by Tony Lavely
That day and the second had gone by without incident, and Mike’s riding had steadily improved; he could keep up with the girls unless they wanted to outrun him. The third day they had packed bedrolls and gear for an over-night foray to a region remote enough that its examination would require more than a day. It took riding all day to reach the edge of the area Jamse had pointed out on the map.
Beckie picked out a little hollow with some scrub mesquite; they dismounted. They moved around, picking a place both out of the way and not likely to be flooded should a gully-washer suddenly occur upstream. After a quick trip to the top of the hill confirmed that the sniffers were silent, Beckie advised Kevin of their intent to make camp.
Because the area was so dry, and the light would expose them, they were to make no fires. Mike had unpacked the food and bedrolls by the time the girls had returned from the hilltop. All of them worked at completing the camp; it was done in minutes. The sky was clear and the weather promised the same to continue; they left the little tentish things Sue had had them pack on the back of Mike’s saddle. With the bedrolls set, Mike worked on people food while Beckie and Melissa made sure the horses were comfortable, and hobbled so they’d be there in the morning.
Dark had fallen by the time they walked back to the rocks Mike had selected as a dinner table. They dropped to sit in front of him, looking askance at the little packets laid out on the rock next to the steel cups from their three liter canteens.
“Oh, com’on,” he said with a grin. “Astronauts eat this stuff and live. Without a stove, this is as good as it gets. Already ate one; no ill effects. So far.”
Beckie finally laughed, and Melissa slid around to hug Mike before scooting to leave a little distance between them. Beckie picked up one of the aluminum tubes. Not real keen on trying this. But once she’d ripped it open and squeezed out a smidge to taste… Well, I guess it’s not all that bad. Not gonna choose it, though.
“I think you could have more, even if we need to stay out past tomorrow.” Melissa must have agreed with her thought; though they’d both finished, neither girl chose to take Mike up on his offer. While he cleaned up the trash, the girls went off a ways to accomplish necessary functions.
The clear sky with the moon not yet risen allowed the stars to shine like none of them had ever seen. But starlight was only good for looking at, not so much for seeing by as Beckie and Melissa found while attempting a climb to the hilltop to try the sniffers again. As before, the only signal came from the direction of the ISP’s site. Melissa tripped on the way back but managed to keep from landing too heavily. Her hands and knees were skinned, nothing worse.
“Why didn’ you take the flashlight?” Mike admonished them. After making sure she had no serious injuries, he took the opportunity to assist her back to camp, to Beckie’s great amusement.
She could tell that Melissa was enjoying the attention. Yeah, that’s about as much as she can do. Parents way too close. And on horseback, holding hands isn’t much fun. Beckie watched Melissa let Mike hold her close, his arm around her waist, then laughed out loud and used the light to make sure no one made another misstep.
Beckie decided the way Mike had laid out the bedrolls, herself in the center, would be fine. The temperature had been dropping along with the light level; they rolled into the sleeping bags and were asleep so quickly no one rolled over even once.
Beckie woke to find the sun in her face. She squinted to see Mike a few feet away, folding a blanket. But she gathered her resolve, rolled over and shook Melissa awake.
“Hey, girl. How you feelin’ today? Okay after that fall?” Her concern was not quite hidden by the teasing.
“Yeah, I think so.” She stretched in the sleeping bag. “But I’m a little sore from all the riding. You too?”
“Some. Guess we shoulda kept in practice.” Beckie laughed. “‘Cept for finals, you know.”
“And who’da thought Mr. Jamse would remember that we were riders anyway, and put us out here ‘cause of it?”
They crawled out of the bags and rolled them up. Next stop was the dining rock where Mike had laid out the morning’s tubes, wrapped in a dark blanket hoping to have the sun warm them.
After tired hellos, Beckie squeezed down her gourmet tube and, waving to Mike and Melissa to stay put, climbed back to the hilltop for the morning’s sniffer check. Nothing of interest.
“Kevin, you awake yet?” she said into the radio’s mouthpiece.
“Been up for hours,” came his response, “waitin’ for you sleepyheads.” His yawn belied the claim.
“Okay. We’re finishing up that wonderful stuff you picked up at the Army-Navy. A couple minutes and we’ll pack and head out.”
“Good. Head north to…” and he recited the waypoint they’d selected a day ago. Beckie checked the GPS and agreed, then walked back down to find that camp had been broken, their horses packed, and the area policed. Mike was taking one last look at Melissa’s hand, ostensibly to make sure the scrapes were nothing for concern.
Beckie checked that her saddle was cinched properly; she was ready. Mounted, she started off to the north as agreed. Morning and some of the afternoon passed uneventfully.
Mike and Melissa rode close together except when she teased him by galloping her horse along a dry creek bed, or the times, every half-hour, when they split up, riding away from each other to the end of eyeshot and checking that the sniffers were silent. Near midday, the sun was hot enough that Beckie led them to a small stand of cottonwood trees—“Must be water close by,” Mike said—and they dismounted and unloaded the horses until the sun had moved along. The horses grunted at being resaddled and mounted again.
After another boring hour; they were riding through what appeared to be pasture, for all that the ground cover was sparse. Cattle, perhaps, but nothing else. They had nearly passed the windmill when Melissa pointed.
“That’s funny. What is it?”
“Well, look,” Mike said. “Big water tank, and that’s a salt lick—”
“I know that, Michael…”
Beckie made herself busy. Love her tone! Gotta keep from laughing!
“I know what a salt lick is,” Melissa had continued. “And the windmill. But what’s that up near the sails?”
Mike looked, as did Beckie. She rode around to the south, while he took the other side. She saw a discolored flat square panel, about a foot on each side, mounted where it wouldn’t interfere with the sails. It looked back toward the ISP’s main site. Above the head of the windmill, a piece of rusty pipe extended about a foot into the sky. She didn’t see anything else.
“You mean that square thing, off to the side?” Mike called back.
“Yeah. What is that? Doesn’t look like part of the windmill.”
Beckie rode back to Melissa and noted the location in her GPS.
Melissa squealed. Beckie didn’t look up. “What is it, Lissa? You looking for Mike to give you a hand again?”
But Melissa finally got her attention by waving the sniffer in her face. “It, it… It went off. I’m sure it did. But it’s quiet now. But it did go all the way over, full scale, like when we were near the base station.”
Mike reined his horse in next to Melissa. “Well, you see that pipe up at the top? It’s the same size as the antenna back at the main site.”
“But isn’t it part of the… the tower?” Beckie asked.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “The frame is all angle iron, not pipe, except right up there.” He squinted into the sky, looking up the 40 or so feet to the top of the tower. “I can’t tell anything else, though.”
“Could you get closer?” Melissa asked.
“I don’t think so,” Beckie said. “Mr. Jamse said we shouldn’t go over any fences, and this one looks solid all the way round. Anyway, the horses have had enough water; let’s get back out of here, keep on going like we planned.” They heard her side of the conversation she had with Kevin. Then: “Okay. If it is a repeater, Sue will get the topo m
aps and try to give us a likely direction. But that’ll be later. Kevin thinks we should keep going like nothing happened, finish up by dark and camp out again. There’s an old road up ahead and if we need anything Jean-Luc or Derek can bring supplies.”
After a quick conference and check of packs they found nothing that couldn’t wait, “…’cept a shower.”
Kevin flagged her by radio a couple hours later, shortly before sunset. She arranged to meet Derek on the road they’d noticed earlier. As they approached, they could tell it had been paved, but not recently. They rode the horses in the sand alongside the road till the GPS indicated they had arrived. Beckie could see faded tire tracks in the sand leading a few yards off the road to a concrete pad which once might have held a picnic table.
Throwing legs over saddles, they dropped to the ground and let the horses be. Kevin rode up in less than ten minutes; Derek was a few more, but he had another set of canteens and was willing to carry out the trash in Mike’s saddlebag.
“Sue’s looked at the maps,” Derek started, “and Jean-Luc and I did some more exploration.
“Sum up is that you should continue down toward the south. All the places within the range of the aerial you saw except to the south are very ‘eavily wooded, and it’d take an army to go through them. To be ‘onest, though, I looked at the photos and right enough, there’s nothing to the south, either.”
“Not particularly encouraging news, Derek,” Kevin rejoined. “But we’ll make the best of it.” He spread out the map and after confirming with Derek the areas Sue meant, sent him off and, with Beckie, started entering waypoints in their GPS units.
Once she’d loaded the GPS, Beckie grabbed her saddle and prepared to move out.
Where’s Lissa? And Mike? She cast a glance around, finding them out of the way, and hugging at the least. With a mischievous grin, she hollered, “Okay, lovers. Time enough for that later.” Kevin’s chuckle was audible as he rode by them. “Mount up and we’re off.”
Since their embrace had loosened, Beckie led their horses to them, smiling as Mike clung to Melissa another minute. Her smile became a smirk. Guess he needs to relax a little.
Finally the couple were mounted and following close enough that she could explain the plan as they rode. “We should get a little farther along before dusk, but be on the lookout for a place to make camp.”
Another couple of miles, and Mike pointed to clouds building to the west. “Might be good to find a place sooner; that looks like rain.”
Beckie noticed the angled gray lines connecting the clouds to the ground. Yup—
“A plan,” said Melissa, and pointed to the tree line. “It’s a little higher, no flash floods—” A stroke of lightning lit the quickly darkening sky. “And maybe the lightning won’t knock the trees down.”
They made haste into the trees, twenty or thirty yards deep. Dismounted, they unloaded the horses and used one of the ground covers to shield the gear. In a minute, the horses had been rubbed down and hobbled. A convenient tree limb provided support for their second ground cover, which they tied off between themselves and the wind.
The first lightning strike flew by as they finally crowded together behind the tarp. In the surprisingly heavy rain, Beckie huddled against Mike’s left side; Melissa against his right. “You’re in a pretty enviable position,” she said with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” he retorted, “‘cept for the water running down my neck.”
The tarp did cut down the wind-blown rain, but enough fell from the tree branches above to soak them.
Mike scrubbed his wet hair. “Here’s your shower, Lissa. But we didn’t pack any soap.”
“Too bad,” both girls said in unison.
“You won’t be able to do her back,” Beckie said with a grin.
Once the rain had passed, Beckie pulled her shirt away from her body. “I guess we’re stuck in these. I didn’t pack extra clothes.” Melissa’s groans confirmed she’d not, either.
“Well,” Mike said, “we’ll dry out soon enough. You guys check the horses, and I’ll get some of the food tubes ready.” He stood and shook droplets from a close by branch. “I guess with this rain, a fire’d be ok.”
Even though Kevin had told Beckie he would be coming to share their ‘space food,’ the approach of hoof beats worried not only her but the others, too. But once he’d hailed them, they answered; he dismounted near their horses.
“A nice job,” he complemented them on the camp. “But next time, in a lightning storm, keep away from the trees.”
“Yeah, but even so, everything’s too wet to get a fire started,” Mike complained as he pointed to a pile of burnt matches.
“Just as well,” deVeel replied. “While it’s likely no one’s out and about except us…”
Melissa offered deVeel a selection of the shiny food tubes. He grinned as he took one. “Don’t forget, these could be desiccated.”
Beckie laughed at the idea that the food tube she’d eaten could even have a downside. While Kevin squeezed out his fill of dinner, she used the GPS to review their progress against their planned waypoints. Given that a chill damp breeze was blowing after the storm, their small talk didn’t last long at all.
Melissa suggested they make double bags to sleep in. “For warmth,” she insisted sternly, then proceeded to zip her bag together with Mike’s, leaving Beckie or Kevin to do the same with theirs. Or not.
With a wry look at Beckie, Kevin started to roll his bag out, clearly separate from hers.
“No, I’m sure it will be okay. And it will be warmer,” she admitted. “We’ll all be close enough that whatever happens, we’ll all know, I’m sure.”
“Nothing’s going to happen, except we’ll be warmer,” Melissa reiterated, but the sternness had faded.
Nonetheless, Beckie pushed Melissa ahead of her, off to do their necessaries. “Why’d you do that?”
“’Cause I really want to snuggle and hold him. That’s all. Can’t do anything anyway; I forgot my pills.”
“Oh,” somewhat mollified. Then it was Beckie’s turn to be stern. “Not havin’ pills won’t necessarily stop you, you know.”
“It will me. I’m ready to do it, but not to have a baby.” She looked at Beckie, straightening her clothes. “And you like Kevin, too, I can tell. Don’t you?” though Beckie didn’t hear it as a question.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t planning to sleep with him. And prob’ly he’s got something goin’ with Sue, you know.”
“Well, then, keep your jeans zipped. He’s not likely to do anything you don’t ask for.”
“You keep your jeans zipped, girl!”
They headed back to join the men without more conversation. They separated according to Lissa’s plan; the sleeping bags were not far apart.
In the bag, being careful not to touch Kevin, Beckie didn’t hear anything suspicious from the other pair. Wondering if that itself wasn’t suspicious, she rolled over forgetting Kevin was there; she landed on his shoulder.
“Oops!”
He put his hand on her head, quelling her immediate retreat.
“Hi.” His voice was soft, quiet. “Might be we should share some thoughts and, well, maybe backstory is the right word.”
“Huh? I don’t understand.” Way too sharp, Beck. Let’s—
“The part that came before. In this case, even before we met on your way to Hawaii.” He paused to tousle her hair, though it was still damp. It was warmer in the bag; she could feel it. She nodded; as she did, he continued, “About, oh, five…” She could almost hear him counting. “No, must be six or seven years ago, now. Ian and I were in Tel Aviv. Business, you know. It’s usually nice weather there and most people are wonderful.” His tone became noticeably darker. “However, the politics are almost never as good or as nice.
“Ian was completing his negotiations. I was sitting at an outside bar with a cafe au lait waiting for him. Lazily watching a girl, no, young woman—close to your age, you know?” His voice had become soft,
luxurious. “She was obviously enjoying a walk along the sidewalk with an older couple I took to be her parents, and a young man. I couldn’t tell then if he was related, or a friend, or what.
“I guess…” These words were so soft Beckie wouldn’t have heard him if his mouth wasn’t brushing her ear. “… he had a lot of hate in him. Maybe a little less for her, his sister as I discovered shortly. He wanted to be a suicide bomber; he stepped back so their parents were between him and his sister, and pulled the trigger.”
Beckie’s involuntary gasp led Kevin to stroke her cheek with his hand.
“Well, quite a mess, as you are aware.”
“Understatement?” Beckie replied tightly.
“True, true. Anyway, the blast killed him, his parents and six other innocent people who’d been shopping or crossing the street. The blast blew her into me; we both tumbled through a shop window.” He paused. “The family was Kashmiri; there were considerable questions of her. I let Ian go on while I stayed with her as she recovered from the shock and the authorities.
“Finally, we left and on the way back, I arranged for a stay at the Nest, in our clinic, to make sure she was making progress. I got to see her often due to my ability to be rendered hors de combat all too frequently. Ian was beginning to think I was being careless just so I could get back to visit her.
“Well, I didn’t think so—still don’t—but on the off chance, I asked her if she’d like to stick around, stay in my place when she got out of the clinic. And with one thing and another, we’re married with two wonderful kids, twins, a couple years old.” Kevin’s obvious pride impressed her, but she didn’t interrupt.
“So Shalin lives at my place in the Bahamas— Oh,” as her head came up to bump his, “you don’t know about the Nest either, I guess. We all have property on a group of private islands between Mayaguana and Great Inagua in the Bahamas, and when we’re not working or looking for work, that’s where we go to relax. Shalin is waiting there for me to hurry back once we finish up here.”