Breaking Point

16

Joe saddled Toby away from the chaos of a command center of sorts that was slowly morphing from too many disparate vehicles and law enforcement officials. Two large canvas tents were being erected by members of the sheriff’s department-they’d borrowed them from local elk outfitters-next to two high-tech portable tent structures marked EPA on the sidewalls. The location for the FOB was on a bench less than two hundred yards from the Forest Service boundary fence. Within the scrum of tents and vehicles moved EPA special agents, sheriff’s department deputies, Forest Service rangers and special agents, BLM employees, and other men and women Joe couldn’t identify and didn’t want to meet.

He could feel the tension and excitement from the FOB as he cinched the saddle tight and Toby glared back at him in faux discomfort. Voices were pronounced and high and talking over one another, laughter was barked, and flare-ups of anger punctuated the hum. It was the same combination of anticipation and bloodlust he’d witnessed at elk hunting camps or from within the vehicles of hunting parties setting out on opening day of the season.

Joe kept his eye on a group of four men in the temporary corral set up on the edge of the FOB. They were black-clad and sober, unlike the others, and going about their business with quiet gravitas. They seemed to have no interest interacting with the others in the camp. The men stood in a knot, intently listening to a local wrangler who had brought the horses as he outlined the personalities and problems with each mount. It was obvious they were unfamiliar with horses, Joe thought. As they climbed into their saddles, the wrangler adjusted stirrups and walked each horse away from the corral to await the others. Heinz Underwood shadowed the wrangler, muttering things into his ear and to his team. When all the agents were mounted, the wrangler helped Underwood stuff gear into the panniers of a set of packhorses. It looked like too much gear to Joe, who kept his distance even as Underwood spotted him and walked his horse over.

Joe watched him come with bemusement. Underwood obviously didn’t know his way around horses, and the agent didn’t want to show it. But by the way he held the reins too tight and overcorrected his direction with aggressive yanks, it was obvious.

“First time on a horse?” Joe asked, as Underwood rode up.

“I’ve been on horses before.”

“Fine,” Joe said. “You’re just lucky it’s a brain-dead trail horse, or he might get feisty, the way you’re jerking on his mouth.”

Almost imperceptibly, Underwood eased up on the reins.

“Are you ready?” he asked. “My men are getting impatient.”

Joe nodded and said, “What’s the plan? You’ve got enough equipment there to last a few weeks, it looks like.”

Underwood ignored the question. “You’re going to lead us to where you last saw Butch Roberson, and we’re going to try to determine where he went from there. At that point, you might be released from service.”

“Fine by me,” Joe said, but he had immediate reservations about agreeing so quickly. The team of special agents was armed with semiautomatic weapons, sidearms, shotguns, and communications equipment. They looked, he thought, like they might shoot first and ask questions later, although he was sure Underwood wouldn’t admit it. If he were along, Joe thought, there would be a better chance of bringing Butch back alive. Underwood seemed to sense his concern.

“We’re the advance team,” Underwood continued. “If we find his track-or locate him-we’ll call back and get orders and backup before we proceed.”

“I’ll bet,” Joe said sourly.

Underwood surprised Joe by grinning.

Joe swung into the saddle at the same moment a murmur rippled through the men and women at the FOB. He looked up to see most heads turned toward the road that led to the FOB through the hay meadows. Joe followed their gaze to see a huge black new-model Suburban tearing their way, sending a fat cloud of dust into the air behind it.

Before he could see the license plate or the man behind the wheel, he knew who it was. Only one man drove a new car that recklessly over bad roads.

“Do you know who that is?” Underwood asked Joe.

“Yup,” Joe said. “My governor.”

The black suburban hurtled at the FOB as if the driver’s intention was to plow right through it, Joe thought, and he saw a few of the special agents within the tents start to sidle away. The big vehicle braked short of the parking area and skidded to a stop. Governor Spencer Rulon flew out the driver’s-side door and left it open while he bellowed, “I’m the governor of this state, and I want to know who the hell is in charge here!”

A few beats after the governor, Joe saw Lisa Greene-Dempsey tentatively open the passenger door and step out. She appeared to have no intention of following her boss into the crowd.

Joe and Underwood exchanged glances, then both urged their horses forward toward the Suburban. Joe watched Rulon stride through the crowd of law enforcement-which parted to let him through-straight toward Julio Batista, who had come out of the EPA tent with a cell phone in his hand and a quizzical expression on his face. LGD trailed the governor. She saw Joe and nodded. She looked worried about what was going to happen next, he thought.

Underwood said quietly, “I’ve heard your guy is a nutjob.”

Joe had seen the governor in a rage before-too many times, in fact-and fought an urge to say to Underwood, This is gonna be good.

Batista introduced himself and held out his free hand, palm up, to ward off the approach of Rulon, and turned away to end his call. Rulon stopped short of the outstretched palm but stood hands on hips, glaring at the EPA administrator with his upper body pointed forward and his eyes enlarged.

When Batista closed his phone and extended his hand in greeting, Rulon didn’t move. He shouted, “What’s this I hear about sending unmanned drones into my airspace without permission and without notifying my office?”

“We’re in the middle of an operation-” Batista began calmly, when Rulon cut him off by talking over him.

“I don’t care what you’re in the middle of, you’ll order those things back where they came from or I’ll order the Wyoming National Guard to fly up here and blast them the hell out of the sky!”

Joe frowned. He’d seen the National Guard air fleet before and couldn’t recall a single fighter plane among the helicopters and C-130 cargo planes. But maybe Batista didn’t know that. .

“It’ll be shoot to kill!” Rulon thundered. “I don’t care if I start a damned war between Wyoming and the EPA, because I’ve been threatening to start one for years.”

“Look,” Batista said, his eyes shooting around for support from his special agents and the others, “I know we started out on the wrong foot a few years ago. But right now we’re in the middle of a murder investigation, and. .”

Rulon jabbed his finger an inch from the EPA administrator’s nose: “There are right ways to do things and wrong ways to do things in my state. When I got a call that two of your people were gunned down in Twelve Sleep County, I pledged support. We want this guy caught as much as you do. But I should have known not to trust any of you bastards, that you’d turn out to be the jackbooted thugs I always knew you were.”

Joe smiled to himself and shook his head. He almost missed his boss approaching Rulon and grabbing gently at his arm, urging him to calm down.

Rulon said, “Now I hear you’ve not only offered a reward for the capture or execution of one of my constituents, you’ve also ordered a goddamned drone from Nebraska, where you spy on cattle feedlot operations, to fly over my airspace and spy on my land and my people. Just who in the hell gave you the authority to bypass the elected government of the state of Wyoming and trample over our citizens?”

Rulon’s face was red, and when he paused for a breath, Batista said quickly, “First, we’ve retracted the reward offer. Second, I’ve got the authority to administrate my region.”

“Governor,” Greene-Dempsey pleaded, pulling him back, “Please. .”

Then Rulon waved his arms at the assembled and astonished crowd, and said to Batista, “Get them all the hell out of here! Take down your stupid tents and go the hell away! The only agency who should be here right now is the sheriff of Twelve Sleep County. The rest of you,” he said, glaring at the special agents and rangers one by one, “beat it!”

Batista shook his head and said, “I doubt you’d talk this way to me if I looked more like you.”

“What?” Rulon sputtered, confused.

“You heard me,” Batista said, crossing his arms over his chest and daring the governor to say more.

“You’re accusing me. . of what?” Rulon said. “Because you’re. .”

“A Hispanic American,” Batista said, raising his chin.

Rulon shook his head, as if momentarily stunned. Then he said, “Well, I’m a Governor American, and I want your ass out of my state. We’ll find your shooter, and he’ll get justice. We don’t want you or your thugs involved.” Joe noted the governor’s tone had softened, despite the words.

“And now we know why,” Batista said, still smug.

Joe shook his head. In that brief exchange, Rulon seemed to have lost his momentum. And the crowd seemed to agree.

Greene-Dempsey managed to pull Rulon away again, and when he turned, Joe saw a look of spent rage crossed with befuddled realization in his face. He’d never seen the look before, and he wondered if Rulon had truly lost it after all. Rulon seemed to have the same thought, and he threw his shoulders back and gathered himself, then looked down at his feet for a moment.

Batista turned to the group of officers and said, “The show is over. It’s time to get back to work.”

“Jesus Christ,” Underwood said, and whistled. “Your governor is a nutjob.”

Joe said, “He might be. But he’s not a racist.”

Underwood said, “He is now.”

While underwood walked his horse over to his team to get them ready, Joe dismounted and walked to the black state Suburban. He found Governor Rulon slouched in the driver’s seat, shaking his head. When Joe peered inside to locate his boss, Rulon said, “She’s not here. She’s up in the tent apologizing to Juan Julio What’s-His-Face for my racist outburst.”

Joe grunted.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Rulon said. “It took the wind out of my sails. He’s a cunning little bastard. I would have thought these imperial Feds wouldn’t be used to seeing a governor yelling into their faces, but I was wrong.

“And to play the race card like that. . It’s the lowest form of debate, because it just closes the subject down. And it’s not true. I don’t hate Hispanics. I hate federal brownshirt thugs named Juan Julio Batista.”

“Governor?” Joe interrupted. “Can I ask you a question?”

Rulon looked over wearily. “Shoot. I’ve never lied to you.”

Joe hesitated, and Rulon smiled and said, “Well, not much.”

“Anyway, what I was wondering is. .”

“Why I hired her,” Rulon said, finishing the wrong question. But Joe wanted to hear the answer anyway.

“I was pressured into it. But don’t quote me.”

“I won’t,” Joe said. “We had breakfast this morning. Then she came on a ride-along.”

Rulon laughed and thumped the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. His usual buoyant mood returned. “I heard about that. She’s still a little stunned. Bear spray, Joe?”

“It works.”

“So I take it. Anyway, she’s got some notions, I hear,” he said. “She thinks you and your kind are too inbred. She thinks you’ve all gone native out here-too close to the locals.”

Joe nodded.

“Have you?”

“I don’t think so,” Joe said. “We’re like local beat cops, is the way I think about it. We know the people, so we can do our jobs better.”

Rulon nodded, and said, “‘Government closest to the people governs best,’ some wise man once said. Do you agree?”

“I guess I do.”

“So do I,” Rulon said with finality. Then: “Next question?”

Joe hesitated, then said, “She told me you approved her lending me out on this investigation, that it was my duty to assist the best I can.”

Rulon raised his eyebrows and said, “So?”

“I’m not sure I can do it,” Joe said, surprising even himself with the words. “I know Butch Roberson. I’m not sure I can go along with this the way they’re doing it.”

“Why? Do you think he’s innocent? Isn’t this exactly what LGD is afraid of?”

Joe shook his head. “I don’t think he’s innocent. Not from what I know.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Joe felt tongue-tied. After a beat, he said, “I’m just not sure how much longer I can keep doing this.”

“What? Being a game warden?”

“Being a state employee,” Joe said. “She offered me a desk job in Cheyenne. I’ve never worked behind a desk before.”

Rulon, for once, didn’t fire another question. Instead he said, “Do what’s right, Joe. That’s what you’re good at. This is your decision.”

Joe waited for more that didn’t come. He wasn’t sure what that would be, though.

Rulon, as he usually did, changed the subject again. “We’ve had a couple of interesting adventures together, haven’t we, Joe?”

“Yup.”

“I thought for a while there you were going to lose me my job,” Rulon said. “You just have a knack for getting right into the middle of trouble, don’t you?”

Joe nodded. He said, “Marybeth says I have a singular skill in that regard.”

“She’s smart and too good-looking for you,” Rulon said. “You don’t deserve her.”

“I know that.”

“What about your friend, the maniac? That stone-cold killer with the falcons you hang around with? What’s he think about all this?” Rulon said, knowing Joe didn’t like to talk about Nate Romanowski.

“I haven’t heard from him,” Joe said. “But I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t like it.”

“So you haven’t been in touch since that trouble last year,” Rulon said, and nodded. “That’s probably good for you. You wouldn’t want to be aiding and abetting a known fugitive.”

Joe shifted uncomfortably.

“Maybe I need some guys like that on my team,” Rulon mused, and gestured toward the FOB. “I could use some real muscle dealing with this tyrant Batista.”

Joe looked up, puzzled. He wasn’t sure if Rulon was serious.

“What’s going on over there?” Rulon asked suddenly, leaning forward in his seat. Joe looked over to see Batista rushing from the tent toward a white panel communications van. The vehicle had a brace of antennas and radio dishes mounted on top. Lisa Greene-Dempsey emerged after him and walked slowly and cautiously toward the Suburban.

When she arrived and saw Joe she couldn’t disguise the look of anguish on her face.

Rulon asked, “What’s happening?”

She said, “His people said something happened to the drone. They lost contact with it somewhere up there in the mountains.”

“It crashed?” Rulon said hopefully.

“Worse.”

Rulon’s smile grew into something almost maniacal. He said, “Someone shot it down?”

“That’s what they’re thinking,” she said, shaking her head.

“Wonderful!” Rulon shouted. “Let’s have more of that!”

As Joe mounted Toby to join Underwood and the others, Rulon bounded out of the SUV and called his name.

When he turned, Rulon gave him two thumbs up, then walked over toward the communications van, a skip in his step.

Joe wasn’t sure what the governor meant by the signal-that everything would be fine or he was simply giddy a drone had been shot down. Everything Governor Rulon said or did, Joe had learned, had two or three different interpretations.

“Okay, men,” Underwood said to the four other special agents on horseback, and pointed to Joe. “Follow this man.”