Essential Beginnings (26 page)

Mav somehow maintained a straight face, turning to where Elijah was trying to do the same. Mrs. Welsh was fanning herself, a flush having come over her powdered cheeks. He ignored both of them as he made his way up the stairs with the intention of throwing his and Henley’s clothes into the dryer on the second floor. He was still wearing his jeans from yesterday, but he did have on a clean shirt. He’d thrown in a load before breakfast, which consisted of Henley’s hamper contents and his laundry bag. At least they didn’t have to worry about water, given that the natural springs gave them access to an unlimited supply of fresh clean drinking water, which Ernie filtered and softened with a kinetic industrial softener. It made him aware of the fact that they didn’t have anyone in place to monitor their natural resources. There were too many vulnerabilities exposed to a potential enemy from within.

“Truman headed down the access road around five minutes ago,” Elijah said nonchalantly, resting his hands on a cane that Mrs. Nantri had given him yesterday. He made the statement as if he were sharing the weather for the day. Mav liked his style and was grateful to have him monitoring the comings and goings of people. “He had a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck.”

“Thanks, Elijah.”

Mav didn’t waste time. He veered off the porch and made his way back to Henley’s cabin. He used the key she’d given him to enter the small premises, ensuring that the invisible tape he’d placed high on the seal hadn’t been broken. He then walked into the bedroom where he collected his M4 rifle, along with a pouch of extra magazines. Although he did have on his shoulder holster there wasn’t a chance in hell he would take the chance of getting caught off guard.

It wasn’t long after that Mav was on the heels of Truman, heading east toward the bunker and the NG wellhead blockhouse. There wasn’t any sight of the man, so Mav kept walking carefully and quietly while managing to keep up a good pace. Five minutes was a good lead and Mav needed to close the distance between them.

Where could Truman be heading and why? Was he meeting his comrades? It still didn’t make sense to Mav that Kellen would have known that a natural catastrophe was going to take place months in advance. If that was the case he would have hopped on a flight and headed to another country in the Southern Hemisphere where the percentage of survival was a hell of a lot higher than sticking it out here in the States.

The terrain became a little rockier as Mav continued to get farther and farther away from the lodge. The incline was steeper and he was grateful that he was still wearing his combat boots. He stopped to listen once he had enough coverage to camouflage his body. The wildlife had been relatively quiet since the eruption; probably moving north would be Mav’s guess. The only sound that Mav could make out was the ruffling of the leaves from the light breeze coming in from the west. He ignored a flake of ash as it floated down in front of him. Tilting his head just right and waiting another eighty seconds finally rewarded him with the crack of a branch coming from his left.

Mav didn’t move quite yet, not wanting to draw attention to himself. It was a good two solid minutes before he redeployed and followed the route that Truman was taking. Damn if the man wasn’t heading toward one of the natural mountain springs farther down the slope from the camp. Knowing that was the only resource up here and the only place where Truman could be heading, Mav broke off to his right and circled around the rough terrain to have a better advantage point from his flank.

It took around eight minutes for Mav to make to his destination. He would have said it was breathtaking had he been here for the visual. It was nature at its finest, with the vivid greenery overhanging the pool of water below. The water was so clear that the depth appeared to be endless. This spring along with several others fed Whispering Creek that ran down the western side of the valley the Lost Mountain Lodge was in. The one thing it was missing from the picture was the man who should have been here, which was exactly when Mav realized his mistake. Sun Tzu had taught him that if you wait by the stream long enough, the body of your enemy would float by. Mav had made a tactical error and assumed how Kellen would move, isolating himself and placing him exactly where he’d be expected.

“You’re good.” Truman’s voice came about ten yards to Mav’s left, but he didn’t pull his weapon. He’d already be dead if that was this man’s intention. He slowly turned to face Kellen, who had now made himself known. “I didn’t realize that you were even on my tail until I stopped and used my glasses. I caught the rustling of some leaves around thirty yards back.”

“You want to tell me what you’re doing down this far?” Mav asked, noting that Truman hadn’t pulled his weapon either.

“I wanted to see if anyone had been up this way, considering you left a viable resource unprotected.” Mav didn’t believe that for a second, but he went along with the excuse to see what other information could be gained. “You’re wasting precious assets by having people watch me when they could be focused on areas like this.”

Both men would have appeared completely relaxed to a stranger when underneath both of their pretenses radiated tension and unease. Mav thought carefully on how to reply, not wanting this to turn into anything other than a discovery of intel.

“Is there a reason you opted to come here yourself when you could have approached either Tank or myself with your concerns?” Mav widened his stance and settled in to hear what this man had to say. He also turned back on his two-way radio, which he’d turned off so that any incoming calls wouldn’t be blasted through the terrain. “This would go a hell of a lot easier on both of us if you’d just come clean with me about who you are and how you lucked out being here on the day a world changing disaster occurred.”

“Coincidence?” Truman offered up, the left half of his mouth turning up into what some would call a smile. Mav wasn’t so sure it was. “You think I have the ability to see into the future?”

“I think you have the right connections to be informed had any of this been known beforehand.” Mav kept his gaze connected with Truman’s, all the while studying the type of binoculars he was holding in his hand. They appeared to be U.S. military issue—M24 7x28 Glasses with anti-reflective coating and a built in laser range finder. “I also noticed that you chose not to answer my question. Are you meeting someone near here?”

“I already told you that I’m part of a special unit out of Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg. I’m not privy to say anything beyond that and honestly, it’s not up to me to convince you. I just want to help. You can take it or leave it. I caught on early that you and Yates have military training, so it would make sense that you have some type of system to monitor this area. That doesn’t mean someone can’t get around it if they know what to look for. I thought I’d lend you a hand since the two of you are so busy taking care of the lodge.” Truman finally broke their stare to look out over the natural mountain spring. “No one has been in this area for quite a while, except maybe a fair sized brown bear about a day ago. I haven’t had a chance to thoroughly check out the boundaries, but I understand if you don’t want my help.”

“I don’t trust you, Truman,” Mav declared matter-of-factly, wishing like hell that Van were here. That man could spot ill intentions a mile away with just a glance. “You need to come clean about—”

“Mav,” Henley’s voice came through the two-way radio, cutting off what Mav had been about to say. “Someone or something just activated the alarm you set up near the bottom of the valley on the road. You’ve got PA-1 written over the light.”

A loud and sharp snap resonated through the area, causing both men to draw their weapons. The sound came from the other side of the spring and it wasn’t long after that they could hear someone running away. Truman signaled he would take one direction and while Mav still had reservations about him, he took the other path around the large pool of water. He didn’t like that his attention had to be split in two directions, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“I’ll check it out,” Mav replied back to Henley before securing the transmitter back to the clip on his belt.

Mav made good time in getting to where the noise had originated from and he caught the racket the intruder was now making in his or her attempt to get away. Truman came through the brush and Mav gave him a hand signal to follow the person. Seeing as their target knew they were on his tail, Mav didn’t hesitate to break out into a dead run to the left, knowing this mountain as good as those who hiked the area. He’d be able to cut him off at an angle to where this subject no doubt had some type of vehicle waiting for him on the main thoroughfare leading up to the lodge.

Mav slowed down upon reaching his destination, not wanting to give up the coverage of the thick brush on the side of the road should this be some type of set-up. He proceeded cautiously with his weapon in hand but there was no one around. It wasn’t until Truman stepped out of the shrubbery that he’d accepted they weren’t going to locate who’d been up near the springs.

The rumbling of a vehicle could be heard from a ways and Mav was ready for when it finally cleared the bend in the road. He relaxed his stance when he saw that it was the sheriff’s cruiser. Felix brought the car to a stop, his window already rolled down.

“Mav, what are you doing this far out from the lodge?”

“Just checking the area,” Mav replied, sharing a look with Truman. They weren’t sure where the target had gone, and he wasn’t about to talk about it out here in the open. He would fill everyone in when he got back to camp. “Everything go okay in town?”

“Yes. You’ll see the other vehicles soon. Everyone loaded up what they could, but we’ll make a second trip once we get things unloaded.”

“Truman and I will meet you up there after we do one more round of the perimeter.” Mav’s statement had Ramsey raising his eyebrow in question, but he went along with the conversation. Mav used the back window’s reflection to see if anyone was behind him in the woods, but nothing moved to indicate someone was there. “I’ll see you later.”

Mav tapped the hood of the car and then stepped back, allowing the sheriff to continue up the hill to the entrance of the camp. Truman finally joined him, having kept his distance as he monitored the area. At least that’s what Mav thought he was doing. It crossed Mav’s mind that Truman could have known the intruder and then helped him by directing him away from where Mav was trying to cut him off.

The more Mav thought about it though, it probably
wasn’t
one of Truman’s buddies. A special operator would have easily spotted the crude homemade, antipersonnel system and not tripped it in the first place.

“I’d like to use the radio again,” Truman said, scanning the area and appearing quite tense. Too tense for a man who might have known whom the invader was. “My men are trained and can be of assistance if I can just get them here.”

“You realize that I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your head if I find out that your intentions are to take over this camp,” Mav said casually as he walked back into the woods, wanting to be clear of the road for a lot of reasons. “I’m careful like that.”

“I bet you are,” Truman replied with a touch of humor in his voice and if Mav was correct…a tad bit of respect. They hiked side by side while making their way back to the springs and Mav had to fight a smile at Truman’s next words. “You might hate my guts, Beckett, but I think I could grow to like you.”

H
enley made a
note on the roster that held the names of those staying at the fishing lodge. Mav had given each of them a responsibility and the reactions had been very favorable. She studied the shifts as she sat on the porch alongside Elijah, who had requested in private that he be allowed to stay there to watch the others. He wasn’t physically capable of walking long distances and he felt like he was providing a service. Mav had agreed, gave him with a two-way radio, and had even commended Elijah for the knowledge he had of the residents in camp.

Henley looked over Mr. Jenkins’ rotation and wasn’t sure that he should be on his feet for the eight hours listed. He’d said he wanted to help around the lodge, but Jeremy had been the one taking on more hours at the hardware shop so that his father could take it easy.

“Let me see that list,” Elijah said gruffly, holding out his gnarled hand. Henley eyed him in curiosity, but she sighed as she handed it over when she realized he wasn’t going to budge. She fiddled with the pen as she looked around the land and noticed that Mr. Wicks had managed to bring at least four of his horses up to the lodge. He was sharing a cabin with both of his sons, who’d made an appearance around ten minutes ago. They had a few hours before they were up on rotation to keep an eye on the entrance, but it appeared they were pulling more than their own weight by helping their father create a makeshift area for the horses to graze behind their cabin’s clearing. “Pen, too.”

“We have everything sorted out, Elijah,” Henley exclaimed as she handed over the writing utensil. She sat forward, trying to see what he was writing down. It didn’t look like anything other than a couple of marks next to some names. “Why did you single out Gage Dorian? He’s in his mid-fifties and has run the garage since he took it over after his father passed away.”