Primal Threat - Earl Emerson [84]
Perry wasn’t happy to be with Scooter, whose black mood was matched only by his incessant cursing. Scooter’s foul mouth had always bothered Perry, more so today than ever. It would have been a simple thing for Perry to hop into the Land Rover with Bloomquist, and he’d suggested as much, but after a private huddle with Scooter, Kasey had nixed the notion.
The Land Rover idled behind them on a flat overlook filled with broken rock from one of the nearby mines. Perry stood in the sunshine on a large boulder that looked out over the valley, a shadowy mountain to their left. They were four thousand feet above the flat valley, and the view was almost the same as from his father’s Cessna. Keeping a grip on the rifle, Scooter climbed up onto a horizontal gray log that appeared to be about a year older than God. Every time he wanted to see something below, he put the rifle to his cheek and peered through the scope.
The air was warm and moist and so stifling without the air-conditioning that Perry had a hard time filling his lungs. To their left was a somewhat taller mountain they assumed was Mount Si. Some relatively cool air currents were flowing down the steep sides of the mountain, but they didn’t alleviate any of the oppressive heat, which had reached the upper nineties and in some places triple digits. He could see a town in the distance, although he couldn’t make out the details in the pudding-like conglomeration of smoke and haze that had settled over the area.
More than three hours had elapsed since Chuck died.
Using his riflescope, Scooter discovered a series of wildland fires off to the right, where the smoke was blowing along the ground. The landscape was murkier to the north, a whitish haze obscuring the panorama that had been visible earlier that morning.
“Is that a forest fire?” Perry asked.
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?”
“There’s haze everywhere.”
“It was like this yesterday, too, only not as bad. It’s those fucking forest fires.”
“I know you’re going to get mad at me for saying this, but we should get out of here before somebody else gets killed.”
“It’s just that sort of attitude that’s the reason you’re with me. Don’t worry about it. We’re not leaving until we find the bastards who killed Chuck and Dozer.”
“I don’t want to be an accomplice.”
“Fine. There’s a town right down there. Start hiking.”
“You know I can’t do that with my bad feet. Besides, it must be what, fifteen or twenty miles?”
“Then shut the fuck up.”
Perry didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. Below them, he watched a helicopter hover over the fires in the distance, probably a news chopper. Knowing Scooter could go all day without breaking the silence and hating the tension between them, Perry spoke. “Those fires don’t seem connected. I wonder how close they are to the road we came in on?” When Scooter didn’t reply, he continued, “I hope we don’t run out of gas. Maybe you shouldn’t let the car idle every time we get out.”
It took a few moments for Scooter to lower the rifle. “Fuck you. You know how hot it would be if we got back in and the air-conditioning wasn’t running?”
“I was just thinking out loud.”
“Come on. Let’s see where this road leads.”
Scooter got into the Land Rover, picked up his walkie-talkie, and said, “Commando Three to Commando One.”
After a moment, the walkie-talkie hissed. “Commando One, over.”
“We found a road that goes down the hill. I’d say it’s about half a mile to the west of where we last talked. Just stay on the main drag we took and you’ll find it.”
“Roger. We’ll be up here awhile longer. Bloomy found some bike tracks. We’re trying to figure out which direction they went. We’ll get back to you.”
“Over and out.”
37
They’d been dodging the trucks for hours now, trying to make their way to safety. Zak knew that Stephens had a fair idea of which