by Gordon Ryan
“You okay?” Dan queried.
“It’s like being in a Halloween fun house—blindfolded.” Nicole stumbled on for a few more feet, calling to Dan as she located a pile of discarded four-by-eight corrugated tin roofing panels. “It’s under here, Dan. Help me move this stuff.”
After shifting the tin sheets, Dan started to dig in an area their flashlights illuminated as having a slightly discolored dirt surface. Only about eighteen inches down, he struck a metal box.
“Eureka!”
While Dan held the flashlight, Nicole knelt down and pried the lid off the tin box. Inside there were eight CD disks enclosed in plastic bubble wrap. Two disks were marked “Missouri” and two “Oregon.” Four of them read “California,” with progressive time notations on labels attached to each one.
“Let’s go,” Nicole said. “It’s getting cold.”
After they got in the Blazer, Dan slowly backed his way out of the clearing, then headed down the dirt road. Just before reaching the fire service trail, Dan suddenly stopped the Blazer and turned off the lights, once again engulfing them in darkness.
Nicole looked over at him. “Out of gas, Mr. Rawlings?”
Dan leaned forward without answering and stared through the windshield toward the mountain road where it joined State Road 53. “I thought I saw some lights through the trees.”
Nicole watched with him as lights could occasionally be seen flashing through the darkness as a vehicle proceeded up the road.
“I’m guessing there’s not usually traffic up here this late at night,” Dan said, starting up the Blazer again. Turning on just his parking lights to shine on the next few yards, he drove slowly toward the main fire trail. “I’m going to pull off into that small side-cut we passed, just short of the fire trail, until we see who these folks are.”
Turning off the engine, Dan and Nicole waited as the approaching lights grew brighter, appearing more frequently through the trees as they danced ever closer.
“They’ve passed the fire trail,” Dan said, prematurely. The vehicle stopped on the primary side road, its tail lights visible through the trees, and began to back up, much as Dan and Nicole had done twenty minutes earlier. Turning into the cabin trail, the vehicle, now clearly identifiable as an extended cab pickup, crept passed their hiding place, continuing up the road until it reached the cabin site and began shining a spotlight into the cabin yard. Dan and Nicole were close enough to hear voices through Nicole’s open window as several men got out of the pickup and headed for the house.
“It’s too much of a coincidence,” Dan said softly.
“That’s an understatement. Hide or run?” she said.
“If we’re trapped in this side trail, we’ve no escape. I vote we cut and run—then try to outdistance them on the mountain trail. I know that road pretty well.”
“You’re the guide. Let’s go,” Nicole replied.
The sound of the Chevy Blazer engine started the men near the cabin shouting to one another. Dan spun the tires, grabbing traction toward the fire trail. In his rearview mirror, he could see the men running through the headlights of their truck. Dan turned left onto the fire service trail, covering ground quickly and reaching Highway 53 in minutes. Turning south, he sped toward 29 and the entrance to the mountain trail that led back over into Rumsey Valley. A mile or two behind them, Dan could occasionally see the headlights of a vehicle.
“If we reach the mountain road, I think I can outdistance them. It’s about four miles farther on.”
Reaching the mountain road, Dan bounced the Blazer over the cattle guard and started the steep climb up toward the narrow pass on a road that became more of a switch-back the higher they went. He could still see the headlights behind them, sometimes across a canyon as they continued to outdistance their pursuers.
“We’ve got two choices. I can probably outrun them over the mountain, or we could take one of the side roads and lose them in the dark. They’d pass us, and we could retrace our steps back down toward Highway 29 and run on down to Calistoga.”
“It was stupid to leave my cellular in my car,” Nicole exclaimed.
“I’ve got one in the glove box—probably a dead battery, but there should also be a car cord in there. Who’re you going to call?”
“Have you got a Forest Service map?” Nicole asked.
“Under the seat.”
“Great. We just may have a way out. Keep heading up the mountain, and I’ll call the cavalry.”
Nicole rifled though the glove box, retrieving the phone and car battery cord. In moments, she had Pug Connor on the line.
“Colonel, I’m sorry to bother you so late, but we’re in a predicament. I’m with Dan Rawlings in the mountains west of Rumsey Valley. We haven’t got much time to explain, but we’ve recovered some computer disks that should shed new light on the elections issue. We’ve been spotted, however—probably by some of the brigade boys—and we’re getting boxed in up here. I’ve got a forest service map and can give you approximate coordinates.”
“Uh, oh,” Dan said, followed by a soft whistle.
“Hold on, Colonel,” she said. “What’s wrong, Dan?”
Dan pointed high up on the mountain trail, and Nicole spotted the small headlights of another vehicle, coming toward them from the east, still miles across the multiple canyons they would have to cross to reach Rumsey Valley.
“We’re really boxed in now, Nicole. We can hide, but by morning, this mountain will be swarming with brigade troops, if indeed that’s who’s in those vehicles.”
“Not much doubt of that, is there?” She returned to the phone. “Colonel, our situation has changed. We’re traveling east on … let’s see.” She paused, studying the map.
“Whispering Pines Road,” Dan said.
“Whispering Pines Road. We’ve got company about three miles behind, and we’ve just spotted a vehicle high up on the mountain, headed our way. It’s a single-lane dirt road, Colonel. They’ve got us boxed in, but Dan knows several side fire trails, and we can probably hide through the night. But in the morning …”
“Understand, Nicole,” Connor replied. “Can you take the phone with you?”
“Dead battery, Colonel. As long as we can stay with the car, I can keep in touch.”
“Give me some idea of your coordinates, and I’ll get help out at first light.”
Nicole read off several adjacent coordinates paralleling Whispering Pines Road and gave Connor Dan’s cellular number.
“If we have to leave the vehicle, Colonel, I’ll advise.”
“Okay, Nicole. Good luck to you both. I’ll get right on it.”
“Thanks, Colonel. We’ll be watching for you. Dan said he’s got a couple of emergency flares, and we’ll use ’em if we spot you.”
“Right.”
Nicole pressed ”end,” but left the phone plugged in to accept what charge the phone battery could take in the short time remaining before they might have to leave the vehicle.
“Nicole,” Dan said, watching the headlights up ahead, “they’re about twenty minutes away, and the vehicle behind can’t catch us on this road unless we stop. But we have one other option. You could take the disks and what cold-weather gear we have, and I could find a good hiding place for you, then continue on until I meet the oncoming car. I could plead ignorance, at least for awhile, and they might think I’m alone.”
“No good, Dan. They have no other way of knowing about the cabin except from Stevenson. We have to assume they got to him sometime this evening after I spoke with him. I should never have agreed to drop the tail. If they got to him, they know I’m out here too, and if they find you first, they’ll just keep looking for me.”
Dan nodded at Nicole’s deduction. “It’s off the road, then, and into one of the hiding spots until first light. We’ll be surrounded and dependent on Connor to get us out.”
This time Nicole nodded. “We can take one evasive measure, though,” she said, quickly developing a plan. “We can hide th
ese disks and let Colonel Connor know where they are in case we’re captured. Know of a good place?” she asked.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do,” Dan answered. “About a half mile before we turn off this road onto the fire trail.”
“Well, let’s do it,” Nicole said, reaching into her purse and checking her pistol, then putting the two extra clips in her jacket pocket.
“Start to put all your warm clothing on, Nicole. We’re gonna have to leave the car at some point and scramble on foot. It’ll likely get cold up here tonight.”
Nicole smiled briefly at Dan, receiving a reassuring smile in return. “We’ve had several fun dates, Dan, but we haven’t been camping yet,” she said, trying to ease the growing tension.
“You’ve chosen a great time for it,” he said, smiling at her.
“Dan?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry I got you into this—but I’m glad you’re here with me.”
“I am too, Nicole.”
* * *
General Del Valle answered the phone on the second ring, glancing quickly at the bedside clock, which read 12:45.
“Hello.”
“General Del Valle?”
“That’s right.”
“Sir, I’m sorry to disturb you. This is Colonel Pug Connor calling from Virginia.”
Del Valle’s senses alerted immediately. “What’s up, Colonel?”
“Sir, I know you’re convalescing from your injuries, but I believe some action is required to provide help for a couple of people both of us would like to see safe and sound.”
“Go on, Colonel.”
Chapter 33
Coastal Range Mountains
Rumsey Canyon, California
Dan and Nicole reached the end of the fire trail several miles up the mountain from where they had left Whispering Pines Road. In Nicole’s last call to Connor, she had advised of their location and the precise identification points where they had hidden the disks shortly before turning off the mountain road.
“Now where?” Nicole asked.
“E&E, on foot, I think.”
“What?”
“Military jargon for escape and evasion. We’ve got to avoid these guys for the night and hope Connor brings the cavalry in the morning.”
“Have you got a destination in mind?”
“I think so, although I’m not sure holing up in any one place is a good idea. We ought to keep moving.”
Fifteen minutes later, Dan found the way to a rocky outcropping from where they could oversee the lower region, including the stretch of Whispering Pines Road where the two pursuers would most likely meet. It was still dark, though the moon now occasionally broke through the cloud cover and provided some light. A whisper of a breeze began stirring the trees as they watched the two sets of headlights converge on what Dan said was an intersection of Whispering Pines Road and a fire trail.
“They’ll know now that we turned off, and they’ll have to take the time to check each of the side roads they passed. It won’t take ’em long to find the Blazer, especially if they’ve got someone who can track and spot our fresh tire tracks. We could pray for rain, I suppose.”
“I feel like we’re in an old western movie,” Nicole said.
“Well, Butch,” Dan said, looking over the outcropping, “which one of us should jump first?”
“Not me, Sundance,” Nicole grimaced. “There’s no river down below.”
“Minor point.” Dan rose and took a compass bearing, replacing the instrument in his breast pocket. “That way, I believe.”
“You believe?” Nicole asked.
Dan leaned closer to her face, the moon now being hidden behind a bank of clouds. “The movies make things look too simple. I’ve been wandering these hills with Jack for most of my life, but in the dark, with no real landmarks to go by, it’s only dead reckoning and a rough compass direction. We’re going to head for an old Boy Scout hut I’ve stayed at before.” He looked up as the moon broke through briefly, and the wind that had been building began to gust. “If the weather forecast was right, these clouds are going to provide us some moisture pretty soon—the sooner the better,” he added. “It will be uncomfortable for us, but it will also be disruptive to them.” He looked back toward the headlights, now moving apart again, searching for separate trails.
“Lead the way—I’ll try to keep up.”
“Don’t worry about keeping up. We’ll be moving very slowly in the dark. And Nicole,” he whispered, taking her face in his hands, “don’t be sorry. I’m still glad you invited me.”
She kissed him briefly, then pulled her hood up and tightened the drawstring under her chin.
Rain began to fall just before 2:00 a.m., slowly at first, then more heavily, making the going slippery and difficult. They’d been unable to observe any movement from the brigade searchers since cresting the ridge over an hour earlier. The last compass heading Dan had taken left him fairly certain the searchers had found his Blazer and were concentrating their search along that one fire trail. The brigade was still left with multiple directions they would need to consider. Dan hoped that in the dark and wet conditions, he and Nicole would be able to avoid being spotted until daylight. Nicole had followed in his muddy footsteps without complaint.
“Not much farther, if I’m right. The cabin should be about half a mile down this ravine. There’s a small stream running this side. Once we spot that, we can just follow it to the cabin.”
“Still think we should hole up in the Boy Scout hut?” she asked.
“No.”
Nicole pulled his arm, stopping his progress. “No? But I thought—”
“We aren’t going to hole up, Nicole. I am.”
“Dan, I thought we agreed that—”
“There’s a small cave—not a cave, really, just a rocky overhang where I’m going to leave you. It’s only about four hundred yards from the Boy Scout hut, and you can see the cabin from there at first light. I’m going to hole up in the cabin.”
“No, Dan, we should—”
“Listen, Nicole. I’ve been thinking about it, and it makes sense.” He squatted down, wiping the rain from his face and tugging at Nicole’s hood, shielding her eyes from the rain. “If I’d thought this through better, I would’ve dropped you off at a suitable spot back on the main highway before I headed back up the mountain. After their truck passed, you could have flagged down a car and gotten a ride into town with the disks safely in your possession. I just didn’t think ahead and certainly didn’t plan on another brigade bunch coming from the other side of the mountain. What I’ve realized is that I’m not the only one raised in these hills. Several of the brigade boys know them quite well, also. I’m afraid they might know about the Scout hut, even though it’s been out of use for many years.”
“But then they’ll come directly to you.”
“Possibly. But even if they do, I should be able to stall them until morning. They won’t take any action against me until they get orders from their commander. And besides, the cabin is located right in the middle of the last coordinates we gave Connor.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Nicole,” he said, “I know this is your case, but this is my territory. The brigade’s not stupid. They won’t just kill me without trying to determine where the disks are. I plan to tell them I left you back on Highway 53 and that by now you’ve got the disks safely at FBI headquarters in San Francisco.”
Nicole thought for a moment and began to see the merit of the argument. “All right, Dan. But if you get caught—”
“I probably will, but that’s our plan. Remember?”
Hunkered down beneath a rock outcropping, the rain no longer dripping from her hooded jacket, Nicole listened as the sounds of Dan’s retreat diminished. Lightning had begun to streak across the sky, and in the quick flash of those natural floodlights, she thought she caught a glimpse of the cabin in the direction Dan had indicated. Holding her coat tight around her, she
tried to get comfortable in the face of a long wait.
Less than thirty minutes after Dan left, she was astonished to hear faint voices approaching. Dan had felt they had a good hour-and-a-half head start from the time the brigade would find the Blazer. Nicole squirmed back farther under the rock overhang and tried to still her breathing. She listened as the voices approached and came to a stop only yards away from her position, conferring on the other side of a cluster of rocks. She could make out three or perhaps four voices, and after several seconds of garbled speech, the talking ceased, leaving only the sound of falling rain in the darkness.
* * *
Dan had been in the Boy Scout hut just over half an hour when he heard the first sounds. It had seemed like hours, during which he had second-guessed himself several times, concerned that should Nicole be captured, he’d never know it—and even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. The flaw in the plan was his ignorance of what was happening outside. He was trapped, somewhat like a rabbit run to warren, waiting for the fox to find the entrance.
The door burst open, and two men dressed in full camouflage gear entered the shelter, one wearing goggles Dan recognized instantly as a night-vision device. That accounted for how they had been able to cover the ground so quickly. Dan had started a Coleman lantern after entering the cabin—part of the emergency Boy Scout equipment left behind in the hut. That lantern provided the only light, far too much, however, for the man with goggles. He removed them just as a third man came in the doorway. Mild surprise showed on his face as he recognized Dan, a fact that eluded Dan until the man stepped farther into the light. It was unmistakably Jackson Shaw. As soon as he stepped into the dimly lit room, the even more familiar face of Roger Dahlgren appeared in the doorway.
“Well, Mr. Rawlings,” Shaw said, “what a pleasant surprise. Camping on such a night, or are you just earning a few more Boy Scout merit badges?” Shaw stepped farther into the small cabin and turned to face one of the men who had not taken his eyes or his weapon off Dan since he entered. “Sergeant Krueger, secure the perimeter.”