Hidden Talents

time.”
    Roland scowled in the shadows. “Would someone mind telling me just what in blazes is going on here?”
    “I'm not sure.” Caleb started to dress. “But it looks like we'd better take a look. The last time Blade discovered a point man for an invasion force, things got real serious.” He hesitated. “Want to come along?”
    “Hell, why not? Seems to be my night for doing a lot of crazy things.”
    “Ain't crazy, sir,” Blade said stiffly. “Folks say I'm paranoid, but I know I ain't crazy.”
    Roland shrugged into his shirt. “I wasn't referring to you, soldier.” He scanned Blade's array of implements. “You got any extra firepower you can loan me for the mission? I didn't come prepared.”
    Blade eyed him. “You got some experience in this kind of thing, sir?”
    “Been a rancher all my life. Spent a few years in the Marine Corps.”
    Blade beamed with satisfaction. “Reckon you're the one who taught Caleb here how to handle a weapon.”
    Roland flicked a hooded glance at Caleb. “Reckon I was.”
    “Here you go, sir.” Blade removed a revolver from his belt and handed it to Roland.
    Roland examined the gun for a few seconds. “Nice.”
    “I keep all my equipment in good shape,” Blade said. “Man's only as good as his equipment.”
    “Ain't that the truth,” Roland agreed.
    Caleb swore softly and raised a hand for attention. “Hold on a minute here. Nobody goes off half cocked. We will all proceed to Asterley's cabin in an orderly fashion, and we will find out precisely what is going on there. But no one, I repeat, no one , is to open fire on anything or anyone unless I give the command. Understood?”
    Blade snapped to attention. “You're in charge around here, Mr. Mayor.”
    Roland's brows rose. “Mr. Mayor?”
    “Remind me to tell you about my budding career in local politics,” Caleb said.
    “ Politics .”
    The back door of the cottage opened at that moment. Serenity appeared. She hovered anxiously on the threshold for a minute, peering into the glass-walled hot tub room. Then she hurried across the porch and slid the glass door open.
    “What is going on out here? Blade .” She glared at him in the shadows. “What on earth are you doing here?”
    “Got trouble, Serenity,” Blade said. “Invasion's started. Got to neutralize the point man before he signals the others with an all-clear.”
    “Oh, no, not tonight,” Serenity wailed. “Couldn't you halt the invasion some other night? I've got a houseguest this evening.”
    “Sorry,” Blade said. “They picked the time. Not us.”
    Serenity turned to Caleb. “Can't you do something about this?”
    “Don't worry.” Caleb put one foot on the bench and leaned over to tie his boot laces. “I'm good at this kind of thing.”

    For some reason, Caleb was genuinely surprised to see the flashlight beam sweep past the kitchen windows of Asterley's cabin. “I'll be damned. Someone is in there.”
    “Told you so.” Blade's voice was a gravelly whisper. It emanated from the vicinity of a huge fir tree. Charon and Styx waited eagerly in the shadows beside him.
    Roland came to a halt next to Caleb and studied the darkened cabin. “There's someone in there, all right.”
    “I can see that.” Caleb braced himself against the biting cold and tried to think quickly. So much for the theory that this was a simple fantasy born of Blade's chronic paranoia. There was definitely an intruder in the Asterley cabin. He wondered who would want to prowl around in there at this time of night.
    Then he recalled the file cabinets in the basement. Nearly four decades of photographs were stored in the downstairs room that Jessie had not yet cleared out. There was no way of knowing what Asterley had photographed over the years. The files had contained fodder for Firebrace's blackmail scheme. They might very well contain other pictures that someone else would consider devastating. Maybe others had learned of Asterley's death and had come to search through his files for dangerous pictures.
    “Point man, all right,” Blade said. “No doubt about it.”
    “Looks like you got yourself a burglar in there, Mayor,” Roland said quietly. There was an underlying current of excitement in his voice.
    “Or just a transient who decided to bed down in an empty cabin for the night,” Caleb said, trying to maintain his role as the rational one in the group.
    “Wouldn't think you'd get many transients here in Witt's End,” Roland observed.