“Son of a bitch,” Craig called back. “Damn near lit you up!”
“Coming in,” Mac answered. And he slowly drove forward into the camp.
Ken Bryson was there, and Mac was relieved to see him. He was uninjured, but two of his team had taken bullets. And one was dead. Ken had left him behind, and he was looking grim. Mac assumed someone had told him about Cleve as well.
“Ken, Rand, Craig?” he said softly, “I need to show you something.” He opened up the back. They stared at the C-4 in silence. “Couldn’t find the detonators,” he said, so I grabbed the bricks. Left a bit behind as a present, but there’s no guarantee I even found all the bricks.”
Rand didn’t show any expression. Craig looked sick, while Ken had the kind of cold fury that made smart men walk softly.
“Norton?” Bryson said.
Mac nodded. “Grabbed a handheld, and the base. Been listening. Heard his voice. They called off their hunt for the night. The first one got back to their base camp about 20 minutes ago. And they weren’t happy. Might not have been a good idea to stir them up, but I figured we needed at least one rig for the wounded to get us out of here.”
“Long walk,” Ken said.
Mac shrugged.
“They’re going to be hunting us the entire time,” Ken continued. “Craig told me what you said about shooting a deputy. You’re probably right, although two dead men changes the equation somewhat. And this? They planned to blow shit up until no one could ever figure out what happened here, and blame it on all the weaponry?”
“That’s how I read it,” Mac agreed. “No guarantees I got all of it.” Then he grinned. Craig took a step back. Smart man, Mac thought, because he was feeling pretty predatory about now.
“I may have left a bit, packed in around the ignition of their barbeque,” he admitted.
The men looked at him in silence. “Now that’s just mean,” Rand said. “What’s that barbeque done to deserve that?”
Mac laughed.
“Will it work?” Craig asked.
“I don’t know,” Mac admitted. “But I was feeling pretty damn ‘mean’ when Angie found these.” He grinned at Rand.
“Angie found them?” Ken asked.
“I was looking for bread for sandwiches,” she said. Mac had been aware of her standing behind him — he found he was always aware of her — but Craig jumped a bit. He didn’t think Rand or Ken knew she was there; they just weren’t the flinching kind of men. “And I’m a curious person, so I may have gone through most of their supply tent. And then I found... that.”
And since it said C-4 on the side, and anyone who had watched a movie in the last two decades knew what C-4 was? Here they were.
Ken studied the bricks. Mac didn’t think that was where his thoughts were, however. It would fall to Ken to get them out of here. Finally, Ken sighed. “Get some food,” he said. “And some sleep. No sense in us trying to get out of here tonight either.”
“You got any ideas of how to get us out?” Craig asked in a low voice.
Ken shook his head. “No, but we’re in a better position than we were an hour ago,” he replied. “Good job, Mac, Angie. Mark said you went overland?”
“Angie navigated, I... watched,” Mac replied. “I’m headed toward that food and a sleeping bag. We’ve covered some serious ground today.”
Ken looked at Angie, and nodded. “I wasn’t joking about hiring you,” he said. “Even for some weekends? I get trips where it would be good to have a woman along.”
“We’ll talk when we get out of here,” Angie agreed. She looked pleased at the idea, Mac thought. Be worth slipping a word to Janet about the bizarre scheduling going on in the photo department. Ken nodded.
Mac closed the hatch of the Explorer, and locked it up. He didn’t trust the wannabes. He wasn’t sure he trusted anyone. Except Angie. Maybe Ken. But even Rand and Craig had their own priorities, and he didn’t think they were sharing.
But then he wasn’t a trusting kind of guy anyway.
They walked toward the tables where Mark was serving up sandwiches and beers. Mark smiled. “Even got one Mountain Dew left for you,” he said.
“Save it for breakfast,” Mac said. “I’d hate to have to drink coffee to get going in the morning.”
Craig ordered the wannabes to bed. Ken and Rand checked on the wounded. Mac sat at the table with a bottle of water and a sandwich and looked over the camp. Angie sat next to him, saying nothing. She had to be exhausted, he thought. He was exhausted. But there hadn’t been a word of complaint or negativity all day.
I want this one, he thought suddenly. Determined in a way he hadn’t been with Kate or any previous women. And there had been a fair number of them. He snorted. There had been a lot of them, he conceded to himself. But Angie Wilson? This one he wanted to keep.
Good to know, he thought, and then turned his thoughts to surviving another day, and getting everyone home in as close to one piece as was possible.
With the wannabes and the injured cared for, the camp leadership — Ken, Rand, Craig, Angie, and himself — huddled around the table.
“We need a perimeter guard,” Mac said tiredly. “I can do early morning, but I’ve got to crash for a bit.”
Ken nodded. He looked around the camp. “I’ll take first watch,” he said. “My camp. My responsibility.”
Craig looked at Rand. “Preference?”
Rand shrugged. “I’m the one who stayed put, remember?” he said. “I’ll keep Ken company, then bridge to you. We can play it by ear about when we need to wake Mac up. Angie? You sleep. Keep Mac company in the morning. Works
