The Fault With The Spy

by Linda Mackay

  Mac was the first to regain his voice. “Assassination?” Okay, it wasn’t much of a voice, but more than the rest of us with our wide-open pieholes.

  Dad sipped his hot coffee. “You haven’t heard? The President, and God only knows how many others, are dead.”

  “We heard he was killed in an explosion,” Frank said.

  “A hydrothermal explosion.” Todd and Amanda said at the same time.

  “Hydrothermal my ass,” Dad said. “Jorie, did your animals show any signs of sensitivity?”

  I thought for a moment. “No.”

  “Did you have any ear tones?”

  “No.”

  “It wasn’t a full moon, nor a new moon, and we were in low tide on the west coast,” Dad said.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Mac asked

  “Earthquake predictors,” Frank said.

  “Joe and a few other scientists also believe animals are sensitive to upcoming quakes,” Amanda said.

  “Jorie’s cat starts fighting with any animal that comes near it a few days before a fair-sized quake,” Todd said.

  “My dogs get unusually quiet,” I said. “And I often experience deep ear tones that feel like my hearing to the outside is gone and all I can hear is the tone.”

  “You’re shitting me,” Mac said.

  “No son, the earth’s magnetic field changes drastically hours or days before a quake. Animals and some people are capable of sensing that change,” Dad stated.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Mac said.

  “At least he didn’t question the theory,” Todd said.

  “I think it’s better not to form an opinion to quickly with this bunch.” Mac scratched a mosquito bite on his neck. “What’s the deal with the moon and tides?”

  “Stats collected over the years show the majority of quakes occur during high tide, or full and new moon phases,” Dad said.

  “Why is this important now?” Mac asked.

  “It proves it wasn’t a natural quake,” Dad said.

  “That’s a hell of a leap. I’m going to need more real proof,” Mac said.

  “Can I finish my muffin before we talk?”

  “Hell, no!” I said.

  Mac sat across the fire from Dad. “I’m with Jorie on this.”

  “It’s gonna be a long story.” Dad kept eating like he hadn’t had a meal in days.

  Frank sat too. “Got no better place to be.”

  Dad took two more bites while we waited. “I noticed something odd from my secret camp.”

  “Crap, another secret camp.”

  “No interrupting.” Mac gave me a shut-up-or-else look.

  “The east road was closed, as you know, but there was still a lot of official traffic on it. I didn’t think much of it until I saw a couple concrete trucks. They took up a position around Mary Bay. I started glassing them, and discovered there were two divers regularly going down in the bay. Don’t know what they were doing, but it was odd. They drove the truck in, put on dive gear and went to work on something under the water.”

  “What happened next?” Todd said. “This is better than watching a movie.”

  “After watching them for a bit, I went back to my research.”

  “Not a very good movie,” Amanda said.

  Finishing his second egg muffin, Dad then took a drink of coffee. “Oh, it gets much better.”

  “Told ya so,” Todd said.

  “As the day for the President to officially reopen the park neared I started hearing a helicopter. It arrived every morning for a week, at the exact same time, and after watching them for a few days I saw they were flying the exact same pattern every day. One day I noticed a light, like a laser, signal into the trees. Next day, I saw the same signal.”

  Frank looked at Mac. “Hey don’t look at me. Right now, I’m having flashbacks to my DIA days.”

  “July fourth arrived. I knew security would be high, so I promised myself I’d stay away from the area. I just wanted to do my research without being disturbed, however something about the previous few days made me forgo research and hide where I had a view of the opening proceedings. I half-expected to be caught, but the security was not as tight as I imagined it would be.”

  Frank looked at Mac again. “Why are you looking at me? I’m not Secret Service. I don’t know how they operate.”

  “Don’t bullshit me,” Frank said.

  “I admit the concrete truck and divers are odd since prior to a presidential visit the only people allowed to enter the area are Secret Service,” Mac said.

  Frank poked Mac with a stick. “And?”

  “The area was closed so they weren’t dealing with daily coming and going of people. That would seem easier to secure, however, look at this place! It’s a maze of hiding places.”

  “How about the helicopter?” Frank asked.

  “Normal surveillance. There would be bomb-sniffing dogs, high tech surveillance. All normal.”

  Frank shook his head. “Okay. How about Joe being able to evade them?”

  “He’d been there a long time. And after making this march, I can assume, Joe was not directly in the kill zone.”

  “I was in binocular range, in very rugged territory, but hell not even I could see the President well. But, what I could see was the detonation.”

  “Ah, shit!” Mac said.

  “This is so freaking cool.”

  “Seriously?” Amanda smacked Todd on the shoulder. “Have a little decorum.”

  “I can’t help it. This is some crazy shit.”

  I put my head in my hands. “Someone break out the whiskey.”

  “Already on it,” Frank said.

  Mac took the bottle from Frank, unscrewed the cap and took a big swig. “Sorry, couldn’t wait.”

  By the time the bottle got back to Dad he had refilled his coffee mug and was pouring the whiskey in the coffee. “The motorcade arrived with the President. The helicopter I’d been watching began its routine. I see the laser signal into the trees and talk about dumb luck, I had positioned myself in the line of sight to see a big bomb go kaboom.”

  Mac stood up. “You saw a signal, and how long before the explosion?”

  “Son, that was not just an explosion. It was a bomb.”

  “How long?”

  “Almost instantly.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Frank said. “Someone assassinated the President.”

  “That is like the best freaking plan ever,” Todd said.

  “Agree,” Amanda added.

  Mac looked at me. “Do you agree with them?”

  I didn’t need to think about it either. “It’s brilliant.”

  “Reason?”

  “Because, not even the Secret Service will question this was anything but a hydrothermal event. A big freaking accident.”

  “You’re positive it wasn’t an accident, even though you have no hard proof?” Mac asked Dad.

  “I have eyes on proof.” Dad moved closer to Mac. “Forty years experience, best seat in the house proof.”

  “I disagree.” Mac looked at Dad. “Not with you Joe, but that the Secret Service won’t find out if, and I still say it’s a big if, it was a bomb. They don’t believe in coincidence.”

  “Son, it was definitely a bomb, but I don’t believe they’ll find any proof of a bomb. No matter how much they investigate,” Dad smiled. “You want to know why?”

  “Yes, sir. I do.”

  “Then we won’t be heading home just yet,” Dad said.

  “Ah fuck!”

  “Jorie’s saying fuck again,” Todd said, holding his hands over ears.

  “Yep, we’re not going home,” Amanda said.

  “While the sun works its magic on the snow. We need to make a plan,” Frank said.

  “Ah fuck!”

  Two hours later I was slightly inebriated.

  “Okay, Jorie.” Dad took the bottle of whisky from me and busted up my plan to be totally smashed. “You’ve had enough.”

 
“Somebody better hide that bottle or we’ll be tying her to Arikira.” Amanda said tripping over a load of wet firewood she’d just brought in.

  “We’re going to need a lot of rope.” Frank said to Mac.

  “I need a mental evaluation,” Mac said.

  “Don’t worry son, sober or drunk, I’d ride into any battle with this bunch,” Dad said.

  “No offense sir, then I suspect you need a mental eval too.”

  “None taken,” Dad laughed. “They are kinda like the Three Stooges. But, you have Frank and I to even the scales out.”

  Mac walked out of the cave shaking his head, hands in the air.

  “Do you think he’s deserting us?” I asked.

  “If he’s smart, he will,” Amanda said.

  Drawing in the dirt again, Todd said, “a soldier, or is it a spy, never deserts his post.”

  “He has a post? Does it require a stamp?” I wasn’t drunk. I don’t know why they all thought I was.

  Frank took my Dad aside but I could still hear them since they were on my good side. “I think we need to stay put today.”

  “Good plan. We’ll head out at first light tomorrow.” Dad leaned back against Frank’s saddle.

  “You got a deck of cards?” Frank asked.

  “I got cards and dice.”

  “Dice? What the hell? You playing dice with the bears?”

  “I’m practicing my Yahtzee game.”

  “Quit practicing and let’s get serious,” Frank said.

  “Special Forces!” I yelled. “The troops have pulled a coup.”

  “Full house, Queens over eights.” Mac said scooping in the pile of sticks. “Thank you very much.”

  I opened my eyes just as Dad and Frank tossed in their cards. “I swear he cheats, but I can’t figure out how,” Frank said.

  “Me neither,” Dad said. “I’m tapped out.”

  I left the cave to find a log with a view. Leaving the safety of the cave entrance and stepping into full view of the magnificent scenery made the hairs on my arms stand up. At this moment the backcountry wasn’t my sanctuary. Even with all its innate dangers, I always felt at home here, safe from the outside world. Today, the world had not only encroached, but it felt like a group of dragons breathing down my neck. Except we weren’t in a forest fighting dragons, it was the government that had invaded and tainted the peaceful land with helicopters and high-powered weapons.

  If the President had stayed safely in D.C. and left us alone here in paradise, none of this would have happened. His appearance was to last less than ten minutes. In less than ten freaking minutes he brought a brand of fear and hate to a land that while not immune to politics, was certainly immune to the horrors humans offered up in large doses all over the world. A full blown volcanic eruption would take longer to destroy this area.

  I knew it wasn’t his fault. He was just an easy target to blame for my pissed off mood. The murderers were still at large. More than likely, the Secret Service was operating on this being an accident and half expecting another hydrothermal explosion that could kill them.

  Whatever had happened no one could have foreseen it would trigger the earthquake in the Tetons. Dad and a few other geologists have always believed volcanic activity could trigger major quakes or vice versa. But I’d stake my degrees that if this was a planned event, the perpetrators never accounted for the connection that flowed underground. The connection that allowed Dad to feel the quake at his position near Yellowstone Lake, while at the same time my new TV was crashing to the floor at the ranch.

  If they hadn’t counted on that, then they hadn’t built that into their escape plans. Were they using land, roads or air to escape? Or all three? The secret service wouldn’t allow anything but official government choppers or vehicles in the area until they had closed the investigation. I wondered how fast they could lock down the area? Dad would have a good guess at how long it would take the person or persons at the detonation sight to flee on foot and meet up with an escape vehicle.

  I walked down the trail kicking rocks as I went. Thinking like a scientist had a calming effect on me. If I use my brain, my geekyness would prevail.

  “Whatcha thinking?”

  “Holy crap, you scared me.”

  Mac laughed, “You need a bodyguard.”

  “Why would I need a bodyguard?”

  “Because, you rarely pay attention to your surroundings.”

  I bent down and picked up a rock showing Mac. “Volcanic. Most people aren’t impressed. But I never stop being amazed at the power surging below us, what that power produced in the past, and is capable of producing in the future.”

  “It’s hard to grasp for the normal person.”

  “We’re standing just outside a giant caldera. A hole that collapsed in on itself after one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history.” I tossed the rock in the air. “The magma chamber beneath us is big enough to fill the Grand Canyon more than eleven times. Obviously, there’s enough magma under us to erupt again any day.”

  “I can see why the park doesn’t let you talk to tourists.”

  “Todd got in trouble once for telling a group of tourists about a lecture he attended where a Scientist defined Yellowstone as being so toxic that if it wasn’t a national park it would be an EPA Superfund site,” I said. “Besides, most tourists don’t believe it anyway.”

  “Even after the event last fall?”

  “I’ve been called a liar many times. It amazes me the park and USGS worry about bad press, because visitation rises every year. Even when poison gases killed bison at Norris geyser basin, magma melted and closed roadways and yes, even after Mary Bay exploded destroying the road last fall, nothing stops tourists from taking their vacation.”

  “Living in fear is a waste of time,” Mac said.

  “I agree. Or I wouldn’t live and work here.”

  “I sense there’s a but.” Mac picked up a rock and looked at it. “Looks like glass.”

  “It’s obsidian. The Native Americans used it to make all kinds of things. And yes there is a but.”

  “Let’s hear it.” Mac dropped the obsidian back on the ground.

  “I believe everyone has a right to know the facts.”

  “Oh Lord, don’t tell me you’re one of those nuts who think every citizen is on the need to know list.”

  “Not about everything.” I don’t want to get into this discussion with a spy. “I’m sure you have plenty of secrets.”

  “And my secrets have saved your pretty little ass.”

  I could have shut up, but no, I had to keep flapping my mouth and now we’re talking about my ass. However, he thinks it’s pretty and little? Time to change topics. “At least the snow’s almost melted.”

  “I’m grateful it gave me a day of rest from the saddle.” Mac rubbed his hip.

  “I’m use to sitting a horse, but even I’m glad to be off Arikira’s back.”

  “Quiet!” Mack whispered pointing down the trail.

  A lone rider was approaching. His pants and shirt were those of a backcountry ranger, but something was wrong. He shifted his feet in the stirrups and that’s when I saw it. “Look at his feet.”

  “What about them?”

  “He’s wearing shoes, instead of boots.”

  The man on the horse shouted. “Hold up there you two.” Didn’t sound like any ranger I’d met.

  Mac took the lead. “Howdy, nice day.”

  “Where you two been?” What a dumb question. Why is he asking where we’ve been instead of shooting the shit, or asking where we’re headed?

  I figured this one was mine to field since I knew the area. “Coming from Hawk’s Rest and heading out through Heart Lake.”

  “Haven’t been around the Lake area?”

  What the hell is wrong with this guy? Doesn’t have a clue where anything is located. He’s pissing me off. “No, where you been?”

  The guy on the horse hit the ground at the same time I heard the gunfire and damn, it was n
ext to my good ear, which was now ringing violently. Mac ran and put his foot on the guy’s arm, pointing the gun at his head.

  “Why the hell did you shoot him?”

  “You said he was wearing the wrong shoes.”

  “You shot him because he wasn’t wearing boots?”

  “No. I shot him because he was going to shoot you.”

  I looked at the guy’s hand and in it was a pistol. “What the hell is going on?”

  “He wasn’t a ranger.”

  That much I’d figured out. “Is he dead?”

  Mac kicked the gun from the guy’s hand, bent down and put his knee on the guy’s chest, then checked the pulse at his neck. “Yep.”

  Oh shit, I was going to sick.

  The rest of the group was running down the trail, except for Frank who was riding Junior bareback and charging into us dirt flying and rifle at the ready. “Everyone okay?”

  “Just fucking fine!” I said.

  “Doesn’t look like he’s fine?” Frank looked around the area from his perch on Junior. “Don’t see anyone else coming.”

  “Pretty sure he was alone,” Mac said.

  “He’s dead!” I shouted. Why wasn’t anyone bothered by that fact?

  “I can see that,” Frank said.

  Mac was looking through the guy’s pockets. “Didn’t want to kill him. But wasn’t about to let him shoot Jorie.”

  Dad was the first on foot to arrive. “He was shooting at Jorie? Good riddance then.”

  “A man is dead.”

  “Dead?” Todd and Amanda completed the group picture. “How the heck does Joe run that fast?”

  “You old fart, how do you do it?” Amanda was bent over trying to catch her breath. “Did you say somebody was dead?”

  “Mac shot that dude.” Todd pointed to the ground.

  “Not as much blood as you’d think,” Amanda said.

  “Are you all crazy!” I yelled.

  Mac turned, pulled me close and covered my mouth with his free hand. “You need to learn when to be quiet.”

  Frank got off his horse. “He’s not wearing boots.”

  Mac laughed, “That’s what Jorie said.”

  “I never saw him pull the gun.” I couldn’t stop shaking.

  “I shot him before he got it completely out of his holster.”

  “Why would he want to shoot Jorie?” Amanda asked.