High Desert Barbecue (12 page)

A
nd whatever was developing between the team leader and that strange plant-freak girl couldn’t be good news.

B
ut most of all, the strangers pissed him off. First and foremost, Tim considered himself a law-enforcement officer—an agent of official policy and defender of order. You do
not
spy on law enforcement officers. Sneaking around in the brush with a smart phone suggested an unseemly distrust of officialdom.

A
nd you certainly don’t
shoot
at law enforcement officers. That leads to anarchy. And Tim wasn’t about to let anarchy gain the upper hand.

T
im felt the weight of his gun on his hip—his official, Park Service-issued gun, and he felt the weight of the Park Service in the weight of that gun, and the weight of the government behind the Park Service. The more Tim thought about the situation, the more he determined to set things right, once and for all.

S
tep by muddy step, water seeped into Tim’s shoes, soaked his shorts, dripped from his short-cropped hair and fogged his sunglasses. And all of that pissed him off too.

E
ventually, a pair of headlights turned into a Forest Service truck. Tim stepped forward, pulled the door open, and thrust his head inside.

“
Not happy! I’m
definitely
not happy.”

T
he driver gaped. Only then did Tim recognize Van Kamp himself at the wheel, sitting far forward to reach the vehicle controls. Two BLM rangers filled the back seat, apparently along as muscle for the pint-sized conspirator.

“
Ranger Vasquez? Is that you?”

“
Who else? Sir.”

“
Do you need medical attention? Food?”

“
I just need an overnight pack and ammunition. Lots of ammunition.” He looked at the BLM men in the back of the truck. One of them gulped and a bead of sweat fell from his brow to his collar.

“
Oh, and a new shirt.”

Chapter 26

V
an Kamp’s nerves were well and truly frayed by the time he arrived back at the district headquarters. Assisted by the persuasive powers of the BLM rangers—one of whom now nursed a wrenched shoulder and threatened to file a worker’s compensation claim—Van Kamp had convinced Tim to delay his return to the chase for a day. That gave the park ranger a night to rest and, more importantly, cool off before interacting once again with the public.

S
oles thumping against the scuffed linoleum floor of the hallway leading to his office, Van Kamp thought troubled thoughts as he watched his shoes and pushed his way past the door to his office—then bumped head-first into a sports jacket in need of a good dry-cleaning.

“
Christ! How the hell did you get in here?”

“
Your staff let me in,” Greenfield boomed. He stepped back from the doorway, sat in the chair opposite the desk—the very chair in which Van Kamp habitually terrorized any subordinate who displeased him—and crossed his hands over his belly. “I haven’t had any word from my people and I want to see if you have any news.”

V
an Kamp uttered a string of obscenities, then slipped behind his desk and climbed into his chair.

“
They let you in?”

“
Well, they’ve seen me with you.”

V
an Kamp grimaced.

“
They’ve seen me with the plumber, too. That doesn’t mean they should serve him coffee and cookies in my office.”

G
reenfield smiled, a little hesitantly.

“
Bottled water and a turkey sandwich, actually.” The big-screen, biblical-epic voice managed to sound almost apologetic. “So, have you heard from them?”

V
an Kamp stared, while considering whether to throw a temper tantrum. After a moment, he choked down his anger.

“
Not from them, but from one of the Park Service people on the team.”

“
Not one of those flat-head, wannabe—”

“
Yep. One of them. The Park Service takes its law enforcement duties ve-e-e-ry seriously. I’m told that the fire is set, but there’s trouble—the job was half-botched and they were photographed in the act.”

G
reenfield grumbled and sat deeper in his chair. He sank even further into his clothes, seeming to disappear into his jacket and wrinkled shirt as Van Kamp repeated the tale he’d heard from Ranger Tim Vasquez.

“
I’m thinking maybe we should wait and see what happens in Sycamore Canyon before be move forward. We can send more people in to find the witnesses—people who aren’t complete fuck-ups. When things settle down, we’ll get back to business.”

G
reenfield stirred. His bearded chin rose from his chest. His eyes flashed and met those of Van Kamp, seeming to bore into his skull.

“
No, goddamnit!” His fist crashed onto the desk, sending pens and papers flying. “We won’t be timid. Forget those idiots in Sycamore Canyon. We’re accelerating our schedule and committing ourselves to our plan, all or nothing!” Beard wagging, voice rising, Greenfield raised his eyes to the ceiling. “We’ll roast the towns of the West in flames and choke the people with smoke. Even if one or two people wander out of the wilderness with a few photos, they’ll be buried in what we’ve done!”

“
Yes! Yes!” Van Kamp squeaked. His fist pumped in the air and he precariously tottered atop his office chair.

G
reenfield smiled. “Call the others.” Then, suddenly, he was gone.

V
an Kamp gazed in the direction of the departed environmental leader. The room was quiet, lacking the energy it had held just a moment before. A plate with a few crumbs and a crust of bread sat on the windowsill.

“
Oh, shit.”

Chapter 27

J
ason’s stomach rumbled again—a long, growling, whining eruption that seemed to evoke sympathy from above in the form of a simultaneous peal of thunder. He stopped in place amidst the long, boulder-strewn canyon floor, and clenched every muscle in his body in an effort to maintain control over his rebellious bowels.

T
o his right, Samantha also paused. Water dripped from her hair, which limply molded to her head and neck. She pressed her hand to her bare belly, grimaced, and met his eyes with her own.

J
ason briefly lost himself in those eyes. He saw himself traveling through the woods with the owner of those eyes, exploring among the inner basin of the San Francisco peaks, grazing among the aspen …

A
nother rumble interrupted his train of thought. He took a long suck of water to calm his stomach, gulping down the cooling liquid.

“
I don’t know,” Samantha said. “The water tastes funny—worse even than the iodine. I wonder if there’s something wrong with it.”

J
ason shook his head and forced a smile.

“
I think that’s just a little pond scum for flavoring. The iodine should take care of any critters.”

“
That’s right,” added Terry, who had joined Jason, Ray and Samantha in stocking up on water at Kelsey Spring. He wore his rain jacket, though it remained unzipped in front in a sort of solidarity-in-discomfort with his colleagues. “Besides,” he added hopefully. “There hasn’t been enough time for anything in the spring to affect us.”

“
So why do we all feel like shit?” grumbled Ray. He sucked at his water, started to spit it out, and then stopped and forcefully swallowed.

“
Fuck. What’s done is done. Right?”

N
obody spoke.

“
Right,” he answered his own question.

T
hey continued in silence through the boulders, stretched out in a crude line from canyon wall to canyon wall. Free of stomach complaints, Rena and Bob walked ahead of the others. They gripped their rifles and eagerly looked for their prey.

L
ightning flashed above. The searchers wound among the boulders and through the trees that lined the high ground near the canyon walls. Whoever the strangers had been, they weren’t getting away if the dedicated staffers from the Center for Floral Supremacy had anything to say in the matter!

T
he floral supremacists’ unhappy comrades were content to trudge in the rear, avoiding sudden jarring motions to the best of their abilities.

J
ason stopped again. He hung his head and sighed.

“
Guys, hang on a moment. I have to take care—”

A
harsh, ripping noise interrupted his comments.

“
What the fuck?”

A
head, braced against a boulder, Rena held her rifle to her shoulder and squeezed off bursts of gunfire. Muzzle flash from the rifle lit up the canyon and the barrel bucked skyward as the animated fireplug poured bullet after bullet down the canyon.

Bob quickly joined Rena with a barrage of his own.

“
Jesus Christ,” Ray yelled. “Don’t—”

S
plinters of rock flew from boulders around them, and leaves clipped from trees parachuted to the ground. The duo’s gunfire was being answered.

“
Shit!” sounded from six throats and everybody dove for the nearest cover. Jason managed to land on his two-way radio and it squawked almost as loudly as he did from the impact. Then it stopped making any noise at all.

T
he rough landing pushed Jason over the edge. He clawed at the waistband of his shorts, pushing them to his ankles just in time. He spent the next several minutes grunting and cursing. With the gunfire at an end, a chorus of groans arose from the canyon floor and rebounded from the walls.

F
inally, shorts back in place, Jason stood and brushed himself off. A thin trickle of blood ran where a sliver of rock had nicked him.

“
Well, I certainly feel lighter.”

H
e stepped forward, toward the spot where Rena and Bob cowered behind a flood-formed wall of earth and stone.

“
What the fuck was that?”

“
We saw them!”

“
I figured that. I mean the
Apocalypse Now
scene. What was that?”

B
ob shrugged.

“
Well, that’s what we usually do when we’re shooting up car dealerships and the like. Except, nobody ever shot back before.”

R
ena stood.

“
Sorry. But we didn’t want them to get away.”

“
How much ammo do you have left?”

R
ena’s mouth opened slowly.

“
Oh.”

S
amantha and Terry reappeared. Samantha looked a little flushed. She flashed him a smile, which he returned.

T
erry shaded his eyes with his hand and peered into the distance.

“
I don’t see anybody now. Do you think you got them?”

R
ena tilted her head and looked at the sky.

“
Maybe not. I mean, I stopped shooting when the bullets came back.”

J
ason sighed. He looked around.

“
Where’s Ray. Damn it! Ray!”

S
ummoned, Ray stepped from his shelter among the rocks. All eyes immediately focused on him. He wore his shoes, daypack and sunglasses—and a shiny foil emergency blanket knotted around his middle.

“
I wasn’t fast enough, so I threw my shorts away. I don’t want to hear a word about it.”

H
e glared at them all. Then he took a sip of water.