“Did you land it on the roof?” she asked, peeking over her shoulder.

Rich pulled his head back inside the helicopter. “Looks like it. Can I ask you for one more favor?”

“What?”

“I’d like to have Alex disable our pontoon boats,” he said. “I don’t want any of those fuckers getting a free ride out of there tonight.”

“We certainly can’t allow that,” said Marnie.

She lowered her night vision goggles over her face before putting them into a wide left turn and taking them back over the northeastern tip of the Mincy Conservation Area.

CHAPTER 55

CHAPTER 55

Devin somehow fell asleep on the short trip down the lake to Diamond City. He woke to Rich shaking his arm, the helicopter rapidly descending.

“Rise and shine. We’re almost at the motel,” he said.

He squinted and looked around, noticing that the M249 was gone. “Where did the machine gun go?”

“We dumped it in the lake about a minute back,” said Rich. “I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing the serial number on that weapon can be traced to a batch of M249 Squad Automatic Weapons that either never made it to their final destination or were reported stolen from a US military armory. We do not want to get caught with a stolen military firearm. Particularly a machine gun.”

“And the rest of this gear is clean?” asked Devin.

Rich shrugged. “We could explain the rest of this away, if we had to. I’d rather not, since it would tie us up for a while.”

“You mean we’d be sitting in jail while a team of expensive lawyers worked on getting us releases so we could flee the country and have to travel on forged IDs for the rest of our lives.”

“Something like that,” said Rich.

Alex laughed, which was a welcome shift away from the dark mood that had enveloped him since Mike’s death. The two of them had obviously been close. Devin had overheard Scott talking with Emily about how they had been plank owners in the original program—whatever that meant. The story behind Rich’s team was still unclear.

“Alex. I’m very sorry about Mike,” said Devin, not sure if he had stepped over the line.

“We’ve all lived far longer than we should have,” said Alex.

“That’s for sure,” said Rich.

“We’re almost there,” said Marnie over the radio. “I’m going to set us down toward the southern end of the campground. I don’t want to get us caught up in any power lines. Looks like a short jog to the motel.”

“Works for me,” replied Rich before turning to Alex. “It’s kind of late to ask this, but do you have the keys to the SUV?”

Alex lifted a set of keys by his index finger. “They were in Mike’s pocket. I thought about them right before we headed for the helicopter.”