they’ll still have their grossly inflated profits, which will far exceed any fine levied. And the trees will be gone.”
“That’s just horrible,” Tess said. “Someone has to do something.”
“Our thoughts exactly,” Al replied. “Someone has to speak for the trees, but no one in officialdom is doing it. So we’ve elected ourselves.”
“What are you planning to do?”
Al crouched down and pointed. “See that huge piece of machinery down there?”
Tess followed his finger. She saw a large metal machine, five wheels on each side, with a cab in the center, and two great robot arms at the front with sharp pincer blades at each tip.
“That’s a tree cutter. One of the great myths the logging companies like to perpetuate is that trees are felled by stouthearted manly men. But the truth is, today, most trees are felled by big machines like that one. They’re much more efficient. That thing can take down a twelve-inch tree all by itself. It grips it with one claw arm, cuts it with the built-in saws in the other, and carries it to the transport truck. No crash. No
“That’s the real reason there are fewer loggers working every year,” Maureen explained. “That monster can outwork twenty men with chain saws. And it doesn’t get tired. And it doesn’t require Social Security payments or health care coverage. Guess which the big logging companies prefer?”
Tess felt a tightness in her jaw. “How many weeks will it take that machine to clear-cut these old-growth trees?”
“Weeks?” Rick laughed. “Try days. Three, I’d guess. Maybe four at the outmost. Which is why we couldn’t afford to wait until after Zak’s trial.”
For once Tess couldn’t think of a thing to say. “That’s wrong.”
“No argument from me,” Al said. “But I’m going to set it right again.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a gray hand-sized object.
Tess didn’t have to be a demolitions expert to realize that it was some kind of bomb.
“What are you going to do?”
“What do you think? I’m going to take that monster out.”
“People could be hurt.”
“Not if I do it now. When no one’s around.”
“But when they start the ignition-”
“Despite what you may have heard, we don’t use trigger bombs or movement bombs or anything else that’s designed to harm some unsuspecting operator. All we do is take the thing out, so it can’t be used to kill any more trees.
“Surely the company will just replace it.”
“Maybe. But they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They might decide this forest has become too expensive for them. Especially if we do it again. And again. And again.”
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars?” Tess said. “We could be charged with grand larceny. Arson.”
“Only if we get caught. Excuse me.”
Al crept down the side of a small slope and entered the clearing. He moved slowly at first, making sure no guard had been posted and no drunken loggers were hanging about. Once he was certain the coast was clear, he moved more quickly. He walked directly to the tree cutter and planted his bundle at the base. He fiddled with it for a few moments, turned, and ran.
“Get down!” he shouted.
Tess and the rest fell back into the trees. They crouched down and covered their heads. Al caught up to them and dived forward. “
An instant later, the tree cutter exploded. Tess heard the explosion before she saw it. It was as if a sonic boom had sounded inside her eardrums. Even with her head hidden under her arms and buried in the soil, she could feel the intense surge of heat radiating outward. When at last she looked, she saw a raging inferno where a tree cutter once had been, a ball of flame that seemed to spew forth from the bowels of the earth itself.
Pieces of machinery fell to earth all around her. Flames continued to devour the steel contraption. “Are you all right?” Maureen asked.
Tess nodded. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken up.” She couldn’t tell them the truth-that she had seen one of these things exploded before.
Suddenly Tess’s ears were alerted to another sound-voices. They were coming from the clearing on the other side of the burning machine.
“Oh my God,” Maureen said. “Someone’s here.”
“They’ve seen us,” Rick said, clenching his teeth. He looked down at his friend. “Al, are you all right?”
Al pulled himself up to his knees. A trickle of blood lined the side of his face. “I’ll make it.”
The voices were coming closer. In the flickering light provided by the inferno, Tess saw three figures racing forward. Three angry figures. And at least one of them was holding a gun.
“Let’s go!” Rick shouted. They turned and ran, heading back the way they came, this time not in any orderly fashion but all at once, helter-skelter, trying to make as much time as possible.
Tess ran as fast as she could manage, trying not to trip, to fall, to hit anything. She wasn’t sure which prospect scared her more: that the people chasing them would catch her or that her newfound friends would leave her alone in the dark forest.
She didn’t have time to weigh the grim possibilities. She just tried to stay on her feet and to keep them moving.
A gunshot erupted over their heads.
“
But the voices were gaining on them.
Chapter 15
The instant Ben entered the courthouse the next morning, he knew something had happened. There was a buzz in the air; every staffer in sight flittered from one ear to another, whispering, shaking heads, doing everything but their jobs. He saw it in the elevators, in the filing room-even in the men’s room. Some tidbit of information was circulating from one person to the next with great alacrity. Unfortunately, no one seemed inclined to share this tidbit with Ben.
For that matter, Ben noticed, no one seemed inclined to share anything with him at all. The word was out, he supposed. He was representing the eco-terrorist, and his stock was valued accordingly. If people spoke to him at all, it was in clipped, essential monosyllables. No one got chatty. Most turned away.
When Ben arrived at the courtroom, Sheriff Allen had already delivered his prisoner-Ben’s client-to the defendant’s table, in handcuffs and coveralls.
“Morning,” the sheriff said, tipping his Smokey the Bear hat as Ben approached.
“Same to you,” Ben said, relieved to hear someone actually talking to him. “Thanks for escorting Zak.”
“It’s my job.” He didn’t move away. Ben could tell there was something else on his mind. Allen shifted his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. “Uhh … look, Mr. Kincaid-”
“Call me Ben.” He wasn’t going to give up a chance to get friendly with someone local. He probably wouldn’t get another one.
“Well … Ben, then. I was wondering …”
Ben instinctively glanced at his watch. The hearing could start at any moment. “Yes?”
“I was wondering …” He cleared his throat. “Wondering if maybe you’ve set up any office space yet?”
“We’ve got some temporary space in the back of that closet you call the public defender’s office. Why? Planning to make an arrest?”
“Well, no.” He fingered the brim of his hat. “Actually, I was hoping to drop by and ask that sweet little legal assistant of yours out to lunch.”
