Holly removed her handheld radio from her hip, turned the volume down, and keyed the button. “Dowdy, radio check… Collins…” She turned toward Henning. “Did they say anything useful on the ride up here?”

“Not really. I tried them a couple times. I think they’re really pissed about the cash. I’m sure they had plans for it.”

“Beer money,” she said.

Nathan listened, but his thoughts were elsewhere. Something was bugging him, gnawing at the back of his mind like a festering splinter. Something about the farmhouse. The garage. He couldn’t place it. He also kept listening for the telltale blast of a claymore detonating out of the darkness. Be careful out there, guys.

“What do we do with our guests after this?” Henning asked.

“We take them back and release them,” Holly answered. “There’s still a possibility their cousins will try to make contact. We keep watching them.”

“Better let me have a chat with them first,” Nathan said.

“Okay…” she said.

“I, or rather we,” he said, nodding toward Harv, “need to convince them that reporting any of this would be a bad idea.”

“We did bend the rules a little,” Holly said.

“A little,” Nathan echoed.

“Do you honestly think they’ll keep quiet about this?” Henning asked.

“There are over two hundred bones in the human body,” Nathan said.

Henning looked at Holly with a combined expression of revulsion and dismay.

“You could also offer them some of the cash,” Nathan said. “As compensation for their undivided cooperation tonight.”

Holly didn’t respond.

He shrugged. “What could it hurt? The money’s unofficial. Give them four grand apiece, which leaves an even three-hundred grand. A nice, round number. No one would be the wiser. It evens the score for them a little. Tell them if they say anything, you’ll deny it. It’s your word against theirs. All of this is.”

“That’s not an altogether bad idea.…”

In the dim light filtering through the trees, Henning looked like he was ready to come unglued, his mouth opening and closing as if choking on a chicken bone.

“Let’s use this time wisely,” she said. “Are you and Harvey up to giving those guys an orthopedic briefing?”

At hearing that from his boss, Henning’s jaw dropped.

The more time Nathan spent with Holly, the more he liked her. This woman was definitely with the program, aboard for the big win. “Come on, Harv.” He turned back to Holly. “Can we offer them the cash?”

She hesitated, then said, “Sure, why not.”

Three minutes later, Nathan and Harv were back.

“Well?” she asked.

“They’re A-plus students with beer money for a year,” Nathan said.

Holly’s radio came to life. She held up her hand for a few seconds, then said,  “We’ve got a burned-down structure with one BBR.”

BBR, Nathan told himself.

Burned beyond recognition.

James Ortega.

Chapter 8

Chapter  8