Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies

by Robert Boren

  “Damn it. Can’t trust anybody these days. How’d you get access to the bird?”

  “Don’t ask.”

  “Okay. How long can you watch them?”

  “As long as the battery on my iPad lasts…or until dark.”

  “See if you can get the address, and text it to me on this number.”

  “This a company line?”

  “No, it’s my private cell.”

  “You might be under surveillance.”

  “Think so, huh? You might be right. I can’t give you the secure system password, at least not over this line. Hey, send the info to Rami. I’ll let him know where to put it so that only I see it.”

  “Good.”

  “Talk to you later, and take care of yourself, Frank.”

  There was a click. Frank looked over at Charlie.

  “Charlie, they still there?”

  “Yeah, Frank. Looks like they forced their way in. I just saw three guys rush to the office, and they had AKs, from the look of it.

  “Okay, keep watching them while I look the motel up on the web. I need to get the address.”

  “Who was that?”

  “Agency…that old friend of mine. I told him they have a mole. I’m going to get this info to him via the controlled line from my work.”

  Frank sat at the PC and found a map of the town. “There’s the motel,” he said, noting the address on a slip of paper. He dialed his cellphone.

  “Rami?”

  “Hi, Frank. Did it work?”

  “Yes and no. The drone took out the first group of people who got to the ambush site, but the following group got tipped off and split. I just talked to Sam.”

  “I gave him your cell number, hope you don’t mind.”

  “No problem, but we can’t trust that line. I’ve got an address to read off to you. He asked that you put it in the secured repository for him. He’s going to call you with the info.”

  “Gotcha, go ahead.”

  Frank read off the address.

  “Got it, Rami? Read it back to me.” He did.

  “That’s right, Rami. I’m going to get off the line now. Thanks so much.”

  “No problem Frank. Talk to you later.”

  Frank set down his phone. “Anything happen?” he asked Charlie.

  “Nope. They might be having trouble. I don’t see any of them coming out of the office yet.”

  “How come we never heard about your agency connection before?” Jeb asked.

  “I thought about it a couple of times, but didn’t have a way to get to him, and I didn’t know that Rami had cultivated a relationship with him. That makes things easier, because the company has much safer conduits for this sort of thing.”

  “It’s dangerous any time we have to reach out to an official like that, given the current situation with our government,” Charlie said. “This technology is helpful, but it’s going to keep me up at night knowing that some bad folks who are capable enough to worm their way into the agency might know about us.”

  “Yeah, Charlie, you got that right,” Frank said. “I don’t have a problem working with Rami. I trust him completely. I trust Sam, too, but I don’t trust the organization he’s buried in.”

  “Whoa, look!” Charlie shouted, laughing with glee.

  The three men on the screen were running from the motel office to their SUVs. Somebody followed them out with a gun and fired, sending one of them to the ground. The other two men opened fire, killing the guy, but then somebody else started shooting at them from across the street, killing both of them. Both SUVs took off in a hurry, getting back to Hwy 24 and going east.

  “Keep on them, Charlie!” Frank shouted.

  Charlie used his finger to move the picture, keeping the two SUVs in view.

  “They’re on their way back to Capitol Reef, ten to one,” Earl said. “If they get back in there very far, they’ll be hard to smoke out…and you know the Feds aren’t going to start blowing up anything in there.”

  “They shouldn’t,” Jeb said. “It’s beautiful in there. Not worth wasting for this stupid war.”

  “I’ll get on the camera system at the ‘Natural’ park again,” Frank said. He opened a new browser window on the PC and accessed the cameras for Capitol Reef. He opened up several windows…one for the Front gate, one for the main building area, and one for the entrance to the camping area.

  “How about those trail cams?” Earl asked.

  “Hey Frank, shut down some of those windows. Gabe’s internet connection isn’t keeping up. The iPad is getting sluggish.”

  “Okay,” Frank said. He closed out the browser windows for the cams, but stayed on the menu page that listed them.

  “There, that’s better,” Charlie said. “They’re still on the way there.”

  “Is that somebody following them?” Jeb asked, pointing at the iPad screen.

  “Holy shit, sure is,” Charlie said.

  “Probably the folks who were shooting at them from across the street,” Frank said.

  “Ouch!” Charlie shouted. “The bad guys just hit the vehicle following them with gunfire, from the back window of the second SUV. Must have taken out the driver. The car just went off the highway.”

  “Wonder if that was the only one following them?” Jeb asked.

  “I don’t know. I could back up.”

  “No, Charlie, stay on the SUVs,” Frank said. “Try not to lose them. We need to know where they end up.”

  “Yeah,” Jeb said.

  They all watched silently for a few minutes. Then Frank started to crack up.

  “What?” Charlie asked.

  “This reminds me of home,” he said. “Long chases, with news helicopters following the action. I used to hate those. They’d break into TV shows to put them on.”

  “That’s LA,” Earl said. “Heard about that from my cousin.”

  “There was only one I remember that I enjoyed watching,” Frank said.

  “Which one? OJ?”

  Frank laughed. “Well, I guess there were two, then. Forgot about OJ. The long slow chase. No, the one I was talking about involved a motorcycle. It was a GSXR1100 sport bike. Suzuki. It was from the days when I was still riding those things.”

  “Oh, I know about those bikes,” Earl said. “A friend had one. Four cylinder inline, oil cooled. Basically a street version of their race bike. He said it would go over 180 miles per hour.”

  “Yeah, this guy out-ran all of the cop cars, and the helicopters too. He was even faster than their fixed-wing aircraft. It was something to see.”

  “How did they catch him?” Charlie asked.

  “He ran out of gas,” Frank said, chuckling. “I’ll bet Suzuki sold a boatload of those bikes after that.”

  “There’s the front gate to Capitol Reef,” Charlie said. “They blew through there without slowing down.”

  “Uh oh. Look – they’re getting ready to shoot at somebody,” Jeb said

  The SUV’s were parked diagonally in the access road, about two hundred yards from the front gate. Several men with AK’s took up positions behind them, pointing their guns at the gate. Two men ran from one of the SUVs into the front office building.

  “Maybe I should call the office again,” Earl said, laughing.

  “Let’s not press our luck,” Frank said.

  “I see the other vehicles now,” Charlie said. “Looks like a couple of black and whites, and a couple of SUVs. The men are getting out, finding a good position to shoot from. Look, the cops are behind their cruisers with long guns of some kind.”

  “Are they shooting?” Jeb asked.

  “Can’t tell,” Charlie replied. “No sound. They’re definitely aiming, but it might be a standoff.”

  “Wow! What the hell was that?” cried Charlie, watching one of the black and whites explode, flying into the air. Then the other one exploded. The SUVs started to turn around, but then both of them exploded too.

  “Move that picture up more,” Frank said. Charlie move
d his finger on the screen.

  “Son of a bitch,” Jeb said. “They have a friggin tank.”

  “There goes the mop up crew,” Earl said. The men on the screen walked out amongst the wreckage. It appeared that they were using side arms to shoot the people lying on the ground just outside the front gate.

  “Bastards,” Charlie said.

  “The cretins are getting back into their SUVs,” Charlie said. “They’re driving further back into the park. They just went around the tank.”

  “Follow them,” Frank said. Charlie nodded.

  “What should we do?” Earl asked.

  “Well, we know that calling in a drone strike ain’t gonna work,” Jeb said. “They’ll get tipped off, and then they’ll just move somewhere else.”

  “Agreed,” Frank said. “They wouldn’t strike there anyway…like Earl said, the Feds aren’t going to go in there and start blowing up a national park. This would be a special forces job.”

  “Maybe it’s time for us to get a road trip going,” Jeb said.

  “Let’s not be too hasty, boys,” Charlie said. “Maybe it’s good enough that we know where they are, for now. If we figure those RF chips out, it would be a good testing ground.”

  “Yeah, I agree. Keep our eyes on the prize, guys,” Frank said.

  “Their leadership might be there,” Jeb said. “Shame to let them live.”

  “We don’t know that, Jeb,” Frank said. “I don’t think they would have sent their leadership to a skirmish like this. Remember…they just thought some random RVer was going to that ambush site. I could see high level people going there if they thought it was us, maybe, but not some random person.”

  “I agree they might not have been in that ambush party, but they’re probably hiding out in that park somewhere,” Jeb said.

  “All the better,” Charlie said. “If Frank can crack the label data encryption on those chips, we’ll know that for sure. Another reason to stand down and watch.”

  “How long are we going to have this satellite capability?” asked Earl.

  “Good question,” Frank said. “Rami conveniently ‘forgot’ to get rid of my work user ID. If somebody gets wise to that on the government side, they might cut me off.”

  “So we shouldn’t be on it all the time, then, should we?” Charlie asked.

  “Probably not,” Frank replied, “but let’s keep on until we find out the general area that these guys have settled in. Then we can use the ‘Natural’ park cams to keep tabs on them.”

  “Why haven’t they shut off those cams?” asked Charlie.

  “Good question,” Earl said. “They aren’t that noticeable. They would kind of ruin the ambiance if they were easy to see, you know? They might not have noticed them yet.”

  “They aren’t controlled from the office?” Charlie asked.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say no,” Frank said. “I think they’re centralized. Part of the reason they’re out there may be to keep tabs on the help.”

  “Damn Feds,” Jeb said, shaking his head.

  “Look, the SUVs are heading down that fire road to the rear of the camping area,” Charlie said.

  “Where’d the tank go?” Jeb asked.

  “It’s still sitting on the access road. Maybe they’re expecting more company.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Earl said. “There’s a barn like structure there, a little ways behind the office. They keep heavy equipment in there. I’ll bet that tank could drive right in.”

  “Worth going back to the front for?” Charlie asked.

  “No, stay on the SUVs,” Frank said.

  Charlie nodded. “They’re getting into the rocks now.”

  “We’ll lose them any minute,” Earl said. “There are a bunch of formations back there. Bridges, steep walled narrow canyons, and big outcroppings.”

  “Big enough for a couple SUVs to hide under?” Frank asked.

  “Hell, yes. Probably big enough for that tank, if it could get through the narrow canyons to make it there. A lot of people could get out of sight back there. The Indians used to camp there. You can still see soot where their fires were in some places.”

  “The SUVs just disappeared,” Charlie said.

  “Note the coordinates,” Frank said. Charlie picked up the pencil and jotted them down on the pad of paper.

  “Now what?” Jeb asked.

  “Go back to the front and see if the tank is still out there,” Earl said.

  “Yeah, and after that, hand that back to me so I can log off,” Frank said. “Then I’ll see if we have any working trail cams close to where they stopped.”

  “Okay,” Charlie said. He wiped his fingers across the iPad. “Wow, what a lucky break.”

  “What?” Jeb asked.

  “Damn tank is moving into that big building there, right now!” he replied. “Good call, Earl.”

  “Good,” Frank said. “Let’s shut it down.”

  Charlie handed the iPad to Frank, and he logged off of the satellite feed.

  “Hey, Earl, how do you know so much about Capitol Reef?” Jeb asked.

  “I camped there a lot when I was growing up. It was a favorite of the church group I used to belong to.”

  “Which church?”

  “LDS,” he replied. “We were all over that part of Utah during spring break and summer. Bryce, Lake Powell, Zion. We liked Capitol Reef best, because there were all kinds of little nooks and crannies back there that us kids could slip into. I learned how to make out there, when I was in the seventh grade.”

  “We may need to put your knowledge to use one day in the near future,” Jeb said.

  “I know,” Earl said. “I’m willing. Jackson knows the area too…I met him in that church group.”

  “I had a feeling,” Frank said. “You guys are pretty tight.”

  “Almost like brothers,” Earl said. “He’s good people.”

  “Yes, he is,” Jeb said.

  Frank got back on the National Park cam page, and brought up the map of Capitol Reef. It had icons for the cam locations on it.

  “Earl, can you point out where those SUVs are on the map here?”

  “Sure,” he said, getting closer to the screen. He pointed to a spot. “Right about there.”

  “Hmmmm,” Frank said. “There’s two cam icons close by. One of them is off line. Let’s try the other one.” Frank clicked on that cam icon, and it took him to the camera menu page. He clicked the live cam. It was working, but it didn’t have very good picture quality.

  “Doesn’t look like there’s anybody around,” Jeb said.

  “Let’s just watch for a few minutes, and then we’ll start going back into the history, like we did for the front gate.”

  The group sat there silently for about ten minutes, staring at the screen. Nobody came near the cam.

  “Well, enough of this. Let’s go through the last week,” Frank said. He backed out of the live cam display and clicked on the prior week. It was the same view, and he started to fast forward. Two people appeared for a brief moment. Frank stopped and went backwards until they found the frames.

  “Two pajama boys,” Jeb said. “Nice deer they’re carrying there. Makes me mad seeing those cretins taking our game.” One man had deer over his shoulders, and the other followed along with his AK-47, looking around cautiously.

  “They weren’t in the field of view for very long,” Charlie said. “Wish we could scan around with these.”

  “Judging by the quality of the picture, this is an early 2000s web cam – not very capable,” Frank said. “We’re lucky to have it, though. Now we know there are enough of the enemy around there to warrant hunting for large game.”

  Jane and Jasmine walked into the clubhouse, and over into the kitchen. They were washing their hands off, chatting and giggling. Then they walked over to where the men were.

  “What are you boys up to?” Jane asked.

  “We found out where the enemy is holed up,” Jeb said.

  “Where?” Ja
smine asked.

  “Capitol Reef ‘Natural’ park,” Frank said, cracking up.

  “Guess I don’t get the joke there,” Jane said. “What’s a ‘Natural’ park?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Frank said. “How’d it go for you two?”

  “My hands are still tingling from that grinder,” Jane said. “We must have done a hundred of those things between us.”

  “They’re sharp. We need to make sure none of us falls into that moat,” Jasmine said. “What happened to your hand, Earl?”

  “Ah, nothing, really. Just cut myself on that razor wire. Nasty stuff. Mary took care of it.”

  “She’s a real worker,” Jane said. “She’s down in the trench pushing spikes into the mud.”

  “I had to stop that,” Jeb said. “Hurting my back too much.”

  Suddenly there was a loud ‘Yahoooooo!’ from outside, and a lot of laughing.

  “Let’s go see what they did,” Frank said. “I could use a little air.”

  Everybody got up and trotted out to the front of the park. There was a gush of water filling up the moat.

  “Lookie here,” Gabe said when he saw the group approaching. He was standing next to Jerry, Jackson, Kurt, and Mary, all of them filthy with mud.

  The Sheriff and Terry came down off the roof and walked over, grinning.

  “Well, Gabe, you pulled it off, didn’t you,” the Sheriff said.

  “That’s totally awesome,” Terry said.

  “We’re still going to need to man the roofs,” Jeb said.

  “Maybe not,” Gabe said. “My cousin Dobie is coming over to stay with us for a spell.”

  “What’s he? A sharpshooter?” Jeb asked.

  “No, he trains security dogs. Dobermans. I asked him if I could borrow a couple of them, and he suggested that he move in with me for a while, and bring them along.”

  “When’s he coming?”

  “He ought to be along in about an hour,” Gabe said. “You’ll like him. He’s a fun guy.”

  “So don’t tell me, let me guess,” Earl said. “His nickname is Dobie because of the dogs.”

  “Sure is,” Gabe said, laughing.

  Lucy looked up at Jane and cocked her head, as if she wanted to ask a question. Most of the group noticed, and started laughing. Jane gave them a sheepish look, and picked the dog up. Lucy looked at everybody, wondering what was going on.