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They landed in Las Vegas, Nevada just past midnight on June eighth, picked up the rental car, and grabbed a meal on the way out of town. Randall drove for an hour and a half, then woke Nora, who took them the rest of the way into Utah, then past St. George and Washington, skirting Red Cliffs National Conservation area. She woke Randall when they reached Springdale. She had the sense of mountains towering on both sides of them, but in the darkness there were only shadows piled one upon the other.
Pulling into an all-night service station, they gassed up and grabbed coffee that had been brewed hours before.
As they walked back out to their rental, Randall sipped the coffee. “Sure there’s not any Starbucks here?”
“Do you see a Starbucks?”
“All I see is stars.” Randall craned his neck as he raised his arms over his head, stretched and cracked his back.
Randall was African American, six-foot-four, and had the shape and physical bearing of a professional football player. Randall’s father had enjoyed a successful NFL career, but Randall had gone a different direction. His near-genius IQ, coupled with his ability to read computer code as if it was his native language, had landed him a spot on the Agency’s cyber squad, and as Nora’s partner.
They were a good team, maybe because they were so different.
Randall had attended MIT. Nora received both of her degrees at Texas Tech.
Randall could do phenomenal things with a computer. Nora preferred chasing the perps who had dedicated their lives to cyber terrorism.
And while Randall was twenty-seven, muscular, and athletic, Nora had passed the ripe old age of thirty-eight. She had no misconceptions about being an athlete, and she didn’t care about that. She only needed to be able to run fast enough to catch the bad guys—marathons weren’t on her bucket list.
The town of Springdale was less than six hundred residents and located immediately outside the entrance to Zion National Park. Nora’s boss, Director Anderson, had arranged for someone to meet them at Zion’s visitor center. Ten minutes later they were standing in the empty parking area briefing Daryl Tillotson, a park map spread across the hood of his vehicle.
“Do you think we need to ask all visitors to vacate the park?” The man in charge was pale with small bifocals and thinning hair.
“Would that even be possible?” Nora asked.
“Probably not.”
“Then stop worrying about it. The important thing is to keep everyone away from this area.” She stabbed the park map with her finger, then turned to glance at Randall, who was leaning against their rental, studying the open tablet in his hands. “Are you still showing Behunin Canyon as his location?”
“That’s what the data is telling me, boss.” He glanced up at her, worry coloring his normally sunny expression. “Though data sometimes lies—or rather, misdirects.”
“We’ll deal with that when and if we have to.” She turned back to the park’s manager. “I don’t want anyone near that canyon. Understood?”
“Sure. Yeah. I got the call from your...uh...boss. We’ve shut it down and there’s a park ranger waiting there for you now.”
Nora resisted the urge to shake the man. She’d specifically said no one was to be in the area, which included park rangers. Now she’d have to use precious moments to send the person packing when they reached the designated parking area.
The park manager seemed eager to be rid of them and get on with his day, or perhaps he planned to go back to bed. “Continue four point four miles up this road. You’ll see the parking area on the left.”
They followed the Virgin River as the sky began to lighten. The gorge cut from the river was as spectacular as the descriptions she’d read—sixteen miles long, up to two thousand feet deep, and at times thirty feet wide.
“Wow.” Randall tapped his window. “I googled this place, but the internet does not do the real thing justice.”
“And let that be a life lesson for you, Randall.”
His face crinkled into a smile. “It’s sweet how you look out for me, boss.”
“I’m not your boss.”
“Uh-huh.” He gave her a once-over. “Nice digs you’re wearing. Where’d you find them?”
“In the bottom of my closet, and I’m very proud that I can still fit into them since I haven’t hiked in ten years.” She threw him a sideways look. “I guess you ordered yours online?”
“As soon as we received the go on this mission. Had to express it to my apartment, and before you ask, it’s all from REI and the total cost was just under a thousand bucks. Well, plus the cost of the pack and the shoes.”
“Do you really care how you look to catch a terrorist?”
“Look your best, feel your best, out-perform every time.”
“Let me guess...your mom said that.”
“Yeah, when I talked to her on the phone two nights ago.”
“They’re proud of you, Randall. They told me so at the awards dinner last month.”
“It took a while for Pop to come around. He wanted me to play ball, or at least coach. But now...I think he’s starting to see how important what we do is.”
“The last six weeks should have convinced him when nothing else could.”
The country had experienced a virtual rainfall of cyber attacks. People were more than a little concerned, not to mention hopping mad that their business and leisure were constantly being interrupted. There were calls for everything from federal oversight and installation of a national network and firewall to more severe sentencing of convicted cyber criminals. It seemed America was waking up to their vulnerability, and no one liked what they saw.
Nora pulled onto the grassy shoulder to navigate around a Road Closed barricade then continued to the Grotto Shuttle stop. Behind it was a small parking area, obviously only for authorized vehicles. Nora turned the Jeep Cherokee into the parking area and pulled up alongside the national park truck. The man who stepped out of the vehicle reminded her of a young Sam Elliott—tall, thin, unmistakably western, and of course sporting a thick black mustache that was lightly peppered with gray to match his hair.
“Tom Anderson.” He shook both their hands. “What’s this about?”
“I’m Nora Brooks. This is my partner, Randall Goodwin. As far as what this is about, I’m afraid you don’t have the clearance to know that.”
“Yeah. We really can’t say.” Randall shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, “What can you do? Orders are orders.”
“You’ve confirmed that no hikers are on the trail?”
“I have.” His voice was deep, rich, and held a note of amusement. “Tell me this isn’t one of those film shooting situations.”
“Do we look like a filming crew?”
“Can’t say as you do, but then filming people all look different.”
“We are with the federal government—”
“I hate when we close national parks—”
“As do I.” Nora spoke the words as if each were a sentence, something she only did when her patience was about to snap.
“Parks are for the people, by the way, the same people you’re saying can’t access this canyon today—all so someone can get the backdrop just right for a movie.”
Nora put her hands on her hips, stared at the ground, tried to count to ten and made it to two—usually she could at least force herself to four, but this guy was really getting on her last nerve.
The name sewn into his shirt said Anderson.
It was time to let Park Ranger Anderson know exactly where he stood and what he was required to do. She was not going to lose the perp they were chasing because a park ranger thought he knew better than she did.
🙛
Randall wanted to warn the guy, but he was forging ahead so quickly there wasn’t time. So instead, he took a step back so he wouldn’t get hit by any of the flying debris about to escape from Nora.
“Sir. This is a matter of national emergency. It is not a filming expedition.”
“Uh-huh. I’ve heard that before.”
“Thank you for coming out to confirm that the trail is empty—”
“No cars, as you can see. And the transport buses don’t start running for another thirty minutes, so trust me. No one’s there.”
“Unless they packed in last night and didn’t come back out.” Randall had opened his tablet and was assessing the director’s program. A healthy red dot still blinked at him from somewhere down the trail.
“That would be highly unusual and dangerous. There are no facilities on this trail, not to mention mountain lions and—”
“Mr. Anderson.”
“Tom.”
“Tom.” Nora flashed him a smile that reminded Randall of a flash of lightning. The man should back up, or better yet, hightail it out of there. “We’re done here. Thank you for doing what you were asked to do. We need this area vacated right now.”
“Vacated?”
“Yeah.”
“You want me to leave?”
“Yes. That’s what vacated means. Agent Goodwin and I will take it from here.”
“Look, Agent Brooks. I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, but this is an 8.5 mile-hike with a 2400-foot elevation gain. There are eight places that require you to rappel as much as 165 feet, not to mention this isn’t the part of the park you want to enjoy on a June day. The temperature is predicted to top out over one hundred degrees this afternoon.”
When Nora didn’t as much as blink, Anderson pulled off his ranger hat and slapped it against his pants leg. “What kind of equipment do you have?”
“We have what we need.”
“Really? Two 165-foot ropes, webbing harness, rappel device, and a helmet?”
Nora glanced at Randall.
He wasn’t sure exactly how to answer. They had the supplies, but he suspected they lacked the know-how. Still, he understood what she wanted him to say. “We have all that stuff, boss. We’re good to go.”
“See? We’re good to go.”
“But you’ve never even been here. This is a technical canyon far off the beaten path. Do you know how many people I rescue here each year? I don’t want you, or your partner, to be one of them.”
“Your concern is duly noted. Have a good day, Ranger Anderson.”
He turned toward his vehicle, and for a brief moment Randall hoped the man would actually leave. That hope was short-lived. Anderson turned back to them, resolve chiseled into his expression. “I can’t do it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Can’t leave you here. You look like rookies to me.”
“Rookies?” Nora’s voice rose an octave. “Ranger Anderson, I need you to leave the area immediately, or...”
She stopped, apparently stumped, and glanced again at Randall, who could only shrug. He doubted the wisdom of jumping into the middle of their turf war.
“Or what?” Anderson stuck his thumbs in his belt.
Randall had only seen people stand in that posture in movies. This guy looked like he had just stepped off a Western set. Maybe that’s why he was worried they were filming.
“Are you planning to arrest me? Because you seem to be alone, and the park manager has closed off this area. It’ll take some time to get someone up here to put the cuffs on me...if that’s what you’re planning.”
Anderson’s concern was one thing. The towering slot canyons around them were another. Randall figured that perhaps it was time he added his voice to the logical side of the argument.
“Nora, could I talk to you a minute?” Randall jerked his head toward the back of their vehicle. Once Nora had joined him, he spilled his reservations. “I know our training included this sort of scenario...”
“It included every type of scenario.”
“Agreed.” Randall shuffled from his left foot to his right, then back again.
“Just say it.”
“Okay. It’s been a while since either one of us has done any rappelling.”
“And?”
“We’re allowed to access local authorities if it’s in pursuit of—”
“I know our guidelines.”
“Then I think this fits. He knows this canyon. He’s an experienced hiker, and there isn’t even a remote chance that he’s in on this.”
“How can you be sure of that?” Her expression didn’t change at all, but her voice softened a little.
“Are you kidding me? This guy...” Randall looked around her at Anderson, who raised a hand and waved in acknowledgement. “He’s the real deal. I’ll bet my life on it.”
“You may be doing just that.”
“If he wants to come with us, let him. At least until we’re certain we can handle the terrain.”
She blew out a huge breath, nodded once, and walked back over to Anderson. “My partner thinks we might need you.”
“I guess that means he’s the brains of the group.”
Which caused Randall to snort, because he kind of was. But he was also the first to admit that IQ didn’t always translate to knowing what to do in the heat of an op. Nora had that corner solidly claimed.
“You want to come along for the ride? Fine, but you need to understand exactly what you’re getting into. We’re chasing a cyber terrorist who is planning an EMP attack.”
“Electromagnetic pulse? How would a single person even be able to do that?”
“We have information that he is carrying a device capable of taking take down all electronics in the tri-state area.” She stepped closer to the ranger, her voice lowering to a growl. “That means 9-1-1 call centers, power grids, telecommunications—just to name a few. This perpetrator is armed, and he is dangerous. It’s our job to find and stop him and we have approximately...”
She glanced toward Randall.
“Six hours and twenty-two minutes.”
“We have a short window to catch him.”
Anderson didn’t even hesitate. “Sounds like we should get started then.”
Which relieved a worry that Randall didn’t realize he’d been harboring. While the cliffs around them were beautiful, they were also intimidating. He had a feeling this was going to be completely different than any op they’d been on before. The question was whether they could rise to the occasion. As he’d told Nora, it seemed to him like their chances of success were better with Anderson.
🙛