“I don’t think so,” Mac replied, keeping his own voice barely audible. He wondered at Angie’s prior job. She knew not to whisper, just to talk softly. She knew about things like sheriff vs police chiefs. He’d assumed she’d worked in photography or on a newspaper. But now, he wondered. He’d ask when they were safely out of this mess.
“Let’s go find out,” he said with a grin. He took a look at the map then the compass, and he took the lead in the direction Angie had been heading.
Mac could smell the camp before he saw it. A mix of latrine chemicals, gasoline from vehicles, mankind smells. It wasn’t a bad thing, really, and barely noticeable. But after spending most of the day deep in the woods, he noticed it. He slowed to a crawl and motioned Angie to stop. She nodded and looked grateful for the reprieve. She was done in, he thought, and for good reason. He didn’t have much energy left himself.
Actually, he didn’t have any energy left, either, he acknowledged. He just had been trained to keep pushing on regardless. See the hill, take the hill, and the next hill, and the next. So, he crept closer until he could see the camp.
Well the good news was that this was their base camp. There were SUVs parked there, and some tents were set up. The perplexing news was that he didn’t see anybody. Had they left their camp undefended? Surely not. But then, his folks had only left Rand behind. Of course, they hadn’t been expecting an attack. Well, maybe these guys weren’t either. Mac grinned at that thought. But he still watched.
Angie crawled up beside him. She looked out at the camp and frowned. “Empty?” she asked.
He grinned again, this time with a bit more amusement in it. “Time for mischief and mayhem?”
She laughed. “What do you have in mind?”
He considered that. “I want to take a vehicle,” he said. “Hopefully someone left keys in one of the rigs. I want water, and I want a radio, either a hand unit, or if God is good, a base unit. I was hoping to find Norton, but I’ll settle.”
“OK,” she said. “I want a sandwich. And the porta-potty. And caffeine. So those are my objectives while you do you.”
He laughed again. “Fix me a sandwich while you’re at it. And the caffeine too. But I go in first.”
She grinned at him. “Have at it,” she said. She pulled the Ruger from her sweatshirt pocket. “Fire once at anyone who comes near me. Fire in the air to make sure you heard. Throw the gun at my attacker. Run. Wasn’t that what you said?”
“You’ve got it,” he said. And then stepped into the clearing.
Angie watched him. It was like watching a shadow move, she thought, unconsciously echoing what others had thought before her and bestowed him with Shadow as a nickname. She was fascinated by him, she realized. Oh, she liked him, was attracted to him, and rather thought that might go somewhere. But more than that, she was intrigued by him as a puzzle, a complex one. Or maybe as a story? She knew what her camera was telling her: he was a dangerous man. He had told her as much. A man with no tells? She knew there were those at the Examiner who were afraid of him, and others who truly considered him a sociopath. Janet’s leashed killer, one reporter had said after too many drinks one night. Watching him out here, she wasn’t sure they were wrong. But she also saw the side of him that had taken great personal risks to rescue men he didn’t even like very much. The protective side that he showed her. And the listener.
The listener was a surprise, really. She hadn’t expected him to be that kind of reporter. Most of his stuff was facts. Although she’d gone back and read the Howard Parker pieces, and listened to those interview tapes online — which had been an inspired editorial decision in her opinion. And again, there was the listener. She suspected these stories would be full of the people he was talking to, and she looked forward to reading them.
It was also interesting to see him in the context of other dangerous men. She wasn’t the least bit fooled: Rand, Ken Bryson, Craig Anderson? They were also dangerous men. And they respected Mac. Accepted his leadership even. The only ones who challenged him were the wannabes.
She realized she’d lost sight of him, and wasn’t sure if that was because he had moved around the tents, or because he had just gone very still. She pulled her mind away from her thoughts to focus on the here and now. To see. To hear. To use all of her senses to stay safe.
She saw movement rather than Mac. He raised a hand and motioned her in. She scrambled over the last bit of salal and entered the clearing.
“No one’s here,” Mac said, with a shake of his head. “Not even someone to start supper. Weird?”
She considered that. “Depends on how many men he brought out here,” she said. “If there were fewer than a dozen? He’d need them all to take our teams out.”
He considered that and nodded. “That would actually be good news,” he admitted. “I’d been thinking more like 20 men. There’s 70 deputy reserves.”
She winced. “Food,” she announced, and she went to look.
Mac watched her go with a half-smile. He went to find an SUV with keys. And sure enough, they’d left the keys under the front seat — not because they were stupid, but because it was the smart thing to do. If things went to shit for them, they didn’t
