Chapter 12

After eating some cold food, we began the task of preparing for a night of reconnaissance. Bones ensured that we each had TCAPS, Tactical Communication and Protective System, before testing them and Santos doled out vests and weapons.

"Shit, we starting a war or something?"

Came from Mac as he looked at the TCAPS he was holding in his hand.

"Earbuds, a microphone, and sensors. The idea is that it allows you to hear us talking while deadening any really loud noises. The acoustic sensor enables you to detect sounds that aren't perceptible to the human ear"

These were state of the art and were already being rolled out to soldiers in battle zones. A lot had probably changed since Mac had retired and it would be a steep learning curve for him. For once he would be the one having to learn from us. I led my team, Mac and Bones out of our camp and having memorized our route began the slow and silent walk. Mac hadn't lost his touch and where I'd been worried that he may have been noisy as we trekked through the undergrowth, he was surprisingly quiet and agile. We made quick work of the two mile trek without coming across anyone else. A bonus as far as I was concerned.

"Eyes on the target. Everything quiet"

Came to me from Santos. Maybe I spoke too soon because not a moment later I held up my hand and dropped to the ground at a sound coming from in front of me. Mac already had his infrared goggles to his eyes while Bones had dropped slightly behind us. That was when the sounds became more defined and as I used my goggles I watched as two people walked across our path about fifty yards ahead of us. They were intent on where they were going which had me wondering where that was. Maybe that was something we needed to find out about. Once they were well away, I motioned to the two men behind me and continued advancing. After ten minutes we had reached our destination and I was seeing the destruction from an intense fire in front of me. Trees, once green and healthy were now charred remains with the ground covered in the remnants from an explosion.

"Alpha team in position"

I relayed to Santos so that he would be aware that we'd arrived and see us as friendlies.

"One hell of an explosion"

Came from Mac as he pushed past me and with a flashlight began to scrutinize the debris scattered around on the ground. He was crouched down as though concentrating on something and then stood up and turned to me.

"This was one hell of an explosion"

Was muttered from him again as he walked over to what looked like the focal point of the fire. I followed him toward where the burnt remnants of a structure remained. To be honest it was as large as two garages would have been, meaning that if this was a site of meth production then it was larger than usual.

"Ram, any indication of the origin of the explosion or fire?"

Even as Ram was walking around and looking at the ground, I was looking beyond the charred structure into the trees. Something seemed off to me with what I was seeing so I started to walk into the tree line. The fire damage here wasn't as extensive, and as I crouched down the earth was well trodden, and branches broken. As though someone had crouched down here.

"Usually, careless handling and overheating of the highly volatile chemicals and waste causes an explosion. If the solvents and other materials were handled badly then they can burst into flames or explode. This is weird though"

I returned to the structure to understand why Ram had said that and crouched down to see what he was looking at.

"This is the top of a propane bottle and to me it looks as though the valve is shut. Then there's the smell"

To be honest I was only smelling the cloying taint of smoke.

"There isn't any. I'd expect to be smelling something akin to ammonia or acetone. Plus, the debris that we're seeing, hell, the remnants of this pan look clean and there's no evidence of any large plastic bottles"

I stood up sweeping the beam from my flashlight and looked around, realizing that Ram was right. There was no evidence remaining of the equipment that would have been used. I walked out from the where the building had been, paying more attention to the ground, and then crouched down, moving my hand through the layer of ash that had settled. I was aware of Santos crouched down next to me running his fingers through the ash and earth.

"I think this was where they were storing their final product"

Yeah, Santos was right because mixed with the ash I was definitely seeing a trace amount of white powder. Which meant that this fire and explosion had nothing to do with cooking meth, it was to get rid of the final product.

"Let's call it. There's nothing else here to find"

I saw as the men nodded to me and then watched as Santos, Ram and Brett disappeared into the woods. We'd seen enough and I was sure that this place wouldn't have anyone coming back.

I refused to sleep in the truck. The seats were too short, the back had less room and Mac snored, loudly, so I found a soft patch of ground between the trees. Once any stones had been cleared away it wasn't too bad, and I'd slept in worse conditions. I hadn't liked what we'd found today because it didn't feel right. I could see where Mac was coming from with his idea that someone wanted these people to stop their production. What I couldn't fathom out was how these people could be a threat. Surely the amount of meth that they made couldn't compare to what was coming into the States from Mexico so couldn't be any competition. So why destroy the merchandize? Maybe the next site would give us some more information.

I slept well enough out in the open. The temperature was comfortable, and the insects didn't seem to like me. Though once again I dreamt of Steph, as though my memory was telling me not to forget about her. No chance of that. I woke up as the sun was beginning to rise noting the movement around the trucks. It was time to get up and join the men and work out the plan for the day. For some reason I was feeling anxious as to what we might find, or not find. I didn't want to be wasting time chasing ghosts.

With that in mind after we'd dealt with mundane tasks, yeah, we needed to dig a pit as a latrine, we were ready to head to the second site. As we had done the night before we went as two teams of three but now, we needed to be far more cautious of being seen by anyone. There was more likelihood of that in the daylight from hikers or from people who lived around here. The route that Santos's team was taking was a circular route and involved keeping parallel to a track that looked to be used by vehicles. By doing that they'd be aware of any vehicles in the vicinity and approach the site from a different direction. We wouldn't be using a track to walk on just in case anyone else was using it. Ours was the more direct route through the woods and after two hours of walking we were close to our destination. This was the time to detour through the woods and come up behind the area.

"Bones, you stay here"

He would act as a look out for our retreat and as the medic and comms man he needed to be kept out of the fray. I was down on my stomach as I crawled forward to get a better view totally surprised with what I was seeing. Four men were deep in conversation, or should I say the two men with foreign accents were the ones who were doing the talking. The two foreigners were darker skinned with black hair and were obviously carrying guns if the bulges in their leather jackets was anything to go by. The other two men were dressed in jeans and T-shirts with old boots. Definitely white with lank hair dropping down over their eyes so probably local. Their outward stance gave me the impression that they were afraid of the foreigners. I needed to be closer to hear what they were saying but the space ahead of me was too open to get any closer without being seen. Damn, why had we not thought to bring a parabolic mic? As the conversation became more heated, I was catching certain words.

"Stupid"

"Not acceptable"

"I warned you"

But it was a name that had me frowning and thinking.

"José Diego"

I wasn't sure if I should know that name, but it seemed apparent that his name was enough to have the other two men taking a step back and bowing their heads. They were being threatened and seeing a gun being pulled had the two locals suddenly shaking their heads and stuttering out words. Then as quickly as the situation had escalated the two foreigners were turning and walking away leaving the two locals stood watching their departure. Twenty minutes later the place was deserted.

"Did anyone catch any of their conversation?"

I asked into the mic hoping that the other team had been in a better position to have heard something.

"Negative we were too far back to even see anything and had to move when two guys appeared. They were talking in Spanish. That they needed to report back to the boss and see what he wanted them to do next"

"Are we all clear?"

"Affirmative. The two men drove off in a black truck"

On hearing that I slowly got to my feet and started to walk out to where the men had been stood talking. It was a similar scene to before, everything burnt to a cinder. Ram was soon stood with me, looking around when he began to give me his opinion.

"Hotter fire and the blast zone is smaller. There's nothing left of a building but the debris that's scattered from the explosion"

I was seeing the same thing. This time I was spying fragments of plastic that had been thrown out from the blast which to me implied that maybe this was where they were making the meth.

Which meant that there was no product and no way of making any more. Santos soon joined us, so I assumed that Bret was watching our backs from the other side of the clearing.

"We had to skirt around a couple of buildings a few miles back. It looks to be where a family might live. Women and kids going about their daily routines. Thing is they were awfully quiet, and would you believe there was this old woman sat on a rocker on the porch with a shotgun across her knees?"

Nothing surprised me about this place. The area was obviously off the beaten track so no tourists would suddenly turn up. That was probably how they spent their time.

"How far is that last place?"

I asked Mac, who was now stood beside me. I was deliberating whether we needed to visit it or if we would find the same carnage as we had before. Our man would be nowhere near here. He'd done his job and would have made a hasty retreat. Maybe those men were here to make sure that everything had been destroyed and were probably warning the locals what would happen if they meddled in their business.

"Four hours. There are roads and more cabins that we'd have to avoid"

Looking at Santos I knew that he was thinking the same as me. We needed to get back to the trucks and re-evaluate what we would do next. I needed to catch up with Trenton and see if Ajax and Flynn had come up with anything and I wanted to know if Tank had heard anything about Steph or Morelli.

"Let's head back to the trucks. Our man will be long gone by now"

That was assuming that he was responsible for these explosions, but in my own mind I knew that he had. It seemed to take us less time to track through the woods back to the trucks. Everyone was silent, maybe thinking through what we'd come across. As the men began to pack away everything, I walked a distance away and pulled out my phone, powering it up. I had one new message immediately light up the screen so read through it. Tank, whose only words were to call him. So, he was the first person that I would be talking to.

"Glad you got back to me so quickly. Thought you'd like to know that Morelli's nephew turned up this afternoon. On his own. I spoke to Eddie who told me the kid is hiding something. Said that he'd gone up to New York with a friend. Eddie doesn't believe his bullshit that he spent time up there, or beach hopping down the coast, but as I said the kid's closed up"

"Steph?"

I asked hoping that now the kid was back then she would be as well.

"No sign of her, or Morelli for that matter"

Had that kid led Steph on a wild goose chase to stop anyone from finding him? So where the hell was Steph? Surely when she realized that the kid wasn't where he should have been then she would have come home, wouldn't she?

"Any luck finding that man?"

His question took me by surprise because I was still thinking of Steph. Shaking my head, I focused into what he was asking me.

"He was here. Looks like he did some damage, but he's gone. I'm gonna call Ajax and find out what they've got for me"

"Okay, stay in touch"

As the phone went dead, I realized that there were so many questions that I hadn't asked Tank. Had he checked at Steph's apartment or at the bonds office? Had her car moved? Then as I thought about it, I knew Tank would have followed up on her and the fact that he hadn't said that, told me that he didn't want me worrying. Was I worried? Yes, I was, but I was also a little annoyed. Annoyed that she hadn't come back home and was probably somewhere with Morelli.

I paced for a few minutes to calm myself down before making a call through to Ajax.

"Report"

Was the word that I used, not wanting to get involved in the pleasantries of a conversation. I assumed that Ajax would recognize my voice or at least my number.

"Nothing. We haven't picked up the truck again"

Damn it. This was quickly becoming a clusterfuck. We seemed to be always several steps behind the man. He was good, I'd give him credit for that, but I was better.

"I think that he's left the area. Keep an eye on flights from any of the local airports"

Though to be honest I wasn't that sure that doing that would be so easy to do. God knew how many aliases he had with him, and I was sure that he'd have a few as backups. By the time I returned to the trucks the men had packed everything away and the area looked as though no one had been here.

"Any point in trying to talk to the locals around here?"

Even though I knew that our man wouldn't have been stupid enough to be seen I needed to ask.

"They won't talk to strangers, not after what's happened. You're more likely to get your arse filled with buck shot"

I nodded to Mac because I knew that he was right. It was time for us to leave and regroup then decide what to do next. If our man had completed his job, it was more than likely that he'd be leaving the country. A look at the time showed that we had a couple of hours before the sun set.

"Anywhere to stay in Ozark?"

No doubt we all needed a shower, decent food and sleep.

"You drive, I'll sort something out"

I fell into my zone as I drove, listening only as Mac gave me directions. It seemed to take an age before we were leaving the endless view of trees and hit a substantial road that allowed me to increase my speed.

"I've booked rooms at Super Eight, other side of Ozark on route 44"

We weren't that lucky this time with acquiring as many rooms, so I agreed to bunk with Santos while Bret, Ram and Bones shared. Mac of course made sure that he had his own room.

"How about we meet for something to eat in an hour?"

Were Mac's parting words as he disappeared into his room. Once in the room I was impressed with its size and that it had two single beds. I may have slept side by side with Santos before, but I was glad I'd avoided that tonight. I waited as Santos dived into the bathroom, obviously keen to get a shower, so sat on the couch that took up some of the floor space. I checked my phone for any missed calls and then for emails ignoring any that were work related. That done the next few minutes were spent finding clean clothes.

I smiled as I pulled out the last clean pair of jeans and a dark blue shirt. Steph would be so surprised if she could see me now dressed in clothes other than the black Rangeman uniform. That had a cacophony of thoughts flit through my thoughts. Some were of Steph which had that concern flashing through me. I was worried about her and yet I had the need to work out why. Yes, she was a good friend, probably a close friend. I missed not knowing what she was doing because yes, other than when I'd been away on a mission, I'd always known where she was and usually what she was up to. I missed seeing her, listening to her and okay, I missed being close enough to her to touch her.

Did that make me a sick fuck for even thinking that? Then there was the whole thing that she'd said on her voicemail. Did she intend for me to be the one to listen to it? But why had she said that she couldn't contact Connie, Tank or Rangeman? What was it that she thought that she knew that would have her saying that? My concern became whether or not we had someone at Rangeman that she didn't trust. I had no idea who that could be. Hell, Tank had taken on new employees and regularly used contract workers who to be honest I didn't really know.

"Everything okay?"

Brought me back to the present as I looked over to see Santos dressed in clean clothes. I did know for a fact that I trusted him.

"Just thinking about what Steph said on that message and what it means. Turns out that Morelli's nephew turned up home this afternoon and is saying that he went up to New York before travelling down the coast back home"

"Yeah right. So why the hell was Steph calling from Ohio?"

I wasn't going to answer that because I had no ideas for what she had been up to. I quickly grabbed my clean clothes and toiletries before going into the bathroom, because that was a conversation that I wasn't prepared to have with Santos. I felt more in control when I came out. I'd shaved off the growth from the last few days and was actually feeling hungry.

The menu was low on options but still provided an option that I could live with, fish along with some sort of salad, but the others all indulged in the burger with all the trimmings. As we sat over a coffee, I knew that the talk would turn to what we would do next.

"So you headed for home now?"

I wasn't sure what else to do and in some ways I was sorry to be seeing the last of Mac. He'd soon become one of the team, fitting in well with what we'd been doing and even providing us with help to find leads that we could have missed if it wasn't for him.

"Yeah. The trails gone cold, so I'll have to see if he pops up somewhere else. What about you Mac?"

"Me? Return the trucks and maybe catch up with some folk that I know. I aint got any clients at the moment and to be honest trailing after some husband because his wife thinks that he's having an affair don't sound appealing to me at the moment"

"If you ever want a change and a new location there's always work at Rangeman"

In fact, if Mac wasn't busy with his own work, then I might have an idea of what he could do. His response was to shrug his shoulders, so it wasn't a refusal. After paying for the meal, we made our way down the block toward our rooms. As my three men turned toward their room, I reminded them that we were leaving at 0800hrs in the morning then continued walking with Mac and Santos. As Santos turned toward our room I was turning to Mac, trying to choose my words carefully and not offend him.

"Mac. It's been good working with you. You have an edge that a lot of the younger men just haven't got. If you're interested, I was serious about working for Rangeman. These kind of jobs are becoming a more regular part of what we do"

He raised his eyebrows at me and I could swear that he looked embarrassed with what I'd said.

"Let me think about it. I'll let you know"

I wasn't sure if that was a polite way of declining my offer or not but as the saying went, the ball was in his court. Santos was sat on his bed when I entered the room, his elbows on his knees looking serious. I went and sat opposite him on my bed and waited him out because I was sure that he had something that he wanted to say.

"You know, Mac would be an ideal person to snoop around and try to figure out what the hell Steph was implying"

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow at him, indicating that he needed to give me some idea of what he was thinking Mac could do.

"If he used my house to stay at then he'd have access to our systems for searches and he could observe what the men were up to. Hell, he could even offer his services to Vinnie. I'm sure he'd be competent at bringing in the low level skips"

"What about Lula? She's a liability"

In more ways than one. She may have accompanied Steph as a partner but too many times she'd left Steph stranded and her working hours were inconsistent.

"I know, but maybe we need to get a handle on her. Steph didn't mention Lula and normally they're tight. Maybe she couldn't call Connie because then Lula might want to know what she was up to"

It was a fair statement to make, Mac wouldn't be known by anyone so he'd find it easier to ask around. As an outsider I trusted Mac and he certainly had a way of dealing with people.

"I offered him work but he was noncommittal"

Having said that, I was ready to get some sleep so not expecting any more conversation from Santos I removed my weapons and laid out on the bed.

I was up at 0500hrs determined to get back into some routine for exercising. The roads around the motel were quiet so I spent my time jogging the sidewalk in the surrounding area. I felt much better when I got back to the motel and after showering and changing made my way to the dining area to see what delights were offered for breakfast. I joined the other men with my granola and plain yoghurt and listened into their conversation.

"I suppose disappointed"

Came from Brett, though I was curious as to what he was talking about.

"That's how it is sometimes. You think that you're close and then suddenly realize that you weren't close enough. He'll make a mistake, they always do"

Listening to the reply from Santos I knew exactly what he was talking about and had to admit that he was right. Many times, when we'd been chasing a high level skip, we'd go through times when we thought that he'd given us the slip. Bones was nodding his head at what Santos was saying, but then again, he'd been with me on some of those chases so knew the score. No more was said about our excursion to Missouri, instead Santos lightened the mood by talking about the women who he would calling when we got back to Trenton. At least when we left the motel the mood of the men seemed brighter though I couldn't say the same for myself. I knew that we'd done what we could, followed on leads that were there so why the hell did I this aching feeling in my gut, as though I'd missed something important.