Code 61 - Donald Harstad [154]
“What's he doing?” I whispered to Sally.
“Just squatting there,” she said.
I picked up my own walkie-talkie, and called Borman, sotto voce.
“We have a man on the grounds,” I said, “but I believe I recognize him. Whiskey Charlie.”
“Ten-nine?” he crackled back.
“Initials Whiskey Charlie.”
There was a pause, then, “Ah, ten-four. The expert, then?”
“Ten-four. That's the one. Heads up, he might know more than we do. Ah, and let's go code sixty-one on this…. ” No names, no locations.
“Ten-four.”
I placed the walkie back in its carrier. “What's he doing, now?”
“Hasn't moved.”
My mind was flying, trying to evaluate our situation. It occurred to me it was possible that if Chester wasn't Peale, he may have followed Peale to the house. If we approached, we would cause some sort of commotion, especially if we confronted him on the porch. If Peale were in the house, he could well take off.
But the actions of the people in the house, at least those we'd seen, seemed very normal.
Which left me with Peale not in the house, but meant that Chester could be Peale and just be waiting for the residents to go to bed before he entered.
That didn't add up, really, either. I completed my little circle of reasoning.
“Bullshit,” I said, “it's just Chester.”
“I know it's just Chester,” answered Sally, “and now he's moving,” thereby relinquishing her right to the night scope.
“Give me the scope,” I said.
She did, and I picked him up as he crossed the porch and kept going left, toward the far side of the house. He hesitated at the corner, then disappeared around the side of the house.
“Shit. He went around the other side.”
What to do? Move, and possibly reveal our position? Stay put and never see where he went? One set of night-vision gear didn't help, although I probably wouldn't have split us up, regardless.
“Okay, Sally. We gotta go to our right. We'll go about a hundred feet, then head toward the house. Maybe fifty feet, to the big tree that's in the yard, there. We'll be out of the trees, so we lie down. Got that?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. We stay on the ground, and we look at the back side of the house, and this side, and I think we also get the front from there.” I began moving. “Keep it quiet,” I said, “and just hang on to my coat.” I had the scope, and could see very clearly, indeed. Sally would be moving into darker ground without that benefit.
It took us about a long minute to cover the distance. I glanced at the house through the scope, and saw that we could see the back and the near side. Just the edge of the front porch. That would have to do.
“We're at the tree. It's on your right.”
“I can see it when we're this close,” she said.
I looked up, without the night scope. The tree loomed large, and distinctly. I cleared my throat quietly. “Okay. Well, then … ”
With that, we both lay down in the wet grass, in the rain, and waited.
I handed the scope to Sally. “You watch, I'm going to try to contact the office from here.”
“Right.” She eagerly took the vision gear from me. As soon as she started looking, she said “Nothing.” That at least let me know the equipment was still functioning.
I tried the office three times on the INFO channel, to no avail. Then I tried Borman on the OPS channel. Damn. We were now way over his radio horizon, and had even more trees between us. I'd probably have to stand up to get either one of them.
We lay there in complete silence for a good fifteen minutes, and I was beginning to believe that Chester, or whoever he really was, had either gotten into the house, or left altogether.
“You think Mr. Chester could be Dan Peale?” whispered Sally.
“Possible,” I whispered back. But I'd had a little time to think about