The Alberta Connection (14 page)

As the technicians walked out, one of them
glanced over and saw the confused look on Ryce’s face.

The technician laughed. “John has this place
set up like an old-time telephone switchboard. We just pull a plug
out of one hole and stick it in another.”

When Tanya was comfortable with the radio
console, Ryce took her hand, and they walked to the elevators.

Chapter 19

When Ryce and
Tanya arrived at the apartment, Ryce walked into the spare bedroom,
opened his footlocker, and pulled out his daypack. He had two packs
to choose from. The largest, his jump pack, could hold over 50
kilos of gear and was good if he was planning to spend a month in
Glacier National Park. For a week, the daypack would suffice; it
could easily hold thirty pounds of gear. When Ryce followed
tradition and placed the pack on the bathroom scale, it topped out
at 15.5 kilos. Ryce chuckled. He still had several items to
retrieve from the Great Falls gun locker, but he might stay under
18 kilos, if he was lucky.

At 12:25 PM, Ryce and his team walked up the
stairs into the G650. He expected John would see them off, plus
Ramona, Tanya, and the wives of the two married team members. He
was amazed to see all of the JBTF agents, plus Marge, Pen, Doug,
Karen, AP, and Danielle clustered around the aircraft. Someone had
even created a banner that read “Happy Hunting.”

As they buckled into their seats, O2 looked
over. “John has one rule that he asks everyone to follow. It is
‘Support the Troops.’ Any time a group goes into harm’s way, he
wants everyone showing them they are appreciated.”

The flight to Great Falls was uneventful. As
soon as the G650 landed, it was directed into the JBTF hanger and
the hanger doors were rolled closed before the stairs were lowered.
Ryce tossed the keys for the Suburban to O2 and then walked to the
hanger office.

The gun closet had been converted from the
lady’s washroom after the men’s washroom had been designated a
uni-sex bathroom. The cement floor was jackhammered out, a deeper
footing was dug, and a new three-foot thick slab was poured, with
enough rebar to build a freeway overpass. The walls were cast in
place, also with enough rebar for a freeway overpass. When the
ceiling was curing, Ryce had joked there was an overpass missing
half its rebar.

Ryce was using the gun closet to store what
he called his “back up” boomers. Although he was issued a perfectly
good Berretta 9mm, he liked the additional knockdown capability of
his .357 Magnum Rossi with combat grips and sights. He also had a
Henry .357 Magnum lever action rifle. Not quite the knock down
power of the M4, but he only had to carry one caliber of
ammunition. Of course, he did not have the capability of selecting
full auto in a firefight. Ryce carefully stored the Rossi in his
daypack with four boxes of ammunition.

The hanger storage room contained several
sleeping bags and tents used by the Great Falls JBTF agents. Ryce
planned to erect extra tents at the campsite and unroll two
sleeping bags in each tent. If anyone came by to check out the
campsite, he wanted it to appear like there were more than two
people watching things.

When the Suburban, camp trailer, and utility
van were loaded, the hanger doors were rolled open and the G650 was
towed to the staging area. Ryce and O2 said good-bye to Phil and
his crew and drove slowly out of the airport.

The first stop was a local super market to
purchase food for the two who were staying at the campsite. Ryce
took the opportunity to perform a radio check.

When he asked how he was being received, he
heard Tanya’s voice say, “I can hear you OK, but you are too damned
far away.”

O2 started laughing, and said, “I am glad we
don’t have a radio protocol officer.”

The convoy pulled into the campground at the
lake at 6:45 PM. There were no other campers in the area. After
setting up three tents, Ryce rolled out the sleeping bags and
started a large fire in the fire ring. He then pulled the propane
three-burner stove from the van and started dinner. As dinner was
cooking, Ryce sent two of the team out into the forest with axes
and instructions to make a lot of noise. When Ryce was trying to
sleep on his ridge, he discovered that most campers were loud,
noisy, and just plain obnoxious.

After dinner, Ryce pulled his campaign hat
out of his pack. He tore four pieces of toilet paper off the roll,
wrote “fish” on two pieces, “trail” on the other two, and dropped
them in the campaign hat. Nick Phelps and Michael Granger were
hiking with Ryce and O2, while Jeff Phelps and Dave Greggs were
fishing. O2 confirmed Jeff and Nick were brothers.

At 2:00 AM, Ryce woke up O2, Nick, and
Michael, and then informed Tanya that the four were on the way up
the trail. John replied that they had better all return safely. He
hated filling out casualty reports.

Ryce and the team were climbing the hog’s
back at 3:00 AM. At first, they all wore night vision goggles, but
it was soon light enough to see the trail. At 4:00 AM, they had
dropped over the hog’s back and were descending to the valley
floor. Ryce checked his GPS. They were making decent time for the
middle of the night.

At 6:00 AM, Ryce estimated the team was more
than three miles from the campsite, but less than five. They had
been following the stream for about thirty minutes. It was time for
a radio check and an MRE.

Marge answered when O2 reported that the team
had stopped for breakfast. “Tanya and Ramona are camped out on
sofas in the offices. They have been monitoring the radio all
night. Hold on, I am sure they want to say something.”

Tanya was the first to get to the microphone.
“You’ve been gone for less than twenty-four hours, and I am missing
the heck out of you. O2, you keep him safe.”

Ryce could hear Tanya’s voice break for the
slightest moment and then Ramona was on the radio. “Everyone be
safe. This is not a stroll in the park.”

O2 chuckled and spoke into the microphone,
“It sure looks like a park.”

At noon, Ryce estimated they had traveled
fifteen to seventeen miles from the campsite at the lake. They were
making really good time. The trail was sometimes a little hard to
follow, but did not have many steep inclines.

As they dug into their noon MREs, Ryce heard
a new voice.

“Ryce, this is Dexter Reynolds. We have
established an observation post two miles on our side of the
border. It has easy vehicle access, but there is no way anyone can
skirt the place to evade being noticed. It is in what you call a
gorge. The canyon narrows down to less than one hundred feet wide.
Very much like that place in your state of Utah called the Virgin
River.

“When we dropped the three men off at the
observation post yesterday afternoon, they found a vehicle at the
trailhead. There is no way to know if it belongs to the ones you
are chasing. Dexter out.”

At 2:00 PM, Nick, who was running point,
raised his clenched fist to indicate the team needed to stop in a
hurry. Ryce and O2 carefully worked their way up the trail to where
he was crouched.

“There are a couple wolves down the trail,
near a cabin, making an awful lot of noise. Like they were arguing
about something. I have seen flashes of fur, but the trees are just
too heavy to see what they are upset about.”

Ryce motioned to Michael to join the group
and then pulled a spotter scope from his pack.

“Sure looks like wolves, but I can’t see
anything else there. Let’s get a little closer to the cabin, but
spread out. And, remember, wolves are an endangered species. I do
not want to have to fill out a casualty report for a wolf unless it
was self defense.”

He pointed at Michael. “You and I will take
the left side of the trail, O2 and Nick can have the right side.
Stay about one hundred feet apart.”

Ryce swung into the tress on the left of the
trail, and started working toward the cabin. Occasionally, he heard
growling that sounded like a very big dog. Well, isn’t a wolf a
very big dog?

The team was less than one hundred yards from
the cabin when one of the wolves smelled them. Both wolves darted
up the trail, but stopped to observe if they were being pursued.
When they realized Ryce had no interest in them, one sat down near
the edge of the trail, and began to growl. Ryce pointed at
Nick.

“You win the privilege of keeping an eye on
those two. I know they are a protected species, but you have my
permission to send them to doggie heaven if they look like they
want a piece of my butt.”

O2 chuckled. “Yeh, I think you have that butt
reserved for something that doesn’t look like any wolf I have ever
seen.”

As Ryce got closer to the cabin, he saw
blood, body parts, and clothing spread out over a one hundred foot
area in front of the cabin. There was not much left to collect for
the forensic technicians. Ryce pulled a heavy-duty garbage bag from
his pack, and several pairs of nytril gloves. He deposited the
trash bag and gloves near one of the larger body pieces, and
pointed in the direction of Michael.

“If you can keep from tossing your lunch, put
the big pieces in the trash bag. We’ll hang it high in a tree to
keep the animals out of it until the park rangers can get
here.”

Nick walked over and pulled on a pair of
gloves. “The wolves have decided to dine somewhere else.”

With four people picking up body parts, the
sight was clean in fifteen minutes. Ryce checked the cabin, but
found nothing to indicate who had been killed. Were the body parts
from a man or a woman? Two wolves would not usually take down a
man, unless the man was injured, and unable to ward off the
attackers. Ryce looked around.

“We need to go over this place with a fine
toothed comb. None of the bits of clothing indicated if the body
was male or female. See if you can find anything that tells us
something about the dead body.”

Ryce returned to the cabin. In the corner,
hidden partially under the slats of the bed, he found what appeared
to be a single bloody running shoe. It had about four inches of
jagged bone sticking out where the leg was normally located. Ryce
picked up the shoe, carried it outside, and held it up for O2 to
see.

“This shoe has a lot of blood on it, so it’s
hard to determine if the foot is female or male. I do think,
however, it is either a large female or a really small male
foot.”

Michael walked around the corner of the cabin
carrying the mate to the running shoe in Ryce’s hand.

“These are lady’s running shoes. My wife has
the same brand.”

When no more body parts were discovered in
the next hour, Ryce checked the wood stove. Someone was planning to
use the stove. Kindling had been properly laid in the firebox. Ryce
pulled a match from his pocket, and started a fire.

“If you have anything to eat besides MREs, I
have a couple pans in my pack. We can sleep here, with the doors
closed. I don’t think wolves can open locked doors.”

Ryce reached for the microphone on his
radio.

“Tanya base, this is Ryce. We found something
at about mile nineteen. We think it is a human body in hundreds of
pieces. A couple wolves chewed it up. We collected the pieces in a
heavy-duty trash bag. We’ll stay here for the night.”

John’s voice was heard on the radio. “How
many GPS locators do you have?”

O2 chuckled and grabbed the microphone.
“John, you don’t need to worry. We’ll put one locator on the bag,
not one locator for each body part.”

Chapter 20

At midnight, Ryce
heard the wolves growling again. He shook O2 awake and then pulled
his Rossi and a flashlight from his pack.

“Something is bothering those wolves
again.”

O2 reached in his pack and pulled out a
flashlight.

“They sure don’t sound happy.”

Ryce carefully opened the cabin door. There
was just enough moonlight to see the outlines of the trees. Ryce
looked in the direction of the noise, cocked his .357, and stepped
off the porch.

The growling was coming from two wolves
circling an outhouse more than three hundred feet from the cabin.
Ryce looked over at O2 and chuckled.

“I didn’t see the outhouse when we arrived at
the cabin. I have been using the trees.”

Ryce heard O2 snort in disgust. “I have,
too.”

When Ryce turned on his flashlight, the
wolves turned, growled, and bounded off into the trees.

Ryce carefully approached the outhouse, and
pulled open the door. He was astounded to find a woman huddled on
the two-seater bench. She was covered in blood, her hands were tied
behind her back, and a rag had been jammed into her mouth. Ryce
turned and shouted to Nick to get the first aid kits out of the
packs.

The woman appeared to be in her late thirties
or early forties. Her left arm was bandaged with a rag above the
elbow, she was missing both shoes, her feet were bloody, and there
were claw or teeth marks down both legs.

As soon as Ryce removed the gag, she forced a
feeble smile. “Thank you.”

Ryce carried her to the cabin, placed her on
the table, and handed her a canteen. As she drank furiously, O2
began cleaning the blood off her legs and feet. When Ryce pulled an
MRE from his pack and activated it, she grabbed the heated package
from Ryce’s hand, and began eating. Between bites, she looked
around the room.

“You don’t look like the average
run-of-the-mill hikers. You look like either SEALs or Rangers. My
brother was a Ranger. My name is Officer Brenda Delany. I’m with
the Browning Police Department.”

Ryce smiled. “We have been looking for you. I
am Ryce Dalton, with the Joint Border Task Force. My friend who
just cleaned your wounds is Oliver Pendergast, but you can call him
O2. And you’re right. He’s a SEAL and I am a Ranger. The other two
are SEALs, so I am feeling a little outnumbered.”