“Former Navy SEAL,” Hawk said. “My friend is a mercenary for hire. We’re not looking for you.”
“Just who are you looking for?”
“In my back pocket is a photo of the guy,” Hawk said. “Mack Walsh. Ever heard of heard of him?”
Chief pulled out the picture and studied it for a moment. “Never heard of a Mack Walsh, but I know this guy. His name is Billy Youngblood.”
“You bounty hunters?” Ringo asked.
Hawk nodded. “More or less. I promise you that we’re not here to make any trouble with you and whatever this is.”
Chief nodded at one of his underlings, the gesture understood. A knife ripped through the bindings, releasing Hawk and Black. They both rubbed their wrists and thanked the man for cutting them loose.
“So, can you help us find him?” Hawk asked.
“Normally, we keep to ourselves around here and wouldn’t rat any locals out, no matter what they were doing,” Chief said. “But Billy Youngblood isn’t from around here. I wouldn’t mind seeing less of him in these parts.”
“He has a mountain?” Black asked.
“That’s how we refer to it, but some corporation somewhere bought it years ago. Youngblood just manages it, so to speak. He oversaw all the construction there five or six years ago. Beyond that, I don’t really know much. People don’t take too kindly to others sticking their noses where they don’t belong. We just leave each other alone, and we all get along just fine.”
“But Youngblood is different?” Hawk asked.
Chief shrugged. “He’s just not one of us, and I have no idea what he’s really about. However, if you’re looking for him, it appears he’s up to no good.”
“You could say that,” Hawk said.
“Ringo, give these gentlemen their weapons back,” Chief said. “We don’t want any trouble around here, especially with no bounty hunters.”
“But, Chief,” Ringo protested, “they’ve been to our lair now and they could—”
“It’s all your fault anyway, but I don’t think they’re going to report us to anybody, now are you?”
Hawk shook his head. “Report what to who?”
Chief laughed. “These guys get it. We don’t need to trouble them any longer. Ringo, why don’t you escort them out?”
Black held up his index finger. “Before we go, you mentioned that Youngblood oversaw some construction on his mountain. You got any idea what he was building?”
“Not really,” Chief said. “Just lots of big trucks streaming materials in and out every day for about six months. The place is guarded like a fortress now, though I’m not sure anybody’s ever come around looking for it—until now.”
“A fortress?” Hawk asked.
“You best be careful around there,” Chief said. “I’d keep a safe distance if I were you and stay on this side of the river. I doubt you’d get the same kind of reception you got here. In fact, I’d guarantee it.”
CHAPTER 16
A GUARD ESCORTED HAWK and Black outside to the perimeter of the property and handed them their snowshoes. He nodded at them before turning and walking away. The two operatives strapped on their shoes, and Hawk hailed Alex on his coms.
“That was close,” she said. “What the hell was that?”
“As far as I can tell, they were some militia group,” Hawk said.
“They let you off easily from what I could hear.”
“I’d say we were fortunate,” Hawk said. “Apparently, they aren’t very fond of Mack Walsh—or Billy Youngblood, as they known him.”
“But the good news is we now know exactly where he is and how to get there,” Black said. “And we also know that this isn’t some ragtag outpost either.”
“Oh?” Alex said. “That must’ve been the part where I couldn’t hear much of what was going on.”
“Yeah,” Black continued, “there was some major construction happening that nobody around here knows much about.”
“We’ve got a lot to discuss then,” she said. “Get back here as soon as possible, and let’s regroup for tomorrow. You don’t have much daylight left.”
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING, the team returned to the area, this time parking much closer to the edge of Walsh’s property. After considering all the intel gleaned from the militia group, the team decided to deploy a drone to get a closer look.
“It won’t be long before we’re all replaced by drones,” Hawk said as he huddled over Alex’s left shoulder to get a look at the image transmitted back to her computer.
Black, who was standing to Alex’s right, flexed his bicep. “They’ll never be able to replace these.”
Alex shot him a sideways glance. “Wanna bet? If there are combat ready drones, I can guarantee you they won’t charge in when they shouldn’t.”
“That hurts, Alex. I thought all was forgiven.”
“Forgiven, but not forgotten,” she said with a wink.
The drone wove through the forest, hovering smoothly above the snow-coated vegetation. After a couple minutes, the device entered an area far less dense with charred pine remnant emerging from the ground like spikes.
“What happened here?” Alex wondered aloud.
“It looks like there was a fire at some point,” Hawk said.
Alex pointed at the screen and rotated the camera. “Look at this though. It’s almost a perfect circle, like it was a controlled burn.”
“Or an explosion,” Black said.
“Freaky,” Alex said before navigating the drone out of the area.
A couple minutes later, the drone wound along the river and came within several hundred meters of where Chief had said the edge of Walsh’s property was. Then the camera started to flash in and out.
“What’s going on?” Hawk asked.
Alex scowled as she hammered away on her keyboard. “I’m not sure. Everything is functioning correctly as far as I can tell.”
“Well, something’s not right,” Hawk said.
“We’re getting some kind of interference,” she said. “It’s like there’s an electromagnetic field that’s disrupting everything.”
A few seconds later, the camera blinked and then went completely black.
“We lost the signal,” Alex said.
“Well, we need to get closer than that,” Hawk said.
“And we can’t leave a drone lying just outside the entrance to the hideout,” Black
