Chapter 25

The four women moved through the dark forest, as easily as if it were broad daylight. Their goal, for the moment, was to put as much distance as was physically possible between themselves and the campsite. By the time that the sun began to ease over the edge of the horizon, they had covered eighteen miles.

"What do you think we should do?" asked Cara.

Asha sat down on a fallen tree, looked each of the other women in the eye, and said, "I think we screwed up, girls. I ... Oh, I don't know ... Yumi, your our strategist, what do you think?"

The Asian woman rose from her squatting position and walked a few paces to one side and then stood looking out over the valley below. They were near the top of the mountain across the valley from Jacob's mine.

The women knew not to interrupt Yumi as she thought. Instead, Dixie pulled out an MRE and quietly ate. Asha and Cara did the same.

The two men entered the women's abandoned camp and began to search.

"Sarge? Look at this."

Williams held out a singed piece of paper—Asha had thrown the note from Joey at the fire but it had only floated over the flames, igniting the edges before it settled onto the damp ground, which extinguished the flames. The note was still totally legible.

"HOLY SHIT! OH FUCK!" yelled the agitated Sergeant as he changed the frequency of his radio to that of headquarters, and keyed his mike.

"Eyes one, to Mother hen. Eyes one, to mother hen. Over."

"Mother hen to Eyes one, over."

"Eyes one to mother hen. Code red! I say again. Code red! Send rooster to the women's camp! Over."

"Mother hen to eyes one. Acknowledged. Code red. Sending rooster. Over and out."

Twenty minutes later the chopper landed in the meadow. Jacob and his second in command stepped out and walked toward the Sergeant.

"What did you find, Sergeant?" asked Jacob.

Mutely the Sergeant handed the paper to Jacob.

Jacob read the paper and then asked, "Did you find anything else?"

The Sergeant handed the melted device that had been retrieved from the ashes of the fire to Jacob.

"Aww! Shit on a stick!" muttered Jacob as he put his right fist against his hip and stared off into the distance, thinking.

Jacob then stiffened and snapped orders to his men.

"Ok, do a thorough sweep of the area for anything that might be helpful. Then make this camp disappear, totally disappear!"

"Yes, Sir," said the Sergeant.

Jacob turned and walked back to the chopper and said as he climbed aboard, "Back to the mine, Joe."

As the chopper rose into the sky, Jacob dialed the SAT phone.

"Hey, Donna, is John around?"

"Well, hello stranger. No, I'm sorry, he and the boys are on a supply run. Is there something that I can help you with?"

"Look, Donna we have a major problem. I need to talk to him, like ... right now!"

"That serious?"

"Yes, and then some."

"Ah ... Give me a few minutes. We'll get right back to you, ok?"

"Donna this is bad, very bad. Please make it fast."

"As fast as is humanly possible, Jacob. Bye"

"Bye."

As Jacob broke the connection the chopper landed at the mine.

He turned to the pilot and said, "Keep the bird hot."

"Yessir," said the pilot.

Once inside his office, Jacob called a meeting of his staff, explained the situation, as he knew it and ordered a full alert.

As each man did his assigned job, a series of antennas, communications, radar and electronic jamming sprouted from the mountaintop. Around the valley remote-controlled missile bunkers and the LPWS (a land based version of the shipboard Phalanx anti-missile defense system) became active, popping out of the ground like malevolent mushrooms.

The base was ready to defend itself ... but from whom, and what?

As Jacob studied a map of the defensive grid around the mountain, looking for anything that he might have forgotten, the SAT phone on his hip rang.

"John?" asked Jacob anxiously.

"Yes, Donna said that you had your shorts in a twist over something but wouldn't tell her. What's up?"

"One of the boys contacted his wife and she and three of her friends showed up in the valley. There was a GPS tracker hidden in their gear! The women found the thing with a note from some guy named Joey and bolted into the forest but the damage was done, I'm afraid."

"Joey used to be our ordnance guy. Someone must have gotten to him. Well we knew it had to happen, Jacob. What have you done?"

"I've gone to full red alert."

"No! It's too soon! Drop to yellow. Your electronic footprint will give you away. I'll try to find out who got to Joey. We need to know just who is after you, then we can act appropriately."

"Right."

"Oh, and Jacob ... confine the four men that are connected with the women, but don't harm them. I have an idea who the women are, and you don't want to get them angry."

"What do you mean?"

"Just do as I say, for now. We'll talk again, very soon."

With that, John broke the connection.

Jacob stared at the phone with a stunned look, and then shook his head, turned to his second and ordered a reduction in the alert status. Within minutes, all of the antennas, missiles and LPWS dropped back into their holes and the mountain look serine again.

As Yumi stood looking out over the valley, thinking about what had happened and how they should react, she noticed the helicopter launch itself from the opposite mountaintop and fly to their old camp.

The diminutive woman nodded to herself and then turned toward the others.

"We, in our haste to see our men, have committed a grave error! I fear that we have given our men and their comrades into the hand of the enemy. Also I'm sure that our men have been discovered by now, because of us. They will be in just as much danger from their own people as from the enemy.

"Reaction is not our way! It has never been our way! We must return to the warrior way, and be proactive, from this moment forward. We will not run away! We will go on the hunt! But to do this, we need information! And that means going back across the valley, to the other mountain. We need to get close to that base."

"Well, ladies, it looks as if we're coming out of retirement. First, let's get some rest. Then we'll head back. Cara, you have first watch," said Asha.

The women settled in.

"But where are they?" asked the head of the Bow Hunters Guild of the guide that was supposed to be with Asha and her friends.

"I have no idea. All I know, is that they said that I was to tell you that they had decided to do some survival training, and not to worry."

"Not to worry? NOT TO WORRY? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Four women are overdue, and I'm not to worry?"

"Look, lady, I'm just telling ya what I was told to tell ya. Oh, I forgot. The big one gave me this to give to ya," said the guide.

He handed the irate woman a crumpled envelope. She snatched it from his hand, opened it violently, and began to read.

"With much affection, indeed!" fumed Madam President Linda Hotchkiss.

Of all of the members of the Women's Bow Hunter's Guild, the four young women and their actions, galled the most!

"Those four young bitches never do as they are told and are always doing their own thing. Well they have gone too far, this time. They want to stay do they? Well let them stay!" said Linda to herself in a fury. She turned and yelled,

"OK, LADIES, PACK UP. THOSE FOUR TROUBLE MAKERS HAVE GONE NATIVE, AND WILL NOT BE RETURNING WITH US! HURRY! THE PLANE WILL BE HERE SOON!"

The Guild packed up, boarded the planes and departed. All of the women gossiped about the 'Foolhardy Foursome', as they called the women of Valkyrie some with envy. Some said it with worry. Some, including Madam President, said it with malice.

"It's about time you got back to me!" said senator Lockhart.

"I know, I know, but we had some trouble with the tracking device. So I had Mark and his sidekick contact Joey, and reminded him where things stood. He said that the device was of a new design. The thing stores the data for a day and then sends the information out in a single compressed microburst to extend battery life. Joey even had the stones to get upset with us for complaining when he, Joey, had provided us with the best 'top of the line' device.

"Anyway, the long and short of it is that the women are actually out in the bush hunting, but that idiot Karl messed up with the controller and killed the batteries on the tracking device. We did get a lot of data, though," said Senator Woodridge.

He poured a stiff whiskey, sprawled out on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

"You're sure they're not there to meet their men?"

"Yeah, as sure as we can be without being there in person. I mean there's nothing up there except wilderness."

"Did you send a drone?"

"Nope, too far out of range for the ones that our people have. I wish we could get some of the long-range units that the army is using in Afghanistan."

"Malcolm this is too important to leave to chance. Send a surveillance team in. Get them close enough to use the drones that we do have. Have the bird follow the same route that the women took and look for anything of note."

"Ok, ok, but may I finish my drink first? I've been going all day, and I need to hide for a bit."

"Oh? Why? What's the problem?"

"It's SB-312. That bill has the lobbyists coming out of the woodwork. They're worst than the paparazzi. I haven't been able to see Lois for days."

"Keep messing around with that broad and you're going to need a divorce lawyer."

"Nah, we're discreet."

"That's what I said, but Marge still found out and bled me dry, remember?"

"She was PISSED, wasn't she?" said Malcolm as he finished his drink, rose and continued, "I suppose I should get the team out into the field, then, but I really don't think there is anything to this whole thing. Both of those teams are either dead or retired. If they're retired then they don't want to be found."

"Malcolm, we can't take that kind of a chance. We have to know what's what ... then deal with it."

"Yeah, yeah," said senator Woodridge as he departed.

"More and more I'm getting the feeing that idiot is going to do something that will destroy us both. Perhaps it's time to get rid of him too," muttered Senator Lockhart under his breath.

As John and his people sat around the dinner table sipping their beverages of choice, the problem at the mine came up in the general discussion. Donna looked at John and said,

"We need signs at the site and an office in some major cities. The operation has to look legit, John."

"I get it. Hide in plain sight, looking legit."

"Exactly, John."

"Sounds good to me. Especially as now there may be a leak as to the location of the mine. What do you all think?" John asked as he searched the faces of the others.

John was testing his people as he continued to look for the next leader of the group.

All agreed that it was a great idea.

"Ok, then we send a painter out tomorrow, to do the roof of the hangar. Mary, why don't you arrange for an office in Vancouver? One office is enough, I think. Get a small staff from a temp agency for starters. After all, this is supposed to be a new enterprise, and we don't need very much space to actually store stuff. However, we had better have at least one real customer in case the authorities come sniffing around. In the mean time, we can use the files from our charter and freight services for a start," said John.

"All I can say is that I'm glad we did the two tier thing inside the mine. With Jacob's people using the lower level, we should be fine if someone comes looking," said Donna.