Page 40 of Kent's Watch
Several hours later,Rita had taken a five-minute break to get a drink of water and make sure Zeke stayed hydrated. The dog looked up from his bowl with a growl, surprising Rita with his reaction. She tensed up, thinking there might be a wild animal behind her. The next thing she saw was her dog flop over to the side with a knife sticking straight up from his ribs. She looked into his eyes before her world went black.
Three miles away, Kent stopped dead in his tracks and looked around in confusion. He was so still, Tate ended up pulling his leash from Kent’s hand, but instead of running off, he turned, looked at his owner, then sat there and waited for him to do something.
“What the fuck?” Kent whispered to himself as he bent down and put his hands on his knees.
“What’s wrong?” Mason asked him when he joined his friend on the trail.
“I don’t know,” Kent answered as he looked around in confusion. “A weird ass feeling came over me.”
“What type of feeling?”
“Helplessness.”
“Oh, shit,” Mason stared at his friend in shock. Before either of them could say or do anything, a squawk came over the radio that Marvin had found something. Mason answered for the twoof them, and waited for Kent to get his wits about him before they took off to the location Mavin had given them. Halfway there, Tate, who Kent had picked up his leash again, stopped so suddenly Kent almost ran over him. He refused to move and kept wanting to go in a different direction. On their trek through the woods they had heard others over the walkie that they were heading toward Marvin.
“What’s up with him?” Mason asked as he pointed to Tate.
“I don’t know,” Kent answered in confusion and tried to pull the leash, but the dog refused to move.
“You know I don’t know anything about dogs, but he’s been great so far today. Do you think he’s acting like that because he suspects something?”
“No clue,” Kent said, and after exchanging looks with Mason, they both withdrew their sidearms and stood back-to-back as they turned in a circle to see if there was an immediate threat. When they didn’t see, hear, or sense any threats, they kept their guns at their side. With non-verbal communication between the two men, Kent let Tate led them to wherever he wanted to go. Thirty minutes later the men stopped, and Kent pulled Tate up short. They again looked at each other and did the back-to-back thing with their guns drawn. Tate had led them directly to a small clearing. In the center of it lay Zeke with a knife sticking out of his side. He roused enough to give a small woof when Tate licked his face.
“Shit,” Kent said as he rushed to the dog. At the last minute he slowed and quietly talked to the dog to prevent him from biting him. He examined the wound and quickly removed his pack. Because he had been a combat medic while in the service, he knew what to pack for medical supplies. He quickly accessed them and before long he had the knife sticking out of Zeke’s side stabilized and gauze wrapped around the protruding handle,trying to stem the flow of blood. Once the dog was stable, he looked up as Mason joined him.
“Is he going to make it?”
“I think so. Did you find Rita?”
“No, but I found her pack.” Mason looked over his shoulder and pointed toward a small downed log. Kent saw her pack sitting on the ground next to it. Mason held up his hand to stop him from going for it. “There’s signs of someone being dragged away, but I didn’t see anything else.” He waited and Kent braced himself.
“What else?”
“There’s blood.” This time, Mason squeezed Kent’s forearm to stop him from rushing over. “First, we need to get help for Zeke.”
“You do it,” Kent said between gritted teeth. “We don’t know how long ago this happened. I’m thinking not longer than thirty minutes. The blood on Zeke’s wound is starting to clot.”
“How are we going to do this?” Mason asked.
“You’re going to take Zeke and get him to Marvin to where they found the trail for the missing hiker.” When it looked like Mason was going to argue, Kent shook his head. “No, you’ve seen how good Tate is, I’ll give him a quick break for some water here, then we’ll pick up Rita’s scent. If her pack is here, then I’m assuming her search and rescue radio, along with the walkie from Jim is with her pack?”
“It is.” Mason shook his head as he answered his friend.
“That leaves the communications that Asher gave us. I’m thinking she either forgot about it, or isn’t able to talk. I’m betting on the latter.” Kent stood and turned in a circle with his hands on his hips, thinking. He quickly turned back around to Mason and swore.
“What?”
“When you get to Marvin, call into Jim and ask him to call who he has to and check on the location of Timothy Vickers.”
“You think he might behind this?”
“It’s the only thing I can think of. Who else had it in for Rita? Maybe he has some sort of radio that he can monitor our communications. I don’t know.” Kent sighed heavily as he rubbed the back of his neck in frustration.
“Why don’t we call Jim now and get a team over here to help you look?”
“Because that missing hiker is the number one priority. He’s been missing for almost thirty-six hours. It might be in the eighties during the day, but it gets cold in these mountains at night. We don’t know if he’s injured or what. He’s our priority. I’m going to take Tate and look for Rita. Don’t say anything to anyone until you get Zeke to Marvin. He’ll know what to do with him. If we’re lucky, they can find Russell, get Logan to fly him out, and there will be room for Marvin, Tank, and Zeke, who will need a vet as soon as possible.” Kent gave Mason a hard look. “It’s going to be rough carrying the dog to the location, but with any luck, they’ll have found Russell by the time you get there. Once he’s found and on a chopper with Marvin, Tank, and Zeke, then you guys can come find us.” He dug into his pack and held up the item he had been frantically searching for. He pulled it from its case and looked at Mason. When the other man nodded to him, he activated the beacon and instead of strapping it onto his pack, he strapped it onto one of his belt loops.
“You’re going to want to convince Marvin to look after Zeke and not be hellbent to come find his daughter. It will be your job to convince him that I’m good at my job and I’ll be able to find her.”
