Call of the Wild (18 page)

“While I see your point, but I have to disagree with the execution. The company is ours and you made a unilateral decision without consulting me. That’s not the way a business, a partnership, and especially a marriage should be. I feel like because I might be gestating, you’ve decided all my brain cells have leaked out of my head,” Marsha responded and wondered why the conversation, which was planned, had suddenly started sounding so real. She wasn’t that great of an actress.

Even as they continued talking, she realized that neither of them was making shit up. Sure, the topics were pre-arranged as part of their cover. The way they each felt though was still coming through in their speech. This is how Aaron would react when she was pregnant. It was nice he was so over protective even as she was irritated at his lack of trust in her ability to take care of herself. She only got shot the one time and she did totally kill the assholes that shot her!

By this time they were the second car back from the checkpoint and she knew they were being observed and listened too. Why would a normal campgrounds need three rangers checking in campers? Especially when only one was doing the actual work? The other two were giving all the vehicles and occupants an intense scrutiny.

As they pulled forward Marsha interrupted Aaron.

“Hey, love you too. Now where’s the paperwork?” she asked him before giving the ranger at her window a big smile. “Hi, we have a reserved spot for our base camp. And we’d also like to register our planned trips deeper into the woods,” she told the man.

“We’re experiencing hot dry weather. We’re asking all campers to be extra careful with fire. I’m not sure hiking into the deeper woods is recommended at this time,” he told her as she handed over copies of their reservation and proof of payment.

“No worries, we’re teaching survival techniques. So mostly we’ll be having a cold camp,” she said referring to sleeping and eating without preparing food over a fire. “We’re experts and will make sure we pack out everything we pack in.”

The other goons, she had recognized from pictures Laura had obtained. This ranger though she didn’t recognize. Once she got a good whiff of his scent, she tried not to let her panic show on her face. As soon as they passed through she sped off, heading to their assigned space. To keep calm she went back to her script.

“Why do people call it camping out when they take their homes with them?” she asked waving an arm towards the area reserved for RVs. The big vehicles took up so much space, there was no room for trees. It looked like a large parking lot instead of being out in nature. Some were already watching televisions.

Aaron chuckled. “One time my brothers and I went on a camping trip with some girls. We set up our tents and then made a campfire to cook our dinner. After we ate, we pulled out a guitar and started singing and roasting marshmallows.”

“Yeah, sounds like fun. Which brother is the musician?”

Aaron’s ruddy cheeks gave him her answer and she laughed.

“Okay, Romeo, did this routine work with the girls?”

“It might have. Only the ranger came over and broke up the party. It seemed our campfire singing was disturbing the people in their RVs.”

“Seriously, I don’t understand why some people even leave their houses. Come on, this is our spot. We need to get set up.”

They parked and began pulling items out of the back of their SUV. They had reserved more than one spot, their “customers” would be arriving and using the others spaces. Their survival training would cover their surveillance activities. Making sure The Society didn’t start a forest fire in this part of the state park was their job.

Late that night, snuggled up in their double sleeping bag and sated from a sweaty bout of lovemaking Aaron asked the question that had been bothering him since they had arrived.

“Are you going to tell me what spooked you earlier?” he asked right next to her ear.

“Shayatin,” she answered back.

It seemed their two enemies were overlooking their disdain for each other to work together. Their job had become a hundred times more difficult.

Aaron and Marsha were up at dawn the next day. By ten a.m., his brothers, David and Benji, had arrived, and they set off into the woods. Under cover of scouting for their survival course, they were also scouting for the enemy. It wasn’t until the second day that they were approached.

The four of them had returned to their base camp, and were making dinner over their fire, when one of the rangers approached.

“Good evening. I’m one of the rangers here, name’s Tom. How are you doing this evening?” he asked them, as he took in everything about the camp.

Aaron got up from where he was sitting at the folding table and walked over to the ranger. “Good evening, Ranger Tom. We’re all doing just fine. Would you care for a cup of coffee?" he asked.

“Thanks, I could use a cup. It’s so hot during the day, but I still drink coffee instead of something cold. I have to say, I was curious about your business. I looked online to check you out. You don't usually operate in this part of the country…why here?”

Aaron invited the Ranger over to the table to sit, as Marsha brought the pot of coffee. The maps that Aaron and his brother were going over were still laid out on the table; he made no effort to put them away or hide them.

“Good old Uncle Sam hired us to train a group of civilians. So we need to use a destination close to D.C., while at the same time, be in an area they would be unfamiliar with. This park is close enough for the travel time and far enough away at the same time. Also, we were able to get the reservations with very short notice. Most recreation areas need to be reserved months and months in advance.

“I was kind of surprised; this area is beautiful. We spent the last few days scouting out the area. Before we bring in our group, we need to be completely familiarized with it. Maybe you wouldn't mind going over this map with me and showing us a few things? We tried to note all of the area’s hazards, as well as where to find water. You know, basically getting the lay of the land,” said Aaron.

He thanked him for the coffee, and then pulled the map over to get a better look at it. He was a little surprised that they had just offered it up. He wanted to find out how they had gotten a reservation. There had been a block put on all reservations for the coming week. So the fact that they had one was suspicious. As of the next morning, their group would be the only ones camping in the park. If he decided they were innocent, he needed to get them to leave. Otherwise, their lives would be forfeit. By Thursday, the forest would burn.

“We’re on a fire watch; the season has been really dry. How did you get your reservations? We had put a block for this week because we’re planning to clear brush. If the winds die down, we may do a controlled burn. You should probably cancel your course for this week; maybe reschedule it for next week. This is especially true for a survival training course. If something should happen, there wouldn’t be an adequate search and rescue team. We’re all going to be scattered,” said the ranger, as he looked over the maps.

“Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, we’re fully booked, and this group is under a deadline. You don’t need to worry, though; Marsha and I have been doing this for quite a while and haven’t lost one yet. Plus, this time we’ve got my two brothers here to help out. I’m Army retired and they’re both active duty Navy. As to how we got the reservation, well, that was Marsha. We spend a lot of time in the park system and Marsha has developed relationships over the years. She made the reservation at the national level. They trust us to take care of our groups. Our government contact may have had something to do with that, too. Marsha, is that right?” Aaron asked, throwing the conversational ball in her direction.

“Yeah, I’ve got a contact in Jarvis’s office,” she said dropping the name of the Director of the U.S. National Park Service. “Especially when we have a government contract like this time, we have no problem getting a spot. If you’ll mark the map with any possible controlled burns, we’ll take that into account. With the winds we’ve been having lately, though, I don’t think you’ll get your chance. As dry as it is, don’t you think it would be too dangerous?” she asked him, as she turned the steaks on the makeshift grill.

After tonight, they would have to make do with power bars and dehydrated stew. For now, though, they had fresh vegetables and real meat they could sink their teeth into.

The ranger eyed the food, even as he was reluctantly impressed with their connections in the park service. “The decision on whether or not to burn is above my pay grade. I just take orders. Hey, I thought this was survival training. You feed steak to your trainees? Sign me up,” he quipped.

Marsha laughed. “We’re eating steak tonight, because beginning tomorrow we’ll be living off the land, just like our clients. We have to lead by example, unfortunately,” she said with another small laugh.

He laughed along with her.

He stayed for another few minutes, going over the map with Aaron. He made one more half-hearted attempt to get them to change the location of their training by emphasizing where in the park they should take their group. As he left, he decided to put it in the hands of fate. If they didn’t take his advice, they would all die. Too bad about the woman, she was good looking. As to whether or not they were human or shifter, he believed them to be human. It wouldn’t save them, though; they’d be collateral damage if they ventured into the wrong part of the forest. He and the others in The Society were determined to make sure no shifters got through their lines. He left to make his report.

After the ranger had gone, David and Aaron went over the notes the ranger had made and his recommendations, while Benji helped Marsha with dinner.

Not knowing whether or not they were still under surveillance, Aaron was careful with what he said.

“The ranger had some good ideas. It’s a shame he didn’t stop by the first day.”

“Yeah, we could have scouted out farther north and west, instead of heading east,” said David. “Do we take his suggestion or do we stick with our original plan?”

“We don’t have to decide right now. Let’s have our dinner. Then we can go over both ideas again after. We’ll all sleep on it and make our decision in the morning, as long as we’re set before the van arrives tomorrow.”

“If you want me to scout north and west, I’m going to need to get up at dawn. If you let me sleep in, then I figure we’re sticking with the original plan,” said David.

Aaron just laughed at his brother’s kidding. Sure, they were in a life or death situation. There weren’t any people he’d rather be with than his brothers. Since he’d joined the Army, and they were in the Navy, there had been more than a few rivalries between them. This was the first time they’d worked on a mission together. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if he could tuck Marsha away somewhere safe. He admitted, if only to himself, that he was worried about how effective he would be if she were in danger. He’d already noticed his attention being split between his job and his woman. Come tomorrow, he was going to have to trust her to keep herself safe. Nothing he’d ever done before—even his most difficult mission—scared him more than the possibility of Marsha being hurt.

They enjoyed their meal. David and Benji entertained Marsha with stories about their shared childhood. Marsha made a point of saying how nice it was to spend time with two of her husband’s brothers who had been deployed for so long. She never forgot that people could be listening to them talk.

Since it was summer, it stayed light until after nine. They took advantage of that by going over their maps again in greater detail. They used coded language to discuss the things they’d spotted on and off the trail. They had discovered brush piled up in many places; it could have been for cleaning up or it could have been for setting a large fire. They would have to keep an eye on those brush piles.

Each member of the team had an emergency satellite phone for calling out in addition to high tech earpieces and communication equipment for use within the team. If a fire did get set, they would call in a drop of fire retardant. They had some hotshots on standby, firefighters who parachuted directly into a fire zone. That was nothing unusual. This was the high season for fires. Doug Donahue would be approaching Homeland Security with a possible terrorist threat, coordinating what he could behind the scenes. This was business as usual for him.

They wanted to be able to prosecute these assholes to the full extent of the law. By informing them that members of the government would be in the park, it increased the number of charges that could be brought against them.

After the rest of the team arrived on Monday, they all headed out into the forest. They went off the marked trails fairly quickly. The scouting they had done for the last two days would now pay off.

“I haven’t spotted a single watcher, and I’ve been looking,” said Ben, the only other cougar shifter who had come along. He was a total geek and usually spent most of his time working with Laura. He had requested this assignment, like so many others he’d lost family to The Society and needed to be in on the action. Aaron was keeping a close eye on him. One because Laura would be sad if anything happened to him, he was one of the first friends she’d made when she moved. And two, people who were emotionally charged in a firefight made mistakes. He wanted to make sure Ben kept his cool when things heated up.