Page 78 of Battle Mountain

As he projectedan aerial drone photograph on the wall behind him, Soledad tried not to reveal how rattled he’d been two hours before. That’s when he’d received a call from a burner phone carried by Marshall Bissett, one of the vets, who was doing a security stint at the front entrance of the B-Lazy-U Ranch. Bissett was one of his best men, and a true believer. He’d infiltrated the security team by simply showing up at the property and announcing that he’d been ordered by his superior officer at the “Dam Neck Annex of Naval Air Station Oceana near Virginia Beach” to help provide security for the secretary of defense. Since the security team had been assigned by different authorities and they’d never worked together as a unit before, they hadn’t been briefed on the entire makeup of the contingent. But they all knew about the location of SEAL Team Six, and no more questions were asked of Marshall Bissett.

“Nate Romanowski showed up at the front gate a half hour ago,” Bissett had reported. “He was with a big Black guy who said his name was Steve Richards, but he matched the description of Geronimo Jones.”

“Where are they now?” Soledad asked.

“We sent them on their way. But I have no doubt that they plan to come back.”

“This answers several questions I had,” Soledad said.

“What questions?”

“I was tipped off that Romanowski and Jones were at the Anthony house near Tie Siding yesterday. I’d sent three activists intoLaramie for supplies, so I diverted them and told them to set up an ambush. Of course, they fucked it up. Now we know what happened.”

“Romanowski got the jump on them,” Bissett said. “Just like those other three up at that safe house near Pinedale.”

“Exactly right. And now, after a long absence, he’s on our doorstep the night before we launch.”

“That’s a problem,” Bissett said.

“I’ll handle it,” Soledad said. “I need to make a call.”

Which he did, two minutes later, to Twelve Sleep County sheriff Jackson Bishop. As he’d promised months before, Bishop answered his burner phone right away.

“What?” Bishop said. “I’m kind of busy at the moment. I met this new barmaid at the Stockman’s Bar and she came home with me…”

“Everything is on track for Battle Mountain,” Soledad said bluntly. “But we’ve got a Romanowski problem. I need you to do what we talked about.”

“Now?” Jackson asked, obviously distressed about it. “Tonight?”

“No. You can’t break into their house. Do it tomorrow, when she’s the most vulnerable.”

“What am I going to do with a two-year-old girl?” Jackson said.

“Just hold her and wait to hear from me.”

“Jesus, Axel. This is bad.”

“It’s necessary.”

“I’m going to lose my job over this.”

“We all make sacrifices,” Soledad said, and punched off.

—

The anarchists consistedof six men and four women, and they’d come from all over the country. All had been students at various elite universities, and they’d participated in demonstrations, walkouts, protests, marches, campus encampments, and acts of disobedience or violence that led to their expulsion (or, in a couple of cases in Ivy League schools, their graduation with honors).

Axel had recruited them by arriving at their campus encampments and providing funds for tents and food. He also gave fiery speeches, telling them that he was one of them and he was just as against the oppressors as they were. He railed against the patriarchy and the military-industrial complex, and he led them in mantras where they chanted scripts sent to them on their iPhones. He told them he’d been radicalized and now believed in their commitment to resistance and their wish to overthrow capitalism and the American government. And that he was there to help them do it.

Basically, Soledad told them whatever they wanted to hear. He kept a list of most-fervent true believers, and he kept in touch with them via secure texts and messages. He promised he would lead them on an act of resistance that would strike a blow to the oppressors that they would never forget.

When he’d built his list up to sixteen hardcore believers, he summoned them to the old mining ghost town and started their training in weapons and tactics. Although none of them were natural warriors and a few recoiled at the sight of guns, they eventually came around. They believed in their cause enough to take up arms and use them. He never told them about the three peoplehe’d sent to occupy his safe house near Pinedale, where they’d run up against Nate Romanowski. No great loss there, except for Bethany. Bethany he’d liked.

But in his heart, Soledad despised them all. They were entitled, bitter, dirty, and profoundly ignorant of history. He didn’t even like looking at them sitting there with their nose rings, multicolored hair, bored expressions, COVID masks, and Palestinian kaffiyehs.

Easily replaceable cannon fodder, as far as he was concerned. But they could still be useful if they did what they were told.

And there was the added benefit that he wouldn’t feel any remorse later when he either cut them loose, set them up, or abandoned them.

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