I thought about that as the hail finally started to peter out. With it went the wind but not the dark clouds, which were now squatting on the mountaintop across the river from us.
“We forgot to take our batteries out of our phones on our ride up here,” I said. “If M does have NSA-level access, he could have been listening.”
The first drops of rain began to fall as Sampson said, “The cartel could have picked us up if they were monitoring law enforcement activity around the ranch site.”
“Could have,” I said, calm enough to take the shotgun and my camp chair under the tarp. “But a helicopter attack strikes me as more M’s style than Emmanuella’s.”
Sampson followed me under the tarp as the sprinkles became light rain. “Whoever it was, if they can hire a helicopter, they aren’t going to stop.”
“You did some damage, John. I know I did too.”
“They’ll still come at us again,” he said. “I think it’s guaranteed before we reach the pullout. And I screwed us.”
I frowned. “How’s that?”
“I was the one who insisted on being cut off from everything, no sat phones, no SOS devices,” Sampson said. “We should be calling Mahoney and getting an army of FBI agents swarming the area, looking for that helicopter. I mean, someone is going to report a chopper damaged by buckshot and a Ruger round, right?”
“You would think so. But don’t be so hard on yourself about the satellite phone. I was as game for no contact as you were. Maybe even more so. It’s been years since I’ve been truly cut off, and I was very much looking forward to it.”
“Except here we are.”
I nodded. “Different circumstances now. It’s not just an adventure anymore.”
“Life or death.”
“Which means we have to be smart, think ahead,” I said. “We have to go as hard and as far as we can every day.”
Sampson was silent a moment. “Agreed,” he said finally. “We can’t afford the luxury of four more days.”
“Can we do the whole thing in two days?” I said.
“Three,” Sampson said. “I asked the hired hand, and he said with this water level and this amount of daylight, the best you could do from back at Gordon Creek was four days. Maybe two days from here if we get lucky and don’t have to drag the raft.”
Though the rain had lightened up again, the clouds on the other side of the river were getting lower and lower.
“This weather looks like it’s settling in,” I said. “If so, it could keep that helicopter out of the sky tomorrow and we could head downstream early, try to get to Big Salmon Lake. There may be people there camping who have a satellite phone we can use.”
Sampson brightened. “Bauer said there are horse campers up there all the time.”
“I remember,” I said, getting up. “Feel like a shot of bourbon to calm the nerves?”
Sampson smiled. “I was actually thinking more like two shots of bourbon.”
Chapter
85
Around two the following afternoon, in a relentless drizzle, Raphael Durango was wearing rain gear as he climbed down off his horse and did a few deep knee bends to get the kinks out. His four men were similarly dressed but hobbled by the long hours in the saddle. It took a dozen stiff steps before they were walking easily.
They helped unload the mules, taking care of their personal canvas duffels first. They set their bags aside while Tim, Bauer’s nephew, checked their outfitter’s tent down by an old ranger cabin at the east end of Big Salmon Lake, not far from the banks of the South Fork of the Flathead River.
“We’ll get your supplies into the tent and you’ll be good to go whenever you’re ready,” Tim said, helping them carry two folded rafts to the riverbank for inflation.
“You’re leaving today?” Durango said.
“Like I said last night, my wife’s about to pop with our first kid,” Tim said. “I promised her once you were set up, I’d turn right around and hoof it for home.”
This is the only reason I am letting you live, Tim, Durango thought as he smiled at the younger man. If my sister were here, you’d be six feet under.
“Good luck, then,” Durango said once they had the provisions squared away and the mules readied and Tim had gone over the grizzly-country protocols for food and trash. He held out a thick wad of hundred-dollar bills. “Here’s a tip from all of us. Buy your wife and baby something nice.”