No Return

75

By the time Forman pulled in to the parking lot behind La Sonora, darkness once more had claimed the desert.

Wes checked the time. 7:28 p.m.

He and Danny were two hundred feet away, around the back corner of a Rite Aid drugstore. Wes’s Triumph was parked in the shadows nearby. Another dozen feet back, Dori waited inside her Lincoln, ready to move on Wes’s signal.

“Do you see anyone else?” Wes asked after Forman got out of his car.

Though they had a clear view of the La Sonora parking lot, lighting was poor.

“No.”

Forman scanned the small lot for a few moments, then entered the restaurant.

“You want me to go check?” Danny asked.

Wes thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Good idea.”

Keeping in a crouch, Danny jogged out from their hiding place and headed toward Forman’s car.

Groaning, Wes almost yelled, “Just act normal!” But he held his tongue and watched Danny approach the car and peer inside. After a few seconds, Danny turned and shook his head slowly side to side, then started sneaking his way back.

Wes pulled out his phone and texted Alison a single character:

?

She was stationed at the other end of the alley, hiding out next to the Spirit gas station and watching the road. Her reply came through quickly.

Clear.

Good. It looked like the commander had actually done as he’d been told.

Wes looked over his shoulder at Dori in the Lincoln.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re on.”

She nodded, then started the engine and cut across the Rite Aid lot into the alley. A few seconds later she pulled to a stop behind Forman’s sedan. As she did, Danny ducked back around the corner with Wes.

“Guess we’ll see if this works,” he said.

Wes kept his eyes focused on the rear of the restaurant. “It’ll work.”

“Where is he?” Danny said after a couple of minutes had passed.

Wes had been wondering the same thing.

Another minute.

“Do you think he might have gone out the front?” Danny asked. “Maybe someone picked him up out there?”

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know. It was just an idea.”

Thirty more seconds.

“I’m going to go check,” Wes said.

“Wait. If he sees you-”

“If he sees me, he sees me.”

Wes had barely made it ten feet toward the alley when Forman reemerged from the restaurant. Wes stopped moving, hoping the darkness would conceal him. But it was unnecessary. Forman headed straight for his car, not even glancing in Wes’s direction. He didn’t even seem to notice Dori until he reached the door of his sedan.

“Get in my car and I’ll take you to Wes,” she said, her voice carrying just enough for Wes to hear.

This was a critical moment. If Forman tried to make a phone call, or said he needed to get something from his car first, Dori would take off and leave him where he stood. The meeting would be scrubbed, and Wes would be forced to think of an alternate plan.

But there was no call. No return trip to the car. The commander got into the rear seat of the Lincoln, and Dori took off.

By the time Wes ran back behind Rite Aid, Danny was already waiting by the motorcycle.

“We’re on?” he asked.

Wes nodded. “We’re on.”