We progressed up the wash a short distance, then my video went to static. As Lutz reached the same point in the trail, his went out too.
“Shit!” We said it in unison, sitting forward.
I re-ran the recording. Nothing. A seven minute gap of nothing, but static. I ran it frame by frame, hoping for a flicker of our assailants. It was blank until I came down the wash again, following Lutz.
“We got zip!”
Lutz pushed away from the table. “I thought it was just the radio links.”
“So did I. Now it’s just our word that there’s something going on up there.” I got up from the table, pacing. “I need a statement from you, just in case. Something we can make sure gets to our commander if anything else happens.”
“Like them carrying out their threats?” Lutz crossed the room to look out over the apartment courtyard. “I didn’t hear what he said to you, but I know when someone holding a gun on me is perfectly willing to pull the trigger. His backup was just waiting for the order to take us down.”
“I need you to say that, for the record.” I returned to the table, switching to my incident report program. “I need to report this, even if I do end up getting charged with… whatever they might dream up.”
“We take our orders from the Marines and the President, not some freak in the desert.” He came back to the table, picking up his own tablet. “I’ll record whatever you need.”
“Just the facts. What you witnessed, not what I told you.”
CHAPTER
10
I remained at the table, opening an incident report, uploading our mission videos and filling in the missing seven minute gap. I could repeat the encounter nearly verbatim, right down to the last warnings. I wrapped it up with the suspicious marks under my vehicle and the threatening drink delivered to my table.
Lutz returned from his room. I didn’t look up at him, instead focused on the camera’s eye. “A statement from Sgt. Brandon Lutz is attached to my own, but I feel it is necessary to return to the site, legitimately sanctioned or not, to confirm their presence is not in violation of military regulations. This report will be electronically delivered in three days if I do not return to deliver or rescind it personally.”
Lutz’ mouth was open, but he didn’t interrupt me. Not until I uploaded his statement and shut down the video. “You plan on going back out there?”
I hadn’t consciously thought about it until the words came out of my mouth. “Every fiber in my body is screaming that something is wrong out there. Wrong on a universal scale. I can’t just hope someone else investigates. I have to do this.”
“No! We have to. You’re not going out there alone. I’m your partner.”
“I can’t ask you to stick your neck out.”
“I’m going and I’m sure your boyfriend…”
“Absolutely not!” I stood up, leaning over the table. “You’re not saying anything to him. That’s an order.”
Lutz took a step back at my sudden vehemence. In our few months as partners I’d never forced an order. I could see him struggle with it, then nod. “Yes, ma’am, but I’m going with you, or I will be forced to report you to our unit commander.”
He didn’t flinch as I squinted back at him. Touché. “All right, Sgt. Get ready. Pull whatever supplies we’ll make travel arrangements.” He headed to his room and I sent the report to my private cloud account, set it to automatically broadcast one hour after we were scheduled to report back to duty.
Using my burner phone, I set my plan into motion. Within an hour a neighbor drove us out of the complex, Lutz and I were in the back of her SUV where the windows were shaded dark against the desert sun.
Michelle looked at us in the rear-view mirror. “You sure you want to go out today? It’s supposed to be well over 110 degrees.”
“Only get so many days off.” I kept the details limited. “We saw an interesting quartz outcrop that begs closer inspection.” We were dressed in our BDU pants, boots and t-shirts, but had safety vests and backpacks of water and ‘tools’. We carried our sidearms and I had an old camera attached to my belt loop, making us look all the more touristy.
“Well, Billy said just to bring the bikes back with full tanks and he’s fine.”
“Appreciate it. We’d have used ours, but Casey went out early this morning and I forgot to ask him for the keys. God only knows when he’ll get home.”
“Oh, yeah!” She looked at me in the mirror again. “I read all about it this morning. What’s with people these days, killing all those innocent people? Really, I mean, yeah, they were trying to get into the country illegally, but to die like that. Then someone set them on fire.” She shivered and shook her head, looking out her side window as she turned the corner. “When’s all this crazy going to end?”
“Not soon enough. We’d love to be put out of work.” I watched where she went, looking out for any vehicles following us. I fidgeted with the little rock Yazzie gave me, until I saw Lutz watching. I shoved it into my pocket.
It was only a few blocks to the RV Park the complex leased for residents. It kept our toys from making the parking lot look ‘trashy’. The gates opened to her security code and she took us to the enclosure assigned to her family. Billy’s truck, three adult desert bikes and two kids’ 4-wheelers.
Lutz loaded up two of the bikes while she gave me the truck keys and her security code. “Drop the keys in the flower pot tonight and I’ll get them in the morning.”
“Gotcha. Maybe we’ll find some pretty rocks for your pots.”
“Me too?” Michelle’s twelve-year old daughter
