Grace watched as determination built in the eyes of the rangers. If they hadn’t run away screaming at the sight and sounds of bullets whizzing by, she didn’t think some bad language would do it. However, she wanted to be brutally honest with them. “Beyond this point, if you follow me up and over the pass, each of your lives will be in danger. I can’t stress that enough.”
She imagined Randy in the back row, critiquing her every move. He would have been screaming at her to not endanger his workforce, especially off park property. Would insurance cover any injuries? Were they still technically rangers, or did Randy fire them as they drove away? Maybe the pink slip message was on her phone already.
Candy raised her hand.
“Yes?” Grace pointed to her.
“I believed every word of what you said back there. I mean, look at your truck. Those bullet holes didn’t magically appear there. I’m sure it’s going to be dangerous, and to be honest, I don’t really know much or care about TKM, but I do want to help you get free of them. It sounds like your boyfriend is the only one who believed in you, up until now.”
She shifted on her feet, uneasy at the term boyfriend. If they thought she was in this for the wrong reasons…
Candy pressed on. “You just tell us what you want us to do and give your best effort to keep us out of the path of those bullets, and I’ll follow you wherever.”
Many of the others expressed similar sentiments. A few shouted in support. Most pumped fists in righteous solidarity. One or two, however, made their excuses and walked away. It hurt a little to be abandoned, but she didn’t let it drag her down too far. Most of the rangers stayed. Rocky and Carson volunteered to join up as well, adding their personal trucks to her team.
“Let’s saddle up!” Grace was anxious to get all twelve vehicles on the road before Shawn reached TKM’s trap.
Once inside the truck and moving, she and Asher could finally speak privately. She went first. “I know what you’re going to ask. Can we trust him? The answer is no.”
“Who? The guy on the phone or the guy from the roadblock?”
She thought about it. “Both. We can’t trust anyone on the outside to do the right thing anymore. TKM can convince regular schmoes to do whatever they want. They seem to be controlling the flow of news.” To prove her point, she turned on the radio. There was the usual religious chatter on the AM dial and the low end of the FM scale, but there was almost nothing in the way of news. What little there was focused on the recovery efforts in other states. Nothing was said about Wyoming.
Asher listened to her scan stations for a short time before replying. “I assure you, I don’t trust anyone, but we have to go with what the guy said on the phone. If the Crow are on the move, it has to mean Shawn is with them. That’s where we need to be.”
“Are you getting a signal on your watch? We could use a detailed map of the area.”
He tapped his phone. “I don’t have a link, but I can pull up a map.” Asher was fond of his expensive techno-watch. After a few adjustments, he asked, “What do you need to know?”
“How far do we go on this route before we reach the pass? Rocky said it hits a high point, then goes down into the next valley. We—” She stopped midsentence as they came around a bend in the road. The green forest continued on both sides of the road, but it turned black about a quarter of a mile ahead. “Sheesh. We have to pay attention on this highway.”
Asher looked up the information. “We’re heading for a pass weirdly called The Rim. It’s about thirty miles from Hoback Junction to the top.”
“Thanks. It gives us a goal to shoot for.”
They went into a section of dense pine forest, though most of it had been stripped bare by the fire. The dead trees stood where they were, charred and looking like empty scarecrows. Some had fallen next to the highway, but few were tall enough to reach the shoulder.
“This is going to make a fascinating area to study someday,” he remarked. “Especially where the asteroid touched down and bounced. As a geologist, it will give me a lot of aspects of this disaster to examine.”
“As a park ranger, it will give me a lot of new material to work with, too. Assuming they don’t can me.” She laughed it off.
“I guarantee they won’t fire you. Not because of the truck, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“No,” she replied. “I laugh at how simple it seems in retrospect. The worst they could do was fire me or dock my pay. But now…” she pointed behind them, “we have people willing to risk their lives for us.”
“Not only for us. They’re doing it for the same reason you are. There are people who need our help. TKM is a risk to humanity. They’re killing indiscriminately. That’s worth risking lives to stop. Plus, after your little pep talk, they all came willingly.”
“I guess that’s true,” she admitted.
The next fifteen minutes were like going on a tour through a spent blast furnace. Everything was blackened and charred, even the road itself. As they neared what looked like the highest point of the roadway, the tops of the trees were broken off. Many of the taller trunks had been tipped over, all pointing in the same direction.
“This is it,” she said, looking ahead and remembering the directions. “The Rim, as you called it.” The pass was barely more than a rise in the highway. Burned trees were everywhere. A large burn pile sat behind a gravel parking lot off to the left. A cheery metal sign hung above the ruins, declaring the wreckage a gift shop called Rim Station.
They drove a short way down the other side before arriving at a lot built for tourists. The stripped and broken trees gave them a view they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Two giant mountain ranges dominated the scenery ahead, one on each side, as if a giant were cradling the desolate, wide valley in its petrified arms. A junction a mile down the road had three different routes. The main highway continued south along the eastern range. A second paved road went to the southwest, near the base of the western mountains. A gravel road also went straight out into the middle of the valley.
There wasn’t a tree to be seen beyond the patch near the lot. Some of the land was burned. Some was torn to shreds, suggesting the rock did, in fact, bounce through. The line of destruction pointed to the south, close to the gravel road, about midway between the two ranges.
“Rocky was right,” she announced.
“What?”
“There are no TKM men around here. They must all be guarding their expensive asteroid down there.” She pointed to the bare lands ahead, well beyond the three-way road junction.
“Right where we’re going,” he sighed.
Anticline Natural Gas Field, WY
The next hour reinforced Ezra’s belief they had to escape from TKM. Christian drove the convoy to the soda ash plant and guided them to a modified shipping container sitting in the open. Even without being told, it was obvious to him what they’d been brought there to do.
Christian pointed to a puke-green container. “You three can have this one.”
Ezra didn’t move. “You want us to stand in there? It’s going to be hotter than hell.” The sun was out in full force and it was already past noon. The metal shipping container looked like an invitation for Hansel and Gretel to climb in the oven.
The leader was unmoved. “I’ve got fifty other guys to deal with. You all get loaded in there for your own protection. There’s a bucket for squatting on. A five-gallon water jug for drinking. You can step out to get cool, but be ready when the shooting starts. Close the doors. Stand at your gun slot. All right?”
The man wasn’t really asking. They had no choice in the matter. It was like the Russian had said: get in or be shot in the back for running away.
Christian guided the others to the nearby boxy containers. The second they were clear, Haley and Butch were all over him.
“What are we going to do?” Haley asked.
“What’s the plan, E-Z?” Butch added.
He’d been cautious up until that point, but t
here was no way he would participate in what was obviously going to be a bloodbath. Without stepping foot inside the cargo unit, he looked back at the soda ash plant. The place was about a half-mile square, with a complicated mixture of large metal buildings, overhead conveyor belts, and storage tanks. It formed an archipelago of human design within the expanse of craggy nothing all around it, save for hundreds of rail cars waiting on the dual line of tracks leading up to the facility. The defense consisted of twenty or thirty shipping containers placed in an uneven semicircle facing the gravel road to the south, like the plant’s shield.
When he turned back toward the green tin can, dust wafted in the distance. The others followed his eyes when he didn’t say anything.
“Oh no. We’re out of time,” Haley said in a quiet voice. She hung close to the outer door of their makeshift fort, as if anxious to get behind cover.
Butch shifted so he was next to Ezra. Together, they watched the smoke plumes grow. They showed up in several places, as if vehicles were on the move across the rocky wasteland in multiple places. “Ezra, you know I’ll fight with you to the end, especially after all we’ve been through, but this doesn’t feel right. Unless they have armor-piercing bullets, they aren’t going to get close to these containers before they’re ripped to shreds. We’re the ones who are going to do the ripping…”
Ezra spoke distantly. “No, we’re not going to do anything of the sort. But we need a plan.” He moved Butch over to Haley, still outside the container. “We have our guns. We’re inside the enemy camp. We’re wearing their uniforms. How the hell can we turn all this to our advantage?”
They stood there for a few seconds before Haley shivered.
“You okay?” he asked.
She motioned toward their empty shipping box. “I was thinking how terrible it’s going to be when our friends walk up to these things and get shot in the face. They’ll be sitting ducks. The only way to shoot back is if they come in from the sides, and the doors are open.”
He scanned the battlefield. Of those he could see at a glance, most of the cargo containers still had their doors open. The twin doors swung outward, providing ballistic protection from incoming rounds except if a truck came at them from the side. The defenders were probably like him and his friends. They would want to keep cool while firing their hot weapons, at least until the trucks got a lot closer.
Ezra saw an advantage. “I have an idea.”
Anticline Ranch, WY
Petteri stayed close to Mr. Aarons as the day wore on. He needed up-to-the-second intel on the attacks, so he could ensure his plans went according to his wishes, not those of the enemy.
“Sir, there is one gravel path through the mountains to the east. As we suspected, the terrorists are using the route to approach Boulder. If they get there, it will put them within striking distance of this rock.”
He wasn’t overly upset anymore. They’d talked about it earlier, and Mr. Aarons couldn’t have done anything more. They didn’t have the manpower to guard every forest road and pathway along the entire mountain range. While he wished they could have put up a fight in the highlands and delayed the enemy force, Mr. Aarons was able to put a mechanical drone up in the mountains to give them an early warning. His security chief had also explained what he’d done to the town of Boulder, giving him some assurance they weren’t losing too much by allowing the intruders to get close to it.
“We’re still good on the west and the north?” he asked. “No problems at the airfield?”
“Everything is solid in those directions and Tikkanen Airfield is humming along,” Aarons replied. “I’ve been told we currently have more flights moving in and out than Denver International would have had, if they were operating normally.”
“There will be many awards given after this is over,” he said calmly. Switching tracks, he went on. “And any news from your analysts about this, uh, Ezra Anderson? Is he working with his daughter to attack us?”
“We’re still trying to figure that out, sir. I did recently receive this from our research.” He handed over a multi-page document which looked like it was created on an old mechanical typewriter.
“What the hell is this?”
“A police report from Rawlins. After Nerio Torres was attacked and lost her husband, I did a little digging to determine what the police knew about the incident. If you turn to page six, you’ll see a line I’ve highlighted.”
Petteri found the passage and read it aloud. “Subject who drove the truck into the tree seemed fazed by the ordeal and was unable to give us his name. However, the subject spoke broken English with a thick Russian accent and appears to have been involved in more than a simple car accident. Investigators are attempting to locate a Russian interpreter, under the assumption he can better explain himself in his native tongue.”
He looked up in shock. “Misha?”
“I believe it is, sir. I’m trying to track him down, but we don’t have many resources in south central Wyoming anymore.”
Petteri absorbed the implications. Whatever else happened, he couldn’t let Nerio know the man who’d killed her husband was still alive. He already had her doing the work required of her. If she got wind of Misha’s continued existence, she’d drop everything and go after him.
“Let’s table this for now, Mr. Aarons. Very good work finding this. No one wants Misha Gagarin out of the way more than I do, but we’re in a delicate phase of my operation. I can’t afford to be sidetracked again. Neither can Ms. Torres. Do you understand?”
Dorothy came in as Aarons saluted. “I understand completely.”
“Very good. Keep up the good work.” He turned to the black-haired woman. “Do you have any news from our reconnaissance assets to the south?”
“That’s why I’m here. The civilians gathered along the railroad and highway are finally attacking.”
Terrorists were pressing in from the east and the south. Nerio was working her magic on the front lines. His hacker employee had set up the mother of all goodbyes with his spacecraft. An outsider might think he should be worried at all the moving pieces, but he ran the largest conglomerate of businesses in the world. He was used to grand complications. In fact, he was elated at how things were playing out.
“It’s time to make them pay.”
Chapter 13
Near Boulder, WY
As Grace looked into the valley, it evoked memories of the old saying she’d often seen characters use in the movies: though I walk into the valley of death….
“This place is a disaster area. It might have been even before the asteroid came here.” Compared to the lush greenery of Yellowstone and the Tetons, at least before much of it was turned to ash, the land sprawling in front of her had never been more than bare rock. The mountain ranges on each side of the valley were snow-capped with gray, ashy snow, and they stood tall above the relatively flat table of land between them. A few paths of green foliage ran along curvy little streams, giving the appearance of veins of a leaf all leading to the stem. From her position at the high point of the valley, she and her friends could see the entire region as it sloped away, though the details became murky toward the horizon, which she figured was about twenty or thirty miles away.
Asher stood next to her. “Do you see the dig site? We should see a big black rock, like the one in Denver. There won’t be any buildings to hide it.”
There were broken trees and divots in the earth nearby, where the rock had bounced, but its final destination wasn’t in her field of view. However, they didn’t need a map to know where to go next.
“I don’t,” she declared. “But Boulder is down that way.” She pointed to the eastern direction, away from the three-way junction.
Rocky walked up behind them. “You’ll pass Pinedale, first. It’s the only town of any substance up in this part of the valley. Population, two thousand. Boulder is next, then there’s nothing until the interstate far beyond.” He pointed to the other highway heading southwest. “Ain’t nuthin’
that way except for Big Piney until you get to Kemmerer about a hundred miles away.”
“Wow,” she said, impressed. “I haven’t seen an area this desolate since we were in the grassy part of eastern Wyoming.”
“Yeah, we’re known for being an empty state,” Rocky agreed, finally smiling.
After some discussion of directions, she and Asher got back in their truck and started the convoy moving again. They headed southeast, toward Pinedale, which boosted her morale during the drive.
“If there are two thousand people in the town, I’m sure we can find a few who want to help us. They’ll see our group of park service trucks and be tripping over themselves to be a part of this. I feel good about what we’re doing.” The memory of bullets ripping through the air had begun to fade.
“Don’t get your hopes up too high,” Asher cautioned.
She ignored him and pulled out her phone. There was a weak signal, so she tried calling her dad. It rang for ten seconds, then went to voicemail. “Hi, Dad. I was right about going to Yellowstone. I have…” She counted the vehicles behind her. “About eleven trucks following my lead. We’re heading for a town called Pinedale, then we’re going to push on to Boulder. We’ve heard there’s going to be trouble there. I can’t wait to meet up with you. Stay safe, okay? I love you.”
Grace hung up without clapping, as it wasn’t easy to do while holding the steering wheel. Besides, the new town was approaching.
Asher chuckled. “You let him know he was wrong, didn’t you?”
Impact | Book 6 | Dig Page 10