by C. G. Cooper
+++
Daniel extracted the two pistols from his voluminous coat pockets. He’d have to make his shots count. It was something the sniper was used to. Briggs never missed.
+++
As Trapper took another drag off his cigarette, he sensed movement to his left. He turned to look and felt a stabbing pain in his neck. He reached up, grabbed the dart and yanked it out while staggering to his feet. His partner was doing the same. Trapper had just enough time to register that it was Briggs approaching when he fell to the ground. The powerful tranquilizer quickly rendered both men unconscious.
Daniel rushed to check on them and waived for the other team members to come help. Four SSI men materialized out of the darkness and swiftly picked up the two men and carried them to a waiting vehicle.
Briggs was scanning the area to make sure nothing was left behind when an older couple walked up concerned.
“Excuse me, son, but is everything okay with your friends over there?” the old woman asked.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Daniel answered politely. “My buddies just had a little too much to drink over at the Moose.”
The husband smiled knowingly. “You tell them to take it easy on the booze at this altitude. Had a bad go of it myself a few years ago.”
“Yes, sir, I will. You have a nice night.”
Briggs walked away and breathed a sigh of relief. His silly little plan had worked. Now it was time to find out what these guys knew.
Chapter 10
Teton Village, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
7:02pm, September 27th
They’d put the two men in separate rooms. Briggs had recommended they start with the big guy first.
Cal had disagreed. “I really think we should start with the guy with the beak nose, Daniel.”
“Don’t ask me why, but I get the feeling that he’s gonna be a hard nut to crack. It’s something in the guy’s eyes.”
Cal knew better than to question the sniper’s judgment. In the short time he’d known Briggs, the Marine had never been wrong. “Okay, let’s do it your way. What did you have in mind?”
+++
Lance Upshaw wasn’t a bad man. He just wasn’t the brightest guy that ever walked the Earth. What he lacked in mental ability he more than made up for in strength and skill. Since his first day in the Marine Corps even his drill instructors had taken to calling him ‘The Swede’ after the character in Clint Eastwood classic Heartbreak Ridge. Upshaw had excelled in all physical aspects of boot camp. He’d continued his growth training in the fleet. His large athletic frame, honed from years on the football and baseball field was perfect for the Marine Corps. It was his ability to be manipulated that became his final downfall.
They’d given him an Other Than Honorable discharge from the Marine Corps because of a certain hazing incident he’d been convinced to participate in. Upshaw’s fire team leader, a skinny sadist named Cpl. Kliner, had taken offense to the ‘tone’ of one of his new PFCs. The kid was a college drop-out who’d instantly incurred Kliner’s wrath. After a few drinks at the Enlisted Club on Camp Pendleton, and under Kliner’s direction, Upshaw methodically beat the young ‘college boy’ within an inch of his life.
Something in Upshaw knew that what he’d done was wrong, but it had been an order from his fire team leader. Wasn’t he supposed to follow orders? That’s what his DIs had said at Parris Island.
Upshaw remembered sitting in the courtroom in complete shock as the officer read his sentence. How could the Marine Corps send him away for following orders? He loved the Corps.
Sitting in his cell months later, he’d welcomed the visit from Nick Ponder. The man understood his situation and even admitted going through a similar episode years ago. Once Lance served his year in the brig, he happily took a position with The Ponder Group. After all, they knew what it was like to be misunderstood.
Lance Upshaw shook his head as he regained consciousness. He didn’t remember how he’d ended up in the room. Where the hell am I? His arms and legs were hogtied behind the wooden chair someone had strapped him to. He couldn’t feel his hands and feet.
As his vision cleared, he finally made out a figure standing in front of him. The man was around six feet in height with a blonde ponytail. Lance thought that he had kind eyes. Despite his lack of brainpower, Lance knew the difference. He’d seen evil in many of the men he’d met in jail.
Daniel pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the large captive. “What’s your name?”
Upshaw wasn’t sure he should respond. He remembered something from boot camp about only giving out your name, rank and serial number. “Upshaw, Lance. Seven, three, three, two, nine, eight, one, two, one.”
“So you were in the Army?” Briggs asked kindly.
Upshaw made an almost disgusted face. “Marine Corps.”
Briggs smiled. “Me too.”
Upshaw didn’t say anything. He’d learned to keep his mouth shut. Daniel let the silence linger. This guy looked liked a perfect candidate to handle a medium machine gun but would never be found planning a raid. He had the hard look of an abused animal.
“Look, I’m a little short on time so I’m just gonna get to it. That cool?” Daniel asked.
Upshaw still didn’t know what to say. The last thing he remembered was sitting next to Trapper and watching the guys Ponder had sent them after. He was just the muscle sent along to help his partner with any heavy lifting. He’d always been told to not saying anything in the event he was captured or questioned.
“I’m not gonna hurt you, Lance, but I need to know what you and your pal were doing following us.”
Options swirled in Lance’s head. He knew Trapper and Ponder would kill him if he said anything.
“I’m not supposed to say.”
Daniel wasn’t surprised by the response but happy that he’d at least validated his initial impression. These guys were on SSI’s tail. Without saying another word, he got up from his chair and went to find Cal.
+++
Nick Ponder was starting to think it’d been a bad idea to send his guys to watch the crew from SSI. He’d known there was always the chance they might be spotted. That’s why he’d sent Trapper. The guy was a one-man surveillance machine and mean as a snake. He was Ponder’s kind of guy.
He tried calling Trapper’s cell phone for a fourth time. Sometimes the signal was crappy up in the mountains. He figured the gathering storm wouldn’t help much either.
For the fourth time Ponder got the error message trying to connect to Trapper’s phone.
“Shit,” he grumbled.
Half of his men were already back. He’d need to bring the rest home soon. The helo wouldn’t be able to fly in the coming blizzard.
Where the hell were Trapper and Upshaw?
+++
Trapper regained consciousness slowly. He looked around the room then tested his arms and legs. They were bound behind the dining room chair he was sitting on. The former military policeman was pretty sure he could get out of the restraints as long as he could force some blood flow back into his limbs. There were benefits to being somewhat of a contortionist. The problem was he didn’t know what he was up against. He was sure his captors would make an appearance soon enough. Meanwhile, he’d bide his time, work his arms and legs, and figure a way out.
+++
“This guy’s not the smartest is he?” Cal asked Daniel as he continued to watch the live video feed from both holding rooms.
Daniel shrugged. “He’s smart enough to keep his trap shut. At least we know they were keeping an eye on us. You okay with me laying into him a little more?”
Cal looked up from the video screen. “If it gets us closer to Neil, do it. I’d prefer not leaving any marks on these guys…”
“I don’t think it’ll come to that. I’ll be subtle.”
“Do what you need to.”
Daniel nodded and headed back in to talk to Upshaw.
+++
Daniel took his seat in front of U
pshaw and stared at the man for a minute. To his credit, Upshaw returned the stare without flinching.
“Where are you from, Lance?”
Upshaw hesitated. He didn’t remember anything about not talking about his personal life. There couldn’t be anything wrong with that, right?
“I’m, uh, from Dallas.”
“You play football down there?”
Upshaw’s eyes lit up at once. “I did,” he said with pride and almost puffed out his chest before remembering that he was tied to a chair.
“Thought so. I’ll bet you tore it up on the field. Linebacker?”
“Running back,” Upshaw said with a grin.
“Really? You’re a pretty big dude to be dodging tackles.”
“I’m fast, and I can run over most guys.”
Briggs whistled in admiration. He would honestly love to see the man in action.
“You play college ball?” Daniel asked, already knowing the answer.
“Nah. Didn’t have the grades.”
“So you went in the Corps instead.”
Upshaw nodded his head. Although it’d taken some studying with his recruiter, he’d finally passed the military aptitude test and was allowed to go to Parris Island.
“So when did you get out of the Corps?”
Lance scrunched his face thinking. Numbers and timelines sometimes got jumbled in his head. His mother always said that God could only give a person so many gifts and that Lance had gotten a lion’s share of physical ability. In exchange, God couldn’t give him as much intelligence as other kids his age.
“I think a couple years ago.”
“What did you do after you got out?” Daniel asked.
Upshaw hesitated again. His mind tried to process whether answering would be right or wrong. It was hard to keep it straight.
“Went home for a little bit.”
“Just hung out with your family?”
“My ma raised me as a single mom. I hadn’t seen her in, like, a year. Stayed with her for a while.”
Briggs could feel the walls coming down. “Did you get a job down in Dallas?”
Upshaw shook his head. “No. I just helped Ma and some of her friends. Got free food and a place to sleep.”
Daniel nodded thoughtfully. He didn’t want to have the guy clam up again. It was important to get him to keep answering questions. Briggs said a silent prayer that God would guide him to the answer.
“Your mom still live down in Dallas?”
“Yeah.”
“You still see her?”
“I fly down one or two times every year.”
“She pay for your flight?”
It was another one of those funny questions Lance wasn’t sure about. Why was he asking?
“Um…no. I pay for my tickets.”
“Oh! So do you have a job up here?”
“Yeah.”
Briggs noticed the drop in Upshaw’s demeanor. He had to keep it light.
“Cool. It must be pretty awesome living up here. It’s beautiful.”
Lance nodded as enthusiastically as a little kid. “You should see it when the leaves change. It’s really pretty. All the moose and bears come out too. I like the bears.”
“You ever see one?” Briggs asked with eyes wide open.
“All the time! Right now they’re really coming out. People are saying they’re more hungry than other years.”
“That’s what I heard too. You ever get charged by a bear?”
Upshaw was suddenly serious. Briggs thought that maybe he’d gone too far and delved into a memory that would end the man’s cooperation.
“Just one time. Damn grizzly was huge. We were hiking back down to Phelps Lake and all of a sudden this bear was just sitting in the middle of the path soaking up some rays. I tried to scare it away, but it got up and roared at us. Before we knew it the thing was charging.”
“Holy crap! Was your buddy in the next room with you?”
“Nah. Trapper was back at HQ. I was with some of the other guys.”
“So what did you guys do?”
“The only thing we could do. We shot the fucking thing!”
Daniel whistled again. “Wow. Did you kill it?”
“Damn right. It was him or us.”
“Can’t you get in trouble for killing a grizzly around here?”
“Yeah, but we didn’t stick around. Would’ve moved it but those things weigh a ton.”
“I’ll bet. So you work with some other guys at one of the ranches around here?”
“Yeah, sort of,” Lance answered quietly.
“So you do guided hikes, trail rides, that sort of thing?”
Upshaw hesitated again. He’d already made one decision in his mind: that this guy asking him questions was actually a nice guy. Lance didn’t think he’d tell his boss if he said anything.
“No, we do some security work.”
“Really, that’s cool. I kinda do the same thing. Who’d you say you worked for?”
“I…uh…didn’t.”
“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be easier if I talked to your boss about all this instead of bugging you? The sooner you tell me where you work, the sooner I can give them a call and get his whole thing straightened out. You seem like a good guy, Lance. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
Trouble was the last thing that Lance wanted. What could it hurt? As long as they didn’t say anything about him telling.
“You promise you won’t tell them I told you?”
“I give you my word as a Marine, Lance.”
That was good enough for Upshaw. “I work for The Ponder Group.”
Chapter 11
Camp Spartan, Arrington, TN
8:37pm CST, September 27th
Travis hadn’t left the office since Neil disappeared. He’d commandeered one of the large suites at The Lodge so he could stay close by. The phone on the bedside table rang just as he dozed off for a quick nap.
“Haden.”
“Sir, I have a call for you from Mr. Stokes,” the operator said.
“Patch him through, please.”
Luckily, all the phones at The Lodge were highly encrypted and therefore highly secure. With the number of VIPs SSI courted, it was important to have a way for guests to communicate with their offices while away. It was one of the many improvements Neil Patel had instituted over the years.
“You there, Trav?”
“Yeah. What’s going on?”
“You ever heard of some company called The Ponder Group?”
Haden sat up in bed. “Yeah, why?”
“We’ve had a tail since we got here, and we just found out that they work for this Ponder Group.”
“How do you know?”
Cal hesitated. Even though the line was supposedly secure, he still wanted to be careful just in case someone was listening.
“Let’s just say we have two more guests at the house.”
“Invited or uninvited?” Travis asked.
“They were…invited. Daniel made it a…personal invitation.”
Travis correctly deduced that they’d somehow apprehended the men.
“Tell me you’ve used kid gloves on the guys.”
“You know me, cuz, always trying to do things the right way.”
“I’m not messing around here, Cal. Tell me you didn’t put the screws to these guys.”
Cal laughed at his cousin’s unease. “Of course not. Briggs just had a little chat with one of our new buddies. So you wanna tell me who this Ponder Group is?”
Travis swept his hand back through his dirty blonde hair. Where to start?
“SSI has a little history with The Ponder Group,” Travis started disgustedly.
“What kind of history?”
“The CEO of The Ponder Group is a prick named Nick Ponder. The guy is former Army. Mean son-of-a-bitch. He’s as crooked as they come. So anyway, back in the nineties, he and your dad…”
Travis told Cal the story of the conflict between Cal Sr. a
nd Nick Ponder.
“How come you never told me about this?” Cal asked indignantly.
“There was never a need to. It happened a long time ago. I’ve heard rumors about him over the years, but he knows to stay clear of us.”
“Looks like that’s not the case anymore.”
“Yeah. The only good thing I can think of in this whole situation is that Ponder is just a thug. He likes money and inflicting pain and not much else.”
Cal was fuming. He didn’t know how his cousin could stay so calm. “I’m having a hard time understanding what in the hell you’re talking about. While we’re sitting here chatting about this asshole, he’s probably torturing or even killing Neil!”
Travis took a slow breath. “Look, now that we know WHO has Neil, we can actually do something.”
Cal knew his cousin was right. A couple hours ago they had nothing. Now they had a name.
“How can we find out where this guy lives?” Cal asked.
“Let me call you back. With a possible leak here at home I’d rather take care of this myself. I’ll do some digging and get you the details in a few minutes.”
It wasn’t good enough for Cal, but he wisely held his tongue. Venting his frustration on Travis wouldn’t accomplish a thing. He needed to focus on one thing: Nick Ponder.
+++
Travis hung up the phone and stared at the wall. Where to start? He hesitated using any of the computer guys until he knew where the leak was. There was always the Council of Patriots, an ultra-secret group of retired (and one active) politicians. Typically, the Council came to SSI for help in going operational on intel. This was a different story. Travis had never contacted the Council for help. He’d put that on hold for now.
He picked up his cell phone and speed-dialed his head of security, Todd Dunn.
“Dunn,” answered the former Ranger in his gruff tone.
“Todd, I need to talk to you in person.”
