Free Fire - C. J. Box [131]
“You’ll need to stand in line for that,” Joe said.
“I should be first. He killed my friends.”
Joe shrugged, conceding the point.
Nate turned from Olig to Joe. “We can’t stand here talking all night.”
“I know,” Joe said. “I want to make sure Mr. Olig is with us.”
Olig said, “You bet your ass I am.”
As the three of them went down the hallway, Joe asked, “Besides revenge, why did you stay?”
Olig sighed. “Guilt. Then fear. I should have been at Bechler with my friends that day, but I was pissed at Rick. I didn’t like his idea about going national with the bio-mining protest. Since I’ve been up here I’ve found myself thinking of things differently.The black and white I used to see when it comes to environmentalissues had turned gray. I figured, shit, we might find a cure for cancer with those microbes, or something. We shouldn’t automatically oppose everything. I mean, what makes us so fucking smart? We’re the beneficiaries of people before us figuring out shit that makes our lives better or helps us live longer. Why stop now, just because we think we know it all? The last thing I thought about, though, was that those microbes could be used for energy development.”
“So you figured that out, huh?”
“Not me,” Olig said. “Cutler had his suspicions. We all knew about the flamers, but Cutler was a geologist and thought about why they burned. He also told me he was going to show you. That was the night before he was killed.”
“So you saw the message to us?” Joe asked.
“Yeah,” Olig said. “I prowl around at night when everyone’s sleeping. Otherwise, I’d go crazy in that little room. I scared some guests a few times though,” he said, chuckling at the recollection.
“Do you know how far the conspiracy goes within the Park Service?” Joe asked.
“No. But Cutler was starting to think it went pretty high. At least to the chief ranger.”
“Bingo,” Joe said.
“And of course Layborn is involved, that prick. He spent way too much time asking about me around here after my friends got killed. He has informants, but luckily none of them knew to give me away. But I’ll tell you, I spent a lot of sleepless nights in that room back there.”
“Was this before or after your dates with Scarlett Johansson?” Nate asked.
“Hey,” Olig said, “that’s cruel.”
“I’m a cruel guy,” Nate said.
“So here’s what we need you to do,” Joe said, interrupting.
They were nearly to the lobby when Joe heard the radio crackle on his jacket. He plucked it off and turned up the volumeslightly.
“I see someone coming,” the FBI ranger stationed on the road said. “They’re driving one of those snow coach things they use in the winter up here. ETA is ten to fifteen minutes.”
“Joe, did you hear that?” Portenson asked from somewhere.
“Got it.”
“We need you down here now.” His voice sounded shaky.
“On our way,” Joe said. “And we’ve got Bob Olig with us. He’s agreed to help.”
“Jesus Christ,” Portenson said.
31
In the darkness of the gift shop adjacent to the lobby, Joe crouched down behind shelves of stuffed bears and snow globes and watched through the window as the snow coach descended the hill from the highway interchange toward the Old Faithful Inn. The boxy vehicle ran on steel tracks and was lit up with red running lights. Its headlights illuminated the swirling snow in front of it. Soon, he could hear the motor and clanking of the tracks. He got a close glimpse of it as the snow coach maneuvered under the overhang, but he couldn’t tell how many people were inside. While he doubted there was enough snow accumulation outside to make the snow coach essential, he guessed they had erred on the side of caution when they chose to bring it.
Portenson, Nate, Ashby, Olig, and McCann also huddled in the gift shop. One of McIlvaine’s assault team crouched behind the front counter, watching the black-and-white video monitor, switching smoothly between cameras one, two, and three. Joe couldn’t see the snipers behind the railing on the second level, but he knew they were there. McIlvaine checked in with each of them, and they either