“What are you doing?” Matt asked.
“I don’t trust that guy.”
“Why? He’s giving us what we want.”
“Exactly. One minute it’s a wild goose chase, the next minute he knows where they are.”
“You have something on him?”
“Not yet.”
“Then what’s with him paying cash for the truck?”
“I don’t know. The records showed that he paid cash. I just threw it out there to see how he would react.”
“And?”
“He acted a little defensive-didn’t he?”
They returned to the Sheriff’s inner office and Nick found Skrugs explaining the best angle of approach to Jennifer Steele. He was waving his arms while giving directions to the resident agent. Steele was in rapture absorbing her function as the guide. Because of her knowledge of the area, she would be in the lead and therefore on the front line. The other three agents had their gear strapped over their shoulders and were in different stages of prepping their weapons.
Nick motioned the rest of the team to file out, but yanked Silk’s arm as he passed. “Hang on, I need you for a minute.”
Silk stood silently next to Matt and Steele as Nick approached the Sheriff. “You’re not coming with us?”
“Sorry, Chief, but I’ve got a child-killer on the loose and I need to bang on some doors to get some information.”
“How certain are you of this location?”
“I’m telling you,” Skrugs huffed, “this is where they are. There’s too much suspicious activity going on with that cabin. The phone company shut off the service to the new owner and I’ve never seen anyone leave the premises, yet there are fresh tire marks all over the backside of the property. I went fishing on a narrow strip of the river a couple of miles west of there and heard all kinds of engine noise. When I headed up the hill toward the cabin, the noises stopped. As I got closer I noticed a large tarp covering several vehicles and no sign of anyone living there. When I touched the hood of one of the vehicles, it was warm. Until you guys showed up, I just never put it all together.”
Nick nodded. It sounded just a tad rehearsed for his taste. “That’s fine. Just let us have the keys to a couple of cars and we’ll-”
“No can do, Chief. I’ve got everyone available on this manhunt. You’re going to have to get there the same way you got here.”
Nick clenched his fists.
Matt said, “Are you telling us that you’re not going with us and you can’t even lend us one stinking vehicle?”
Skrugs looked at the two federal agents. His resolve seemed to temper. “Okay, okay.” He removed a set of keys from a nail on the wall next to his desk. “I’ll take my truck, you take my personal cruiser. It’s the only vehicle we’ve got left. It needs some engine work, but it’ll get you where you need to go.” He looked at his watch. “I’m late, boys. Gotta find me a killer.”
After Skrugs left, Steele said, “Now do you know what I mean?”
Nick stood there with his arms still folded, shaking his head in disgust.
Steele looked back and forth between Nick and Matt, then settled on the keys in Nick’s hand. “How do you want to split us up?”
Nick handed the keys to Silk and pulled a device from his pocket that resembled a pocket calculator. “Here,” he said, “take the cruiser and use this to track down the Sheriff.”
Silk looked down at the device, puzzled.
“It’s a GPS system. I planted a transmitter under the Sheriff’s truck. Give him a five minute head start, then find out where he went.”
“Hey wait a minute,” Steele said. “You’re going to waste a vehicle spying on the sheriff?”
Matt nodded with understanding. “It’s an insurance policy. We’re better off using one vehicle anyway. It’s less conspicuous.”
“An insurance policy?”
Nick wrote something on the back of his business card and handed it to Silk. “This is my cell phone number. Call me as soon as you know where he is and what he’s doing.”
Silk frowned. “I didn’t come all the way out here to play-”
“I know what you’re here for,” Nick said. “And you’ll get your chance, I promise. But right now we need to find out who we can trust.” Nick jabbed a finger into Silk’s chest. “You, I trust. It’s everyone else that I’m worried about.”
Silk took the compliment to heart and grinned. “Whatever you say, Boss.”
Nick showed Silk how to read the GPS system, then sent him on his way. Nick rounded up the team behind the building and had everyone test their headsets to assure communications were functioning properly. Since Steele didn’t have a headset, she was instructed to stay close to Matt. This didn’t seem to bother either agent.
Nick motioned Steele to brief them on their route.
With the professional look of a surgeon about to go into the operating room, Steele held up a map with a black line meandering through a densely wooded area. “Just past mile marker 78, we’ll veer left onto a dirt road for about three or four miles.” She looked at Rutherford, Downing, Tanner and Tolliver. “Stay down in the back of the truck. The dirt road is a popular path for hunters so three of us in the cab doesn’t necessarily cause any suspicion.” She pointed to a black line perpendicular to the trucks route. “At this juncture, we’ll unload the gear and travel the rest of the way on foot. About another mile.” She looked up and to the west. “The sun’s going down in another hour and a half so that should give us enough time to position ourselves.”
She looked at the group and said, “Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Carl Rutherford said, “are you single?”
Matt momentarily glared at Rutherford.
“For you, Agent Rutherford,” Steele deadpanned, “I’m happily married with twelve kids.”
A few snickers followed Rutherford’s put-down. It was a nervous laughter that Nick recognized as a release of tension. All eyes migrated his direction and he suddenly felt like a football coach needing a halftime speech. “All right,” he said, “I don’t want any heroics. We do our job and get out. When we get to the perimeter, Carl and Ed have the backside, Matt and Jennifer are the snipers.”
Nick looked at Dave Tanner. “You have the Halothane mixture?”
Tanner tapped the duffle bag tugging on his shoulder. “Ready to go.”
“When I give the cue, Dave will launch the gas through a window on the second floor. The gas is heavier than oxygen so it will settle all the way down to the basement. Thirty seconds later he and I will enter the building wearing the body suits. Our primary goal is to locate the detonator, then get Carl in there to disable the unit. Everyone know their roles?”
A cluster of nods.
“Good.”
Matt seized the opportunity to inject some inspiration. He regarded each agent in turn, snapped shut the clip of his Glock and added, “Let’s show them what a predator really is.”
Hopped up on adrenalin, the team ran around the building. Rutherford and Tanner nearly banged heads jumping into the back of Steele’s truck. Nick was in the cab again with Matt. Steele drove north with the setting sun sprinkling shadows of tall pines across the hood of the truck. She nodded ahead to a roadblock that caused a backup of several cars. “Do you want to wait?”
Nick saw that it was only three cars ahead of them. “Yes, wait.”
When it was their turn a DPS officer spied the foursome prone in the back of the truck. His right hand went for his gun, but hesitated when he saw who was driving. “Jennifer? What’s going on here?”
She pointed to her cab mates. “This is Matt McColm and Nick Bracco. All six of theses guys are FBI Special Agents from Baltimore. They’re on loan to us until we resolve this KSF issue.”
The officer nudged his hat up a bit and looked at Matt and Nick. “You think they’re in the area?”