“Bible-thumper, God-and-guns racist, and sociopath?” Angie added.
“The question is, is he crazy?” Mac watched Rand who was struggling with something. “And maybe the question is, Rand, who are you?” he added slowly.
“You didn’t miss much in your list about Norton,” Rand said. “And crazy? This crazy? I didn’t think so. It’s Sensei I’m after.”
“Homeland Security? Or FBI? You know an agent named Rebecca Nesbitt?”
Rand grinned. “I know Rebecca,” he admitted. “Smart woman. And I got a call on Thursday from her telling me to expect you. She was concerned, she said, and mentioned that things tended to go boom when you are involved. And yes, Agent Stan Warren is probably on a flight out here. Not that he has a chance of getting here in time for anything except for the cleanup.”
“Kind of his standard modus operandi,” Mac muttered. “Good to know that if we end up having to shoot our way through a dozen deputy reserves, we might have an FBI agent to help spin the story. So, are you FBI?”
“Yeah, Seattle office,” he said. “I do this with Ken to clear my head, you know? So, when this Sensei thing came up, it made sense to embed me as much as possible. Especially on these wilderness trips.”
“They’ve been hunting men?”
Rand was silent. “Can’t prove it,” he said finally, and he sounded frustrated about it. “But I’ve seen those bodies.”
“Well, you’re going to be able to prove it now,” Mac said, and he tossed the Mountain Dew can in the trash. “Because we’re the prey on this hunting trip.”
“Shit,” Rand said.
Mac rummaged through the remaining food and water bottles, then repacked his duffel pack. Found the first aid kit Ken had left behind. He looked at Angie. “You take water, your camera, and the gun,” he said. “You’ve got the compass. No matter what happens, you keep going, and get yourself out of here, are we clear?”
“Not without you,” she said.
“If necessary? Without me,” Mac said. “If we become separated? You keep going. If I get wounded? You keep going. You’re the best partner I could hope for, Angie, and I’m planning on both of us getting out of here, and then we can talk about ‘partners’ in a different context. But I need to know that you will do this. Don’t count me dead unless you see the body at the funeral. But you keep plowing ahead, no matter what happens. And I’ll find you. I swear.”
She looked at him, searching his face. Then she stood on her toes and kissed him. Wasn’t a peck on the cheek kiss, either. Mac responded to her urgency with an urgency of his own.
“Promise me,” he said, pulling back.
“Promise me you’ll stay alive if I do,” she counted.
“Count on it.”
She nodded. “OK, then,” she said. “If anything happens, I keep going, and get myself out of here.”
Mac looked at Rand who was wiping a smile off his face. Mac rolled his eyes. “You got an idea of how we might get out of here?”
“Maybe,” Rand said. “And I’ve got this.” He pulled out a brick of the C-4 and shrugged.
Mac grinned. “Planning a visit to their camp? Or luring them into this one?”
“I heard a boom last night,” Rand said laughing. “I suspect their breakfast was a cold one this morning. Don’t know how much damage you did, but apparently? A barbeque igniter will detonate the stuff just fine.”
Mac looked at their own barbeque. “Surely they wouldn’t use it?” he said slowly.
“For coffee?” Angie said.
Rand looked at the sky. “We need to move out,” he said. “It’s getting light enough they’ll be coming for us. And I’m not liking the feel of the morning.”
“Snow,” Mac said morosely. He’d take the desert heat any day. He didn’t like the cold and snow. And May was well within the snow season up here. What were they thinking bringing novices up this high into the mountains?
“The guy that almost made it out was headed toward the Park Center,” Rand said. “Someone took him out at the last minute and dumped him. But he came close. I think we go that way.”
Mac nodded. He frowned. “We’re looking at this wrong,” he said slowly. They looked at him. “We’re looking at it as if we are the prey. And I’ve never gotten anywhere thinking like that.”
Angie and Rand just watched him. He opened up the back of his 4-Runner, and pulled out the spare tire. He stood there, studying the contents of his gun locker, until curiosity got the best of Angie and Rand and they came over to look.
“Jesus, Mac,” Rand exclaimed. “You always have this? You ever get rear-ended it’s all over.”
“Reinforced,” Mac said absently. “They’re safer than they’d be in any gun safe. Hell, it is a gun safe.”
“You could take over a third-world country with this type of arsenal,” Rand said.
Mac nodded and smiled. Probably. He’d taken over an Army-of-God-fortified isolationist community last fall with it. “Or a sheriff posse?”
Rand grinned.
“So, think like a cop, not a survivalist,” Mac said. “What do you need when we get back to the city to prosecute all of these idiots?”
Rand considered that. “I need Norton,” he said. “And I need to know who the idiots are. I need evidence of what they’ve done, and that means the dead bodies, and ideally the weapons that killed them.”
Then he looked at Mac. “So, think like a reporter, not a Marine,” Rand challenged him back. “What do you need?”
Mac looked at Angie. Then Rand did too. “What?” she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“The most important thing we need to get out of here is Angie and her camera,” Mac said slowly.
Rand slowly nodded in agreement. “And the way we get out of here, Marine?” he asked.
Mac smiled. It made Rand want to back up slowly. “We take their camp, of course,” he said. “And we
