“We’ll be the judge of whether you’re dangerous.” The three men came out from the safety of their trucks. The first man carried his carbine. The other two had semi-automatic pistols.
He laughed.
“What’s so damned funny?” the leader asked, not sharing his mood.
“Oh, it’s hard to explain. I had a run-in with guys like you back in St. Charles. I stayed out of the way while your team members looted the gun counter at a Bass Pro. Then I tried to avoid being shot by more of your men when they stormed a camp full of families. This morning I watched as your friends blew up the asteroid sitting in the river. It killed a crap ton of Kansas City, uh, people.” He wasn’t sure what to call them. To put an exclamation point on his speech, he laughed even harder.
The carbine guy lowered the rifle, clearly settling into the role of controlling his prisoner. “Still don’t understand why that’s so hilarious to you.”
He snorted, then pointed at their trucks. “Because you forgot your roadblock has two directions.”
Butch and Haley stood behind the men, aiming rifles and looking as if they might pull the trigger on the spot.
The men dropped their weapons.
His plan for a two-pronged diversion had finally worked.
Denver, CO
Petteri allowed himself a moment of reflection while the helicopter blades got up to speed. The city of Denver was crumpling in around him like a wet paper bag. His men had fought off the uprising of citizens as much as they did battle with elements of the city police force and other mining companies. When enough steam gathered against him, he simply didn’t have enough men to hold the line. Even promises of untold wealth couldn’t change that reality.
The executive helicopter lifted off the roof, taking him, Dorothy, Mr. Aarons and his two extra guards to safety. He leaned to see out the window.
“Will we ever see the ore?” Dorothy asked sadly.
His team had done their best. It was no longer a curved ball of rock; one side had been chiseled down by several feet and the ore evacuated on dump trucks. But it was a small portion of the greater treasure. He estimated his people had gotten ten percent at best. It pained him to admit they would never get the ore. There was a way to rephrase what was about to happen.
“Dorothy, the rock down there still has value to TKM. You are about to see how.”
Petteri pulled out his smartphone and dialed a familiar number.
Stricker picked up after two rings. “Ah, Mr. Petteri. How good of you to call.”
“I’ve made my decision.” He sighed for effect. “TKM will surrender the dig site in Denver to the US government as payment for your trouble.”
“Excellent!” Stricker bubbled.
“But that’s not all.”
“Oh?” the man on the phone said cautiously. “I must remind you the president wants this—”
Petteri laughed in a jovial way. “This isn’t about being difficult. This is about helping the nation. I’ve tried to get my relief trucks into the cities to help the people survive. My teams have made some progress, but even I have to admit I might have bitten off more than I could chew. My fondest desire is knowing Tikkanen Mining has done a small service in keeping people alive until your government forces could get in there and finish the job.”
He set up his final gamble with his losing hand.
“I want to offer you the entire dig site in an additional city. Consider it a down payment for all the work you’re going to do with the recovery efforts. Denver was, um, a mutually agreed-upon fee from TKM.” He chafed saying the words but couldn’t get around the fact he’d been played. “However, to show you we are in this together, to the end, we’re giving the second rock as an outright charitable gift. No strings attached.”
Petteri looked over to Dorothy. Her jaw had come unhinged. Probably due to her never imagining he contained an ounce of charity in his body. Stricker sounded equally as surprised over the phone line.
“Hello?” he prodded.
“I’m here,” Stricker replied. “That is very generous, sir. Perhaps, with this new understanding, we could work out an equitable transfer regimen? Say a period where my department takes over, looks at what’s involved, then we get the rest of the agencies in there. I could even cut you in on my operation; say, ten percent of my take.”
He couldn’t pass on an opportunity for free money. “How about fifteen percent? I’ll even leave some of my equipment at each of the dig sites.”
Petteri smiled wickedly at the destruction down on the streets. There was some abandoned equipment scattered on the roads. He hadn’t been lying. But men and women from the city also stood near the giant rock. Stricker would have to deal with them to get to the equipment, and the rock itself.
On the brighter side, Stricker was being Stricker, as he expected. The man no doubt wanted to handle things through his department so he could skim billions off the top and into his own offshore accounts. It would consume Stricker’s attention. It would further delay a proper takeover by government authorities, giving Petteri the necessary time to do what he needed to salvage his own investments.
“My dear Mr. Stricker, I think we have ourselves a nice little quid pro quo.”
The helicopter left the Denver dig site, heading north.
All his resources were going into the remaining piece south of Yellowstone.
Chapter 24
Rawlins, WY
Grace hoped to get more information out of the man pinned to the tree, but he wouldn’t wake up. She didn’t need any of her medical expertise to judge he might even be dead. She asked the question, though she didn’t expect the guy to respond. “Why would Nerio take Logan to Yellowstone?”
“As a hostage, I guess,” Asher replied.
“That is right,” Misha added. “She has boy to prevent Crow people from attacking.”
Grace laughed to herself. “Hostage-taking might work in whatever crap-hole she comes from, but I don’t think Nerio knows a thing about Native Americans. Stealing their boy will only make them angrier. They aren’t going to roll over and take it.”
Misha leaned heavily against the tree.
“What about you? Are you going to survive this?” The ex-hitman had been shot in the neck, sprayed with shrapnel from a grenade, and he seemed to have a new bullet wound in his left arm, a little above his elbow.
“I am okay,” he said with a hoarse voice. “You saved my life when you distracted Nerio.”
She smiled proudly. “It was just a rock.”
He bowed a few inches. “You have skill for taking simple and making into weapons. Bear spray. Flamethrower. Truck. Now rock. Maybe you should sign up for being assassin.”
Asher piled on. “Yeah, they’d never see it coming.”
She found the humor in it, but it was tempered by the loss of Logan. As she watched and waited for the paramedics to arrive, a couple of pickup trucks skidded around the corner in front of the house. More followed. Seconds later, there were twenty cars and trucks lined up.
“It’s Shawn,” she said in a knowing voice. “They came to find their son.”
She met the Crow chairman and his wife on the front lawn.
“Where’s Logan?” the sour-faced man asked as soon as he saw her. A moment later, as he noticed Calvin’s demolished truck, he continued. “He snuck away from us to come here. I should have known he’d do it. He spoke only of helping you to make his mistake in Billings balance out.”
She didn’t know how to explain what had happened, but she started out in the most honest way she knew how. “He did show up. I think he was watching us the whole time. When the shooting started, he jumped in the truck and sped toward danger. As you can see, he got in on the action. He saved all our lives.”
Tyressa propped up her injured husband, who still looked as if he’d lost a lot of blood. The Crow woman didn’t let the big man distract her. She glared at Grace. “Where is he now? Is he…in the truck?”
“No,” she said with
relief. “He’s not hurt, as best I can tell. But, well, he…” She didn’t know how to explain those crazy few seconds. Somehow, Nerio had gone around the house, using the smoke as a diversion, and pulled Logan out of his truck, and into her vehicle. Then she sped off. Besides knowing the kid wasn’t dead, there was almost nothing good she could say. “He…”
“I’m fine!”
Grace whipped her head toward the other end of the street. Logan walked along the sidewalk as if it was any normal day.
The Crow parents hobbled their way onto the sidewalk and watched the boy come in. He was unarmed and seemed bruised and sore, but otherwise in good spirits.
“How?” she queried, joining Shawn and Tyressa.
Logan jogged the last few paces and threw himself into the waiting arms of his parents. Around them, the Crow citizens fanned out like a pack of protective wolves, rifles and handguns at the ready, as if the person who took Logan might try to come back.
Some of the neighbors were now at their doors, observing the scene. Sirens wailed in the distance; the children had made good on their promise to call for help. She had a tickling sensation they needed to clear out, but she couldn’t go anywhere without hearing Logan’s explanation of his last few minutes.
Shawn demanded answers. “Son, what the hell happened here?”
The boy pulled away from his mom and dad. He acknowledged Grace and Asher. “I parked down there,” he pointed toward the rail yard, “and watched as the train arrived. I figured this town was a good place for the woman to make her attack run, so I watched the skies all around. I was going to warn my friends when I saw her.”
He inhaled deeply. “But instead, I heard gunshots. Saw these guys get pinned down. That’s when I drove on the streets, came around behind the woman and the other man. I considered trying to shoot them, but I knew it would be too risky to take them both on by myself.” The boy looked at his mother. “I knew you would not approve.”
Tyressa Runs Hard stared at him with a stone-cold, emotionless look.
“So, I drove onto the next block, watched through the trees, and waited until I was sure where the man was standing. Then I came back to this street at high speed, went across the yard, knocked over the fence, and hit the guy in the teepee.” He giggled at his joke.
His mother was still frozen, as if disapproving of it all. Shawn, however, wore a wide grin.
Grace kept the questions rolling. “And how did you get away from her? Alejandro, the man against the tree, said she took you.”
Logan cracked up. “If there’s one thing she should have known about me, it’s how I like to do my own thing. I snuck onto your ride when you and my dad left the rez. I didn’t wait and do nothing when you told me to stay in that train shed. I stole Uncle Cal’s truck instead of sticking with the convoy. And, well, after my brain stopped ringing from hitting the tree, I decided I didn’t want to be her prisoner, so I let myself out of her moving truck.”
“You j-jumped?” Tyressa stammered in shock.
“Yeah, Mom. I’m fine. A few bruises is all.” He showed her his elbows, which were bloodied, but not ruined.
His mom broke down with tears of relief and wrapped her arms around him.
Shawn turned to Grace. “You better tend to your odd friend.” He pointed to Misha, who was now on the ground next to the wrecked white truck.
“Oh, crap,” she blurted.
When she reached him, he was face-down in the uncut grass of the yard. His injuries must have been worse than he let on. He was already wrapped in her ugly homemade bandages and looked like he’d been dragged behind the nearby train, shredded by a pack of wild dogs, then tossed like trash into the middle of the backyard.
He whispered. “You should get out of here. Will be hard to explain.”
The sirens were close.
“We can’t leave you,” she replied, wondering if it was a true statement. It would be easy to run through the crushed fence, hop Robert’s train, and slip out of town.
“I will need medical help. I will explain what happened. No need for you to be here. Go to Yellowstone. I will catch up.” He laughed, as if it weren’t obvious he was being sarcastic.
She scanned the yard, looking for alternatives. What would the police think about what really happened there? How could anyone explain a scene involving hitmen, foreign assassins, grenades, and wrecked trucks? Who would believe the entire Crow Nation randomly showed up on the quiet street? None of it would make any sense, especially without capturing Nerio.
Grace turned to Asher. “Should we get out of here?”
He did the same survey of the yard. “I would rather hop the train than go to the police station. We might be stuck in this town for a long time. And if TKM has any tendrils inside their department, we might be in even more trouble.”
That sealed it for her. Seeing Misha next to the open truck door gave her an idea on how to make things right. She first turned to Asher. “Run out front. Get Shawn and the others to clear out as fast as they can. We don’t want to be here when the ambulance arrives.”
“Roger,” he said, smiling at her, then running.
Once he was gone, Misha spoke from the grass. “You have admirer.”
“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you’re into me.”
He croaked laughter. “No. Not me. Him. Your curly-haired partner.”
She blushed. “Sorry. Talking to you is confusing. I know in my brain you aren’t trying to hurt me, but I guess it will take a while before my heart believes it. And, as for what you said… Don’t tell anyone, but I’m into him, too, but this isn’t the time to be lovey-dovey.” She figured the injured man wouldn’t remember what day it was, much less a silly one-liner about Asher.
Grace went on. “Now, listen. You’re going to do as I say for once. Help is on the way for your wounds. All you have to do is lie here and do absolutely nothing. Do you understand?”
“Nothing,” he echoed.
“Correct. They’ll think you were the driver of the truck. You hit this guy on the tree by accident. It will all add up, I hope.”
He spoke with a cold, dry tone. “Witnesses. Should I kill the children?”
She’d almost forgotten about them. They were the only ones who’d been there for the whole attack. They saw Nerio. Knew she and Asher were involved. They were indeed witness—
Misha quietly chuckled.
Grace caught on. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I am learning English joking.”
She laughed with him. “Thanks for being an okay dude. I hope they fix you up and you make it to Yellowstone. We’ll do our best out there.”
He turned serious, trying to angle his head her way while keeping it on the ground. “Find man named Jake Ray. He was partner at dig site. Tell him Bryansk is beautiful this time of year. Is our code. He will know I sent you.”
“‘Bryansk is beautiful this time of year.’ Got it.”
“Take rifle. Knife on ankle. You will need them if Nerio comes back.”
She pulled a huge knife from Misha’s ankle holster. He’d been armed the entire time, much to her surprise. As she gathered his rifle, she realized Nerio had taken Alejandro’s weapon. It made it easier to scrub the place.
Asher came back as car tires peeled out in the front. “They’re leaving,” he declared.
The sirens were a street or two over.
“We’re making a break for the train. Get our guns, Ash. We don’t want to be here when the cops show up.”
“Will do!” he exclaimed. Asher hopped up, about to run off, but he stopped and looked down on Misha. “Uh, thanks for your help. They’ll take good care of you here.”
Misha snickered. “I told her you like her. Take from me. Do not mess up, kid.”
Asher’s face turned red, which made Grace chuckle at what the Russian man had done to both of them. All she could do was roll her eyes at Asher. “I guess your secret’s out.”
He smiled at her as he spoke to the prone figure. “I
won’t, Misha. Thanks again.”
“Do not mention,” he said to the grass.
Together, loaded with weapons, they ran toward the train.
A child’s voice called out to her as she went out the back gate. “Hey! Park ranger lady!”
“Oh, crap,” she said in a low voice. “I forgot about them again.” Grace made it through the gate but turned around. All the kids stood in the rear sliding glass door.
She saluted them. “The super park ranger squad has to go now! We have to help other children. Be sure to tell the police all about our guns, grenades, and smoke bombs, okay?”
The children nodded with zeal.
She laughed to herself as she crossed the tracks toward Robert’s waiting train engine. None of it was planned, but she’d fallen into what she hoped would be a convincing explanation for the children to provide. The kids would speak of park rangers toting heavy weapons and grenades, and strange ladies dressed in black, but who would believe them? Their stories would be seen as embellishments of an already-exciting car accident. The police might not even notice the damaged fence and torn-up yard.
Once on the train, watching the flashing lights in front of the tiny house, she felt as if they were on the way to something bigger and better. The Crow Nation was on her side. Her dad was on the way. Nerio was in retreat. Nothing stood between her and the fallen Yellowstone rock.
Asher stood close as they watched the town of Rawlins fade into the distance. Neither of them had said anything about Misha or his sneaky way of pushing them to be more open about their feelings. For the moment, while catching their breath from the day’s challenges, it seemed enough for both of them to simply be next to each other.
“We’re going back to where it all started,” she said in a tired voice.
“You and I are going to finish this,” he said with confidence, reaching for her hand.
It had been less than a week, but she could hardly remember her normal life prior to the asteroid strikes. If they did finish their fight with Petteri Tikkanen and his hit squads, what would life look like for her going forward? What would normal be like after a near apocalypse? At that moment, she couldn’t imagine it, but it didn’t trouble her as an unresolved feeling might have done in her past.
Impact Series Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 99