Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

Wolf led the way to the Russell house, with Larkin sitting in his passenger seat. Brandenburg followed in his own truck with Nichols behind them.

Turning off the dirt road from memory, Wolf sped down the drive toward the house. The two bikers who had been waiting at the edge of the forest were long gone.

They had left seconds after getting the call from Dolores, but an ambulance had beat them there and was parked in front of the house.

They didn’t appear to have been there for long, the two EMTs just entering the house.

Wolf skidded to a stop and ran inside.

Dolores stood over her son, watching the EMTs, a man and a woman, kneeling next to Mitch.

Mitch moaned in pain, his face covered in sweat and blood. His legs were splayed out at unnatural angles; bone poked through one of his shins.

The male EMT had a syringe out and had just finished shooting something into his arm. “Ketamine for the pain,” he said, looking up.

“Dolores,” Wolf said, touching Dolores’s shoulder. “Let’s go outside and let them work.”

She allowed him to steer her outside. She walked on shaky legs, her face ashen.

“Relax,” Wolf said. “It’s okay now. They’re here.”

“No, it’s not okay.”

“What happened?” Nichols asked, trailing them outside.

“They wanted to know where he was. They wanted to know what he’d told you,” she said and pointed at Wolf.

“And what did he say?” Wolf asked.

“Nothing. We didn’t say anything that we’d talked about. He just pretended like he was down at his sister’s place in Craig. Like we said.”

“Why did they do this?” Larkin asked.

She shook her head, putting a hand over her mouth. “I don’t know. They were just so mean. It was the bigger of the two. The other one didn’t want to hurt him. But the bigger guy was just…” She stopped talking and closed her eyes. “He wouldn’t stop. I told him to stop.”

“Coming through.”

They stepped aside as the EMTs rolled Mitch out on a gurney.

“You’re taking her, too,” Wolf said. “She can’t drive herself.”

“Of course,” the woman said. “Hop in, ma’am.”

“Where are we going?”

“Craig is the nearest hospital.”

“I’m not going…I can’t…” Dolores looked like she was hyperventilating now. “What about Savannah? We can’t just leave her! ”

“You’re not leaving her,” Wolf said, steering her toward the open ambulance door. “Don’t worry. We’re going to get your granddaughter back, Dolores.”

She looked at Brandenburg, Nichols, and Larkin in turn. “Are you going to? Are you going to get her back?”

The three men said nothing, but Brandenburg nodded with an unsure expression.

“Will you get her back?” she asked, her voice rising to a yell.

“Yes,” Brandenburg said. “Yes, ma’am. You go with them. You leave it to us.”

“We have to go,” the male EMT said, shutting one rear door.

“Dolores,” Wolf said. “Go. We’ll take care of everything here. Go be with your son.”

Face slack, she looked down with a hopeless stare as the female EMT helped her up into the ambulance.

A minute later, the vehicle was gone, the siren’s wail dissipating, leaving the four men standing mutely.

“Shit,” Larkin said, breaking the silence.

Wolf turned, putting his hands on his hips and tilting his head to the sky. Clouds were building in the northwest, the horizon turning dark. The freshening wind blew across his face. When he turned back, the three men looked at him.

“We need help on this,” he said to Brandenburg. “Either you admit it, or I’m going to have to take over here.”

“I know,” Brandenburg said. “I know.” He put up a hand. “I’ll make the call.”

“To who?” Wolf asked.

“I have a contact in the FBI.”

“Me, too. I can call them.”

“This is my territory, Wolf,” Brandenburg said. “I’m sheriff of this town, whether you like it or not. And I’ll take care of this, God damn it!”

It was the first time Brandenburg had shown so much emotion. He was clearly shaken, but he was moving, his hand already out of his pocket, cell phone in hand.

Wolf nodded.

Brandenburg dialed, put the phone to his ear, and turned around.

Wolf watched and listened as the sheriff launched into a conversation, the gist of which was lost behind the blowing wind.

“Who’s his contact at the FBI?” Wolf asked Nichols.

“I don’t know,” Nichols said.

Larkin’s already pale complexion blanched. He was staring at the ground without focus. Nichols stood looking at the sheriff’s back. Brandenburg talked, looking over at them, his voice just out of range as he turned away and continued talking.

Impatience boiling over, Wolf walked after Brandenburg and rounded to the front of him, listening in.

“…all right. Yeah.” The sheriff looked at Wolf.

“Who are you talking to?”

Brandenburg shook his head, annoyed.

“Who is that?” Wolf asked.

Brandenburg put up a finger. “Listen. I’m going to put you on speaker, so you can let my companion here know exactly what’s going on…okay…yeah…”

Brandenburg poked the screen and held the phone between them, with an are-you-happy-now expression raising his eyebrows.

“Hello?” A deep male voice came out of the speaker.

“Can you hear us?” Brandenburg asked .

“Yeah. Go ahead.”

Nichols and Larkin walked over to join them.

“This is Detective David Wolf, Sluice-Byron County Sheriff’s Department. Who’s this?”

“Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lance Romero. I hear you guys have a bit of a hostage situation up there, and you need some assistance.”

“That’s right,” Wolf said. “What can you do for us?”

“I was just telling the sheriff we have a team readying up.”

“Where are you?” Wolf asked. “Denver?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s your ETA?”

“We’re dealing with weather across the state right now. I haven’t spoken to my helicopter pilots yet, but there are storms over the metro area. I’d say with prep and flight time, three hours…give or take. Again, depending on this weather.”

Wolf shook his head but checked his watch. It was just about noon. They would be coming in well under Snake’s midnight deadline, even if it took longer to get there and make a move.

“I was just telling him about the back way into the biker compound you told us about, Wolf,” Brandenburg said. “We could go there and do reconnaissance first. You know, get some eyes on the place, and then keep in touch via satphone.”

“That’s a good idea,” ASAC Romero said. “The more info we have going in, the better, obviously.”

“Where are your satphones?” Wolf asked Brandenburg.

“Back at the station.”

“Along with more weapons, I hope. ”

Brandenburg nodded. “We have rifles. A couple more handguns.”

Wolf nodded, motioning for Brandenburg to continue with the call.

Brandenburg pressed the button and put the phone to his ear. “You there?”

Wolf walked toward the house, again looking at the weather rolling in. The entire horizon was bruised. He pulled out his phone and checked the screen, seeing he’d missed a call from Rachette.

He pressed the number.

“Hey.”

“Wolf, what’s going on up there?”

He explained to Rachette as best and as fast as he could, watching as Brandenburg wrapped up his own phone call and joined his two deputies near the vehicles.

“Do you need us to come up there?” Rachette asked.

“I don’t think so. We have an FBI response team on the way from Denver right now. I’m not exactly sure where or how we’re getting into the compound just yet. There’s no sense in complicating things. Stay put.”

“Okay,” Rachette said. “Listen, the reason I called is because me and Patty figured something out about Hunt going to Green River.”

“What’s that?”

“One of Hunt’s former SF teammates lives up in Green River.”

“Okay.”

“And he was one of the 18Cs on his team. The engineer sergeant. The guys who deal with explosives and demolitions.”

Wolf rubbed a hand over his stubble .

Rachette continued. “Patterson has contacted Green River PD. They’re headed over to the guy’s place right now to talk to him.”

“Okay, keep me posted,” Wolf said, but he knew he was going into backcountry where his phone would go silent. If there were explosive surprises awaiting them, he would be learning about it firsthand.