Vicky at last found a way over the crest of the ridge and without pausing on the top, began picking a way down the other side that Tucker could negotiate. All of this was unfamiliar territory to Jonathan, but Vicky whispered back to him that she was sure it was the same way she’d gone with Shauna a few days before, and that she was certain they would find the smaller stream somewhere down in the forested ravine below. As he hung on to the saddle horn while Tucker descended, Jonathan realized that Vicky’s insistence on bringing the horse with them that morning had made all the difference. Jonathan had said it wasn’t necessary and that the purpose of going out there was to work on building up his strength, but Vicky argued that she couldn’t carry him back to the cabin if he couldn’t make it, and besides, it was no trouble to bring Tucker along, even though they were walking. Now, having the horse could mean the difference in life or death, because Jonathan knew he wouldn’t get far without him, even if his leg was getting better.
Aside from his concern over whether the intruders had already found Shauna, Jonathan doubted there’d be anything left to go back to at the cabin, not that they’d ever feel safe there again if there was. From what he’d seen of the way those men were ransacking it, piling everything up outside, he fully expected to lose everything, and probably the remaining horses as well. Taking inventory of what little they had with them, it was practically nothing: no food, no extra clothing, and little in the way of weapons and essential gear. The heavy-caliber lever-action rifle was a good hunting weapon and good for defense against large, dangerous animals, like bears, but with only a 5-round internal magazine, it was hardly suitable for combat against modern firearms. The Magnum revolver he carried was pretty much the same, while back at the cabin there were several assault rifles and high-capacity semi-automatic pistols, along with lots of magazines and ammo for most of them. All of that was out of reach now though, but at least he and Vicky had escaped with their lives—for now. Seeing the way those men breached the cabin door as if they were in house-to-house combat, Jonathan thought it just as likely they would have been shot on sight as taken prisoner, had the two of them been inside at the time. Whatever was happening at the cabin now though, was beyond their control. Finding Shauna was the important thing, and as they descended down into the drainage of the smaller tributary, Jonathan could only hope they weren’t too late to help her.
Vicky stopped when they came into view of the small stream rushing over the rocks a hundred feet below. “This is it, Jonathan. It runs into the main creek about a mile farther down,” she whispered.
“I think we’re close to where that shooting was coming from. We’ve got to be extra careful from here on.”
“Yep, and that’s why you need to wait here with Tucker and let me go on ahead. I can move a lot quieter by myself.”
“It’s too dangerous to go alone, Vicky! We’ll tie Tucker up and leave him here. I can make it.”
“You can’t be serious, Jonathan! You’ll either have to use your crutches or lean on me. Either way is way too slow and will probably make too much noise. And what happens if we need to run? You can’t! I’m not going far, I just want to quietly climb down to the creek bank and look around. It looks like there’s plenty of snow down there. If Shauna was down there, there’ll be footprints. Give me the revolver and you wait here with the rifle to cover me. Believe me, I’ll hide if I see anyone other than Shauna moving down there. And I’ll be back here as fast as I can.”
Jonathan didn’t like it, but hearing her logic, there was little he could argue with. It sucked to be injured like he was, and every day since it happened, he thought about how stupid he’d been to slip and fall like he did. The broken leg had been a pain in the ass for him and everyone else that had to deal with him. Now he had to sit here and wait while Vicky did the dangerous job of reconnoitering ahead in a situation where she could run into a group of armed goons that she wouldn’t have a chance against alone. But they had to try to find Shauna at all cost. Even if they lost everything in the cabin and had to leave the area, if the three of them escaped with their lives they would find a way to overcome the setback and do whatever they had to do next.
As he watched Vicky work her way through the trees down the slope, Jonathan whispered quietly to Tucker to keep him settled down. Jonathan knew little of horses before arriving here in Colorado, but since his fall, when Bob Barham used one to move him safely down to his cabin, he’d learned the value of the animals that now played a huge role in his life. Vicky was an expert with them, and she had assured him that Tucker was smart and well-trained, and that he knew what to do, regardless of Jonathan’s inexperience. She had been giving him riding tips for days now, usually out in the meadow in front of the cabin, and the more time Jonathan spent on the horses, the more he liked it. He’d also savored the time he got to spend with her, although he doubted anything would come of it. She was being nice to him and helping him because they’d been cast together into a situation where helping each other was essential to survival. And he felt he was mainly on the receiving end of all that help, and it aggravated him to no end that he couldn’t be more useful, especially in a crisis like the one they were facing today. He was nervous when she disappeared from sight, and time seemed to drag by while she was gone. But then he saw her making her way quietly up out of the ravine. Shauna wasn’t with her, but Vicky was carrying something in her hand.
“I found it jammed into a crack between two boulders,” she said, as she handed the ruined deer rifle to Jonathan. It was the Remington hunting rifle of Bob’s that Shauna had left with that morning; Jonathan had recognized it instantly, because he had been looking forward to trying it out himself. Now, with a broken stock and bent barrel, the rifle was useless, but Jonathan was surprised to see that the scope was still intact. It could be removed and would be useful by itself, and he would do so before discarding the ruined weapon. “There were lots of footprints all around where I found it,” Vicky explained, “but they didn’t go any further up this way. It looked like whoever made them went back the other way, down towards the main creek. I looked everywhere nearby, afraid I might find a body, but there was nothing.”
Jonathan felt his stomach tighten into knots as he thought about what might have become of Shauna. “Did you see any blood in the snow? Any other evidence that she may have been hit by whoever fired those rounds?”
“No, I thought of that too, but I didn’t see any. I think they must have caught her somehow and taken the gun away from her. They must have her now, Jonathan! I wanted to keep going to see, but I didn’t want to leave you here wondering. But now I’m thinking I need to sneak back up to the other side of that ridge, where I can see the cabin again and see if they brought her back there. We have to know, Jonathan.”
“I agree, but you can’t do it alone. I’m going with you!”
“You can’t, Jonathan! There’s nothing you can do, because you can’t go on foot, and if we try and take Tucker back over there, there’s a good chance we’ll be seen. You said yourself that they’re going to know that the cabin was lived in. They’re probably going to be looking everywhere for us, and when they come, we’ve got to be ready to make a quick getaway. You’ve got to trust me on this, Jonathan. I just want to get one more look and see if I can spot Shauna. We have to know if they have her or not!”
Five
AS SHE WAS LED onto Bob Barham’s property, Shauna acted as if she’d never seen any of it before. Even though she’d noted Tucker’s absence from among the other horses, she made sure not to focus on any one area or to show any obvious interest to indicate she cared about any of it. She could see that the others that found the place while the five chased her down had already gone through the cabin and hauled out almost everything that was inside. They seemed more interested in the weapons than anything else, and when the one they’d been calling “Chief” saw the stash they’d stacked outside, he grabbed Shauna roughly by the arm and pulled her over to the side of the porch, where two of the men were
taking an inventory of the guns and ammunition.
“Where did you people get all of this stuff, and what were you planning to do with it?” He demanded of her.
“I have no idea who these guns belong to! I told you, I’m not with anyone out here. I was at the ranch I told you about because I was looking for my daughter. I’ve never been here in my life!” She thought she sounded convincing, but when she looked at him again, the chief wasn’t looking at her, instead, he was staring at something amid the assorted pile of weapons, something that seemed to really pique his interest. “Hand me that rifle case, Jenkins! The brown one.”
When the other man passed it to him, Shauna felt a knot twisting in her stomach. She knew what it was, and so did the chief.
“Remington!” He said, as his eyes burned into hers with accusation. “It says Remington right here on the front of this case, but it sure feels awfully light for a rifle case! Let’s see what we have inside!”
He opened up the case and of course, found it empty. It was the case for Bob Barham’s Remington Model 700, and he knew as well as she did, even before he pulled out the owner’s manual Bob had tucked into an inner compartment, that the weapon that had been stored in there was the same as the 30.06 they’d taken from Shauna when they apprehended her.
“You have some explaining to do, lady, and this time, you’d better shoot straight. I don’t have any more time for games.”
Before she could say anything, one of the other men that arrived there first interrupted: “Chief, I think that rifle and some of the other nice hunting pieces we found here probably belonged to the owner of this cabin. We found his grave right out front, down there past the horse barn; freshly dug. This woman and her accomplices probably killed him.”
Shauna’s mind was racing as she considered how to respond to this. It was useless to continue denying that she’d been staying in the cabin, but since these men didn’t seem to know about Jonathan and Vicky and since the two of them obviously weren’t here, she wasn’t about to volunteer any information about them. She settled instead for a half-truth, as she knew she had to give them a lot more than she already had, because the rifle case had already proven she was hiding something from them.
“Okay look, I have been staying here. You know that now, but surely you understand why I wouldn’t volunteer that information. I have no idea who you people are, no matter what you said. You’re holding me against my will, and all I know is that these mountains are full of some very bad people.”
“There are bad people out here indeed,” the chief said, glancing out at the solitary grave marker in the meadow. “And it’s hard to say who they are.”
“Bob Barham was the owner of this cabin. He built it as his mountain retreat long before everything in this country started falling apart. He wasn’t murdered though. His death was an unfortunate accident. My husband and I buried him. He was helping us out, because like I said, my daughter is missing. Both of us came here looking for her, and it’s true what I told you about that ranch. It’s also true that the owners of that place were murdered by looters or bandits, whatever you want to call them. But before it happened, we found out from them where our daughter was headed. It’s a long way from here and Bob Barham was going to help us get there before he died, but it didn’t work out. So, my husband left me up here because he felt it was safer for me to stay here than to travel all that way through the mountains with him. We both felt this place was secluded enough that no one would find it, and they haven’t, until you came along today.
“You said you and your men are contractors working for the U.S. military. I found that interesting, because my husband has worked in that field for years, mostly in the Middle East and Europe, but he was a SEAL team operator before that. We had a lot of help getting out here to Colorado because of his former military service. In fact, he participated in a rescue operation for the Army in exchange for their help getting us here. That’s where some of the weapons you see came from. They are not stolen, and he would never have anything to do with the insurgents or terrorist groups that are causing all the problems in this country. My husband has spent his entire career fighting people like that overseas, and he damned sure doesn’t want to see it continue here.”
Shauna didn’t give him time to interrupt and the chief just stood there listening to her story with an emotionless face she couldn’t read. She didn’t know if he was buying a word of it or not, but she went on, filling in enough details that if he really was a contractor like Eric, he would know that she knew what she was talking about and wasn’t simply making stuff up. After telling him the highlights of their journey beginning in the boatyard in Florida, the chief finally stopped her.
“You’re either telling the truth or you’re really good at spinning fiction on the fly, lady. If it is true, then you’ll get your chance to tell it to someone in the Army eventually, and maybe they’ll look into verifying this Navy SEAL husband of yours. But that’s above my pay grade and outside of my area of specialty, so I’ll leave it up to the people who do that kind of thing. In the meantime, my mission is clear. I’m here to remove civilians and insurgent elements from the area by whatever means necessary. I have authorization to search and destroy, and with evidence we’ve found here, I don’t have to bother taking you in at all, but I’m going to anyway.”
“You can’t force me to go anywhere with you. I haven’t committed any crime! I was a guest here at this cabin before the owner died, and my husband will be returning here with our daughter when he finds her. He won’t know where to look for me if I’m not here!”
“You’re right, maybe I can’t force you, but I can shoot you if you don’t cooperate. I’m giving you a chance because your story may be true, but you’ll have to tell it to someone who cares. You can’t stay here, because my orders are to destroy any potential insurgent hideouts in these mountains, along with any supplies and equipment found with them. There’s no place in this sector that is safe for you, so you’ll be better off where you’re going. Once we get you back to our operations center, we’ll arrange for your transfer into government custody.”
“But I already told you what I was doing here! I’m no threat to the government or anyone else. Take all the guns and ammo and whatever else you think you have to confiscate, but please, let me stay here and wait for my husband! We’ll leave as soon as he gets back.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Like I said, I can’t leave this place standing.” With that, he turned back to his man, Jenkins: “Have the men sort all the weapons and ammo and useful supplies and load it onto those horses. Then burn the rest; along with the cabin and barn.”
“Why would you burn down this beautiful cabin?” Shauna pleaded. “It was that poor man’s dream. He spent years building it!” She was thinking, of course, of Jonathan and Vicky. Wherever they were, she was sure that they would return here soon. She hoped it would be after all of these men were gone, so that they wouldn’t be taken prisoner too, but even if they escaped that, they would need the cabin for shelter until they could get somewhere else. It was bad enough that the men were taking all the firearms, supplies and horses. But to burn the cabin too? That was a disaster.
“I already told you. It’s part of the job I agreed to. If I leave structures like this standing in these remote areas, they’ll be used by the insurgent and terrorist groups that find them. If your husband was the operator you say he was, then he’d tell you the same thing. This is pretty much standard procedure in this type of fluid environment.”
“My husband isn’t, and never was a mercenary at war with law-abiding American citizens! This is a disgrace and goes against everything he stands for, and everything this country stands for!”
“Lady, I don’t know whether you know much about what’s going on everywhere else or not, but if this situation isn’t brought under control, this country isn’t going to stand for anything, because it’s no longer going to stand! You can call me and my men whatever you like if it makes
you feel better, but it’s people like us who can get the job done. I did my time in this country’s military too, and my friends bled and died for what it stands for. Law-abiding citizens aren’t my enemy, but lately it’s been hard to tell who is and who isn’t. The only policy that works is to bring these lawless regions back under control. We’re fighting something here that’s much bigger than you realize, and it isn’t just a bunch of anarchists who don’t want to work and pay taxes. Who do you think is instigating all this? Did it occur to you that the money and weapons required to mount such a widespread and effective insurgency is coming from outside the U.S.? And that this entire mountain region from here to the southern border is wide open to the power-hungry drug cartels that control Mexico? Do you know the extent of what they would do to grab and take over a vast swath of the U.S. while the country is in complete chaos and they think there’s no one to stop them? That’s why we’re clearing these mountains out, because once that’s done, we will have a better idea of who the enemy is, and it will pave the way for striking them with decisive action.”
Hearing all this, Shauna realized nothing she said was going to change her situation. She would be taken away with these men, and that was that. They could have just as easily killed her as taken her alive, especially since she was armed at the time, giving them ample excuse under their loose rules of engagement, so she had to figure that she was lucky in a way that she would get a chance to plead her case for innocence later. As she stood there thinking of this, she was still afraid that Jonathan and Vicky would show up anytime and be taken into custody with her. She even briefly considered that it might be best for them, since they would all remain together that way and may have a better chance of survival, but Shauna couldn’t bring herself to mention them, because she could in no way trust these hired soldiers. Wherever Jonathan and Vicky were at the moment, at least they were free, and though they would be left with no shelter, weapons or supplies, as long as they were free, they would have a shot at survival. Maybe they would even find a way to reunite with Eric, and Megan, if he found her. Shauna could only hope.
Feral Nation Series Box Set 2 [Books 4-6] Page 38
