“How’s everything?” he asked, getting a sheepish smile in return. “You and Dr. Baker look pretty close lately.”
“I like her, kind of. She is nothing like her grandfather, if that’s what you’re asking next. They share a last name, and that is all.”
“That they do,” replied Mike. “The name, that is, but they share something else even more important. A key—not just any key but the key to the locked box containing the book he told us about. The one that holds the fate of my family and friends.”
“I thought he had the only one…but oh, wait a minute,” Max replied. “She wears one on a necklace, and she only takes it off when showering or…well, you know. I’m not one to kiss and tell, and I never made the connection, but last night it lay on the nightstand until morning.”
“I need that key,” said Mike, “for at least 30 minutes tonight. There will be an alarm test at some point, and I need to get the book.”
“Even if you get it, how can you read it quickly enough to have it back in five minutes?”
“I don’t. I keep the book, and if nothing seems out of the ordinary he may not open the box for another day—or even more if I’m lucky. Either way, I’ll be down the road when it happens.”
“What about me?” asked Max. “He will think I did it, and she will know for sure.”
“Sergio will say I stole it from Dr. Baker while she was showering, and I slipped out of camp in the middle of the night. Hopefully, I’ll have a good few hours head start on my bike before they even think to look for me. I went over maps extensively with my old friend and police partner before I met you, and I have at least two alternate routes to get to the Valley. I’ll just be an early arrival and try not to get shot entering Saddle Ranch. It’s our only chance to help my friends and their families. I know you don’t know them, but you would be helping me out, and I never forget a deed, good or bad.”
“Okay, I’ll do it for you,” replied Max. “I still aim to kill him, you know, and get justice for my father. Things around here are just a little more complicated now is all.”
“I get it,” replied Mike. “Just don’t forget what they did. She may not be a part of it, but he is still family to her. Watch your step, my friend, and I hope to see you on the other side.”
Max made sure he would see her tonight, keeping the secret she told him soon after speaking with Mike.
“We leave in the next day or two,” she told him. “Once in the Valley, we will live in peace, and maybe we could even raise a family.”
“Are there people already living there?” he asked, knowing full well there were.
“Baker said only a small group of undesirables.”
“And children?” asked Max.
“No, none of those, or women either—just cold-hearted men that will never know God. Our guards with air support will take them out before we are even on the soil, and we will never even see a thing. We only want peace—at least I do,” she said.
“I believe you do,” said Max. “You have taken a vow to do no harm.”
* * * *
Mike was handed the key taken off her necklace right after dinner. He and Sergio met inside the medic tent for only a minute.
“At 9:40 this night, they sound the alarm,” said Sergio. “Don’t ask me how I know—just be right up on the south side of the tent when it happens.”
He showed Mike where the Indian motorcycle was, under the guise of helping him walk around.
“You have the keys and a full tank of gas; don’t wait around to see what happens. Push the bike as far as you can before starting her up. Once they see the head- or taillight, the perimeter guards will start firing…and don’t look back before Saddle Ranch.”
* * * *
Mike was in position before 9 p.m., with an excuse if he was spotted. He waited twenty yards from the tent’s south side, watching the guards’ faces flicker in and out of the lit torches surrounding the tent on all sides. Many of the residents were winding down or already asleep. Sergio was inside the tent, talking with Baker and his guards. He would stay with them during the entire drill, ensuring he was accounted for at all times.
This is it! Mike thought, not expecting to leave the camp so soon but happy to have a chance—if he could pull it off—of getting the information he sought and going home to Sheila and Javi.
He thought about what Sergio had proposed to him, working for the Colonel. It didn’t sound bad and was right up his alley if he was single again. I’m not married, but maybe it’s time, he thought. He missed his opportunity with his last girlfriend, Kelly, and it was one of the few things in his life he felt bad about. He hoped she was okay and found happiness somewhere in the Texas countryside.
Waahh! Waahh! the sirens wailed—right on time and down to the minute. He focused on blocking everything else out of his mind.
“Get the book! Get the bike! Get the book! Get the bike!” he said so only he could hear…“and get out of Dodge!”
Five minutes seems like forever when you’re a kid in time-out, but when you sneak into a heavily fortified compound it’ll feel like seconds. Figures poured out from the other side of the tent, and Mike couldn’t distinguish one from another in the darkness that was only lit by tiki torches along the main pathways through camp. The tent’s inside was illuminated,
