Serve & Protect

by L. J. Breedlove

  Reserve 1 closed his eyes briefly, and sighed. “Shit,” he said. “He started believing all the crap, didn’t he?”

  “What crap?” Mac asked.

  Reserve 1, whose name turned out to Tim, started talking. And Kevin, Reserve 2, interjected occasionally to create a picture that Mac found disturbing, in part, because he had hoped that with Ken and his crew gone, things would become simpler. If they were still up here they were the enemy. But now? Now, they didn’t know how many of the reserves were a part of Norton’s war games, and how many thought they were on a man hunt for a suspect who had killed a hiker and might kill again.

  Mac looked at the dead body they were carrying, and amended that thought: had killed again already.

  The callout came Friday afternoon, but they’d been given a heads up earlier in the week that there might be a training exercise in the mountains this weekend. Kevin had thought it was a bit early in the spring to be hiking up here, and he glanced anxiously at the sky visible through the front windshield, but Norton had laughed at him and said they needed some wilderness skills for blustery days not just the sunny and warm ones. Hard to argue with that, Kevin had thought, so he’d volunteered to go. They’d had a meet up at the Sheriff’s Department Friday evening, organized car pools and headed out.

  “Any regular deputies along?” Mac asked.

  Kevin frowned and thought about it. “Don’t think so,” he said finally. “Which is odd, there usually are.”

  “So, you headed out,” Mac prompted.

  Kevin nodded and resumed his narrative. They’d driven directly to the site where they set up camp — it was obviously a site that had seen some use. Kevin assumed that Wilderness Adventures or one of the other tour guides had built it. They set up camp, talked for a while, and went to sleep. Next morning, they had breakfast, got in a run, came back for a briefing.

  Norton told them that they had a killer attached to a Wilderness Adventure group. He’d come up before, killed a hiker, and then rejoined the group to get out of the mountains.

  “This time, Norton said we were going to catch him in the act,” Tim interjected. “He divided us up into five groups. One group was to guard the exit roads. The other four groups were given quadrants to police and watch for suspicious activity.”

  “You two were on the road crew?” Mac asked.

  “Yeah?” Kevin said, questioning how he knew.

  “Go on,” Mac said.

  So, after lunch they went out and did a bunch of nothing, until they got the come in command through their hand-helds just before dark.

  “You hear all the shooting?” Mac asked.

  They nodded, but it was well known that Ken was bringing up gun clubs from Seattle to experience shooting outside of a gun range. No one thought anything of it.

  “And someone had come in and stole one of our vehicles!” Tim was indignant. Angie gave Mac a sideways look and grinned at him. He laughed.

  “Keep going,” Mac said.

  “And blew up the barbeque,” Kevin said sourly. “Cook went to light it and it blew up. He got hit by some shrapnel as did a couple of others on the kitchen crew. Why would anyone do that?”

  “Why were you all carrying eight bricks of C-4?” Rand asked.

  “What? We were carrying C-4? Why would we do that?” Tim asked startled.

  Mac rolled his eyes. They would have to capture two of the clueless ones. “How many reserves are out here?” he asked.

  Tim had to mentally count them. “Ten plus Sheriff Norton,” he said.

  “So, five two-man teams?” Mac mused out loud.

  Kevin nodded.

  “Dinner was sandwiches?” Mac asked to prompt them along.

  And then they went to bed. Tim and Kevin were sharing a tent. They heard talking later, but they weren’t part of it. Then this morning, they were sent out to get this body. “We were told we failed to protect him, and the killer had struck again. But we’d get the killer, dead or alive.” Tim said.

  “And who went after Cleve?” Mac asked.

  Tim frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Don’t know that we were even told there was another dead body out here.”

  Odd, Mac thought. But maybe two dead bodies would strain credibility.

  “And the other teams? What were their tasks?”

  They didn’t know. They’d been sent out right away after breakfast to reclaim the body. They weren’t a part of the discussion.

  “When are you planning to head out today?” Mac asked finally.

  “When everyone got back and had some lunch,” Tim said. He glanced at his watch. “Two hours?”

  Rand glanced at Mac. “So, you said earlier, he’s started believing all that crap,” he said to the reserve deputies. “What did you mean?”

  “There’s a guy Malloy? He often comes up here with Wilderness Tours when they’ve got the gun club trips,” Tim said. “And he’s always talking about how they’ve got to toughen people up. Uses terms like ‘blooded’, things like that. Sheriff Norton listens to him. Malloy used to be a Seattle cop, and I think Norton wants to be like him. But really? Malloy is kind of racist and mean. I’ve been on a trip out here with him, and he’s scary.”

  “So, the trip you were out here on was with Malloy? Did you stay behind for some late shooting with him and Norton?” Mac asked.

  Tim shook his head. “Had to get back,” he said. “I caught a ride back with Ken and the some of the clients.”

  “What about you, Kevin? You ever stay up for a late Sunday shoot?” Mac asked.

  Kevin shook his head. “I don’t usually come up for the wilderness survival trips,” he said. “I grew up out here. I know how to survive better than they do. Ken knows what he’s doing. Been doing it for a long time. But Norton? Norton’s OK as a sheriff, but he’s a city boy. He’d be better off staying out of the mountains. So anyway, I only come out when there’s a mission — like this one. I thought we were after the guy who killed a man.”

  He looked out the window again. “And we’re going to have snow within the hour.”

  Rand eased up the speed a bit. “Did you see how the teams were divided up this morning?” Rand asked. “Where did Norton go?”

  “Heard him say he was going to take a car down to Ken,” Tim volunteered. He frowned. “Why did Ken need a car?”

  “Because some of your reserves came through our camp yesterday and slashed all the tires,” Rand said.

  “You sure it was reserves?” Tim asked, obviously startled.

  Rand nodded. “I saw them. Recognized a couple. Couldn’t give you names, but yeah, they are Norton’s men.”

  “We going to get Cleve?” Angie asked.

  “Might as well,” Rand replied. “Save us a trip back up here later.”

  Mac just watched out the windows. What were the other men doing out there, he wondered. And what about Ken and the wounded?

  Chapter 25

  Picking up Cleve’s body wasn’t a problem. Mac stayed with the vehicle while Angie showed the other three where the body was. Rand made the two deputy reserves carry him out. They looked spooked.

  “Angie showed them where Mark and his team were trapped,” Rand told him quietly. “Showed them the tree with a bullet hole in it that you climbed to fire back. Nice work, by the way. Unless they want to call her a liar, they have to believe it was someone from their group who fired on Mark’s team and killed Cleve. Hard for them to swallow.”

  “What about you?” Mac asked, as they loaded the second body in the back. “You buy that Norton has gone crazy on his own?”

  Rand considered that. Shrugged. “I don’t know. Something happened we don’t know about?”

  Mac nodded slowly. That could be. It did feel like a clean-up effort.

  The snow started to fall as they loaded the body. Big fluffy flakes. The kind that could pile up in a hurry. And a breeze picked up. Mac looked at Kevin. “What do you think?”

  “If it were my call? We’d be hal
f way down the mountain by now,” he said.

  Mac nodded. Rand drove on into the sheriff’s camp. There was no one there.

  Of course not, Mac thought. That would be too easy. He’d hoped Norton would be there to coordinate his men. But no. The man was a disaster of a commander. Too much the lone cowboy, not enough the commander of a troop. And Mac said that, knowing that he too was more of a loner. Thinking strategically wasn’t really his thing. He left that to others. But when they said see that hill? Take it. They could rest assured he would by God take that damn hill.

  But here he was with people looking at him for a plan. Well, OK. What was the damn hill? He thought about that for a moment. What was it Rand had said he wanted? The bodies, the weapons that killed them, the men who used them, and Norton. Well they did have the bodies, but the men they had were probably the only two who were not involved in the shootings, and they didn’t have Norton.

  They needed Norton.

  Fine, Mac thought. He sorted through the weapons in the camp, looking for those that had been used. The others were moving through the camp, looking for lunch, he thought. He ignored them. Most of the weapons he found hadn’t been used, which made sense when he thought about it. The men out there looking for him would keep the weapons they liked best. Mac piled up all of the unused weapons as he found them. Ammo went into the back of the rig they were driving.

  He glanced at the barbeque which was a warped mass of metal and laughed. But he had the real thing for the next time.

  Angie handed him a sandwich. He thanked her and grinned. “You doing OK?”

  She nodded, but she looked worried. “Mac, it’s getting colder. The snow is coming down harder and the wind is picking up. Why haven’t Norton and his men returned to camp?”

  “I’m sure they’re on their way in,” he said slowly as he ate the sandwich. He looked around, there was one vehicle besides their own in camp.

  “Kevin?” he called. “How many vehicles did you all come in?”

  “Four,” he said.

  Ken had one, they had one, one was here, and the fourth? Where was the fourth?

  Norton had to have gone after Ken, Mac thought. He’d promised Ken an extra vehicle, right? So, had he driven down an empty car and intended to hike back? Or had he kept on going when the snow started?

  Shit.

  He tried to work through the math. There were 11 in the sheriff’s group including Norton. Two were with them. Four teams of two were out searching for him. And the sheriff? Where was he?

  Rand was setting up the radio base unit that he’d been carrying. Mac looked at Kevin. “You sure this snow is going to continue?”

  Kevin nodded. There was already a blanket of white on the ground. He looked worried. “We need to call them in, get started down the hill.”

  “Kevin? In what vehicles?” Mac asked gently. Kevin opened his mouth to respond, then looked around and he paled.

  “Even if we drop off the bodies here, we’ve got eight men out there plus the five of us and two vehicles. Seven in each?”

  “Possible,” he said slowly. And he sighed. “Where’s the missing vehicle?”

  “I think Norton took it down to Ken,” Mac said. He didn’t mention what he was afraid of from there.

  Rand shook his head. “Something’s not right about all of this,” he said. “There’s no radio chatter.”

  Mac frowned. He looked at Kevin and Tim. “Did the sheriff mandate radio silence?” he asked.

  Kevin shrugged. “Kind of?” he said. “But with the snow? I would think he would be ordering them in.”

  “We could have missed it,” Rand said.

  Tim shook his head and pulled out a hand-held radio. “No, we would have heard it,” he said.

  “You didn’t broadcast our conversation, did you?” Mac asked sharply.

  Tim flushed. “Should have,” he admitted. “Didn’t think of it, though.”

  Thank God, Mac thought. He’d hate to have to kill the clueless kid for having faith in the sheriff.

  “I’m blowing the stockpile,” Mac said abruptly. “Load up your personal stuff. Rand, load ammo. I don’t want that to go, too, but I’m not about to leave all this weaponry behind for the enemy coming down behind us.”

  “They’re not the enemy!” Tim protested. “They’re not.”

  “They may not think they’re the bad guys,” Mac conceded. “But then neither does the Taliban.”

  Even Rand blinked a bit at that, Mac noticed. He shrugged.

  “Move it,” Mac ordered. He started piling up all the guns.

  “What about our camp?” Angie asked as she helped him.

  “It’s set,” he said tersely. If they left the stockpiles there alone? No biggie. If they decided to arm themselves? He wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. He did need to let Ken know when they reached him or he would go back to dismantle the camp and get an unwelcome surprise.

  “All right people,” Mac said. “Let’s move out.”

  Rand was carrying two more rifles toward the SUV. Mac raised an eyebrow. “They’ve been fired,” he said tersely.

  Mac nodded. He walked down the road as far as he thought he could and still hit what he aimed at, and fired at the detonator. Rand was already driving away, when Mac threw himself into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

  The stockpile went up with a boom at Mac’s well-placed shot. “Well, Rebecca warned me,” Rand muttered.

  Mac grinned.

  The five were silent after that. Contrary to common belief, it didn’t need to be really cold for it to snow. In fact, that was part of the problem. It was muddy and slick under the rapidly piling snow. The SUV kept slipping into the ruts, jerking the steering wheel in Rand’s grip. He slowed. Finally, he stopped, shifted it into four-wheel drive, got out and manually locked the hubs of the wheels. Kevin got out and locked hubs on his side of the vehicle. The two of them talked a minute. Mac thought they were discussing who would be the better driver. He wondered if he trusted Kevin enough to let him drive at all. Rand got back in behind the wheel.

  “It’s going to be slow going,” he warned.

  No one said anything. The radio remained silent. Even with that boom? Mac thought someone would have broken radio silence.

  “Why would they have left us behind?” Tim asked finally, his voice trembling a bit.

  And that was a good question.

  “Because whatever they were going to do next, they didn’t think you’d go along with,” Rand said grimly. “You’ve been isolated from the main action all weekend if you think about it. Probably weren’t expecting guys like you to come out this weekend. Did you tell them ahead of time you would be coming?”

  “No need,” Tim said. “You just show up.”

  “If you’d said something, Norton would have found some reason for you not to go,” Mac said briefly.

  Tim subsided at that. Kevin looked sick. Mac thought he’d already figured it out.

  “But they left you a vehicle, right? So, you’d get back to camp, see the snow, and figure they headed out ahead of you and head down the mountain,” Mac continued. “And no biggie.”

  “Except for whatever they headed out to do before we reached the camp,” Rand said. He didn’t look away from the road. He had his headlights on now. Low beam. High beam just turned everything into swirling white.

  Mac knew he was worried about Ken and the others from their camp. “Some of them were probably out looking for us,” Mac said. “That’s who they left the vehicle behind for.”

  “What was that?” Angie said suddenly.

  They listened. Mac didn’t hear anything. “The other camp going up?” Mac asked.

  She shook her head. “No,” she said slowly. “I heard someone.”

  Fuck, Mac thought.

  Rand stopped, and they listened.

  “There,” Kevin said suddenly. “I heard someone too.”

  Mac looked at Kevin. “Can I trust you?” he asked, looking at the younger man. He though
t he could, but.... “If there is someone out there, it’s going to be you and me who goes and gets them. And if you betray me? I’ll kill you and leave you out there.”

  Kevin met his eyes. He looked determined. “I don’t know what the hell is going on,” he said slowly. “But if there is someone out there? We need to go get them. That’s what I joined the reserves to do. Rescue people in weather like this. Help people. If that’s what you’re going out there to do? Then we’re on the same team.”

  Mac nodded slowly. He looked at Tim. “You got gloves? Better snow gear? I didn’t pack for snow — I packed for rain, and left most of that behind when I thought we were going to have to walk out.”

  Tim nodded and pulled out gloves, a hat with ear muffs, a scarf and gave them to Mac.

  “We have first aid?” Kevin asked.

  “Yeah,” Mac said. He hopped out of the car, and Angie slid into the passenger seat. “Remember what we agreed to,” he said.

  She nodded. “Get the camera to Janet,” she said, her voice wobbling a bit. “And don’t you forget. You’re coming down right behind me.”

  “You got it,” he said. He kissed her. Looked at Rand. “Take care. Go on about 30 minutes. Stop. Wait for 30 minutes. If we don’t catch up with you by then? Hightail it out of here. You can send in search and rescue when you get down to Sedro Woolley.”

  He didn’t wait for a reply, but slammed the door, and tapped the roof of the SUV. Rand slowly pulled away. Mac shrugged on his pack, and then slung his rifle over his shoulder. “Where?” he asked Kevin. “Which way?”

  They both stood still, and Mac heard it too this time. Definitely a human call. He thought it might be Craig Anderson, actually. “That way,” Kevin said, and pointed. Mac agreed.

  “Lead, then,” Mac said. “You know this area better than I do. I’ll keep you in sight. If I can’t? We’ll rope up.”

  Kevin nodded, and set out, roughly south, by southwest, Mac thought. Not quite downhill, but a traverse of the slope. Mac matched his stride, focused on the florescent stripe on Kevin’s backpack and followed.