Fear No Evil

Chapter 79

Later that afternoon, Butler pulled into the Holland Lake trailhead, left Big DD and Vincente in the old Land Cruiser, and got out to make a call on the sat phone.

“Scrambled,” M said. “You’re finally there, I see.”

“Just arrived.”

“You should have used a different vehicle rather than that junker,” he said, irritated. “Now we’re too far behind them to do much good today.”

“We’re behind because we had to make sure Purdy was squared away.”

“Mmm.”

“You’re still tracking their phones, I assume?”

“No,” he said. “They’re far out of service now, but we know exactly where they’re going and why. It’s all they blabbed about in their car. Again, if you hadn’t used that blasted shitbox of a truck, we’d already be rid of them.”

Butler ignored the dig, said, “We’re here now, M, and they’re six days from coming out of that wilderness. What do you want us to do? Wait?”

“Wait? No, I want you to go in after them. I want them eliminated ASAP.”

“We don’t have horses or rafts or any of the right equipment for this.”

“You don’t need any of it,” M snapped. “We’ve already been in contact with a helicopter service about ninety minutes north of you. They’re expecting you later this afternoon. I assume your pilot’s licenses are up to date?”

“The fake ones,” Butler said. “What kind of bird?”

“Bell Jet Ranger,” he said.

“Weather?”

“On and off thunderstorms,” he said. “Nothing you haven’t faced before.”

“And how exactly are we supposed to find them?”

“Follow the river. You’re bound to spot them sooner or later. Let me know when you’ve got the helicopter down there and ready to go.”

Butler thought renting a helicopter was a little over the top, and he didn’t fully understand M’s obsession with Alex Cross, but there was no arguing with the man once he had his mind set on something. “Your money,” Butler said.

“One more thing,” M said. “Our computers managed to pick up pieces of a conversation we believe happened between Emmanuella Alejandro and her half brother sometime in the last couple of days. We didn’t get all of it because they were using multiple VPNs.”

Butler’s eyebrows rose. “You mean Raphael Durango? The Mexican Special Forces operator?”

“The same,” M said. “We believe he led the raid on the ranch.”

“Makes a lot of sense,” Butler said, going stony. “Where is the son of a bitch?”

“Again, we only got fragments, but we believe Emmanuella told him to follow Cross wherever he goes. She believes we are somehow allied with the FBI and that Cross and Sampson are going to rendezvous with us somewhere in Montana.”

“How did she get that idea?”

“No clue.”

Butler thought about that. “You think Durango is here and going into the wilderness after them?”

“Would you cross Emmanuella Alejandro?”

“Any day of the week,” he said. “And twice on Sunday.”

“You’re not her half brother,” M said. “I want you to fly in there looking for Cross, Sampson, and Durango and whoever else is with him. And when you locate them, I want them all dead, never to be found. Is that clear?”

“As the big Montana sky,” Butler said and ended the call.