Zeb leaves with the duffel bag. Every once in a while someone surprises him.

There’s another surprise waiting for him when Connor calls him later.

‘Are you sure? Are you aware of what you might get into?’

‘Moneybags put it eloquently, the charms of taking a dump in the mountains fade after some time, so if you invite trouble, then it’ll liven things up and I’ll have stories to tell at the water cooler.’

‘This is not some macho game. You all could end up dead,’ Zeb tells him bluntly.

‘You leave that to us, Zeb, just be there.’ There is a smile in Connor’s voice as he hangs up.

Broker is uncharacteristically supportive of Connor’s decision. Zeb expects him to launch a fusillade at weekend warriors, but he delivers a limp, ‘Their life, their death,’ instead. Maybe Broker is mellowing with age. Maybe hell has frozen over.

Zeb goes to the shooting range run by Bear and Chloe to center the AWM and get used to it. He then packs his armory, ready for an early start the next day. He leaves a message for Broker to let him know if there is any media coverage on him.

Zeb is going separately and a day later than the others deliberately. As he drives out of the city early the next day, the urban frenzy of the city gives way to I-87, and time slows down.

‘Well, hurry up; there are bears to be shot and fish to be caught,’ Connor says impatiently when he calls and finds that Zeb has left just an hour back.

‘Bear shooting? I don’t think so.’ Zeb hears Rory protesting in the background.

It’s well past noon when Zeb reaches their camp. It’s in one of the remotest parts of the Catskill Mountains, in the West Kill Mountain Wilderness Area. He parks his Jeep alongside theirs in a parking lot off Route 28 and then hikes a couple of miles to the coordinates given to him by Connor.

Their camp is in the open, tents put up by Connor and the women, about three hundred yards from thick woods. Zeb drifts through the woods, effortlessly becoming one with the foliage, and watches the camp for a long time, getting used to the sounds of the woods and the mountains.

He can see Rory playing with a Frisbee with Connor, and can see shadows moving in the tents. Something feels wrong, and he stays where he is, trying to figure it out. Finally he gives up. His radar isn’t pinging, so he doesn’t think there’s any danger.

He steps into the open and walks to the tents, his hands close to his sides.

Rory spots him, gives a whoop, and rushes toward him.

Zeb catches Rory and gives him a quick hug with his left hand, then stops suddenly, looking beyond Rory.

Chapter 13

From behind the tents emerge Connor puffing away contentedly on his foul-smelling pipe, Lauren, Anne, Cassandra, and Anne’s boyfriend.

But that’s not what makes Zeb stop.

Standing farther behind them, spread out, are Broker, Bear and Chloe.

‘You really didn’t think we would let you have all the fun yourself, did you?’ rumbles Broker.

Bear holds his hands up. ‘Not my idea. Connor and this dude, their danged idea. Blame them.’

Zeb walks silently to the tents and finds one empty, erected for him by Bear and Broker, and places his stuff within and walks out.

‘Are you mad at us, Zeb? Dad thought this was the best way to get all of us together,’ Rory asks.

Zeb’s hard face softens the slightest bit. ‘Nope. I’m okay. I was just surprised to see these guys here. To Bear, roughing it is staying at a Motel 6 instead of a Hyatt.’

‘I like him. He plays ball with me and is helping me with my pitching.’

‘Yes,’ agrees Zeb, ‘he’s a nice guy. But just make sure you sleep far away from him. He snores like a jet engine.’

It’s dusk when they finish playing. Broker has gone hunting since Connor’s plan was to let Rory experience living close to nature. Bear goes foraging for firewood, with Rory skipping excitedly beside him, while Zeb clears a large patch of grass for the fire. He arranges the firewood while Bear digs out loose soil to put the fire out later in the evening.

When Broker returns with two freshly skinned rabbits, everybody is lounging around a roaring fire.

‘As I thought. I do all the heavy lifting, and you guys watch the grass grow.’ He unslings the rabbits and puts them over the fire on a spit he makes expertly.

‘You guys have made all of us redundant.’ Connor laughs. ‘We might as well just sit back and have you take care of us.’

‘Did you guys serve together?’ asks Mark. Zeb has met Moneybags a few times, but it’s only here and now that he learns his actual name.

‘Nope. Broker and Zeb were in Somalia at the same time and then were together in various other places. Zeb and I were in Afghanistan. Broker and I hooked up once I left the service.’ Bear ladles food into their plates as he replies to Mark.

‘And is your name really Bear?’

‘Well, I prefer Bear to my real name.’ He grins.

‘Someone who has faced death more than once shouldn’t be afraid of revealing his real name,’ teases Mark.

Bear is busy eating when he realizes everyone is looking at him. Broker and Chloe are grinning.

‘It’s Bozo.’ He smiles sheepishly and buries his face in his hands as they all laugh.

Connor knocks his pipe out and refills it. ‘Before you came here, I was telling Bear, Broker and Chloe about my exposé on mining and the stories I’m writing,’ he says to Zeb. ‘I’ve received more anonymous threats, and I reported them all to the NYPD. Not that they’re going to do jack shit about it.’ He snorts. ‘I don’t know if you read the first of my stories that appeared last week. This week’s story will be in tomorrow’s newspaper. Once we return, I expect to get proof of Hardinger’s involvement, and then the fur will fly.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ Zeb says, ‘but you should get some protection for yourself, Lauren, and Rory if you think these threats have a bite.’

‘What we told him,’ chimes in Broker.

‘I’ll think about it,’ replies Connor. ‘I’ve been in hairier situations before and didn’t feel like I needed protection.’

Zeb adds some wood to the fire. ‘If Hardinger is as involved as you claim, then he has everything to lose, and if he’s involved in child labor in Africa, then going after you will be like swatting a fly – no offense.’

‘I’ll consider it when I see what proof I get from my sources.’

In the distance an owl hoots, followed by a replying hoot closer to them.

Zeb’s head snaps up, listening.

The owls hoot again.

He rises smoothly, fluidly, and scrutinizes the forest. Everyone falls silent and looks at him askance.

Finally, he turns to Broker. ‘Who’ve you told about this trip?’

‘I might have let it slip to a couple of folks.’ Broker is unabashed.

‘Who?’

‘Bwana and Roger.’

Zeb gazes at him for a long while and then walks into the darkness.

Rory is confused. ‘Is Zeb leaving?’

‘Nope.’ Broker laughs. ‘He’s going to meet some friends of ours.’

Lauren is astonished. ‘You mean those owl hoots were some guys Zeb knows? He recognized them? Out here? In the middle of nowhere?’

Broker nods. ‘Once Connor told me about this camping trip and Zeb’s warning to all of you, I called a few friends of ours. Two of them were going to be camping in the Catskills too and said they’d hang close to us. We all have call signs for one another. It’s not difficult to make out who’s who based on the call sign.’

Connor smiles with quiet satisfaction and puffs away at his pipe. ‘I bet those camping plans of theirs got made on the fly. Do they know Bear and Chloe too?’

Broker nods. ‘We work in a small circle. We all know one another.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Anne interjects. ‘Why would those two men drop whatever they’re doing and come charging out here just because you told them about Zeb and his problems?’