“Talk about it later?” he huffed. “I don’t even recognize you anymore. You were on the path to being a good addition to our team, but this person you’ve become…” He seemed to search for the right words. “You’re more suitable for the Army!”
She smiled, taking it as a compliment, but spoke without emotion. “I’m sorry we don’t see eye to eye on this. Tell whoever is left in the upper ranks about what’s going on down there. I have people you can call to confirm what I say is true. We have to act!”
Randy walked from the rear of the truck to the front, hammering the side panels with a balled fist as he went. “This truck is a total loss. Park it, get your stuff out, and find one of the temporary camp sites. You’re benched, Miss Anderson.”
“Just freaking ask them!” she screamed, coming unglued.
He stopped to face her. “I’ll tell them all right. You don’t have to worry.”
She was aware of the other rangers. Rather than lose her cool and give him a piece of her mind, she simmered a bit, then relaxed. “Thanks. The sooner we get help to our Wyoming friends to the south, the sooner Yellowstone can get back to normal. That’s my dream after the nation gets on its feet.”
Her boss took off his hat and wiped his brow, showing a rare glimpse of his scalp. It seemed as if his hair had retreated two or three inches since their last meeting. It created a moment of sympathy for the guy. He’d shared in the pain of the forest fire, same as she had. The last week hadn’t been easy on anyone.
When he put his hat back on, the connection disappeared. He furrowed his brows. “That truck better be parked by the time I come back out.”
She nodded. “Oh, it will.”
Green River, WY
“I’ll kill you!” Calvin shouted as he lunged for Ezra. Butch made an effort to block the hit, but the thin Crow man was fast. He landed a blow on the side of Ezra’s face, causing him to fall backward. However, before the man could follow it up with a more punishing barrage, the TKM guard cracked the man on the back of the skull. He fell to the concrete as if turned off.
Butch, to his credit, got a leg under Calvin before he hit the surface.
“Stand back,” the guard said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’ll off these two civvies and we can be on our way.”
Ezra whipped his head toward the girl. She was petrified in place next to the truck.
“No!” he replied. “I know this won’t make sense, but I want to leave them alive. They didn’t know it…” He winked at the girl, hoping she got the message. “But they saved our lives. Now I want to do the same for them.”
“Whatever.” The man picked up Calvin’s dropped rifle and Butch’s pistol, then headed back toward the strip mall. “But a thank you would have been nice.”
There was no way to talk to the girl. A half-dozen TKM men swarmed around them, as if to make sure they left with the prisoners they’d come to free. After a few awkward glances at his friends, he decided the only thing to do was get the mining company men out of there as soon as possible.
Ezra caught up to the guy who seemed to be in charge. “We are thankful. Don’t misunderstand. I guess I’m still in shock at how fast it happened. My name’s Ezra.”
He immediately mentally kicked himself for using his real name. The unique nature of it would make it instantly recognizable to anyone looking for him. He held his breath as they walked…
“I’m Christian.”
“Hey,” he replied, making sure Butch and Haley kept up with him. “We’re wondering how the heck you rescued us so fast?” It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes since they’d been plucked from the hotel parking lot. If TKM was that organized, he was going to have a hard time getting close to the rock to meet with Grace.
Christian acknowledged his question by pointing to the rocky hill behind the town. “We were scouting the highway from the ridgeline. Saw you get ambushed by those locals. We came down to put an end to it. Now we’re heading back to base to report in.”
Ezra looked around, searching for a way out. He noticed people at the far edge of the strip mall, as well as cars waiting far down the roadway. Since the shooting had stopped, he expected them to get closer. Medical people would soon run to the injured and dead from the Crow convoy. There was no obvious way for him to get away from Christian’s men, but he took a stab at it. “You mind if we get back to what we were doing? We’ll have to find another truck, of course, but…”
Christian was an imposing figure at six-and-a-half feet. His ripped chest under his blue shirt, along with his swagger on the battlefield, suggested he was ex-military. He was probably an officer based on his age. “I’m the tip of the spear out here. It was lucky we found you guys, but what the hell were you doing here? There shouldn’t be any TKM left this far out. Unless you’re one of the strays coming in from far away?”
Ezra’s expression lit up. “Yes! We’ve been trying to get to the dig site for days. The traffic didn’t help.” He pointed to the nearby highway, which still wasn’t moving a bit. Absently, he wondered how Christian and his men planned to travel if the roads were clogged.
“You three are either stupid or lucky. You should have been told how to get there without waiting for all these vehicles. No wonder you’re late.”
Butch was about to speak, but Ezra stopped him.
“My friends and I were in some tough spots. We didn’t get any memos, but we’re glad we happened to be where you could save us.” He hated himself for buddying up to the guy. Those men and women lying in the street were his real friends and allies, but he was now committed to appearing an asshole, along with all the other TKM people he’d met. “Can we get our gear from our truck?”
Christian waved over two other serious-looking security guys. “Make sure these three get to that truck over there so they can clear it out. Then make sure they make it back to the convoy. We leave in five minutes. Hustle!”
Ezra had to run to make it to the truck. When he got there and saw all his weapons lying in the back, he was worried the guards were going to say they couldn’t take them, but when they didn’t, he and Butch started collecting gear. He snuck a peek at Calvin and the girl still by the first vehicle. The man stirred on the pavement, suggesting he was coming around. That was good news.
One of the guards whistled using two fingers, getting the attention of two more of Christian’s men. “Hey! Look at all these guns! These guys need a hand.”
“No, we’re—” Ezra stopped himself. He’d been wondering if he could pull a fast one and cut down the two guards while they were separated from the others, but he still didn’t know how many TKM men were around. If there were still guards on the hilltop, they might be watching him through a scope. It would suck to die for absolutely nothing. Ezra laughed to sound friendly.
“We’re going to need as much help as we can get.”
They were trapped.
“You got it,” the guard assured him.
Chapter 6
Teton National Park, WY
Before Grace had a chance to digest her not-so-friendly encounter with Randy, the other rangers crowded around her, anxious to know more details about the damage done to her work vehicle.
“You guys believe me?” she asked, confused as to how they could have such a different opinion of her.
A young redheaded woman stepped up. For a ranger, she looked properly dirty. Her green pants were severely discolored below the knees, suggesting she’d been walking in mud or muck recently. The rest of her uniform was sweat-stained and crumpled. “You’re an honest-to-God hero, ma’am. We heard about you from the people you saved going north out of Mammoth a while back. They all called the park service headquarters telling tales about a ranger named Grace who got them out of harm’s way.”
She scratched her head. “I don’t remember making a big deal about myself. I’m not even sure they knew my name.”
“Well, you told someone your name, and they told others in your group. I’m sure everyone knew it by the time you w
ere home free.”
Grace was still confused. “Then why doesn’t Randy know what happened?” She looked at the woman. “What’s your name, by the way?”
She smiled brightly. “I’m Candice O’Reilly, but everyone wants to call me Candy.”
Asher waved to the woman. “Hi.”
“Nice to meet you,” Grace went on. “By the way, I love the red of your hair. It makes me wish I had red hair.”
“Thanks. Sometimes I wish I was a blonde, like you. That’s how it is, right?” Candy addressed her original question. “You know how it is with the brass. They only see dollar signs sitting here on the lot.” She pointed to the Suburban. “And not an instrument of value in your rescue efforts. He probably gets a bonus each year if the trucks don’t need any repairs.”
She shook her head. “It can’t be that simple. Randy isn’t a total jackass.” It was true, she figured, at least before the asteroid fell. He was someone who made her nervous back then, but it was mostly a result of her being new to the job. Now that she had some miles behind her, she recognized how silly it was to be afraid of anyone in the park service.
Candy shrugged. “You told him your story, and deep down he might even believe it. He said he would pass it on, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up about how he’ll phrase it. He’s probably telling his boss, and his boss’s boss, not to blame him for your swath of destruction.”
Grace walked around the side of her truck, intending to get back in. However, she also spoke to the men and women gathered nearby. “You can see what they did to my truck. Did any of you see or hear of TKM doing anything, uh, illegal, out in the wild?”
A lot of heads shook.
“Crap burgers. I was hoping someone could back me up.”
Candice followed her over to the driver’s door as Asher went to the other side. When she put her hand on the handle, the woman spoke quietly. “Your partner seems nice. Does he work with you up in Yellowstone?”
“Yeah, we’re together,” she said without thinking. Then, realizing it sounded too personal, she added, “At the same station up there.”
Candy smirked. “I wish I had someone like him down here. It’s me and a bunch of women most days. I think Yellowstone sucks up all the good-looking dudes.”
As much as she wanted to share some of her thoughts about how she ended up with Asher, both personally and professionally, she didn’t want to do it there, so she changed the topic. “Oh, you work here in the Tetons?”
Candy nodded enthusiastically, shifting gears smoothly with her. “I started last year. Up until everything went to pot, this has been the best time of my life.”
Grace turned reflective. This was supposed to be her best year, too. She had no regrets how things had gone down over the past several days, but it bothered her how much she worried about the man discussing her fate inside the ranger station. If Randy was going to be such a thorn in her side, maybe she should quit. Then her absence would prove how valuable she was.
“I’m not quitting,” Grace blurted, squashing her counterproductive inner thoughts. Leaving would serve no one, especially her.
The redhead giggled, then whispered. “Of course not. Us girls have to stick together. If you’re going south, I might—”
Randy came out through the glass doors of the station, catching everyone’s attention. People moved to give him room to walk down to the truck. Whatever flaws he had, Grace recognized he was a leader.
“I called the offices in Denver to confirm with them. They want your vehicle impounded. You’re being suspended, with pay, while we sort this out.”
Her shoulders slumped. “So, you aren’t going to help me go south?”
Randy chuckled. “I told you earlier that’s not the mission of the National Park Service. Whatever is going on down there, the police or National Guard can handle it. If you want to stay a park ranger, I suggest you do exactly as you’re told. Park the truck over there, clean it out as best you can, then wait for whatever comes next.”
The man pointed to the far end of the lot where other NPS Suburbans were lined up, then he turned and walked back into the ranger station.
Candy spoke first. “So, what are you going to do?”
Green River, WY
After being “rescued” from Calvin and his Crow allies, Christian and his band of TKM guards had loaded Ezra, Butch, and Haley and all their gear into the back of yet another pickup truck. They’d avoided the busy highway by traveling up a narrow ravine, then over the ridgeline above the town. Beyond there, they drove into…nothing.
“These must be old mining roads or something,” Ezra said as he coughed on the dust of the gravel and dirt track taking them through the hilly backcountry north of Green River. The landscape was riddled with washed-out canyons and low hills, but it was also dry as bone, which made the dust intolerable. “Only a local would know how to get through.”
Butch sat on the other side of the bed. “We can’t make a run for it out here, either. They’d see us for miles.” There wasn’t a tree within sight, and the light scrub on the ground was already browning from the hot summer. The rest of the land was tan, bare rock, as if nothing could grow there. To hide, they’d have to run for miles over open land before they could get up and over one of the rolling hills.
Haley sat next to Butch. She kept her head down, so the dust wouldn’t blow in her eyes. “I’m sure we could get the pair of men in our truck, but you two couldn’t take out the rest. Besides, even if we did kill everyone, I’m not sure we’d find our way out of this maze.” Their weapons had been given back to them, but they were part of a convoy with at least twenty men.
“Sounds like a challenge,” Butch remarked, bumping her.
She looked up and smiled at Ezra. “I just want to get this over with. We’re so close to your daughter. Groups of people are filling the highways and surrounding these TKM A-holes. Can’t they see the writing on the wall, yet?”
In his brief phone chats with Grace, she’d explained her goal of meeting him at the dig site. He wasn’t crazy about the idea of her engaging in a shooting war with a dangerous mega-corporation, but she explained how she was already hip-deep in the conflict. He chose to reveal TKM was on the hunt for him, too, due to his run-ins back in Missouri. They laughed about the irony they faced—the only way out for both of them was to deal a fatal blow to TKM.
But Christian’s men were skilled fighters. They’d been doing recon work in the town, which suggested they weren’t folding up and going home. He never expected to get close to the rock while on TKM’s side, but he wondered if it was an opportunity to get valuable intel for both himself and Grace. “I say we stick with these guys and continue to play dumb. As long as they don’t have an APB out on us, we should be fine.”
Butch acknowledged him. “As long as those Crow people don’t come looking for these jerks to exact revenge for the convoy attack.”
He laughed a little. “Wouldn’t it be funny if we were saved by TKM because they thought we were with them, then we get our heads bashed in by Calvin Tames Horse because he believes we’re with TKM?”
Haley took the bait. “No. No it wouldn’t.”
“I’m with you,” Ezra went on. “It wouldn’t be funny at all. However, we have to be ready to help if an attack does materialize. Our first priority is keeping each other safe, but, if we can, we should be on the lookout to trip up our, uh, new allies.” He bobbed his head toward the driver of the truck inside the cabin.
He tried to stay ready, but the hours ticked by as they drove from one endless, nondescript valley to the next.
He’d never seen a land so empty.
Anticline Ranch, WY
Nerio plopped down at the other end of his conference table inside the ranch house. She immediately put her feet on the table. If he’d been back in his corporate office it might have offended him, but he saw himself as having grown over the past days. He was better able to ignore the little things. Besides, he wanted her to feel comfortable for what
he was about to do to her.
Come into my lair.
“Thank you for waiting outside for a short time. I needed to come up with a plan to best utilize everyone’s talents. After having a short discussion with Dorothy, I think I have her on a suitable task. Now I want to set you on a similar path.”
“Honestly, if you don’t ask me to go out and kill someone, I’m going to lose my shit.” She made her fingers into a gun, then shot around the room. “And when I lose my shit, things get messy.”
“Now, now,” he said in a comforting voice, reminding himself it was only the two of them in the room. “I’m truly sorry for how things went for you and your husband. I know the loss is still fresh—”
“It will never be less fresh than it is right now. I’m going to kill everyone who was within ten city blocks of the rail yard that day, starting with your star problem children, Asher and the park ranger.” She pretended to orient on a single point, then fired her finger guns several times, making sounds to go with it.
“I hesitate to use the word excellent, but I’m happy to hear you are eager to continue with TKM. I depend on your skills more than you could possibly know, and, of course, you can count on significant compensation for your unfathomable loss.”
She dropped her feet to the floor. “Go on.”
“Well, as I’ve been trying to convey, nothing about this is ideal. However, we’ll pay you handsomely for the work you’ve already done for us, and I’ll throw in a fifty-million-dollar bonus if you can do a job for me down south. You’ll undoubtedly engage with the same people who harassed you earlier, including, I’d assume, Asher and Grace. As long as you get my job done first, you can do whatever you desire to those who wronged you.”
Nerio flicked her red bangs, seeming to turn serious. “Fifty mil for doing what I wanted to do anyway? You’re a fool, Pete. I would have done it for free. But I’ll take the offer. I’ll also need a few things from the equipment stores…”
Impact | Book 6 | Dig Page 5