by R. Chauncey
If she’s still alive, she’ll expect this move, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
He went to the north side of the hill, found a spot that looked safe to climb, and started up. Moving slow and as quietly as he could, stopping and listening carefully every five seconds. When he reached the top he moved cautiously around a boulder and stopped when he saw Betty’s feet. He waited while he made sure what he saw weren’t empty boots. He had used that trick to kill a target once. A man who was an experienced hunter, but he wasn’t experienced in hunting humans. When he was sure Betty’s feet were in the boots, he moved from his hiding spot with his weapon at the ready.
He stopped when he saw her spread eagle on the ground. There was a calm expression on her almost white face. He saw her weapon in her left hand her left arm lying next to her side.
She’s dead.
He smiled and back away dragging his feet through his footprints to ruin them. He didn’t take her weapon. He didn’t need it. He didn’t expect her body to be found for some time. Vultures would be attracted to the body, or maybe they were all further south where it was warmer. Maybe weeks would pass before Betty’s body was found. By then maybe another heavy snow storm would wipe out his footprints completely.
Twenty minutes later he was driving the Land Rover toward a small town he’d chosen on the paper map he’d found in the glove compartment. But he didn’t intend reaching the town until in the morning. He was going to find an isolated spot and get some sleep which he desperately needed. He was so tired he had to force himself to stay awake as he drove the Land Rover.
But he wasn’t going to sleep in the Land Rover no matter how exhausted he was because he knew it had a tracking chip in it like all Society vehicles. He didn’t want to be caught sleeping in it by anyone least of all a soldier from the Society. Karl may have chosen him to help find the flash drive Julian gave to someone, but there was no guarantee a leader, or a member of the Council of Twenty hadn’t assigned other soldiers to the hunt, too. He was going to find a secluded spot a few hundred yards from where he’d park the Land Rover, and use the two blankets in the back to sack out. It was seven thirty-five by the Land Rover’s clock. Dodge figured if he could get eight hours of sleep, he’d be in excellent shape to continue with his plan.
He knew he’d have to dump the Land Rover because of the tracking chip in it. And he knew Karl would track it if he wasn’t already doing that. Get an older car. Buy one using the Society credit card all soldiers carried. A Jeep would do well. He didn’t care if the Society knew or not. He was going to remove the trip chip in whatever car he bought as soon as he could then continue, and pray to the God he’d always secretly believed in to help him complete his plan. Killing Betty had been only the first step in the plan, and while it wasn’t easy it was the easiest part of the plan.
***
Chapter 40
January 10, 5:30 p.m.
Marajo and Larson stopped in a secluded spot among some tree a mile south of Route 29. It was fifteen miles west of where they’d been the ambushed. They had driven there in complete silence with the radio playing music to help calm them down and to keep them alert. It was still cold and there was still snow on the ground, but the last weather broadcast they’d heard to on the radio had said the southwest was about the get a break from bad weather. The temperature was expected to rise to the upper forties by noon on the eleventh and remain there for three days before dropping back into the upper thirties. After coffee and sandwiches they’d quietly cleaned up and put everything away, and got into the Highlander to get some sleep.
“You asleep, Larson,” Marajo asked him from the back seat where she lay under a blanket.
“Trying to,” he said. He was laying on his right side. His head was in the passenger’s seat with a blanket under his head for a pillow.
“I don’t get it,” she said.
“What don’t you get?”
“Who fired that shot from the hill to our right?”
“I don’t know, Marajo. But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn the Hidden Society may not be as Hidden as the members and soldiers think.”
“Think Julian may have contacted someone else? Someone he convinced to help us?”
“I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“If what I read on that first drive Julian gave me about the Society is true, rogue soldiers and members have never been a problem for them.”
“Then how do you account for Julian?”
“He was a leader, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Considering what he got you to do, and what he gave me on those drives, I figure he just got sick of a secret society of murderous, greedy people. He said he was afraid of what its future plans were. He said that on the second drive. And decided it was time to expose the Society and end its existence. As for that shot from the right, I don’t know what to think. But I wouldn’t advise letting down our guard.”
“Think we were lucky?”
“Hell yes,” he said before a deep yawn. “Exactly what did Julian tell you to get you to give up your family and friends and go into hiding?”
“Like I told you, he told me about those murders of important political and financial leaders who stood in the Society’s way. Murders that occurred a year after he told me about them. And the murders occurred exactly the way he said they would occur.”
“In other words he scared the hell out of you.”
“Yes. And you, too.”
“Not really. Until you talked to me in that cabin I had made up my mind it was all just a lot of nonsense.”
“Do you believe now?”
“After that shooting back there? Hell yes.”
“What else do you think?”
“That ambush was arranged by whoever’s in Nevada waiting for us. They know by now it failed. And that means we got to be real careful, or we’ll fail.”
“Yes.” she agreed.
“Get some sleep. We’re going to need it. We’re in Nevada you know.”
“I know,” she said.
***
Chapter 41
January 10, 9 a.m.
“Something’s wrong,” Karl grumbled as he looked into his morning mug of coffee.
“Why you say that?” Willow asked him. He was smoking an expensive Havana cigar and enjoying his morning mug of coffee. Expensive cigars were one of the many luxuries he allowed himself on his soldier’s salary. He expected to learn to enjoy more luxuries once this job was finished and he got his bonus. He had been thinking how much of it he should invest.
“Dodge and Betty haven’t contacted me in nearly two days.”
“Yeah, that is rather odd especially for Dodge. From what I’ve heard about him he’s a by the book guy.”
“Where did you hear that?” Karl asked, giving a suspicious look.
“Soldiers gossip,” he answered. He lowered his head and sniffed himself. “A hot shower would do me real good, Karl.”
“Get use to your stink, Willow,” Karl snapped angrily at him. “We’re not going anywhere until our job’s done.”
“Just wishing, Karl, that’s all.”
“Think this woman Done and her accomplice took out Dodge and Betty?”
“Aw, hell no, Karl. Forget that.”
“Why you say that?”
“You know what we found on her, Karl. She’s no more than a highly paid clerk in hiding.”
“But maybe this person with her is a trained operative. Maybe even a Seal or Special Forces guy. Or somebody like that from another country. Julian would have been smart enough to cho
ose someone like that to help this Done woman.”
“The Society keeps accurate records on such people, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do,” Karl said.
“Can we check on them?”
Karl finished his coffee and sat the mug down on the ground as he stood up. “Keep an eye on that infrared heat detector,” he said as he headed for the way off the hill. “I’m gonna have the computer in the Rover access our files on all special trained military personal. If one is missing, he’ll pop up with a picture and ID.”
“Yeah, right,” Willow said as he moved to the heat detector’s monitor.
Karl knew he couldn’t get such information without approval from Derrick.
The Society had such information, but the only time they told a soldier about trained operatives is if one of them was a target or a bodyguard for a target. The Society believed in giving its soldiers only the information they needed to accomplish they jobs.
Once he got in the Land Rover he could use its computer to contact Derrick. So he called Derrick.
“What now?” Derrick asked in an annoyed voice over his com-cell. He knew the caller was Karl. He had been watching an interesting program on cable and didn’t like being interrupted.
“I need to access the Society’s files on special trained military people such as Seals or Special Forces,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m beginning to suspect whoever this Done woman’s with he or she could be a trained killer,” he told Derrick.
He could be right. Julian would have been smart enough to give that drive to such a person. He thought.
“Okay, I’ll send you the code to access such material,” Derrick said. He wasn’t concerned with giving Karl the information, or what Karl would do with it when he got it. He just wanted to make sure Karl had what he needed to his job. How soldiers operated when on an assignment didn’t interest him as long as they did their jobs. Derrick punched the code into his com-cell using its keypad and transmitted it to Karl.
“I also want Willow John’s, Dodge Harris’ and Betty Turner’s implant codes because they’re the soldiers I chose to work with. I’ve got their ID numbers I’ll send them to you,” he said. “I need to know where they are in order to do this job the right way.”
“Which one of them is with you?” Derrick asked.
“Willow, but sometimes he goes on recon missions looking for evidence that Done and her accomplice might be close,” he lied. “And I haven’t heard from Dodge and Betty in nearly two days.”
Derrick thought for a few seconds. He would need those codes to keep an eye on his people, and they’re just soldiers’ codes.
“Alright, I’ll send them to you as well. Give me their ID numbers,” he said.
Within five minutes Karl had everything he needed.
*
9:30 a.m.
Dorothy was sitting behind the steering wheel of her camper when her com-cell vibrated. She took it out of her pocket, opened it up, and smiled when she saw what Karl was asking Derrick for. She knew he was checking on the soldiers working with him, but why she didn’t know.
I must be careful with this fellow, she thought. He’s a bit more intelligent than I’ve thought.
She watched carefully on her com-cell’s screen as Derrick gave him the codes he asked for, and then watched Karl checking the Society’s records on all known special trained military field personal of every country in the world, as well as the Society’s list of all special trained non-military field personal. That would include people working for the various intelligence agencies in the world. She admired the fact that he limited his search to such people in America. She knew as Karl knew the only specially trained military field personal in America would be American, or those from foreign countries listed as visitors and carefully watched by the CIA and the FBI as well as the American military units they were working with.
There wasn’t an intelligence agency in the world the Society’s computers couldn’t access without the intelligence agency knowing about it. She knew Karl’s search would be a quick one.
It was Karl’s actions that interested her because they told her one thing. Karl’s other two soldiers were dead, or disable and incapable of joining him. She closed her com-cell and relaxed. As she thought, time for me to make a move is coming close, but I must be careful.
*
10 a.m.
Karl was sitting in the Land Rover wondering what could have happened to Betty and Dodge over the last two days to stop them from contacting him when his com-cell vibrated. He took it out of his pocket and looked at who was making the incoming call.
Derrick.
He answered it. “Yes, Leader?”
“I’m bored!” Derrick yelled at him.
“I can do nothing about that, Leader.” What did he expect out here in the wilderness? Half naked dancing girls from some Las Vegas show?
“When will this bitch Marlene Done and her accomplice arrive?” he demanded. His voice was filled with anger.
“I don’t know, Leader. All we can do is wait.”
“When I gave you the information you requested a few days ago, I was under the impression this entire matter would be solved in a few hours. A day at the most. I’ve been living in this metal shit box called a camper in this God forsaken wilderness for two days.”
“As I told you, Leader, we could search for them for months and not find them, or set a trap for them to walk into. They have no choice but to come to these hills. Julian would have known the importance of downloading the Society’s files on the Internet. Does the Society have months to spend searching for them that could end in failure? Can the Society afford to let them get into its information center in these mountains?”
Derrick hung up.
*
10 a.m.
Dorothy had heard everything. Derrick had become to use to living the good life to understand the importance of waiting for a target to show up. His impatience could result in him making a mistake that could lead to failure. But she doubted if he would allow his impatience to get the better of him. His murder of the Council of Twenty and the two other leaders had put him in a position where he could either waited for Marlene Done and her accomplice to show up, or kill himself to avoid what the members of the Society would do to him when they learned what he’d done. Only by stopping Done and her accomplice could he assume the power over the other members and soldiers he wanted. The damn fool should have waited until he stopped Marlene Done and her accomplice before he killed the Council of Twenty and the other leaders.
I must carefully watch what Karl does if I hope the plan to succeed, she thought as she closed her com-cell and returned it to her pocket.
***
Chapter 42
January 11, 9:30 a.m.
“How far do you think we are from the Society’s depository of information?”
Marajo asked Larson noticing his expression.
They had woke up an hour ago and gotten themselves something to eat, and taken their time eating.
“Less than two hundred miles,” he answered. He had a worried expression on his face. He finished his coffee, gathered up their paper plates and mugs, and walked to a mound of snow.
Marajo was a little disturbed by the expression on Larson’s face.
“What’s on your mind, Larson?” she asked, walking over to him.
“I think it’s time I let you know what’s on my com-cell,” he said as he dug a hole in the mound of snow and put the paper plates in the hole and buried them. He patted the snow down to make it look as if it had not been disturbed
.
“It’s not necessary,” she said.
“Yes it is,” he said, washing the mugs with the snow.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?”
He stood up and looked in her face. His expression was one of worry and fear.
“You don’t trust me,” Marajo said.
“At first I thought all of this stuff about a Hidden Society was just a lot of crap made up by a paranoid old fool. Even after I learned that Paul Duffy really existed, I just assumed his existence and that company he worked in Nevada was just a coincident. I’ve even secretly hoped that it would all be exposed as a lot of shit even after I joined you.”
“But something changed your mind.”
“I realized in that dirty cabin you had me tied up in there just might be a grain of truth to what was on the first drive Julian Franks gave me.”
“But that ambush on Route 29 convinced you it was all true.”
He nodded and started for the Highlander carrying the snow cleaned mugs.“We’re going up against an organization that’s been around for over a thousand years, Marajo.”
“So?” she said.
“So how many others over the last one thousand and some odd years have tried to do what we’re trying to do and failed?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
He slowed down. “Don’t get me wrong, Marajo, I’m not thinking about giving up.”
She followed him saying, “That’s good because we can’t just turn around and run away, Larson. They’d find us eventually. And if they didn’t find us, they’d find out who you really are and go for your family. And they would make sure you knew they had your family.”