Shaman Winter by Rudolfo Anaya Page A

to smuggle in the cocaine shipment. He was selling coke to pay for this. Then he disappeared. Now we know he was shopping in Ukraine.”
    â€œHow much does it cost to buy a plutonium pit?” Sonny asked.
    â€œMillions,” Eric said.
    â€œThere are plenty of our enemies out there willing to fund this lunatic,” Doyle interjected. “North Korea, Iran, Iraq, you name it. We’ve followed a trail of money funneled through a Swiss bank account. Over twenty million dollars. Now the account is empty. Raven bought the plutonium all right. We were just lucky to intercept it.”
    So Arturo Romero won’t get a ransom note after all, Sonny thought. Raven has other money sources.
    â€œDoes he actually think he can build a bomb?” Sonny asked. “Don’t you need a lot of equipment?”
    Eric nodded. “If he’s got the right people, a bomb can be put together almost anywhere. Out-of-work, disgruntled nuclear scientists from the former Soviet Union or Ukraine are selling their services. Ex-nuclear physicists are a dime a dozen. An expert in focused explosives could be bought. Someone with that kind of expertise could build the detonators. Actually, manuals on how to put together a bomb have circulated on the Internet for years now. What’s been lacking is the heart of the bomb, the pit.”
    â€œBut you have the pit,” Sonny said, “so what’s the problem?”
    â€œThis man is dedicated to a world revolution,” Doyle said. “We have a dossier on him a foot thick. He failed this time, but we’re sure he’ll try again.” He placed his hands on the desk, and his gaze bore into Sonny. “We need to find him and stop him.”
    And I need to find him and stop him, Sonny thought.
    â€œNational security is afraid he’ll try again,” Eric said.
    Paiz spoke. “When we first met Raven, we thought we were dealing with a crazy activist who opposed the storage of nuclear waste at the WIPP site. But once we pulled a background check on him, as Mr. Doyle has just said, we found aliases a mile long. Turns out Raven is not Raven.”
    Sonny checked a smile. How many times had he heard that?
    â€œHe’s not just an ecoterrorist, and his knowledge of explosives is far greater than that picked up by blowing dynamite in the Grant’s mines. He’s been around the world, from Libya to North Korea. He’s left his footprints all over the place.”
    â€œFootprints?”
    â€œA faint trail,” Paiz continued. “He’s here, he’s there—”
    â€œBut now he’s here,” Sonny said.
    â€œYes. He’s here, and he has a base of operations.”
    â€œWhy here?” Sonny tested their knowledge of Raven.
    â€œBecause of the labs,” Eric replied. “Between us, Sandia Labs, and Kirtland in Albuquerque, we’ve got the expertise and the nuclear capability—” He paused, pursed his lips, and said no more.
    â€œSo how do I fit in?” Sonny asked.
    â€œHe left a message. We believe it’s for you,” Eric said.
    â€œA message?” Sonny was surprised. So this is why they called him in.
    â€œIt’s a bowl, and actually Matt’s the one who figured the message relates to you.”
    Sonny’s hair along the back of his neck stood on end.
    â€œWhat kind of bowl?”
    â€œIt’s one of the most beautiful pieces of pre-Columbian art I’ve ever seen,” Eric said. “It resembles the work from Tula. Pre-Toltec obsidian. There are glyphs carved on the outside of the bowl. I’ve been collecting Indian pottery since I came to New Mexico, and I’ve never seen anything this beautiful. We think he was carrying the plutonium pit in the bowl. And here’s the strange part, the bowl isn’t lead lined, but an initial test tells us the plutonium doesn’t emit radiation through it.”
    Sonny felt sweat along his back. The pot Eric