Finally, the redhead got everyone close to Grace and Asher.
“We’re here as volunteers to help you two.”
Anticline Ranch, WY
Haley’s tactic of asking for a place to freshen up led to a few minutes of peace for the trio. Ezra and Butch were given clean black pants and the TKM blue tactical shirt to go with it. When dressed, they’d look like all the other men out in the staging area. Haley, however, had been given a blue shirt but also a black skirt.
“Why do I get a dress? We’re in the friggin’ outback, here. Who dresses like this?” Before Ezra could stop her, the young woman walked out from between the pair of shipping containers serving as the dressing area.
“Where’d she go?” Butch asked a moment later, stunned.
“I have no idea,” he said, unsure if he should chase her. After not seeing her, and not hearing gunshots, they used the opportunity to change into their new clothes.
Before too much time had passed, she came back, flaunting an attitude. She’d dumped the skirt and now had a pair of long black trousers over her shoulder.
“Are you all right?” he asked with sincere curiosity.
“They have an entire semitruck stocked with uniforms for all the people coming in from the airport. I simply took the one I wanted, not the one they chose for me. I asked a lady standing around about it, and she said the skirts are designated for secretaries, computer operators, drivers, and other support personnel. Screw that!”
He laughed good-naturedly. “You know, being in the back lines might have been beneficial to you. Who knows where we’ll have to go as part of this outfit?” He tugged at his new shirt. “We’re at their mercy right now.”
She turned around and yanked off her top, which made him and Butch immediately turn away, too. Haley talked like it was no big deal. “I go where you go. You’re getting me back to Liam and Victoria, don’t you forget. Whatever else happens, I want to stick with you guys. Hopefully, it means we walk out of this dump in about five minutes and go back to our own people.”
“Glad you’re sticking with us,” Butch joked, half-turning around.
“Eyes!” she barked.
“Oh, sorry.”
“I’m going to change my pants real fast,” she went on. “Then, I say we march to the nearest truck, pretend we own it, and get the hell out of here. Does that sound smart?”
“Works for me,” Butch answered.
When she was done, she walked over to them. “You boys are good. I’m used to changing fast back in the gym. Sometimes situations come up and you can’t go all the way back to the locker rooms, you know?”
He and Butch both shrugged.
“You guys wouldn’t understand. Anyway, I’m ready.”
Ezra pointed to the far end of the containers. “We should go that way. We can sneak around the gathering out there, then make our way to one of the thousand vehicles parked close by. Should be easy.”
They’d gone about six feet when Christian appeared at the entrance. “Hey, you three! This way.”
Ezra dropped his head in despair. Speaking quietly, he added, “We have to be patient.”
The three of them followed the leader to where the others had gathered. As they walked across the open space next to the containers, they had to make way for an unremarkable middle-aged man in a fancy business suit. The guy walked and chatted with a tough-looking, bearded guard. A burly six-man security detail stayed in their wake, watching for trouble as they went. The man in the suit was immediately recognizable to Ezra. Mr. Tikkanen was the richest guy in the world. His face was everywhere.
Tikkanen barely gave them a glance.
Ezra kept his head extra low once he realized who the man was. He caught up to Christian, keeping Butch and Haley near him as well.
“Uh-oh, why is she here?” Christian said in a low voice.
Ahead, a woman dressed in black stood in front of fifty or sixty TKM men and women. She’d gotten the disorganized gaggle into ten rows and they stood at attention in front of her. Christian guided Ezra to the rear of the formation, then walked toward the front.
“We’re doing the opposite of getting out of here,” Haley whispered barely loud enough for him to hear.
He chuckled quietly. “Let’s stick around for a few. You’re the one who said women were assigned to secretary duties and whatnots. TKM seems to be stuck in the 1970s. Let’s see what passes for their modern thought.”
The woman at the front spoke loudly. “The time has come to go to war!”
“Oh, crap,” he blurted.
Anticline Ranch, WY
After leaving Nerio at her staging area with all the other hired help, Petteri and his entourage walked a short way in the brutal heat of late morning. Besides the initial deluge of rain and snow after the asteroid impacted the Earth, there hadn’t been a drop of precipitation in almost a week. The ground was parched and dusty, which was why he kept his tour short. When he returned to his office inside the ranch home, he stomped his feet to shake off the dust.
One of his traveling secretaries waved him in. “Sir, I have your drinks ready at the table.”
“Thanks,” he replied half-heartedly.
He got right to business with his security chief. “It looks like the advance team really put this place together nicely. I’m particularly impressed by your clever use of the shipping containers.”
In addition to using the popular cargo boxes for their office space, Mr. Aarons had placed several of them at the southern edge of the dig site. His team had cut slits in the far walls so three or four men could stand inside and fire rifles at approaching intruders. Standing out there, Petteri felt as if he were managing a medieval castle, not a twenty-first century facility. The rest of the tour was more mundane, with a stop at the RV park, a quick look at some of the natural gas equipment scattered around, as well as the water and fuel tankers parked nearby. They’d also driven a golf cart past the always-hopping dig site itself.
“Thank you. We’ve used these containers everywhere we needed a ready-made strongpoint. It saves a lot of time, so we don’t have to dig foxholes in the hardscrabble ground around here.”
“Smart again,” he added.
“We could always use more, though. The trains were bringing them in, but now the tracks are clogged with coal cars. I know we need those, too, but these are so good for defense, I’d love to have about a hundred more. We could especially use them at our outpost in the north.”
“Tell me about that. Have you gotten into Jackson? Is it abandoned, as we thought?”
Mr. Aarons nodded. “Oh, yeah. It’s totally empty. We think a lot of them went to Salt Lake City, but we can’t be sure.”
Petteri strode over to the map on the table. The route to the north was a two-lane road which went over a low pass and then down a long river valley until it reached Jackson. If there was no one in the town, there would be no one to worry about in the entire northern flank of his operation. Other than Jackson, there was nothing but mountains and roadless territories around them. It reinforced his decision to send Nerio to the south.
“But you have one of our checkpoints up there, right?”
“Definitely,” Mr. Aarons said with pride. “But it has been pretty quiet there. However, if anything of any interest does happen, they’ll report it to me immediately.”
They both studied the map a few moments longer. “This is great work,” he assured Mr. Aarons. “You’ve got the north sealed and have some great defenses here at the dig. The east and west are mountains, so unless they call in the military, I don’t expect much to come from those directions. Nerio is taking charge of the railroad terminal to the south. I feel comfortable with this.”
“I concur,” Aarons replied.
“Then I think we’re good here.” He’d been walking and talking for the past forty-five minutes. He was ready to move on to other matters. “Unless you have something else?”
Mr. Aarons hesitated.
“What?” he
pressed.
“I want to show you some preliminary intel I’ve just received.” Aarons pulled out his phone and flicked it to a video player. “Here.”
Petteri watched as the screen played what looked like a store’s surveillance camera footage. Two men and a woman pushed a cart full of guns through the front door.
“Now, watch this.”
The scene changed to a night-vision view of the same three people on a boat. The perspective shifted, as if the videographer had his camera fully zoomed. Gunfire was all around, suggesting the person shooting the video was in the middle of the people firing at the boat.
“Finally, this.”
The last video showed the trio standing in a hotel lobby, tiredly talking to the proprietor.
Mr. Aarons knew the right questions to answer in advance. “The first video was taken in a place called St. Charles, Missouri. The second one, the next day, was immediately before we lost the rock in Kansas City. Number three was from last night. They were staying in Green River, which is about seventy miles to the south of us.”
“Who are they?” For some reason they looked very familiar, as if he’d seen them on the news or in a magazine.
“You better sit down, sir. This man”—he pointed to the older guy—“is the father of the park ranger with Asher Creighton.”
“He’s coming here?”
“It looks like it,” Aarons replied.
“Why the hell is he coming here?”
Aarons stayed serious. “We don’t know, sir. We’re trying to find out for you right now. We’re also putting a significant number of analysts on the task. We’re listening in to local cellular towers to see if we get a hit. If they’re around, we’ll soon know about it.”
“All right. Good work. Stay on top of it. Is that all?” He was now anxious to end the meeting and take a load off.
“There is one more thing…”
“It had better be good news.”
Mr. Aarons steeled himself. “It’s not, sir. I’ve been informed through side channels that Mr. Stricker has announced his intention to come here this evening. I think he wants to check us for environmental regulations or some such nonsense.”
He knew he hadn’t heard the last of the man. Even after giving away his Denver dig site, plus the one in Kansas City, Petteri expected the government would have an insatiable appetite for his rocks. He’d hoped to collect the last one over the next few days, but if Stricker was coming…it would be a long time before he could relax.
“Let’s discuss our options,” he sighed.
Chapter 9
Jackson, WY
“Aren’t you afraid for your jobs?” Grace asked the arriving park rangers.
Candy stood at the front. “The park is toast anyway. We’re not sure we’ll even have jobs. There’s all kinds of rumors about being furloughed, reassigned to other agencies, and the like.” She leaned in. “These are strange times we live in.”
“You can say that again,” she declared.
“So, if you need help, you’ve got it.”
Grace called everyone to get closer. “Is anyone from around here? Where are all the people in Jackson?”
A female ranger got her attention. “Evacuated. There’s a tent city over in Idaho, set up by that Petteri Tikkanen guy. His company moved everyone out to keep them safe.”
“Safe, my butt,” she mumbled. Louder, she went on. “Okay, if we’re not going to find help here, I need the best way to get to Boulder, Wyoming. It’s where the rock is supposed to be.”
A middle-aged man stepped forward. “I have family down in Rifle, Colorado. I sometimes drive by Boulder when I visit them. I can get you there.” He pointed south. “We’re already on the correct road. Stay on Hwy 191 through the gap in the mountains. It will take you right there.”
Grace worried she was going into another Beartooth Pass situation. If they were heading for snow and icy roads, she’d be more than happy to take the long way. “Is there snow up there?”
The man flashed a friendly smile. “You won’t even know it’s a pass. The highway goes up a long hill as one valley transitions to the other valley south of here. I guarantee there won’t be any snow.”
“Me and Ash had a bad experience on a pass.” She looked around, wondering how many came from Yellowstone. “Did anyone know Chester, who worked at Mammoth, or a woman named Tessa who worked as a dispatcher with the park police?”
A pair of ladies raised their hands in the back.
“I’m afraid they died on Beartooth. They helped me rescue those people, but they got caught on an icy road and didn’t make it.” She spared them the details about how another vehicle fell from the cliff and crushed them.
The enthusiasm tempered a little, but she didn’t want to fake how dangerous traveling with her might be, so she tried to keep to the facts. “Thank you, everyone. I don’t know what’s down there, but I do know TKM can be extremely dangerous. Like helicopter-raining-machine-gun dangerous. I’m going to take it slow and try to keep us out of trouble until we know what we’re dealing with.” Misha had taught her to constantly be on the lookout for the enemy, but if a professional like him had been injured in battle with TKM, how would these civilians fare?
It seemed to be enough of a speech. She counted the numbers as best she could as the rangers went back to their vehicles. There were now seven trucks, including hers, and about twenty park agents, including her and Asher. Well, Asher had an asterisk by his name. No one besides her knew he wasn’t really an official GS-5 government employee.
Once back on the road, it was easy to follow the signs for Highway 191. They were in a beautiful valley bracketed by big hills in the foreground, and tall mountains beyond those. Small farms dotted the flat bottomland and they soon joined the fast-moving Snake River winding its way through the valley. For a few minutes, they didn’t see any human structures at all. Then, after crossing a bridge, they came to a little junction with about three houses, two businesses, and one giant roundabout.
“The guy said to stick to 191,” Asher began, “which means we have to go that way.”
She looked where he pointed toward the left. “Why are they there?”
A group of pickup trucks were blocking the highway where they needed to go about fifty yards up the road. A lone man stood in the middle of the roundabout, making it clear they had to exit to the right rather than the left. He wore a blue denim shirt, which at first reminded her of TKM colors, though it wasn’t quite a match.
“Get ready,” she said dryly. “We’re not going to turn back already.”
Grace didn’t go around the circle to meet the guy on the roadway. She went directly into the paved middle and parked a few yards short of the man. Her eyes searched the guy for weapons, but he didn’t seem to have any on him.
She opened her door. “Cover me.”
Asher seemed surprised. “Really? Are we in a cop show now?”
Grace paused, feeding off the sarcasm in his voice. “Would you rather I cover you?” It probably made more sense on paper, since she had more experience with a rifle, but he wasn’t a real ranger, either. She intended to use her ranger powers to figure out why the road was shut down.
“No, I can do it. I’ll be ready for anything.”
Satisfied he wasn’t going to come out after her, she walked toward the man. He might have been about sixty-five. His hair was mostly gray, and his face was thick with wrinkles and sad eyes, as if he seldom smiled.
The other trucks in her group had parked at various places behind her. Some in the middle of the roundabout as she’d done. A couple pulled to the shoulder on the outside of the circular road.
“Hey!” she said with cheer, tipping her damaged hat at the same time. “Why is the road closed?”
The man didn’t seem to be with a road construction crew, the police, a utility, or any county or forest service department. Any one of those would have fit into a roadblock on such a well-trafficked highway in western Wyoming.
“At the top,” she said with skepticism.
He nodded seriously. “Trust me. You don’t want to get tangled in the mess. They brought in some Forest Service crews with giant cutters, but it’s going to take some time. Probably a few days. Maybe a week.”
“Is there another way around? We’re heading for the town of Boulder.” She motioned back to her friends.
The man shook his head. “Nope. Boulder is in the burn zone, too…”
The middle-aged park ranger who knew the way to Boulder spoke up at that moment, as if he’d been standing close, listening. “What about Big Piney? We can stop there, if we have too.”
The lone man glanced back to the other trucks before continuing. “That, uh, wouldn’t be good, either. Everything beyond this point has been wrecked by the asteroid. Burned to a crisp. We, uh, I, recommend you go back the way you came.” He pointed toward Jackson.
Her fellow ranger stood closer to the man. “You’re not telling us the full story, are you? I happen to know from my drives through Boulder there aren’t two trees rubbing together within ten miles of there. No forest fire could shut the place down.”
The man in the denim shirt took a few steps back, looking pissed. “I just say what I’m told. If you want to find out, drive the long way around.” He pointed to the right-hand route out of the roundabout. “But you can’t go this way. It’s dangerous.”
Behind him, and behind the vehicles, she noticed at least one man leveling a rifle in her direction. The potential shooter was back behind his black truck, but even at fifty yards she clearly recognized the distinctive TKM blue of his shirt collar.
Her stomach turned to stone.
Anticline Ranch, WY
Ezra listened in horror as the woman in black spoke about what those assembled were expected to do.
“Some of you may be trained soldiers. If you are, help those around you. If you aren’t, listen to what your skilled coworkers are telling you. I’m not in the military, either, but I’ve been working security for Mr. Petteri for long enough to know the basics.”
Impact | Book 6 | Dig Page 7