“What do we do when we find them?” Veronica wiped sweat from her brow, her bangs plastered to her skin.
“At this point, they’re just like any other target. We neutralize them.” I checked the GPS receiver marking our path through the swampy area. We were following the hint of a trail that led from the campsite. The trees grew shorter as the ground became waterlogged and left a distinct odor of rotting wood with permanently wet earth floating on the breeze. Mud was splattered and caked on our boots and pants the closer we came to the swamp.
“Neutralize?” Veronica stepped past me around a large puddle. My foot sank into the soft earth, covering my entire boot in mud. I kicked my toe against a small tree to disperse most of it. We needed to find out what the attackers were doing with the missing people. I walked past her as she hopped between the puddles.
“Depending on what we find, that’ll determine what we do to whoever is behind this.” I spoke over my shoulder to her.
“You know, you’re quite a bit creepier than you used to be.” I looked over to her to see she had managed to stay relatively clean. “Neutralize.” She shook her head.
“They’re either going to be arrested or incapacitated,” I stated calmly. “Either way, they will be a non-issue.”
“Like I said, creepy.”
“Sunshine doesn’t get it,” Alison called back to us from several meters ahead. “Just give it up.” I dropped my gaze to her as she stopped to examine the tracks.
“What is it?” I stopped next to her, with Veronica less than a pace away. Alison pushed some ferns aside to reveal a jewel. She picked it up to reveal an earring.
“I really don’t like this case.” Alison held out the earring to us.
“How did we go from a high school stalker to kidnappings?” I asked.
“Because we’re special.”
“Why do you assume that it’s a kidnapping?” Veronica plucked a leaf from a nearby sapling, and twirled it. I took the earring from Alison, and looked it over. It was a string of small jewels finished with a larger crystal.
“Because…”
“Sheriff, this is Unit Three. I have an eleven twenty-four off of Terrace.” The radio interrupted us. “Looks like someone was using it as target practice.”
“Collins, can you give us a ten-twenty-eight on that vehicle?” the Sheriff responded.
“No, sir. Plates and VIN are missing,” the deputy reported. “I’m going to open it up and see if there’s anything inside.”
“Ten-Four, Unit Three,” Brooks stated.
“Unit Three, eleven- ninety-six.”
“And I’ve got bingo,” Veronica quipped. “Tell me you understood that.” She leaned on a downed tree. Alison gave me a worrisome look. I stared at the earring one last time before tossing it back to her.
“It means that they found our missing camper’s car and someone has taken the license plates.” I stepped past the girls and walked along a moss covered log. There were only two possibilities that left the victims alive. They were either kidnapped for ransom or for labor. The territorial nature of our attackers made me wary of either possibility. I stepped off the log and spotted some matted reeds.
“But people would come looking for them,” Veronica spoke behind me. I knelt down and looked at the reeds. The stalks were bent at their bases. Whatever passed through was headed roughly north from the campsite.
“Forty people, Sunshine.” Alison stepped up on a moss-covered stump. “That’s forty people that we know of and that were reported.”
“But why?” Veronica rolled the leaf stem between her fingertips. I looked back at the reeds, then to Alison.
“Can I see that map again?” She reached inside her jacket and pulled out the two maps to pass them to me. “That’s the scary thing about people. All it takes is the right belief to get people to kill, torture, even enslave others.” I unfolded the map and compared the two. The campsite and circle lined up fairly well, we weren’t anywhere near the next site or the notes in the swamp. We were moving away from the next site.
“Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty to do what’s right.” Alison took the maps that I offered. I pointed at the bent reeds and traced a line out into the distance so the girls could see our course.
“Do the right thing?” Veronica asked, as I started following the invisible line I had traced. “Didn’t I see something about you working for the Colombo family in your files?” Alison and I glanced at her.
“We can thank Billie for that connection.” I pushed through some branches that showed signs of recent breaks. My foot slipped on a downed tree, making me step into a deep puddle that washed the mud from the boot but left my boot soaked.
“I rather prefer not to thank her for anything,” Alison muttered.
“Here’s a simpler question,” Veronica started. “Just how many people are trying to kill us this week? I thought Rostern was it until the sniper, and we found what’s-his-name in the tunnels. Oh, right and then we were jumped by those bikers. Please tell me you at least know that.” I stepped over moss covered log and hopped over a thin stream while thinking about her words.
“Six, I think,” Alison offered.
“Six?” Veronica asked with a bit more volume. “And just how did you manage to come to that conclusion?” I stepped around a half-dead tree, and looked at the girls as they followed my path.
“Simple, five bikers and one sniper.” Alison sounded smug until she stepped in the muddy stream, and swore at it.
“What about who killed…what’s-his-name?” Veronica stopped on fallen branch to look to me. I thought about who she meant.
“You mean Leighton?”
“Yeah, I mean, no. Well, there’s him too.” She started to hop from rock to rock to avoid the mud. “Who killed Brian? Or what about Leighton? Or who jumped you out here?”
“I think the bikers could be the same group that jumped us.” Alison didn’t sound so sure of herself.
“No, they couldn’t.” Veronica wobbled on a tall rock. “Even if they weren’t detained by the police, they couldn’t make it out here in time to grab the old man and the family, and then attack you guys.” She hugged a tree to keep her balance.
“She has a point,” I offered.
“You’d take her side even if she didn’t.” Alison glowered, and elbowed me so I stepped into the marsh. I sank into the muck up to my ankle. I grabbed a neighboring sapling and pulled myself free. I started to wipe the muck off by means of colony of ferns, and gave Alison a disapproving look.
She smirked, and turned away to climb over fallen tree. I shook my head as she faded into the mists as a shadow. Veronica leaned over me.
“So, do you think there’s still someone from the cult?” she asked. I turned to her, and found her standing on another large rock.
“If the photo we found at Rostern’s place was any indicator, then I would say there are at least three more people.” I sighed, and started to follow the faint trail again. “And, if we’re lucky the bikers and sniper are from them and not something else that we don’t know about yet.”
We followed the path in silence for a few minutes as we carefully picked our way through the underbrush. Alison remained a shadow, quite a distance ahead in the mist. Despite the early morning forecast, the fog only appeared to be getting worse and the chance of rain looked more than a chance now. I ducked under a low branch. The marshy soil appeared to firm up to leave moss and ferns scattered along our trail.
“You still alive back there?” Alison shouted. I spared a glance at Veronica and hastened our pace to catch up.
After we cut through a dense cluster of saplings we found Alison leaning on an old birch. She had slipped her jacket off of her shoulders, and was sipping on a sport bottle. I tilted my head at her, and she gestured for me to take the lead.
“So when can I join that union?” Veronica quipped, as we passed Alison and moved around a cluster of birch saplings. I stopped when I had trouble identifying the path.
When you’re in the field attempting to follow a target, identifying their path is a matter of looking for anything out of place. Broken branches, bent foliage and even distant animal noises can be clues. A bit of green color caught my attention, hidden under a bit of moss.
“What have we here?” I picked at it, only to discover it was a watchband attached to a digital watch. Closer examination revealed a GPS hiking watch that was still active. I tried to navigate the menus to retrieve its course.
“I think we’re on the right path,” Veronica said to get me to look up. She pulled a weather jacket from behind a tree.
“I think,” Alison started, and walked past us. She stomped down a colony of ferns to reveal a hiking backpack. “I should probably stay on point.” I heard something moving beyond her. All of the items in one location raised the possibility of it being bait. I saw the same thought cross her mind. Veronica opened her mouth to say something, when we saw movement on our left. I dropped to a knee, drew my sidearm and trained it on the movement in a single motion.
The shadowed movement continued past us without pause. I spared a glance outside of my sights to see Alison in a similar pose near a tree and Veronica finally pull her revolver free. I still couldn’t make out what was circling us but I suspected it wasn’t our attackers. A gentle breeze stirred the mists, and Alison’s target revealed itself.
“Deer,” Alison called out startling the doe and fawn in my sights. I rose from my position and holstered my weapon. The deer bolted away when they realized we existed.
“Check the pack!” I called to her, and resumed my negotiation with the menus to retrieve anything useful. “And toss me the GPS.”
“Here.” Alison tossed it over. A few minutes of navigating both devices, and I managed to obtain two locations. I pocketed both devices.
“Anything?” Veronica asked, and I led her over to where Alison had ransacked the backpack. Clothes and miscellaneous articles were scattered about the ground surrounding the red nylon pack.
“Definitely from our campers.” She held up the pack and wiggled a pinky-finger through a small bullet hole. “Tag says E. Janis. What about you?” I held out the watch for her to see.
“The coordinates mark the camp and a location about a quarter-mile from here.”
“The direction we’re going?” Alison asked. She dropped the pack, wiping her hands from it as she stood. I took the watch back and tucked it into my jacket.
“Looks like.”
“So, someone shot this kid?” Veronica looked at the pack. “Were they going to or from the campsite? And, where were they going?”
“All important questions.” I gestured to Alison, and she started off down the path again. Veronica continued to prod with questions as we followed the trail, but neither Alison nor I had answers to offer. Someone was attacking anyone who either entered the forest or lived in the surrounding area and it did not appear that they had any qualms about shooting people.
The forest closed in on us even as the fog seemed to thin. We passed into a section of new growth trees with thick underbrush. I checked the watch again and stepped over a rock protruding from the ground. We were almost on top of the coordinates marked as the start point.
“Connor!” Alison called our attention ahead. She pointed at something beyond the dense underbrush. She pushed through the brush as we jogged to catch up. We moved through the foliage to find a white pick-up truck. The doors were open, with more articles spread about. Alison was trying to look in the truck without touching anything.
“Skip it, check for registration.” I double checked the coordinates on the watch before I pulled the radio from my belt. “Check the surrounding area as well.” I nodded at Veronica. She sighed at me and headed to her task. I switched the radio to a private channel.
“Jason, come back.” I waited on his response.
“What is it?”
“We found a vehicle just up the trail from the camp.”
“And why are you not calling it into Brooks?” Jason asked. Veronica picked over a jacket near the tree-line, while Alison sorted papers from the glove box. I used the toe of my boot to flip over a soggy magazine.
“Suspicious vehicle, clear signs of aggravated assault, and miles from back up. What do you think?” I pulled out the GPS and tried to visualize where the Boggs’ notes would be marked on the digital map.
“Great, so what do you propose?”
“Can you try to meet up with a patrol unit to check directly?”
“After the next check-in, we’ll see.” Jason sounded reluctant. “Coordinates of the eleven-twenty-four?” I rattled off the numbers on the GPS and Alison leaned out of the cab of the truck to get my attention. I tucked away the electronics on my way over to her.
“What have you got?” I leaned on the door.
“Half a ripped envelope addressed to a Collins, no first name.” She held up the ripped envelope. “They can’t be abducting that many people, can they?”
“I really don’t know.” I shook my head. “We doubted the cult before. I’m not making any assumptions about this.”
“But how are they moving so many, dead or otherwise?”
“I think I know.” Veronica interjected from our left. I let out a sigh and started toward her. I heard Alison hop out of the truck and follow behind me. We stopped where Veronica was kneeling at the tree-line. “Am I right?” She was kneeling at the start of two narrow muddy tire tracks and looked up at me. I took a breath.
“Allons-y.”