"You want me to ride with you to talk with the police?" Mary was walking down the wide corridor with Ron.
"Yeah. I'd appreciate that. You can back me up on the fact that my house was broken into and that I was threatened over this." Ron held up the disk before he stuffed it back into his shirt pocket.
"I guess it's the least a pal can do, huh?" She didn't wait for a reply to her sarcasm. "What about that Kwitney chick? Think she made a copy of the photos?" She hitched a thumb back toward the opposite end of the corridor, where they had left Levin and Kate.
"I didn't see her do it. Did you?"
"Nah. But like I said, it's my cousin who's up on all that computer stuff. Not me. I hardly know how to turn one on, much less use it. My thang is trapping."
"I know what you mean. But I can't see where it would do them any good. If what they were saying is true, they must have plenty of photographic and video evidence of these big birds."
"Hate to meet up with one."
"I'd love to see one. Hope I get the chance. This is going to change everything as far as Salutations and the old bombing range is concerned." They were almost to the entrance foyer of the main building. Sunlight streamed through the big, tinted windows, and through the skylights above.
"I wonder how that reporter got that close to one and lived through it? The one in those pictures looked as if it was bearing down on the photographer."
"I'm sure I don't know. And it was only a temporary reprieve, as things turned out."
"Yeah. Too bad. He didn't seem like a bad sort the times I talked to him."
"He was just a guy making a living, is all. Same as us." They were at the foyer, and could see the truck parked outside, its hood up.
"What the hell," Mary said, pointing at the pickup.
Riggs ran to the door and pushed it open, a great draft of cool air following him out into the muggy day. Almost immediately he could feel moisture and heat clinging to him as he ran toward the truck. He brought himself to a halt with his forearms, leaning into the engine to see what was going on.
Mary was right behind him. "What's going on, Ron?"
But she didn't have to ask. Both of them peered down into the engine, seeing that the distributor cap had been torn free. And something blunt and obviously heavy had been used to thrash about in the general vicinity of the block and radiator. Various liquids oozed and dripped onto the sandy ground beneath the truck.
"Damn," Ron said.
"What'll we do?"
"This is bad. I was wondering where that Kamaguchi guy went. Let's just get the hell out of here while we can."
"You don't have a gun in there, do you?"
"Hell, no. I work for Fish and Wildlife, not ATF. Let's just hoof it while we can. I don't want to go back in there."
They went past the cab of the truck and looked inside, seeing that it had been plundered, the glove compartment open, papers strewn about the seat and onto the floorboard. "Let's go man," Mary was saying.
"You'll go nowhere but back inside." It was Kamaguchi. He was standing in the narrow roadway just inside the overhanging shade of a pair of slash pines that flanked the trailhead.
"Try to stop us," Mary said.
The first shot showered a spray of sand over her boots, and the second bored a neat hole in the taillight of the truck just to the left of her knee. "You're not going anywhere but back inside, I told you. Now," he stepped out of the shadows and they could see the.22 semi-automatic he was carrying rather easily, holding it with some familiarity, "you two get your asses back in the building before I blow holes in your heads. I'll do it, too."
"Crap. I had a bad feeling as soon as I saw he wasn't in there with us, with Kate and Levin," Mary said.
"You're breaking all kinds of laws, Mister. I work for a federal agency, and you can't threaten me with a firearm without screwing yourself big time. You understand what I'm saying? Know what it's like in a Federal prison? Think about it, Kamaguchi."
"It's Kahm-ah-GOOCH," the man with the gun screamed. "You idiots don't even know how to pronounce my name. Damn, that pisses me off." He fired another round at their feet, spraying them with sand again.
"We're going, we're going," Ron told him as they both turned and marched back to the building. As they did, they could see Levin and Billy Last-Name-Unknown standing in the doorway the two had so recently exited. Billy, too, was holding a firearm, a.357 Ron and Mary immediately recognized. Kate was nowhere to be seen.
As they got in close to Levin and the Seminole, Mary looked them both in the eyes and spat at them. "What do you guys think you're going to do with us? Kill us and all hell breaks loose. That, I can guarantee you."
"We're not going to shoot you unless you try to get away," Levin told them. "These birds are not going to be allowed to go extinct just because two idiots didn't know what they were doing. No way. None of that crap for me."
"You idiots," Ron exploded. "Don't you know we're not the only ones who know, now? Someone else obviously found out and was willing to kill Tim Dodd over it." Suddenly, the breath froze in Ron's lungs. He stared at Levin who looked back at him with a determined hardness to his gaze.
"You guys killed Dodd?" Mary asked what Ron was thinking.
"No. We didn't. But that doesn't mean we aren't willing to do what it takes to protect our interests." He pointed toward the door and indicated with a shrug that they should go through. Behind them, they could hear Kamaguchi coming close, but not close enough to grab.
"Then why are you doing something so stupid?" The two prisoners went through, back into the building. They were quickly flanked by Billy and Kamaguchi who both stayed wisely out of arm's reach to prevent a quick grab by either Ron or Mary, but close enough in to get a clear shot if the unexpected should occur.
"You're going to be our guests. Until Mr. Holcomb gets back," Levin told them.
"Does he know about this? Does he know what you're doing? This on his orders?" Ron glared back at Levin who stood just behind Billy.
"No. We haven't gotten in touch with him, yet. He hasn't responded to our calls. He hasn't called in, so we suppose his radio is still down."
"Maybe one of those birds got him," Mary said.
"No. They don't hunt men," he said with conviction. "He sometimes doesn't communicate when he's out in the field. That's all. At times, he turns off his radio and leaves it that way until he's ready to talk. He's had more luck in observing the flock than the rest of us combined, so we can't complain about it." They were halfway down the corridor, the room in which they had all so recently conversed just down the way.
Ron looked around. "Where's Kate?"
"She's around," Levin told him.
"Did she tell you idiots to do this? Huh?" Mary twisted and looked back at the two gunmen, and at Levin. Although she was shorter than any of them, Ron felt that his lady friend was more than their equal. If not for the guns. And Kamaguchi certainly knew how to use a gun. It wasn't worth the chance, and Ron knew that Mary wasn't stupid enough to try.
"Let's just say…she's not in a position to complain," Levin said. "Now open that door and go through."
Riggs reached out and turned the cool brass doorknob. The door clicked open and quickly Levin was at the door, pulling it out of Ron's grasp and swinging it wide to admit him. The room was small: ten feet square. Obviously some type of storage chamber, but cleared of all contents. In the center of the floor was Kate, laid out, her long hair fanned out on the tile, a bright purple knot on her forehead. But Ron could see that she was breathing, could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest, one hand covering her right breast, her legs bent neatly at the knees, almost as if posing.
"You bastards," Ron said as, for the second time that day, and in precisely the same spot, he took a blow from a blunt instrument to the back of his head. This time, the lights went out, and the last thing he saw before he met the floor was Mary looking down at him as the door was slammed shut.