Free Tribal Ways by Alex Archer Page A

the white-eyes’ radar, as you might say. They chose to accept permanent partition from their clans, from their sacred earth, which are as much a part of them as their bones and flesh and blood. If they made that sacrifice, would they jeopardize the safety they bought at such terrible cost?”
    “Dr. Michel,” she said through clenched teeth, “fifteen people, including a very dear friend of mine, have died at the hands of one or more apparent Navajo wolves. I think the last thing you need to worry about is whether I take the phenomenon seriously.”
    He smiled thinly. “ Bon. Now, the most terrible form of witch is the skinwalker. It is the most extreme and difficult path of the Witchcraft Way. It requires rituals even more horrific and forbidden than the less esoteric witchcraft. Needless to say, murder, blood and corpse powder figure prominently in its attainment.”
    “Of course,” Annja said. By this point she felt need for a bit of flippancy to save her sanity, and damn the risks of this uptight man’s overly sharpened tongue.
    If she hadn’t seen the photographs of the victims, if her friend hadn’t virtually died in her arms, she would not be reacting so strongly to Michel’s catalog of horrors, no matter how much relish he recited them with. She was vulnerable. He seemed to sense that, and enjoy taking advantage.
    “The skinwalker is said to have many fearful gifts,” Michel went on. “The power to read thoughts. The ability to imitate the voice of any person or animal, sometimes impersonating loved ones to lure victims to their doom. Some stories even credit them with being able to steal another’s body by gazing deeply into their eyes. And, of course, they have the power to assume animal form—predominantly, though not restricted to, that of a wolf. Hence, the common appellation Navajo wolf. Some others assert that they assume a sort of hybrid human-animal form. In these altered shapes, or skins, they are said to possess strength, speed and resistance to damage far in excess of either human or animal.”
    “I see,” Annja said. “That would be a pretty formidable package.”
    He shrugged. “Most likely, of course, you are dealing with a mere poseur—an imitator, a copy cat, you might say. If you are dealing with a real skinwalker, you are in very grave trouble, indeed.”
    “Define real in this context, Dr. Michel, please.”
    He laughed. “A skeptic, eh? Very well. When I say a real skinwalker, I mean a person who has undergone the grueling, horrific and largely illegal rituals prescribed for becoming a Navajo wolf. Such an individual would likely possess above-average intelligence and almost superhuman determination.
    “Indeed, as you would know had you read my paper, which I have circulated on a limited basis in preliminary form, I theorize that the witch, particularly the skinwalker, constitutes a peculiarly Navajo life-way for what we would term a sociopath. Such people, in other cultures, are known for high intelligence, resourcefulness and a complete lack of conventional inhibitions. They can behave quite obsessively in pursuit of their goals. Including developing their skills to an extraordinarily high level.”
    “I have read your paper, Doctor,” Annja said. She’d found a copy online last night. “I wanted to get what insight I could from you in person.”
    If the fact she’d read his paper mollified the French psychiatrist, he hid it well. “If a true skinwalker is responsible for these killings, I blame the corruption of Western influence—unremitting violence in popular culture and everyday life. And, of course, materialist, consumerist capitalism, which corrupts all it touches.”
    Consumerism? she thought. His twists of logic were starting to make Annja’s head swim the way his stories turned her stomach.
    “In line with that understanding,” Michel said, “I have formed an alternative hypothesis. While traditional Navajo wolves renounce humanity—meaning, to them,