Chapter 9 Marcus
MARCUS
It’s around midday two days later when the trail gets wider and we come out on the side of a dusty road.
Ahead is the small town of Faro. It’s more of a crossroads than a town. There’s a bakery, a diner, and a general store that doubles as the post office.
My gaze sweeps over the rusty pickup parked outside the general store and the two motorbikes outside the diner.
A black cat lies sprawled in the shadow of the general store, flicking its tail lazily. The green eyes regard us with disdain as we approach, but as far as I can tell, they’re the only eyes on us.
Allegra, dusty but determined, marches to the general store. I trail behind, my gaze sweeping the town out of habit.
The past two days have passed without incident.
By day we hike, stopping to collect samples, which Allegra records meticulously.
At night we huddle in the sleeping bag, Allegra breathing softly as she sleeps, and me ignoring the way my body reacts to her warm one pressed against mine.
It’s hard to focus on the mission when her swath of blonde hair trails over my makeshift pillow every night.
At least she’s where I can keep an eye on her.
I enter the general store two beats behind Allegra. While she heads to the counter to collect her supply box, I pace the store, checking every row for customers. A middle-aged woman in the candy aisle peers at me curiously, and I give her my best harmless tourist grin.
“G’day.” If in doubt, play an Australian backpacker. “Beaut spot you’ve got here.”
She nods at me, all suspicion dropping off her face. They must be used to hikers here, and the bloody Aussies get everywhere.
A commotion at the counter has me marching over to find Allegra scowling at the small man with glasses behind the counter.
“That’s impossible. It has to be here.”
“Problem?” I ask, trying to keep my voice relaxed even as my gut clenches.
I scan the shop, but it’s still only us, the woman buying chocolate, and the clerk who’s making a show of scanning the shelves behind him, which definitely don’t have anything larger than a letter on them.
“My supply box isn’t here.” Allegra frowns. “I mailed it myself a week ago. It should be here by now.”
The clerk turns back to her. “I’m sorry, there isn’t anything in your name.”
He looks as confused as Allegra, and I lean on the counter and give him my best grin. “Is there a chance someone picked it up already?”
Allegra gives me a confused look, and I rest my arm on hers in a silent plea not to cause a scene. The last thing we want is to be memorable.
The man shakes his head. “I man the shop during opening hours, and no one’s come in to pick up a supply box this week.” He shrugs. “Perhaps it got lost in transit.”
I give him a breezy smile. “Thanks, mate. Must have done.”
Packages don’t just get lost in transit. I lead Allegra outside, and we crouch in the shade of the store and shrug our packs off.
Allegra folds her arms across her chest. “I mailed it myself. I got the address right.”
There are too many coincidences, first the solar panel and now this. Her trip is being sabotaged.
“Who else knew your route?”
Allegra frowns. Then her eyes go wide. “You think someone did this on purpose?” She shakes her head. “That’s impossible. Dad’s the only person I gave the route plan to.”
And he emailed it to me. It could be a data breach in his systems.
“It wasn’t the detailed one anyway. I didn’t give Dad all the waypoint details.”
I step closer. “Who saw the detailed route?”
Allegra frowns. “It was in my PhD submission. Part of the paperwork for the board. Not that it did any good,” she mutters. “They probably didn’t even look.”
Somehow, someone got ahold of that route plan, which explains the intermittent sabotage. They know the sample points, but not all the camping spots.
“I think it’s time we called it quits.”
Allegra’s eyes spark dangerously. “I’m not giving up on this.”
“I’m sure whatever it is you’re doing is important, but we’re down a tent, a sleeping bag, and now supplies. Someone is doing this, Allegra. I can call my men and have us picked up this afternoon.”
“No.” Her voice is firm. “I’m not giving up. The research is too important. You can go if you want, but I’m finishing what I started.”
The steel in her voice tells me there’s no point in trying to convince her otherwise.
“You’ve got no tent or sleeping bag. I have to tell your father.”
Her expression turns pleading. “Please don’t. He’ll come out to get me, and I’m so close.”
She presses her lips together and looks away. The determined scientist is suddenly a vulnerable woman. A woman determined to prove whatever the hell it is she’s doing out here.
Despite my better judgement, I unzip my pack and do a quick inventory check. I’ve got extra rations, and we can get supplies from the general store, although the produce is pretty limited.
“We’ve got enough for a few days. There’s a small town a three days’ hike away. I’ll get a supply box dropped to us.”
She lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
Her face lights up with a smile, and it makes my heart squeeze.
“But I’m checking in with your father, and I’m telling him about the supply box.”
“But not that I lost the tent?”
I hesitate. If I told her father we were sharing a sleeping bag, he’d probably have me strung up. “No.”
Her face relaxes.
“I’ll get a new tent and bag dropped off with the supplies.”
There’s a flicker of something across her face that may be disappointment, before she schools it into a blank expression.
“Thank you.”
I don’t want to be here longer than we have to be. “Get what you can from the store. I need to make a call.”
Allegra heads into the general store, and I find a quiet spot behind the store to put in a satellite call to Joel.
I give him a brief update on our situation and location and a list of supplies for the next town.
“You want another tent and sleeping bag delivered today?” he asks.
I hesitate. It would be the sensible thing to give us some distance. But the extra weight would slow us down. And I like having Allegra next to me at night, feeling her warm body as she softly sleeps.
“Nah, we’ll travel light. The next town’s fine.”
I roll my shoulder, easing the familiar ache. My mind churns over the week we’ve spent on the trail. The broken perimeter, the sabotaged gear, and now a missing box. Someone’s behind this.
“Can you get Hudson on the line; I’m going to need some help digging deeper into this.”
I wait for Hudson to come on the call, and Joel puts it on speaker so they can both hear.
“I need you to dig into something for me. I want to know all about Allegra and her father. I want to know about her research, her university, who was on the grants board. I want to know who stands to lose from her research.”
“On it,” Joel assures me.
He’s giving up time from getting Jake’s Retreat up and running, which I appreciate. But a man needs a team, and Joel and Hudson just became mine.
“We found the report Allegra showed you,” says Hudson. “It’s from a company called Green Metals.”
The name isn’t familiar. “What do we know about them?”
“They’re a small operation They run a copper mine on the Kentucky side of the mountains.”
A small company wouldn’t have the resources to sabotage research. Something doesn’t add up. “Dig further. Find out everything you can about them.”
I hear Hudson making notes on the other end of the line. “Anything else?”
“Yeah.” I glance around at our surroundings. “Get in touch with Calvin. He’s the sheriff in Wild. He doesn’t have jurisdiction this far out, but he may have seen something.”
“How much should I tell him?”
I’ve cultivated my network while I’ve been in Hope. Calvin is a veteran turned sheriff on the other side of the mountain from Hope. I’ve made a point of getting to know him in the few months I’ve lived here. But he’s not an old teammate.
“No details. Just tell him to keep an eye out for anything unusual.”
I finish the call, eager to get back on the trail. We’re exposed out here, whereas in the forest we can disappear.
I need to get Allegra through this hike safe and sound. I’ll help her get the final samples and try to convince her to give up at the next stop.
I shoulder my pack, ignoring the old ache, and join Allegra outside the store. She’s got her pack on and a determined expression on her face.
“Let’s get back to it,” she says cheerily.
She’s already forgotten the setback, but I haven’t.
Who the hell has the reach to intercept mail at a small backwater town like this? If they can intercept supplies, what else are they capable of? We’re not just dealing with a lone weirdo; this is someone with influence and reach and resources.