by Brett Baker
Only thirty minutes passed before a car emerged from the driveway. It was late in the evening, but I suspected that Cooper didn’t begin his night until most other people were well underway, so I expected to see his car. Instead I saw the S-class Mercedes that I’d followed earlier that evening. Since that car, and the man inside, had a direct connection to Leona, I decided to follow it. I knew that Cooper liked to spend time at Miller’s so even in the worst-case scenario I could eventually find Cooper there if I wanted to talk to him.
I let Cooper’s dad pull away and get out of sight before following him. The grid system of roads in the neighborhood all lead to highway 19, so I knew that I could catch up with the car there even if I lost it for a moment. But the driver must not have expected anyone to follow him because he drove directly toward highway 19 without trying any avoidance maneuvers. I hung back far enough to remain out of sight, but when I saw him turn right to head west on highway 19, I accelerated to get to the highway before he left me in his dust.
Cross City doesn’t have much traffic late in the evening, and all the lights were green, so the Mercedes built a head of steam as it hit the edge of town. I kept my foot on the gas long enough to gain some ground, but when I looked down and saw the odometer exceed ninety, I decided to hang back a bit and keep the car in my sight from a distance. The last thing I needed was to attract attention from law enforcement and have to explain myself. I made sure to keep my eyes on his tail lights, which proved easy to do in the dark Florida evening with no moonlight or artificial light pollution. The entire stretch of highway seemed to have been carved out of forest, as an almost solid wall of trees lined both sides of the road.
From a distance I saw the brake lights of the Mercedes illuminate for a split second, which indicated that the driver wanted to turn off cruise control, implying that his destination was near. I picked up the pace and closed within three hundred yards of him, as the road curved to the north, and the speed limit reduced. The Mercedes made a sharp left turn at a blinking yellow light, but to help ease his nerves, I passed the turn in the hope he’d check his rearview mirror, see me pass, and deduce no one followed him. I did a quick u-turn half a mile ahead, and then raced back to the flashing yellow light, turned off my headlights, and turned right. Driving in the dark is difficult enough with just the glow of light from surrounding sources, but when there’s no moon and a blockade of trees on either side, I might as well close my eyes. If not for the tail lights in the distance, I would have had no idea if I were headed in the right direction.
I watched as the tail lights illuminated again, this time for a few seconds, which indicated the car slowing. It made a right turn, and I considered turning on my headlights, but didn’t know how far the beam would travel, so thought better of it. Ninety seconds later I passed the spot where he’d turned. I continued straight, but I looked as I passed and saw that the Mercedes had parked next to three other cars, in a small gravel lot 200 feet from the road. The man stood next to his car with the door open, as his headlights fell upon the other cars, and he talked to a man standing next to him.
The road seemed desolate as I drove it, so I considered parking right there and making my way closer on foot to try and listen to their conversation, but I still worried that someone might pass by and see my car and provide some unwanted attention. I had no idea whether more people would join the Mercedes and the others, so I figured it best to keep driving and come up with another plan.
I followed the road farther south. Two miles later it reached the gulf, where it transitioned from pavement to gravel, and then back to pavement as it looped back northward. Along the waterfront it looked as though some houses might have stood at one time, but only foundations remained. The paved road veered to the west, and then the north, before ending in a cul-de-sac. I turned around, and intended to head back from where’d I come, but then stopped. There were three other cars in the lot with Cooper’s dad. Whatever the intended use of the lot in which they were parked, anything happening at such a late hour probably wasn’t on the up-and-up, and the fact that there were three cars parked there implied that everyone was there for the same reason. Any unexpected visitors might have made them a bit jumpy, and since Cooper’s dad seemed interested in me I figured it best to not to surprise him. So rather than confronting him and the others, I figured it better to monitor them without being detected.
I backed up and parked the car in the cul-de-sac. Anyone who followed the road past where the other cars turned, and ended up in the cul-de-sac would have seen my car right away, as I made no attempt to conceal it. But I planned to disappear into the woods, so they could have the car, but they’d have little chance of finding me.
A couple of trailheads seemed to lead to the west, but with Cooper’s dad and the others to the east of me, I ignored them, crossed the cul-de-sac, and took a few steps into the woods. I heard a few twigs snap beneath my feet, but I developed a soft step and managed to walk without a sound. The forest was thick, and the lack of a defined trail made it more difficult to get through. Two hundred feet in, I felt the ground beneath my feet become softer and thought I’d just come to a low, muddy part of the forest, but as I continued to walk the ground become wetter, until it transitioned from mud to standing water. Swamp.
I backtracked and veered to the right to try a different path, and although the ground remained spongy, it never turned to standing water.
Over years of working for The Summit, I’d become used to traversing unfamiliar terrain. Slow and steady always worked, although I’d somehow trained myself to avoid most pitfalls even if I had to run. I suspect such an ability stemmed from the general survival instincts that came from my life being in danger more days than not. If I didn’t adapt, and figure out a way to move quickly, both literally and metaphorically, I wouldn’t have survived long.
I knew I headed in the direction of Cooper’s dad and the others, but with such poor visibility, and constant redirecting due to impenetrable vegetation, I couldn’t just count steps to calculate the distance I’d traveled as I usually did. Every five steps forward required a step or two to the side, so it didn’t take long before I’d lost track of how far away Cooper’s dad might be.
I expected to encounter the men from the edge of the parking lot, while they stood by their cars, as they did when I drove past. So when I heard the unmistakable muffle of voices in the distance, I was glad they’d turned off their cars. Turning off the cars meant they intended to be there for longer than just a minute or two, which meant they wouldn’t be gone when I reached them, and maybe I could glean some information. I continued walking, but since the men weren’t far away, I began holding onto low-hanging branches as I walked, pulling up on them to reduce the impact, and the sound, of my footfalls.
When I saw a glow in the distance, I assumed one of the men had left his headlights on, but I soon noticed that it flickered. A couple of minutes later, after I veered to the left yet again, this time to avoid a group of trees that stood like impenetrable soldiers, unwilling to let me through, I saw that the men weren’t in the parking lot, but had moved to a campsite. Seven of them, including Cooper’s dad, gathered on logs around a campfire. They formed a circle around the fire so that two had their back to me, two were slightly turned away from me, and three had an unobstructed line of sight to where I stood. I knew the changing boundaries of light and dark between them and me would make it difficult for them to see since I remained in the shadows of the forest, but I remained cautious in my movements so that I continued to avoid detection.
As I came within a hundred feet of the site, I felt the ground turn spongy again, but since I could see dry land ahead at the site, I assumed it wouldn’t transition to swamp. I was wrong. Ten steps ahead I put my foot down into eight inches of water, soaking my foot up to my shin. I pulled my foot out, cursed soggy socks, and retreated to find a dry path. Two more attempts at passage led to the same result, before I found a track that became spongy, but then dried, forty feet away fro
m where I soaked my foot. I proceeded toward the campsite, where I found a bush between two trees on the edge of the site, behind which I knelt, and focused on listening.
The voices from the men who faced me were clear, and the circle of trees that surrounded them seemed to provide a sort of acoustic perfection that let me hear every word they said. However, that also meant that they could probably hear every sound that came from my direction, so I had to remain quiet. The men with their backs to me were harder to hear. I could hear that they were talking, but I had to concentrate in order to unscramble the slight muffle that probably also resulted from the acoustics.
Cooper’s dad faced my direction and leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees, his fingers intertwined. The first words that caught my attention came from the man sitting to his right.
“The man you sent to Chicago, did he have the meeting?”
“I have not heard from him,” Cooper’s dad said.
“He’s not fucking us is he, Oswalt?”
“Or are you the one fucking us?” another man on the other side of the circle asked, his voice heavy with anger.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll let you know when I hear from him. He’s got a lot going on, and he always operates with caution, so it’s not surprising that it might take a few days longer to hear from him than we expected. I’m not concerned, and you shouldn’t be either. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from him.”
“I’ll trust you on this. I guess we don’t have a choice at this point,” said the man to his right.
Cooper’s dad continued. “My question is, are we ready to go when we do hear from him? Some of us are taking a big chance on this, and the timing has to be perfect. If he’s cleared the way and you all haven’t done your part, then we’re screwed. There might be a very tight window of opportunity, and I’d hate to blow it.”
“My people are ready,” said the man to Oswalt’s left, after looking to the man to his left, who appeared to nod. “We had a dozen trucks make their way up 65 last night. They’re stationed in various places north and east of Birmingham, and once we give them the word they’ll proceed on schedule.”
“That’s my stuff on the trucks,” a man on the other side of the circle, with his back to me, said. “Which means your life is on those trucks, Oswalt. Anything happens to that before I get paid, and I’m going to have no choice but to find another way to be compensated, and to punish those responsible. I know you understand.”
“Of course. But there’s no need for you to worry. We’ve been working on this for so long, I’m confident in the plan, as long as you all have done your part. And since you have a financial stake in this, I assume we can count on you. As soon as we get word from Chicago, we’re good.”
“Is there any movement on Houston?” the man to Oswalt’s right asked.
“Houston? I don’t know anything about Houston,” Oswalt said.
The man to his right looked at him, said nothing, and then turned toward a man on the other side of the circle, as if Oswalt’s objection didn’t deserve a response.
“We’ve got a meeting next week in Texarkana. My associate in Houston says that this guy is on board, but there’s some question as to whether he’s in a position to help. I’m not certain we’ve got the right guy.”
“Why are we talking to him if we’re not certain he’s the right guy,” asked the man on Oswalt’s right. “Why the fuck would we waste our time? And if he’s not the right guy and he acts against us?”
“We’ll make clear in the meeting what will happen if he does that. It shouldn’t take too much imagination on his part. We’re meeting with him because he’s the only prospect we have. Not everything can fall into our laps like it did with Oswalt here. Some of this stuff we have to work for. And, as you know, sometimes the work isn’t enough. It might take incentives of other sorts.”
“What are we talking about here?” Oswalt asked. “What’s in Houston? What’s going on there?”
“You’re not in Houston. Don’t worry about it,” said the man on his right.
“Yeah, well I’m not in Chicago either, and I’m involved there. If you’re opening up Houston, I need to know about it.”
“There’s no part in Houston for you. You worry about Dixie County. We appreciate the connection in Chicago, but you shouldn’t assume that you’re going to be involved everywhere. The only constant in all of this is us,” he motioned to the other men around the circle. “And you know why that is.”
“I hope you all haven’t forgotten that my influence on this extends to a federal level. It would be unwise for you to think that I can’t do anything beyond Dixie County. Of course Dixie County is where it all begins, but I can protect you in other cities the same way I’ve arranged your protection in Chicago. The federal aspect of this is pointless if you don’t have someone on both the local and state levels on your side.”
“This isn’t an extension of what begins in Dixie County,” said the man on his right. “It’s an alternative to Dixie County.”
“Alternative? Why the hell do you need an alternative?” Oswalt asked, with a skepticism in his voice that wasn’t present moments before.
“Geography,” said the man on his right. “Dixie County is convenient, and we’re very pleased with how all of this has worked thus far. But you can’t get around the fact that a large segment of the American population is more than a day’s drive from you. We need to develop another entry point to help us reach those people more efficiently. It has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me,” Oswalt said. “Anything that doesn’t come through me becomes a competitor. I don’t like competitors.”
“That’s enough,” said the man to his right. “Without us you don’t have an operation. Anything that comes through another location isn’t a competitor. It’s a different market. You’re not selling to the same people. Apples and oranges, my man. I’m surprised you can’t figure that out.”
The man to Oswalt’s right had just finished speaking when I heard the first snort, a sort of growl that sounded like an echo. I felt my stomach sink as I recognized the sound right away. Alligator. Although not a gentle creature by any definition, an alligator can become even more hostile than usual if a nest is threatened. And since they plant nests in terrain similar to that which I had just hiked through to get to the campsite, I knew what I’d done. In any other situation I would retreat away from the alligator without turning my back, and with some luck she’d let me keep all of my limbs and live to tell the story. But retreat in this instance meant revealing myself to a group of men who seemed dangerous, and had gone out of their way to have a private conversation miles away from the nearest human. They wouldn’t welcome my arrival.
In an instant I decided the alligator was less threatening than the men, so I’d have to find a way to appease the alligator while making my escape. My training and work with The Summit had prepared me for almost every situation, but I must have missed the workshop on how to avoid being eaten by dinosaur-like monsters, because I had no idea how to escape from an alligator when retreat wasn’t an option.
I didn’t have to ponder the question for very long. Since I couldn’t retreat, and I didn’t want to walk toward the creature, I had no choice but to try to sidestep it and hope that I could open up enough distance to pass on its side without angering it. But as soon as I stepped with my left foot, the alligator let out a massive snort and I heard the crack of branches on the forest floor as it ran toward me. With the denseness of the trees I couldn’t see the animal as it approached, but the intensity of the snort and the encroaching sound of its footsteps told me it was getting closer. I had no choice but to try to run away, but I took two steps and caught my right shoulder on a tree, which knocked me to the ground. I rolled over to try to get to my feet, and saw the alligator for the first time, its snout three feet away from my face.
The sudden appearance of the prehistoric beast startled me, and I let out a scream th
at was equal parts fear, surprise, and defense mechanism. Only as I jumped to my feet and reached up to grab onto a tree limb to pull myself up from the alligator did I remember the group of men sitting just on the other side of the bushes.
Chapter 17
“What the fuck is that?” I heard one of the men yell as I pulled myself up until my chest hit the tree branch, and then hoisted myself on top of it.
“Was that an alligator? I think they’re around here.”
“I think so,” Oswalt said.
From my vantage point in the tree I had a clear line of sight to the men around the fire. All of them but one turned to Oswalt as if to seek guidance on how to defend themselves from an alligator. The only guy who didn’t look to Oswalt spoke.
“Not the alligator. Did you hear the scream? There’s someone back there.”
“Probably someone being eaten by an alligator,” one of the men said. “Maybe we should get the hell out of here so we’re not next.”
“Go check that out,” said the man who had been sitting to Oswalt’s right to the man sitting to his right. The second man looked back at him, but when he yelled, “Now!” the second man walked toward the bushes where I’d squatted just a minute before.
With the man approaching, I looked the other way to find the alligator. He’d charged at me, but I assumed when I disappeared into the tree above, his reptilian brain couldn’t process my location. So while I wished he’d run away rather than remaining motionless next to the tree trunk five feet away from me, I hoped that he didn’t plan on waiting for me to come down. With some luck the man approaching from the campsite would make a fine treat for him.
Instead, just as the man made his way through the bushes near where I’d listened to the conversation, the branch on which I sat broke with a loud crack, and I tumbled to the forest floor, landing on my back, while having the presence of mind to throw both of my arms outward to slap the ground and help absorb the impact of the fall. But the crack of the branch caught the attention of both the alligator, which scurried away, turned around, and scrambled back toward me, and the man, who looked in my direction, and yelled back to no one in particular, “Over here!”
