She took a quick look through the glasses and said, “That’s Owl for sure.” She scanned up and down the rest of the ravine. Rick tried to take the binoculars from her, but she pulled them back and continued scanning.
“I already scanned the rest of the ravine looking for others,” Rick said. “There’s nobody else down there. If these two are responsible for your missing people, then they’ve got them somewhere else. Either that or they somehow managed to squeeze them all into that tiny place like college students into a phone booth.”
“I doubt that the others are here,” Dawson said. “Pritis, whatever made you think that Owl would be responsible for taking your people? If he dislikes being around people as much as he says he does, then why would he want more of them to deal with? From the way you described him, it seems strange that he’s even taken Harish.”
“It’s not like we have a ton of enemies around here,” Pritis said. “At least until those damn motorcycle bangers showed up. This place was heaven on earth once the local authorities learned to leave us alone. I think initially, they all thought we were some kinda cult bent on destroying the planet. Once they realized we just wanted to be left alone, they left us alone.”
“But you and Owl didn’t quite see eye to eye?” Dawson said.
“I think he just wanted the whole place for himself. He’s the ultimate hermit. Even the fact that a state road is within twenty miles of his place pisses him off. I’m not sure what it was in his past that instilled such a hatred for human beings, but whatever it was, he’s not changing.”
“So I guess we’re just going to take him, right?” Rick said.
“Take him? Owl?” Pritis said.
“No, not Owl. He sounds like one cantankerous old bobcat who I’d rather not have to deal with. I’m talking about Harish. He’s the one we came here for after all, right? I mean, it’s obvious now that it’s not him involved in taking your people. He looks like he’s barely surviving himself. The terrorists have to be the ones we’re after. And if that’s the case, then he’s the key to getting to them. He’s the only one that had any kind of connection with them.”
“Yep, he’s right,” Dawson said. “We take him. He either cooperates with us, or we end him once and for all.”
Pritis was taken aback. “End him?”
“This can’t keep happening,” Dawson said. “I’m done being chased. I’m tired of having to defend myself and my family at every turn. From here on, we take the fight to them.”
Chapter 15 ~ Crisis
It was getting late in the afternoon, and the sweltering heat was finally beginning to let up. The three of them crept back from the edge of the cliff, where they couldn’t be spotted. Pritis was visibly disappointed. This wasn’t the outcome she had hoped for, and she showed it as her shoulders slumped and her head drooped. There were still a half dozen people missing from her community, and at least one known terrorist still alive in the neighborhood. Rick and Dawson, on the other hand, couldn’t share Pritis’ disappointment. They actually had a lead, which translated into an opportunity. Harish’s connection with the terrorist cell would be tenuous at this point, but he was still their best bet.
“Do you think they know?” Dawson asked. Pritis looked confused, as her thoughts were occupied with what other steps would be required to find her people.
“I say we have to assume the worst. At the very least they’re looking for him, but at the moment they haven’t found him,” Rick said. “The fact that Owl knows this area better than anyone and has a very reclusive hiding spot is the only thing keeping them from Harish.”
“I agree,” Dawson said. “So what do you think’s the best approach to getting them out of there?”
“Well, there’s only one of him, and there’s three of us, so I think we should probably just—” Rick started, but Pritis interrupted.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you guys kidding? You’re not suggesting we just go barging in there, piss off Owl, and drag a known terrorist back into our midst, are you? That’s insane. I’ll have no part in it. And neither will you two. We’ve got enough problems going on right now with people disappearing, without having to fight an old enemy and one of our neighbors. Albeit a grumpy, cantankerous old neighbor.”
“Pritis, I’m sorry,” Rick tried to explain. “But that’s exactly what we’re going to have to do. This is bigger than just your community, and our families. You need to understand that our entire state is in trouble, our entire country for that matter. We can’t just stand by and let that happen. There are risks we’re going to have to take. There are foreigners on our soil, trying to take this country out from under our feet.”
Pritis started to respond, but Dawson didn’t give her a chance. “He’s right, Pritis; you have to listen to what he’s saying. Our country has never been in deeper danger. I know that’s something that maybe wouldn’t be your first worry, but today it has to be.”
“We all came here, meaning myself and the people in my community, to get away from the government, and the types of people that send this country to war in foreign lands. That inevitably leads to terrorists coming after us. We want no part in any of it,” Pritis said.
“But you never left this country,” Rick tried in a less demanding tone. “You may not agree with everything the leaders in this country do, but you never left this country. You’re able to live the way you want to live because of the freedoms we have.”
“Tenuous freedoms at best,” Pritis said, softening.
“I agree,” Dawson said, nodding in agreement. “Those freedoms are most precarious, and in difficult times like these, they’re very much at risk. Right now, it’s people like us that have to stand up and fight for them.”
Pritis wasn’t happy about being preached to like this. “All right. OK. I know what you’re saying.”
“If we don’t fight,” Rick said, getting a little more emotional, “then who—”
“I said OK,” Pritis snapped back. “Just tell me what I need to do. And don’t forget about my people. That’s a part of this too. I have no intention of saving the entire country single-handed if it means sacrificing my own people.”
* * *
Owl couldn’t have selected a more reclusive, protected home location if he tried. Of course, he had tried. He picked this spot for a good reason. He wasn’t necessarily the type to go looking for trouble, but if trouble insisted on finding him, he wanted to make it as difficult for them as possible. His home was tucked into the beginning of a ravine that started in the foothills. The back of the ravine went a good forty feet up a sheer rock with occasional outcroppings poking out here and there. There was a small stream that flowed down the wall, into the beginning of the ravine, and just past his home, before finding its way to the larger end of the ravine. If there were ever a torrential rainstorm, he’d be at risk of flooding, but in all the time he’d lived there, it’d never been a problem. The small stream that flowed by the ramshackle abode he’d built supplemented what he caught in his rain collection system.
He didn’t get many visitors where he was, and that’s the way he liked it. So, when he heard a voice calling out to him, and echoing through the ravine, it got his attention in a hurry. Few people knew where he lived, and those that did were all locals. It took him a split second to figure out whose voice was echoing down the ravine walls.
It’d been a long time since Owl had a conversation with Pritis, and while he couldn’t remember the details of the last one, he was sure it wasn’t pleasant. Their history went back longer than he cared for. It could be said that Pritis was the oldest neighbor he never had. A neighbor that he’d hoped would never come calling. Within a couple of years of the settlement of the EarthShip community, they’d found his home. That was just one of the long list of things that annoyed Owl to no end about the EarthShippers. They were never just content to stay in their own place. They always had to go exploring and hiking and trekking around the area. It was a fluke that they even stumbled on his place. I
t wasn’t Pritis that found his place the first time, but it didn’t take long till the entire community knew.
Of all the times for her to come for a damn visit, thought Owl. Is it a coincidence or not? Could she know that I have Harish here with me? That’s not something she needs to know about. The last thing I need is to listen to her drone on about how I shouldn’t be harboring criminals. Or terrorists, or whatever it is she thinks he is. Either way, he didn’t want to have to listen to her sanctimonious preaching. That was something she should save for her followers.
Whatever her reason for the visit, he didn’t want her finding Harish. Owl rushed Harish into the shack and scrambled as quick as he could down the ravine to head off Pritis. Owl still couldn’t see Pritis, but there were plenty of nooks and crannies and boulders to hide behind up and down the ravine. It worked well for concealing your approach from others, but it also made it easy to find a spot to hide and watch others. Owl wondered why Pritis was calling his name, announcing her arrival. She must be up to something. Probably just making sure he could hear her coming so he wouldn’t be taken by surprise. He’d been known in the past to shoot at uninvited guests. He never killed any, but then again he never intended to. He meant the shots as a warning. They also tended to cut down on future visitors. Shooting Pritis would be another thing altogether, though, and he decided that for today it wouldn’t be the best approach.
Instead, he decided to take the same tack that she had. He yelled out in reply, cupping his hands around his mouth.
“Get the hell off my property, you overdressed Hawaiian whale.”
The sound of his voice echoed strangely off the canyon walls, and the sentence was garbled by the time it reached Pritis.
Pritis hollered back, “You sure as hell better not be carrying that piece of crap shotgun of yours, ya crotchety old fart.”
She stopped for a moment and waited for words to stop reverberating off the walls. Just as she was about to yell something else, Owl stepped from behind a man-sized boulder and spoke first.
“There ain’t no need to yell. I’m standing right here.”
Owl startled her so much that the ever-present cigar dropped out of her mouth and onto the hot ground.
“Dammit! What the hell is wrong with you, trying to give an old woman a heart attack. There’s no need for that.”
“Consider yourself lucky. If it were anybody else creeping up on me, I’d have put a hole between their ears by now.”
“I wasn’t creeping up on anybody. Ain’t no way anybody could creep up on you in this location. Didn’t you hear me hollering? Besides, everyone knows you’re full of shit when it comes to shooting people. You’d be lucky to hit the side of this ravine, with your crappy old eyesight.”
Owl grew tired of the unpleasantries. “We’ll get to it; what do you want? It’s been nearly a hundred years since you’ve ventured down here, so it must be something important.”
“No need to be rude, old man. We’re just a couple of neighbors having a chitchat.”
“You know darn well how I feel about neighbors. The further away they are, the better. Now answer my question, or I’m leaving.” He started to turn, then turned back. “And don’t even think of following me.”
“I need to talk to you about the people that have gone missing. Do you know anything about that?”
Owl scratched his chin and looked up into the sky. “People missing? This is the desert. People go missing all the time.”
“Not my people, not like this. They don’t go deserting their kids in the middle of the desert.”
Owl spat on the ground, then kicked at the dirt. Waste of water, he thought, not sure if he was thinking about Pritis or his spittle on the ground. “I don’t know anything about folks gone missing. Although, can’t say I’d be too upset about it. The fewer people around here, the better, especially with all the ruckus that’s been going on.”
“You know about the ruckus? I didn’t think you cared about anything else that went on around here, except what happened in this here ravine.”
“This whole desert is my concern. It’s my home, all of it.”
“Yeah, yeah, so you say. You haven’t had any visitors lately, have you? Extra guests?”
Owl eyed her suspiciously, then looked back towards his house. The view was obscured from where he stood. “Why are you talking with so much concern about my living accommodations all of a sudden?” He shifted to get a better look back at his house, and wasn’t sure, but thought he saw some dust kicking up.
“Rumor has it that you’ve been harboring one of them criminals. One of them bastards that kidnapped our kids a while back and tried shooting some of us.”
“Rumor has it, huh? I can’t remember the last time there was a rumor about me. Don’t think there’s ever been a rumor about me having company. Unless, that is, you count a couple of those coyotes that got too close.”
Owl followed the trail of another puff of dust rising in the air back near his home. Then he heard the sound of yelling; a call for help echoed along the ravine walls, emanating from his home. His head turned back momentarily to accuse Pritis of shenanigans, but she was already gone.
“Shit!” he exclaimed as he ran helter-skelter back towards his home.
* * *
They were fortunate that she was distracting. But, as Pritis would be likely to say if anybody asked her, “It’s hard not to be distracting when you’re a woman like me, dressed in a muumuu, chomping a big cigar, all riled up, with my arms gesticulating and a voice that sounds like angels chased by the devil. Of course, the angels part could be misleading.”
Harish wasn’t making it easy for them. Luckily, the ravine was wide enough at this point that they found a place to hide amongst the crevices in the walls. Rick and Dawson had worked their way down the opposite side of the ravine as Pritis and Owl had their little conversation. It was evident that they weren’t the best of friends but that just made the conversation even more heated and worked to their advantage. Once Rick and Dawson got to Harish, it wasn’t easy to control him. He struggled and squirmed the entire way. He didn’t recognize Rick initially, but Dawson he most certainly did. At one point, Rick had suggested just knocking him out with a blow to the head, but Dawson wasn’t so sure. He was afraid Rick might accidentally kill him with the blow, and then the whole point of the expedition would be wasted. Instead, they quickly tied and gagged him with rags and cloths they’d found in the house.
Harish wouldn’t walk on his own. Initially, they tried dragging him through the gravel, but that proved too difficult. Too much resistance. So Dawson ended up grabbing him by the ankles, and Rick grabbed him under the arms. They made their way down the ravine, moving from boulder to boulder, all the while looking for Owl. He knew this area better than either of them, so they were extra careful. The sun was beginning to fade from the sky, but they weren’t in darkness yet.
Then, just as they were about to make a dash from one outcropping to another, they saw Owl running towards them. He was scanning the area, but moving too fast to notice them in their hiding spot. Once Owl passed by, they picked up the pace. They had no time to waste. Once Owl knew that Harish was gone, he’d be after them in a frenzy.
Chapter 16 ~ Under Attack
Harish’s mind raced as they dragged him through the desert land, out of the ravine and back to God knows where. He still struggled, but not all that hard. For a while, he wondered whether it was better to stay with the crazy old coot or to go with these two. Knowing that he and his brother had tried to kill one of them and taken his children captive, this was probably the least attractive of the two options. Even though he stopped fighting them, their progress was hampered just by the fact they were carrying him. They dropped him several times, and he was getting sore from all the bruising. They met up with the woman. Harish remembered her from the community of crazy hippie types. Was she involved in this too? He wondered why she would care about him. Maybe something to do with the attacks on her community?
Finally Harish called out, “You can put me down; I won’t fight it anymore.”
They’d made it out of the ravine, and it appeared that Owl wasn’t following them, or just didn’t care.
“Why would we believe you?” Pritis said.
“Ahh, the hell with this,” Rick said. “He’s heavy as crap, and I’m tired of carrying him anyway.” He dropped Harish unceremoniously, and he hit the ground hard. Dawson followed suit, letting go of his feet.
“It’s just a little further anyway,” Rick said. “Just around the next outcropping of rocks.”
“You don’t have to give me directions,” Pritis said. I know my way around here.”
“All right then,” Rick said as he pushed Harish from behind after he got to his feet.
“I’m going,” Harish said harshly. “I’m going,” he mumbled under his breath.
The four of them moved at a quick clip now, back towards the Humvee that was parked around the outcropping. It’d be a crowded ride back, but worth the trip. They’d gotten what they came for.
Just as they got into sight of the Humvee, bullets start flying all over the place. It sounded like automatic weapons. Dust sprang up around them, and chips of rock flew. Things seem to be moving in slow motion as they looked down the road and saw a Jeep heading towards them. It was small, gray-and-green in color. The bullets were coming from the Jeep. Harish looked confused, as if he wasn’t sure whether to run towards the gunfire, or away from it. Before he could do anything stupid, Rick grabbed him from one side and Dawson from the other. They were sprinting now, with only a few yards left to the Humvee. Unfortunately, there was little cover, and they made a big target. The only thing keeping them from being hit was that the gunner from the Jeep couldn’t aim while racing down the bumpy terrain. The three men were ahead of Pritis, who couldn’t keep up. Fortunately for her, the sniper was more concerned with the men, as inaccurate as he was.
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