“Did you get fired?” he said.
“No, I quit. How’d you know?”
“It was radioed in that you left. We had three men get fired this week, including Johnny. I think they’re doing it on purpose, getting rid of the Bills. I got to find out who it is.”
He returned his attention to the tiny screen. The house was still cold from the night, and Joe wondered if it ever became warm.
“Why’d you quit?” Owen said.
“Had me a little run-in.”
“Who with?”
“I never knew his name.” Joe hoped his voice sounded casual. “Just some buckethead on a crew. Where’s Johnny at?”
“In town somewhere,” Owen said. “He dropped out of contact.”
“What made him do that?”
“Who knows?” Owen shrugged, “He got bent out of shape one day and left.”
“Who do you think fired those guys?”
“We don’t know exactly. We have their names, but they might be undercover ATE That’s what Frank’s working on.”
“Botree wants to know if you all need anything down here.”
“What I need,” Owen said, “is a three-day drunk in another town.”
Frank pounded the table with both hands. Rising dust shimmered in the glare of light coming through a window.
“Nothing,” Frank said. “Not a damn thing. The men who fired them are both clean. Either it’s coincidence or someone dropped a new set of numbers into every data bank available,”
“You checked them all?” Owen said.
“The three biggest credit bureaus — Equifax, TRW, and Trans Union. That’s over five hundred million files.”
“They could be using a cutout,” Owen said.
“They have the manpower,” Frank said. “Or it could be deep cover.”
“What’s a cutout?” Joe said.
“A middleman,” Owen said. “Somebody who doesn’t know anything except his Job. He takes an order from a stranger and reports to another stranger.”
“That way he can’t give anyone up,” Frank said.
He looked hard at Joe, who felt a quick tension swell within the dim room. He remembered Ty’s warning that the Bills would one day ask whose side he was on.
“Ty gave me a message for you. He’s leaving. Said the traffic was bad on Skalkaho Pass.”
“You sure about that?” Frank said.
“Said he thought it was the Feds.”
The men glanced at one another. Frank cleared his throat and spat on the floor.
“I was right,” he said. “There was a fire near my camp this week. It was in the crown and running, but it didn’t look right. Too small. The wind turned and it burnt itself out. I thought it was set but I couldn’t tell for sure.”
“Fucking ATF,” Owen said. “They infiltrated the fire crews. Easiest damn thing in the world to do. They probably set all the fires just to get at us.”
“It’s the government style,” Frank said, his voice calm. “But more CIA than domestic. The ATF traditionally goes straight at its objective, like the FBI or the army.”
He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head, aiming his face at the ceiling. He could have been a banker explaining interest dividends.
“Maybe they got smart,” he said. “Maybe they shifted tactics after Waco blew up in their face.”
“Shifted how?” Owen said.
“They’re treating us like a third-world country. Infiltrate and destabilize. Setting a forest fire is right up their alley.”
“What’s their next step?” Owen said.
“Neutralize support systems.”
“Like firing those men?”
“Exactly. And anyone else who’s visible — Rodney, Johnny. Next they’ll disrupt communication and shut down supply routes.”
“And then?”
“Attack.”
“By air?” Owen said.
“No way,” Frank said. “Vertical envelopment doesn’t work. Six thousand choppers shot down is the lesson of Vietnam. They’ll come on the ground. They’ll come hard. And they’ll come soon.”
He turned off his laptop and began dismantling the equipment. The men were quiet. Joe watched, surprised by the effect of Ty’s news. Frank stowed the computer in a small case and walked to the window. The sunlight framed his silhouette.
“Our time has come,” he said. “The forces of evil are upon us. Owen, mobilize the men. Use the CB and the codes. Move all caches to Camp Megiddo — commo, weapons, food, water. We need to be done by dawn.”
He bent to Coop and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Coop, you can serve us best at the ranch house. You’ll be radio liaison between Megiddo and the world. Monitor emergency channels, police band, and the Feds. Owen, you help him set it up.”
Frank gazed at Joe.
“I need to talk with you.”
Joe followed him into a small room containing two narrow cots. The walls were coarse, having been painted with undercoating years ago and never completed. There was no window. A layer of grime covered every surface.
“I know none of this is your lookout,” Frank said. “You can leave if you want.”
“I have a reason to stay.”
“You’re wanted by the law somewhere.”
“Not exactly.”
“We’ve been here a long time, fighting for this land. Now that we got it tamed down, the government’s bringing back the wolf and the bear. My great-grandfather was killed by a grizzly and now I’m supposed to let them wander around my land.”
“I can see how that would be hard.”
“If a wolf takes a calf, it goes free. If a rancher shoots the wolf, he goes to jail.”
“Is that what you’re fighting for?”
“We’re not fighting anyone, Joe. The truth is, we’re waiting for someone to come fight us.”
Frank stood close enough for Joe to smell him. Dandruff lay like frost along his shoulders.
“I hate to ask you for help,” Frank said. “But there’s two things you could do.”
“No promises.”
“We got to bring Johnny in. He’s a loose cannon, and nobody knows it more than you. Eight now, we can’t afford to have him running around on his own.”
“What’s the other thing?”
“Coop’s not doing good. He’s losing weight and he’s not always there, if you know what I mean.”
“You want me to babysit.”
“It’s a noncombatant role, Joe.”
“Are Botree’s kids safe?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“None of this is a hundred percent. For all I know, Ty’s an informer planting disinformation. Maybe the Feds are running the same truck back and forth over Skalkaho Pass as a decoy. Maybe you’re a spy. Maybe somebody got to Johnny, and that’s why he left and hasn’t come home. But none of that matters now.”
“I’ll watch out for Coop,” Joe said. “But I don’t have control over Johnny.”
“Good man,” Frank said. “Any questions?”
Joe shook his head and turned to leave. In the corner beside the door were stacks of paper bound by haystring. He slipped the top one free of its bundle. On the cover was a drawing of Montana’s state borders filled with tombstones. At the bottom, flanked by swords and rifles, was a quote from Deuteronomy. “I kill and I make alive; I five forever when I whet my flashing sword.” He opened it to a bull’s-eye target. In the center was a picture of Uncle Sam with a Star of David on his hat. One arm was around the shoulders of an Indian and the other around a dark-skinned man.
Joe held the pamphlet away from his body like a dead snake that still scared him with its fangs.
“Where did these come from?”
“I thought you knew,” Frank said. “I thought somebody told you by now.”
“Told me what.”
“Those are what sent me to the mountain.”
“I thought you sold a rifle with a bayonet mount to an undercover guy.”