Read Online Tainted Trail by Wen Spencer - Free Book Online

“Could be he’s just worried about the missing college student.”
    â€œWell, it’s a chance to win him over with your charm and beauty.”
    Ukiah laughed and finished the rest of the sandwich. Max handed him back the refilled water bottle and a fanny pack of candy bars, beef jerky, and trail mix.
    â€œI can’t imagine her having gone much farther on Monday than this,” he announced to them. “She wasn’t moving very quickly in the last valley and actually stopped quite a few times to bang chips off rocks and such like. She ate lunch already, so we’re into travel she did during midday. If she planned to go back to camp, she has to change course soon.”
    â€œSo, she hasn’t started to backtrack?” Kraynak asked.
    Ukiah shook his head. “No. We’ve been swinging east and south for the last hour, so I think she planned to circle back around instead of backtracking.”
    Max pulled the map from the Blazer, and unfolded it onto the tailgate. “Well, if she didn’t come down that ridge this way, she could have taken this spur, which would have landed her near this road here.” He tapped where the darkersquiggle of the road nearly touched a stacked series of light squiggles that indicated a very steep hill. “It’s a fairly level hike back to the campground then, at least according to the map.”
    â€œWe’ve had some bad falls from that hill,” Sheriff Kicking Deer stated. “It’s taller, so it’s a vantage point. On the maps, that point looks no steeper than the rest, but it’s actually a cliff. People not familiar with the area often park and try to find their way up and down it.”
    Kraynak studied the map. “Why don’t we drive over while Ukiah takes the high country? We’ll meet at the bottom, here.”
    Max nodded. “Okay. Sounds like a plan. You set, kid?”
    â€œSet.” Ukiah gave them all a wave. “See you later.”
    As Ukiah started to run, Sheriff Kicking Deer returned to his car and radioed in their plans.
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    Ukiah backtracked the mile, scrambling easily back up to the ridge and starting along it. His mind, though, kept returning to Sheriff Kicking Deer. Win him over with charm and beauty? He laughed to himself. How do you convince a person that you’re his ninety-plus great-uncle when you look eighteen? Maybe in the future he could use cryogenic sleep as an excuse, but he disappeared in 1933.
    Reports of alien abductions flourished after the chaos he and the Ontongard caused with the Mars Rover. The NASA Channel faithfully caught and CNN endlessly replayed every moment of the mother ship—from when the cloaking shields dropped to its blinding self-destruction. Later, a hacker group claimed responsibility for the video feed, saying that they swapped the live coverage with doctored footage. Later still, a small group of experts, willing to undergo world ridicule, pointed out evidence why the ship couldn’t have been computer-generated graphics. Despite everything, few people believed in aliens, except those who also believed in government conspiracies.
    No, he couldn’t say aliens had abducted him. He hated the idea of lying.
    Besides, the East Oregonian newspaper articlespecifically named him the Umatilla Wolf Boy. Maybe the Kicking Deers were expecting an unaging child. Perhaps the true problem was that he looked too old.
    Â 
    â€œThis isn’t good.” Ukiah squatted at the cliff edge, scanning for the track.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œCan you see me?”
    â€œNo.”
    Ukiah worked his way out onto a narrow outcrop and waved down at the three men. “How about now?”
    â€œOkay. We see you. What’s up?”
    â€œThe track stops here. I think she fell.”
    â€œOh, shit.”
    Ukiah leaned carefully out, over the ledge, to look down at the jumble of rocks. “Can you work over until you’re under me and