by Dees, Cindy
* * *
Mike stretched out a cramp beneath the camo netting draped over him and Piper and then settled back into place on the mountainside above the PHP compound. Coming to Idaho was a long shot, but what else did they have to go on?
It all came back to the money. Two seemingly unrelated players—Abahdi and the PHP guys—had abruptly come into windfalls of cash. Both players seemed to be using it for nefarious, yet to be determined, purposes. Maybe each group’s goals were related, maybe not. But they had nothing else to go on.
If Abahdi could be made to talk, the FBI was certainly the bunch to do it. In the meantime, he and Piper were going to pick up the PHP thread of this whole puzzle and see where it led them.
Like he said. A long shot. More like a Hail Mary.
The PHP compound across the valley was as private and closed off as Piper had described it. A tall, crude wall made of logs like an Old West fort surrounded the cluster of cabins and gardens. Beyond the wall, several metal pole barns looked like a car and tractor repair set-up.
He and Piper had been parked here for hours, and except for the lazy swirl of wood smoke from a few chimneys, they’d yet to see a single movement of interest. The weight of time ticking by lay heavy upon his shoulders. Memory of those dead girls staring out of their plastic bags still made his skin crawl. He didn’t even want to think about thousands of people dying the same way.
“These guys nocturnal, or what?” he muttered to Piper.
“Nope. Just quiet. I told you that before.”
“You weren’t kidding,” he retorted. “Walk me through what goes on in each building again.”
She was able to name who lived in most of the cabins and pointed out the community building, barn, and equipment shed. He was right—the pole barns were a shop facility.
“What about that big building over there?” He pointed at the farthest building beyond the others.
“That one’s new since the last time I was here. I honestly don’t know.”
“So, if the PHP is doing something new, it’s likely to be contained in that new building.”
She shrugged. “I highly doubt they’re building a nuclear bomb in there, if that’s what you mean.”
“You know these guys really well. How long have you been watching them?”
She shrugged, her shoulder lifting against his. “I travel a lot with my job these days. I’ve kept tabs on them from afar for a while.”
“Why these guys? They’re a pretty obscure little group.”
“Until they went to Khartoum,” she replied sourly.
“After dark, let’s go down and have a look in that new building,” he suggested.
Horror crossed her face. “Are you crazy?”
“Not at all. Something has changed with these guys. That’s the one physical feature that has changed recently. Let’s check it out. It’s not like they’ll have pressure pads and laser beams guarding the place.”
“I can’t agree to this plan. It’s dangerous and it’ll tip off the PHP that we’re watching them.”
She couldn’t agree? “I’m not asking your permission, Piper.”
“And why’s that? I’m the expert on these guys, not you. I should be the one making the call, and I say we stand off and watch them for a day or two.”
“We don’t have a day or two for leisurely surveillance on these guys. Tick tock, baby. Tick tock.”
“I know we’re on a short clock. But you’re underestimating them. Which is irresponsible.”
“Not at all,” he ground out. “It’s called taking a calculated risk. The time crunch demands that we move this investigation along. And if you don’t have the cahones to take a chance in the field, go home. I’ll handle this on my own.”
She threw up her hands. “Oh, now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. You don’t like having me out here! You want to do this alone and get all the glory for yourself!”
He rolled onto his side to stare at her. “I beg your pardon?” If she seriously thought he did this job for glory, then she didn’t know him in the least. Yes, he took deep satisfaction in his work, and he was the first guy to appreciate an attaboy from his boss. But it had always been about doing the right thing, protecting his country and family. It had never been about personal aggrandizement.
“You heard me.” Her voice quavered with a little less resolve than before.
“I heard you. I just can’t believe what I heard.” His voice dropped into a low, dangerous tone. “If you ever accuse me of doing my job for glory again, we’re going to have a serious problem between us.” And that was as much of a warning defining his line in the sand as she was going to get out of him.
Piper fell silent. Hopefully, she was digesting his warning and becoming one with it. Eventually, she murmured, “For security, they mostly rely on good old-fashioned guard dogs. Which are not to be underestimated. They’ll rip your throat out and are noisy as heck.”
He accepted her surrender to his authority out here—and her unspoken apology—with grace. He replied easily, “Dogs are one good bone away from quiet and your best friend. Let’s head back to town and pick up some steaks. We can be back here before dark.”
“You’re nuts.”
“I’m a man on a tight schedule. We haven’t gotten any texts from my boss, which means Yusef isn’t talking. You and I both know that, if he hasn’t talked by now, he’s not going to talk at all. It’s up to us to figure out where he dropped his virus bomb. And those people down the hill are our best bet at getting an answer.”
Piper was uncharacteristically quiet on the ride back to town. She seemed inordinately ill at ease being back here. Like she’d gone back to her old high school and realized that, as an adult, she no longer fit in.
They picked up a big package of T-bone steaks and headed back up into the mountains. The PHP compound was actually several miles outside of tiny Elkville, which was little more than a gas station and a convenience store. More of an intersection than an actual community.
They settled back into their hide as the gloaming closed in quietly around them. Mike commented, “This is my favorite time of day. When the colors have faded to shades of gray and night has not quite fallen.”
“Why?” she asked.
“The quiet, I suppose. Night creatures aren’t out yet, but the day creatures have all headed for home. It’s peaceful.”
“You strike me as the type to enjoy a hot fire fight rather than a bucolic twilight.”
“I’m deep. I’ve got layers, baby.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re an onion. Layers and layers of smelly onion.”
He chuckled low so the sound wouldn’t carry. There was no wind to rustle the leaves and disguise any sounds they made out here. “We’ll wait till everyone’s asleep, and then we’ll stroll in and take a peek. If you want to catch a power nap, I feel pretty good.”
He leaned back against a mossy tree trunk and peered down at the soft glow of kerosene lamps shining from the PHP cabins. It didn’t look like a terrible life these people lived. Although, he didn’t see how they paid for things like food, clothing, and basic supplies. Maybe that was the purpose of the shop.
Why would a commune of back-to-basic freaks radicalize out of the blue? While he tried to imagine what had changed the PHP, it started to rain. Piper scooted further under the tarp he’d rigged like a porch roof overhead. He gathered her against his side, and she snuggled in, more asleep than awake. She was warm as she threw an arm across his middle. Comfortable. The two of them fit one another.
Physically, at least. She was secretive and prickly when she was fully conscious and carried around a hell of a chip on her shoulder. She didn’t need to. She was good at her job, and other than needing to dial back the risks she took, a decent surveillance operative. If he had a year to train her, he could turn her into a top-flight operative.
Rain pattered down on the plastic tarp and full night settled softly around them. It was the most relaxed he’d been since he
’d spotted a sniper scope staring back at him on a rooftop in Khartoum. Which was odd, given the crisis they were up against. Piper had that effect on him when she wasn’t driving him crazy.
He let her sleep for almost three hours before waking her gently with a kiss at her hairline. The rain had stopped, and the last light had winked out in the compound. “Hey, sleepyhead,” he murmured. “It’s almost midnight. By the time we make our way down to the fence, it’ll be time to rock and roll.”
“I’m telling you. This is a bad idea.”
“Honey, this is what I do for a living. I slide in and out like a ghost. No noise, no fuss, no one the wiser that I’ve been there.”
“Don’t underestimate these guys—“she started.
“It’ll be fine.”
She huffed and rose to her feet. “Lead on, General Custer.”
He grinned and gave her a hand signal to zip her lip and head out. She wasn’t a trained infiltrator like he was. This stuff was his specialty, however.
The first dog to bark a short, sharp warning was rewarded immediately with a nice chunk of steak, and more importantly with the bone that would take the beast an hour or more to gnaw through. Mike waited for Kujo to get completely engrossed in his treat before moving onward, right up next to his target building.
What the hell was Piper so tense about? These guys had no roving night guard, no electronic security, and a dog. Piece of cake—
Oh, shit. A pack of a half-dozen dogs rushed around the corner without warning, barking their heads off. Working frantically, he cut the steaks into smaller pieces so everybody could have something to chew on. They had maybe ten minutes before the first dog finished eating and loud doggie arguments started breaking out over the remaining bones.
He signaled Piper to follow him fast. He moved to the big garage door in the back of the metal building. The padlock was an annoyance, but he picked his way through it soon enough. They had maybe five minutes to look around and get out.
Tension radiated off of Piper out of all proportion to this simple little B&E. Was she really that inexperienced? What had her boss been doing sending her to Sudan to watch anyone?
He oiled the tracks of the door as high as he could reach on both sides with a little can of lubricant he’d brought for the job. He eased the door open about eighteen inches and signaled her to hold it for him. He lay down flat on his belly and took a look inside. Small tires in a tricycle configuration made him frown. No tractor had wheels like that.
More to the point, he didn’t see any boots or signs of humans inside. He signaled an all clear to Piper. And then he rolled under the door. He held it for her and waved her inside, as well. She stood up while he eased the door back down to the ground.
He made a quick circuit of the big, open space. It was ringed with tools, spare parts, and a general layer of grease that declared it a shop. But what he couldn’t make sense of was the small, high-winged airplane sitting in the middle of the space. What did a bunch of folks like the PHP want with an airplane?
Piper looked thunderstruck as she trailed him around the space. When he’d determined the building was clear, he muttered, “Does this compute with you?”
She shook her head emphatically in the negative.
“Have they got an airplane mechanic among them?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“They working on it for income?”
“It has been a while since I’ve peeked at their books. They never had a lot of cash, but they weren’t in dire straits the last time I checked. Their capital costs are pretty low. They own their land outright and don’t use utilities. Taxes are way low out here.”
He moved over to the airplane, which would normally be a six-seater. But a glance inside showed both rows of rear passenger seats had been removed. In fact, the seats sat off to one side of the hangar on the floor. Something bulky and oblong filled the floor of the rear area of the plane.
He reached for the pilot’s door handle.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Finding out what’s under that tarp in the back of the plane.”
She scowled at him as he slipped into the cramped cockpit and maneuvered onto his knees on the pilot’s seat. He lifted the tarp and swore. “You gotta look at this,” he muttered.
He lifted the tarp enough for her to peer through the window, and for good measure, he shined his flashlight on what looked like a giant motor underneath. The kind kids built in school with an oversized coil of copper wire wrapped around a central core.
“What on earth?” she breathed.
What were the PHP doing with a complicated electronic device inside a freaking airplane? Color him confused—
—A dozen flashlights pointed at the airplane all at once, and the distinctive chink of shotgun shells being chambered froze Mike on his knees in the seat. He let the tarp slip from his fingers unobtrusively and drop back over the device.
“I told you,” Piper commented in a regular speaking voice.
“Out of the plane! Hands behind your head! Move nice and slow or I’ll feed you to the dogs in little pieces.”
The guy didn’t sound like he was kidding. Mike reviewed the infiltration step by step in his head trying to figure out where he’d gone wrong. Did these guys actually have some sort of electronic surveillance system after all? He hadn’t even bothered to check for one. But if they were harboring a high-tech airplane loaded with some sort of complex motor, who knew what other technology they might be using.
He could kick himself for being so sloppy.
Rough hands shoved him onto his belly on the cold, concrete floor and frisked him thoroughly.
The voice that had yelled at him before ordered, “Light some lanterns.”
In a few seconds, a trio of lanterns flared to life, sending a faint, propane-scented hiss into the night.
“What the hell?” the man’s voice exclaimed.
From beside him Piper said in a small voice, “Hi, Daddy.”
Thirteen
Mike’s head whipped up off the concrete toward her. Daddy? Daddy? Her father was a member of the PHP? Someone shoved his head back down but not before he got a good look at “Daddy.” Sonofabitch. It was Joseph Brothers himself, founder of the damned group. Brothers. Roth. B-Roth-ers. Son of a bitch.
His mind raced. No wonder she’d known so bloody much about this group. No wonder she’d spotted the threat when no one else had ever heard of these guys. And no wonder she’d been so damned interested in finding out what her father was up to in Sudan. Jesus.
Could she be trusted? Was she one of these extremists? She’d been all hot and bothered to prove she was as good as one of the boys—was that all about gaining acceptance into the ranks of these nutballs? What had she told the PHP about her mission…or his? About him? Had she managed to tip off her father that the two of them were coming when he’d been in the store buying steak? It would explain how easily they’d been spotted, tonight.
“Who’d you bring home with you, Pipes?” one of the others asked.
“That’s Mike. I told him we wouldn’t be able to sneak in here without getting caught, but he just had to try.”
“Who the hell are you, Mike?” Brothers growled.
“I guess I should say, ‘Hi, Dad,’ too. Piper and I got married a few months back.”
He caught her gasp since she was lying right next to him, but he prayed the others hadn’t. She turned her head to stare at him intently. God, he could see the wheels turning in her head.
Moment of truth. Would she back up his legend, or roll on him and give him up to her family? He stared at her grimly in the flickering light, awaiting her next move.
She extended her hand to grab his and give it a squeeze. “Can we please get up off the floor? It’s cold.”
Dammit, what was she going to do? Go along or give him up? He was hoisted to his feet, and to buy time he made a production of brushing himself off. He looked over at her expectantly. This was eith
er going to go very well or very badly in the next few seconds.
Piper took a step closer to him and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. “Dad, this is Mike McCloud, your new-son-in-law. Mike, meet my father, Joseph Brothers.”
He breathed a partial mental sigh of relief. Now for the second hurdle. Would Daddy Dearest buy it? Brothers stared at him hard, like he was examining the interior of Mike’s soul, for a long minute.
Then, abruptly, Brothers boomed, “Well, let’s quit standing around here and get acquainted!”
Piper’s hand tightened convulsively around his arm. She was as tense as he was. Of course, the nutballs weren’t nearly so likely to blow her head off with all those shotguns pointed this way. Speaking of which, the shotguns started parking over shoulders and relaxing along thighs. Praise God. For a minute there, he’d thought they were toast.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. He’d known something was weird about Piper and the PHP. His instincts had been shouting it at him from the very beginning, but he’d been so besotted with her in the sack that he’d let sex distract him from digging for the truth.
God, to think he’d almost been done in by a woman. His siblings would laugh their heads off if they ever found out. He’d always been the stoic one. The one who never mixed women and work. The one who didn’t even particularly like girls.
Of course, Piper could still do him in. They weren’t clear of this compound, yet. And they still didn’t know what the PHP guys had to do with the Scientist. Why had Brothers and his partner-in-crime burned Abahdi’s lab down for him?
Piper kept her hand tucked under his arm as they were herded toward the big, central gathering building inside the log fort. Lanterns were lit around the room and embers in the big fireplace stoked to life. Lawn chairs and wooden stools were pulled into a rough circle in front of the hearth.
