Without Virtue

by Trevor Scott

  WITHOUT VIRTUE

  Max Kane Series #4

  by

  Trevor Scott

  Calabria Publishing

  United States of America

  Also by Trevor Scott

  Max Kane Series

  Truth or Justice (#1)

  Stolen Honor (#2)

  Relative Impact (#3)

  Without Virtue (#4)

  Karl Adams Espionage Thriller Series

  The Man From Murmansk (#1)

  Siberian Protocol (#2)

  The Spy Within (#3)

  Galactic Space Opera Thriller Series:

  By Trevor Scott and Trevor Schmidt

  Quantum Trigger (#1)

  Reaper Corps (#2)

  Fatal Accord (#3)

  Jake Adams International Espionage Thriller Series

  Fatal Network (#1)

  Extreme Faction (#2)

  The Dolomite Solution (#3)

  Vital Force (#4)

  Rise of the Order (#5)

  The Cold Edge (#6)

  Without Options (#7)

  The Stone of Archimedes (#8)

  Lethal Force (#9)

  Rising Tiger (#10)

  Counter Caliphate (#11)

  Gates of Dawn (#12)

  Counter Terror (#13)

  Covert Network (#14)

  Shadow Warrior (#15)

  Sedition (#16)

  Choke Points (#17)

  The Tony Caruso Mystery Series

  Boom Town (#1)

  Burst of Sound (#2)

  Running Game (#3)

  The Chad Hunter Espionage Thriller Series

  Hypershot (#1)

  Global Shot (#2)

  Cyber Shot (#3)

  The Keenan Fitzpatrick Mystery Series

  Isolated (#1)

  Burning Down the House (#2)

  Witness to Murder (#3)

  Other Mysteries and Thrillers

  Cold War Short Stories: Jake Adams International Espionage Prequels

  Cantina Valley

  Edge of Delirium

  Strong Conviction

  Fractured State (A Novella)

  The Nature of Man

  Discernment

  Way of the Sword

  Drifting Back

  The Dawn of Midnight

  The Hobgoblin of the Redwoods

  Duluthians: A Collection of Short Stories

  Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and not intended to represent real people or places. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.

  WITHOUT VIRTUE

  Copyright © 2019 by Trevor Scott

  Calabria Publishing

  United States of America

  trevorscott.com

  Cover images:

  Cover image silhouette of shooter by ysbrandcosijn

  Background cover image by Andrew Montgomery

  1

  Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota

  The sun set gently through the thick forest across the western edge of Disappointment Lake, the water and sky painting an ever-changing fresco of reds and oranges before turning to cooler shades of blues and purples.

  Pam Joki added another smaller stick to the minor fire in the forest service fire box provided in this official wilderness camp on the large island. Disappointment was a meandering lake with multiple bays and specked with more than a dozen islands of all sizes. Pam had chosen this camp because of its location on the southern end of the island, where the stagnant air of July would hopefully blow a little and give them relief from the relentless onslaught by mosquitoes, the Minnesota state bird.

  She heard a noise over her shoulder and didn’t need to turn. Her partner in the Forest Service, Duane Bong, was as subtle as a drunken uncle at the Thanksgiving table. She had a hard time blaming the young man, since he was from the Twin Cities with minimal experience in the Northwoods.

  The two of them had spent the last four days in the wilderness area, canoeing and portaging nearly ten miles and making sure the campsites and portages were properly maintained. With the heavy rain in June, the trails were still somewhat muddy.

  They had clashed a number of times in the past few days. Pam had a feeling this had more to do with unwanted advances from Duane than anything dealing with their jobs. Duane was a nice enough man, she guessed, but he was not exactly her type. He was a thin, wiry man with almost no hair—even on his head. At twenty-one, Duane was already going bald. He covered up that fact by shaving his head to a stubble, which had gotten longer in the last couple of days.

  Although they had both gone through the forestry program at the University of Minnesota, Pam had completed her degree four years ago before joining the Forest Service. That put her in charge, and she guessed Duane had a problem taking orders from a woman. That was on him, though. It wasn’t like she was a dictator.

  Duane sat on a log across from her and looked like a puppy that had just been disciplined. “Nice sunset,” he said.

  Without glancing at him, she said, “It doesn’t get any better than the Boundary Waters. Can you believe they pay us to be here?”

  “How does your boyfriend feel about you hanging out in the wilderness with another man?”

  “We broke up in May,” she said. She had tried to keep this fact from Duane so he wouldn’t try to hit on her. Her ex-boyfriend was a strong, burly lumberjack from Ely, and Duane had nearly gotten his hand crushed when they met last time.

  “Sorry to hear that,” he said.

  He wasn’t sorry, she knew. She could tell by the slight smirk lifting up from the right side of his thin lips. She felt sorry, though. Pam guessed that most men would find her attractive under normal circumstances. But she had been in the woods now for a few days, and her legs needed a shave. She had washed her thin blonde hair in the lake after they made camp, but it still wasn’t up to normal non-wilderness standards. Still, at twenty-five, she knew she could turn a head with a simple smile. But she also knew that her strength from working in the woods turned off some men.

  “Maybe we should have pushed through to the Snowbank entry point,” Pam said.

  “I don’t like traveling in the dark,” he said.

  She glanced out to the lake and saw a couple of canoes cruise slowly by their point. They were barely visible now in the waning moments of the sunset. “You mean like those yahoos?” she asked.

  Duane laughed. “Looks like they’re out for a night paddle. Sitting too high in the water.”

  He was right, she thought. Full canoes sat much lower in the water. She turned her gaze back to her partner. “After tomorrow we have a few days off. Any plans?”

  He shook his head. “A hot bath and a good wine.”

  “You’re such a girl. Maybe a pedicure? I hear there’s a new place in downtown Ely.”

  “Finally, civilization has come to the Northland,” he said.

  “I liked the place much better when I was a kid,” Pam said. “Back then it was trading posts and mom and pop diners.”

  “Beer and bait,” Duane
said. “Now, luckily, we have great restaurants and microbreweries.”

  She wasn’t about to agree with him about these finer aspects of life in Ely. Growing up in Duluth, she was used to a few good restaurants in the Canal Park area and along the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was great to get out into the wilderness, but even Pam enjoyed escaping the mosquitoes.

  Duane got up and poked a stick at the dying fire. “I’m hitting the sleeping bag. Can you get the fire?”

  “No problem. I’m not far behind you.”

  He walked off and she heard the zipper open and close quickly on his personal tent—the normal scurry to keep out as many blood suckers as possible.

  She gazed at the embers for a little while before finding herself back in her own tent, zipped into her light sleeping bag. Since it was hotter than normal, she almost immediately had to unzip the bag and lay in her underwear.

  After the long day on the lakes and multiple portages, she was very tired, falling asleep moments after closing her eyes.

  Something woke Pam, making her sit up in bed. There was a scuffling sound and what seemed like something large outside. Without thinking, she quickly put on her pants and hiking shoes. Then, instinctively, she pulled out her folding knife and locked it open.

  More muffled sounds outside, coming from the area of Duane’s tent. Was it a bear? What else could it be?

  She yelled out at the bear, trying to make it go away. Then her mind shifted to normal protocol. They had tied up the last of their food, hanging it from a tree limb out of reach. But she also knew that Duane had a bad tendency to bring food into his tent with him. She had warned him against doing this many times.

  Now she thought she heard a slight squeal or a squeak. Was that bear cubs? If so, that would make the sow much more dangerous.

  She yelled again, trying to use her training to ward off the bear. Then there was silence.

  Pam put her headlamp on and clicked on the light.

  Silence.

  She could hear her own heart beating, her chest heaving with each breath. Was her partner all right?

  “Duane,” she said loudly. “Are you alright?”

  Nothing.

  She had encountered many creatures in her years in the woods, including bears and wolves. None had ever scared her, though. Pam knew that most of them were more afraid of humans than she was afraid of them. But this seemed different. And she had gotten word from a number of campers this week in the BWCA Wilderness that bears had been more aggressive than normal.

  Pam slowly unzipped the tent door from bottom to top, and then along the bottom from right to left. Now, her heart racing even more, she slipped her head out through the door, the light shining toward Duane’s tent.

  Almost immediately, without warning, she was overtaken and shoved to the ground. There was a sharp pain in her neck and she passed out without struggle.

  2

  Salt Lake City, Utah

  A week later

  Robin Kane stood at her balcony overlooking the downtown area, the city lights shining brightly and a slight alpenglow still visible in the mountains to the east. It had been nearly a hundred degrees, but the heat was starting to dissipate as the Wasatch Range cooled the valley below.

  She checked her watch and saw that her call should be coming in at any minute. For the past couple of years, she and her brother had run discreet investigations from a website source-funded by people from all over the world. As an attorney, she brought years of experience working in the criminal justice system. And her brother, Max, who had been an officer with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, brought years of law enforcement experience. Of course, Max had also worked for ten years in special forces alongside Navy SEALs, Marine Force Recon, and with Army special operators.

  That afternoon, while she worked her day job in her law practice, she had gotten an email from a woman in Minnesota. Her request had been cryptic at best, but intriguing nonetheless.

  A soft breeze rose up to her balcony, touching her exposed skin. She turned toward her condo unit and saw herself in the reflection of the windows. She wore only a pair of her old volleyball practice shorts and a T-shirt cut off short exposing her flat belly. Robin had just finished working out in the condo gym on the sixth floor, and the outside air tried to dry the perspiration on her skin.

  Her cell phone buzzed and she picked it up from a small table on the balcony.

  “This is Robin,” she said.

  “Thank you for taking my call,” a woman said gently.

  “This is?”

  “Sorry. I’m Kim Joki from Duluth, Minnesota.”

  Robin had been on a case not so long ago in Marquette, Michigan, and this woman had a similar accent. “What can I do for you ma’am?”

  “As I mentioned in my email, I could use your help finding my sister.”

  “How long has she been missing?”

  “About a week.”

  “From Duluth?”

  “No. From the Ely area.”

  Robin wandered into her condo, slid the door shut to preserve the air con, and sat on a leather chair in her living room, opening her laptop. “Hang on,” she said. Then she quickly pulled up a map of Minnesota and found Ely. “Wow. That’s almost to the Canadian border.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Have the police been notified?”

  “Yes, they have. But they’ve given up the search.”

  “Search?”

  “Oh, yes. My sister works for the Forest Service and went missing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.”

  Robin opened another window and searched for this area. “Okay. So, she was experienced in the woods.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Please, call me Robin.”

  “Okay.”

  By now, Robin had found a quick description of the wilderness area in question. It seemed to cover a wide swatch across northern Minnesota, skirting the Canadian border.

  “It says there are no motorized vehicles allowed into the area,” Robin said.

  “That’s right,” Kim said. “They did allow some planes and helicopters in to search for my sister, though.”

  Robin opened her map again and asked, “Where was she when she went missing?”

  “Their canoe was found in a camp on an island on Disappointment Lake,” Kim said.

  She moved the map toward the east and finally found the lake Kim mentioned. “That looks pretty isolated.”

  “It’s a couple of lakes in,” Kim said. “From Snowbank, you have a couple of options to portage into Disappointment. For the novice it can seem like a long haul, but my sister does that kind of stuff daily. I used to also.”

  “You’re familiar with the area?”

  “Yes. I used to work out of Ely until transferring to our Duluth office a year ago. Field work up north is for the young.”

  “You sound young.”

  “I’m thirty. My sister is twenty-five.”

  Robin pondered the case. Something wasn’t working for her. “You mentioned their canoe. Was your sister working with someone else?”

  “I’m sorry. I should have mentioned that. My sister Pam was working with a twenty-one-year-old man named Duane Bong.” She hesitated, as if searching for the right words. “Duane was found dead in his tent.”

  “Murdered?” Robin asked.

  “No, we think it was predation.”

  “By?”

  “A black bear.”

  “Have they confirmed this?”

  “They’re still awaiting testing.”

  “An autopsy should confirm that,” Robin said.

  “Well, there’s no doubt that a bear ate parts of the man. They found scat with human remains on the island.”

  But that could have been after the man had already died, Robin thought. “I don’t understand what you want us to do.”

  “Well, the search was conducted by the Forest Service, Fish and Game and the local Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team,
along with a lot of locals. They searched every inch of the island and Disappointment Lake. Then they broadened the search for surrounding lakes.”

  “For a week,” Robin said.

  “Yes.”

  “If your sister knew the area, I’m guessing she would have headed back toward civilization.”

  “Absolutely. At the very least she would have gotten to Snowbank Lake, which is the major travel route for all canoeists in the Boundary Waters in that area. Then she could have waved down someone for help.”

  “Don’t they carry SAT phones?” Robin asked.

  “They do. Searchers found it in Pam’s pack.”

  “She didn’t take her pack?”

  “No. Which means she must have left in a hurry.”

  “Are you sure a bear didn’t attack her as well?”

  The woman hesitated on the other end, as if she might be crying.

  “I’m sorry, Kim. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “It’s okay. That’s the logical assumption. But we are all trained on how to deal with bears and other large predators.”

  “I understand,” Robin said. “Then the only other option is that she escaped and headed off the island.”

  “Right. She would have crossed the small channel to the west and headed around to the nearest portage to Snowbank Lake. But our people followed that path. Based on our calculations, she could have reached a few homesteads on the south side of Snowbank in a day or so.”

  “Unless she was injured,” Robin surmised.

  “True. But there was no indication at the camp that she had been hurt. In fact, her tent was open but not disturbed inside. It looked like she simply got up and left. I know I sound crazy, but I don’t know where to turn. I believe the local authorities have given up on Pam. But I can’t give up this easy.”

  “I understand. But I’m not sure what we can do for you.”

  “I have some money saved up for a new car,” Kim said. “But I’d be willing to turn it over to you for your time.”

  Robin leaned back in her chair and let out a quiet breath of air. People came to her only when things went horribly wrong, so there was always a great deal of angst. This young woman was in obvious pain.