Chapter 7

Dan looked over at Ron as the two drove past the city limits of Purthansburg. “So she’s not too happy with me, I take it,” he said. There was so much to say and so much to do, Dan didn’t know where to begin. Healing his body, healing his relationships, and most of all figuring out what he was going to do with his future. It was overwhelming beyond words.

“Is anybody going to be really happy with you at this point, Mr. Starney?” The younger man asked with a quick glance over at him. “I can’t say that I am. Are you?”

“Good point,” Dan admitted. “I think any happiness with myself ended the day Paul and I were arrested.”

“Why did you go along with it?” Dan couldn’t help noticing the accusatory tone in the other man’s voice, but it wasn’t just accusation. There was an element of disappointment, and of the hurt of being betrayed.

“Fear. Confusion. Selfishness,” Dan answered glumly. “Don’t think I haven’t asked myself the same question countless times already, and there’s never a good answer. I was thrown completely off balance by it all, and once I made the initial decision to play along, the prospect of telling the truth looked increasingly hard. Maybe ‘Trevor’ planned it that way.”

There was a long silence as Ron seemed to process Dan’s answer. “Why do you think he did it?”

Dan gave a short, humorless laugh. “Another often-asked question with no good answers. His note was ambiguous, and I’m sure that much was intentional. He wasn’t going to give me anything to work with. All I really got out of it was that there was some ‘professional indiscretion’ somehow related to Paul that motivated him to ruin Paul’s life. But who knows what that means? I don’t really know that much about Paul, maybe he wasn’t just a teacher, in the same way that Trevor/Steve was not just a student. It’s all guesswork and there don’t seem to be any answers at hand.”

“Do you think he could be behind the killing of Paul, the attempt on your life, and everything else that has happened?” Ron asked, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of them. “He didn’t seem the type to me, not like someone who would actually kill another person without good reason. But he didn’t seem like a federal plant, either.”

Dan turned to look absent-mindedly at the passing landscape. “Who can say? He was obviously the type to tamper with evidence, lie on the witness stand, and make an extensive effort to send someone to prison for something he didn’t do. Would arranging a killing be beyond his scope? Then again, with Paul already in prison, I don’t understand what might have been his motivation. If he wanted Paul dead for some reason to begin with, he could have arranged that without all the other nonsense.”

“Yeah,” Ron said with a nod. “It’s confusing.”

After riding in silence for awhile, Dan spoke up, “I want to run the ad.”

“The ad?”

“Yeah. The one mentioned in the letter, in the envelope you found at my house. It seems I might have an ally of some sort, but I want to find out exactly what they have in mind,” Dan explained. “I appreciate all of your help since the accident, and I know other RALA members have stepped up to help, but I need as many allies as I can get right now. I mean, really, what I need right now is to have some time and space to think, so I can figure out what my options are, while also letting my injuries heal more. Although I was able to get some rest at Jeff’s, it still wasn’t a situation that was conducive to deep thinking about what happens next. I was just focused on physical healing there. And before that, well, I was just on the run, reacting and staying alive.”

Ron nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, that makes sense. So where next? Where do you think you can go where it will be safe to start getting things organized again?”

“I’d love to go to my house but I expect they have it under pretty tight surveillance, or maybe it’s even occupied,” Dan answered. “I’m thinking out of state, or maybe even out of country. I don’t have good international contacts, though, so some remote location here in the US would probably be best. The problem is, we can assume that everyone who was involved with RALA is now under surveillance too, if they haven’t been detained for questioning.

“So far I’ve been relying on some pretty old contacts from the days before I formed RALA, and I’m running out of options there. However, I do know a guy with a small plane and pilot’s license. He might be willing to fly me far enough from this area that the odds of being promptly recognized will be minimized. And then there’s the letter. Maybe whoever sent that will have something to offer me in terms of sanctuary.”

Ron glanced at his passenger. “That might be too good to be true, Mr. Starney. You would have to put a lot of trust in people who are probably complete strangers.”

Dan chuckled. “True, in a sense,” he responded. “When trust is in short supply, there are alternatives.”

“Bribery?”

“That’s one,” Dan agreed, “but there are others that can be more reliable. Anyway, we can deal with that when, or if, it comes up. Right now we don’t know anything about them, including what they want from me or what they would have to offer. I need someone I can trust in Branner Glen to pick up a new phone. Any suggestions?”

Ron gave a little shrug and shook his head minimally. “No suggestions for or against anybody in particular,” he said. “We haven’t had enough time to really see where people are at with their interest and loyalty. There was some communication while you were in prison, but it was kept to a minimum and was very non-committal. We assumed we were under surveillance constantly, and we didn’t want to raise any red flags with any attempts to conceal what we were saying.” Ron paused for a few moments. “How about Doug? At least he’s pretty detached from people right now, so asking him to do things won’t run into schedule conflicts, which seemed to be the case with Brianna.”

“Yeah,” Dan said softly. They rode in silence for quite awhile after Brianna’s name came up, and Dan assumed his young driver was thinking about her also. “We should see who she was involved with and find out what they know,” he finally continued. “We may want to do something to support them in their grief over her death, or we may need to be alert to problems they may cause.”

“Yeah,” Ron replied.

Dan reached around his seat and dragged forward a small gym bag that Jeff had loaded into the van when they were leaving his house. He pulled out a cheap mobile phone and turned it on. “Jeff picked this up for me and activated it,” he explained. “He also gave me a pouch that blocks the signal, so we’re not broadcasting our location. I’ll need to find a way to route some funds back to him to pay him for everything.

“For now, I’ll send a text to Doug and see if I can get a response promptly. If not, that may mean he turned the text info over to the police, in which case we’ll need to toss this phone and pick up a different one for any future use. It’s frustrating to have so little control over things right now.”

Ron said nothing as Dan started to compose a short text message to Doug, who was another former student still living in Branner Glen and whose involvement in RALA had been relatively minor. It was not a coincidence that his role was minor and that he was still out of prison. Almost everyone who avoided being sentenced for their involvement had escaped that fate by having only marginal ties to the organization before Dan was arrested.

Ron was the notable exception to RALA members with close ties being picked up by law enforcement and ending up in prison. As their “main hacker” he was adept at covering his tracks, leading the authorities to believe he had only a token role in RALA. They apparently had no idea that he played a key role in the cyber attacks that were lined up for release at Dan’s command.

“Mind if I turn on the news?” Ron asked when he saw that Dan was done sending the text message. “It’s almost six so it’s about time for headlines. As you’ve said many times, information is the grease for every government power mechanism.”

“No argument here,” Dan said as he returned his attention to the passing countryside.

Ron turned on the simple AM radio in the van. “Not really in the mood for media chatter, so if there’s nothing new we can turn it off or maybe find some music.”

At the end of an advertisement for a business video conferencing service, the headline news began with a breaking news story. “If you’re just joining us,” the female news anchor said, “we are continuing our coverage of the bombing in Chicago.” Dan and Ron glanced at each other in surprise but said nothing. “Authorities have not yet confirmed the anonymous tip that this was an act of the so-called revolutionary militia of escaped convict Dan Starney. There have been no fatalities reported but one person is still missing, and sixteen people have been hospitalized. Four of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.”

“What the hell?” Dan could stay silent no longer.

“Fires are still burning at the Walter Rimzick building,” the announcer continued, “and at this time authorities have estimated the building to be a total loss.”

“I can’t listen to this,” Dan snapped as he turned off the radio. “This has to be the same person who tried to kill me. They know they didn’t succeed, so they’re going to make me Public Enemy Number One. This must be Trevor, or Steve, or whatever the hell his real name is. He has the connections and he has shown he is willing and able to set someone up. Bombing some random building? That’s so incredibly stupid. It’s not what RALA is all about. We were going to hit them cleanly, fast, and effectively, with minimal destruction or bloodshed. This? This is not RALA at all.”

Ron shook his head. “According to Donna and Karena, the average citizen isn’t going to see that. They’re going to believe this is RALA if that’s what they hear on the news. According to them, RALA is a domestic terrorism organization.”

“Terrorism!” Dan snorted. “I’m sure the British would have called our founding fathers that, if the term had been in fashion back then. No, we have to find a way to get the word out that we had nothing at all to do with this, and disavow anything else that might be conjured up by whatever person or group is behind this senseless violence.”

Ron glanced at the other man. “Maybe it’s time to disband RALA? Make a public statement that you’ve terminated it? As long as you’re running from the police and you haven’t done that, people will believe you’re behind this sort of thing, and Trevor, or whoever, can keep dragging you and RALA through the mud.”

Dan stared at Ron for several moments but the younger man would not meet his gaze. “Interesting. So you’re ready to throw in the towel. Just let the government keep on growing, keep on taking away liberty. Is that what you want?”

“That’s not what I said,” Ron said through clenched teeth without taking his eyes away from the road. “I believe in liberty. I don’t think it’s possible to wake up and realize how far the US has strayed from the ideals of liberty under which it was founded, and then turn around and go back to sleep. Oh, I’ve thought about it. Don’t get me wrong. It would make life a hell of a lot easier. But it’s like knowledge, education. You can’t unlearn things, they stick with you whether you want them to or not.

“For some things that’s not a problem, like the difference between a gerund or present participle. You won’t lose sleep over knowing the difference. But knowing how our liberty is being drained away by power-hungry politicians and money-hungry corporations? I can’t unlearn that, even if ignorance would be bliss. So don’t put that on me. I didn’t say we should give up. I said maybe it’s time for RALA, as an organization, to end.”

Dan looked away. Despite not wanting to admit it, out loud or to himself, he could see the sense in what Ron was saying. “Interesting,” he repeated, then shook his head. “First things first, and apparently the first thing is denying any involvement in this bombing. I need a secure way to get a statement to the press without being traced.” Dan paused as his phone pinged to let him know he received a text message. He checked it and saw with satisfaction that Doug had replied. “What can you offer for that?”

Ron sighed. “I had a lot of stuff in my car, which I had to ditch at Karena’s apartment complex,” he answered. “I’d guess the police have found it by now and are going through the gear I had in it. Hard to say how far they’ve managed to crack into things, but they won’t find anything worth the effort they’ll put into getting it. Anyway, we need to get to a computer with network access. That’s the first step, after that it all depends on the computer and the network.”

“I’m not sure where we’re going to find that at this point, at least not in a timely manner,” Dan said as he started to compose a more detailed message to Doug. He didn’t get very far before a new message from Doug arrived.

What’s the deal with the bombing? That wasn’t us, right?

Dan wiped the message he was writing and started over. “No, not RALA, somebody trying to make me and RALA look bad, worse, in public eye,” he responded.

“Is that Doug?” Ron asked.

“Yeah,” Dan answered grumpily. “He’s still on board but felt the need to confirm that RALA was not behind the bombing.”

“So not only will it make RALA look bad and confirm to the general public that you are a major threat,” Ron mused, “it will also work at breaking the bonds among RALA members. This also makes it look like Trevor, because he knows this is totally out of character for what we had planned.”

Dan nodded. “That’s how I’m seeing it too,” he said as he started another message to Doug, asking for help listing the personals ad as suggested in the mysterious letter.

“How long until we hit town?” Ron asked after glancing at the clock in the van.

“We should pull in to Arlington shortly after seven, I think,” Dan answered. “Why?”

“I want to make sure we get there before everything’s closed up,” Ron explained. “Think it’s big enough that stores will stay open at least until eight even on a Sunday night? I want to find some place that sells electronics. We can pick up a cheap tablet and then find a free WiFi hotspot. That will be safer than borrowing a system or using something at a public library, if we could even find one open, which is less likely than a store anyway.”

Dan shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t been in Arlington for so long that I really don’t know. It’s probably big enough now that it has something that doesn’t close early on Sundays.”

The two men rode on in silence. Ron eventually turned the radio back on but quickly switched the station to the first music station he could find. After a couple country songs, the men exchanged annoyed looks and Dan changed the station again. He flipped through all of the music stations but couldn’t find something they both liked, so he turned off the radio again. By that point they could tell from road signs that they were getting close to Arlington. Ron muttered something quietly when they finally saw a sign welcoming them to the town.

To their relief, they located a large chain store promptly, and they were glad to see that it was open and busy. Ron parked on one edge of the parking lot, and Dan remained behind in the van while the younger man went in with a fresh disposable debit card. Dan watched Ron walk casually from the van into the store, and he nodded with approval at how Ron followed his training. The conversation on the ride there had underscored for Dan how he needed to tread lightly with Ron and all of his followers in RALA. His stomach sank as he started to consider throwing away so many years of his work by officially disbanding RALA.

While he waited, Dan opened the gym bag again and pulled out two hats with logos that matched the painting company information on the van. He put one on and tossed the other onto the dash for Ron. When Ron returned, he was carrying two bags, and the groceries Dan could see in one bag reminded him how hungry he was.

“Best to minimize our stops and public exposure,” Ron said as he put the bags between the front seats of the van and returned to the driver seat. “The card still had a few dollars on it but I discreetly disposed of it on the way out, after wiping my fingerprints of course. I bought some other stuff from the electronics department so the tablet wouldn’t stand out too much. Some cheap earbuds, some music on sale, that kind of thing.”

“You’re on top of things,” Dan said with a smile. A glance into the bags confirmed that Ron had bought a cheap Android tablet. “Now to find free WiFi?”

Ron gave a quick nod as he reached for the hat on the dash. “That’s the plan. We need to get this charging and start scanning for open networks. I bought a car charger for it.” The younger man quickly opened the packages for the charger and the tablet. Dan kept an eye out for anyone who might be paying undue attention to their van as Ron set things up.

Once the tablet was powered up, charging, and ready to scan for networks, Ron handed the tablet to Dan and then started the van. He maintained normal behavior as he pulled out of his parking spot and left the lot. “I bought basic groceries because they’ll take us farther with lower cost,” he continued once they were under way, “but there’s some snack stuff in there until we have time to put together something more substantial.”

“I neglected to tell you everything that Jeff gave me,” Dan said, glancing toward the back of the van. “That was my mistake. Too distracted with everything else, I guess. Anyway, he sent a bit of food with us, I just did not think about it earlier. I’m glad you bought more, there’s no telling when we’ll have safe access to more supplies.” After a glance at the tablet, on which there was no indication of a usable network nearby, Dan explored the contents of the bags. “Ah, beef jerky. Good choice.”

Ron smiled. “It sure beats the nasty packaged pastries I had to eat for breakfast with Donna and Karena. All carbs, no real nutrition to speak of.”

“I’ll bet,” Dan said as he opened the beef jerky. “Want some?” When Ron nodded in agreement, Dan fished out a piece and held it out to Ron before getting a piece for himself. He kept an eye on the tablet’s available network display as Ron turned toward what looked like a residential section of town. “Nothing so far. Either locked or too weak to bother with. You sure you don’t want to try something like a coffee shop?”

Ron shook his head. “I’d expect them to pay more attention, or at least have a higher risk of somebody paying attention whether authorized to or not. I’m hoping to find someone who isn’t technically savvy. You know, not just an unlocked network but their SSID is still the factory default. Obviously I’ll be using strong encryption but I still want to minimize the odds that the network owner is paying attention, or, even worse, logging what is going on.”

Dan looked around at the houses they were passing. “Do you think anyone in a town like this would be that savvy, or that motivated?”

Ron flashed a grin. “It doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

“Right,” Dan agreed with a faint smile. “As long as we don’t go through a whole tank of gas looking for just the right network. How long do you think it will take, from the time we stop to the time I’ve contacted the media and we’re ready to roll again?”

“It all depends,” Ron said with a shrug. “Could be five minutes, could be forty-five. I plan on getting you in through a foreign VoIP provider, something obscure enough that getting anything useful from them will be the first major obstacle for those who will undoubtedly be trying to trace the call back to us. With the packet route I put together the call quality will be poor anyway, but if the first network we try is not up to the task, we’ll have to find another.”

Dan nodded wordlessly in acknowledgment as he kept his eye on the available networks. Ron was driving just below the speed limit on the residential streets, and Dan understood this was a compromise between detecting networks and looking normal. If they went faster, they could miss a usable network. Any slower, and people might suspect them more than they already did as somebody who wasn’t a regular in the neighborhood. The painting company ruse would help alleviate some questions, but Dan didn’t want to rely on that any more than necessary. The fact that it was a Sunday evening made the ruse a lot weaker than it would have been during the day on a weekday.

“There,” Dan said suddenly. “Strong signal, router name for the SSID.”

“Sounds perfect,” Ron said as he continued driving forward. “Keep an eye out for a place I can park when I come back.”

Dan looked back over his shoulder as the van moved on down the street. “It looks like there’s a gap between driveways with a pretty good hedge along what looks like their property line,” he reported. “It’ll be on my side when we come back so you’ll be able to pull in naturally. I can look at a paper map while you’re using the tablet, and if anyone actually stops to ask us, we can say that you’re trying to get an update to our work order since the info in our first one was not accurate.”

Ron nodded as he looked for a place to turn around. “Sounds good enough,” he agreed.

Once he had the van turned around, Ron drove slowly back to the area where Dan had noticed a good signal. He made a show of looking around as if seeking an address, and then pulled in to a stop along the curb where Dan indicated. As the younger man pulled out the tablet and started working, Dan pulled a paper map out of the gym bag and unfolded it. Since the map was not actually for the area where they were parked, he had to fold it in a way that the title would not be visible and the mismatch would not be obvious to anyone walking by.

“Usable?” Dan asked after waiting a few minutes in silence.

“Yeah,” Ron confirmed. The distant tone of his voice made it clear he was focused on what he was doing. “Almost there, actually.” After a few more moments of tapping away on the tablet’s touch screen, Ron made a test call with the voice-over-IP service that he was using. “Okay,” he said, turning to Dan, “it should be ready. I have a list of media contacts. Just tap the one you want and it will dial.” He handed the tablet across to Dan. “Good luck.”

Dan gave a soft snort. “That is something I seem to have in awful short supply,” he commented as he took the tablet and began skimming over the list of contacts that Ron had prepared for him.

“Oh, and try to keep the call to under five minutes,” Ron said as he began scanning the area around them for any possible problems. “Under three would be even better.”

Dan thought about making a wisecrack about having enough time to introduce himself but decided against it. Hoping it would be effective, he made a quick decision to try for a major TV news network affiliate in Chicago. The first one he tried would not connect at all, and the second one he tried just rang without answer. The third one he tried was answered, but the person he spoke with refused to believe he was truly Dan Starney.

Dan tried the first two again, but still had no success. He thought about trying a smaller TV network, but decided to see if he could get a Chicago newspaper on the phone instead. After trying all of the daily newspapers whose names he recognized, and getting nowhere, he looked over at the younger man.

“Here’s that good luck of mine,” Dan commented with a disgusted shake of his head.

“It’s annoying,” Ron agreed, “but remember that each one who doesn’t take your call is potentially throwing away a strong story.”

Dan rolled his eyes. “Don’t get me started on what journalism has become in this age of media consolidation,” he replied. “I was going to go with a Chicago news affiliate since that is where the bombing was, but maybe I’ll just shoot for network headquarters.”

“I wonder if we should go the other way?” Ron suggested. “Maybe smaller, find a stringer who can get the ear of an editor higher up in the food chain, who can then pass things upward to the network.”

Dan met Ron’s gaze. “Do you know any such stringer?”

Ron looked abashed. “No. Sorry, it was just an idea.”

Dan forced himself to smile, hoping it looked genuine. “That’s all right, Ron. Ideas are good. If you do think of someone we can contact directly, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll try to hit higher in the food chain myself.”

Scrolling back to the top of Ron’s media list revealed the main contact numbers for the major news networks. Dan picked one and tapped its entry. After two rings, the call was answered by a young-sounding woman. This time, instead of identifying himself directly, Dan said that he had important information from inside RALA about the Chicago bombing and he asked to speak with someone who could quickly take down the information he had to share. She promptly put him on hold, and after a short delay a man answered and stated that he was prepared to receive whatever news tip the caller had ready.

“This is Dan Starney, and I want to talk about the bombing in Chicago.”

There was a brief pause on the line. “Thank you for calling us, Mr. Starney,” the man said. “I’ll need to verify some information before proceeding.”

“Not going to happen,” Dan said flatly. “I don’t have the time for that, and I can’t trust you to not be tracing this call. You take my statement now, or I call a different network. Your choice. I suggest you begin recording this call if you are not already doing so.”

After another, longer, pause, the man cleared his throat gently. “Go ahead.”

“I’m on the run, you know that,” Dan began. He looked away from Ron to avoid having the younger man’s reactions distract him. “You’re the first person in the media I’ve talked to since the car I was riding in was forced off the road. Everything you’ve heard about that event has come from unreliable sources. However, that is not what this call is about. I hope to set the record straight about all of that later.

“This call is about the bombing in Chicago, which is more important. It’s more important to my fellow RALA members, it’s more important to the nation, and above all it’s more important to those who were injured in this event, and their loved ones. Make no mistake about it, this bombing had nothing to do with RALA. We never planned to blow things up indiscriminately. The RALA plan was not about destroying things, it was about shutting down the behemoth government and restoring personal liberty. This bombing does not fit in with the ideals of RALA at all. Anybody who tries to blame me, or RALA, for this bombing is doing so with another motive.”

When Dan paused, the other man spoke up. “Is that all, Mr. Starney? If so, I would like to ask you some questions.”

Dan glanced over at Ron, who shook his head solemnly. “Yes that is all. No, no questions.” Without waiting for a response, Dan disconnected the call. He locked his gaze with Ron’s. “How was that? Honestly?”

Ron grimaced. “Speaking candidly, Mr. Starney, it was okay,” he answered. “It’s good that you disavowed any involvement in the bombing. I think you could have said less about RALA and what it wanted to accomplish. I know you haven’t had time to think about it, but I hope you take seriously my suggestion that you consider disbanding RALA. I had not thought about it before saying it, but now that it’s out there as an open suggestion, I have thought more about it and am more convinced it’s the right thing to do. For multiple reasons, and no, none of those reasons are giving up and allowing the continual drain of our essential liberty.”

Expressionless, Dan handed the tablet back to Ron. “Time to get moving,” he said simply as he turned to face forward.

“And that’s all you have to say? You’re not going to consider it?”

Dan looked back at his driver. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to consider it. You didn’t want me to put words in your mouth. Don’t put words in mine. I’m not going to give you an answer right now. I’m not going to shout from the rooftops that I’m throwing away everything I’ve worked on for so many years. But I did not say that I won’t consider disbanding RALA.” He turned away from Ron again. “Whoever orchestrated this bombing may not be leaving me with any choice.”

Ron did some quick work on the tablet before slipping the device down into an elastic-banded pouch mounted on the engine cover. Without another word, he started the engine, checked for traffic, and pulled away from the curb. He left that neighborhood promptly and, per Dan’s instructions, set about locating a more commercial part of town where a parked company van would look normal. It was not a large town but they were able to find a part of it that looked to be zoned for industrial work. Ron parked on the outer edge of a parking lot beside a non-descript building with extensive pipework visible along the outside walls.

“Time for some food,” Ron said as he unbuckled and moved out of the driver seat, taking the bags of groceries with him into the back of the van.

“Yeah, I’m pretty hungry,” Dan agreed somberly.

“How are your injuries?”

Dan grimaced. “Well, I’m overdue for my next dose of painkiller, of that I’m sure,” he answered. “As long as I get some rest and don’t move around too much, Jeff says I should be in reasonably decent shape within a week.” When his phone pinged, Dan stopped to check the new text message. “Good, Doug has called in the ad. Unfortunately it won’t run until Tuesday at the earliest.”

“Tuesday,” Ron repeated as he began to spread peanut butter on a piece of bread. “So until then we camp out in this van, eating PB&J sandwiches?”

“Right,” Dan said with a little laugh. He turned in his seat to see the other man better. “Well, not really. I think that’s our fate for tonight, although somewhere along the line we’re going to need to find a restroom or unattended portable outhouse. Anyway, do you remember that pilot I mentioned? I’m leaning toward talking to him to see if he would be willing to fly me out of the area. I’m thinking about heading up toward Montana. I only have one close contact up there, but he can get me in with some sympathetic interests up there.”

“Militia?”

Dan shrugged. “There is definitely some of that up there, if I think that’s appropriate. At this point, though, I’m thinking political influence more than militia. But more than anything, just a retreat where I can heal without being disturbed. As you said, any sanctuary that could be offered by whoever sent that letter would not be very trustworthy, that’s more of a last resort, if they even offer anything. No, it would be better to stick with known connections, even if they’re connections through connections.”

“What about Karena?”

“What about her?” Dan asked, annoyed at the reminder. “I believe she will be safe at home in Branner Glen, at least as much as she would be with me. Probably safer, now that she’ll have an ongoing police presence with her. It’ll be more difficult to pull something off against her, if whoever is behind all of this even wants to do that now. I doubt that, though, since they’ve seemingly switched tactics to try to smear RALA with domestic terrorism.”

Ron looked skeptical. “You had continuous police presence but you were almost killed,” he pointed out.

“True,” Dan conceded, “but I think in that case I was a much higher priority target. They can’t be as motivated when it comes to Karena, otherwise… Well, otherwise she would probably be dead. And maybe now they’ve figured out that she doesn’t know anything and is not loyal to me. That could mean she won’t be a target at all anymore.”

Dan paused to accept the sandwich that Ron was handing to him. “Of course, this is all speculation. We don’t really know what is going on, or who is behind any of it. If whoever was harassing Karena was not the same party who is after me, then that’s a very different situation, although there again the police presence would be relevant.”

Ron took a bite of his own sandwich. “Too many variables,” he said around his mouthful. “Too much missing information.”

“Pretty much,” Dan agreed. “Anyway, for now I think that sending her back home and getting Donna out of our hair was the best option. I just hope they don’t mess with Jeff by telling the police anything about his involvement. I hope that for Jeff’s sake, and for theirs. And yours and mine, I suppose.”

The men ate the rest of their sandwiches in silence and followed them with some fresh fruit. For “dessert” they ate more beef jerky and some string cheese sticks. Dan unpacked sleeping bags and some self-inflating pads to place under them, and he showed Ron how to set up a curtain behind the front seats to block the view from the front windows into the back part of the van. Before settling down for the night they drove to a convenience store to use their restroom and buy some more food. Once they were done shopping they returned to the same area where they were parked before. They agreed that the odds were low that they would be questioned about their presence there, so they set up for the night.

“Tomorrow we’ll head north,” Dan said as they tried to get comfortable in their sleeping bags. “I’ll talk to my pilot friend and see what we can do. It will be up to you whether you continue on with me or stay in this area. It would probably be easier for you to stay with me, and there should be room in the plane if he still has the same one that I saw last time, but you’re free to choose.”

“Yeah,” Ron said quietly, “I’ll think about it.” Silence settled on the van again, and before long the soft sounds of light sleep could be heard.