The Alberta Connection (28 page)

O2 rolled out of his sleeping bag, approached
two agents, shook them awake, and pointed up the trail. The moon
was almost full. The points would have plenty of light to see where
they were going.

Ryce’s earpiece began buzzing once more. It
was again, Dexter. The two hot spots were now almost a mile away
from Dianne’s position, and moving fast to the south. Dexter
estimated Ryce would have them as neighbors in forty-five
minutes.

Ryce crawled out of his sleeping bag, circled
around to all who were still sleeping and woke them. He wanted as
much of the camp as possible relocated across the stream into some
boulders. As soon as the camp was moved, Ryce booted his laptop and
set up his satellite receiver. He wanted to be able to watch the
hot spots himself.

Ryce chuckled. He was a big Bruce Willis fan
and had gone to see Tears of the Sun more than once. He thought it
had some very creative, albeit unlikely, special effects. The SEAL
team Bruce was leading used satellite thermal imaging to track the
pursuers of the team. Now Ryce had the exact same technology in his
pack.

Chapter 34

The hot spots were
hiking the trail using LED flashlights. Ryce saw bobbing lights
when they were still more than a half mile up the trail. Ryce’s
radio again buzzed in his ear just as the flashlights passed the
two agents covering the trail.

“Ryce, this is Dexter. Try to take those two
hot spots near your position into custody. If you have night
vision, see if they are a male and female. We have been following
them for several weeks but we have had nothing to hold them on. We
got something now. We found their car near the trailhead with three
dead bodies in it.”

Ryce confirmed he had heard what Dexter had
said and then reached into his pack, pulled out a night vision
scope, and trained it on the hot spots. They were obviously a male
and a female. And they were armed.

Ryce motioned to O2. “Dexter asked us to
detain those two.”

O2 reached in his pocket, pulled out a small
walkie-talkie, and directed the two point men to follow the two hot
spots toward the camp. He pointed at three of the team within five
feet, and indicated they were to follow him. He worked his way
toward the trail, positioning two on one side and himself and one
other on the opposite side. The hot spots were not aware they were
targets until four men holding M4 automatic rifles stepped out in
front of them. When the female made a slight movement toward her
sidearm, her companion stopped her.

Ryce could barely hear O2. “Very carefully
lower your rifles to the ground and then remove your packs and jump
harnesses. There are two SEALs about fifty feet behind you I am
confident can not miss if you decide to challenge them.”

The pair carefully lowered their rifles,
slowly un-slung their packs, and dropped their jump harnesses to
the ground.

“Now, step back five feet and put your hands
behind your backs.”

The two men who had been watching point
walked up behind the pair and installed zip tie handcuffs. Ryce had
wondered how they would keep the two detainees detained.

Ryce’s radio crackled with Dexter’s
voice.

“I see you have collected our quarry. If the
man has a scar running from his left earlobe to about an inch from
his left temple, his name is Adam Highland. If the lady has a
tattoo of an eagle on the left side of her neck, she is Kathy
Giles.”

Ryce pulled out his flashlight and verified
the scar and tattoo. He turned to O2.

“Double up those zip ties. Those are the
fugitives Dexter wants. The man is Adam Highland and the lady is
Kathy Giles.”

O2 pointed at one of the team, who reached
into a back pack and pulled out several additional zip ties. Ryce
chuckled.

O2 looked over at Ryce. “I learned the hard
way in Afghanistan you never know when you might need a zip tie. I
carry a handful. My people are required to do the same.”

Ryce laughed as he keyed his radio.

“Dexter, this is Ryce. We have Adam and Kathy
in custody. What would you like done with them?”

When Dexter did not respond immediately, Ryce
helped move the team packs back to their original positions. O2
dropped Adam and Kathy’s packs next to Ryce and then moved the pair
across the stream into the boulders. Two team members were assigned
to carefully inspect the packs taken from Adam and Kathy. O2 found
his own backpack, reached into it and pulled out a compact metal
detector.

Ryce chuckled. “What airport did you steal
that device from?”

O2 smiled. “I think Pendergast Field is
missing this one. I also learned in Afghanistan if you don’t have
it, FedEx will not deliver it before the firefight ends.”

Ryce relit the fire and placed a coffee pot
on the grill rack. According to his watch, it was 3:00 AM. The
morning was not cold but a cup of hot cocoa would feel
wonderful.

Just as the water was coming to a boil,
Ryce’s earphone buzzed. It was Dexter

“Ryce, this is Dexter. Can you hold Adam and
Kathy for a day or two? I have some plans I need to finalize. I
have the RCMP on one telephone, with the U.S. Border Patrol and the
U.S. Marshalls Service on two others. I would like to send a
combined U.S.-Canadian group to snatch Adam and Kathy and return
them to Canada. Without getting some lawyer involved, if you
understand my meaning.”

As soon as Dexter signed out, Ryce discussed
the situation with O2. They could leave three of the team with Adam
and Kathy to wait for Dexter’s group. Ryce pressed the send button
and told Dexter they would be glad to hold the two suspects.

Ryce could hear the metal detector growling
as Kathy was being scanned. The officer using the detector, Ryce
thought it was Dallas French, waved O2 and Ryce over.

After O2 waved the metal detector around
Kathy, he instructed the team to string a parachute cord from two
trees. They were to then hang a sleeping bag from the cord, and do
a complete strip search of Adam and Kathy.

O2 reached into his pocket and pulled out
several pairs of nytril gloves. He looked over at Kathy.

“We are going to do a strip search and if
necessary a cavity search.”

When Adam started to protest, O2 turned to
him.

“You are a long way from civilization.
Several of these men spent a long time in Afghanistan learning how
to treat the enemy. As far as they are concerned, you are the
enemy.”

O2 turned to Ryce and smiled. “I hope I have
enough zip ties.”

O2 pointed at Kathy and told her to get
behind the screen and strip.

Kathy did a lot of protesting. O2 allowed her
to wear her bra and panties until the metal detector discovered a
handcuff key sown into her bra. When the team removed her panties,
they found a razor blade taped to her hip. She spent the next hour
shivering naked behind the sleeping bag, while her clothing was
carefully inspected.

The team also found a wire saw sown into the
cuff of her jeans. Kathy was certainly prepared for captivity. Adam
was a little less prepared. He had only a small knife taped to his
leg.

O2 and Ryce turned their attention to the
packs as soon as they had verified Adam and Kathy had nothing
hidden on their bodies. Eventually, O2 allowed Kathy to redress in
her panties and bra and Adam to again don his undershorts. O2 was
not actually going to do a cavity search. He simply assigned two
agents to keep an eagle eye on the two. If they escaped, they were,
after all, still in their underwear. And, they would not run far
down a rocky trail without shoes.

The packs were dumped out on a large tarp for
easier examination. Both packs had small homing beacons, but they
did not appear to have been activated. Adam’s pack contained
$10,000.00 in Canadian money and $5,000.00 in U.S. currency. He
also had a Ruger .357 Mag revolver, a silencer, and two boxes of
ammunition. Ryce studied the revolver. The revolver barrel was not
threaded. Ryce wondered where Adam was keeping the weapon that had
been machined for a silencer. It was obviously not on his person
and definitely not in the pile of items on the tarp.

Ryce pulled the silencer for his M4 from his
pack and compared the two. When Ryce saw that Adam’s silencer
looked like it might fit the M4, Ryce carefully screwed the device
onto the barrel. It fit perfectly. Had Adam accidently switched
weapons when he and Kathy had met up with Dianne and her group?

As he contemplated the question, Ryce noticed
a metal cigar sleeve in Adam’s pack contents, but no cigar lighter
or punch. Although Ryce did not smoke, he had served with several
Army Rangers who did. The label was one of the most expensive
non-Cuban cigars of which Ryce was aware. No self-respecting cigar
smoker would be without his cigar tools.

Anticipating a surprise, Ryce slowly and
carefully unscrewed the tube cap. There was no cigar inside the
tube, but when the tube was inverted, a rolled-up sheet of paper
slid out.

When he unrolled the paper, Ryce found a map
with the cabin and a campground that looked suspiciously like where
John had parked the Party Hummer. On the back of the map were
directions to a Quad ATV stashed in the woods behind the cabin.
After they retrieved the Quad, Adam and Kathy were instructed to
ride to the campground circled on the map. Ryce smiled and wondered
if the Quad had disappeared into the ditch left by the
explosions.

Included in the instructions were a vehicle
make, model, and license plate number. Adam and Kathy could leave
the Quad anywhere in the campground. The VIN had been filed off,
and the ATV was untraceable. Ryce immediately radioed John with the
information.

John was heard chuckling over the radio. “I
can see the vehicle from here. It is seven campsites over. I will
let the Montana authorities know.”

Dexter radioed the plans for Adam and Kathy
during breakfast. Ryce concluded that omelet MREs were actually
slightly tasty. Not as good as Tanya’s omelets, but almost
edible.

The trail the team was following ran almost
directly north from the cabin. They were now located slightly less
than two miles from the Chief Mountain Highway. The main trail
would soon swing northwest, and the distance between the trail and
the highway would increase significantly. The gap would eventually
be more than ten miles of impassible mountainous terrain.

There was, however, a trail from the Chief
Mountain highway. The trail was slightly more than two miles long
and intersected the trail Ryce was following less than a quarter
mile away from where his team was located. Ryce remembered seeing
the trail marker at the edge of the trail. He smiled. He had
conveniently overlooked the marker when they decided to pursue
Francine’s killers less than ten days ago. They could have shaved
five miles off their hike back to civilization.

Dexter had spoken with a Park Service
mountain rescue group, stationed at the Chief Mountain border
crossing. He had gotten commitments from two of the group to help
bring Adam and Kathy back to Canada. The RCMP was providing four
Mounties, eight horses, and vehicles for the pickup. The group
would drive to the Chief Mountain Highway trailhead, ride to Ryce’s
location, pick-up Adam and Kathy, and then return to the
trailhead.

After several minutes of silence, Dexter
informed Ryce that the retrieval group would be leaving in ten
minutes. It would arrive at Ryce’s location before noon if all went
as planned. Dexter wished everyone good luck and added that the
horseback crew would notify Ryce when they were leaving the
trailhead.

Ryce looked around the area. He would take
his team and escort Adam and Kathy to the trail intersection. O2
would follow Dianne when she resumed her hike to the border.

Four of the team were still checking Adam and
Kathy’s packs. One had noticed that the stitching on the zipper of
one pack did not match the stitching on the rest of the pack. He
pointed the stitching out to Ryce. Ryce carefully cut the stitching
at the piping and then called O2 over.

“Completely disassemble both packs. I found a
nice hand rolled 30-inch piece of spaghetti in Adam’s pack.”

Ryce pointed to what looked like actual
spaghetti lying on the ground. O2 whistled. It was C-4. O2 reached
into his pack and pulled out a small stack of double-edge
razorblades. He removed one and handed it to Ryce. The razorblade
was going to provide easier access to every nook and cranny of the
packs.

Ryce cut off an inch of the spaghetti and
tossed it into the fire. It quickly began to burn but did not
explode. Ryce looked over at O2, pointed at the packs, and then
pointed across the trail. They were disassembling some very
dangerous packs that were far too close to people. Ryce carefully
picked up the pack he had been working on. He found a bolder across
the trail, walked over and placed the pack on the ground behind
it.

The spaghetti was a trick used in
Afghanistan. It could be molded around door locks, hinges, trees,
and with a simple ignition source, could be extremely
dangerous.

C-4 was not easily exploded. As Ryce had just
shown, applying a flame did not do the trick. C-4 required a
blasting cap. When Ryce tossed the spaghetti into the fire, he was
confident it would not blow the campsite into the next county. So,
where were the blasting caps?

O2 answered that question when he removed
additional piping from Kathy’s pack. Inside the shoulder pads were
almost four feet of flash cord. Ryce smiled. A flash cord was an
extremely fast burning and very hot fuse. It was used to burn holes
in things they didn’t want to blow up. Flash cord did not require a
blasting cap. It could be ignited with a match or with a standard
fuse that could be ignited with a match.

In the proper configuration, the flash cord
could be used to ignite C-4. O2 and Ryce completely disassembled
the two packs and found additional strings of flash cord, C-4, and
standard flame-triggered primer cord. When laid out end to end, the
C-4 measured over thirty feet. That was enough for a good-sized
explosion. The flash cord measured almost twenty feet. And, Adam
and Kathy had more than ten feet of standard fuse cord.