by R. Chauncey
“Can that map show terrain with elevation lines?”
“What are elevation lines?”
“They show the height of the land around. Look for wavy lines close together. If that map is accurate there should be a number in the center of the lines.”
She typed terrain only on the keypad.
The map immediately showed the terrain with red dots for cities and towns.
“Got it,” she announced.
“Now magnify the area just west of this desert,” he told her.
“Okay,” she said and did so. She leaned over and looked at the map. “Larson,” she said. “There are two hills shown on this map one on each side of this road. One is seventy feet high. The other is only sixty-seven feet.”
“Are they inside Nevada?”
“Yes.”
He slowed down and pulled to the side of the road and stopped. “Let me see,” he said, leaning over to look at the map. After a minute he sat up straight and said, “If my Army recon training was worth a damn, that’s where I’d be.”
“Maybe they’ll know you know that,” she added.
“Only if they know I’ve served in the Army in a recon unit.”
“But they apparently don’t know who we are. If they did, they’d be using our families as hostages to make us turn ourselves in to them.”
“No, Marajo, we’ve already decided they probably know your real identity but not mine,” he said. “They’re not going to use your family as hostages until they get a positive ID on me, and I’ll bet they’re not looking for who I really am.”
“Because they’re waiting for us in Nevada at two different places,” she said.
“I tell you, Marajo, I’m cured of being curious.” He leaned over and looked at the map again. “Maybe. Just maybe. We’ve got a chance.”
“We do?” she asked in a surprised voice full of hope.
“The map doesn’t show the snow on the ground. And that hides a lot.”
“Like what?”
“Look at this hill on the right.”
She looked at it.
“The bottom elevation line is close to the road.”
“Does that mean something?”
“Yes, it means the hill begins just off the road. If we can get close enough to that hill, and there’s a Society soldier hiding up there, they may not be able to get a good shot at us.”
“What about the hill on the left?”
“If there’s a soldier up there, we’ll make a damned fine target.” He sat up and looked around the Highlander. “This vehicle looks like it’s well built.”
“It’s not armored, Larson. I built it for off road driving, not as a tank to be used in a shoot-out with fanatics working for the Hidden Society.”
“What type of weapons do you think they’ll be using?”
“They’ve access to every type of weapon in the world,” she answered.
“But they won’t be using bombs of any kind. Explosions are too easily detected by the police even if they’re miles away. So they’ll be using rifles or pistols.”
“They’ve probably got electric pistols or rifles. They don’t make as much noise as regular guns. I read that in a magazine article about illegal weapons.”
“But this Highlander will provide us with some protection. Not much. But maybe just enough for us to get pass an ambush alive.”
“You hope!” she shot back at him.
He looked at her and smiled as he said, “You, too. I hope.”
She gave a deep sigh and leaned her head back against the headrest. “We don’t have much choice. Do we?”
“Some choice, Marajo,” he said as he drove back out on the road. “Is better than no choice at all.”
“You really think we’ve got a chance of getting pass an ambush if they’ve set up one for us?” Her voice was filled with the faint sound of hope.
“I figure we’ve got a slim chance, Marajo, a very slim chance.” He didn’t want to tell her the truth. Their chance of surviving an ambush by people who knew what they were doing and were experienced was so slim it was almost non-existent. Why do that and scare hell out of her, and make himself more afraid than he already was?
***
Chapter 37
January 9, 10 p.m.
Karl’s flat expressionless face indicated he was pissed. He hadn’t heard from Dodge and Betty in over twenty-four hours. That meant he didn’t know what the hell they were up to, or where they were. He knew they were on their way to him, and he had given them permission to kill Marlene Done and her companion in an ambush. But that didn’t mean they weren’t supposed to contact him.
He lay in his electrically heated sleeping bag looking at the stars in the clearing night sky thinking, I’m working for an arrogant asshole who thinks he’s invincible. He’s the cause of this mess. He knew, or at least suspected, what Julian was up to, but did nothing, because he didn’t give a fuck. Now me and my soldiers are facing death because we know the location of one of the Society’s information depositories. Well, before that asshole gets me, I’m going to report everything to the Council of Twenty. They’ll take care of that fuck for good. He rolled slightly to his left and looked at Willow.
He was sleeping like a baby.
Karl unzipped his sleeping bag and got out and put on his boots. Then got up and walked to the electric coffee pot that kept their coffee hot no matter how cold it got outside. And it was cold. It was somewhere in the lower thirties. He helped himself to a mug of coffee and walked over to the camouflage infrared monitor.
The infrared monitor was the size and weight of a small soccer ball on top of a six foot metal pole that could be extended another six feet if necessary. This one was short ranged. It could detect the body heat of all animals over ten pounds over a distance of fifty miles in a circle. It could even detect flying birds as small as six inches in length and ten ounces in weight. He had it set to detect the body heat of humans weighting over a hundred and twenty pounds that way it wouldn’t go off when it passed over some animal. The creatures of the desert held no interest for him, and most weighted much less than a hundred and twenty pounds.
The ball and pole were unique in that both were made of plastic as clear as glass. Inside the ball was a terrain scanning unit that could adapt the color of the plastic of the pole and ball to that of the surrounding terrain making it invisible at distances of twenty feet. It was one of the wonderful inventions of the Society’s computer technicians. Well paid technicians with high salaries and the best in benefits for themselves and their families who knew a painful death awaited them if they talked about the things they developed for their employers all of whom were members of the Society. But none knew they were working for the Society. They didn’t even know it existed.
The heat detector was the best in the world
Only the Society had this unique infrared monitor. It was one of those inventions the Society kept for itself like the all-purpose chip, because it gave the Society an advantage over every police agency and military organization on the planet.
Karl didn’t know the one he was using existed until he’d gone into the supply room of the Society’s underground headquarter under the property of the Ames Ranch and Hotel. The damn thing was so unique it came with its own verbal instructions. And they were simple instructions, too. He was glad he’d decided to get a heat detector.
He knelt down next to the screen and touched the screen with his left index finger.
The instruction manual that came with it had told him and Willow it could be programmed to operate only upon the identification of its operators by thei
r finger prints then eliminate all evidence of being used before returning to neutral for storage. It was a damn fine machine as far as he was concerned.
The screen came on. The blue light it gave off was too weak to be seen more than ten feet away. But it showed the heat signatures of every person who’d walked into its scanning area.
He pushed the repeat button.
The screen immediately displayed the full body heat of three people. One he knew was Derrick. The other two were people he suspected were working with Derrick. Though he didn’t know what they were doing. The important thing was they didn’t carry themselves like trained soldiers. But that didn’t mean they weren’t.
What annoyed Karl was the faint heat signature on the screen that came from a hill that was half a mile away. The hill was almost directly in front of them at a thirty degree angle. The infrared signature was that of someone or some large animal weighting at least a hundred and twenty pounds that produced body heat similar to that of a human. But the computer attached to the infrared unit couldn’t identify it. He wondered if it was some large animal that had climbed upon the hill looking for shelter or food. And then it left. Whatever it was the infrared unit hadn’t detected the heat source in over three hours.
Could be one of Derrick’s obedient servants, he thought. That soft, arrogant asshole would just be foolish enough to bring a servant with him.
Was Derrick really stupid enough to bring a servant with him, he wondered. Then he dismissed the thought. Derrick may be an arrogant, soft asshole, but he knew the importance of this operation and even he wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring a servant with him. The unidentified heat signature had to be that of an animal. Maybe it was a cougar. They were known to reach weights of a hundred and twenty pounds and they had been reintroduced into this part of Nevada ten years ago according to what he’d read in a National Geographic Magazine.
The question of why Derrick was there didn’t concern him since he knew the answer. Once this Marlene Done woman and her friend were dead, Derrick was going to have the other two people the infrared had clearly detected kill him, Willow, and Betty and Dodge. If and when Betty and Dodge showed up, and then Derrick would kill these other two people.
Derrick was a man who liked knowing things no one else in the Society knew. And once every one out in this desert was dead only he would know the location of the Society’s information centers. Such knowledge would give him an edge over everyone else in the Society. The bastard would have absolute power.
***
Chapter 38
January 9, 10 p.m.
Dorothy was in her camper sitting at the kitchen table with her com-cell on carefully going over everything listed in the Society’s computers at their underground headquarters at the Ames Hotel. She knew about Karl and Willow and Dodge and Betty. And she knew Derrick was going to have her kill them once Marlene Done and her companion were dead. What she wanted to know was exactly what she would be going up against when Derrick ordered her to kill the four of them? Lester and Charlie she could easily take care of. They were soldiers but not trained experienced killers like she and the others. Were there other soldiers out here in the wilderness she didn’t know about?
Even though she knew everything Derrick had said on his com-cell there was always a chance he had another com-cell she didn’t know about and he had called in two or more soldiers to take care of her once everyone else was dead. Derrick knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t be easy to kill, and while he had proven his ability to kill without remorse she didn’t think he’d be foolish enough to attempt to kill her himself.
I wouldn’t put it pass that piece of arrogant shit, she thought as she worked on her com-cell to see if she could detect the presence of other soldiers.
Within five minutes she knew about the infrared unit and the weapons Karl and Willow carried. Next she accessed Karl‘s com-cell and smiled. He hadn’t heard from Dodge and Betty in over twenty-four hours. They were either dead or being held up by the storm. She didn’t think they had deserted. Soldiers never did that. The Society knew too much about them for them to successfully desert. And with those tracking chips in them where could they go the Society couldn’t find them. It was better to kill their families themselves and then commit suicide than desert. At least that was quicker and far less painful for the deserter and his/her family than what the Society would do to them when the Society caught a deserter.
The infrared unit was a problem though. She hadn’t expected it. Because she didn’t even know about it until she accessed the computers in the Society’s underground headquarters at the Ames Ranch and Hotel. It made her glad she had kept low when she looked at the two men.
She leaned back in her chair and wondered if it was possible to access the unit’s computer? Would it have a hacking alert system that would tell them she was trying to get into the computer? She thought for a few minutes then decided. Nothing ventured. Nothing gained. And she had a lot to gain if she could hack into the unit’s computer.
She suspected the unit had picked up her body heat when she’d climbed up on that hill next to her camper, but she didn‘t know if it had picked up enough of her body heat to identify her as human.
She gave a mighty sigh and started to work.
Even though she was an authority on computers it took her thirty-seven minutes to get into the unit’s computer. She breathed a sigh of relief when she had analyzed it.
It was a simple computer designed to identity human or animal body heat. It was solar powered with a firewall a third grader could get pass. The only thing sophisticated about it was its camouflaging system. Its memory was primitive at best because it was designed for only a specific use. As soon as she activated the review button on the unit, she saw the heat signature on her in the unit’s memory looked more like a computer glitch than an outline of her body. If Karl or Willow saw it they probably assumed it was the heat signature of a large animal.
As soon as Dorothy learned this she breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly decided to put her own crude program into its memory. She was sure the men operating it wouldn’t detect her program. If they did they probably wouldn’t think much about it since it was such a crude program. She did that in five minutes. Then got out of the computer leaving no sign that she was ever there. The program she put in its memory was crude, but it allowed her to blind the unit to her if she got into a position where it could detect her body heat.
Now, she thought, to bed for some rest and then wait. She stood up and walked to the small bedroom in the back of her camper and got into bed. She went to sleep within five minutes.
***
Chapter 39
January 10, 3 p.m.
“We should be close to those hills,” Larson said to Marajo. He didn’t bother noticing the weather conditions. He was too busy worrying about the ambush he was sure they were headed into to be concerned about the weather.
“We’re about two miles away,” she said as she looked at the map on her lap. Her voice was calm, but the butter flies in her stomach were fighting a war of fear.
He reached for the light switch on the dashboard and made sure the Highlander’s lights were off and the dashboard lights turned low. “Damn,” he said when he noticed the weather conditions.
“What’s wrong?” Her voice now had a touch of fear in it.
“It’s stopped snowing,” he said. “Didn’t mean to alarm you. But a blizzard would give us some cover.”
“Bet they’ve got night vision goggles,” she said, looking out the window.”
“With magnifying power,” he added.
“If they’ve got those and they’re up there in those two hills waiting for us, they’ve probably seen us even with our lights off.”
“Probably.”
She shook her head and said, “I wish I’d never started working for Julian.”
“You know if we succeed, we’re going to cause a hell of a lot of trouble for a hell of a lot of powerful, rich people,” he said.
“If we get pass those killers out there waiting for us,” Marajo added.
“No. I mean if we succeed in letting the world know about the Hidden Society and all its dirty little secrets. There are going to be lot of really pissed off rich, powerful people.”
“I don’t give a damn!” Marajo yelled out angrily. “I’ve spent the last twenty years of my life living in fear waiting for killers to show up and do God I don’t want to think about to me. I haven’t had a boyfriend, or even a one nightstand. I was too afraid he’d be a killer from the Society. I don’t even have friends. Real friends I mean. The kind you can talk to about your problems.” Her voice was filled with hate. “And I haven’t seen my family in twenty years. Every time I think about them I think about the pain I’ve caused them with my fake death. Holidays, even Christmas, mean nothing to me because I’ve spent all my time worrying about Society soldiers finding and killing me.”
“Never went out with the girls after work to gossip about the boss and the men?” Larson asked her in a light hearted manner. He was hoping to rid her of her feelings of sorrow and regret. What he wanted Marajo to become was a woman filled with rage and an intense desire for revenge. The same rage and revenge he felt toward the Society.
“Oh, sure I’ve done that. But I’ve never gotten close to anyone. I’ve never felt I could trust anyone. I haven’t seen my family or relatives in twenty years. I’ve never even thought about meeting a man I could marry, or just get knocked up by. I haven’t even taken a real vacation in twenty years. The closest thing I’ve had to a vacation was staying home for a week every year and waiting to be contacted by the person Julian chose to help me. This Highlander has been my only source of release, and reading stupid romance novels to make up for the lack of romance in my life. I knew I’d need this Highlander when Julian’s man or woman showed up. I haven‘t had a full life like you’ve had, Larson. I‘ve just spent the last twenty years waiting to destroy a secret Society of fucked up, greedy, power mad assholes. And, Larson, I‘m damn tired of it. I want to rejoin the human race. I want to have a normal life like everybody else.”