Chapter Nine
While they’d waited for clearance for a civilian to go along for the ride in the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, T-Rex and the pilot, Major Bailey, and copilot, Lieutenant Strohm, studied several contour maps and the route of the oil pipeline. Some of the larger abandoned gold-rush-era mines were noted on the map, their locations clearly marked.
T-Rex waited, on edge, praying Major Bailey’s commander would allow Sierra to join the search. He’d told the major she was part of Homeland Security’s platform in Grizzly Pass. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but T-Rex wouldn’t have gone without Sierra. Not when Ellis would likely stalk her and possibly force her to go with him and hold her hostage who knew where and for how long.
Ellis needed someone to take him out behind a barn and beat some sense into him. Even then, T-Rex doubted the man would listen.
When the approval came through, T-Rex released the breath he’d been holding. He realized he’d be a whole lot more effective knowing Sierra was right beside him and not at the mercy of her abusive ex-husband.
Once off the ground, T-Rex stopped thinking about Ellis long enough to look out the side of the aircraft.
Major Bailey and his copilot were using the time in the chopper to log flight and training time. By flying through the hills, they’d get some much-needed nap-of-the-earth flying in. At the same time, they’d be flying close enough to the ground that T-Rex and Sierra could look for any signs of extensive road use, vehicles out on old logging or mining trails or people back in the hills where there normally wouldn’t be any, especially when not in hunting season.
Sierra sat in the seat beside him, her eyes wide and bright, her hands gripping the safety harness strapped around her lap and shoulders. She looked at once terrified and excited.
T-Rex smiled. The woman might have been in an abusive situation, but she had a lot of gumption and a sense of adventure. She’d do all right once she got far enough from Ellis’s influence.
What bothered T-Rex most was the fact he wouldn’t be there to run interference against her ex-husband. He’d be out of Grizzly Pass just as soon as they fixed what was wrong in the area.
He leaned toward the open doorway and stared down as the helicopter neared the hills. Based on the map T-Rex had brought along with him depicting the route of the oil pipeline, they were getting close to one of the first points the pipeline inspectors would have checked. It was on the edge of the Beartooth Mountains in a grassy meadow. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The dirt road leading up to it was slightly overgrown with grass and bramble.
Flying a direct path, they entered a valley between two hills. The helicopter pilot followed the pipeline to the area where a pipeline inspector had been shot and killed since the military team had arrived in Grizzly Pass. Hovering between the hills, the pilot lowered the aircraft to fifteen feet above the valley floor.
The ground around the pipeline appeared somewhat disturbed. The rotor wash kicked up loose dirt, whipping it around, making it hard to see what was below.
T-Rex didn’t know what he expected to find, but the area had seen one death and an attempt by someone to plant dynamite at the same point. Those facts alone gave them good reason to check it out again, despite the full investigation the state crime lab had conducted.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary on the ground so T-Rex redirected his attention to the hillsides rising up on either side of the valley.
“Anything?” he said into his headset.
“Nothing here,” the pilot responded.
“Nothing,” the copilot affirmed.
“I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I don’t see anything moving, or anything that appears out of place,” Sierra said.
“Let’s move on toward the border of the Stone Oak Ranch and the National Park,” the pilot said.
T-Rex nodded. “Roger.”
The pilot guided the aircraft upward and over the tops of several ridges.
From his bird’s-eye view, T-Rex could see into the valleys. The aircraft moved slowly, giving them plenty of time to scour the hillsides looking for caves, mine shafts and roads leading into and out of the hills.
As they neared the hills near Stone Oak Ranch where Olivia Dawson’s father had been murdered by Don Sweeney, T-Rex could see a lot more shadows against the sides of the hills, indicating overhangs and caves.
T-Rex leaned against his harness, trying to look out over the skids of the chopper. “Can you get closer to the caves?”
In response, Major Bailey tipped the helicopter and angled it nearer the caves, where he hovered in between two ridges.
“What’s that?” Sierra said. “Are those vehicles?”
T-Rex leaned toward her and followed her arm to where she pointed at the side of the hills.
A truck was backed up to a cave. A shadow detached from the darkness of the cave, and a man dressed in camouflage stared up at the helicopter. He looked back to the cave and appeared to be shouting, not that they could hear him over the roar of the rotors.
A moment later, another man joined him, carrying a short tube. He extended it to double its length, settled it on his shoulder and aimed it at the helicopter.
“Rocket launcher! Get out of here!” T-Rex cried.
The pilot pulled back on the controls and goosed the throttle, sending them climbing higher, out of the valley.
“Brace yourself!” T-Rex reached over, grabbed Sierra’s hand and squeezed it.
Something slammed into the back of the helicopter, sending it spinning around to the right.
“We’re hit,” the copilot shouted into the headset.
The pilot struggled with the controls, steadied the craft and pulled the nose upward as it rushed toward the side of a cliff.
T-Rex couldn’t look away from the bare rock cliff they were rushing toward, as if he was mesmerized by his forthcoming death.
At the last moment, the chopper lifted up, skimming over the top of the ridge, the skids scraping against the hard surface.
Major Bailey looked around. “We have to find a place to put this baby down.”
T-Rex looked around at the rugged terrain.
“It needs to be wide enough to allow for a sloppy landing.”
“South. Go south toward Stone Oak Ranch.”
“Those men who shot at us are moving,” Sierra said, leaning toward the open door. “They’re on ATVs.”
“They’re following us,” the copilot confirmed.
“Can you get us farther away before you land?” T-Rex asked.
The craft shuddered and dipped. Major Bailey held on to the controls with both hands, his body straining. “We’ll be lucky to land in one piece.”
“Over there. On that knoll.” The copilot pointed to a barren hilltop with a fence stretching across one side and angling downward into a valley.
“That’s on Stone Oak Ranch,” T-Rex said. “We could get help from the owner, Olivia Dawson.
“It will take at least an hour to hike down to her,” T-Rex said. “It took thirty minutes to get to that point on four-wheelers from her ranch house.”
“Those men on the ATVs might catch up to us.” Sierra twisted in her seat, staring at the ground below.
As the pilot concentrated on flying the Black Hawk to the open knoll, the copilot put out a mayday call.
Twenty yards from the projected landing zone, the chopper sputtered, the rotor slowed and the descent came quicker than expected.
“It’s going to be a bumpy landing,” the pilot said.
T-Rex held tighter to Sierra’s hand and gave her a tight smile. “We’ve got this.”
No sooner had he said the words, the helicopter slammed into the ground and skidded across the knoll, coming to a stop near the other end, at the edge of a sheer one-hundred-foot drop.
Everyone remained seated until the rotors stopped moving and the pilot turned off the engine.
Then the pilot unbuckled his harness and turned in his seat to look at each person in the craft. “Everyone all right?”
The copilot nodded.
“I’m okay,” T-Rex said.
Sierra grinned. “That was amazing.”
Her infectious smile made T-Rex smile, as well. “Good job, Major Bailey.”
“Thanks, but it would be even better if we hadn’t been hit in the first place.” He flung aside his harness and got out of the helicopter, stepping up to the edge of the cliff they’d almost gone over.
T-Rex helped Sierra out of her harness, slid out of his seat and held open his arms for her.
She let him help her out of the craft and onto her feet. Her glance followed the pilot standing a few feet away, looking down. “That was close.” Sierra leaned into T-Rex.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. “Yes, it was.” Too close.
The whine of small engines reminded him the men who’d lobbed a rocket at them were on their way through the hills to find them.
“What do you want to bet they will be armed?” the copilot said.
T-Rex nodded. “We need to get moving if we want to stay a reasonable distance ahead.”
“I can’t leave the aircraft here.” Major Bailey backed away from the cliff’s edge and joined them. “There’s no telling what they’ll do to it.”
“The army can afford to lose a chopper. They can’t afford to lose a trained pilot,” T-Rex said.
The copilot nodded. “He’s right. Without weapons to defend ourselves, we’d be sitting ducks.”
“Were you able to contact the sheriff?” Sierra asked.
“We put out a mayday call but didn’t get a response, so we have no idea if the call was heard.” The copilot slipped his headset back on and sat back in his seat, fiddling with the radio dial on the control panel.
T-Rex glanced at his cell phone. No signal.
A moment later, the copilot got out of the helicopter, tossed his headset onto the seat and shook his head. “The radio is dead.”
“Then we’re on our own.” T-Rex ran toward the other side of the hill and glanced down into a valley. Five men on four-wheelers were racing along a trail, headed their way.
T-Rex turned and almost ran into Sierra. “We have to get out of here.” He took her hand and hurried back to the pilot and copilot. “We only have a few minutes before five aggressors top this hill. We need to get down off of here and to somewhere we can take advantage of cover and concealment.”
“We don’t want them to have the opportunity to shoot at us on the way down, so we’d better hustle.” The pilot glanced around. “Are you familiar with the area? Do you know which way to the Dawson woman’s ranch house?”
“Follow me.” T-Rex led the way down from the hill, taking a trail barely wide enough for a four-wheeler. He’d been up there a couple of days earlier when he and the team had inspected the hill and the area around it, searching for a similar group of five marauders who’d given chase to Hawkeye and Olivia.
They had not been successful at locating the area from which they’d come. Numerous trails wound their way through the hills and mountains, weaving through the silent remains of a once-busy mining community back in the late 1800s. They’d spent a couple of days taking different trails, but they hadn’t been able to find the men.
If they didn’t get down to an area that provided cover and concealment soon, the attackers on four-wheelers would find them and pick them off, one-by-one. They hadn’t hesitated in firing a rocket at a government helicopter, and they wouldn’t balk at shooting four people.
They half walked and half ran down the trail, slipping on loose gravel. T-Rex worried Sierra would trip and fall over the edge. He held her hand, refusing to let her tumble to her death. Not on his watch.
As they neared the floor of a narrow valley, T-Rex paused and glanced up at the hill they’d just vacated.
The pilot and copilot had stopped to catch their breath. Each was bent over, hands on their knees. They’d pushed hard to get this far, and it hadn’t been easy with the loose gravel and treacherous terrain.
T-Rex could hear the roar of the four-wheeler engines. He spun and grabbed Sierra’s hand. She was winded and her cheeks were bright pink, but she gave him a brief smile.
“Are you all right?” T-Rex asked.
She nodded, glancing up at the hill they’d come down. Then she squared her shoulders. “Let’s move. They’re almost on us.”
The engine noise grew louder as T-Rex led them toward a jumble of boulders lying at the base of an enormous overhang. If they could make it there, they’d have concealment and cover. It also might leave them trapped and outnumbered five to four. With no weapons but their minds, they’d have to come up with a plan. Either they would lay low and pray the attackers would give up and move on, or they’d have to fight back, barehanded.
Ten yards from the first boulder big enough to offer any kind of protection, the crack of gunfire echoed off the hillsides.
Dirt shot up next to T-Rex’s feet. “Run!” he yelled, pushing Sierra in front of him. She picked up the pace, her feet flying over the rocks and gravel.
Another crack sounded, and the copilot fell to his knees.
“Damn. He got my leg.” He tried to get up but fell back to the ground.
Sierra slowed and started to turn back.
“Don’t stop. Keep moving,” T-Rex ordered.
“But—” She hesitated. A bullet hit the ground beside her.
“Just go!” His pulse racing and unable to block the bullets from hitting Sierra, T-Rex flung the copilot over his shoulder and ran as fast as he could, weighted down by the man.
“Let me help,” the pilot offered.
“Help by getting Sierra to a safe place.”
The pilot nodded and ran to catch up to Sierra.
More gunfire echoed off the rock walls of the valley.
Sierra reached the boulder first and ducked behind, followed by the pilot. A few steps behind them, T-Rex made it to the boulder and dropped the man on the ground.
“How bad is it?” T-Rex asked.
The copilot gritted his teeth. “I think I can get around, but I might need a little help.”
T-Rex nodded to the pilot. “You stand watch. Let me know how close they get.”
Major Bailey nodded and eased his head around the opposite side of the boulder for a quick peek, ducking back as gunfire rang out. “They’re standing at the top of the hill, their weapons aimed in our direction.”
T-Rex pulled his knife from the scabbard strapped to his belt and tore the leg of the copilot’s jumpsuit. He handed the fabric to Sierra. “I need long strips.”
She quickly ripped the pant leg into four-inch-wide strips, wadded up one into a thick pad and pressed it to the man’s wound. As she held the pad, T-Rex made quick work of wrapping the other strip around the copilot’s leg. He tied a knot over the pad and helped the man to his feet.
“Think you and Sierra can make your way to the back of this stand of rocks?”
The copilot nodded.
Sierra draped the man’s arm over her shoulder and wrapped one of hers around his waist. “We’ll manage. But what about you two?”
“They’re coming down,” the major said.
“That gives us seconds to take positions and get ready to do what we can to protect ourselves.” T-Rex shot a glance at Sierra. “Your job is to get Lieutenant Strohm as far back as possible and hide behind some really big rocks. If this turns into a shooting match, I don’t want you two catching stray bullets.”
She didn’t move, her lips thinning into a straight line. “But what about you?”
“I can take care of myself.” He nodded toward Major Bailey. “And I have backup.”
Her brows dipped. “And no weapons.”
“Can’t help that,” he said. “But you’re wasting valuable time and putting the lieutenant in danger. Move!”
She jumped and started weaving through the huge boulders that had fallen from the side of the cliff, helping the copilot along as best she could.
Once Sierra was out of sight, T-Rex shot a glance at the major. “Sir, are you ready to play a game of cat and mouse?”
The pilot pulled a knife from the strap around his calf and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
T-Rex melted back behind the surrounding boulders and hunkered low. He circled back toward the trail where the riders were coming from and waited. They arrived in a swift procession, slowing as they reached the maze of boulders. Each man wore a black helmet and carried his rifle either resting in a plastic gun boot attached to the ATV or slung over his shoulder within easy reach.
After four of the five riders passed by him, T-Rex made his move. The last four-wheeler came abreast of where T-Rex was hiding. T-Rex leaped out, grabbed the man from the back of the ATV and dragged him behind the boulder, his neck in a headlock. Without the man on the vehicle, the ATV rolled to a standstill.
While the others were just coming to a halt, firing their weapons into the air, T-Rex tightened his hold around the man’s neck, cutting off his air until he passed out.
T-Rex pulled the AR-15 rifle from over the man’s shoulder and dragged the attacker’s shirt off and down his arms, quickly twisting it into a knot around his wrists behind his back. It might not hold him long, but it had to be enough for the moment.
T-Rex grabbed the rifle and checked the thirty-round magazine. Then he eased up to the side of one of the boulders and opened fire, shooting at the ground near their tires, not giving them a chance to dismount.
The riders yelped, hit their throttles and raced around a bend in the trail and out of sight.
“Major, we have maybe a minute before they return on foot,” T-Rex called out.
The major hurried toward him. “How the heck did you get that?”
“I borrowed it from the young man on the ground over there.” He pointed to the man he’d jumped.
The attacker was starting to wake up. Still wearing the black helmet, he shook his head and cursed, struggling to free himself from the bonds of his shirt.
“The others will be back,” T-Rex said, “but will probably sneak in. We need to make sure they don’t get to Sierra and Strohm.”
“There are only the two of us. How are we going to keep four men at bay?” Bailey asked.
“We have to keep our eyes open and be smarter than they are.” T-Rex led the way through the boulders to the far end past which the riders had driven in their hurry to get away from the flying bullets.
T-Rex handed the AR-15 to the pilot and positioned him behind a large cluster of boulders. “If they come your way, don’t wait for them to shoot before pulling the trigger. I guarantee they won’t be as nice to you.”
The major nodded and crawled down in between the rocks. “What about you?”
“I’ll find them before they find me.” He held his knife in his hand and slipped in between the standing boulders, working his way through them to the point at which he anticipated the four men to breach the rugged array of rocks and giant fallen portions of the cliff. He paused, watching the trails leading back to him and the slope of the hillside.
The sun had made progress toward the jagged edges of the ridgelines towering on either side of the narrow valley. Before long it would be dark. The riders could be waiting for dusk to make their moves. Or not. At dusk, they would all be at a disadvantage.
T-Rex stood ready, straining his ears for even the slightest of sounds.