Previously on Jake Hammer: After agreeing to serve as a spotter for a hurricane artillery barrage, Jake found himself taken by surprise by Colonel Englemann.  After Englemann learned Jake’s true identity, he was determined to kill him, but not before first hobbling him with a bullet to the ankle, and punching him senseless with a set of brass knuckles.  Just as Englemann was about to deliver the coup de grace, the Native American warrior Rising Moon sent an arrow through his throat, suffocating him.  She was about to guide Jake back to safety when a sniper’s bullet claimed her life.  Now,

 

     Two days later, on a perfect California summer day, Jake Hammer banked Lady Luck out of the sun and over the mountain meadow in the San Gabriel Mountains where he had crash landed not long before.  He brought his aircraft in for a perfect landing, opened the cockpit canopy, and waited.  He knew the National Forest Service, which was in regular contact with the Tongva, had arranged for them to meet him here.  Sure enough, soon four native men and their chief, Moon-in-the-Water, emerged through a draw in the hills.  Jake gingerly got out of the cockpit and slowly climbed down.  He could not bear much weight on his injured ankle.  Miguel had rigged up a special cane that Jake could use to operate Lady Luck’s pedals and Jake used it now to support himself.  Once on the ground, Jake opened the doors to the plane’s ventral cargo bay.  The native men lifted the small, plain, pine casket from its place in the hold and, hoisting it onto their shoulders, carried it toward the end of the narrow valley.  Jake and the Chief watched together as the men silently departed.  The Chief broke the silence:  “I knew she would die.  She knew it too.”

     “Then why?  Why did you send her?”

     The Chief exhaled audibly.  “Her destiny was foretold by the prophesy. The man who fell from the sky would become one with the sun.  But to do that, he would have to take one of the Tongva with him forever.”

     “I am so sorry.”

     Moon-in-the-Water now turned to face Jake, extending his arm and putting his hand on Jake’s shoulder.  Jake looked intently into the Chief’s face, his own steel-grey eyes meeting the deep brown eyes of the Chief framed by his weathered skin, prominent nose, and cheekbones. 

     “It is you I feel sorry for, Man-Who-Fell-From-the-Sky.  The final part of the prophesy says that you are doomed to fly over this earth like a restless spirit.  You will not know peace for many years.  That is your destiny.”  The Chief dropped his arm from Jake’s shoulder.  “And now I must ask you to get into your aircraft and leave us.  Do not come back here.  We will walk our separate paths now.”  Chief Moon-in-the-Water turned to go.

     “But what will you do?”

     The Chief drew himself up to his full height.  “For thousands of years, our time ran in cycles, the sun in the heavens and the seasons.  But now the thread of time has been pulled off the spool.  The prophesy has been fulfilled.  Our time in these hills is at an end.  We will go down to the land below.”

     “And what about you Chief?  Will you go too?”

     “No.”  He seemed to shrink.  “I will remain.  And now I must attend to the burial of my granddaughter.”

 

     Back at his base, Jake was in a reflective mood as he shared his experience with Miguel.  California was safe for the moment.  But was it really worth all the sacrifices everyone made?  It was one thing for him to risk his own life.  But he never wanted anyone else to be hurt by the choices he made for himself.  What was the answer?  He didn’t know.  And Miguel’s words could not console him.  “Amigo, there are so many things we cannot control.  Even today, I wonder why my brother had to die in the Cristeros War.  But in the end, you must accept it.” 

Suddenly the somber mood was broken by the staccato, percussive crunch of tires on the gravel outside the hangar.  Jake looked out:  It was Madame Zhu’s big Chrysler.  He went to the door and opened it, just as the liveried driver was about to knock.  The driver bowed briefly.

     “Madame wishes a word with you?”

     “Sure, I’d be happy to talk with her.”  Preoccupied, Jake nevertheless noticed a cloud appearing out of nowhere to obscure the sun.  For just a second, he felt a little chilly.  The driver wasted no time in briskly opening the door for Madame Zhu, who emerged and looked around quickly before striding regally to the doorway.

“Mr. Hammer, so nice to find you here!”  She beamed a brilliant smile.  “I’m glad I was able to see you before a horde of eager newspaper people swarmed you with requests for a story.  You have become quite the hero!”

     “Thanks Madame Zhu.  Please come in.  We can talk in my office.”

     Her face instantly flew some distress signals.  “This will take but a moment of your valuable time.  Simply put, as one of your earliest and most steady clients, I hope that you and I might continue our productive partnership, which I believe has been beneficial for us both.  And I am hoping that your newfound celebrity will not interrupt that.  May I rely on your discreet expertise in the future?”

     Jake looked at her exquisite face, with its meticulous and dramatic makeup.  Not that she needed it:  Her flawless beauty would be intoxicating even without a trace of anything artificial.  He inhaled the scent of her mysterious perfume.  He couldn’t place it, but it always had the same, dreamy effect on him.  He became aware she was waiting for a response.

     “Sure Madame Zhu,” he finally stammered out.  “I will always be at your service.”

     “Thank you, Mr. Hammer.  That was the answer I was seeking.  And now, if you will excuse me, I have some urgent business elsewhere.”  Once again, he noticed that she looked around, as if she were making sure that they had not been observed.  She strode back to her limo; the driver smartly opened and closed the door, hopped behind the wheel, and took off in haste.

     Jake looked after her as the big car barreled back down the road.  When it passed out of sight, he turned to look back in the hangar, where he saw that Miguel had already begun to make some additional repairs to the plane.  Jake stayed outside, walking the length of the hangar.  He fell into a bit of a reverie, only to find himself jolted out of it by the sound of yet another vehicle.

     The beetle-like black sedan picking its way up the access road announced the arrival of their now-familiar visitors, Special Agent Tom Compton, and his assistant, Agent Gene Murray.  They had barely stopped when Compton leapt out of the vehicle, grabbing Jake’s elbow and ushering him vigorously back into the hangar.  Miguel heard the commotion and put down his tools, wiping his hands on a rag.

     “Jake!  I have fantastic news!” Compton began, “you are going to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at a special ceremony at the White House next month! What do you think of that?”

     “It’s an honor to be recognized.  But I hope everyone realizes I was just doing my duty.”

     “And I just knew you would say that Jake.  But listen to this, I have some other news and it’s about Miguel.”  Miguel looked at Jake, and Jake could see the concern in his eyes.

     “Miguel, you are going to receive a decoration too!  It’s the Presidential Medal of Freedom!  The highest award a citizen can receive!”

     Jake interjected, “A citizen?”

     Compton continued, “Well yes, a citizen or a legal resident.”

     Jake hesitated for a second and coughed.  “Well, Tom, I’m sure we have Miguel’s papers around here somewhere, but as you can see it’s a real mess in here and it’s going to take us some time to find them.”

     Compton looked first at Jake, and then at Miguel and then back at Jake. “Yeah, we thought that might be the case.  Agent Murray, may I have that other document please?”  From his attaché, Agent Murray produced a single-paged document printed on heavy paper.  Jake saw the elaborate gold-embossed seal.

     Compton held it up. “What I have here is a Special Presidential Proclamation, signed by the President himself.  In fact, it didn’t leave his desk in Washington until midnight last night.  Congratulations Miguel, you are now a citizen of the United States!  In fact, you have been for the last several weeks.”

     A plainly relieved Miguel received the document from Compton’s outstretched hand.  “Gracias,” he said, “I mean, thank you” before focusing intently on every word on the page.

     “On the President’s desk at midnight?” Jake said, “How did it get here in just 10 hours?”

     “The Grey Geese flew it here Jake.”

     So, Jake thought, the rumors were true then.  There was a squadron of pursuit plane pilots who were specially trained to fly through any and all weather conditions, on the President’s command.

     “What do they fly?”

     “Sorry Jake.  I can’t tell you everything.”

     Jake laughed.  “Well, what can you tell me then?”

     “Why don’t we go in that miserable crap-hole you call an office and discuss it?”

     Once inside, both men sat on either side of Jake’s disorganized, dust-laden desk.

Compton made a tent of his fingers.  “Let’s see, where to start?  Well, you probably know that without the German support, the Mexican troops folded up pretty quickly.  Most of them surrendered as soon as we counterattacked.  The prisoners we took told us they never wanted to be here in the first place.  What you might not know is that the Mexican President, Calles, is going on the radio today to announce that the whole thing has been a colossal misunderstanding.  Mexico was simply responding to the rumors of a secession in California.  All they were trying to do was protect Mexican nationals living in the US.  When their units were fired on by our troops, well, they had no choice but to defend themselves.”

     “What about the Germans?  How can they explain their involvement?”

     “Hitler also has a speech before the Reichstag today.  Our agents already intercepted the contents.  The Fuhrer is going to say that his government cannot be held responsible for so-called “freebooters” among its soldiers.  All the German soldiers we captured or killed, including Englemann, are officially listed as AWOL.  According to Hitler, Dietrich stole the aircraft after a test flight at the Dornier plant, and a full report to that effect had been filed with the International Aviation Association.  The IAA has the report, and it’s dated several months back.  But it’s clearly fake, and nobody knows how or when it got into their records.  The Nazis have an agent on the inside, no doubt.  And let’s see, what else?  Oh yeah: the tanks?  Well, according to the Nazis, anybody can buy weapons on the international arms market and Germany cannot control that.  Which is a lie, since the tanks were prototypes and not for sale for anywhere.”

     Compton paused for just a moment.  “The entire fight was a close call, no question, but Hitler tipped his hand, Jake.  Now we know we’re going to have to deal with the bastard sooner or later!”

     Jake laughed, then pursed his lips.  “Well it sounds like all the loose ends have been tied up.”

     Compton looked over.  “Except for one, Jake.”

     “What’s that?”

     “The money.  To raise cash fast, Mexico took some very-short-term notes on the international market.  To make good on them, the Mexicans were obviously expecting some kind of huge pay-day from somebody when they secured LA.  As it stands, they’re going busto unless we bail them out.  Which we will, under the table, because we can’t afford the chaos south of the border if we don’t.

     “How about Greg Jenkins and his friends? I know they put up some money.”

     Compton snorted:  “When we got wind of that, we put a tail on him for a few days, then hauled his worthless ass in.  Jenkins was defiant, at first.  But most of his money comes from his wife’s family and we were fortunate enough to have some photos of him entertaining a very attractive young lady who is not his wife.  He knew we’d blow it wide open if he didn’t talk, plus we threatened him with treason.  The idea of being broke and in prison must not have appealed to him.  He started to sing.  But the cash he and his friends put up was just chicken-feed.  To get this done, we’re talking about big money Jake.  Somebody has a pile somewhere and we don’t have a clue who it is.  Do you Jake?” Compton leaned in close to Jake, their faces no more than a foot apart.

     Jake looked at Compton’s square face with its thick eyebrows, and strong, firm jawline.  He met Compton’s eyes squarely.  “No, I don’t.”

     Compton held his gaze.  “Well if you learn something, you’ll tell us, won’t you Jake?”

     “Sure.”

     Both men were motionless for several seconds, their eyes locked together.  They were startled when they heard a loud, “Yoo-hoo!  Anybody home?” at the door.  It was Penny.  Tom Compton immediately rose from his seat and tipped his hat, “Very nice to see you again Miss Landers under these much more congenial conditions.  I hope you both will excuse me; I have a few more details to discuss with Miguel.” And he made his way out of the office.

     “What was all that about?” Penny said.

     “I don’t know.  He still has a lot on his mind. But how are you doing?  And how about Racer?  I’m sorry he was hit.”

     She tossed her head back.  “That made me so mad!  I mean, shoot at me; that’s one thing.  Shoot at my horse?  Now there’s a problem.  Good thing he’s going to be OK.”

     “So how did you get here?”

     “Come on outside, if you can manage it that is.”

     Jake hobbled along beside her as best he could.  Outside at the hitching post was a beautiful painted mare.

Penny stroked the horse’s muzzle. “They found her a few hundred yards from where you and Englemann had that…that fight.  Rising Moon must have ridden her all the way from the San Gabriels.  Just look at her!  Isn’t she incredible?  She’s calm, quiet and obedient.  I love riding her.  She’s smart too.  I don’t know what her name was, but she already answers to the name I’ve given her.”

     “Which is?”

     “New Moon.”

     Penny turned from the horse and looked at Jake directly.  “Jake, there’s so much that’s happened.  I was just wondering, do you think you might try spending a little more time down on the ground now?”

Jake looked for a long time at Penny’s beautiful tanned face, and the beaming California sun over her shoulder before he answered.

     “Penny, all I can say is, I hope so.”