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weapon fitted with a 75 round quick-change clip.
The Ochnar-75 was issued routinely to Apache
soldiers, and the one at the site had 53 remaining
rounds in the clip. After the Jaagé was analyzed
for trace evidence, prints, etc., the vehicle was
started and operated as if undamaged. This
evidence suggested purposeless violence and
destruction, aspects that did not fit with the
General s previous statements regarding the
efficiency of the killer s behavior.
The pieces of the puzzle, and here she
literally meant pieces, that she was most
interested in were the small squares. The number
that was stated earlier had not changed, even after
further excavation of the burial grounds by the
captain and his team. In addition, none were left
at the ambush location. The seventeen pieces had
been sent to Intelligence for evaluation, and their
presence explained why the General made the trip to
El Paso. It was difficult for her to conceal her
interest in the little bits of evidence.
Basically, they were the only things that had been
collected from the killer. Considering his
meticulous ability to act without even leaving
trace evidence, their existence at the burial
ground indicated they were of incredible
significance to him.
On first glance, the General understood why
the captain had almost overlooked the little things
at the burial ground. They were indeed small at
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approximately half a centimeter in length and
width, and were also the color of old bone. The
color difference between them and the Sonoran sand
at that location was negligible, and would have
camouflaged them, particularly if they
electrostatically attracted dust particles.
Viewing them while they were spread out on blotting
paper and under bright lights, she did see a tiny
collection of dust surrounding each of the pieces.
The squares had not yet been cleaned due to
concerns regarding their makeup.
 What are your immediate plans for these? She
asked the tech who basically stood guard over the
pieces.
 Well, Sir, I believe the first thing we are
going to do is look at them with a low power
microscope. We may be able to observe details not
visible to the naked eye.
 Excellent, Captain! When do you begin?
 Right now, General, if that is your order.
 Not particularly an order, Captain. Call it
a request.
 Yes, Sir. The captain said smiling.
A few minutes later, the captain had collected
a dissecting scope from the storage shelves and
attached a video camera to record magnified views
of the pieces. Without hesitation, he adjusted the
magnification, turned the camera on, and gently
slid the blotting paper holding the squares onto
the platform of the scope. Pretty unceremonious
for such significant evidence, she thought, but
then she didn t know exactly what she had expected.
Watching the captain as he slid the blotting
paper around on the platform to view each piece
individually, she felt a small amount of anxiety
gather in her chest.
Abruptly, the captain stood up and said,  I m
sorry, General.
Startled, she stepped back.
 What s wrong?
 I forgot to hook up a monitor for you to
watch while I studied the evidence.
 Oh. she said, feeling a small sense of
relief for some reason. While the captain went off
to gather the other equipment he needed, she took
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the opportunity to look at the objects under
magnification. After about a minute of staring
into the scope, she gave up. All she could see was
seventeen dirty little bone colored squares. They
all looked more or less the same, with some being
dirtier than the others as their only difference.
After this major let down, the captain
returned with a cart containing a monitor and
cables. He didn t seem to notice her
disappointment, so she kept her mouth shut and
watched him prepare for her to observe his work.
The first thing she noticed on the monitor was
that the objects seemed larger, and therefore she
was more likely to catch any useful details. The
second thing she noticed was that they still looked
like dirty little bone colored squares. Pessimism
was one of her strong points.
From a small leather pouch, the captain
produced a collection of little tools, and the
first of these he used was a very small brush. At
that point, he began at the edge of one of the
little squares and carefully brushed the surface
clean. Unfortunately, the amount of time he spent
on cleaning one miniscule fraction of the square s
surface proved to be prohibitively slow for the
General s attention span. At the rate he was
working, the little blocks would be clean in about
another month or two.
 Captain, if you identify anything
interesting, have me paged.
Lifting his eyes from the scope, the captain
nodded his understanding stating,  Yes, Sir, and
returned to his work.
She would check back later if she didn t hear
anything. Whatever the squares were, they were
still high on her list of importance to the
investigation. With any luck, they would provide a
clue to the killer s identity.
The Intelligence Services Complex was only a
small section of the massive Apache Nation military
presence in El Paso. This had evolved over time,
and she didn t believe it had been originally
planned to occur.
As noted in their history, the Apache were
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primarily nomadic early in their arrival in the
southwest. Even following the creation of the
Intertribal Council, the Apache way of life
remained relatively unchanged in that respect for
some time. The need for their help at various
times and in various parts of the Intertribal
Council s domain even after the suppression of the
Europeans prolonged their wandering, even while
some of the other tribes, such as the Navajo, were
beginning to settle down and advance their
particular ways of life. During that time, the
Apache had relatively little to store, nothing in
terms of organized training, and no hierarchy of
command. Entire extended families remained
together as traveling bands, and each band
determined its own course of action on an almost
day-to-day basis. The bands were not exactly
small, however, and they grew quickly as they
traveled. Individual bands frequently grew to be
the size of independent tribes, but somehow managed
to act in unison with other bands during the
extended period of conflict.
For reasons unknown to the General, the Apache
had previously separated into regional sub-tribes
in the southwest that were almost as distinct as
the Apache were from the Navajo. At that time,
they existed as the Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan,
Western, Chiracahua, and Kiowa Apache. Over the
course of about 175 years, the various Apache bands
slowly coalesced into a uniform tribe containing
bands from all the major early geographic
subdivisions. The accumulation in unified numbers
that occurred during these years brought with it a
greater need to also establish a home in one
primary location. With the gradual stabilization
of North America, the Apache were able to filter
back into their earlier homelands, the southwest.
No longer constantly on the move, they began to
develop a more stable military structured similarly
to that of the Europeans. This process was
accelerated greatly by the knowledge and abilities
of the immigrants that had joined with them over
the course of their previous nomadic life. As a
result, the Apache Nation grew in strength and
stability in the El Paso area to become the world-
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recognized power that it was now.
The General s quarters in the military complex
were relatively well furnished even though fairly
small. She lived alone, having lost her husband
during the Apache s most recent military conflict
in what was called the Middle East, a region of
southern Asia and northern Africa. The loss was
twenty years in the past now, but she guessed she
had never really recovered from it.
Over the intervening years, she rose in rank
faster than most due to her extensive past combat
experience and shrewd decision-making. She was now [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]