by Bryan Koepke
“Great progress, how so? I’d imagine you lost at least a day or two of schedule moving everything down here.”
“We’re moving right along now. I’ve got the marching army in place working back to back shifts. We are on track for the 25th,” Nevius said.
“Good, it has to be Tuesday, June 25th. How about the problem with the rotary launcher system? The other man, he told me there was a problem meeting the specification on the hydraulics.”
“That’s all taken care of. We’ve moved on to the GPS overlay,” Nevius said.
That sounded intriguing. “The overlay. Tell me about that.”
“It’s a software map, so to speak. It’s how the pilot navigates the drone to its intended target. Kind of like those programs on your computer. It takes us street by street, utilizing GPS,” Nevius said.
“Okay, that sounds important. When will you have the bugs worked out on that system? There are only three days left.”
“We’ll be done tonight. Fueling will take place tomorrow night. We’ll start doing daily foreign object debris (FOD) sweeps of the runway. I’ve only got one question,” Nevius said.
“Yes.”
“Remind me again, what is so special about Tuesday, June 25th?” Nevius said.
“9/11 was on a Tuesday.”
Chapter 47
In his makeshift office on the top floor of his rented flat, Haisley Averton was wearing a pair of blue and white striped pajamas, a thick pair of wool socks, and his favorite slippers. The computer he’d borrowed from Karl Rhodes’ London apartment was on the floor to the left of his chair. On the top of the desk sat a large black monitor.
Earlier in the day he’d checked the log he’d earlier installed on Thomas Billington’s computer and found that someone else had logged in remotely and attempted to wipe the hard drive clean. Utilizing the computer forensic software that he’d installed on Rhodes’ personal computer, he retrieved a list of recently deleted files from Billington’s laptop.
With a few clicks of the mouse Haisley returned to the video file he’d found earlier. It looked like the videographer had used a handheld camcorder to record the footage. The screen displayed a short fence with wooden posts that contained a field. In the distance Haisley saw buildings and low green hills rising to a cloud-covered sky in the distance. Directly in front was a brown three-story building with a flat roof and large white letters across the top above three equally spaced windows. Right of the building there were several large aircraft and a large hangar beyond that with a rounded roof.
Haisley zoomed in on the video and saw that the letters on the flat-roofed building, though fuzzy from his perspective, spelled out Aviation Museum. This was the same place he’d visited a few days earlier when he’d come very close to being caught by the two guard dogs. If only I could get a view inside that hanger. Maybe I missed something the last time I looked at the JPEGs.
Next Haisley went to a folder he’d saved off of Billington’s laptop. It contained multiple .jpg files, and Haisley clicked each of the files open to see a series of photographs. These were the files he’d studied before going to the RAF hanger in the early morning hours with the intention of entering and taking pictures of the interior.
As he clicked on each new image file the view got closer to the hangar. That was when he noticed an MPEG video file in the folder. Haisley clicked on the MPEG and it opened in a small window. He grabbed one of the corners and pulled it open. It showed the interior of a building. In the front there were tall doors, like hangar doors. The roof was made up of a network of steel beams curved side to side in a half arc. The floor was dull gray and in the distance was a three-foot tall red toolbox covered with parts.
To Haisley this looked like the interior of the hanger he’d gone to earlier. He continued watching and then the video went fuzzy with diagonal lines that looked like interference running through the image. It cleared up and the view was different.
In front of him were two women sitting in what looked like comfortable brown leather chairs. The one on the left had short black hair with a V shaped sideburn. Her right hand held a joystick controller and she was facing two large monitors stacked in an equipment rack. The monitor on the top looked to be a large map with land and bodies of ocean to the east and west.
To the left was a larger monitor on a black steel arm hanging off the side of the equipment rack. This view displayed what to Haisley looked like telemetry. The left side had a section of solid green with white numbers that looked to be constantly updating. In between the two seated women was a second rack that looked like it was loaded with electronics equipment. The woman in the right-hand chair was blond with a white silk blouse and beige slacks. She was staring at a similar pair of monitors – one a map and the other looked like gray landscape.
Haisley saw what looked like a shadow. Someone was standing behind the pilots. He stared at the displays, hoping to catch a glimpse of a face, but the video was too far away to make a positive identification. That face. Is that person standing behind the women the man responsible for Billington’s murder?
Chapter 48
Reece stretched his arms against the headboard of the queen-size bed and suppressed a groan. Marie was curled up next to him with her head on his chest. He could feel the rhythm of her breathing. Burying his nose deep into her thick brown hair, he smelled the strawberry-scented shampoo. Marie rolled away from him, onto her back, and then back over. He watched as her eyes opened.
“You’re awake,” she said.
“Yeah, just meeting the day,” Reece said, blinking back at her.
“I’d like to go for a hike.”
“That could be arranged. Maybe we can find a stream and see if any brook trout are about.”
“I could use your backpack and make a picnic for us,” she said.
“That sounds nice,” Reece said, wondering if they might finally get a chance to go all the way. He’d tried to suggest that the night before, but she seemed too tired.
Marie got some fresh clothes from the dresser where his brother’s wife Gwen kept her things. As they went into the kitchen, it smelled of freshly brewing coffee and fried eggs and bacon. Reece’s stomach growled and he wondered how much was left in the refrigerator.
“Would you like a cup?” Karl said, pulling two green ceramic mugs out of the cupboard. They were from a set Reece had taken out of his mother’s kitchen down at the lake in Oklahoma before selling the house.
Karl filled the mugs with coffee. “Reece, how do you take yours?”
“Black will do fine.”
“I really like your country home. You’ve got everything a person would need, Karl said, handing off the mugs to the two of them.
“Thanks, but I’d have to give my brother’s wife credit for that. She did the decorating,” Reece said. He sat at the old table his ex-girlfriend Natalie had insisted he buy a few months earlier. He’d never liked its fake distressed wood. It was as if someone had taken a perfectly good piece of furniture and junked it up.
“Is there a store nearby?” Candice said. “It’s so disgusting wearing the same clothes two days in a row.”
“We can drive down to town,” Reece said.
“Isn’t that the ski town?” Karl said.
“Yes, there are lots of ski resorts running up and down I-70,” Reece said. He felt Marie tugging on his belt loop from behind. She let go and disappeared out one of the two doors that led to the backyard. Reece smiled at Karl, seized his coffee mug, and followed her through the doorway and out onto the deck.
“What do you say we give them the keys and let them go into town by themselves?” Marie said. “I’ve had about enough of them for one lifetime.”
“That’s a plan, but not in my car,“ Reece said sharply.
“What is it with you and that car?”
“I’ll drive them down into town and they can get a few things there. Besides, we should probably get some night crawlers if we’re going to fish.”
“You
know, if you’re ever going to fully heal from the death of your parents, you need to let go of your past. Give Karl the keys. He’ll be fine with it,” Marie said.
“You think?” Reece said.
“He’s a good driver, and with them gone we can do whatever our hearts desire,” Marie said. She ran her hand up his back and leaned into him. “Oh, you’re so warm, Mr. Culver. I wonder what it would be like to take a blanket and wander around out there in the forest until we find a spot surrounded by wildflowers. Maybe there’ll be a stream and we can go skinny dipping.”
*
Later that night Reece stabbed the metal poker into the glow of the fire pit out behind the cabin, rolling one of the logs onto the other. His nose twitched at the smell of Karl’s cigar smoke, and he moved past it and settled onto the log bench where Marie was sitting. It was pitch black outside except for the yellow and orange flames of the fire and up above a large blanket of stars above them.
“Would you care for a little more wine?” Karl said, coming toward them.
“Yes, a little more would be good,” Marie said, reaching over to take Reece’s glass from his hand.
Reece was still irritated that Karl and Candice had bagged the idea of driving into town and instead tagged along with the two of them on a jaunt that ended up as a sightseeing hike—with Reece as the guide. He so wanted to get rid of these two, but Marie wasn’t helping. She seemed to be enjoying the time spent with Karl.
The lucky husband raised a bottle of cabernet and poured blindly in the dark. Reece could see the dark liquid filling his glass backlit by the firelight. Marie got up off of the log they shared and disappeared in the darkness.
“So, Karl, how do you feel? How’s the head?” Marie said solicitously.
“Ah, I didn’t see you,” he said. “I’m as good as new. Thanks to your doctoring, skills Marie.
Reece looked through the fire and could see that Marie had gotten up and moved over next to Karl. Candice was on one side and she was on the other.
“Hey, by the way. Thanks for saving us back there at the condo,” Karl said.
“You’re welcome. It’s all in a day’s work,” Reece said. He had a notion to go over and entice Marie to come back over to sit with him, but he didn’t.
“I’m curious about those ATV’s you showed me in the garage,” Marie said.
“What about them?” Reece said.
“Is there any way we could use them to get farther up into the mountains?”
“Yeah, that’s what they’re for. So, Karl, have you ever driven an ATV?”
“What’s that?” Candice said, talking for the first time since dinner.
“An All Terrain Vehicle,” Reece said. “The U.S. military used them over in Iraq and other places. They’ve got four tires like a car, but they’ll go practically anywhere. They’re a blast to ride.”
“No, I can’t say I have. I’ve been on a few motorcycles, but never an ATV,” Karl said.
“I’ll teach you how and tomorrow we’ll go on a great ride up into the high country,” Reece said.
Chapter 49
After everyone had gone to bed, Candice inched away from Karl, who was snoring loudly. She climbed from their bed, grabbed the pair of beige Carhartt pants she’d found in the closet earlier that day, and left the bedroom. The interior of the house was lit only by the moon.
Candice walked into the kitchen and used the bright green light in the center of the stove to navigate. After ramming her leg into the back of the couch, she found the front door and carefully let herself out of the house.
She left the front porch and made her way down the path toward the garage. In the distance the high-pitched squeal of coyotes broke the silence of the early morning hour. Twisting the door handle and pushing inward, she entered the building.
Candice slipped into the passenger’s side of Reece’s car and felt in the dark for the glove box. It opened and a small white light came on inside. She could see the plastic bag Reece put the SIM cards into. Candice fished them out, and smiled at what an anal control freak Reece Culver was. He’d written letters in black marker across each of them. After opening the armrest, she spotted a battery with her initials C.C. written across the back. Candice wasted no time reassembling her phone. After pressing the on button, she smiled as the logo came on and the phone booted up.
She looked at the time—3:56—and calculated that it would be mid-day in her London office. Scrolling through her contacts, she pushed one and held the phone up to hear it was dialing.
“Candice Carlyle’s office. How may I direct your call,” a woman said.
“Jen, it’s Candice.”
“Ms. Carlyle, is that you? We’ve been worried sick. Where have you been?” the secretary said.
“I’m okay. Mr. Rhodes and I had to come to New York for the Procter meetings I told you about last week. It’s going well and should be good for business,” Candice said, running her hand through her long blond hair. It was great being back in contact.
Chapter 50
Julian followed the road west through Colorado’s high country. He’d seen the symbol for CC on the tablet come on earlier in the day, and now it was permanently displayed.
Maybe her battery was dead and she charged the phone, but what about Karl’s phone? Was it dead too?
The view was remarkable. Giant mountains rose in a vast wall of rock. In some spots big blotches of snow from the winter before still covered the landscape. Down below, a long valley ran north to south covered in lush grass. He’d definitely have to come back here again to spend more time once he’d completed his work.
Julian spotted a sign that said Breckenridge, and after a glance at the map, he knew he was getting close to his quarry. He turned off highway 9 onto a dirt road, then wound around a series of curves climbing upward. His ears felt full and then the right one popped. The left one still seemed plugged. Julian pulled to the side of the road and shifted into park. He grasped his nose between his thumb and index finger, sealing it off, and then blew out through his nose. His ear was letting go, and finally he felt a pop.
The tablet showed that he was a mile and a half from the point where he’d last spotted Candice’s phone. Julian tapped on the icon for Google Earth and used his fingers to zoom in the view. On the map he could see the green roof of the house where he’d last spotted CC. Down the road from that were several more homes all spaced apart by an equal distance.
Julian shifted into drive and drove off toward the cabins he’d just seen on the tablet. With any luck he’d find an empty house to use as a base. He looked into the rear view mirror and saw that he was kicking up a big cloud of dust. Up ahead, he spotted a wooden address number on a sign. There should be three more on the right and then the target house is on the left about a half-mile up.
He slowed and looked down the driveway of the first house. At the end of the long dirt driveway was parked a gray Jeep Wrangler. He pressed down on the gas pedal. After a few hundred yards he saw a red post just past a heavily treed area and he slowed. A few yards past the address marker he spied a narrow gravel driveway that looked empty. He parked his truck a few feet past the opening and got out.
After crossing a hundred yards he broke off into the forest, moving toward the house he’d seen. The ground was uneven in spots with mole trails that had broken the surface. The trees were thick with pines, aspens, and an occasional bristle cone. The air smelled fresh and clean, the way he liked it, and Julian decided that this cabin would be his base.
If there were inhabitants he’d kill them, burry them out back, and claim the place for his own. He’d only need it for a day or two. Just long enough to silence Karl Rhodes. Then he’d be done.
Julian walked up to the side of the two-story cedar sided house and pressed his ear to the wood. If people were home, there’d be noise of some kind. A television, voices, or the sound of a dishwasher running— at a minimum he’d hear the hot water heater kicking on. Something would tell him if the house was occ
upied. All that was necessary was time to listen.
After a while he changed his mind and instead went to the front porch. With his right hand on the shank of the nine-inch hunting knife in his belt just a little right of his spine, Julian knocked hard on the light pine door. There was no answer. He pounded again, still no answer. He peeked into the two windows at the top of the front door. There was a light green couch and two brown leather chairs. Looks empty.
*
With the rental truck parked behind the cabin he got out and went for the garage, hoping there’d be toys. Walking on foot was fine, but an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), or motorcycle would be better. The overhead garage door was locked. After walking around the right side he found a door, but it wouldn’t budge.
He stood tall and peered in through the upper left panel of glass. Inside he spotted two red ATV’s parked side by side. Julian picked up a rock and smashed out the lower right glass pane. He pulled the sleeve of his coat down and reached in past the broken glass, searching for the deadbolt lock.
Got it. With a turn of the lock the door was open. Julian found the light switch and he saw the ignition keys hanging in both of the ATV’s. After opening the overhead garage door, he wasted no time starting the larger of the two machines.
Chapter 51
Reece tore off after Karl, riding the all-terrain vehicle. Marie was seated behind him on the long black tandem seat with her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. He’d been surprised how quickly the blue blood got the hang of riding an ATV, and now they were going up a steep section of the mountain. Reece could feel Marie’s grip tighten as he accelerated upward over loose shards of rock, weaving his way through the choppy landscape. They rode single file for a few miles up and down steep hills. At one point he splashed water to the sides of the machine as they traversed a section of knee-deep water.
Reece slowed, sensing he’d lost Karl, and pulled over to the side of the dirt trail and listened. In the distance he could hear what sounded like two ATV’s.