Page 19 of Gunn's Mission

“We keep track of our usage. Nothing pisses off HQ more than having to bring out supplies when they plan our menus for us. It’s all down to science. We can move around meal plans, depending on what we’re craving at the moment, but we can only have so many spaghetti nights.”

When she brought him to a small room with a door in the back of the warehouse, she pointed to the medical supplies shelved there. “This is also where we stored Mateo’s body. We have a couple of body bags left,” she said, patting the plastic-wrapped packages on the shelf. “Not that I foresee us having to use another because we have you here now, but just in case…”

They left the building and headed to the smaller building that housed their generator. “The fuel tanks are behind the building,” she said, “and the line to the generator is well-insulated. We’ve never had problems. The generator itself is well-maintained. They had an industrial HVAC guy out before we arrived. Eric knows things, too, in case it ever has problems. Usually, he can be walked through any minor repairs via Zoom.”

“Does that happen often?”

“No. We haven’t had any outages we didn’t plan for maintenance purposes for the past couple of years. When we do bring down the system, it gets a bit chilly in the facility, but the building’s well-insulated.”

They left the building, and she locked the door.

When he raised an eyebrow, she shrugged. “No one but Eric and I have any business being in there, and the door latch is soft and opens easily, so it’s best to keep it locked. We wouldn’t want bears getting in there, looking for a warm place to rest.”

“You keep talking about those bears…”

She grinned. “Don’t be disappointed you haven’t seen one yet. Your time will come, and then you’ll be done. No more fascination.”

“Anyone ever have a close encounter?”

“You heard Nate’s story about running over a bear. Perry had an encounter, too. He was taking the trash out to the bin behind the facility. Someone hadn’t turned the latch to lock the lid, but he didn’t think anything about it until he raised it and found a bear staring right back at him, waiting for him to toss more trash into the bin.”

“What did Perry do?”

“He handed him the bag.”

Gunn laughed. When he quieted, he asked, “Have you ever had a close call?”

Maddie’s hazel eyes glinted with humor. “I was once chased by one when I was riding my snowmobile. I didn’t know he was there—you know, he was the same color as the snow. I rode past him just as he raised his head. My heart nearly stopped when he started to chase me, but they can only run for short distances. I just had to focus on not wrecking my vehicle. After that, I found religion,” she said, patting the strap attached to her rifle. “I never leave home without it.”

She glanced around the site. “The last thing I have to show you is the satellite dish.”

They passed the facility, and then she pointed to a rope tied to a tall stake struck into the ground at the corner of the building. “At night or during snow conditions, keep your hand on this rope.”

They followed the rope to a small enclosure that was open on the top. She unlatched the gate on the enclosure and stepped inside. A broom stood propped in one corner, and she took it and began to brush snow that gathered around the base of the satellite dish in the center of the enclosure. “We’re supposed to clear it every day. We can’t let snow accumulation get packed down. I haven’t been out here since… Well, you know.”

Gunn stepped forward. “Let me do that,” he said, taking the broom and brushing the snow outside the enclosure.

There was already some deeply encrusted ice around the base, so he turned the broom around and hit it with the handle to break it and then brush it away. While moving around the satellite dish, he saw something dark in the ice and quickly broke more ice away to clear it. Then he knelt and tugged at a black-coated wire. It came away free but seemed to be stuck beneath the base of the dish, so he continued to chip away.

“What did you find?” she asked, coming up to stand beside him.

“Not sure.” He struck the ice again, then pulled on the wire, bringing a small black box with it. He held it up to her and then stood. They both peered down at it.

She turned it over. “It has slots for SD cards,” she said softly. The box itself was crushed in the middle like someone had deliberately smashed it. She raised the end of the wire and found a USB connector. Then she walked to the satellite dish, opened the panel on the side, and found a USB port inside.

“Do you think Mateo was using it to relay data to Navarro?” Gunn asked.

“Why would he need to?” she asked. “He could do it from his computer.”

Gunn shrugged. “Maybe he thought his computer might get hacked. If the data he studied before that night didn’t show any sub activity, he’d feel safe enough sending it through the router.”

“Damn. That was why he was out here,” she whispered. “He found something.”

Gunn nodded. “Someone didn’t want him sending that data. Someone who might have been monitoring what he’d uploaded to his computer to check.”

Her gaze met his. Her expression looked haunted. “We’re not talking about someone coming in from outside to murder him. They’d have to be near enough to use Bluetooth. It was someone here. One of my team.”

He drew a deep breath and nodded. “You can’t trust anyone.”

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