Free Fire Part 37

"We'll call you the second we see a vehicle coming," Portensonsaid, "although you'll probably hear it from the chatter. We want you back as soon as you hear because we need you to help set the trap."

Joe nodded, clipped the radio to his jacket breast pocket, and put the earpiece in.

As they climbed the stairs into the absolute darkness of the inn, Joe could hear the a.s.sault team checking in with one another.It was pure business, he noted. He wondered again what they'd been discussing among themselves earlier.

Nate led joe up set after set of ancient, twisted knotty pine staircases into the upper reaches of the inn. The only light as they climbed was from Nate's bobbing headlamp and his own. It got slightly warmer as they rose, but never warm enough that their breath didn't escape in clouds of condensation. They stepped over or ducked under the chain barriers on each floor to prevent visitors from using the staircases. Joe didn't like the way the old wooden steps creaked, and he felt a wave of sweat break over him when one of the steps cracked sharply under his boot but didn't give way.

They paused to rest on the top landing. The ancient weather-stainedboards of the ceiling were right above them. Joe looked around by rotating his head so his headlamp would throw light. At the end of the landing to their left was one of the bizarre Old Faithful crow's nests that extended perilously over the expanse of the lobby. It looked rickety and diabolical, something designedin a fever dream. He took a step toward the crow's nest, felt the planks of the walkway sag, and stepped back. Below them, what seemed like a mile down, was the muted orange light from the fireplace. The combination of fear, darkness, and height made Joe swoon and lose his balance, and he b.u.mped into Nate.

"Careful," Nate cautioned.

Joe grunted. He didn't realize he had a fear of heights and had never experienced this feeling before.

To their right was a heavily varnished door with a painted sign on it reading NO ENTRANCE.

Nate said, "Look." The orb of his headlamp illuminated the rusted steel doork.n.o.b and lock. The lock looked rusted shut and wouldn't give when Nate gently rattled it.

"I wonder where we can get a key," Joe said. "Do you want me to call down to see if Ashby has one?"

Nate shook his head, examining the lock more closely. He ran his finger down the lock plate.

"See these gouges?" Nate whispered. "They're new."

Joe leaned over and could see them, a series of horizontal scratches that revealed bare metal. "Try this," Joe said, handing Nate his pocketknife.

Nate thrust the three-inch blade between the edge of the door and the jamb, levered it down, and pulled back sharply. There was a click and the door opened an inch.

"Somebody's oiled it recently," Nate said, handing the knife back to Joe.

Before they opened the door and continued, Joe turned the volume down on his radio and unsnapped his holster. Nate alreadyhad his .454 out, loose at his side. The last thing Nate said before opening the door was, "Don't shoot me."

The hallway was narrow, twisted, completely dark. Joe's shoulders almost touched both walls in places. The ceiling was low and the floor uneven. This was Bat's Alley, the mysterious pa.s.sageway built for no apparent reason by the architect of the inn at the turn of the last century. Nate dimmed his headlamp and Joe did the same.

Joe followed Nate twenty yards until the hallway took a forty-five-degree turn to the left and the floor rose slightly. There were several closed doors on either side now, the openingsmisshapen and heights uneven. A single small porthole alloweda blue-tinged shaft to fill the hallway with just enough light to create dark shadows. As they pa.s.sed the porthole, Joe stopped to stick his head into the opening and look out through an oval of thick, mottled gla.s.s.

The scene outside was dark and haunting. The snow on the ground far below was tinted blue, the timber black and melded with the black sky. There wasn't a single light outside, only the falling snow. In the distance, in the geyser basin, rolls of steam punched their way into the night like fists.

Another turn of the hallway, and then a distinct smell of food cooking. Another turn, and they could see a band of yellow light from beneath a door at the end of Bat's Alley.

Nate turned in the darkness, whispered, "We've got him."

Joe nodded, his shoulders tense, heart thumping. He slipped his Glock out and, as silently as he could, worked the slide. From behind the door, he could hear hissing and something boiling or bubbling. And someone humming. Joe recognized the tune as "Mambo No. 5." Joe hated that song.

At the door at the end of the hallway, Nate paused, mouthed, "Do we knock?"

Joe nodded yes, and Nate rapped on the door. Although he did it gently, the sounds seemed startling and rude. The hummingstopped.

Nate knocked again.

Joe heard shuffling and saw the k.n.o.b turn and the door swing open.

A man stood there wild-eyed, his mouth agape. He looked like a well-fed yearling bear-short, stout, heavy, with long hair sticking out at all angles from a perfectly round bowling ball of a head. He wore a walrus mustache that had taken over most of his cheeks. There was a gun in his hand but it was pointed down.

"Bob Olig, I presume?" Joe said.

Olig worked his mouth but no sound came out. His eyes were fixed on the gaping muzzle of Nate's .454, which was six inches from his eyebrow.

"Drop the weapon," Nate hissed.

Olig dropped the gun with a clunk, and Nate kicked it across the room.

"You don't get a lot of visitors, I'd guess," Joe said.

"I get no no visitors," Olig said, his voice throaty, as if he hadn't used it for a while. "Who visitors," Olig said, his voice throaty, as if he hadn't used it for a while. "Who are are you?" you?"

"My name's Joe Pickett. I'm a Wyoming game warden. This is Nate Romanowski."

Olig s.h.i.+fted his eyes from Nate's gun to Joe. "I've heard of you. Cutler told me."

Joe nodded. The connection was made.

"I'm making some moose stew," he said. "Would you like some?"

"No, thank you," Joe said, thinking that any other time he would have accepted because he liked moose.

They went inside, but there was barely enough room for the three of them. The room was narrow, with an extremely high ceiling. Two Coleman lamps hung from metal hooks, hissing. A camping stove burned in the middle of the floor, heating a dented aluminum pot filled with the bubbling dark moose stew. A cot and sleeping bag took up a wall on the inside, and there was a college dorm-like bookcase built with planks and bricks. Tacked to the walls were a map of Yellowstone, a laminated cover sheet of the Kyoto Accords with a red circle drawn over it and a slash through it, and several ripped and puckered magazinepages featuring the actress Scarlett Johansson.

"I get lonely," Olig said, flus.h.i.+ng. Then, "I don't get it. What are you guys doing here?"

Joe said, "We came for you."

"You need to come with us," Nate said.

Something pa.s.sed over Olig's face, and he stepped back as far as he could in the small room. "I'm not going anywhere," he said.

"Sure you are," Nate said, growling.

"We've got Clay McCann," Joe said.

Olig's eyes flashed. "He's here?"

"Downstairs," Joe said.

"I want to kill that p.r.i.c.k."

Joe nodded. "I a.s.sumed that. Otherwise, I'd guess you would have been long gone by now."

"d.a.m.ned right."

Nate shot a puzzled look at Joe.

"You were friends with Mark Cutler, weren't you?" Joe asked. "He gave you the room up here while you two tried to figure out why McCann shot your friends from Minnesota, right?"

Olig nodded.

"And you two figured out that there were people in the Park Service in on the crime, right?"

He nodded again.

"So you stayed here until the two of you could get enough evidence on who was on which side and you could turn them in. But they got to Cutler, and you figured you were next."

"I thought you might be them," Olig said, gesturing to his gun on the floor.

"Nope," Joe said. "We want to get them too. And we've set up a trap here tonight using McCann and you as bait. We want them to come in and incriminate themselves so we can throw the whole lot of them into prison."

"This is a dream come true," Olig said, rubbing his bear-cub hands. "But you need to leave me alone in a room with Clay McCann. Five minutes. That's all I need. I've been dreaming of this for months."

"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 a.s.s 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 p.i.s.sed 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, s.h.i.+t, we might find a cure for cancer with those microbes, or something. We shouldn't automatically oppose everything. I mean, what makes us so f.u.c.king smart? We're the beneficiaries of people before us figuring out s.h.i.+t 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 why they burned. He also told me he was going to show you. That was the night before he was killed." 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 p.r.i.c.k. He spent way 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." 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. 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 acc.u.mulation 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 a.s.sault 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 whispered or clicked a response on their radios.

Joe thought, The bad guys don't have a chance in h.e.l.l to get out of this one. The bad guys don't have a chance in h.e.l.l to get out of this one.

He looked over to see Olig glaring at McCann with naked hatred. McCann seemed oblivious to it. He looked bulky and nonthreatening in his parka. They'd both been briefed; both had agreed to perform their roles.

As if finally feeling the intensity of Olig's death stare, McCannturned to him, asked, "You must be Bob Olig."

"The only one you didn't kill that day," Olig said.

McCann shrugged. "It wasn't anything personal."

Olig started to reach for McCann but was stopped by Ashby. "Later," Ashby said.

Portenson said to McCann, "Don't f.u.c.k this up or I'll do more than rip your ear off."

Again, McCann shrugged. Joe watched him carefully. If anything, McCann looked calm, which unnerved Joe. Was the lawyer planning something, trying once again to stay ahead of everyone around him?