by Roland Smith
“Not in the dark they won’t. And even if they’re using night-vision gear they won’t pick up any details. All they’ll know is that there are three people in the cab.”
“Maybe we should climb into the camper,” I said, although it was the last thing I wanted to do, and not just because I imagined it was even filthier than the cab.
Martin shook his head. “Better to go in like we have nothing to hide. They’re going to be watching our camper after we park. Don’t want to give them any surprises like two extra bodies jumping out of the back. Our best defense is to get them to drop their defenses. When we get out of the cab, we’ll use flashlights. That will screw up any night-vision gear they might be using. If we convince them that we’re just three tired campers they’ll back off, and maybe we’ll have a chance to look around and see what they’re up to. Maybe even figure out where they’re headed.”
It all made perfect sense to me. In fact, Martin made it sound simple. Maybe too simple. Like he wasn’t taking the Pod seriously enough.
“Do you have a gun?” I asked.
“Of course. And mine has bullets in it. When I leave my apartment, I grab my keys, my wallet, and my gun.”
Martin put the truck into gear and pulled out onto the highway.
More?
I’d lost track of how many campers, motor homes, and trailers had rumbled by.
But Bill was paying attention.
He was sitting in the open doorway on the little pulldown steps watching the Pod drive past, one by one.
I was sitting at the kitchen table handcuffed to the pole holding up the table. I had a strip of duct tape across my mouth. My legs and arms were manacled and stretched out about as far as they could reach. They hurt. But I guess that was the point. They wanted me to hurt. They wanted to tire me out so I couldn’t resist, so I couldn’t fight.
Bella was sitting across from me reading the FBI document, turning the pages one by one with her right hand. In her left hand, she was holding a butcher knife. When she cuffed me to the table I’d told her the tape wasn’t necessary. I wasn’t going to call out for help. She smiled and slapped me across the face. Hard.
“I don’t care if you scream or not,” she said. “No one here is going to help you. I gagged you so I don’t have to listen to any more of your lies. I told Lod the truth about how you got to Nehalem Bay, but he had already figured it out, because he knows exactly what he wrote in his notebook and what he didn’t. Carl also confessed to Lod about the money he took from your pack. You have no friends here. Bill offered to kill you himself, so did Carl, and so did I. Lod said he would think about who would get that honor and let us know. He didn’t want to leave any corpses above for the cops to find.”
Since then Bella hadn’t uttered a word.
I could still feel the sting from her slap. If I had hadn’t been cuffed I would have …
I took a deep breath, trying to quell my anger, then realized that I no longer had to hide my true feelings. As soon as Bella finished she would know everything, and she would pass it on to everyone else. Her slap had taken away my last shred of sympathy for Lod, or anyone else in the Pod.
For as long as I was alive, which I predicted was not going to be much longer, they were going to get the real Kate.
pulled into the entrance of the park just as another motor home was exiting.
“Odd time to be leaving,” he said. “Is that your girl’s rig?”
“Hers is smaller,” Coop said.
“A Class C,” I added.
“And the old guy who ditched you?”
“He’s in a camper like yours,” I answered. “It’s white.”
“Keep your eyes peeled for it. If he’s smart he parked away from the swarm.”
“The Pod,” I said.
“Whatever, keep an eye out for your friend. It would be good to catch up to him and find out what he knows before we start poking around.”
We drove by several campers, motor homes, and trailers. All of them had their lights on.
“I guess there’s something to your story,” Martin said. “All these lights on at this time of night is pretty weird.”
“You mean you didn’t believe us?” Coop asked.
Martin laughed. “You have to admit that it was a little far-fetched, but I believe you now.”
Coop pointed out the window. “I think that’s Kate’s motor home!”
In the dark I couldn’t really tell, but it was the right size. Someone was sitting on the steps. He, or she, watched us as we drove by.
“Best not to be pointing at people,” Martin said. “We’re supposed to be road-weary travelers looking for a quiet spot to sleep.”
“Sorry,” Coop said.
I was relieved Martin had seen us on the highway. He seemed to know what he was doing, which is more than I could say for Coop and me. If we’d been here on our own, Coop might have walked up to Kate’s motor home and knocked on the door.
We passed several more campsites, all lit up. A couple of people were outside their rigs watching us as we drove by, but we didn’t give them more than a cursory glance. No one had pulled out since we had entered the park, so maybe the motor home we saw leaving wasn’t connected to the Pod. If they were leaving, they were taking their time about it.
We passed a large motor home, lit up like the rest, then nothing for about a quarter of a mile.
“There!” Coop said, pointing.
I don’t know how he spotted it. His night vision must have been better than mine or Martin’s — all that time Beneath, I guess. Backed into a campsite as far as it could go was Alex’s camper.
No light on inside.
It looked like it had been parked there for years.
“Are you sure?” Martin asked.
“Yes!” Coop and I said in unison.
Martin pulled his truck off to the side of the road and turned off the engine.
“Anything else I should know about Alex besides the fact that he’s toting what we hope is an empty revolver?”
I looked at Coop and could see by the look on his face that he was trying to decide whether he should tell Martin about LaNae Fay.
“One more thing,” Coop said resignedly. “We found a dead Pod member in the boat we were hauling. We’re pretty sure her name is, or was, LaNae Fay.”
“Are you kidding me?” Martin said. “That’s a pretty big thing to leave out. Did you call the police?”
“No. We thought if we called the police, they’d detain us.”
“You got that right. What did you find exactly?”
Coop explained.
“So Alex is wounded,” Martin said after he finished.
“We don’t know.”
“Fresh blood on the knife? I doubt this LaNae woman stabbed herself. So, you didn’t tell anyone about what you found?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “We left a digital recording, which we hope the police pass on to the FBI when they find her.”
“What was on the recording?”
I told him.
“All right, let’s go,” he said. “Here’s how we’ll do this. We’ll circle around to the back of his camper, quietly. You’re going to knock on his door and announce yourselves. Again, quietly. We don’t want to arouse any suspicion. I’ll hide in the trees behind you so he doesn’t get spooked. I’ll also make sure he’s not being watched by the Pod. As soon as you explain to him that I’m a good guy, I’ll step out from the trees and introduce myself.”
“It’s us,” Coop whispered. “Coop and Pat. Are you in there? Are you okay? Open up.”
All we could hear was the light wind blowing through the tall redwoods.
Coop tried the door. It was locked.
He knocked again.
“Alex? It’s Coop …”
I was standing to the side of Alex’s camper with a clear view of the road and the back of Martin’s moonlit camper. I saw movement. The door to Martin’s camper opened.
“… and Pat. Open up.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Coop?”
“What?”
“Someone is getting out of the back of Martin’s camper.”
“Martin is in the woods watching our backs.”
“It isn’t Martin. It’s —”
Click.
The door opened.
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” Alex said.
He was holding a bloody towel to his shoulder with his left hand. In his right hand he held his revolver.
I hoped he had figured out his pistol was empty, and I hoped I was mistaken about his having spare bullets — because he was going to need them. The man who had gotten out of the back of Martin’s camper was now close enough to recognize. He had shaved his beard and trimmed his hair, but there was no mistaking the giant Guard who had sent his vicious dog after us. Carl. The last time I’d seen him, he had been twitching on the ground, grimacing.
Now he was smiling.
And carrying a shotgun.
He pumped a shell into the shotgun.
Now was the time for Martin to burst from the trees and slay the giant.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
Because Martin had known that the giant was inside his camper the whole time. They were working together.
Martin stepped out of the trees, his gun pointed at Alex and Coop.
Four other people joined him, all of them armed.
Alex pointed his revolver at them and pulled the trigger.
Click. Click. Click.
Martin laughed.
“Kid took your bullets.”
Alex grabbed the handle of the camper door.
“Hold on there,” Martin said. “If you’re thinking about shutting yourself back inside, you should reconsider. If you close that door I’ll shoot Coop and Pat, then set fire to your rig with you inside while they’re bleeding out.”
Alex let go of the door and raised his arms in surrender.
Lod said, not even glancing in my direction.
“What’s going on?” Bella asked.
“No questions. Move her to my rig.”
Bella quickly unlocked the cuffs, then remanacled my wrists like a veteran prison guard.
“Carl will be riding with you and Bill in my motor home. There’s an SUV outside for transport. As soon as you get there, fire up the rig. Be ready to go. We’re speeding up our exodus. When Carl joins you I want you to take off. We’re still in radio silence, but turn your cells on in case I need to talk to you.”
My arms and legs were almost completely numb. I could barely walk. Running, or fighting, was not an option. For the moment.
There were two SUVs outside. Lod got into one of them and drove away. We got into the other and followed.
I expected to see Lod’s SUV parked outside his motor home, but when we arrived it wasn’t there.
Bella marched me into Lod’s rig, pushed me into a leather chair, then cuffed me to the leg of the end table next to it. She didn’t bother with my legs this time. It was a lot more comfortable than being manacled to her kitchen table, but that was hardly intentional. She was no more worried about my comfort than a butcher about to slaughter a pig.
Bill got into the driver’s seat and started the big diesel engine.
Bella leaned in close to my face with the butcher knife still in her hand.
“I’m going to take off the duct tape. I have some questions about this Beneath document. If you call out I will slit your throat. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
Coop said.
They had us lined up against a redwood. Alex was between Coop and me, barely able to stand.
“He’s lucky he still has blood,” Carl said. “LaNae usually doesn’t —”
His explanation was cut off by the arrival of an SUV. The lights were blinding. I couldn’t see who got out from the driver’s side, but he looked to be carrying a small briefcase.
Martin nodded at the case. “Is that mine?”
“As soon as you explain what happened.”
“Larry,” Alex said quietly.
“Hey, little brother,” Lod said, stepping forward. “You should have stayed dead.”
Alex said nothing.
Martin looked at us. “I’m afraid you boys aren’t very bright.”
“You’re a Pod member,” I said.
Martin shook his head. “Freelance. Batting cleanup. For money.”
“So you weren’t a cop?”
“I was a cop. A dirty cop, as it turns out. Got caught. Did some prison time. Got out.” He nodded at Lod. “With a little help from my friends, or his lawyer friends.”
“What about the others at Nehalem Bay?” I asked.
“Real cops. Probably law-abiding. Who’s to say?”
“Talk to me,” Lod said. “I’m the one paying you.”
“They caught up with me four or five hours after you left Nehalem Bay. The older kid was looking for the girl. I followed them south. Kept my distance so they didn’t get suspicious. Lost them in Lincoln City, where they exchanged their Ford Taurus for the camper. Picked them up again farther south.”
“Why didn’t you tell me they were following us?”
“You were hours ahead. You told me I couldn’t use a cell phone. Too far away for the CB most of the time. When I got close enough to you, I figured they were monitoring your transmissions. Short of knocking on your door there was no way of telling you anything. They didn’t appear to be a threat, so I just kept an eye on them. Until they got to Arcata, where I found Carl following them. How’d you get onto them?”
“We have more than one pair of eyes watching our backs,” Lod said.
“Smart,” Martin said.
“What happened in Arcata?”
“I lost them again. Flat tire when I crossed the California border. Bad spare. Took me hours to get it fixed. Had to check out every town and camping spot south of the border. I was trolling for them in Arcata and came across a bunch of cops at a parking lot looking at the boat and trailer. The camper was gone. It looked like the whole force was there. Dead woman in the boat. Saw Carl in the crowd looking a little forlorn and confused. Figured he was one of yours. Walked up to him and told him I was working for you. Thought it best if we teamed up. He wanted to snatch and kill the kids right away. I figured it would be better if we found out what they knew before we killed them.”
The good news, for us anyway, was that the police had found the digital recorder. The bad news was that we might not live long enough for it to do us any good.
Lod turned to Carl.
Carl looked uncomfortable. “LaNae and I went to Arcata like you asked. We couldn’t find your informant, so we started driving around. LaNae kicked me out of the truck and told me to poke around the campus. That she’d find me later. Well, she didn’t find me later. I started looking for her and came across the parking lot with the cops. You know the rest.”
“The problem is that I don’t know the rest.” Larry looked at Alex. “Care to fill me in?”
Alex shrugged, then winced in pain. “I was unhitching the boat and the she-devil stabbed me in the shoulder. I grabbed an oar and hit her in the head.”
“What about this digital recording I was told about?”
Martin must have told one of the people in the woods about it, and they had passed it on to Lod.
“According to the kids, it’s for some FBI agent. They don’t know where you’re going, but they know where you’ve been, which is probably enough for the feds to run you down.” Martin smiled. “And this is where I leave you. Thanks for the get-out-of-jail-free card. As soon as I get the money, I’m outta here.”
“Of course. But you should have found a way to contact me.”
Martin shrugged.
Lod held the briefcase out.
As Martin reached for it, Lod raised his other hand.
The muzzle flash lit up the campsite.
There was a spitting sound.
No bang.
Martin lay on his back.
Blank eyes staring at the moon up through the redwoods.
in one hand. A laptop in the other.
Next through the door was Alex. He was holding a bloody towel to his shoulder, his skin as white as the leather chair I was sitting on. Pat came through next, followed by Coop, who gave me a broad grin even though there was nothing to smile about. Carl was last. He was carrying a shotgun and had to stoop to get through the door.
“You three at the kitchen table,” Lod said. He handed the revolver to Bella. He looked at Pat. “The bullets.”
Pat dug into his pocket and pulled out six bullets. Bella took them, flipped open the cylinder, and expertly loaded the gun.
“Carl’s riding with you. I’d prefer to keep them alive, but if any of them causes you any problem whatsoever you have my express permission to shoot them, including Kate. The FBI is on its way. I always expected them to find us, but not this soon. When you reach our location give this computer to Bob Jonas. Tell him it was in Alex’s pack. I want him to crack the passcode and find out what’s on it.” He glanced at his watch. “The feds are going to have satellites on us soon, so you need to get moving.”
“And we can use our cells?” Bella asked.
Lod nodded. “The FBI knows where we are thanks to these two, and that we’ve been using CBs, so we’ll change it up.”
Bella waved her gun at Alex. “What about him?”
“Once you get moving, you can patch him up. It would be a shame if he bled out before I got a chance to interrogate him. He wasn’t hauling around that laptop for fun. I’ll see you there.”
I looked out the window. Lod climbed into the front of an SUV and drove away.
I looked at Coop. “I’m sorry you’re here.”
“I’m not,” Coop said.
“You will be,” Bella said.
She opened a cupboard and took out a first-aid kit.
Bill put the motor home in gear and pulled out of the campsite.
If I could get it out of my pocket under the table without Bella seeing, and hit the redial button, I might be able to give Agent Ryan a pipeline to what was going on, providing she answered her phone.
