“Think about it, Grangeland. You, me, Harv, and Director Lansing are the only people on the planet who know Ernie’s in custody. He’s number one on your most-wanted list. How long could something like that stay under wraps? People talk, the walls have ears. We can’t risk it. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get the credit for the collar.”

“I’m not worried about getting credit, I’m worried about going to prison.”

“Director Lansing put you under my command so I’m giving you a direct order. Ernie stays with us until we’ve got Leonard.”

She nodded tightly.

“We need to get up to those coordinates. Just the four of us. We’ll take my helicopter.”

“You own a helicopter? I guess you weren’t kidding when you said you’re worth twenty times that much.”

“We need to bug out of here before the cavalry arrives. By the way, you did a great job with the fake call.”

“How’s the arm?”

“All things considered, not too bad.”

They started back to Harvey’s position. “Bridgestone might need a hospital. And you certainly do.”

“I’ll clean myself up once we’ve made it back to Sacramento. With a little luck, I’ll only need some stitches and antibiotics.”

“Stiches and antibiotics? You were shot twice.”

“I appreciate your concern, but right now, we need to get moving.”

They returned to their prisoner. Grangeland grabbed Ernie’s .45-auto, shook the sand out of the barrel, removed the magazine, and ejected the round. She stuffed the gun and its magazine into her front pockets. Harv took charge of Bridgestone and started marching him toward the vehicles. Five minutes later, they were back at the SUV. Just as Ernie had said, they found nearly three hundred pounds of Semtex and several dozen blasting caps. The orange-colored bricks were packed into cardboard boxes. The blasting caps were in a smaller box. Before Harv transferred the boxes of Semtex and the blasting caps into the trunk of the Crown Vic, Grangeland grabbed the first-aid kit. Not all of the boxes fit into the trunk, so Harv stacked the remainder of them into the rear of the SUV. Nathan would have Grangeland relay the location of the boxes to her FBI counterparts once they cleared the area. He didn’t like leaving the Semtex unsecured, but thought it’d be okay for the next few minutes or so. He laid Ernie’s assault rifle atop the boxes in the trunk.

Grangeland pulled on a pair of latex gloves and told Ernie to hold still. The cuts on Ernie’s knuckles were streaming blood and needed to be wrapped to stanch the flow. Holding the penlight in her mouth, she applied several tight layers of gauze around Ernie’s two mangled fingers and secured them with white tape. Ernie grunted from the pressure.

“You’ll live,” she said.