The Yellowstone Brief

by Larry LaVoie

  “What do you think?” Josh asked. “This is your desk and your computer. Information will be forwarded to you from a cloud server and, after you make sure the information is correct, you’ll forward it to the office computer and back it up in the cloud again. You need to make sure the data is accounted for, but you will not be able to make a personal copy. Every morning, five days a week, you’ll be picked up by car 7:00 A.M. sharp and brought here. You’ll have an hour break for lunch in which time you can use the rest of the house. You are not to leave the premises at any time during work hours. At 5:00 P.M. sharp, my driver will pick you up and take you home. Is that clear?”

  “I thought we’d be working together.”

  “I’ll be around from time to time. On Friday afternoon we’ll have a staff meeting. I’ll expect a financial report, verbal, not written. No information is to be written down. You will notice there is neither pen, nor paper in the house. What you put on the computer will all be in your head and in secure storage, nowhere else.”

  Heather let out a long breath. “That’s a lot of information to remember.”

  “If you’re smart you’ll remember only what you have to and forget it as soon as you pass it on to me. If you don’t think you can handle that, now is the time to speak up.”

  And end up face down in the Potomac, Heather thought. “That’s why you pay me the big bucks.”

  “Good. I’m going to give you the rest of the day off and my driver will pick you up first thing in the morning. Your first assignment will be to hack into Edmonds computer and expunge any connection to Green Keepers.”

  There it was, out in the open. There is no way I’m going to use his computer to go into Edmonds’ system while the FBI is watching. They may be watching my every move. How do I know this isn’t another test? “I can do you one better,” Heather said. “I have a USB drive at home with all of Edmonds’ files on it. I can remove your data from it and you can plant it in Edmonds’ residence. I know his computers don’t have any financial data left on them. Once the FBI finds it, they’ll stop looking.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “It makes sense. If they find what they are looking for, why would they keep looking? Look, I have it all right here,” Heather said, pulling the flash drive from under her blouse.

  “You were going to use that for a bargaining chip with the FBI.” Josh smiled. “I’m beginning to like you more and more.” He reached for the flash drive.

  “I said, after I remove your data, you can have it.” She coyly slipped the drive back under her blouse. “I’ll clean it up at home tonight and give it to you tomorrow.”

  “I’ve got a better Idea. You remove the Green Keepers data and let me review the device. You may need to use it later, as a bargaining chip, so I’ll give it back, if you need it. The FBI may come after you when they find out you took the financial records from Edmonds.”

  “Good point,” Heather said. The entire conversation was to gain Josh Stone’s confidence. She doubted she would have to remove anything from the flash drive. For all she knew there was nothing on the device. It was originally given to her for insurance. If there was anything on it, it was completely made up. Maybe she should have a look at it to make sure she wasn’t digging her own grave.

  Back in the parking garage, Heather waved goodbye to Josh and got into her teal blue Toyota Prius. Her mind was bursting with information she needed to put in her report. She headed toward her house and immediately went around the block, changing direction, realizing she had to go the apartment complex where Heather Smith, her cover was living. Don’t make that mistake again, she mused. They could be tailing me.

  In her apartment, Heather slipped the flash drive into the USB port on her laptop. What she found amazed her. It appeared to be a full accounting of Edmonds records, including line items that mentioned Green Keepers, by name, along with campaign donations that were diverted to the organization. Green Keepers had organized get out the vote campaigns in several key counties in Edmonds’ home state. They rigged the election, Heather thought, reviewing the data. No wonder they want the data expunged. She went through the document, line by line and removed any reference to Green Keepers. When she was finished, she put the drive back around her neck and poured a glass of Chardonnay. This should be a very interesting assignment, she mused. Beats the hell out of sitting in White Collar buried under a stack of files.

  Chapter 14

  August 13th, Yellowstone National Park

  Nathan Langford pulled his Cadillac Escalade into Park Headquarters at the back of the building. He stopped in front of the sign reading, Park Superintendent. He was fifteen minutes early for a meeting called by Henry Evans. The paved parking area was cast in long shadows from the sun setting behind the nearby mountain peaks. In the lot, which was normally deserted this time of night, there were three other vehicles. The light from the windows was the only light except for a streetlight in the distance. He looked up at the sound of a helicopter circling overhead. He could see bright lights hovering, searching for an appropriate landing spot. Within a few seconds the grass oval in front of the post office was lit up from the chopper’s landing lights as it descended. He ran in the direction of the helicopter. A whirlwind engulfed the craft. Nathan ducked and put his arm across his face to avoid being hit by flying debris. He could see the marking on the craft. This is crazy. Why is a USGS helicopter arriving here unannounced?

  The whine of the turbine engine died down and the rotors slowed their speed. The door opened and the head of the Western USGS operation stepped to the ground. From Nathan’s vantage point in the shadows, he could see only a silhouette of the diminutive figure of the USGS chief. His Stetson hat left no doubt that it was the man he’d seen in the video conference; he had worn the hat through out the entire meeting. As the USGS chief approached with a limping gait, Nathan stepped out. “Clayton, this meeting must be more important than I thought if you’re here.”

  The little man jumped back. “Dammit, Nathan, you scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sorry Clayton. I thought this was going to be a meeting with Park personnel. Then I see you making the grand entrance.”

  “Evans called me. Said he needed support for closing down Old Faithful. I thought I’d come up and see what he had to say. You’re not giving him a hard time are you?”

  “He mentioned he was closing the Mallard Lake Dome area. Naturally, I called my boss in Washington.” Nathan thought there had to be some kind of an emergency. Clayton Brown hadn’t been to the park since he’d taken over as director two years earlier. The last meeting they had had was in the Western Regional Headquarters in Menlo Park, and a few days earlier, by teleconference, after the earthquakes had started. For Clayton to make an 800 mile trip this time of day smelled of something more than support for an action that was within his decision-making jurisdiction. Nathan had only heard about the meeting three hours earlier. He followed Clayton into the building and on entering the conference room, immediately approached his volcanologist. “Henry, what the hell’s going on? You didn’t tell me your boss would be here.”

  Henry was startled by the aggressiveness of Nathan. He held up the palms of his hands in a defensive gesture, half expecting Nathan to throw a punch at him. “Calm down, Nathan. You’re as concerned with the activity in the park as I am. I wanted you to get the full story, so I invited Clayton to back me up.”

  Nathan looked around the room and saw half a dozen of his staff staring at him with dropped jaws. He backed off. “You should have let me know what was going on.”

  Henry started to explain, but thought better of it and walked to one wall of the room that was covered with satellite images of the park. He went up to the microphone and tapped it for attention. “For the benefit of those who haven’t met Clayton Brown, he’s the USGS Director of the Western Office out of Menlo Park. He was kind enough to come to our meeting because he knows how important it is to make the proper decision, when decisions of the magnitude
we are about to make, are necessary.” He gestured toward Clayton, who waved his hand.

  From Nathan’s place in the back of the room, the dozen or so standing in front of him looked like they were still in high school. They were mostly fresh out of college with degrees in geology, environmental engineering, and forest preservation and management. He may have met some of them, and although they all depended on him for their paycheck, he couldn’t recall the name of any of them. He did know, however, that every one of them was highly trained, or they wouldn’t be in the meeting. Suddenly, 61 year-old Nathan felt old. Technology had passed him by and he didn’t seem to be in the loop of his own organization. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to see a friendly face. “Roger,” he said in a low voice, “I think Henry’s gone off the deep end. He’s threatening to close the Mallard Lake Dome area. What the hell is going on?”

  Roger, the head of Yellowstone Park Security, was in his mid-forties and had worked at the park for nearly twenty years. In that time he’d seen several Park Directors come and go. “Nathan, we are all here to learn. Henry wouldn’t have called everybody here if it wasn’t important.”

  Nathan harrumphed and turned back toward the front where Henry was tapping a long pointer stick on a satellite image. He recognized Old Faithful and the surrounding area with many of the most popular geysers.

  “For those of you who aren’t geologists I’m going to explain why we are here. This area of the caldera has been seeing unusual ground movement. It has been rising at an alarming rate. A few inches in as many years would normally be of concern, but we’ve seen that much movement in the past two weeks. The swelling of the area and the earthquakes can only be interpreted in one way. Magma is moving beneath the area. Remember, Yellowstone is an active volcano. We need to cordon off this area and make it restricted to non-park personnel. That includes the lodge and the visitor center. We need to make certain no unauthorized persons are allowed to get within 10 miles of the area. That’s a radius of 10 miles from Old Faithful. At any given time there are thousands of visitors in the park and it is crucial that we make sure they do not wander into restricted areas. If the threat continues we will be closing many more areas and eventually the park altogether.”

  A girl with dark hair pulled back in a long ponytail raised her hand. “What kind of a threat are we talking about?”

  “Good question,” Henry said. “We’re not really sure. At this point we can’t predict if there will be a full blown eruption, simply the appearance of new geysers, or just an anomaly that will reverse itself as it has done in the past. We have had similar incidents in the past that have ended up being false alarms. We really don’t understand how the system builds up pressure and relieves itself. This is just a precaution.”

  The room erupted in murmuring. Clayton, who was standing next to Henry, removed his Stetson and waved it to get attention. He grabbed the microphone. “I think I can add a little light to what Henry just said.” He replaced his hat and pulled up a chair and stood on it. Without the added height of the chair, Clayton’s short stature made it impossible for those in the back of the room to see him. “There is no immediate danger to park personnel or those visiting the park. We’ve seen this kind of activity in the past. As you may well know Yellowstone Lake has been tilting, causing the beach to grow on one end and flooding on the other. Ground movement is nothing to be concerned about, but with that said, we need to all be on alert. Nothing is certain and we’ve had to close areas of the park to protect visitors and park personnel in the past. We’re not here to alarm anyone, just to inform and insure their safety.”

  “Why are we here, if there’s nothing to be concerned about?” a young man in the center of the crowd called out.

  Clayton took the pointer from Henry. “Old Faithful is the most popular feature of the park. If anything happens to this area of the park, we’ll have to close the road from West Thumb to Madison. That’s a huge area and all of you will be needed to enforce such a closure.”

  “Then you are saying we need to be concerned,” another male voice from the room spoke up.

  “At this time, we are only monitoring the activity. We will meet with the park authorities before any further action is taken. Your responsibility as park personnel is to keep the peace and keep people safe. That’s all I can tell you at this time.” He pointed to Nathan Langford, “unless you have something to add, Nathan.”

  Nathan was taken by surprise. He was still fuming from not being told Clayton was going to attend the meeting. He made his way through the standing audience and stood beside Clayton, who was now, with the help of the chair, a foot taller than he. “I’m not a scientist, so for now we’ll have to take them at their word. I’m certain there will be more to discuss in the coming days. We have had trouble when we have closed areas in the past. Some of you may remember when we closed the Cougar Creek Trail. It took several rangers to quiet a group of seniors who had motored all the way from Vermont for an annual get-together. The rangers were able to suggest several alternatives, but I still heard about it in my office.” He glared up at Clayton. “For now go about your jobs, keep the public as happy as you can in a stressful situation, and keep me informed of any unusual problems.”

  “Keep Henry informed, too,” Clayton shouted as the room started to clear.

  Nathan wanted to kick the chair out from under the little shit. “Henry! My office, right now.” He turned and walked briskly down the hall.

  “I guess I should have given him more of a heads up,” Henry said, watching Clayton climb down from the chair.

  “He did look a little pissed. I thought his boss was going to bring him up to speed.”

  Nathan Langford settled in the worn leather chair behind his desk. He started going through his Email, waiting for Henry to show. Damn insolent help. If he worked for me, I’d fire him. He scrolled through a half dozen messages before seeing one from the National Park Service Director, William Getting. Getting reported to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Nathan had met the man once at a fundraiser, but had never communicated with him on any level. He opened the Email, half expecting it to be a mass distributed message, but was surprised to see it was addressed specifically to him. He read the message and his face turned red.

  There was a knock on the door. Nathan looked up. “Come in.” He rose from his desk. “Before you say anything, I owe both of you an apology. I didn’t get the message form NPS Director until just now. What can I do to help the situation?”

  Clayton plopped down in a chair opposite Nathan and crossed his legs. “I guess we should have asked if you got the message,” Clayton said in a somewhat apologetic tone. “The urgency of the situation...” His words trailed off.

  “How bad is it really?” Nathan asked, taking his chair behind the desk again.

  Henry looked at Clayton as if to get his permission to speak. “Critical. We have a team of experts being called in.”

  “Experts? I thought you were the experts.”

  Clayton took it from there. “Hell, Nathan, I’m just an administrator like you. Last time I was in the field was Mt. Pinatubo. A lot has happened since then.”

  “Henry, you sure as hell haven’t been in administration,” Nathan said.

  “After graduating, I was stationed at the Mt. Saint Helens Observatory until I got the job here. That was long after St. Helens erupted. I’m way out of my element with an active super volcano creeping toward an eruption.”

  “Eruption? Is Yellowstone going to erupt?”

  “Bad choice of words,” Clayton said. “No one knows for sure what’s happening. That’s why we’re rounding up a team of experts.”

  “Why is the Deputy Secretary so interested?”

  “Yellowstone is a national treasure. No one wants to see her blow up. He’s got a direct link to President Merrill, in case this develops into a national emergency.”

  Henry put his hand to his head and shook it as if clearing his mind. “I’
ll be the first to admit, I’m in way over my head. If this volcano decides to explode like it did in the past, the President of the United States will be more than interested. The entire country will be at risk.”

  “Why do I get the feeling you aren’t telling me everything?”

  Clayton leaned forward in his chair. “I was blindsided by Getting’s involvement. Whatever is going on is at a higher pay grade than any of us. I suspect you’ll know when the rest of us do. For now we’ve been asked to quietly shut down the park. The closing of the Mallard Lake Area is just the beginning. That’s as much as I know. I’ve told you everything.”

  Nathan scratched the back of his head. “There isn’t any way I can do this quietly. How much time do we have?”

  Clayton shrugged. “You’re the superintendent. I’m sure your boss will be asking for a plan.”

  “You guys have to do better than that. Give me a number. Two weeks? A month? What?”

  “As fast as you can,” Clayton said. “If this thing blows up, no pun intended, it won’t make any difference anyway.”

  “I suppose I can have the entrance gates closed, but in this day of satellite communications it will be a matter of minutes before the news gets the attention of the national media.”

  “Not my problem,” Clayton said, rising to his feet. “I’m going to ride this out in California. If they clue me in, I’ll let you know who the experts are and when they’ll arrive. If not, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep me up to date.”

  “All the secrecy, you’d think it is a matter of National Security,” Nathan said.

  Clayton looked at him and nodded. “Scuttlebutt has it, the Director of Homeland Security has a plan, but it’s top secret. Go figure. I suppose we’ll find out the truth when it’s politically expedient for the administration to let it out.” He walked out the door.