by R. Chauncey
Betty shifted the Land Rover into power drive and slowly followed Dodge’s foot prints.
Once she’d made it over the shallow dip off the road, she continued following him till he waved for her to stop. Then he walked over to the Land Rover and knocked on the door. She rolled down the window.
“Whadda you think? Can’t be seen from the road, can it?” He was so cold he was trembling, but he was alert and not feeling sleepy.
“I think you better get inside before you turn into an icicle.”
He nodded his approval and walked around the front of the Land Rover to the passenger’s door. He opened it, the warm air inside hit him in the face like a sweet kiss, and he climbed inside. The heater was on at full force, and Dodge welcomed the heat. He looked at his watch while he warmed up.
“It’s five after one. You said they were probably two hours behind us. Right?”
“Maybe more, maybe less, but we’ve got time to get ready for them,” she added.
“We’ve got to get outside and wait for them to show up.”
“I know,” she said, looking out the window and wishing she had come up with a better plan. She hoped that in the future all the killings the Society assigned her would be in warm countries. But like any good Society soldier she’d go where she was told, and kill whoever she was told to kill regardless of whether it was warm or cold or wet or dry.
“Better dress warm,” he said, turning around and looking at the winter gear available to them.
“Couldn’t we wait a while? They’re hours behind us.”
“No,” he said. “I’m tired and waiting in this warm Rover would only result in my going to sleep. What if they drive by while we’re waiting in here because it’s warm? By the
time we got back on the road, assuming we didn’t end up going into that ditch that follows the main road, they’d be miles away. You want to tell Karl, the leaders, and the Council of Twenty they got away because we wanted to be warm and went to sleep?”
“Good point, because I’m tired, too. Let’s get dressed and get outside,” she answered. “You said you’d take the left hill I’ll take the right.”
He crawled onto the back seat and pulled one of the boxes behind the seat close to the back of the seat.
“Hay, hot coffee I bet,” he said, after lifting the lid on a two foot by three foot plastic container and seeing a large thermos. “There’s even powdered cream and sugar in this container. How do you take your coffee?” He opened the thermos and smelled the contents. “It’s filled with hot coffee.”
“We’d be better off with whiskey,” she said, turning around and looking at the container.
Dodge looked through the container. “Sorry no whiskey just coffee.”
“We should leave it alone, Dodge,” she said as she crawled from the driver’s seat to the back seat and sat next to him.
“Why?” he asked her. “There are two plastic mugs back here.”
“It would relax us,” she said, reached for an artic parka in the plastic box. “We could end going to sleep with bellies full of coffee. Even black coffee.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed. “In our condition we need to stay awake and alert.”
“Marlene and her friend aren’t that far behind us, Dodge,” Betty said. “We should be able to stay awake for at least another two or three hours. I’ll bet you’ve gone longer than forty hours without sleep when on an operation.”
“Yeah, but I had pills to keep me awake,” he said as he leaned over the back of the
Seat and grabbed another plastic container. He opened it. “Long underwear. Insolated, too. I’d recommend you put on a pair. Socks, too. What size?”
“Six,” she said.
Their lighthearted banter as they got dressed in warm clothing made them forget they had managed to get only eight hours apiece of sleep in the forty-eight hours.
“This is ridiculous,” she said.
“Why you say that?”
“Here I am getting dressed in artic clothing in the back seat of a Land Rover with another soldier when I should be in some expensive hotel suite with a well hung, young stud who thinks through his dick”
“We have to work for our pleasures, Betty,” he told her after he’d laughed at her statement.
“Do I know it,” she replied. “Should we keep our com-cells on?”
“No,” he said. “Turn them off. They may have an electric energy detector. They could pick up our com-cells’ energy signals a mile away.”
“We should have those to detect when they’re close.”
“Maybe we do,” Dodge said, turning around and looking in the cargo area behind the back seat. “Something’s back here.” He pulled a black blanket from a heavy looking plastic box and opened it. “Karl thinks of everything.”
“What’s there?”
“Two long range electric pistols, and two electric energy detectors. Plus two extra clips each,” he told her. He took out both of the pistols and handed her one. “Let’s check them outside. These things can have touchy triggers.” He picked up one of the electric detectors and turned it on and ran a check on it. “Works well.” He handed it to her and picked up the other one and checked it.
Ten minutes later they were standing outside the Land Rover.
“One thirty-five,” Betty said, looking at her watch. “They can’t be more than an hour and a half away.”
“Assuming they haven’t stopped for food and rest, or taken another route.” he said as he faced away from Betty and checked his weapon. It was fully charged.
“No, this is the best route,” she said as she turned away from him and checked her weapon. Like Dodge’s weapon it was fully charged. “And they wouldn’t be running if they didn’t know we’re after them. I don’t know why they’re heading in this direction, but I’m positive they’re not eating or sleeping anywhere.” She put her weapon in the left pocket of her parka. “Time is their enemy and they can’t waste it.”
“Okay,” Dodge said. “Let’s get into position.”
“Okay, by the time we do they shouldn’t be more than an hour behind us,” she said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said.
“Stay awake, and let’s keep within sight of each other,” she said as she started walking toward the road. She didn’t feel any of the cold except on her face.
“I’ll signal you where I’ll be when I get in position,” he told her as he walked away toward the rocky hills.
“Okay,” she yelled back over the wind.
It was still snowing but the wind had died down considerably but they still had to raise their voices to hear each other even at thirty feet.
They were both glad it was still snowing. Especially Betty since she had to walk across the road and into an open area to get to the hill she was going to shoot from. The snow would cover any tracks she left.
As soon as Dodge was in place he stood up and looked at the hill Betty was on. He waited six minutes for her to get into position before he saw her wave to him from her position. He waved back then got down out of sight. As he knew she was doing. He looked to his left and right and saw another spot to his right that looked good. It was between two snow covered boulders that looked like snowballs made for a giant. He crawled through the deep snow over to it and looked between the two boulders and saw the top of Betty‘s head. When it came time to shoot, she’d pop up and be visible to him. But he wouldn’t be visible to her or anyone on the road. It was a perfect shooting spot. He turned on his electric energy detector and sat down. He removed the hood of the parka from his head so the cold would keep him awake and alert while he wai
ted.
***
Chapter 36
January 10, 12:15 a.m.
“You tired?” Marajo asked Larson. The back of the passenger seat was in a reclining position and she was lying back with a relaxed look on her face and a feeling of confidence. She had been asleep for an hour, and had awoken only a minute ago.
“No,” he said, looking out the window and the gently falling fat snowflakes. He had a serious look on his face.
“Penny for your thoughts,” she said.
“I’d prefer a hundred thousand dollars, but since I’m not going to get it I tell you what I’m thinking for nothing,” he said.
“So what are you thinking?”
“Did you bring anything that can detect an energy source?”
“No.”
“There are such things, aren’t there?”
“Yes. The Duffy Company makes one of the components for such a device used by the army. Westport’s district representative to Congress got the company the contract last year. He wants to get reelected.”
“Think the Society soldiers would have them?”
“They’ve probably got more sophisticated weapons and hardware than the military’s got. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn they’ve got such devices,” she said. “Julian told me some of the Society’s members own companies that are some of the main suppliers of the military.”
“Would those detectors have the ability to detect our com-cells?”
“Yes, they would,” she answered.
“I wonder if they have a vehicle with a computer that can access satellites.”
Marajo sat up straight, and reached along the right side of her seat to bring the seat back up. “Of course, they have a vehicle with a computer in it that can do that. They’ve been tracking us by satellite.”
“Now you’ve got my thoughts,” he said.
“My God!” she said, softly. “What do we do?”
“We haven’t been attacked yet. So that means they’re not looking for us. They’re waiting for us.”
“If Julian gave you information as to where the Society stores its information, then they know where those places are, too.”
“And they’ve probably got each site covered with their best soldiers, especially the one we’re headed for since it controls the other two sights.”
“Because they know we’re not in North Africa or Canada.”
“It doesn’t matter. Why take a chance? Cover all the sites and wait for us.”
“Jesus Christ!” she exclaimed in a frightened voice. “What can we do?”
“Think!”
“What?”
“They know we know where the sites are. They know we’re heading for one of them. Because they all contain information the Society doesn’t want the world to know about. They know we’re not in Canada or North Africa. They know we’re headed for the site in Nevada. Because they know that site has the equipment necessary to access the sights in Canada and North Africa.”
“So they know all that!” she snapped at him.
“So put yourself in their shoes. What would you do?”
“Wait at the site in Nevada for us to show up then kill us.”
“That means they aren’t looking for us. They don’t care about our real identities any more, or our families for that matter.”
“So what, Larson?” she yelled at him.
“So if I were them -,” he stopped and did some quiet thinking.
“You’d what?” she demanded with the strong sound of fear in her voice.
He held up his right hand for her to be quiet while he thought. After a few minutes he spoke.
“I’d double my chances of success,” he said with a smile growing on his face.
“What on earth are you smiling about?” She had a look of disbelief and fear on her face.
“A good mystery writer always likes to throw in a few curves to confuse his, or her, readers. That hooks them for the next novel.”
“What are you talking about?” Her voice had the sound of exasperation in it.
“Simple, my dear Marajo, we’re headed for an ambush.” He dropped his speed from thirty miles an hour to twenty.
“How do you know that?”
“Why just sit and wait for us at the Nevada site? Why not attack us on the way? If we get pass the ambush, call ahead and tell those at the Nevada site the ambush failed and we’re on our way.”
Marajo knew what he meant about electric energy detectors. “If we had an electric energy detector we’d be able to detect the ambush before we reached it,” she said.
“But we don’t,” he added.
“We’re screwed!” Her voice had the sound of failure in it, and the expression on her face showed it.
“Not necessarily,” he said with a determined look on his face.
“What do you mean?” She leaned forward and looked directly in his face and wondered what he meant.
“We’re passing the southern part of the Great Salt Lake now. Nevada’s on the other side. If I were them, I’d hit us just as we were entering Nevada.”
Marajo thought for a few seconds. “Of course,” she said. “We enter Nevada. We haven’t been attacked. We relax until we reach this site. Like a fox walking into a farmer’s chicken coop expecting a chicken dinner, but not knowing he’s really walking into the chicken farmer’s trap.”
“Only we aren’t foxes. We’re wolves.” He reached down and turned off the Highlander’s headlights. “No sense in telling them we’re coming.”
“They’ve probably got electric detectors. They’ll detect the engine of this Highlander.”
“Yeah, they probably have. But hopefully we’ll pick up a suspicious couple of state cops in a patrol car.”
“In this weather?” she asked. “Not likely. They’re either helping stuck drivers or inside awaiting calls for help.”
“When I was in Army reconnaissance, we were taught to set up ambushes where the advantages were in our favor.”
“Like where for instance?” she asked.
“Not in a populated area. Even in this weather shooting will attract the police. And that they don’t want. So it’ll be somewhere far from where people are. No truck or rest stops, either.”
Marajo looked out the window. “In the open,” she said.
“No. In a hilly area where they can set put a V formation ambush.”
“What’s a V formation?”
“That’s a formation where we enter the bottom of the V and half way through it near the tip of the V they start shooting from hidden positions on both sides of the V where we can’t see them.”
“So how do we handle that?” she asked, looking nervously at every rise of snow covered land she could see.
“Let me think,” he said, dropping his speed to fifteen miles per hour.
Marajo undid her seat belt, turned around, and got on her knees and reached into the backpacks on the rear seat that contained their weapons. She got both weapons out along with an extra ammo clip for each weapon and turned around and sat down. “Here,” she said, offering one to Larson.
He glanced at the semi-automatic in her left hand and said, “Nice to have if we’re going to stop, jump out, and find a large rock to shoot behind like they do in the movies. And if we do, we’ll be dead before we reach the large rock.”
“So what do we do?”
“Keep them handy and try to spot the ambush spot before we enter it.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“Simple. Snow reflects light. Even with a dark overcast like now.”
She looked out the front windshield. “You’re right. Even though it’s still snowing I can see at least a hundred yards or more.”
“Can you see any marks in the snow?” he asked.
“Wait,” she said as she turned around again and reached into his backpack again. She came out with a pair of binoculars.
“I’m glad we have those,” he said as he smiled. “Now look ahead for any hills that border this road. And look for tracks. Human foot prints or tire tracks. Though I doubt if you will see any. It’s still snowing.”
Marajo raised the binoculars to her eyes and looked as far ahead through the falling snow as the binoculars permitted. “Nothing but flat snow covered land as far as I can see on both sides of the road.”
“We’re still in the Great Salt Lake Desert. When we leave it, we’ll start running into hilly country again.”
“How soon will that be?”
“At fifteen miles an hour? Maybe an hour or two.”
“Wait a minute,” she said, putting the binoculars in her lap and reaching for the glove compartment. “I put an electrical map in here a few years ago. It should still be there.” She started searching through the paper in the glove compartment. “Got it!”
“Look for the start of hilly country.”
She opened the thick map till it covered her lap. In the bottom right hand corner was a small keypad. She pushed the on button next to the keypad, and typed Great Salt Lake Desert on the keypad. The Great Salt Lake Desert appeared on the map. “We’re on Route 29 five miles north of US 80. No towns or cities around for hundreds of miles.”
Larson nodded as he said, “They’ll be waiting somewhere on this route into Nevada.”
“I can’t see anything that looks like hills,” she said, looking closely at the map.