Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies (21 page)

“Hello?”

“Hi. Is this the Capitol Reef front desk?”

There was a pause on the line, and Earl could hear the receiver being covered with a palm, and faint murmuring going on in the background.

“Hello?” Earl asked.

“Sorry. Yes, this is the front desk at Capitol Reef Natural Park. Can I help you?”

“Yes, I’d like to book a few days there. Do you have spaces for a 40 foot motorhome?”

“I’m sorry. The park is closed due to all of the issues in the area.”

“No, really?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“Is there anywhere else around there that I could park my rig overnight? I’ve come a long way. I’m too tired to drive any further.”

Earl heard the woman cover the receiver again.

“Hello, are you still there?” Earl asked, grinning at Frank.

“Yes, there is a place where you can overnight. Got a pencil?”

“Yes,” Earl said. “Shoot.” He pulled out his pen and Frank slid over a small pad of paper.

“What?” she asked.

“Go ahead with the address.”

“Do you know where Route 24 is?”

“Yes,” Earl said.

“This place is a few miles east of the turnoff for Teasdale. Go past 6
^th
Street, and turn south on the dirt road right after it. Follow that back a few miles.”

“Great, thanks very much,” Earl said. “Bye now.” He ended the call.

“Well?”

“That was no American. Spoke very good English though…no accent at all.”

“How do you know she isn’t an American?”

“Capitol Reef
Natural
Park. LOL. Anybody here knows its National park.”

Frank laughed.

“Oh,” Earl continued, “and when I said ‘shoot’ for the address, she didn’t know what I meant.”

“You’re thinking that the location they sent you will be a trap?”

“Probably,” Earl said. He handed Frank the slip of paper. Frank input the info into a map web page.

“This place is in the middle of nowhere. Look at the terrain.”

“Wish we could get ahold of General Hogan,” Earl said. “I’d love to call in a drone strike.”

“Yeah, you and me both.” He noted the latitude and longitude on the piece of paper that Earl had given to him.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m going to make a call.” He pulled his cellphone out and dialed. It rang a few times.

“Rami here.”

“Rami, it’s Frank.”

“Frank! How are you? I’ve been so worried.”

“We’re surviving. How are you doing?”

“Much better, now that they lifted martial law in Cali.”

“Good, I was hoping that was going to be the case.”

“You coming home soon?”

“No, Rami, too many dangerous places between here and there.”

“I take it you need something.”

“Yeah, I’ve got the coordinates for a location that probably has enemy fighters congregating.”

“Really. Do tell.”

“Still have contacts in the agency? Sam Watson, for instance?”

“Sure do. Want me to call him with this info?”

“Yes, I think I’d like to ruin these guy’s whole day,” Frank said. “I’m sure Sam would relish that as well.”

“Alright, what are the coordinates?”

Frank read them to Rami.

“Alright, I’ll get this to him. Can I tell them who it came from?”

“Yes, go ahead. I trust Sam.”

“Okay, Frank. Anything else I can do?”

“Yeah, can you tell me the codes for the birds we have over Utah and Colorado?”

“Sure, got a pencil?”

“Yeah,” Frank said, motioning to Earl. He handed Frank the pen and paper.

“We have two. One is infrared, the other high res camera. The Infrared one is IR332547. The other one is HR55548. You know the passwords. I made sure your accounts stayed open.”

“Thanks, Rami. You don’t know how important this is.”

“No problem, old friend. Take care of yourself. I want to see you again someday.”

“Me too. Talk to you later.” Frank stuck his phone back in his pocket and grinned at Earl.

“Wow, I had no idea you could do stuff like this,” Earl said.

“Let’s get on the gate camera again, real time,” Frank said. He went to the real time page and clicked on the camera. “Watch for cars driving out of the gate while I go grab my iPad from Jane’s purse over there.”

“Will do,” he said.

Frank trotted over to the credenza over by the kitchen door, and pulled the iPad out of Jane’s purse, then trotted back over.

“Anything?” Frank asked as he got back over there and pushed the power button on the iPad.

“Not yet….oh, crap, look!” he said. “The two pickups and an SUV just drove out the gate. There were about four guys in the back of each pickup.”

“Rednecks or Pajama boys?”

“Looks like rednecks to me,” Earl said.

“Yes!” Frank said. He got on the iPad and started up the browser.

“What’re you going to do with that?” Earl asked.

“First I’m going to access the high res camera satellite and zoom in on the coordinates, to see if Sam blasts those guys.”

“Who’s Sam again?”

“Agency. Head of the drone operations over the USA.”

“Oh. You know this guy from work?”

“Yeah, and from college,” Frank said. “There, I’m in.”

“What are you going to do after that?”

“I’m going to search Capitol Reef
‘Natural’
Park,” Frank said, snickering.

“Oh,” Earl said. “Good idea, but if they’re smart, they’ll be hard to see. Lots of caves and deep rock formations there. Easy place to hide.”

“There’s the ambush area,” Frank said, showing the iPad screen to Earl.

“Wow, that resolution is insane,” Earl said. “Wonder how fast they’ll get there?”

“Judging by the distance on the map display, I’m thinking at least ten minutes.”

Rosie hobbled over. “You two want coffee?”

“Oh, that would be great, Rosie, but you can’t carry that, can you?” asked Earl.

“No need to carry, cart in kitchen. I roll over.”

“Excellent. Thanks,” he replied.

“Yeah, thanks, Rosie,” Frank added. “You’re a real sweetheart.”

She nodded and headed back to the kitchen.

Charlie walked into the clubhouse. He saw Earl and Frank in the corner and walked over.

“What are you guys up to?” he asked. “No good?”

“We set a trap for some of the cretins by Hilda’s park,” Frank said, grinning. “I just got coordinates for these guys to an old friend I have in the agency. Hopefully we’ll see a drone strike sometime in the next half hour.”

“Wow. You’ll have to tell me how you pulled this off, but don’t spend time talking to me now.”

“What are you up to?” Earl asked.

“Just came down to get some coffee and water for the Sheriff and Deputy and I,” Charlie said. “Then it’s back to the roof.”

“Frank, there goes two more vehicles, through the gates at Capitol Reef,” Earl said. “SUVs.”

“They can’t be sending everybody over there,” Frank said. “They aren’t that stupid.”

“I don’t know, they’re pretty dumb,” Charlie said.

“Look, there they are, pulling down that road!” Frank said, holding out the iPad.

“They stopped, right there in those trees,” Earl said. “Wow, you can even see the guys jumping out of the pickup trucks! That’s some detail. There are four guys leaving the SUV, too.” Earl looked over at Frank and Charlie, grinning.

“Uh oh,” Frank said. “Look, they’re getting ready to high-tail it!” The men were scrambling to get back into their vehicles.

Suddenly there was a bright flash on the screen, and the vehicles all disappeared in smoke and flame.

“Bull’s-eye!” Charlie shouted.

Frank was working his fingers on the iPad, trying to move eastward on along the road.

“What are you looking for?” Earl asked.

“Those other two SUVs,” he said. “Look, there they are. They’re turning off into that town there. Shit.”

“That must be Torrey,” Earl said. “Nice little town.”

“What’s the matter, Frank?” Charlie asked.

“Somebody tipped these guys off. Probably somebody in the agency.”

“Keep that satellite image on those SUVs!
” Charlie said, as the three men huddled around the PC. Frank was watching the feed on his iPad, moving it along with his fingers.

“Shit, they’re pulling into that motel…look,” Frank said. The tops of the two SUVs could be seen parking towards the far side of the building, at a motel on the outskirts of Torrey. All of a sudden Frank’s phone started to ring. He looked at it. Washington DC area code. He handed the iPad to Charlie.

Jeb walked in, taking his shoes off and putting them just outside the door, on the veranda. He walked over to Charlie, Earl, and Frank. “What’s going on?”

“Looks like the cretins are holed up around Capitol Reef,” Charlie said. “We just tricked them into trying to ambush somebody. Feds got some of them with a drone, so we’re following the survivors using a satellite feed. Friggin amazing.”

“Keep the iPad on these guys while I take this call,” Frank said, as he answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Frank?”

“Who’s this?”

“What do you mean, who’s this. It’s Sam. Don’t you recognize my voice?”

“What happened on the night before Thanksgiving, in 1977?”

“Oh, I get it. We picked up the dean’s MG and turned it sideways in the parking stall. He got boxed in and couldn’t go home for a few hours.” He cracked up. “Surprised they didn’t expel both of us.”

“Bingo,” Frank said, laughing. “So good to hear from you, Sam.”

“Why didn’t you contact me before?”

“Didn’t think I’d be able to,” Frank said. “You know there’s a mole between you and whoever flew that drone, right?”

“Why do you say that?”

“We were watching. Right before the drone strikes hit, the targets figured it out, and were trying to get back into their cars to take off.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“It gets worse. Two SUVs left Capitol Reef a few minutes after the targeted folks did, and they didn’t get very far down the road before we realized that they got tipped off and were high-tailing it. We’re watching them now, via the satellite. They’re in a little town called Torrey, attempting to check into a motel off of Hwy 24.”

“Damn it. Can’t trust anybody these days. How’d you get access to the bird?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Okay. How long can you watch them?”

“As long as the battery on my iPad lasts…or until dark.”

“See if you can get the address, and text it to me on this number.”

“This a company line?”

“No, it’s my private cell.”

“You might be under surveillance.”

“Think so, huh? You might be right. I can’t give you the secure system password, at least not over this line. Hey, send the info to Rami. I’ll let him know where to put it so that only I see it.”

“Good.”

“Talk to you later, and take care of yourself, Frank.”

There was a click. Frank looked over at Charlie.

“Charlie, they still there?”

“Yeah, Frank. Looks like they forced their way in. I just saw three guys rush to the office, and they had AKs, from the look of it.

“Okay, keep watching them while I look the motel up on the web. I need to get the address.”

“Who was that?”

“Agency…that old friend of mine. I told him they have a mole. I’m going to get this info to him via the controlled line from my work.”

Frank sat at the PC and found a map of the town. “There’s the motel,” he said, noting the address on a slip of paper. He dialed his cellphone.

“Rami?”

“Hi, Frank. Did it work?”

“Yes and no. The drone took out the first group of people who got to the ambush site, but the following group got tipped off and split. I just talked to Sam.”

“I gave him your cell number, hope you don’t mind.”

“No problem, but we can’t trust that line. I’ve got an address to read off to you. He asked that you put it in the secured repository for him. He’s going to call you with the info.”

“Gotcha, go ahead.”

Frank read off the address.

“Got it, Rami? Read it back to me.” He did.

“That’s right, Rami. I’m going to get off the line now. Thanks so much.”

“No problem Frank. Talk to you later.”

Frank set down his phone. “Anything happen?” he asked Charlie.

“Nope. They might be having trouble. I don’t see any of them coming out of the office yet.”

“How come we never heard about your agency connection before?” Jeb asked.

“I thought about it a couple of times, but didn’t have a way to get to him, and I didn’t know that Rami had cultivated a relationship with him. That makes things easier, because the company has much safer conduits for this sort of thing.”

“It’s dangerous any time we have to reach out to an official like that, given the current situation with our government,” Charlie said. “This technology is helpful, but it’s going to keep me up at night knowing that some bad folks who are capable enough to worm their way into the agency might know about us.”

“Yeah, Charlie, you got that right,” Frank said. “I don’t have a problem working with Rami. I trust him completely. I trust Sam, too, but I don’t trust the organization he’s buried in.”

“Whoa, look!” Charlie shouted, laughing with glee.

The three men on the screen were running from the motel office to their SUVs. Somebody followed them out with a gun and fired, sending one of them to the ground. The other two men opened fire, killing the guy, but then somebody else started shooting at them from across the street, killing both of them. Both SUVs took off in a hurry, getting back to Hwy 24 and going east.

“Keep on them, Charlie!” Frank shouted.

Charlie used his finger to move the picture, keeping the two SUVs in view.

“They’re on their way back to Capitol Reef, ten to one,” Earl said. “If they get back in there very far, they’ll be hard to smoke out…and you know the Feds aren’t going to start blowing up anything in there.”

“They shouldn’t,” Jeb said. “It’s beautiful in there. Not worth wasting for this stupid war.”

“I’ll get on the camera system at the ‘Natural’ park again,” Frank said. He opened a new browser window on the PC and accessed the cameras for Capitol Reef. He opened up several windows…one for the Front gate, one for the main building area, and one for the entrance to the camping area.