The Emerald Virus (55 page)

    
Noah had seen a handgun on the console between the seats and he hoped that was
the only weapon in reach of the driver, he didn’t want to kill him, at least
not yet. Noah swept the weapon onto the passenger side floor.

    
He held his handgun to the driver’s forehead and said, “Hello Rick, we seem to
have a problem don’t we?”

    
“No, we don’t have a problem. All I wanted to do was leave the park. I’m tired
of you and your holier than thou attitude. I don’t know why you just couldn’t
let me go. This is your fault.”

    
“I think I’ll disagree with you, but we’ll talk about that. And we’ll talk
about the fact that you’ve been helping out Turner’s gang as well. I think you’re
in serious trouble Rick.”

    
“There’s nothing wrong with me talking to whoever I want to talk with. You
can’t control that or punish me for talking.”

   
 “We’ll have to see about that. I do know that you just tried to kill one of my
men and for that you are going to face consequences.”

    
“All I did was defend myself. Two men with snow masks and weapons were blocking
the road and I thought they were going to kill me.”

    
Ted Green had joined Noah and said, “Noah, they’ve taken Tim to the lodge and
they’re getting the doc to see how badly he’s hurt. Let me cuff Rick and if
you’ll drive I’ll watch him. We’ll have to use one of the more secure rooms in
the lodge to keep him, and I’ll post guards.

    
“After he shot Tim I don’t think we’ll have trouble finding men to guard him.
Some of them will be hoping he tries to escape.”

    
Thirty minutes later Ted and Christian joined Sam and Noah in Sam’s RV.

  
  Noah started by saying, “As soon as we arrested Rick I called Shelly and told
her what had happened. I told her to get out now and she said she would.”

    
Sam added, “I called Danny to let him know what had happened and that we had
told Shelly to run. He just called back to say that he had called Shelly ten
minutes ago at half past six o’clock, coincidentally that’s the time he calls
each evening.  Bob Turner answered her phone. He told Danny that he thought he
would ‘borrow’ Shelly for a little while, but that he wouldn’t hurt her since
he wanted to trade his man for Shelly, and he wanted Danny to make the
exchange.”

    
Noah picked up the conversation by saying, “I can only guess that Rick was on
the phone with Turner when the shooting took place. His cell was in his hand
when I went in the RV. We knew that would be the only thing that could go wrong
and apparently it has. Now we need to talk about what to do next.”

    
Christian said, “If you are looking for a legal opinion I can only tell you
that as an authorized police force, or in this case a force of militia, you can
legally use whatever force you deem needed to resolve the problem. We put only
reasonable force restrictions on our police and in those instances where you
know ahead of time that the other party is armed and prepared to use those
weapons against you, there are no restrictions. Police couldn’t be effective
under more restrictive rules.”

    
Ted then said, “I don’t think we have a choice, we need to make a trade with
Turner. I don’t like it, but I don’t for a second believe that keeping Rick for
trial is more important than saving Shelly’s life.”

    
Sam looked up and asked, “Does anyone have a problem with following Ted’s
recommendation?”

    
Noah said, “I agree with Ted, we don’t really have a choice. Shelly risked her
life for us, and because of her we were able to get Rick to make his move. We
owe her now.”

    
Christian said, “I agree, but how did you know it was Rick and why didn’t you
just arrest him?”

    
Noah answered, “I had narrowed the list down to four possibilities earlier
today. I asked Ben to help me and I made a point to have a conversation with
Ben just outside of each of the four RVs. We talked about the need to move fast
since we were going on the offensive and would attack Turner.

    
“I then beat on the door to the RV to see if I was interrupting a phone call.
After each person answered the door I asked them questions about where we might
live in the spring, and I always mentioned Opportunity as a possibility.

    
“I tried to make it look like a permanent home was just an excuse to talk about
Opportunity and the surrounding area, but my real goal was to learn more about
the area for when we attacked.

    
“The problem was that two of the men I talked to both reacted with visible
nervousness, both were smallish, and both had a bunch of books in their RV. I
didn’t know which of the two it was.

    
“I even snuck a look at Rick’s cell phone when he was making coffee, but it
didn’t show any outbound calls at all. He must have a second phone he used for
talks with Turner.”

    
Ted added, “He did, and the phone in his hand when we arrested him had daily
calls logged to Turner’s number. He had two other phones as well. I don’t know
why but we found three all together.”

    
Christian said, “I see, it all makes sense, but now we’re going to pay for the
one risk we took. Couldn’t we have waited for another day or two and gotten
Shelly and Danny out first?”

   
 Noah said, “That’s solely my fault. We could have waited but I was so anxious
to catch the insider that I minimized the risk to Shelly. I didn’t think for a
second that the person would jump immediately. In fact Ted and I talked about
waiting a day or two before we set up the blockade. I wish now we had done
that.”

    
Sam said, “Noah, don’t beat yourself up. If you hadn’t done what you did Rick
would be gone and Turner would have grabbed Shelly anyway.  If that had
happened we wouldn’t have anything to offer as a trade. Doing things this way
may end up saving Shelly’s life.

    
“We have to get to the evening meeting. I think I should tell the group what
happened. There is no need for discretion any longer and I think they all
deserve to know.”

    
When Sam walked into the lodge Colleen said they had two additional newcomers.
Sam asked for newcomers and a young couple raised their hands.

    
He said, “My name is Andy and this is Suzanne. Until recently we were with the
Phoenix group, we had just decided to go to central California when Charlotte
White told me what was happening.

    
“We decided we would come here instead. We’ve been trying to catch up to
Charlie and his group but didn’t quite make it. Charlie, we do want to thank
you for clearing the roads for us though.”

    
The group laughed and Charlie said, “Andy, you’re more then welcome. Come the
next storm, I’ll let you lead.”

    
Sam said, “Andy, were you the deputy at Phoenix, the one that called me and
warned me about additional renegades joining the Turner camp?”

    
“Yes, that’s me.”

    
“I talked with Charlotte and she mentioned that you and a group of twenty or so
RVs left Phoenix together. What happened to the rest of your caravan?”

    
“Charlotte asked me to not say anything about this to them. She was concerned
that since some of the Phoenix group had already joined Turner that others
might call one of those people. I couldn’t argue with the logic, so Suzanne and
I simply told the others that we were going to go our own way and see if we
could get to know one another. After we left the group we parked one of our RVs
and here we are.”

    
Sam said, “Thanks for coming to help us. But you’re just in time for some bad
news.”

    
Sam then told the group what had happened that afternoon and evening, and that
Shelly was being held prisoner. She promised the group that they would get
Shelly back and everyone seemed to agree that trading prisoners was the best
option.

    
Sam didn’t know when Danny would make it back, but they believed Turner
wouldn’t make the exchange without him.

Monday
night: Turner’s Saloon, Opportunity, Montana

    
Shelly sat tied to a bar stool next to Bob Turner. The stool had a small back
and Shelly’s arms had been threaded through the back of the stool and her
wrists handcuffed together. She had three belts wrapped around her legs, and
hooked underneath the stool. She wasn’t going anywhere without the bar stool.

    
She had been trussed like this for the past three hours, ever since Turner had
burst into the RV pointing a shotgun at her. He and three of his men had stayed
out of her reach while they brought her into the bar and strapped her to the
stool.

    
Since then they had been having a great deal of fun at her expense. Turner had
ripped the front of her blouse open, but had at least left her bra in place. It
was more revealing than she wanted, but it was better than nothing.

    
She had been drenched in beer most of the night, and the more the group drank,
the more beer they poured or spit on her.

    
She sat calmly through all of it. She almost smiled at their attempts to
verbally abuse her. It was obvious that none of them had been in the Marine
Corps. She was as worried as she had ever been, but she was not going to show
it. She knew through experience that she could handle a lot of pain and she was
spending her time preparing for things much worse than this.

    
She watched the group throughout the night. It was pretty easy to tell which of
them were in the habit of drinking themselves to sleep, or into a stupor, and
which ones would stay around for the show. What she didn’t know was who, and how
many, would be participating in the show.

    
Turner had been drinking slowly but steadily all evening, as he always did.
Once in a while he would look at her and smile, or would grope her, but never
for very long. He never said a word to her. 

   
 He did tell everyone around him that he was going to put her in the lockup
later that night, and anyone who wanted to join her could do whatever they
wanted with her. He did put some restrictions on that. He told them that they
could not be armed so she could not take any weapons from anyone, and they had
to be alone. She would be handcuffed, but that was all.

    
Turner always smiled when he explained the rules and some of the men looked
like they were going to take him up on his offer. One of them was a guy Turner
called Blackie. He was as mean looking as anyone in the group and wore
motorcycle gang clothing. Chains on the waist and dangling from the shoulders,
sharpened iron studs about an inch long affixed to bracelets on each wrist, a
black bandanna, black leather trousers and a black leather vest wore open to
display some gruesome tattoos, and he wore heavy black riding boots.

    
He had a long scar going from the right side of his abdomen upwards to the left
side of his chest. It looked like a long slash from a big knife. He also had
two smaller scars on the left side of his stomach that looked like bullet
wounds. They impressed even the meanest of the group.

    
He had a punk girl friend with red and blue hair, huge false eyelashes, torn
blue jeans and a halter top that also allowed her to show off tattoos. She had
rings on all of her fingers, both ears, and one in her nose. She also had
bruises on one side of her face and an almost healed cut on the other side. She
was cute and she knew it.

   
 They both came by every thirty minutes or so and she laughed while Blackie
poured beer on Shelly. Her name appeared to be Hottie since that was all anyone
called her, and she seemed to love flirting with Turner, who was the only one
in the room who would risk being near her. Blackie wore Bowie knifes strapped
to both legs and two shoulder holsters, one under each arm, each one carrying a
1911 model .45.

    
Blackie didn’t look like he was anxious to shoot someone. But he did look like
a man who was quite comfortable and very experienced in the business.

    
He never said anything to Shelly; he just stared at her with cold black eyes.

    
About eleven o’clock the two of them came to the bar for two more drinks, this
time Blackie looked at her and said, “Baby, I’ll be coming for you later
tonight.”

    
Hottie pouted at him and said, “Blackie, you don’t need her, you got me anytime
you want. Why would you want this slut anyway, she don’t even smell good.”

    
Blackie smiled and said, “I just want to show her who’s the boss. But that’s
going to light my fire so you better be ready for me when I get back.”

    
Hottie smiled and said, “Baby, I’m always ready for you.”

    
So Shelly started watching the two of them more closely. The more she watched
the more she worried. Not only was he mean, but he was drinking very little. He
would take a sip from the beer can periodically, but the can always tipped to
the same level. He never needed to turn the can up to get a drink. He was going
to be sober when he came for her. Shelly didn’t believe for a second what he
said about saving himself for his punk girlfriend.

    
At one o’clock most of the men and women had either left for the night or had
passed out in place. Bob Turner called a couple of his lieutenants to help him
put Shelly in what he called the lockup. It was a room with no windows that you
entered from behind the bar. It had three steps going down to a concrete floor
and it was about fifteen feet on each wall. It had been used for storing cases
of beer, but was empty now.

    
As the men started to drag Shelly and the bar stool she said, “Bob, I really
need to pee badly.

    
Turner laughed and said, “As far as I’m concerned you can pee anytime you want
to. You’ll just have to do it where ever you happen to be when the urge
overcomes you.

 He
laughed again and his men took Shelly into the lockup and released first the
belts and then the cuffs. They then put the cuffs back on Shelly’s wrists, but
in front of her. Two men stood back and held guns on her the entire time. They
left with words of abuse, and Turner assured her there would be at least two
armed guards on the other side of the door all night.

    
Shelly immediately tried the door but found it to be old, hard and thick. The
hinges were not visible from this side, and she had heard at least two deadbolt
locks click in place when the men left. There was no ventilation in the room
and she didn’t see any hope for escape.    

     
About thirty minutes later she heard a ruckus outside, and a lot of laughing.
She backed against the far wall when the door was opened. One of the biggest
men in the group came into the room with a smile on his face.

    
He walked up to her very cautiously and said, “I’m here to enjoy your company.
I don’t think you can take me, but I have every intention of taking you.” He
must have thought his innuendo was cute because his smile got broader.

    
Shelly took a quick step towards him and his smile disappeared as he jumped
back.

     
She said, “It looks to me like you aren’t at all sure of yourself, I wonder if
you’re worried about the fight or about being able to actually do anything afterwards.
Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”

    
He wasn’t smiling now, but he didn’t let himself get angry either. He moved in
slowly and he looked like he might know something about hand to hand fighting.

    
Shelly moved to her right and as he took a step towards her she reversed her
direction, by planting her right foot, and kicked out and to the left with her left
foot. She hit the front inside quarter of his right knee with power and the
knee bent the wrong direction as he crumbled.

    
She then fell on him with her hands clasped together and hit him in the head
with the sides of her cuffs, using all her weight. He was out cold and bleeding
heavily from the head wound.

   
Her wrists were both bleeding from the handcuffs, but she didn’t think either
was broken. However, she knew she wouldn’t be able to make that same move more
than one more time tonight. Her wrists wouldn’t put up with it.

    
She quickly bent down and went through his pockets looking for anything she
could use as a weapon. All of his pockets had been emptied, but he had a belt
on with a good sized buckle. With her hands cuffed she couldn’t do anything but
fold the belt and sit on it.  

    
She wouldn’t survive any kind of inspection but as long as they didn’t make her
stand up she might get away with this.

    
She then grabbed his head wound and smeared the blood down the left side of her
face. She wanted the next man to attack her to think she had been hurt.

    
She wondered if they would notice that he wasn’t wearing the belt he started
with. She thought for a second and then, as quickly as she could, she undid her
jeans, squatted over him, and peed on the front of his jeans from the waist to
the crotch. She didn’t think this was what Turner had in mind but it sure was
going to work out for her.

    
She then zipped up quickly, pulled the man slightly towards the door using his
hands and arms, and sat back on her stool and yelled, “Come and get this bad
smelling S.O.B., I think he just peed all over himself.”

  
  The door opened slowly and she said, “I’m over her against the wall, I’ll
stay on my stool if you’ll just get him out of here.”

    
Two armed men entered while she stayed seated with a slight smile, but with her
head slightly tilted to one side.

    
She said, “He told me he was real anxious to use that thing tonight, although
to tell you the truth, I don’t think this was what he had in mind.”

    
One of the guards backed out the door and said something. A second later two
more guards came in. One of them stood to the side with a gun on Shelly.

    
He said to the other two, “Each of you grab an arm and pull him out of here.
We’ll drag him over to the fire, but if he smells too bad I’ll throw his ass
outside for the night, I don’t care how cold it is.”

    
Shelly was alone for the next hour or so.

    
When the door opened again Blackie walked in and turned to the guard as he
said, “Keep this door closed and locked. If she yells at you it will be for
help, and there won’t be any for her, or you’ll answer to me.”

    
The door closed and locked and Blackie said, “Well, you look like hell. From
what I’ve heard of you I don’t believe you’re as beat up as you look.”

    
As Blackie walked closer Shelly hopped off the bar stool and said, “If you know
what’s good for you, don’t do this”, she had the belt wrapped around her right
fist with the buckle out.

    
Blackie was almost within striking range when he stopped and whispered,
“Shelly, my name is Jack Sweeney, I was hoping to be able to help you but we
need to talk about how to go forward.”

    
“Get off my back; you’re no more Jack Sweeney than I am.”

     
“Actually I am, although I’m not quite sure how to convince you except maybe to
take a step forward and let you have at me if you want. You’re going to have to
hit me before I get out of here anyway.”

    
He stepped forward with his hands behind his back and waited.

    
“Okay, I’m willing to talk as long as you stay like that. Tell me what you’re
doing and who is that little punker you have with you?”

    
“I’m here to see what Turner’s up to. I wish I’d known you and Danny were here
and on our side, I’d of been able to stay away. As for the punker, that’s
Heather, who has turned into my side kick. She’s putting on quite a show isn’t
she?”

    
“She is, but isn’t she a little young for a job like this?”

    
“Yes, but she wanted to work with me, and she’s proven herself invaluable. The
kids got more guts than most men I know.”

    
“How can I possibly trust you at this point?”

    
“You don’t really have to. I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do, and what
our problems are, and you take the lead after that.

    
“The biggest problem is that I don’t think I can get you out of here. Turner
has threatened his guards with their life. If you get away, they die. And they
all believe he’s serious. Hell, I think he’s serious.  

    
“No matter what happens I think we are going to have to go through with the
exchange. Turner will trade you for Rick, but he wants Danny to be the one to
bring him to the exchange point. I don’t know why but I have to believe it’s
for all of the wrong reasons.”

    
“Danny will know that of course, but I don’t know what he’ll do.”

    
“I don’t either, but I’ve known people like him and I know he’ll think of every
option Turner might consider.”

    
“What are you going to do?”

    
“I’m going to think of some excuse to get Heather out of here. She’ll go to the
Old Faithful Inn and tell Sam what’s going on. I’ll give her my best
recommendations for strategy but I have a problem. Until I know how Turner
figured out you were a plant I’m limited in what I can do.