Page 89 of Battle Mountain

On the way out to the Suburban while Orr paid inside, Geronimo said, “What do you think? Can we trust him?”

“Not sure,” Nate replied. “But we can keep him close.”

“Uh-oh,” Geronimo said.

—

“You can’t justhold me here,” Sheriff Jackson Bishop said to Sheridan. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the duly elected sheriff of Twelve Sleep County.”

Bishop was seated in the dirt in the corner of the Yarak, Inc. pigeon coop on Nate’s property. His hands were cuffed behind his back. The ground was flecked with splashes of white pigeon excrement and errant feathers, and the two dozen birds housed in the coop had all moved en masse to elevated perches on the other side of the structure to distance themselves from him.

Sheridan was seated outside the coop within the open hatchback of her SUV, her feet dangling above the ground. She leaned forward and placed her chin in her hands and studied him through the chicken wire, pondering what to do.

“You’re going to find yourself in Lusk for this,” Bishop said, referring to the location of the Wyoming Women’s Center prison.

“I hope not,” Sheridan said.

“An attractive young woman such as yourself would have a very hard time there,” Bishop said.

Sheridan ignored him and asked, “Was this really all about the sovereign movement? Is that why you were going to take Kestrel?”

Bishop groaned loudly and looked up through the wire roof of the coop. “It’s complicated,” he said. “I wasn’t going to hurt her. I would never hurt a child.”

“So you were going to do what, exactly?” Sheridan asked.

“I was going to deliver her to social services and tell them herfather had abandoned her, which is the truth, as you know. While they sorted things out, she would have been fed and looked after. She would never have been in any danger.”

“Kestrel was with my mom,” Sheridan said. “She couldn’t be in better hands, and you know it. This whole thing was done to try to smoke Nate out from wherever he is, right?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Bishop said. “I was just doing what I was asked to do. Romanowski was getting too close to a big operation in another part of the state. I don’t know the details, but I was told it would be a game changer. The guy in charge of the operation wanted to create a distraction and take Nate off the board. That’s all.”

Bishop was flailing, Sheridan thought. As she thought it, he came up with a new angle to try. “I would have probably saved Nate’s life by doing this. Now it might be too late for him. If something happens to him now, it’s on you.”

“Nice try,” Sheridan said. “So you take orders from someone other than the voters of your county?”

“It’s not like that, really.” Bishop paused, as if to collect his thoughts. Then he said, “Sometimes a patriot has to stand up and do things for the greater good. I think someday you’ll look back on this and regret it when you realize I was on the right side in this fight and you’re just a dupe for people who don’t care about you. But let’s put that aside for now and call it even. You let me go and I won’t arrest you for kidnapping and assault.”

“If I do that, do we pretend nothing ever happened?” Sheridan asked.

“Exactly.”

“And you go back to your office and continue to be our sheriff?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got to really think about that,” she said.

“You can’t continue to hold me here,” Bishop said, his voice rising. “Every minute that goes by makes it worse for you. I mean, what are you going to do with me?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Sheridan said. “I didn’t exactly plan this out. My morning was going to be running errands, until you screwed it all up.”

—

An hour later,Henry’s ears perked up and rotated slightly toward something in front of them that Joe couldn’t yet see. He trusted Henry’s intuition and was instantly alert. The two-track curved ahead of them through the trees to the right and Joe couldn’t see beyond the turn. He listened for the sound of a vehicle coming, but there was no bass rumble or vibration through the ground.

Joe pulled Henry to a halt and leaned forward in the saddle. He saw a flash of dull white through a space between the tree trunks. Then another.

Something was moving down the two-track toward him.

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