Impact (Book 5): Black

TKM. Even if you do not let me come along, please take the Lahti.” The big gun had been placed on Robert’s truck, which was parked over by the train shed. The workers stood around it admiring the giant weapon.
Robert seemed pumped. “I’ll get the engine ready. It took some bullets, but she’s built to withstand anything. It won’t take me long.”
Misha followed up the statement. “If you can, tell TKM you are heading east. It will throw Nerio off scent for a time.” He hesitated, slowly turning to Grace. “That is, if you are going with us?”
She and Asher exchanged a look before she made her decision. Grace tossed the backpack over to Misha. “Fine. It’s obviously as bad as you say. If we have to go to Yellowstone to make a stand, I’m all for it. I just have to change my voicemail message.”
Misha looked at her as if she’d gone nuts, but she was happy to let him think it. She couldn’t trust him, and she wanted him to be unsure about her motives, too. As such, she pulled out her phone and walked away, careful not to let him overhear her important discussion.
Someone had left a message. She checked the network and found it wasn’t connected at that moment, but the voice message had downloaded to her phone, suggesting it had temporarily linked up at some point recently, as Asher had predicted.
Unsurprisingly, it was Dad. “Hi, Grace. Me and Butch are on the river, moving closer to you…” He went on to assure her he’d gotten her message about not going to Denver, and he added one of his claps, which warmed her heart.
She pressed the button to re-record her greeting for him. “Hi, Dad. I’m changing my voicemail message again. My last one said I was heading east. You won’t believe it, but lots has changed for me. Now I’m heading back toward Yellowstone. I’m going to the dig site south of the park. I’ll change my message again when I know exactly where it is. I love you. Please leave your message, and one of these.” She clapped as close to the mic as she could get.
She hung up smiling. Simply thinking about her father did wonders for her morale. And if they were going back toward danger, she needed all the positive vibes she could summon.
Arrow Rock, MO
“Well, this doesn’t look good.” Ezra and Butch came up the steep bank of the Missouri River and found themselves at the edge of what looked like a tasteful country subdivision, rather than a town. The roads weren’t much larger than a single lane, and the small brick houses were dominated by huge oak trees and sprawling grass yards. A two-lane highway was partially hidden by trees about a half mile away, but there didn’t seem to be anything except houses between him and the other end of Arrow Rock.
Haley came up a few moments later, Liam yanking on his leash ahead of her. She also insisted on bringing Victoria in her crate, though she didn’t let it slow her down.
Butch hung back, not helping her, but appearing ready if she asked. When she walked by, the young man took note of the cat carrier. “Would your kitty survive in a backpack? Would be a lot easier to carry around.”
She seemed to consider. “At this point, I don’t think she’d survive in anything. All the noise and shooting has her terrified.” Haley brought the cage up, so she and Butch could look inside. “See? She’s even afraid of me right now.”
The big guy chuckled. “Maybe it’s me?”
“Naw,” she said, lowering the crate again. “My sweet baby has been like this since I took her from Xander’s place. It isn’t healthy for her to have so much stress.”
Ezra crouched to pet the puggle, who’d taken a seat after the long walk up the hillside from the river. “It’s not healthy for any of us, but we came up here for an important reason.” He glanced down the narrow asphalt lane. “Maybe there’s a gas station at the other end of the street. We should find out.”
“Why don’t we ask someone?” Haley said, walking out onto the shady lane.
“Sounds good,” he replied, motioning Butch to go first.
They walked for a short time before seeing several people out in their yards. He and Butch waved to a man sitting on his back porch, though Haley kept going forward. He was about to ask if she’d missed him, but soon figured out her intentions.
The young woman power-walked toward the fenced yard of a house a little farther up the street. A woman threw a bright yellow tennis ball for her black Labrador retriever. As soon as Liam caught sight of a friend, he barked with anticipation. The other dog stopped in place, dropped the ball, then barked in return.
“Now I get it,” he said jokingly to Butch.
Haley heeled Liam about twenty feet from the low chain-link fence before speaking to the other woman. “Hello! We’re on a boat down on the river. We need a gas station so we can fill up.”
Ezra held up the red five-gallon container.
The woman was probably in her fifties, with straight blonde hair with several streaks of gray. She was dressed in sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt, as if she hadn’t been expecting visitors. “We don’t get many people come up from the river here in Arrow Rock. Tourists usually come here in cars. ’Course, we haven’t got many visitors since the TV went off last week.”
Haley struggled to control her dog. “But does the town have gas?”
The Arrow Rock resident came over to the fence, moving at country speed. Ezra was well familiar with that mode of travel. It was for those times when you wanted to pull up a stump and chat with a neighbor. It