Wilderness Pursuit

“Can I check on you in the morning?” Sam stared out the window as he asked, and Kara heard the hesitance in his voice. Did she want to interact with him any more than necessary? Not particularly, but she also had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to avoid him for a while.

“I need to go back out to the site,” she said instead. “If Ed won’t believe me because I don’t have proof, I need to go get some. I’ll take more photos. Maybe he’ll be more cooperative with both of us if I can show him tangible evidence of a possible burial.”

Sam sighed. “That’s probably a good idea. You need new tires on your car, so I don’t recommend driving out there in your vehicle, and I also don’t want anyone heading to the site alone, at least not until there’s been some kind of security set up. I can drive you in and have a look around for some additional evidence on the attackers’ identities.”

Kara’s hands tightened into fists. It felt strange to be around him after so many years of silence—silence she’d instigated and maintained, and yet here he was talking to her as if nothing had happened. Part of her didn’t want the awkwardness of being around him without addressing the figurative elephant in the room. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but want to know more about how Sam had ended up working in law enforcement. About his life. About what he’d been up to for the past eighteen years.

And in spite of herself, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed him until the moment he’d walked back into her life today.

“Fine,” she said. “If that’s how it has to be.”

He climbed out of the car and opened her door, then escorted her to the motel’s office. “The station is literally across the road. If there’s any trouble tonight, though I can’t imagine why there would be, help will be here in a flash.”

“Thank you. I think it’ll be fine. The guys at the site were probably extremist locals, maybe even environmentalists who resent the pipeline project. Maybe attacking us was a crime of opportunity—or maybe they were dumb, treasure-hunting kids who heard the word archaeology and assumed that the site has buried riches. That would explain why the dirt and soil had been disturbed. I mean, it probably does have buried riches, but not in the way most people would think.”

Sam smiled, a gentle expression that made Kara’s heart skip a beat in surprise. “Get some rest. I’ll see you bright and early.” He waved goodbye and climbed into his patrol car. Had it really been almost two decades since they’d seen each other? She swallowed down a bizarre, unwelcome wave of regret—where is that coming from?—and stepped into the motel office.

Within minutes, she was lying on the motel bed in her room, staring at the ceiling and listening to the thudding of raindrops outside. Springs from the cheap mattress dug into her back, and the sheets felt scratchy under her palms. Not that she’d expected a four-star hotel. She was used to staying at budget motels while on dig contracts—or even camping outdoors. At least the place looked and smelled clean. Would she be able to sleep after the events of the day, though? She had planned to change into her pajamas, but exhaustion gripped her limbs now that she’d stopped moving, and it felt good to be still for a few minutes, even if her brain kept racing. Sam as an RCMP officer. An attack on the dig site. Taking this job had seemed like a good idea at the time—it put her about a four-hour drive away from her parents’ place in Fort St. Jacob, where she’d grown up. They’d been after her to come up for a visit since her return to British Columbia, and she hadn’t even considered that the youngest Thrace brother might still be in the area. It made no sense. Hadn’t he wanted to get out of the rural north as badly as she did?

Thunder rumbled in the distance and she yawned, closing her eyes.

A bang and a loud roar of thunder startled her awake. Her eyelids flew open to meet darkness as she grew suddenly overwhelmed with a sense that something was wrong. For a moment she wondered where she was. Fort Mason, she remembered. You’re in Fort Mason during a storm. That’s all it is.

She tilted her head toward the room’s front window where the curtains were drawn, blocking nearly all the light from outside, and released the breath she’d been holding. The wind outside shrieked and howled, and she thought she heard branches cracking on nearby trees.

I’m glad I’m safe in here, she thought.

And then the shadows in her room moved.

She screamed as a hand flew out of the darkness and covered her mouth. Another hand clamped around her arm and yanked her out of bed, throwing her into a chair in the middle of the room. She tried to lash out with her limbs, but a sudden sensation of cold metal against her neck stopped her short.

“You’ll stop moving if you know what’s good for you,” a low, masculine voice growled. The cold metal pressed harder, and she felt the sharp tip of a blade at the hollow of her throat. Rough hands grabbed at her, pulling her arms behind the chair. The crackle of zip ties and pressure against her wrists told her she’d been secured in place. Her legs were still free, but with the knife digging into her throat and the room in complete darkness, she had no way to know where to kick or whether fighting back would send the knife plunging deep into her flesh.

“I don’t have any money,” she said, surprised at how steady her voice sounded. “My wallet is in the bag by the door. Take the credit cards, take whatever you want. You don’t need to do this.”

“After I leave,” the intruder growled, “you’re going to pack up and leave town.”

Kara could hardly hear over the pounding of her own heart. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“The next time, you won’t get away with just a scratch,” the man said, ignoring her. “If you value your life, get out of town and don’t come back. Now.” The pain at her throat intensified, the tip of the blade digging into her neck with each word.

“I can’t very well do that when I’m tied up, can I?” She knew she shouldn’t have said anything the moment the words left her lips. She felt his anger increase as lightning flashed outside, and through the faint light that filtered through the crack in the curtains, she saw him rear back, his arm raised and ready to swing down on her—

And then the motel door flew open with a bang. Another body dived into the room and tackled the person who held her captive. They both tumbled to the floor and she heard a grunt of pain, and when the next flash of lightning came, she saw Sam struggling to take control of the knife in her attacker’s hand. The man swung at Sam with his free hand, trying to distract Sam so he could bring down the blade, but Sam kicked out and connected with the man’s stomach. He toppled backward, but the sudden movement meant the knife swung down anyway. It sliced across Sam’s forearm, and he shouted in pain.

“Sam!” Kara tried to rise, but the zip ties held her back against the chair. But her legs were free! She scooted forward and kicked at the downed man, knocking the knife from his hand. She tried to kick at the man’s face, too, but Sam’s injury and her partial incapacitation gave the attacker an advantage. The man scrambled to his feet and plunged out into the storm.

Sam rose to go after him, but paused in the doorway as lightning cracked and thunder roared almost simultaneously.

“Sam, don’t,” Kara pleaded. “Don’t go after him. It’s too dangerous.”

Sam stumbled back into the room and shut the door, then clicked the light switch. Nothing happened. “Power’s out.”

Kara gaped at him. “No surprise there. But Sam, how did you...what...”

Sam swept to her side and checked her bindings. “I saw his outline through the window when the lightning flashed. I was coming over to see if you’d rather ride out the storm in my parents’ basement. They have a generator and you won’t be next to a—” they both flinched at the sound of another crack of lightning “—picture window when there are tree branches coming down and debris flying around outside. And definitely no intruders. It’s up to you, but this place clearly isn’t safe.”

“All right. Yes. Thank you.” Kara’s heart leaped back into her throat. Did she want to be around Sam’s parents? Of course not. Was there a better alternative? Staying here certainly wasn’t an option. “Sam, he told me to get out of town. He threatened my life, and I’m fairly certain it was one of the same guys who attacked me and Mike at the dig site. He knew I’d be here. Someone doesn’t want that site dug up, and they seem willing to kill to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

* * *

Sam couldn’t sleep. He hoped that Kara was getting some rest in his parents’ guest room in the basement, and while he’d tried to catch some shut-eye on the couch upstairs, every new rumble of thunder pulled his consciousness right back to full alert. As soon as the sun came up and it was safe to head outside, he needed to get to the site of yesterday’s attack. He’d already called his brother Aaron and asked him to check out Kara’s hotel room, but Sam had a sinking feeling that neither attack location would yield much information of value. The storm might have washed away clues out in the forest, and the intruder at the motel had been wearing gloves, a mask and nondescript clothing. That didn’t mean it wasn’t still worth taking a look at both locations.

The basement steps creaked, and Kara’s sleepy face crested the stairs. Her black hair was rumpled and messy, in desperate need of a brush, and she looked as exhausted as he felt—and yet he couldn’t take his eyes off her. What is that about?

How did they end up in the same place at the same time again, anyway? He’d literally never expected to see her again, and thought he’d gotten over how much he’d missed her during those first few months—no, years—after she pushed him away. But having her here right in front of him...it was a reminder of their shared moments of laughter, of deep conversations, of stolen kisses as he’d walked her home after youth group on Wednesdays nights. He’d been a bit of an aimless teen, sure, and she’d had her life more or less planned out, but he’d believed they would make it work.

And then she’d gone and stomped on his heart and ruined everything.

“Coffee,” she groaned, pulling Sam back to reality. He might not be able to help his outward attraction to her, but it held no lasting meaning. She’d shown her true, inner self eighteen years ago.

“Nope, sorry. Power’s still out.” Kara sighed as his phone buzzed. The middle Thrace brother, Leo, was calling. Sam headed toward the front door, gesturing at Kara to put on her shoes while he spoke to his brother. “What’s the situation, Leo? Anyone have power yet, or are we looking at multiple downed lines?”

“Good morning to you, too,” Leo said, sounding remarkably alert for so early in the morning. “There’s a crew out now working on getting critical power restored, but another team is on the way from Fort St. Jacob to handle the residential grid. South of us didn’t get hit nearly as hard as we did, but it’s going to be tricky for them to get to us. It’s not pretty out there.”

Sam’s hopes plummeted. “Besides the downed lines?”

Leo sighed. “Trees, too, and large broken branches. The western road into town is covered with debris. The other guys have set up a roadblock until it gets cleared and the live power lines are raised again. Way too dangerous for folks to be driving around on it.”

“Well, that’s inconvenient.” Sam rubbed his eyes and glanced at Kara, who regarded him with an unspoken question. “Did Aaron fill you in on the attack at the Number Six motel last night? I know it’s technically my morning off, but it sounds like you and the others will have your hands full with storm recovery. I wanted to head out to the Gaida Industries pipeline site in the forest where the attack happened yesterday, see if anything pops out at me. If the same people are responsible for multiple attacks on Ms. Park, then I want them found and brought to justice immediately. She’s in Fort Mason to do a specific, time-sensitive job, and she can’t do it while she’s a target.”

“Ms. Park?” Hesitance crept into Leo’s voice. “That wouldn’t be the same Ms. Park who turned you into a blubbering mess when we were kids, would it? Please tell me it’s not. I know that’s a common Korean last name.”

Sam’s stomach dropped at his brother’s guess. “It’s the same woman, yes. Kara Park is the lead archaeologist on the project.” His brother’s silence spoke volumes. Sam lowered his voice and turned around. Kara took the hint and stepped outside onto the front porch. “I know how to do my job, Leo. I can handle it, and besides, that was years ago. Almost two decades. I’m over it. Over her.”

Leo sighed. Sam wanted to get angry, to tell his brother to mind his own business, but he knew Leo was only looking out for him—and he appreciated that, even if his brothers did tend to be a little overbearing at times. But wasn’t that what older brothers were for?

“I’m going out to the site, Leo.”

“That’s fine.” His brother’s tone shifted again, back to business. “And I’m on board with you working on your day off, but you can’t drive out there. There are literally live wires in the road. Aaron took his horse, Hera, through one of the back trails to set a roadblock at the other end about an hour ago, and apparently the trails aren’t bad. A little muddy and some minor debris, but at least there are no live wires. And the denseness of the forest means a trail is going to be easier going than the road in terms of debris size. Are you taking Kara with you? Is that wise?”

Sam closed his eyes. “Yes, I think so, and yes. If she’s a target, she’s safest with a trained and armed RCMP officer by her side. I know those trails outside of town better than anyone, and for that matter, I highly doubt there’ll be other people around at six in the morning after a severe storm.”

“Take Zephyr and Brenik,” Leo suggested. “They could use the exercise. Zephyr is looking a little pudgy around the middle these days.”

“Speak for yourself,” Sam teased, then hung up and joined Kara on the porch. She blinked her teardrop eyes at him, waiting. “We’ll take the horses. I’m going to be fully geared up, but stay close. So far, the cowards who’ve bothered you have fled when I’ve come on-scene, so I’m not too worried. But a little extra planning and caution doesn’t hurt.”

Her eyebrows raised, and she took a literal step back. “Extra planning? I guess a lot has changed, hasn’t it?”

“Follow me,” he said, ignoring her dig at his past tendency to skate through life without a care, expecting the world to bend to him instead of considering his future. He led the way outside. The sky still held the yellowish tinge of a recently passed storm, and the roads were littered with broken branches, sopping-wet leaves and loose papers, and plastic patio furniture. Sam worried that he might open the station’s stable to find frightened, skittish horses, but he needn’t have been concerned. The three horses for their detachment munched calmly on their breakfast and greeted him with soft whinnies. He readied the two most experienced horses of the group, Brenik and Zephyr, and handed a set of reins to Kara. “You remember how to ride?”

She leveled her gaze at him, then patted Zephyr on the snout. The creature’s eyes flicked nervously toward Sam, but she almost immediately succumbed to Kara’s curled fingers scratching behind her ears. “It’s been a while, but I think I can manage. These horses are massive. I’ve never seen horses this big before.”

“Brenik is seventeen point three hands. Zephyr is sixteen hands, and Hera over there is sixteen and a half. RCMP horses used to be primarily Thoroughbred, but now have Hanoverian in the bloodline for temperament.”

“Did you train these horses yourself?”

He couldn’t help but smile at the wonder on her face. She looked as innocent as a child, staring at these massively powerful but gentle giants. “No, the farm is located in Pakenham, Ontario, in the Ottawa Valley. At three years old, they’re transferred to a training facility at Rockcliffe Park Equestrian Center in Ottawa. Their handlers are total pros and do a fantastic job. Most horses are raised for a career in the Musical Ride. It’s an incredible spectacle, if you ever get a chance to see it. Aaron participated for a few years before coming to Fort Mason.”

“That’s the only time the RCMP wears those red uniforms anymore, eh?”

“It’s iconic, but yes—the red is really only ceremonial these days.” He waited until she’d settled herself in the saddle before getting situated, then led the way out and onto the road. The town felt unnaturally still and quiet after the intensity of the night before, and he couldn’t help but keep a constant watch on their surroundings. While he felt mostly certain that Kara’s attacker wouldn’t dare try anything while she rode with him, letting his guard down would be a mistake.

At the edge of town, Sam waved to his brother who sat in an RCMP patrol car, lights flashing. Bright orange pylons blocked the road, and one look down the main stretch out of Fort Mason showed exactly why. Leo hadn’t been exaggerating about the amount of debris on the road—Sam noted several fallen trees and multiple downed wires. Some of the power line posts leaned dangerously toward the road and would need to be righted before the route could be opened again. Anyone who needed to leave town would have to take the eastern road and add a solid forty-five minutes to their journey. That was both a benefit and a disadvantage of living in the mostly uninhabited wilds of northern British Columbia—it provided peaceful isolation from the frantic pace of urban life, but also meant an occasionally frustrating lack of accessibility to the rest of the province.

He steered Brenik toward a blue-and-white provincial parks sign that denoted the start of a maintained trail just outside town. “This should bring us fairly close to the dig site,” he said, looking back at Kara. “I assume you brought something to take photos with?”

She nodded. “I used a portable battery to charge my phone at your parents’ place. The resolution of the images won’t be nearly as high as with my camera—my cell phone is a few generations old—but it should do as proof for Gaida Industries.”

Sam’s shoulders tightened at the reminder of Ed Tigh’s attitude the day before. “Do you deal with a lot of pushback in your line of work? His hostility seemed uncalled for.”

Kara’s nostrils flared as she drew Zephyr up alongside him. “I wish I could say it’s unusual, but it’s not. I’m a woman working on contracts with industries that are male-dominated. Like any line of work, I run into people who respect my expertise and those who resent it, though I suspect I might encounter more resentment because government-regulated survey work, by its very nature, causes delays for companies looking to conduct large-scale digging and building operations. They often see my purpose as a waste of time and money, regardless of the necessary historical value in local archaeology.”

“So I shouldn’t be concerned about the way he spoke to you?”

Kara stared straight ahead at the path. “I can fight my own battles when it comes to my job, Sam. I appreciate your intervention in the physical ones, but I’ve handled these types before. I’ll just get the photos I need as proof, and then he’ll have to back down and let me work. If the survey isn’t complete, the government can swoop in and shut Gaida Industries down, so regardless of whether he thinks I’m making it all up or not, he needs me here to do this work.”

Sam ground his teeth, thinking about what her attacker had said last night at the motel. Gaida Industries might need the survey done, but someone didn’t want her here at all, and they’d gone out of their way to make sure she didn’t start digging. But if they successfully ran her out of town, wouldn’t another archaeologist just come along instead? Where was the sense in trying to scare her away?

After another kilometer or so, he pulled them off the trail and into the forest. The ground was damp, but not nearly as wet as the exposed ground that hadn’t received the benefit of cover from trees overhead. Kara had remained silent, and he didn’t know what to say—how did he talk to her about anything other than work and the attacks without dredging up old hurts and angry emotions on both sides?

Still, he didn’t mind the silence all that much. It gave him a chance to think over what had happened the day before. Even if Kara didn’t think anything of Ed Tigh’s hostility, something about the man’s attitude and the attacks didn’t sit right with Sam.

“It’s right up here, I think,” he said as they broke through a dense line of trees. “You can see the forest starting to thin here. Must be why they chose this area. You’re going to have quite the stretch of earth to survey, aren’t you?”

She nodded as the disturbed ground of the site came into view. “Yes, my team and I have several weeks of work at minimum, but the good news is that there are stretches along the proposed pipeline route that have already been surveyed over the years. The University of British Columbia runs northern field schools during the summer, which is to everyone’s advantage. It means less ground disturbance all around, if Gaida Industries can go ahead and lay the pipe through those areas.”

Kara dismounted and pulled out her cell phone, then crouched at the edge of the site. Sam joined her, but kept watch as she snapped pictures of the ground. He couldn’t see anything of note—it just looked like a large patch of tossed soil to him—but the expressions that flitted across her face were fascinating. One moment her brows furrowed in concentration, and the next her lips parted in surprise. Then she’d purse her lips and stare at the earth, then sigh, then smirk. It was as if she was having a conversation with herself, and to his bewilderment, he felt a sudden tug in his gut.

He wanted to be a part of that conversation. But no, that was ridiculous. She’s doing her job, the way I should be doing mine. Stop letting the past creep in and focus on the present.

He wrenched his eyes away from her and began studying the ground at the edge of the clearing, searching for any remaining hints or clues left behind by the previous day’s attackers. A footprint, fibers from clothing, a piece of dropped paper...anything at all.

He’d just finished a preliminary search of the perimeter when the horses began to shift their weight back and forth, shaking their heads. Brenik snorted and stamped his feet.

“What’s up, buddy?” He took the reins and stroked the animal’s neck. “Hold tight, we’ll be done soon—”

The crunch of movement across the forest floor froze Sam’s hand midstroke. Who else could possibly be out here? There were no cars allowed on the road, and he didn’t figure grizzlies would be awake and wandering around at this time of day—plus, it wasn’t as if he’d been quiet while trampling around the site and searching for clues.

The crunching noise was joined by a low, rumbling hum that quickly grew louder. An engine? Was someone riding a dirt bike on the trails at seven in the morning? He glanced at Kara, who stood and looked at him, perplexed—and then as suddenly as the sound began it stopped. Sam touched the Taser on his belt, but his shoulders dropped with relief as a familiar face walked out of the trees’ shadow.

“Foreman Helfer!” Kara’s jaw dropped. “You’re all right? What are you doing out here? I assumed you’d take a few days off to rest, at least.”

The foreman smiled, and Sam’s stomach twisted. Something wasn’t right. “I’m perfectly fine, Ms. Park,” the man said. “Unlike you, despite my best efforts.”

“Excuse me?” Kara tucked her phone into the back of her pants pocket. “Look, I’m glad you’re here. I went to speak with Ed Tigh yesterday, and he refused to believe that I saw bone in the disturbed earth—the phalange I pointed out to you. With my camera missing, I didn’t have proof to show him, but I think I’ve got enough in these new shots to convince him that this is definitely a First Nations burial site. I don’t know who disturbed it or doesn’t want me conducting the proper procedures for a find like this, but with these new photos and your personal testimony of what you saw—”