An Element of Risk

by Don Easton

  “That’d be good. Let me turn the alarm off before you open the door.”

  Reverend Bob then shut the alarm off, flicked on the coffee pot, and headed downstairs.

  One minute later Jack checked the side door to the hangar. It wasn’t locked so he opted to enter through it rather than risk sliding the larger door open.

  The windshield looked how he suspected it would. The cobwebbed pattern from being struck by Ferg’s head was obvious. Specks of dried blood and a couple of grey hairs were still visible in the cracks.

  His first thought was to get a hair sample. If the windshield disappeared and he was later required in court, the DNA sample would provide crucial evidence.

  Then again, could I still do that and protect Lance? Maybe if the district attorney treated me like an informant and allowed me to testify without my face being seen I could. Or would that be allowed? He eyed the blood and hair in the windshield. Cross that bridge when I come to it. Get the damned sample.

  A box of garbage bags on the workbench served his purpose for something to wrap the sample in. He tore off a small piece of plastic and returned to the windshield and squatted down to pluck a hair from the glass.

  Reverend Bob’s voice boomed out behind him. “Find what you’re looking for?”

  Oh, fuck! Jack scrunched the piece of plastic in his hand and looked over his shoulder. Reverend Bob was still in his bathrobe and his face revealed his anger.

  Zach, who was shirtless and wearing work boots with the laces dragging on the ground, stood beside him. The butt of a pistol protruding from the top of his jeans.

  Now what do I do?

  He heard Luke and Jerimiah running across the yard toward them and subconsciously swallowed, then tucked the piece of plastic in his waistband and stood up before turning to face them.

  Reverend Bob gave him a look of utter contempt, then said, “Guess I didn’t mention that when I shut the alarm off to the house, I didn’t turn it off out here.”

  Luke and Jerimiah then stepped into the hangar. Like Zach, they were only dressed in jeans, but hadn’t bothered to take the time to put anything on their feet.

  Reverend Bob gave a sharp nod to Zach, who then reached for his pistol.

  Time to start talking … fast.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Back at the logging camp, the lights in the trailers had remained on until 4:00 a.m. If the surveillance teams thought they would then be able to get any rest themselves, they were wrong. Not long after the lights went out, hordes of insects descended upon them. By daybreak, their faces had turned into blotchy lumpy masses flecked with bloody red dots from a combined attack by mosquitoes and black flies.

  At 7:00 a.m. Dawson got up from the log he’d been sitting on and took a few steps to stretch his legs. He then looked at Schneider, who was stretched out on his back with his legs hanging over the sides of the log. “Remind me for next time to throw some bug spray in the glovebox.”

  “Let’s hope there’s not a next — son-of-a-bitch!” Schneider exclaimed and jumped to his feet while shoving one hand down the crotch of his jeans.

  “Keep the noise down,” Dawson ordered. “What the hell are you doing? Playing with yourself?”

  Schneider brought out his hand and carefully examined whatever he’d plucked from his crotch.

  “A bloody ant!” Schneider announced, then rolled it between his thumb and forefinger before flicking it away. “Oh, Jesus, I think I got another one,” he said, this time shoving his hand down the back of his jeans.

  “At least all the hoppin’ around you’re doing ought to warm you up,” Dawson observed.

  Schneider didn’t appear to be amused and gestured toward the camp. “How long you figure they’ll sleep for?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, but the lights only went off three hours ago. I’m bettin’ our Mountie stays curled up in his nice warm bed ’til at least noon.”

  “That bastard. Hope he catches bedbugs.”

  * * *

  The hangar echoed Jack’s voice. “You’re damned right I found what I was looking for!” he yelled in apparent fury. “Don’t even bother showing me the guns I came to buy!”

  Zach looked confused. He’d gripped his pistol but had only pulled it halfway out when he hesitated and looked at Reverend Bob.

  “We don’t deal with amateurs,” Jack stated. He then pointed his finger at Reverend Bob and exclaimed, “And you guys are fuckin’ amateurs! I can’t believe you’re still out walking around and not dead or in jail.”

  Reverend Bob appeared taken aback, then placed one hand on Zach’s arm to stop him from pulling out the pistol completely. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “What do I mean?” Jack shook his head as if in disgust. “When I first met Vath he told me Graves damn near got arrested and a cop ended up getting killed. I told him then that I wouldn’t deal with you guys because there’d be heat, but he swore that the only link the cops had was Graves. From how he spoke about you guys, he made it pretty clear to me that you took care of Graves. He said that with him dead, we had nothing to worry about.”

  “That’s true,” Reverend Bob replied.

  “Bullshit! I put my trust in you guys because I thought you knew what you were doing. When I spotted this leaning against the wall last night I didn’t know what to think. I’d heard something on the news about a Canadian and a cop getting killed and that one of them was run over.”

  “You mean Graves and a cop,” Reverend Bob said.

  “Yes, but at the time I didn’t realize it was Graves and only clued in later when I spoke with Vath.” He gestured with his thumb toward the windshield. “At first I was hoping to hell it was a coincidence. Thought maybe you’d hit a deer or something, but this morning I decided I better look.” He then turned and plucked a hair from the windshield and held it up for them to see. “This ain’t no hair from any deer.” He glared at Reverend Bob. “What the hell? Why are you leaving around evidence? Do you want us all to be busted?”

  Reverend Bob cleared his throat. “No, of course not. We —”

  “Fuck you guys,” Jack said. “Take me back. We don’t deal with people who’re this careless.”

  “Now you hold on a second,” Reverend Bob said. “No need to get your britches in a knot.” He paused to take a deep breath and after slowly exhaling, said, “I know you boys in that club of yours have had your share of experience when it comes to killing.”

  Jack stared stone-faced in response.

  “That being said, we’re not exactly new to it either, and we’re certainly not careless,” Reverend Bob added. “That’s why we changed the windshield ourselves. We only had the opportunity to do that yesterday because it took a few days for us to find one we could get without anyone knowing. By the time we were finished installing it, we had to go get you, so I told Zach and Luke to take it out today and bury it.”

  Jack looked at Zach and Luke. “Is that true?”

  “For darn shore it’s true,” Zach replied.

  Jack looked at Reverend Bob. “So you hadn’t forgotten about it and weren’t going to leave it lying around?”

  “Of course not.”

  Jack waited a beat. “Then I guess I owe you an apology. I’m sorry.”

  Reverend Bob gave a conciliatory smile. “That’s all right. Glad we got it straightened out between us.”

  “Perhaps I should’ve said something last night instead of lying awake all night worrying about it.”

  “For sure,” Reverend Bob agreed. “If something is troubling you, it’s best to get it off your chest.”

  “You’re absolutely right.” Jack then gave a puzzled expression and glanced at the windshield. “I remember on the news it said the cop had been shot, so why’d you run Graves down with your truck? Why didn’t you shoot him, too?”

  “It wasn’t Graves I ran over,” Reverend Bob stated. “An ATF agent showed up and tried to arrest him, Zach, and Jeremiah. It was the agent who I ran down. I was too far away
to try and shoot him.” He gestured to Luke and said, “He was hiding behind a car farther down the street and would have tried to shoot him when he was busy handcuffing them, but I decided not to risk a shootout with Jeremiah and Zach so close to him. I also figured if he did manage to jump out of the way, Luke could’ve tried to shoot him then.”

  “He was a tough son-of-a-bitch, too,” Zach drawled. “Gittin’ run over didn’t kill ’im. Reverend Bob still had to shoot ’im after.”

  Jack looked at Reverend Bob, who gestured with his hands as if the shooting aspect of the murder was trivial.

  You bastard. You’re going to pay for what you did.

  “We were lucky the guy was by himself,” Jeremiah noted.

  “Real lucky,” Jack stated, with more emphasis than he intended. He stared at Reverend Bob. “So, I’ve got your word that you don’t have any heat? Because I tell ya, our club would be more than a little pissed off to do a deal and have the cops show up and relieve us of our hard-earned dollars.”

  “I’ll swear on the Bible if you want me to,” Reverend Bob said solemnly. “The police have no idea who we are.”

  “Good enough.” Jack waited a beat. “Do you think that coffee’s ready yet?”

  Reverend Bob’s face brightened. “I’ll cook breakfast, too. You like flapjacks, eggs, and ham?”

  “Sure do.”

  Jack kept the hair plucked from the windshield between his thumb and forefinger. Once back inside the bunker he went to the washroom and wrapped it in the piece of plastic and put it in his pocket.

  I’ve got you! Now show me the guns.

  * * *

  After breakfast, as Jeremiah rose to clear dishes from the table, Reverend Bob looked at Zach and Luke and said, “Go look after that windshield. Make sure you bury it deep.” He then glanced at Jack and added, “When they get back, we’ll get down to business and I’ll show you what we’ve got to offer.”

  Can’t be soon enough to suit me.

  “Sounds good,” Jack replied, then rose and offered to dry the dishes as Jeremiah washed.

  “You’re a guest,” Reverend Bob stated. “Go relax. ­Jeremiah and I can handle it.”

  Jack looked out the window toward the tower. “Then maybe I will go up and check out the view.”

  “Go ahead. From up there you can see for miles around. I’m sittin’ on the best spot God ever made.”

  “How did you ever find this place?” Jack asked.

  “Two brothers who are buddies of mine own the only two farms around. The property used to belong to them, but they looked at it as a worthless chunk of rock. Me, I looked at it like Noah looked at the top of Mount Ararat when he landed his ark.”

  “A safe haven.”

  “You got that right,” Reverend Bob said emphatically.

  “So you built yourself a bunker, and by the looks of all the solar panels, you have your own electricity,” Jack noted.

  “Yes and we have our own well. As far as water and electricity go, we’re completely off the grid. This year we’ll start growing our own food, too.”

  “Very impressive. Like I told you last night when I first saw the bunker, I thought it’d be really rough inside, like a military outpost or something. I was wrong. It looks great.”

  Reverend Bob smiled. “Thanks. My two buddies call me Bunker Bob, but I don’t mind.”

  How about I call you Bonkers Bob?

  “They’ll be wishing they had a place like this when the day comes.” Reverend Bob paused to look out at the tower. “Yes siree, it’s salvation, my son, salvation.” He then turned to Jack. “Go up and take a look. I bet you’ll agree. Sometimes I spend the whole day up there, reading my Bible and taking in the view.” He smiled, perhaps to himself. “Somehow sitting up there makes you feel closer to God.”

  If only there was a god … because I’d love to introduce you to him.

  Jack walked up the rocky knoll and then climbed the rungs on the metal pole. He saw that the platform at the top was comprised of a thick sheet of plywood that had been covered in tin. Entry was gained by pushing up on a trapdoor. Once inside, he let the trapdoor fall shut as a safety precaution to prevent accidentally falling through the hole.

  A plastic chair was available and he sat down. He could easily see over the top of the tin panels surrounding the railing.

  Reverend Bob had not exaggerated how far you could see or the solitude you felt. All of Reverend Bob’s outer property was easily seen. In the far distance he could see two farm houses, each on opposite sides of where he sat, but they were barely visible across acres of pasture and harrowed fields.

  He then spied what he was hoping to see. Zach and Luke were driving along a road that encircled the perimeter of Reverend Bob’s property. Soon they came to a stop and he watched as they retrieved a shovel, pickaxe, and the broken windshield from out of the canopy on the back of the truck. He made a mental note of where they started to dig, then climbed down from the tower and returned to the bunker.

  “Spectacular!” Jack announced as he entered the kitchen. “Don’t know if I’d want to be up there if there was lightning, though.”

  Reverend Bob smiled as he hung up the dish towel. “I’ve got a lightning rod out there that should take care of that, but you’re right. I don’t know if I’d want to trust it completely. Not that it really matters. The crow’s nest provides the most scenic view, but when it comes right down to it, my best eyes are inside the bunker.”

  “Oh?” Jack asked.

  “Come. Let me show you the command centre,” Reverend Bob said proudly. “If you still harbour any thoughts that you’re dealing with amateurs, you won’t when you see this.”

  Jack followed Reverend Bob and Jeremiah down a half-level of stairs and entered a small room where a desk faced a wall of closed circuit television monitors.

  Jack’s jaw dropped when he saw how much was visible with the cameras. The entire outside property was monitored. He looked at two monitors that showed where Zach and Luke had parked the truck. One camera clearly displayed the front of the truck while the other was positioned from behind. Other cameras were trained on different parts of the property, including several on the road leading up to the bunker.

  A surprise raid is going to be next to impossible.

  He then concentrated in an effort to memorize which parts of the property were monitored and which weren’t. If a tactical unit were to come in, his information could be extremely valuable.

  Then there’s the bloody tower … I’m going to need another look from up there and compare it with what can be seen from this room.

  “What d’ya think?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Truly amazing,” Jack replied. “I doubt a rabbit could come onto this property without you knowing.”

  Reverend Bob stood with his hands on his hips and appeared to admire the display of monitors. “The perimeter is covered 100 percent, but I could still use a few more alarm sensors and night-vision cameras to fill in the gaps. Some of the money from what you purchase will see to that.”

  “These cameras all night-vision?” Jack asked.

  “For sure. They work as good at night as in the day. No use only being half safe. Security is what it’s all about.”

  Soon you’ll be getting all the security you can imagine. It’s called prison.

  “Besides cameras,” Reverend Bob continued, “I’ve got the perimeter completely monitored with sensors, as well as a few sensors inside my property.”

  “Cameras and sensors,” Jack noted. “This place really is impenetrable.”

  “It’s getting there. The sensors have been a bit of a pain. They sound like smoke detectors going off and usually it’s been the wind or a couple of times it was deer or racoons. I adjusted some of them to avoid the racoons, but a few still need to be moved or readjusted.”

  “I think it’s impressive the way it is.”

  Reverend Bob pointed to a monitor. “Looks like the boys are done.”

  Jack glanced at the scr
een and saw the truck returning. He then looked at Reverend Bob. “This place must’ve cost a fortune.”

  “There’s money to be made selling religion if you do it right,” Jeremiah said dryly.

  “It put clothes on your back and food in your mouth,” Reverend Bob stated gruffly. He then turned to Jack and rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t all from the church. A lot of the money came from an inheritance I received when my father-in-law passed.”

  “Yes siree. Good ol’ Moonshine Bill … he ran quite an operation,” Jeremiah said sullenly. “Mind you, there was that time when four people went blind after —”

  Reverend Bob jammed the end of his finger into Jeremiah’s chest, forcing him to take a step back. “He raised your mother and she was a fine person!”

  Jeremiah’s mouth gaped momentarily and he hung his head. “I, uh, know that.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to the can.”

  Reverend Bob stared after him as he left, then he looked at Jack and gestured with his hands as if to say he didn’t know what to do. “I love that boy with all my heart,” he said, “but he does have a mind of his own sometimes.”

  Being able to think for yourself isn’t a bad quality, but a domineering bastard like you wouldn’t understand that. “He’s young,” Jack stated. “Many men don’t really appreciate their fathers until they get older.”

  “Maybe, but this is my house. He should show more respect.”

  You’re the king and absolute ruler of your own castle all right. Nobody better dare challenge you on that.

  The sound of Zach and Luke entering upstairs ended the discussion. “Down here,” Reverend Bob yelled. “It’s time to show Jack what real firepower is all about.”

  A moment later, Jack followed everyone deep into the bowels of the bunker. They descended to the next level, which had three bedrooms and a washroom, before continuing down to the final level, which housed the master bedroom, complete with an attached washroom and a king-sized bed.

  Reverend Bob turned to Jack. His words were solemn. “What I’m about to show you is something few people know about. I’m placing trust in you by letting you see it, but you don’t have my complete trust, understand?”