by Richard Wren
CHAPTER 1.
Josh glanced around the familiar room while he waited for the Superintendent. He noted the large picture of the Super posed with the President of the United States and, grinning to himself, decided that there was probably a similar presidential picture in each and every park superintendent office in the United States. The Superintendent delighted in pointing out that he was considerably taller than President Obama as he proudly showed off the picture to visitors. And why not, there weren’t that many superintendents of federal parks in the country, and certainly Yosemite ranked right up there with the best and most famous. Josh had no complaints about his boss. He deeply admired Superintendent Browning. Josh’s wife Fern thought the super was handsome in a retired football player kind of way. She thought of him as a large cuddly Teddy Bear, but she had never seen him mad. Josh knew better. He had seen him light into other rangers with a vengeance.
All the Super had told him was that Yellowstone HQ was interested in borrowing him for a special assignment and that he was to report to the Super’s office immediately.
A special assignment. That would have to relate to one of his special talents. Some of which he had been born with such as a superb physique and an ultra-high IQ. The rest he had acquired by himself. Now at age twenty-seven he was a retired world champion in any number of Chinese and Japanese martial arts. Since retiring from that stage to become a Yosemite Park Ranger he had spent more than a year learning Indian tracking and fighting lore to the point that the Indians eventually accepted him at least as an equal, some said their better. Joshua had only one real weakness, his abhorrence of publicity.
He was just back from a dangerous assignment that had started in Yosemite but ended in San Francisco. The superintendent had described his adventure as starting in the backwoods of Yosemite and ending in the back alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Both Josh and his wife Fern had almost been killed in that assignment. Now Josh was looking forward to spending quiet time with his wife and new baby. Fern was expecting him to stay home.
At the same time, he couldn’t deny that the challenge of using his unique talents intrigued him. He decided it wouldn’t do any harm to play along for a while, particularly since the superintendent thought it was so important. It was out of character for him to allow one of his officers to be borrowed.
The door opened behind him and the Super strode in carrying a sheaf of papers. Josh studied his boss’s face in the morning light and for the noticed how his eyes weren’t quite meeting Josh’s. His normally smiling face was unnaturally stiff and serious.
“All right, I’ll bite. What’s the problem in Yellowstone?”
The superintendent replied tersely. “The problem’s a wild man.”
“Sounds like a normal police problem to me.”
“Not this one. The man’s been living in a wilderness section of the park for a few years, but now he’s become a terrible problem.”
“How so?”
“Well it’s quite complicated. It seems that the man’s a real backwoods survivalist kind of person. Nobody really knows who he is even though the rangers have occasionally cut across his trail and knew he was there. He was just a man that had reverted to nature and was living like a wild animal but bothering nobody, until recently.”
“What changed?”
“What I’m told is that the man might be a special forces veteran based on the ability he’s shown to survive in the wilderness. They’ve known about him but considered him harmless. The man had very little contact with anyone except once in a while he would break into someone’s cabin and steal some clothes or food. Even then he’d leave a freshly killed rabbit or some freshly chopped wood or something as if he was paying or bartering. The only complaints were from people who thought their privacy had been violated, nothing really serious.”
Josh still couldn’t see why they needed him. “But something changed?”
“You could say that. In the last two months the man’s gone berserk. First he ransacked a cabin and then deliberately set fire to the place. He didn’t try to conceal that he’d set fire to it, just built a big bonfire inside the house and let it go. They theorize that he got mad because there wasn’t any food or clothing in the cabin.
After that it escalated. A few days ago he tried to get some food from a family of campers and ended up killing the couple and mutilating their bodies when they wouldn’t cooperate. We got the story from their son who witnessed the whole thing.”
“Good God, is he okay?”
“That’s hard to say. He’s a tough kid but that’s a hell of a lot for an eleven-year-old to go through.”
“Jesus.” Josh was silent for a moment as he visualized the boy’s torment. “So I gather they haven’t been able to find the murderer?”
“That’s it. Yellowstone’s wilderness area is three times the size of Rhode Island and they have no idea where the man holes up. The rangers spent the last few days sitting on the story and trying to track and find him with no luck at all. He’s just too good for them. One of our rangers has a broken leg because the man set out an old bear trap, then led them into it. Another one of their boys has a concussion from a fall into a pit the man had dug. He’s playing with them. That’s where you come in. When Yellowstone read what the local Indians said about your tracking abilities they thought maybe you could track him before he murders anyone else.”
“But why me? There must be a lot of Indian trackers in the Yellowstone area.”
“All of the Indians that have the ability to track are too old for the job and unfortunately their skills are not being taught to the younger generation. They think the only chance they have of catching him is to have someone at least as savvy as he is in the wilderness area.”
The superintendent stood up, paced back and forth and ended up standing in front of Josh. He loomed over Josh by several inches.
At six feet one, Josh wasn’t overly tall or impressive. He had a thick head of brown hair and blue/grey piercing eyes with heavy dark eyebrows. His complexion was dark although a lot of that could be tan as he spent so much time outside. His face was thin, almost hawkish with an upturned mouth that gave his face a happy look. Piece by piece he looked average but put them all together and there was something commanding about his presence.
“Josh I don’t want you to take this request. I think it’s too dangerous. This fella’s proven he’s a killer. I told them so and that I couldn’t spare you. They said you were their only hope. I don’t believe that. I think they’re just scared that the story will drive the tourists away. Besides I don’t believe all that crap about you being a one-man army.”
“You’re probably right. Did you say he’s been living in the forest for several years and they can’t catch him?” In spite of himself, Josh was intrigued, but there was his and his family’s life to consider.
“They just began to try to catch him in earnest in the last few weeks but he’s eluded them for years.”
The superintendent sat back in his chair, crossed his arms and waited as Joshua mused. It was the supe’s way of saying, “the ball’s in your court.” He knew Joshua was unique. He remembered that Josh had disobeyed his direct orders numerous times when he had judged the situation too dangerous for Joshua to attempt but Joshua had proved him wrong. As a result, he had a growing respect for Josh’s intelligence and abilities. Also he was the only person in the valley who knew of Josh’s legendary background.
Josh sat silent for a full minute. Mostly he was concerned for his wife and new baby. Leaving them for even a week would take some explaining. He knew Fern could handle most anything. Before they had met and married she had lived alone in the Alaska wilderness through two winters.
Finally, he spoke, “If I even considered it I’d want to do it on my own terms.”
Unspoken between them was the understanding that the statement was Josh’s way of saying he would do it.