Chapter Thirteen
T-Rex met up with Ghost and Caveman in front of the Blue Moose Tavern. Garner hurried down the stairs, carrying what appeared to be two duffel bags.
“We’re meeting Hawkeye at the Stone Oak Ranch and taking the four-wheelers from there.”
“Whatcha got?” T-Rex asked.
“The armory.” Garner laid the heavy bags in the back of his SUV. “M4A1 rifles, radio headsets and Kevlar vests. We’re not going unarmed or unprepared.”
T-Rex snorted. “Glad to hear it. I felt at a distinct disadvantage yesterday in the hills.”
Garner’s lips thinned. “We didn’t plan on having a helicopter shot down.”
“No, we didn’t,” T-Rex agreed and closed the hatch.
“How soon will the FAA be out to investigate the crash site?” Ghost asked.
“They’re on their way now.” Garner climbed into the driver’s seat and twisted the key in the ignition. “Should be here before noon. All the more reason to find that cave and neutralize any bad guys before they stir up any more trouble.” He glanced at the rest of them. “Are you coming, or not?”
The three men jumped into the SUV and held on while Garner sped out of town.
“What about the sheriff?” T-Rex glanced up at the hills. They appeared so serene, as though they couldn’t possibly harbor a bunch of terrorists. “Any activity on the roads last night?”
“His men didn’t see anything moving,” Garner answered. “The one truck he stopped was a man on his way to the airport in Bozeman. No weapons stashed in his backseat or truck bed.”
“I can’t imagine them leaving their weapons cache in the cave.” T-Rex shook his head. “Not after shooting down a military helicopter.”
“The Army National Guard sent another Black Hawk. The pilot and copilot are waiting at the fairgrounds. The ship is armed to the teeth. The guard is angry about losing one of their birds. I barely got them to wait. I don’t want to start an all-out war and get people killed who actually belong on the neighboring ranches. I told them to give us the morning to find the cave and attack it from the ground.”
“I’m surprised they agreed,” Ghost said.
Garner shrugged. “I had help from their higher headquarters.”
“Will the sheriff’s department be with us on this venture?” Caveman asked.
“They will. The sheriff, along with seven of his finest deputies and members of the Wyoming State Police, will be combing the hills alongside us.”
T-Rex shook his head. “Sounds like this could turn out to be a goat rope.”
“Can’t be helped.” Garner’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “We need the manpower to search the caves. If there are more than thirty AR-15s up there, it stands to reason there could be thirty men using them.” Garner shot a glance at T-Rex in the front seat. “I’ll take all the help we can get.”
Caveman leaned over the back of Garner’s seat. “How is everyone getting up into the hills?”
“We’re taking the four-wheelers we left at the Stone Oak Ranch.” Garner left Grizzly Pass and headed south. “The sheriff department has their own fleet of four-wheelers, and I have no idea what the state police will bring. All I know is we need to find these bastards and take them down before they hurt anyone else. Oh, and several of the folks we had on our list of possible members of Free America called in sick or didn’t show up to work today.”
“How’d you find out?”
“I had feelers out to their employers. They notified me as soon as the calls came in or the men didn’t arrive on time.”
T-Rex’s hands balled into fists. Things could get real ugly real fast. “How many?”
“Nine that we know about, so far,” Garner said.
“Sounds like they might be mobilizing,” Caveman cursed. “Why couldn’t we bring any of them in earlier?”
“We didn’t have any evidence.” Garner glanced in his rearview mirror at the men in the seat behind him. “Ghost, you and Caveman followed some of them, and they didn’t lead you anywhere but to their homes.”
“Damned waste of time,” Ghost grumbled. “If we could have interrogated them, we’d have had more to go on.”
“What about Rausch? Has he talked?” T-Rex asked.
“The sheriff is meeting us at the ranch,” Garner said. “Hopefully, he has news on that front.” He glanced in his rearview mirror again. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s him behind us now.”
They arrived at Stone Oak Ranch and met Olivia at the house.
Several vehicles pulled into the driveway behind them, including four from the sheriff’s department and three from the state police. They had trailers attached filled with four-wheelers.
Olivia and Hawkeye met them with contour maps of the area. They spread them over the hood of Garner’s vehicle, and the team gathered around along with the law enforcement personnel. They determined the approximate location of the cave from which the rocket had been shot, assigned areas to each team and took off.
Because the Safe Haven team had been the most recent to visit the area, they led the pack.
T-Rex insisted on taking point. As he drove the roads to the narrowing trails up into the hills, he couldn’t help thinking about Sierra. Was she all right? Had Ellis shown up that morning to cause problems? Or was her ex-husband with the Free America group, preparing to take over the world?
He wished he could be in two places at once. Alas, he couldn’t and his job was exactly where he was.
As they neared the valley lined with caves, he slowed his ATV and pulled out a pair of binoculars. His team stopped even with him and did the same.
“Is that metal?” Hawkeye asked, pointing to one of the caves. “There. The third cave from the end. The one with the tire tracks leading up to it. Is that a metal ammo box on the edge of the entrance?”
T-Rex trained his binoculars at the third cave from the end of the valley. Just as Hawkeye had said, there was a metal ammo box lying on its side near the mouth of the cave. T-Rex dismounted, pulled the M4 rifle from the scabbard and waited for the others to catch up.
Garner organized the sheriff’s deputies and state police into an assault team to follow the Safe Haven men into battle.
T-Rex led the charge, hugging the shadows of the trees, moving closer a little at a time. Soon he was standing below the cave in the shade of a lodgepole pine, staring up at an empty ammo can. Nothing moved on the trail or in the dimness of the cave. Nothing that he could see.
Ghost came up to stand beside him. “Anything?”
“I’d bet this was the cave. I’d also bet it’s empty of the people who were there yesterday.”
“Let’s find out. Cover me.” Ghost passed T-Rex and started up the hill.
T-Rex followed.
At the entrance to the cave, they paused, inching up from the side, out of sight and range of anyone aiming a rifle their direction.
T-Rex poked his head around the side of the rock wall and peered into the darkness. Nothing moved. “Ready?” he said. “Cover me.”
He took three steps into the darkness and felt something across his ankle. T-Rex froze and yelled, “Get back! This place is rigged!”
Since he hadn’t triggered the detonator, he knew that if he moved his ankle now, he’d set off the explosion. He waited for Ghost to get back behind the safety of the rock wall. Then, taking a deep breath, T-Rex threw himself in that direction, somersaulted and rolled to his feet.
An explosion knocked him over and sent him tumbling down the hillside to the valley floor. He lay for a long time, his ears ringing, unable to take a breath. Dust flew all around him, dimming the light from the sun above.
Caveman appeared over him. “T-Rex!” He seemed to be shouting, but the sound barely made it to him. “T-Rex, breathe!” He pushed on his chest and forced air out.
T-Rex gasped and sucked in a lungful of dusty air. He sat up coughing, breathing as deeply as he could to fill his empty lungs. After popping his ears several times, he could hear better, but the ringing continued.
“They rigged it. They had a trip wire just inside the cave where you couldn’t see it.” T-Rex held up his hand. “Help me up.”
Caveman grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Are you all right?”
“I have to be. If they aren’t here, they have to be somewhere else. From what I could see before I set off the explosion, there were empty ammo cases, tables and chairs and maps on the walls.”
“Could you tell what the maps were of?” Garner asked.
“No. I couldn’t see that much. My eyes hadn’t adjusted completely to the dark interior before the explosion.” T-Rex covered his ears and pressed hard, hoping to readjust his eardrums. It helped, but he still heard sounds as if they were coming from the end of a long tunnel. And that damned ringing wouldn’t stop.
Caveman and Ghost climbed the hill to the cave and pulled at a few rocks before shaking their heads and coming back down.
Sheriff Scott had joined them. “I’ll see what I can do to get a crew out here to dig that cave out. There has to be something in there they’re trying to hide. We might be able to pull fingerprints from whatever is left of the cases and ammo boxes.”
Ghost pointed to the ammo box they’d passed on their way up before the explosion. “You might get something from that one. And you won’t have to dig to do it.”
The sheriff nodded. “I sent my men and the state police north following the trail to see if they find where they moved the goods. If you’re up to it, you might want to follow. There are a lot of trails and roads leading into and out of these hills. Just because my men didn’t see anyone on the roads last night, doesn’t mean they didn’t leave. But then again, they might still be holed up in an alternate location.”
“We’ll follow,” T-Rex said. To him, his voice sounded as if he was speaking from a long way away. He started toward his four-wheeler.
Garner caught his arm and pulled him to a halt. “I think you should go back to the ranch house. You took quite a tumble, and that explosion probably didn’t do your eardrums or anything else any good.”
“I’m fine.”
Garner held up two fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Two.” He frowned at his temporary boss. “Can we go now?”
Garner nodded. “Yes. But for the record, I don’t like it. I think you should see a doctor.”
“Later. We have a small army to stop.”
They followed the others along the trail. Soon, T-Rex’s head cleared enough to realize they were nearing the valley where the pipeline inspector had been killed.
As he rolled over the top of the ridge and came to a halt, he looked down at the trail leading to the bottom. The law enforcement officers were almost to the bottom. When they left the trail and drove across the valley floor, another explosion rocked the ground. Rocks and dust blasted into the air from the area around the pipeline.
The deputy in front of the pack flipped over the handlebars of his four-wheeler and landed a couple of yards away. The two ATV riders behind him swerved and flipped their four-wheelers. Those behind them stopped suddenly, leaped from their vehicles and ran toward the downed men.
From his perch high above, T-Rex stared down at the chaos and commotion. He glanced all around, from the top of the other ridge down the sides of the hills to the bottom. Nothing else moved. Not a single member of the Free America group stood around to watch the explosion here or at the cave. It was almost as if they’d known someone would come that way looking for them and they set up a smoke screen to hide what they were really up to.
Garner pulled his ATV up beside T-Rex and jerked the radio from the pocket of his jacket. “Garner here.”
“It’s me, Hack,” the computer guy’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Yeah, what’s wrong?” Garner asked.
“Got trouble up north. You’re wasting your time looking for your Free America group in the hills. They’ve staged their takeover.”
T-Rex left his vehicle and crossed to where Garner stood.
“Where?” Garner demanded.
“At Old Faithful. They’re at the visitors center. There was a campaign rally there today with Grady Morris. He had a surprise visitor with him.”
“Who?” Garner asked.
“The vice president of the United States.”
A lead weight settled low in T-Rex’s belly. Holy hell. And then his gut twisted into a tight knot. “Sierra Daniels was going to Yellowstone today. They were supposed to be at Old Faithful today.”
“Anyone else caught in the takeover?” Garner asked into the radio.
Hack replied, “Some women and little kids who were in the theater where they took the vice president. They think half a dozen women and half a dozen children were in there. Something like seventeen people are being held hostage.”
“What’s going on?” Ghost stepped up beside T-Rex.
T-Rex clenched his fists. “This whole effort today was a waste of time, a smoke screen for what they were planning.”
“And what was that?” Ghost asked.
“They’ve taken hostages at the Old Faithful visitors center. The vice president is one of them.”
Caveman joined them. “Vice president of what?”
T-Rex turned to his teammates. “Of the United States of America.” He hurried toward his ATV.
“Where are you going?” Garner asked.
“Sierra Daniels was there.” He threw his leg over the seat and started the engine. “I have a sinking feeling she’s among the hostages, along with the children in her care. I’m going to rescue her.”
* * *
SIERRA HUDDLED ON the floor with the other women, holding the little ones in her arms, trying to comfort them and keep them quiet. The armed men who’d taken them and the vice president of the United States hostage didn’t look like they’d put up with much. Crying children would only make them angry and impatient.
They’d been held in the theater for over an hour without any idea of what the group was demanding. Some of the children had cried themselves to sleep. Others clung to the adults, hiding their faces from the bad guys. It wouldn’t be long before they got hungry or had to use the bathroom. The crying would start all over again.
Sierra handed Brenda the little boy she’d been holding and stood.
“Where are you going?” Brenda asked, her brows furrowed, the strain of the takeover showing in the lines around her mouth.
“To find out what’s going on and try to negotiate the children’s release.”
“You can’t.” Brenda grabbed her hand. “You heard them. They’ll shoot anyone standing.”
“You two, shut up and sit down,” a voice said.
Another masked man entered the room behind the bossy one. “I’m taking over here,” he said. “You can join the others outside in the lobby.”
“I was told not to leave them,” Bossy Man argued.
The man grabbed Bossy Man by the collar and shoved him toward the door. “Get the hell out! Now!”
Sierra recognized the voice and fought the sinking feeling in her belly. She’d heard that same tone too often over the past eight years. The man staring through the slits in a ski mask was her ex-husband, Clay Ellis.
Once the other man was gone, Clay started toward her. The other guard standing watch over the vice president and Grady Morris called out, “What are you doing?”
“Our leader wanted names of the hostages.”
The man snorted. “He has the most important one. No one tops the vice president except the president himself.”
“Look here, young man.” The vice president rose from the theater seat and took a step toward his captor. “Release us at once before this goes too far.”
The man turned his weapon on the vice president and said in a cold, deadly tone, “Move one more step and I’ll blow a hole right through you.”
“You don’t want to do that. Murder carries a lot longer sentence than kidnapping. In some states a murderer can get the death penalty. Don’t go there, son.”
“I’m not your son,” the man spit at the country’s second in command. “Don’t tell me where to go or what to do. I know my chances of getting out of this alive are nil. Why should I care if I take a few people out with me?”
“Please, Mr. Vice President. Sit down,” Sierra said. The last thing she wanted to see or have the children witness was the murder of the vice president or anyone else, for that matter.
The vice president backed up and took his seat.
Clay’s counterpart aimed his rifle at Sierra. “Now, you sit down and shut up.”
“Back off. I’ve got this one,” Clay said. He walked all of the way down to where Sierra stood, grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the others. “Play your cards right and I’ll get you out of here.”
“I know it’s you, Clay. That mask hides nothing from me,” Sierra said, her tone low. “You can’t let them do this.”
“It’s too late. We’re in this now, and we’re not going home.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just what I said. We won’t be going home from here. Once those in charge have their say in front of a billion Americans, we’re going to scatter to the winds. I won’t be going back to Grizzly Pass. And you’re coming with me.”
“Okay.”
He squeezed her arm tighter. “Okay? Why the big turnaround now? Have a change of heart? Afraid of me at last?”
“I’ll go with you. But I have one condition,” Sierra said. This might be her only angle to get the terrorists to release the children. She had to play the card she’d been dealt.
“You’re not in a position to demand conditions,” he said.
“If you don’t grant my condition, I won’t go with you willingly. If you grant it, I will go with you and cause you no trouble.”
His eyes narrowed in the slits of the mask. “What condition?”
“Release the children.”
“No way. They’re a bargaining chip.”
“You have the biggest bargaining chip with the vice president of the United States. What more do you need? He draws more attention to the media than a handful of kids who will be screaming again as soon as they get hungry or have to go to the bathroom.”
“Why should I trust you?” he said. “How do I know you won’t go back on your word?”
“I’m not the one who lied and cheated in our relationship.”
“You lied when you said until death do us part.”
“I didn’t lie. I was no longer married to the same man. He died somewhere in the past eight years. Whereas you lied when you said you’d love, honor and cherish me. What part of beating your wife is cherishing?”
His lips pulled back in a snarl. “If you weren’t so damned mouthy...”
“It didn’t matter if I talked or was mute. You hit me. And if I go with you again, you’ll hit me again.”
His eyes narrowed again. “So why would you promise to go with me, then?”
Sierra pushed back her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Because I care more for those children than I do for myself. They’re just starting their lives. They deserve a chance to live them.”
“I’m not in charge. I can’t promise anything. But if it means you’ll come with me without an argument, it might just be worth it.” He shoved her back toward the women and children. “For now, sit down and shut up.”
Sierra did as she was told, sinking onto the floor beside Brenda.
Clay walked back up to the exit. “I’ll be right back.”
“Yeah. That’s right. Leave me with all of these hostages. At least give me enough bullets to take care of all of them.”
Clay pulled a thirty-round curved magazine from a strap on his vest and tossed it to the man standing guard over the vice president. “Shoot them if they give you any trouble.”
The man sneered. “Even your wife?”
Clay shot a killer glance at Sierra. “Especially my wife.” Then he left the room, closing the door behind him.
If Sierra hoped to get out of the situation, she had to come up with a plan. She had no intention of going with Clay Ellis anywhere. The man was on a one-way path to hell, and he could damn well get there by himself. But she had the children to think of. If she could negotiate their release, she’d tell the devil anything he wanted to hear.