plan to eventually get the U.S. to sell Alaska back to Russia,” Anthony had explained. “There’s a whole network of people working toward that goal, some are American, some are Russian. And then there’s Fredrik Norsk, aka Luke Chilkoot, who just wanted to hurt the U.S. and get his gold.”

“It’s not just that,” Ruth had corrected softly. “Luke wanted to turn Firelight Ridge into a company town where everyone worked for him, and he was some kind of emperor. It’s what he’s always wanted. To rule. To dominate. Revenge and domination. That’s Luke.”

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