“I’ll work my way down through the boulders and sagebrush below us. When I get to the bottom, tell me what you see ahead.”
Drake moved down through the large boulders scattered just below the timberline, looking for signs of intrusion detection devices. Mike had told him about the newest perimeter security devices he wouldn’t be able to spot. With the size of the ISIS ranch and its extensive perimeter, they were fairly confident he wouldn’t be detected, if at all, until he got close to the ranch buildings.
When he reached the bottom of the slope below the timberline, he keyed his mike.
“You seeing what I’m seeing?” he asked Mike.
“Looks like the flat area ahead of you might have a few surprises. Twenty-five yards across, flat like it’s been leveled and treated with weed killer. I can’t see anything growing on this side of that barbed-wire fence.”
“You see anything on the other side of the fence?”
“Can’t see anything, but I suspect it’s infrared. The open area must have sensor pads.”
“I’m going to my left, by that small cluster of trees. From here, it looks like that’s the end of this open area. Maybe I can find a way in from there,” Drake said.
Moving laterally, he worked his way through the sagebrush until he reached the small cluster of juniper trees. From there, he could see the ranch house and other buildings clearly.
“What are you scoping?”
“I don’t see anything between those trees and the fence. From the fence to the buildings, it’s clear. No one’s moving around. There are lights on in the ranch house and the largest of the three buildings below it.”
Drake studied the open ground ahead of him, sector by sector. He didn’t see anything to contradict Mike’s assessment.
“I’m going to chance it. If there are sensors on this side of the fence, deer and coyotes would drive whoever is monitoring their system nuts. They’re probably trying to make us think there are detection sensors out here.”
“Of course, they could just use dogs to keep people out,” Mike suggested, knowing how Drake loved Bullmastiffs, Dobermans and Rottweilers trained as guard dogs.
“Thanks for that, bolsters my confidence immensely. I’m going over to the fence to see what it looks like.”
Drake moved quickly to the fence. He was in the open, but unless someone was watching this particular sector of the ranch perimeter with night vision binoculars, he wouldn’t be noticed. The fence was a typical barbed-wire fence, four strands running between cedar fence posts.
Crawling under the bottom strand of barbed wire, Drake stood up and whispered into his mike.
“I’ll stay here for a couple minutes to see if that triggered anything.”
When Mike saw no activity below, he directed Drake to move to his left to a slope that ran down to the ranch house and other buildings.
“It looks like that’s your safest way in,” Mike said.
Drake ran across sixty yards of old pasture land to the bottom of the slope before he crouched and scanned the area. Ahead at ten o’clock, he saw the outline of the largest of the three buildings on the lower level, below the ranch house.
Vectoring back from right to left, Drake thought he saw the glow of a cigarette midway between the two-story building and the fence line he’d just crossed.
“Mike, put your scope on that small stand of trees directly in front of me. I thought I saw something there.”
After a moment, Mike confirmed it.
“You have a man smoking a cigarette in the middle of that stand of trees. I don’t know how he got there. I’ve been watching that area from the buildings to the fence since you went in. He wasn’t there a minute ago. I would have spotted him.”
“I’ll head his way and see what he’s doing. If they have guards posted, I may be wasting my time. If he’s just taking a smoke break, maybe I can follow him and find a way in. If he looks my way, signal.”
Drake moved quietly forward, keeping his eyes on the stand of trees faintly illuminated by the stars overhead. Growing up in the city, he never got over how bright the stars were in central Oregon, east of the Cascade mountain range. After covering the first fifty yards of open rangeland, he stopped and looked again for the red glow of the cigarette he’d seen earlier.
“Mike, is he still there? I can’t see him.”
“Neither can I,” Mike said. “I watched him until a minute ago when I looked away to check for activity down around the buildings. When I looked back, he was gone. Stay put until I find him.”
Drake dropped to the ground and searched the area ahead of him. All he saw with his night vision goggles were a few gnarly juniper trees bunched together. The trees were only seven or eight feet tall, but their twisted shapes provided excellent cover for a man sneaking a smoke or standing guard duty.
“He’s not there,” Mike reported. “Unless this guy is a world-class sprinter, and ran back behind one of those buildings when I looked away, he just disappeared.”
“Not possible, I would have heard him. I’m going to take a look.” He wasn’t going to risk getting any closer until he knew where the smoker went. A posted guard doesn’t smoke, and no one was that fast over uneven rangeland.
Drake stood and moved ahead, watching for movement. When he was twenty yards from the junipers, he checked with his spotter again.
“Still clear?” he asked.
“Go. I don’t see anyone from here,” Mike reported.
Drake moved forward and stopped behind the first juniper large enough to provide cover. He could still smell the tobacco smoke hanging in the night air. He was alone amidst the ancient shapes of the junipers, with no sign of danger until he stepped down on a metal surface and froze.
Chapter 34
Drake’s first thought was that he had stepped on a mine. He’d worked around mined areas along the border between Iraq and Iran, seen hundreds of boys and men missing arms and legs. Then he started remembering what he’d been taught about land mines. He squatted down without shifting his weight and gently felt the surface around his feet. It felt like a manhole cover. Feeling around the circumference of the metal plate, he found an opening, wide enough for four of his fingers to lift the cover.
“Mike, you won’t believe this. I know how our smoker disappeared. I’m standing on top of a manhole cover. He must have surfaced from somewhere underground for a smoke break.”
“If they’re hiding something underground, they’re not going to be happy the hired help is using it to sneak out for smokes.”
“I’m going to try and lift this cover, see if he left it open for his next break. It might be my way in,” Drake said.
“You sure you want to do this? If you trip an alarm, you’ll have a hell of a time getting back out.”
“If I’m wrong and ISIS is running a legitimate operation, they’ll just call the cops. You can bail me out. If I’m right and don’t make it out, you’ll know my hunch was right. We win either way.”
Drake stepped off the manhole cover and wedged his fingers in the half-inch crack around the edge. He lifted the cover and saw a soft red glow lighting a concrete shaft with a steel ladder leading down.
“Mike, I’m going in. The cover wasn’t secured. Looks like a tunnel leads back toward the buildings. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, or signal I’m in trouble.”
Drake climbed down the ladder, closing the cover behind him. The tunnel led to a metal door fifty yards away. He moved quickly down the tunnel, took a moment to slow his heart, and pulled the door open with his right hand.
He saw a long hallway with unfinished concrete walls, doors on each side, and industrial-type lighting overhead. Drake moved quietly to the first door on the left and listened. Easing it open, he found the room empty except for a bed, a small desk and a military gray, portable metal closet against the far wall. It looked like some of the barrack quarters he’d occupied over the years.