“You okay?” Dan queried.
“It’s like being in a Halloween fun house-blindfolded.” Nicole stumbled on for a few more feet, calling to Dan as she located a pile of discarded four-by-eight corrugated tin roofing panels. “It’s under here, Dan. Help me move this stuff.”
After shifting the tin sheets, Dan started to dig in an area their flashlights illuminated as having a slightly discolored dirt surface. Only about eighteen inches down, he struck a metal box.
“Eureka!”
While Dan held the flashlight, Nicole knelt down and pried the lid off the tin box. Inside there were eight CD disks enclosed in plastic bubble wrap. Two disks were marked “Missouri” and two “Oregon.” Four of them read “California,” with progressive time notations on labels attached to each one.
“Let’s go,” Nicole said. “It’s getting cold.”
After they got in the Blazer, Dan slowly backed his way out of the clearing, then headed down the dirt road. Just before reaching the fire service trail, Dan suddenly stopped the Blazer and turned off the lights, once again engulfing them in darkness.
Nicole looked over at him. “Out of gas, Mr. Rawlings?”
Dan leaned forward without answering and stared through the windshield toward the mountain road where it joined State Road 53. “I thought I saw some lights through the trees.”
Nicole watched with him as lights could occasionally be seen flashing through the darkness as a vehicle proceeded up the road.
“I’m guessing there’s not usually traffic up here this late at night,” Dan said, starting up the Blazer again. Turning on just his parking lights to shine on the next few yards, he drove slowly toward the main fire trail. “I’m going to pull off into that small side-cut we passed, just short of the fire trail, until we see who these folks are.”
Turning off the engine, Dan and Nicole waited as the approaching lights grew brighter, appearing more frequently through the trees as they danced ever closer.
“They’ve passed the fire trail,” Dan said, prematurely. The vehicle stopped on the primary side road, its tail lights visible through the trees, and began to back up, much as Dan and Nicole had done twenty minutes earlier. Turning into the cabin trail, the vehicle, now clearly identifiable as an extended cab pickup, crept passed their hiding place, continuing up the road until it reached the cabin site and began shining a spotlight into the cabin yard. Dan and Nicole were close enough to hear voices through Nicole’s open window as several men got out of the pickup and headed for the house.
“It’s too much of a coincidence,” Dan said softly.
“That’s an understatement. Hide or run?” she said.
“If we’re trapped in this side trail, we’ve no escape. I vote we cut and run-then try to outdistance them on the mountain trail. I know that road pretty well.”
“You’re the guide. Let’s go,” Nicole replied.
The sound of the Chevy Blazer engine started the men near the cabin shouting to one another. Dan spun the tires, grabbing traction toward the fire trail. In his rearview mirror, he could see the men running through the headlights of their truck. Dan turned left onto the fire service trail, covering ground quickly and reaching Highway 53 in minutes. Turning south, he sped toward 29 and the entrance to the mountain trail that led back over into Rumsey Valley. A mile or two behind them, Dan could occasionally see the headlights of a vehicle.
“If we reach the mountain road, I think I can outdistance them. It’s about four miles farther on.”
Reaching the mountain road, Dan bounced the Blazer over the cattle guard and started the steep climb up toward the narrow pass on a road that became more of a switch-back the higher they went. He could still see the headlights behind them, sometimes across a canyon as they continued to outdistance their pursuers.
“We’ve got two choices. I can probably outrun them over the mountain, or we could take one of the side roads and lose them in the dark. They’d pass us, and we could retrace our steps back down toward Highway 29 and run on down to Calistoga.”
“It was stupid to leave my cellular in my car,” Nicole exclaimed.
“I’ve got one in the glove box-probably a dead battery, but there should also be a car cord in there. Who’re you going to call?”
“Have you got a Forest Service map?” Nicole asked.
“Under the seat.”
“Great. We just may have a way out. Keep heading up the mountain, and I’ll call the cavalry.”
Nicole rifled though the glove box, retrieving the phone and car battery cord. In moments, she had Pug Connor on the line.
“Colonel, I’m sorry to bother you so late, but we’re in a predicament. I’m with Dan Rawlings in the mountains west of Rumsey Valley. We haven’t got much time to explain, but we’ve recovered some computer disks that should shed new light on the elections issue. We’ve been spotted, however-probably by some of the brigade boys-and we’re getting boxed in up here. I’ve got a forest service map and can give you approximate coordinates.”
“Uh, oh,” Dan said, followed by a soft whistle.
“Hold on, Colonel,” she said. “What’s wrong, Dan?”
Dan pointed high up on the mountain trail, and Nicole spotted the small headlights of another vehicle, coming toward them from the east, still miles across the multiple canyons they would have to cross to reach Rumsey Valley.
“We’re really boxed in now, Nicole. We can hide, but by morning, this mountain will be swarming with brigade troops, if indeed that’s who’s in those vehicles.”
“Not much doubt of that, is there?” She returned to the phone. “Colonel, our situation has changed. We’re traveling east on. . let’s see.” She paused, studying the map.
“Whispering Pines Road,” Dan said.
“Whispering Pines Road. We’ve got company about three miles behind, and we’ve just spotted a vehicle high up on the mountain, headed our way. It’s a single-lane dirt road, Colonel. They’ve got us boxed in, but Dan knows several side fire trails, and we can probably hide through the night. But in the morning. .”
“Understand, Nicole,” Connor replied. “Can you take the phone with you?”
“Dead battery, Colonel. As long as we can stay with the car, I can keep in touch.”
“Give me some idea of your coordinates, and I’ll get help out at first light.”
Nicole read off several adjacent coordinates paralleling Whispering Pines Road and gave Connor Dan’s cellular number.
“If we have to leave the vehicle, Colonel, I’ll advise.”
“Okay, Nicole. Good luck to you both. I’ll get right on it.”
“Thanks, Colonel. We’ll be watching for you. Dan said he’s got a couple of emergency flares, and we’ll use ’em if we spot you.”
“Right.”
Nicole pressed ”end,” but left the phone plugged in to accept what charge the phone battery could take in the short time remaining before they might have to leave the vehicle.
“Nicole,” Dan said, watching the headlights up ahead, “they’re about twenty minutes away, and the vehicle behind can’t catch us on this road unless we stop. But we have one other option. You could take the disks and what cold-weather gear we have, and I could find a good hiding place for you, then continue on until I meet the oncoming car. I could plead ignorance, at least for awhile, and they might think I’m alone.”
“No good, Dan. They have no other way of knowing about the cabin except from Stevenson. We have to assume they got to him sometime this evening after I spoke with him. I should never have agreed to drop the tail. If they got to him, they know I’m out here too, and if they find you first, they’ll just keep looking for me.”
Dan nodded at Nicole’s deduction. “It’s off the road, then, and into one of the hiding spots until first light. We’ll be surrounded and dependent on Connor to get us out.”
This time Nicole nodded. “We can take one evasive measure, though,” she said, quickly developing a plan. “We can hide these disks and let Colonel Connor know where they are in case we’re captured. Know of a good place?” she asked.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do,” Dan answered. “About a half mile before we turn off this road onto the fire trail.”
