The Alberta Connection (4 page)

The cruiser carrying Tanya pulled up behind
the Hummer. The driver, now wearing a nametag that read ‘O.
Pendergast,’ got out of the cruiser, walked to Tanya’s side, and
opened her door. Through a new rush of tears, Tanya could see more
nametags. She was in the company of ‘J. Pendergast,’ ‘M.
Pendergast,’ and ‘F. Pendergast.’

‘J. Pendergast’ walked over and held out his
hand. “Hi, my name is John Pendergast. Welcome to Idaho.”

As John helped her out of the cruiser, Tanya
looked around. They were parked in front of a small building with a
sign that read ‘The Hitching Post.’ Tanya felt her knees begin to
tremble.

Ryce walked over and held her close. “Honey,
I’d like to introduce you to some friends of mine. The organizer of
this deception was John Pendergast, assisted by his wife, Marge.
You have heard me talk about O2. He was the one who drove you over
here. His wife is Ramona. She was with you on the trip over. The
driver of the cruiser that escorted you over here is Fabian, the
youngest Pendergast sibling. Fabian also owns the Hummer parked
behind me. You haven’t met Hollie, who is Fabian’s wife. Hollie was
here getting everything arranged.”

After Tanya had been introduced to each one
in the group, John handed Ryce a document.

Ryce smiled and held the document for Tanya
to read. It was a marriage license. Tanya’s knees began to buckle,
and she started to fall. If Ramona and Hollie had not been close,
Tanya would have harshly contacted the pavement. Ramona helped
Tanya to a park bench near where they were standing.

After a few moments, Tanya asked, “Don’t we
need blood tests to get a license?”

Ryce chuckled. “We got the tests a month ago,
and I had the results sent to O2.”

Tanya briefly had a puzzled look on her face.
“So you didn’t come into contact with some hazardous substance at
the cabin?”

Ryce shook his head ’no’ and then smiled. “I
had to get the test done without you knowing about it.”

Marge chuckled and then looked over at John.
“I think I am going to like this pair. Can we keep them?”

Tanya wrapped her arms around Ryce. “But you
didn’t know we were coming to Idaho until Saturday, only two days
ago.”

Ryce smiled. “This was going to happen right
here somehow. This has been in preparation for three months. We
just did not know when or how I was going to get you here without
you knowing about it. Marge came up with the idea about getting you
sort of arrested. O2 had the internal camera turned on, so we could
watch. There were a couple times you looked really pathetic.”

John looked over at The Hitching Post.
“Speaking of when, this place closed three hours ago, but agreed to
marry you two when we got you here. We got you here. Let’s not keep
the crew up later than needed.”

As they walked up the sidewalk, Tanya looked
over at Ryce. “How the hell did you pull this off?”

Marge started laughing. “When we heard that
the Army Ranger who kept O2’s butt out of trouble wanted to get
married, the sky was the limit. Ramona was especially thrilled. It
was her husband Ryce kept safe.”

With O2 as the best man and John as the
father of the bride, it took only a few minutes before Ryce and
Tanya were man and wife. John pulled several bags of birdseed out
of his pockets and passed them around. Before John would allow them
into the Hummer, Ryce and Tanya were carefully brushed.

As soon as everyone was seated in the Hummer,
John looked around. “We have reservations for a celebratory dinner.
After dinner, everyone goes back to the motel, and then we will
drive to Pendergast City in the morning. Tanya and Ryce can ride in
this Hummer to Pendergast City, or drive Ryce’s Dakota. We can
provide a driver for your Dakota if you want to take it easy.”

Tanya almost crumpled to the sidewalk when
she exited the Hummer at the motel. Marge and Ramona assisted her
to the door to the room, hugged her, and returned to the Hummer.
Ryce opened the door, picked up his new wife, carried her into the
room, and placed her gently on the bed.

“Well, I think that went over nicely.”

Tanya grimaced. “I didn’t know where you
were, I didn’t know where I was going, and no one was talking to
me. If I had gotten my hands on my Glock, there might have been
some dead people.”

Ryce began laughing so hard, he sat down at
the table. As soon as he caught his breath, he reached into his
pocket, and pulled out a handful of cartridges.

“Your Glock has not been loaded since the
restaurant in Bozeman. When you went back in to use the lady’s
room, you left your handbag in the Dakota.”

Tanya pulled Ryce onto the bed. “I know this
didn’t come together over night. And, even though you frightened
the hell out of me, I love you for what you did. And, I love all
the crazies you brought in on your plan. Thank you for making me
Mrs. Dalton.”

After checking out of the motel, Ryce and
Tanya started the remaining leg of the trip to the Ranch, which was
only three hours away. Tanya snuggled for about thirty minutes,
found the travel pillow she had brought for sleeping, and then
adjusted her seat back. As she drifted off to sleep, she softly
told Ryce that he was in substantial trouble when she figured out
what she was going to do. Or, as he well knew, pay backs are real
bitches.

The caravan reached the Ranch before lunch.
John sent Ryce a text message to follow him to the Marina Apartment
complex. A furnished apartment had been made available for their
stay at the Ranch.

The moment Ryce and Tanya placed their
luggage in the apartment, she wrapped her arms around his neck and
kissed him.

“I hope you don’t ever plan anything this
traumatic again, Mr. Dalton.”

The apartment telephone rang at 5:30 PM. It
was Marge. She asked if they had eaten. When Ryce replied that they
had not, Marge explained there was a ‘family dinner’ in the chow
hall. Fabian would pick them up in thirty minutes, preferably
dressed. Ryce heard laughter in the background when Marge added the
part about being dressed.

Exactly thirty minutes after Marge called,
the doorbell to the apartment rang. It was Fabian and Hollie, who
escorted Ryce and Tanya to the parking lot. The stretch Hummer was
festooned with crepe paper ribbons, balloons, and even a string
tied with cans. On the darkened windows, someone had gotten very
clever with white window paint.

When Tanya began to tear up, Hollie smiled.
“Fabian and I wanted to do this when you got married in Coeur
D’Alene, but we got over-ruled by John. He didn’t think we should
be driving around with a half dozen police cruisers and ‘Just
Married’ painted all over a Hummer.”

When they arrived at the chow hall, they
noticed Marge and Ramona were waiting outside.

Marge turned and shouted, “They’re here!”

The main chow hall had been expanded several
times and could now seat over three hundred diners. Two hundred
additional diners who liked fresh air could eat on the porches. As
they walked in, Ryce noticed that almost all of the interior tables
were occupied. Along one wall, three eight-foot tables were piled
high with wedding gifts from people he did not know. He pulled
Tanya close, saw she was crying, and started to drop some tears
himself.

Ryce eventually heard O2 tapping on a
glass.

“I would like to present Mr. and Mrs. Ryce
and Tanya Dalton.”

The guests erupted in applause. O2 smiled as
he waited for the applause to die down.

“Ryce and I got into a couple scrapes in
Afghanistan. He pulled my butt out of the fire a couple times, and
I actually dragged his butt out of the fire once. Literally.
However, he is one of only two Rangers that I consider my best
friends. Some of you know Ramona, the head chef here at the Ranch
chow hall, is my wife and was a Ranger. Now I have spilled the
beans that Ryce was one, too. And, both of them can shoot the
center out of the Ace of Spades from over one thousand yards.”

Ramona signaled the kitchen, and two waiters
came out with a cart carrying a five-layered wedding cake. Tanya
started crying once again, wrapped her arms around Ryce and
announced to the room that she loved him.

Tanya turned to Ramona. “I still don’t
understand how all this got put together in such a short time. I
wasn’t even engaged to be married until last Saturday.”

Ramona smiled. “We have been getting text
messages from Ryce for almost three months, but the date had not
been carved in stone. Nor did we know where we would do it. John
suggested he could fly you and Ryce to the Ranch, and you could get
married here.

“O2 suggested The Hitching Post, where he and
I got married. Marge thought the place had a cute name. When we
finished voting, The Hitching Post had won. As soon as Ryce put his
stamp of approval on Coeur D’Alene, O2 and I did some checking and
confirmed you needed blood tests to get the license. That was the
biggest hurdle. How could we get your blood tested without telling
you what it was for? Pen, our resident brilliant doctor, solved
that one. She said to make up some killer virus.”

Ramona laughed at the look on Tanya’s
face.

After a few seconds, Tanya looked to Ryce,
and then back at Ramona.

“Ryce told me that he had read something from
the CDC about remote locations in Glacier National Park having some
airborne pathogen. He said he did not remember the name of whatever
it was, but he was sure it was the ‘you are gonna die’ virus. I
went to my doctor, he took some blood, and the blood was sent to a
lab in Spokane.”

Ramona laughed. “That’s a drop for Pen’s lab
at Pendergast Memorial Hospital.”

Ramona laughed once more and then continued.
“O2 got another text from Ryce last Saturday afternoon, telling him
you were coming to the Ranch. Everyone knew what to do. I started
the cake at midnight Sunday morning. I think O2 would do almost
anything for Ryce.”

Tanya now had so many tears running down her
cheeks, she was actually standing in a puddle of water. She was
handed a clean dishtowel from the kitchen, and with some help,
cleaned up almost all of the streaks.

John, Marge, O2, Ramona, Ryce and Tanya spent
almost three hours in the receiving line. John or Marge introduced
each guest as he or she arrived. Ryce was amazed that they knew the
names of almost everyone.

At 8:00 PM, Ramona rang the dinner bell to
announce that dinner was served. Every available table in the chow
hall and on the adjoining porches was filled.

During the salad, O2 asked if Ryce had heard
about or from Bok Choy. Ramona didn’t understand the question and
piped up that she had lots of Bok Choy in the kitchen. O2 started
choking on a tomato slice.

All eyes were on Ryce.

“Bok Choy was my XO when I was a company
commander in Afghanistan. He was a second-generation American of
Japanese descent. His grandfather had been posted to England as an
attaché after World War I. When the grandfather was recalled to
Japan before World War II, he refused to return with his English
wife and two sons.

“One of the sons, Bok Choy’s father,
immigrated to the US, and went to work at Stanford University. It
was at Stanford where he met Bok Choy’s mother, also of Japanese
descent. Bok Choy’s mother loved the history of the Samurai. When
Bok Choy was born, they named him after seven different Samurai. He
runs out of room when he has to fill in his full name, and no one
could pronounce any of his names. We took a vote and called him Bok
Choy.”

Everyone at the table began to laugh.

O2 looked over at Ryce. “I ran into him in
Hawaii. He was on his way to Japan, and I was on my way from
Okinawa to the mainland. He pulled out his Florida driver’s
license. It said his name was Choy, Bok, no middle initial.”

The table erupted in laughter again; this
time twice as loud.

After dinner, Ryce and Tanya cut the cake and
thanked everyone for coming. Marge announced that the gifts would
be transported to Research 1 and would be opened the following
day.

Before the party broke up, John called O2,
Phil, and Vince over to talk with Ryce and Tanya.

“You two are TAD to the Idaho State
Police.”

Tanya got a puzzled look on her face.

John smiled. “TAD is a military term for
“temporary attached duty.” The Joint Border Task Force has
officially given you to me for a while. I must tell you that my
people have checked you out. I think Doug, my computer genius, even
knows what you got for your first birthday.”

O2 laughed. “You’ll meet Doug tomorrow.”

Phil laughed. “Do you think we should really
throw Ryce into the Doug Zone?”

John looked at Ryce for a moment. “I think
Ryce can take care of himself. We just have to keep a weapon out of
his hands.”

John paused. “Tomorrow, we are going to
induct you into the Idaho State Police. You need to be members of
the ISP in order for you to qualify to play with all the systems we
have. I set up the rules, and I won’t break them.”

Phil let out a giant laugh. “Even for family.
Ask Fabian.”

Both Ryce and Tanya had confused looks.

Vince stepped into the conversation. “We’ll
cover everything in the morning.”

John looked around at the group. “OK, I will
see everyone in the conference room at 8:00 AM, tomorrow.”

Ramona put her arms around Tanya and hugged
her. “I’ll pick you two up at 7:30 AM. My house is just across the
street from your apartment.”

Chapter 6

Rice didn’t hear his
alarm going off, but he knew that he was expected to awaken. This
was the first morning that the woman in his bed was his wife, and
the emotions were certainly different. Ryce reached out and pulled
Tanya close.

“Good morning, Mrs. Dalton.”

Ramona knocked on the apartment door at
exactly 7:30 AM, and the trio walked to a six-passenger golf car in
the parking lot. During the ride to the Pendergast District ISP
headquarters, Ramona gave her best impression of a tour guide.