The Alberta Connection (25 page)

Everyone looked at the gun case Ramona had
carried into the room. It was an intricately tooled leather gun
case in vivid pink. O2 started laughing. Ramona looked around the
room.

“O2 had that case made for me in celebration
of my final qualifications when I was still a Ranger. I think it
was very sweet of him to do it, although I cringe every time I walk
out of the gun safe with it. I hope I never find the gun shop that
made it.”

When the laughter died down, Ramona smiled at
the group.

“In case you didn’t know, Pen has two of her
best trauma surgeons flying into the Great Falls airport this
evening. They were in surgery when John left Pendergast City. When
Vince heard about our party, he was almost packed before John told
him he needed to stay at home and support the troops. O2 and I were
in John’s office when Pen called. We could hear her through the
phone. She told John that if he was sending her boys into battle,
she was sending someone who could patch them up.”

O2 looked over at John. “Aren’t your ears
still burning?”

Ryce laughed. Phil had mentioned on the
airplane that O2 had sent out a general request for SEALs or
Rangers for this project. The Marine Corps was not the only
military group with intense devotion to comrades. The SEALs and
Rangers also generate extreme loyalty. O2 had likely sent out one
email that had been forwarded to hundreds, if not thousands.

When the meeting eventually wound down, John
looked over at Ryce.

“You know this area better than most of us.
Where do we eat tonight? And where is breakfast?”

Ryce set his alarm clock for 5:30 AM. The
support vehicles had been outfitted while the tactical plans were
being drawn up. All of those who were participating in the project
would meet at the Hampton Inn at 6:00 AM. Ryce hoped to have rubber
on the asphalt at 6:30 AM, or 7:30 AM if anyone was hungry.

Tanya crawled into bed. “I am going to worry
like crazy, and you are only going to be a mile away. Is there any
way I can persuade you to sneak down to the Suburban? I can kick
Ramona and the two guys out of the camp trailer.”

Ryce chuckled as he pulled her close.

The Pendergast Rolling Thunder and Magical
Elixir Show, as christened by Marge, departed the Hampton Inn at
7:25 AM. As Ryce led the convoy onto I-15 North, he checked his
rear-view mirror. He was leading five Hummers, a Suburban hitched
to a camping trailer, and a utility van. Ryce chuckled. It looked
like the weekend warriors were out on maneuvers.

The calculated driving time from Great Falls
to the campground was two and a half hours. The convoy pulled into
the campground at 9:56 AM. The bus backed up to John’s Hummer and
the assault group and their ninety-pound packs were loaded into the
bus. After Tanya and Ramona kissed their husbands goodbye, the bus
pulled out of the campground.

The first three laterals were occupied with
campers. Obviously, Ryce did not want anyone watching as twelve
heavily armed men in camo exited the bus. An empty forest road was
eventually discovered, the team departed the bus, and Gary started
his return drive to the campground.

Ryce split the group scientifically. He
pointed at every alternate man, and said, “You’re on my team.”

The plan was for Ryce and his group to
re-establish the original observation post above the cabin. O2 and
his group would swing to the right of Ryce, in the direction of the
lake, and find a spot to keep an eye on the road going north to the
lake.

Ryce calculated the distance from the cabin
to the border as twenty-three miles as a crow flies, if a crow
flies in a straight line. He had hiked the distance in a little
under twelve hours, but the trail was slow and definitely not in a
straight line. The trail might be difficult for a novice to follow.
It would, however, be almost like walking down Broadway in New York
City to a SEAL or a Ranger. Ryce was confident that O2 would find a
very nice place to watch the trail.

Ryce held his group close to where Tanya and
Ramona were setting up the Suburban and camping trailer. When he
saw that Tanya and Ramona were stringing their fishing poles, he
activated his combat radio.

“Remember, you can’t catch more than
seven.”

Tanya carefully looked around. She could not
see him, but she had felt he had been looking at her since she had
parked the Suburban. He laughed and then told his team to wrap up
the camo netting.

Ryce stopped his team below the ridge, away
from the cabin, and spread the team along a line parallel to the
ridge. He sent two of the team with their camo netting down the
ridge in the direction of Tanya and Ramona. They were instructed to
get close enough to see the campsite, but stay out of site. Ryce
was planning to go over the ridge alone.

He repeated what had happened to Randy and
concluded with, “And it will immensely piss me off if I have to
write a casualty report.”

Ryce left his pack with his team, taking only
his camo netting, spotting scope, radio, and a sidearm. If he
needed anything more powerful, his team was less than one hundred
meters away and within shouting distance.

As soon as he was established, Ryce connected
with O2, who reported that he was on a small bluff east of the
lake. He had a clear view of the trail immediately to his right and
could see the outline of the cabin to his left.

Ryce scoped the cabin. The Dodge pick-up
truck that he had seen parked in front of the cabin was now
positioned in front of the woodshed. Ryce continued to scan the
area, but he did not see the Silverado. Ryce cranked the
magnification on the scope up to its highest, and performed a grid
search of the cabin and woodshed.

The damages that Ryce had witnessed at the
woodshed had been cleaned up. Had the occupants of the cabin
replaced the explosives? And if they did, what ignition source did
they install?

When he scoped the front of the cabin, Ryce
saw that almost all of the bullet holes in the wall had been
patched. The cracked window in the door had been repaired with duct
tape. The brick chimney on the side of the cabin closest to the
woodshed was no longer pockmarked with bullet holes. Someone had
even waved a paint brush at the wall of the cabin. Ryce chuckled.
The occupants had done a lot of work to cover up the firefight.

Ryce flipped the switch from spotting scope
to thermal imaging and re-scoped the area. He saw no thermal hot
spots anywhere, but he did not expect anything at this time of the
day. The ambient temperatures at noon would blend the cool into the
warm. Ryce would have to wait for sundown. He would then be able to
see lights in the cabin, or maybe a thermal ghost on the wall or
the window.

Ryce worked his way back to his team, paired
them up, and then had his partner call the coin flip to see which
pair had the first watch. One of each pair would watch the cabin.
The other would watch the side of the hill where Tanya and Ramona
were camping.

Ryce’s partner correctly called the coin flip
and chose to sleep first. Ryce’s final instruction to the pair who
had the first hour was to awaken him if they saw anything larger
than a squirrel.

Ryce plugged the earpiece of his radio into
his ear and slid into his sleeping bag. The temperature was not low
enough to need the bag, but it was forest camo, and Ryce wanted to
remain unseen.

Ryce was awakened by an unusual noise in his
ear. He realized it was his radio, and pressed the transmit
button.

“This is Ryce.”

The voice that came back to him was
Ramona’s.

“A black Silverado just drove by us heading
in the direction of the cabin. We saw a man and a woman in the
front seat of the Silverado, but the side windows were tinted
really dark. The woman waved at us. Someone is coming back to the
cabin.”

Ryce pressed the send button once again.
“Ryce out.”

After several seconds, Ryce heard O2. “I
heard Ramona’s transmission.”

Ryce looked at his team and then keyed his
radio to inform everyone he was moving back to the observation
post.

Ryce had left the scope on the tripod. He
leaned into the scope just as the Silverado pulled up to the front
door of the cabin. One man exited thru the driver’s door while
another exited through the driver’s side rear door.

Ryce recognized Dianne from security pictures
as she stepped out of the Silverado through the passenger side
front door. The three walked to the front door of the cabin, the
driver unlocked the door, and they walked into the cabin.

Ryce quickly scanned the area. Were two men
missing?

He keyed his radio. “I seem to be missing two
people. Keep an eye open.”

Ryce got an almost immediate double click in
response from at least one radio. He heard two additional pairs of
clicks soon after the first. He smiled. Ramona, O2, and John were
active stations. They had someone monitoring the radio at all times
and were expected to respond. As a support station, Phil would only
answer if he was directly addressed or if he needed something.

The group was now informed that their focus
would need to be everywhere. They could no longer be looking
directly in front of them, and ignore beside or behind them.

Ryce scanned the cabin once more and then
worked his way back up and over the ridge.

Ryce was not worried about someone from the
cabin coming up the cabin side of the hill. He had installed a
security device on a tree directly below his observation post. The
device pointed down the hill and covered almost 180 degrees below
the tree. When triggered, it could wake up the dead. Ryce told his
team not to get near the cabin side of the tree.

Ryce asked if everyone had night vision
glasses. The person on watch was expected to keep a very close eye
on the general direction of Ramona and Tanya.

Most importantly, they were to keep their
packs and weapons within a few inches of where they were sleeping.
Ryce did not want to repeat the incident in the Philippines. He had
sent a four-man team to skirt a suspected seven-hut hamlet. When
Ryce led the main force of Rangers toward the hamlet, they had come
under heavy fire. Five minutes into the firefight, the flanking
team reported they were out of ammunition. They had left their
packs at the assembly area. Ryce clouded up and rained all over
everyone. The new company rule was if you ain’t carrying a hundred
pounds, you are carrying light.

Ryce look carefully at each man on the team.
“The last time I was here, I saw four people executed by three men
in that cabin. I don’t know if they can climb out of a paper bag,
but they blew up two people and shot the other two. And as you
know, I get pissed when I have to fill out casualty reports.”

When the almost silent laughter dwindled to
silence, Ryce continued, “Go and set up your sleeping arrangements.
Then come back here for some cold, icky food. We cannot start a
fire, so we have some tasteless, odorless stuff, straight out of
hell. I did not even get us any MREs. Our dinner is C-Rats from the
Great Falls Army National Guard. I have a razor knife for anyone
who would like to cut their wrists.”

Chapter 32

The team had
almost four hours to wait until it would be dark. Ryce set up a
schedule for each member to operate the spotter scope for an hour.
He was hoping that they could verify the location of the two
missing occupants of the cabin. The remaining three occupants
seemed to be doing normal cabin activities. One brought in an
armload of wood, and another carried two buckets of water back from
the stream.

Smoke was exiting the chimney a few minutes
after 4:00 PM, during Ryce’s turn on the scope. Some nice odors
were drifting up the hill at 5:00 PM when the team was eating its
second odorless, tasteless, and cold field meal. Ryce checked the
date code on his C-Rations. They were made in 1962. Not a good year
for C-Rats. He chuckled as he contemplated the horrible death that
his C-Rats packer had hopefully suffered.

Where were the two missing men? Were they
already on the trail to the border? Were they hiding somewhere,
waiting for their friends to leave the cabin? Ryce would be
following the occupants of the cabin when they headed north, but he
wanted everyone in front of him. As always, the group in pursuit
was normally at a distinct disadvantage. Doug was having a thermal
satellite repositioned, but had not yet notified Ryce that the bird
was in place.

On his first trip to the border, Ryce had
taken many pictures of the trail and surrounding terrain. There
were hundreds of places that could be used to observe the back
trail and set up an ambush. And the same places could be used to
remain unseen until the pursuit team passed.

The mountains to the west blocked the sunset,
but a half-twilight remained for more than two hours. Ryce fiddled
with the viewfinder on the scope and eventually widened it. He
could now see one hundred feet on either side of the cabin and more
than one hundred in front of it.

A figure appeared on the porch, followed by a
second figure. Ryce saw a flash and then the glow of a cigarette.
Someone was having an evening smoke. A third figure walked through
the open door and approached the first two, followed by a forth and
fifth figure. Ryce smiled. He again had the entire group in one
location. With a good sniper rifle, he thought he could put all
five down. An automatic would be a slam-dunk. A bolt-action would
be considerably more difficult.

Ryce reached for his microphone and pressed
the transmit key.

“We have a full roster of bad people at the
cabin.”

As he waited for the teams to reply, Ryce
attached the camera to the scope and set it to take one frame every
two minutes. He hoped he had an SD card of sufficient capacity to
store all of the pictures. He was confident the camera battery pack
would handle a night operation. He had modified a fire alarm panel
battery to attach to the camera. It was bulky, but had lasted for
more than forty-eight hours the last time he tested it.