Chapter 9 The Delegation Returns

There was pretty much nothing but quiet and contemplation during the return of the little expedition to Farmington.  Nobody had much to say about anything that mattered.  Nobody wanted to talk about things that didn't
They came up through the southern mountains by Chama and Antonito; through Alamosa in the Big Valley; up through the Springs.  There was nothing much to see or say.

• They had a working relationship with the Navajo at Farmington.
• The Navajo and the Free Zone could exchange information on the doings of the Dark Man on the Dark lands.
• The Free Zone end of the bargain was to be run by Judy, under the name of "Sue Dill."
• Only Sue Dill or an associate would be allowed to visit the Eastern Portal to the Land in Alamosa.
• Anyone who strayed out of sight of Shell Mountain would be killed.
• Any bilga'ana except, for Sue Dill, who was caught uninvited on Navajo land would be killed.
• Only the other six members of the expedition could come to Alamosa with Sue Dill's permission.

The radio was hazy and crappy, like sunspots, and any signal out of Boulder was just ten-one-dogshit, breaker, breaker.  They gave up trying to raise the Free Zone.

So they returned to Colorado Springs, before they were beset by a heavy fatigue, and slept like the dead. And the evening and the morning brought the next day.