Page 39 of Kent's Watch
“Okay, see you soon.” Rita hung up and Kent looked at the others with concern.
“What do you say, do you want to go there and set up a base camp?”
“We can,” Mason said as he rose, and they all made sure they didn’t leave anything behind. “I’ll call it into Jake to update him. I don’t want him to think we’re shirking our duties for the Brotherhood.” After years in the military they had the mentality of carry-in, carry-out, leaving no trace of them ever being there. Before they headed out, Kent made sure he withdrew his walkie and strapped it to the front of him.
“What’s that for?” Asher asked in confusion.
“Oh, it’s the walkie search and rescue uses.”
They didn’t say anything else as they quickly started to their next destination. Mason in the lead, the others followed, with Kent bringing up the rear. The formation was just as they had walked while they’d served together. During the hike, Kent wason the phone with Marvin and told him what they were doing, while Ryder was on his phone with the rangers. No one realized that Mason, true to his word, had called Jake and told him what they were doing.
CHAPTER 17
Rita pulledher truck into the small clearing, and sighed in relief when she saw a makeshift tent set up. She quickly grabbed her pack, opened the door for Zeke, and after strapping his vest on him, as well as his leash, she started forward. She was happy to see that her father and Tank had already made it, as well as Kent and Tate.
“Impressive,” she said as she stepped beneath the tent, and saw they had maps and other things at hand. She looked over at her father with a grin. “Might just pay off having a former military guy on the team.”
“Might,” Marvin laughed with his daughter and gave her a quick side hug. “How are we going to do this?”
“You haven’t set up command yet?”
“No, I was waiting for you.” He looked at his watch and shook his head. “I only arrived three minutes ago.”
“Okay.” Rita nodded and looked around at Kent, his buddies, her father, and one ranger. “What’s your name?” she asked the ranger.
“Lorenzo Hughes.”
“Okay, Lorenzo Hughes, what do you know?” They all bent over a map laid out on the ground, because though there wasa tent set up, there was no table. Everyone had been squatting around the map and pointing to it when she’d arrived. When he didn’t answer, she sighed heavily, caught Kent’s eye and rolled hers at the other man. “I’m Rita Chambers, I’m in charge of Chambers Search and Rescue. What are we looking at here?” She had put steel in her voice and saw when Lorenzo realized she was the boss, and not the others. Rita had to give him credit for catching on right away. It didn’t take him long to explain what Kent and his buddies had been doing all morning. That was when Rita realized that the missing hiker was last reported in an area that hadn’t been checked yet. With a nod, she removed her pack and started taking things out of it. When she removed a head lamp and placed it over her head, Kent did the same. He also removed a set of night vision goggles and was glad when Asher handed a pair to Rita to use. What he didn’t like was when Asher adjusted them to her head and instructed her on how to use them. Kent thought he stood a little bit too close to Rita for his comfort.
“Do you really think you’ll need those?” Ranger Hughes asked in confusion.
“Do you really want to tell this missing person’s loved ones that it got dark, so we stopped looking?” Rita snapped her question at him, and saw admiration on the former military men’s faces.
Before he could respond, they all turned when a police SUV pulled in and parked. They waited for the sheriff to join them. It took about three minutes to tell him what had been done that morning, and what their plans were.
“Okay, I’ll stay here,” Jim said as he waved his hand around. “We’ll use this as ground zero.” He held up his hand and jogged over to his vehicle to withdraw something from the back. When he rejoined them, he began passing out items. “Here are some walkies. I know I don’t have to tell you that cell service is spottyup here. If you find anything, radio it in, I have people coming in to help, and they’ll meet me here.”
“Sounds good,” Rita said as she took one of the walkie talkies and clipped it to the strap on her pack. Before they could leave, Asher stopped them.
“I know Jim said the cell service is spotty, so I don’t know if these will work. Here is some comms so we can talk with each other, but don’t have to tie up communications on the walkies.” Everyone turned to Jim, and he agreed that all forms of communication would be good for the searchers. It didn’t take long for the guys to get wired up. Just before they left, Kent conferred with Jim, and when he was done, he looked at Rita with a nod.
“I made sure Jim had Logan’s phone number in case we need a chopper in a hurry.”
“Oh, that’s fine.” She nodded and picked up Zeke’s leash. As they headed out, they broke off and went in different directions. Rita’s only fear was that they wouldn’t be able to find the missing hiker before dark.
“Wait!” came a voice from behind her, and she turned to see her father and his dog, Tank standing next to Ryder.
“What?”
“What’s the hiker’s name?”
“Oh, sorry, Russell Bridges, thirty-two years old, five-foot ten, about two hundred pounds.” Rita pulled the small piece of paper from her pocket and read from it. “Blond hair, brown eyes. Last seen wearing black jeans, gray tee, black hiking boots, and he had on a bright-red ball cap.”
“Do you have anything of his for the dogs to sniff out?”
“No.”
“Okay,” Marvin said, and they went down different paths. Somehow, Rita ended up being by herself with Zeke on the path she had chosen. She looked at her watch and shook her head.It was going on four in the afternoon, and though they still had hours of daylight left, she knew it would get dark quicker there in the trees than if they were out in the open. She drew in a deep breath and looked down at Zeke. “Let’s go.” She gave the verbal and non-verbal command to her dog, and off they went to look for the missing hiker.
