by Dirk Patton
“Unh-uh,” she said, shaking her head. “You kill it, you clean it! And better do it in the stream so the blood doesn’t draw in a bear.”
I nodded that she was right, but first things first. We needed to check the cabin. Tossing the dead rabbit on top of the defunct steps, I reached up and pushed on the door. It didn’t give at first, seemingly stuck, then suddenly popped open.
It was completely dark inside, the light not penetrating even to the back wall. I shifted from side to side, trying to see in, but couldn’t make out any details. Remembering what my dad had done when we first found the cabin, I pushed my head forward and sniffed the air. The musty smell of decaying wood and that was it. No rotting bodies or the spoor of a wild animal that might have taken up residence.
“Your phone,” Tanya said. “Use the flash to see inside.”
Kicking myself for not having thought of it, I took it out of my pocket and powered it on. As soon as it booted up, I turned on the camera flash, holding it through the door. It only took a few seconds to swing the light around the small, single room of the cabin and confirm it was empty.
“We’re good,” I said, shutting the camera off, then pausing before powering the phone down.
“What?” Tanya asked when I kept looking at the screen.
“Odd,” I said. “I had a signal. Three bars, just for a few seconds.”
“Call your mom!” she said excitedly.
“Had,” I said. “Gone, now.”
I held it out for her to see. Deciding it wasn’t a good idea to call Mom, even if the signal did come back, I powered the phone down and tucked it away.
“I’ll clean dinner if you’ll gather some wood and start a fire.”
“Got a lighter or matches?” Tanya asked.
“Nope. Gotta go old school,” I said. “Unless you wanna clean the rabbit and I’ll start the fire.”
Tanya snorted at me.
“Nice try. I’ll have a fire going before you’re half done!”
“Bet you a kiss,” I said, only half joking.
“You’re pathetic,” she said, but it didn’t sound like she was serious.
Chapter 23
Sam Glass stood on a short fire service road, looking at the abandoned FBI Suburban. With the right vehicle, the kids could have driven farther, but the Chevy wasn’t outfitted for serious off-roading.
Other than a man called Tiny, his tech expert, the rest of the team had spread into the surrounding woods, searching for signs of the pair of kids.
“Disable its transponder,” Sam ordered.
Tiny climbed inside and pulled panels open, quickly locating the correct wiring and killing power. Next, he located the device itself, popping it open with his knife and removing the internal battery. Sam knew that the FBI Assistant Director had already had the unit shut off remotely, but he hadn’t lived as long as he had by not covering all the bases.
“Got a trail, boss,” one of the team reported over the radio.
Sam reached up and adjusted his earpiece before answering.
“Where?”
“They followed the road for half a klick, then moved into the forest. Headin’ north.”
“How long ago?” Sam asked.
“Judgin’ by the edges of the tracks, I’d guess twelve hours, give or take.”
“What’s north?” Sam asked Tiny.
The man pulled a ruggedized tablet out of his pack and tapped the screen a few times, bringing up a terrain map of the area.
“Mountains,” he said, slowly tracing a path with his finger. “Pretty damn rugged, too. Bad as the Hindu Kush.”
“See anything they’d be trying to reach?”
Tiny continued to peer at the screen, occasionally zooming for a better look.
“Nothin’,” he finally said. “Just lots of smaller shit leadin’ up to Grand Teton peak. Lookin’ at the terrain, there’s maybe five ways they could be goin’ that aren’t straight up.”
“Local ranch kids probably know the terrain, right?” Sam asked.
“I’d expect so, yeah.”
“So, if there’s nothing specific they’re trying to reach, why the hell they climbing into the goddamn mountains?”
“Gotta be something. Locals would probably know. We could grab one up and see what they gotta say.”
Sam considered that option for a moment before shaking his head.
“Plenty of locals never go into the woods,” he said. “We could ask a hundred before we find the right one. What about their phones?”
“I called our contact. They’ve been off since before they dumped the Suburban.”
“Think there’s any point in trying a ping?”
“Doubt it,” Tiny said, shrugging. “If their phones were off, why the hell would they turn ‘em on now? They gotta know there’s no service up there.”
“Give it a try,” Sam said. “Just in case. Night’s comin’ and there’s snow to the north. Might dip down here by midnight. Gonna be a bitch if it does.”
Tiny shrugged and began pulling gear out of his pack. First came an electronic interface that connected to the tablet. From the other end, a cable ran to a connector on the side of a large spool of thin wire with a manual crank on the side. Next came a high-impact case that he set down on the hood of the Suburban.
“How much wire you got?” Sam asked as Tiny worked.
“Five thousand feet, but probably gonna pick up wind as it goes up. Push it all over the place if it’s strong enough.”
Sam nodded, then fell quiet as he watched the man work. From the case came a small drone, shaped like a plus sign with a propeller at the end of each arm. He attached the loose end of the thin wire to a terminal on its belly, then handed the spool to Sam. Picking up the tablet, he moved a few yards away from the drone and tapped a button that started the propellers spinning.
“Ready?” he asked, looking at Sam and receiving a nod.
Controlling the drone with an app on the tablet, he sent it straight up. Sam held the spool in front of him, making sure it unwound smoothly as the small flying machine gained altitude. It didn’t take long for Tiny to look up from the tablet.
“We’re at four thousand feet. Can’t go any higher with the winds and maintain control.”
Sam nodded.
“Do it.”
With the drone in autonomous hover mode, he exited the controller app and launched another that emulated a cell phone tower. A map was drawn on his screen with a blue dot in the center, representing their current location. When he issued a command, the device transmitted a series of pings, mimicking all four mobile phone systems in use within the United States.
The ping, being broadcast from four thousand feet above their heads, would request every handset that received it to respond with its current location. Within less than a minute, the map was covered with red dots in the valley where Idaho Falls was located. More dots appeared along highways and even the distant Interstate. But the wilderness around them and to their north showed nothing.
“Hit it again,” Sam said, carefully watching the screen.
Tiny tapped the button and they stood silently, heads close together as they waited.
“Son of a bitch!” Tiny exclaimed when a single red dot appeared nearly due north from their location.
“Got a fix?” Sam asked.
Tiny nodded as he copied the coordinates out of the emulator app and transferred them to the terrain map. When the software displayed a dot, he zoomed in for a better look.
“Not perfect, but didn’t expect it would be,” he said. “The phone only kind of knows where it is without a constant signal from a tower. It’s a low-resolution fix. Probably two thousand meter accuracy.”
“What’s around there?” Sam asked.
“Nothin’. Least nothin’ I can see on this map. But at least we got confirmation they stayed on course when they headed north.”
Sam looked at the map for a few moments before nodding.
“Okay, pack it up. Time
to earn our pay.”
Chapter 24
“So, what are you guys? Marines?” Ashley asked, raising her voice to be heard over the droning of the private jet’s engines.
There were several indignant coughs from the team, causing her to look around in surprise. BK, in the seat next to her, slowly turned his head.
“What on God’s green earth would make you think that?”
“Well… it’s just…” she paused when she realized they were all staring at her. “Sorry. I thought a Gunnery Sergeant was a Marine. And Mathis was a Marine. So, I just thought… you know.”
She grimaced in apology.
“A Gunny is a Marine. We aren’t,” BK said sternly.
“What then? SEALs?”
There was an audible groan then everyone other than BK turned away and ignored her.
“What?” she asked in surprise. “What’d I say?”
BK stared at her for a long moment, before shaking his head, resting it on the seatback and closing his eyes.
“Army,” he said.
“Rangers?” Ashley asked, thinking she’d figured it out.
“Can I toss her ass out the door, BK?” Sticks called.
“What the hell?” Ashley asked, starting to get upset. “If you don’t like my guesses, try answering me!”
BK chuckled but didn’t open his eyes.
“Delta,” he said.
“Delta? Never hear anything about you guys. In fact, I wasn’t sure there really was such a thing.”
“That’s cause we ain’t SEALs,” Cup said from the seat behind.
“What does that mean?” she asked, twisting around to look at him, but he already had his eyes closed again.
“Means we don’t slobber all over ourselves every time a camera comes on,” BK said. “Means if you aren’t sure we’re real, then maybe there’s some bad guys out there who aren’t either. Better to be a ghost in our profession than a celebrity.”
“So… what? You’re better than SEALs?”
“Define better.”
“Jesus, BK. Would it kill you to give a straight answer? Just once? And what the hell does BK stand for, anyway? Burger King? You like burgers or something?”
There was silence in the plane for a beat, then everyone but BK roared with laughter.
“Burger King! Goddamn, how’d we never see that?” Doc sputtered.
“Get your burger’s worth!” Cup shouted, nearly sending Doc into uncontrollable spasms.
“Taste is king!” Sticks said, nearly choking with mirth as he said the last word.
BK sighed and looked at Ashley as his team continued to roar in laughter.
“See what you done? This shit’ll never stop.”
Ashley, caught up in the moment, couldn’t contain her own laughter any longer. After what seemed like forever to BK, everyone began to settle down and regain their composure.
“I’m sorry,” Ashley said, still smiling as she touched his big arm.
“Everybody gets their turn,” BK said, looking down at her hand.
She quickly moved it to her lap and took a deep breath, trying to control the smile on her face.
“So, what does it mean?”
BK sighed and hesitated a beat before answering.
“Bad Karma.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because if I think something bad is going to happen, it usually does. That’s why I’ve gotta always think positive thoughts.”
“You’re serious?” Ashley asked. “You really believe that?”
“Can’t deny what I’ve seen with my own eyes,” he said.
“Oh, it’s true!” Cup said enthusiastically. “There was this one time when we were in Thailand and BK here…”
“Sippy, I will break you in half,” BK growled.
Cup smiled, winked at Ashley and leaned back with a satisfied grin on his face.
“Then what’s your real name?” Ashley asked.
“I’ll tell you that when we make up after our really big fight,” BK said.
She stared at him in surprise for a beat, then punched his arm.
“Ouch,” he said in a perfectly flat voice.
A shout from Trippy prevented her from taking another shot at him.
“BK, ya should hear this!”
BK was instantly alert, sitting up in his seat and nodding. Trippy, who’d been listing to a radio, pulled the earphone plug and turned up the volume. The entire team was tense as they leaned closer to hear the small speaker.
“…reporting from San Antonio. Violence is also erupting across much of the United States as owners of gun shops, with support from local citizens, are refusing to cooperate with federal agents who are following the president’s executive order and attempting to confiscate their stocks of firearms and ammunition.
“We are receiving reports of local sheriffs in some jurisdictions siding with the shop owners and defying the presidential order. In several locations, shots have been fired and several federal agents as well as rebellious citizens have been injured and killed.”
“Turn it off,” BK said.
Trippy shut off the radio and everyone sat in silence for a long moment.
“There’s not much time left,” BK said to himself.
“Left for what?” Ashley asked, her voice somber.
He looked at her and started to shake his head, but answered instead.
“They’re moving faster than we expected.”
“You knew this was coming? I didn’t see anything in the files Mr. Blue gave me.”
“You read the president’s speech, then heard her deliver it. What’d you think was gonna happen when a bunch of feds show up to start confiscating people’s guns? Thought they were just gonna roll over and play dead?”
“I didn’t think it would come to Americans shooting at each other!”
“Ever been out of New York? Been to the real America?”
“New York is real America!” Ashley protested.
“No, it’s not,” BK said firmly. “Maybe once, but not in a long time. It’s its own fucking bubble and everyone who lives there thinks it’s all that matters. Not really any different in LA, or San Francisco or Chicago. That’s a big part of the problem.”
“What problem? It’s their fault gun shop owners are shooting at federal agents?”
“In a way, but not directly. People live in a place like New York, maybe all their life. Hell, I’ve met people in the city who have never been more than thirty miles from where they were born. All they know about the rest of the country is what they see on TV, and most of that’s bullshit.
“What I’m sayin’ is, that because someone doesn’t live in New York or LA or somewhere like that doesn’t mean they’re stupid, or uneducated or any less of a person. But that’s how they’re constantly portrayed by the media, on TV shows and in the movies. We’re all just bigoted rednecks, ready to throw on a white sheet and start burnin’ crosses in folk’s front yards. Tell me that’s not how you think.”
His eyes bored into her with the challenge. She held them for a long moment before looking away.
“Maybe,” she quietly admitted.
“That’s my point. As long as we’re belittled and demonized because we’re different from someone who never sees an open sky or feels grass under their feet, this country’s going to keep tearing itself apart. If there even is a country two weeks from now.”
“You really believe it’s that bad?” Ashley asked, concern creasing her forehead.
“Worse,” BK said. “This ain’t nothin’ compared to what’s comin’ if we don’t stop them.”
Chapter 25
“Ten minutes!” BK called as he returned from the cockpit.
The team straightened up and began packing away whatever possessions they had brought out during the long flight from New York to Idaho. Ashley was glued to a window, staring at the vast emptiness passing beneath her as they descended for a landing.
“It’s so…” she stopped, at a loss
for words.
“Beats the hell out of asphalt and skyscrapers, don’t it?” BK asked as he lowered his bulk into the adjacent seat.
“People actually live out here? Where do they shop? Go to a movie or out to dinner?”
BK tried to suppress a laugh as he answered.
“Shop? That’s a trip into the closest town every few weeks. Out to dinner is when your neighbor invites you over and movies… well, most folks don’t have time to go sit in a theatre for two hours.”
“You sound like you know what you’re talking about,” she said, attention still on the landscape below.
“Grew up in Texas. Closest town was thirty miles. Closest neighbor was twenty. So, yeah. I kinda do.”
The last few minutes passed in silence, Ashley keeping her face pressed to the window. She caught her breath in surprise when a dirt runway appeared and a few seconds later the landing gear touched down with a loud roar.
“This isn’t an airport!” she said in alarm.
“Nope. Friend’s ranch,” BK said, then the team was on their feet even as the plane quickly decelerated.
Looking back out the window, she could see a large house with several barns to the side. Fenced pastures surrounded it and beyond, on what looked like open range, a large herd of cattle were grazing.
“Those are cows!” she said excitedly, looking up at BK.
“Careful,” he grinned. “Your New York is showing.”
He extended his hand and after another look out the window, she allowed him to help her to her feet. She was happy that the series of shots Doc had administered around her wound had eliminated the pain. There was some stiffness, but she could deal with that.
The door was already open, the rest of the team outside and unloading several hard sided cases from the luggage hold. BK led the way and Ashley stopped, looking around in amazement.
“Hey, city girl,” he called, softening it with a smile. “No time to play tourist.”
Tearing her eyes away from the scenery, she followed him down to the ground where a compact man dressed like a cowboy was waiting. He stepped forward and wrapped BK up in a hug.