High Desert Barbecue (7 page)

T
he Blazer slowed and Scott and Lani both visibly relaxed.

“
Funny how we haven’t seen any rangers on this road at all,” Scott said. “There was nobody at the barrier, and we haven’t seen any firefighting crews since.”

“
So you actually thought we
would
run into rangers?” Lani asked. “You brought me back here expecting us to get arrested?”

“
I knew rangers were a possibility,” Scott said. He cocked a thumb toward the cargo area of the truck. “The backpacks are our alibi. We were out for a couple of days and had no idea the area was closed off.”

“
Wait, so we’re
not
going backpacking?”

S
cott shrugged—a gesture mostly wasted in the tight confines of the truck.

“
We’re off on an adventure. We may go backpacking. We may get chased around by forest rangers. At least we’re not sitting at my desk contemplating my new unemployment. And, if Rollo’s firebugs are out here somewhere, we’ll catch ‘em in action.”

Lani sighed. She stroked the fur around Champ’s throat, distracting the dog not a bit from his slobbering, open-mouthed delight at being in motion. Left ear held erect, right ear folded down in an arrangement like a cocky doggie beret, Champ clearly didn’t care where they were going—it was the trip that mattered.

“
Speaking of which,” Lani said, holding on to the seat tightly over a prolonged stretch of washboard road. “Assuming that the firebugs
are
out here, how do we make sure we see them before they see us?”

“
Assuming.” Rollo grumbled. “
Assuming
. They’re out here all right.” He turned his attention from the road to Scott and Lani; the woman silently pointed at the road with her right hand and rotated Rollo’s head to face forward with her left.

“
I’ll tell you what,” Rollo continued. “If we don’t find those bastards torching the forest, I’ll fix that backdoor of yours for free.”

S
cott slowly turned is head toward his friend. “You’ll fix that backdoor—that you broke—for free, all right. That is, unless you want to find someplace else to stay.”

R
ollo chuckled, happy at getting a rise from Scott.

“
I repeat,” Lani said. “How do we find the firebugs? If they exist.”

“
Well, we’ll have to look for— Huh,” Scott answered. “What’s that?”

I
n the distance, rising above the trees, was a plume of dust of the sort tossed up by cars on dry, unpaved Arizona roads.

Chapter 14

A
nxious over the delay in his official mission of arboreal arson, Jason once again stood on his brakes and brought his truck to a skidding halt. Fine Arizona soil, bone dry in the sun-drenched intermission between monsoon rains, rose up in a cloud and settled gently on Jason and his passengers.

S
omebody coughed.

J
ason heard a car door slam just a moment before Tim appeared at his window. Tim’s face was dust-encrusted, with the powdery dirt bizarrely blurring the line between skin and sunglasses.

“
Jason, what the hell are you doing? We’re nowhere near the site we picked.”

J
ason gaped, momentarily thrown by Tim’s appearance.

“
Ummm.”

“
What?”

“
Ummm. I figured this was good enough. Why waste more time by heading down the road?”

T
im sighed, then turned to face back toward his own vehicle.

“
All right! This is it! Everybody out!”

J
ason hopped from the truck and stretched his legs.

I
nstructed to improvise, the crew set to ransacking the trucks and their own gear for anything that could be used to start a fire. Lighters and stove fuel containers were set in a small pile by the side of the road.

“
Hey,” Samantha called from the truck’s tailgate. She held a short section of rubber hose in her hand. “I bet we could use this to siphon gas from the tanks.”

“
Great idea! Are you up to giving it a try?”

S
amantha nodded. “I have powerful lungs from all the bike-riding I do. I can suck as long and hard as you want.”

J
ason smiled. He was in love.

Chapter 15

S
cott had hoped to spot any backcountry road traffic by the dust clouds it inevitably raised, but the brown pall hovering over FR 538 not far from the intersection with Woody Mountain Road looked like the leavings of a dune buggy rally. It hung heavy in the sky and dimmed the sun.

“
Jesus Christ,” he said. “It looks like a convoy went through here.”

R
ollo eyed the sky doubtfully.

“
Not real sneaky, are they?”

“
Maybe they have nothing to be sneaky about,” Lani offered.

R
ollo snorted.

“
Rollo, why don’t you pull off here,” Scott said. We’ll stick the truck back in the trees. If there’s some kind of a Forest Service jamboree going on back here, we probably don’t want to barge in.”

O
nce under cover, the three retrieved their gear from the back of the truck, hauling out three backpacks of varying size and weight. Scott and Lani both shrugged into small, relatively new packs with plastic drinking tubes snapped smartly to shoulder straps. Scott’s pack also put his gun within easy reach once the hipbelt was buckled in place.

R
ollo attached himself to a large, ancient external-frame pack held together with wire and duct tape. A canteen dangled from his shoulder and extra water bottles peeked from pockets on the pack bags.

L
ani snapped a leash to Champ’s collar to keep him from bounding off through the trees and alerting whoever drove along on the road ahead. Unhappy at the restraint, Champ strained at the collar, leaning far forward and breathing roughly, while Lani leaned back, holding the dog in place.

“
Damn it, Champ!”

R
ollo shot a look at the battling pair.

“
Maybe the dog ain’t such a good—”

“
Cool it, Champ,” Scott hissed.

T
he dog relaxed.

Chapter 16

R
etrieved from their semi-permanent stations under seats and in the back of the Forest Service trucks, a sizeable collection of empty soda cans and sports drink bottles stood in rank along the sides of the vehicles, ready for their infusions of gasoline.

“
Don’t you people
recycle
?” Rena shrieked at the sight of the ancient containers. Her square-cut brown mop of hair shook with agitation.

“
Well … sometimes,” Jason answered defensively. “Those aren’t all mine,” he added.

“
The generic soda is definitely yours,” Terry said. Skinny to the point of deformity, the ranger was almost lost in his baggy uniform shirt, which flapped around him in the breeze. “Nobody else drinks that stuff.”

T
erry turned his attention back to the garden hose in his hand, which trailed from the gas tank of one of the trucks to Samantha, who calmly dispensed gasoline into a Gatorade bottle.

“
Hey Jason,” Terry called out. “How do you want us to use this stuff? I mean, are we just going to pour it in the grass and spark it up?”

J
ason hesitated at the question. He really hadn’t thought much beyond getting the gas out of the trucks. “Torches,” he said.

“
What?” Terry asked. The entire group stopped what they were doing to look at him quizzically.

“
We’ll make torches, soak them in gasoline and use the torches to light the grass.” Jason smiled smugly in satisfaction.

O
n the other side of one of the trucks, with just their crewcuts and dirt-caked sunglasses visible, Tim and Ray shot back looks of overt disgust.

“
What the fuck are we supposed to make torches out of,” Tim asked.

P
inned by their gazes, Jason looked around wildly.

“
Branches and … uh … ” He thought hard, mentally dredging the inventory of supplies for anything that could be used to soak up fuel. “Our shirts!”

Chapter 17

S
cott considered himself an experienced woodsman. So did Lani for that matter, minus the “man,” of course. Rollo didn’t know anything
other
than woods, so far as anybody could tell. But you wouldn’t have known it once they were five minutes into the trees.

“
Umm … Honey? Where’s the truck from here?” Lani asked.

T
here was a long moment of silence.

“
Honey?”

S
cott sighed.

“
Behind us. Somewhere.”

“
Behind us?”

“-
ish. Rollo … ?”

“
Don’t fucking ask me. I’m just following that dust cloud.”

L
ani sputtered.

“
Seriously? How do you—?”

“
Ssshh. I hear voices up ahead,” Scott whispered. He placed his hand on Champ’s head to calm the dog. “Let me go ahead to take a look.”

R
ollo shook his head. Under strain from the movement, his threadbare canvas hat threatened to fly off in multiple directions.

“
Hey,
I’m
the mountain man, city boy. I’ll go ahead.”

S
cott glanced at his shaggy buddy, then poked him in the paunch with his right-hand index finger.

“
You’re the
fat
mountain man. I don’t know what you’ve been doing out in these forests, but you’re eating entirely too well.”

R
ollo looked like he’d been stung. He patted his plaid shirt-encased belly with both hands

“
Hey, there are goodies everywhere if you know where to look,” he grumped. “Just look at the prickly pear—”

“
Guys,” Lani interrupted. “Can we get on with it?”

“
Sure enough, baby,” Scott answered. “Hey, if there’s anything going on, I’ll capture it on video for both of you so you can enjoy it with popcorn later.” He dropped his pack to the ground and undid the zipper that ran from the base to the top. A smart phone appeared in his hand a moment later.

“
You’re gonna call somebody?”

“
Nope, Rollo. Video.” Scott tapped at the phone, then swung it around. He briefly pointed the tiny lens on the back toward Rollo. The older man leaned forward to watch the playback of what had just been recorded.

“
If you’d venture out of the 19
^th
century from time to time, you’d know that phones these days can take pictures and video. I can even post it online from here.”

H
e peered at the phone and grimaced.

“
Well, I
could
if there was any service out here.”

R
ollo ignored the dig and whistled appreciatively.

“
Pretty cool.”

“
Yep. Lani and I have found some uses for it.” A big grin played across Scott’s face.