defeat. Consequently, he spent another forty-five minutes backing his truck down the ramp, cursing his blurred vision and the floor-mounted manual shift, fumbling with the release mechanism on the winch, wading into the cold water one more time to bring the boat around to the back of the partially submerged trailer, stepping on sharp rocks with his bare feet, and then slowly and painfully winching the boat up onto the trailer, cursing Lt. Colonel John Rustman, Lou Eliot, and the Honorable Regis J. Smallsreed with every agonizing turn of the crank.
And then, in the midst of that process, when he rammed his shin into the solid steel tow hitch, recoiled from the effects of the brain-searing impact, slipped on the slippery asphalt, smacked the back of his head against the trailer, and then lay there gasping and cursing on the cold, wet pavement until the pulsating bursts of pain in his shin and his hand and his head finally evened themselves out into some kind of endurable equilibrium, he still possessed the necessary willpower to pull himself up and go back to the task at hand.
Only when he finally drove toward his rural home nestled an hour away in a quiet little wooded grove, did the federal wildlife agent allow himself to laugh again.
Only this time, no one would mistake the nature of that laugh for madness.
Now, Special Agent Wilbur Boggs was quite furiously — and quite sanely — enraged.
Against all odds, or at least any odds an observant bookie might offer on this star-crossed federal law enforcement officer toward the end of that incredibly disastrous day, Wilbur Boggs managed to get all the way home, all the way up his driveway, and all the way through his front door, without a single other thing in his life going wrong.
Stumbling into his living room in a numbed daze at seven-thirty that Sunday evening, the physically and mentally depleted agent's blurred eyes immediately spotted the blinking red numeral on the glowing face of his answering machine: 1
One message.
Wilbur Boggs turned on the light and staggered forward to rewind the tape as quickly as possible, driven by the thought that Lou Eliot — his best hope in three long years to finally bring John Rustman and Regis J. Smallsreed to justice — had left a message explaining why he failed to appear at the rendezvous point at six-thirty that Sunday morning.
But the instant he heard the familiar voice emanating from the answering machine's cheap speaker, the federal wildlife agent began to comprehend the magnitude of the defeat he'd suffered at the hands of Lt. Colonel John Rustman and Congressman Regis J. Smallsreed.
Stunned and disbelieving, Wilbur Boggs punched the buttons of the infuriating machine again with the swollen, scarred, and quivering forefinger of his left hand — the one that probably wasn't broken — and re-played the message.
That's okay, Halahan, he thought grimly as he stood in his living room — dizzy, nauseous, and trembling with pain, hunger, and almost total exhaustion — and listened once again to the voice of the chief of the Law Enforcement Division's Special Operations Branch advising him that Charlie Team, a new team of covert agents, were being assigned a project in his area and would contact him when they got into town, you can't make my life any more miserable than it already is…
The answering machine began to swim out of focus.
'Cause that would be pretty damned hard to do.
Wilbur Boggs took a deep breath to steady himself, determined to nail that particular thought down before he lost it.
You just go right ahead and send that brand-new Special Ops team of yours out here, and I'll keep an eye on them, and help you with your congressional problem… and then you can help me with mine.
Boggs felt himself starting to go, and grabbed at the wall with his good hand to catch himself, knocking the lamp to the floor in the process, but not giving a damn because it was one of the few things his wife left when she'd moved out and filed for divorce three years ago.
Never liked the damned thing anyway.
However, the lamp's demise plunged the room into darkness — which he considered a more significant problem.
Steady there, Boggs, pay attention. Do something.
He knew he should call somebody. Right now, while he still could. Tell them about Lou Eliot. About how Lt. Colonel John Rustman's foreman had offered to turn over his boss, and the Honorable Regis J. Smallsreed, and some sleazy political bagman named Simon Whatley, and the other one — what was his name? The trained killer Rustman hired to scare the shit out of everyone?
Damn it, what was his name? Something bizarre… cold… empty. Something about winter?
Wintersole.
Yeah, that's it.
Sergeant Wintersole.
The memory suddenly flooded the federal agent's numbed mind. Gunshots. Loud, high-velocity rounds. Rifle or pistol, not shotgun. Definitely not shotgun. He'd never in his entire career heard of anyone hunting ducks with a high-powered rifle or pistol. And there weren't any deer around the marsh during duck season because the gunfire drove them off.
Two shots, far apart. Execution style?
Christ!
He had to call somebody, tell them about Lou Eliot and Wintersole. Tell them they had to hurry because…
Because what?
Because Rustman probably figured out his foreman had turned snitch and shot him, the poor bastard, Wilbur Boggs reasoned.
So there probably wasn't any need to hurry after all. They probably shot him, weighted his body down, and dumped him into one of the deep sections of Loggerhead Lake, where no one would ever find him, even if they used hooks or divers.
Boggs's head started to spin again, and he grabbed the wall in the dark with both hands to steady himself, then choked back an agonized scream. But the excruciating pain in his right hand helped clear his head and reminded him of something important. Something very important.
Charlie Team. Help was on the way.
Only that didn't sound like such a good idea anymore, sending Charlie Team, he suddenly realized. Not a good idea at all.
He had to call Halahan back, right away, and tell him not to send the kids, send somebody else — one of the experienced covert teams — because the situation at Lt. Colonel John Rustman's private hunting preserve for wealthy and influential assholes was a whole lot worse than he'd thought when he'd cheerfully suggested that training exercise to Freddy Moore.
Gotta let Halahan know what's going on. Wilbur Boggs smiled through his split and bloodied lips. Goddamned stubborn Irishman. He'll take care of everything. Good old Halahan.
The dazed and nearly unconscious federal agent then tried to decide if he could really drive another five miles to the local hospital, or if he dared to lie down on the couch and go to sleep — which he really wanted to do more than anything else he could think of at that particular moment — in the unlikely hope that he might feel better tomorrow. Or should he just say to hell with it and dial 911 while he still could?
Wilbur Boggs's instinct for survival, more than anything else, told him to forget the car and the couch and call for help.
He clutched the phone and struggled to remember if he'd ever gotten around to programming the automatic emergency button or if he needed to punch in the numbers on the increasingly dim and curiously blurred keypad. But then he felt himself start to fall again and reached out to catch himself. Only this time, the darkness completely disoriented him.
Desperately trying not to hit his broken hand again, he missed the wall and spun, ripping the phone cord out of the wall and wrapping it around himself in the process. He stumbled, pitched forward, and his head struck the lamp table.
Hard.
Don't you worry about making my life any more miserable than it already is, David, old buddy, Boggs
