This podcast may not be suitable for young listeners. Steve Lily Journal, entry
number ten, Squatch Operators. I squeezed into the hollow trunk of a big
oat, making myself real. Small something was moving out front. A shallow
drawing in front of me with water reflected the only light available in the universe.
Ripples gave away my stalker. It was either a small animal or a
monster creeping toward me. I wouldn't know until I activated my NVGs, which
were cocked upward on my head. I didn't want to move just yet.
The mosquitoes were eating me alive. The illusion of a distant hum of an
outboard motor was in my ear. It's enough to drive a man insane.
You can't swatter them away. They just come back. I couldn't move a
muscle. Danger was close. The night shift of forest animals were coming home
to a well deserved day sleep. A family of raccoons lived in the top
of this tree, and I was blocking their front door. Raccoons are innovative
creatures, and they never live in a place without a back door or a
place to escape in an emergency. They were bypassing the smelly human in the
front vestibule climbing in from the outside. Their claws in the bark gave them
away. I started this op alone. It wasn't supposed to be an op,
just a scouting trip to see if it was worth coming. Do they
have squatches? That question must be answered before we commit to expend resources in
time. If the office says squatchers are there, we go. They haven't
let us down yet, but this is different. It's a freelance job that
could provide us with a double pay day, but the landowner isn't sure what's
causing the problems. In his email, he wrote that heavy equipment had been
damaged and they found big human like tracks. Those two bits of information were
worth a hour and a half drive down here to take a peek. The
email was sent to my buddy Cam Buckner, and it was forwarded to me.
I asked Cam if he wanted to join me, since he instigated the
project. Well, he said he was too fat and out of shape,
he couldn't keep up with me and my crew. Well I had to invite
him, but I'm happy he backed away. He is fat and he is
out of shape, and he would have slowed me down. And there's no
way his fat acid I both could fit into this tree trunk. I had
to get in here quick, and oh Cam, he'd be wandering around looking
for a chair to sit in. Y'all, please don't tell him I said
these things. He's not a sensitive guy, and he can take a joke,
but you never know for sure. And I'm actually not joking. That
boy's got to stop eating that Bluebell ice cream. After corresponding with the writer
and getting his phone number, I called him and he explained everything. I
was happy that he was not one of the bigfoot crazies who thinks every twig
break is a squatch. He was a reasonable man, and this is what
he told me. He needed land to build an underground shelter. He's a
prepper. These guys are serious about their prepping for a disaster of any kind,
especially the ones who have money. After looking over the land available in
his county, first through real estate agents and then anyone who might have heard
that a chunk of ground was for sale, he landed on a two hundred
acre tract of timber in the most remote and hard to get two locations close
to where he lived. The clerk at the county seat said the land was
about to be declared abandoned and if the back taxes weren't brought up to date,
it would auction in the coming months. The papers had been filed by
the tax assessor's office to claim the land. The owner was Jeremiah Trice.
Mister Bright, the man who I was dealing with, had the initial impulse
to get with Jeremiah Trice, make him an offer and buy the land before
he had to compete with others at an auction. But mister Trice had died
several years ago and the property was now owned by his twin daughters, Priscilla
and Quilla, but no one had seen them since their daddy. The months
passed and mister Bright won the auction and now on the land. He was
waiting on documents to make it official, but he didn't care. The check
had cleared and he was sure the wheels were turning, so he began construction
on his underground shelter. He probably shouldn't have started work so soon, but
he did, and here we are. Within a week of starting excavation work,
the contractor began reporting vandalism on his heavy equipment. It got worse every
few days. Soon they began finding dead animals hung on their damaged machinery.
That caused two of his men to leave the site, claiming there was some
sort of voodoo going on. Mister Bright expected the contractor to continue work and
report the vandalism to the police and his insurance company, which he did.
Law enforcement suggested that he hire night Secure to stay with the equipment during the
dark hours. There was a dispute regarding who paid for the extra expense of
night security, but it was settled that mister Bright was responsible. Instead of
hiring a real security company, mister Bright, always a frugal spender, hired
two emits from town, a couple of men who did odd jobs for him.
According to mister Bright, these men weren't the sharpest pencils in the drawer,
but they would do. After all, he only needed someone there to
dissuade the vandals from slowing the work. The men were not armed. They
were to stay from dustal dawn and just be there, visible to anyone who
drove on to the site, and that is what they did for three nights.
On the fourth morning, the two men were found dead a short distance
from their car. Their bodies had been pummeled with an object, according to
the investigators, but the object was never found. Before leaving. After an
all day search of the area, one of the deputies walked into the Port
of John to relieve himself, and he saw an envelope pinned to the door.
Mister Bright's name was written on the plain cover. The letter enclosed was
a warning from Priscilla and Quilla, stating that they had been the vandals and
the murderers of the night Watchman, and that if mister Bright wanted to live,
he would leave their property and never return. If he stayed, they
would eventually kill him. Since no one had seen the twins since mister Trice
left this earth, the lawmen were skeptical that the girls, who would have
been in their mid thirties by now, would have or could have done all
the damage and committed the murders, but if they could be found, they
would be questioned, but nobody knew how to find em. The sight had
been trampled throughout the day with a team of deputies scouring the ground for clues.
In all those hours of looking straight down at the ground, eight men
had missed the strangest part of the evidence except one man. He was a
heavy equipment diesel mechanic who had been there all day replacing hydraulic hoses that had
been cut by the perpetrators. He never spoke up until everyone was heading to
their vehicles to leave. Several cars were running and some had left. There
was a dust cloud hovering over the sight. The sheriff and one deputy and
mister Bright were the men left, and they were all headed to their cars.
Did you all night think those tracks were odd? Never seen tracks like
that? The mechanics said, he spent a long stream of tobacco in the
dirt. Mister Bright barely heard the man, but he turned What tracks?
There's a half a dozen right there by you truck. The man said,
the hell you say, mister Bright said, looking straight down, he was
straddling one. Where he stood between his boots was a perfect human looking barefoot
track in the dust, six times the sides of a human foot impression.
Sheriff, come over here, mister Bright said, what do you make of
this? The sheriff and his deputy studied the impression and then went on to
find several more. After a short discussion above just the two of them,
they walked back to mister Bright and the mechanic. It was their opinion the
tracks were made from slip on prosthetics. The vandals and the murderers must have
warned them to throw the investigation in a direction they were not going to pursue.
They're trying to make us think it's bigfoot that did this, said the
sheriff. I sup pose it's a smart move because one thing we haven't seen
or human tracks anywhere, and I think they strapped those things on and did
their work and then they left. Mister Bright said that he stared at the
sheriff and disbelief for a long time, but he couldn't say anything. He
had been walking around all day with those men and he never noticed any of
those tracks. He guessed that they were looking for a murder weapon and never
had tracks on their mind. Whatever the reason, no one saw them except
the mechanic. They agreed to keep in touch if new evidence emerged. The
contractor left the job with his equipment the next day, except for a dump
truck that they thought was beyond repair. The project was now dead like the
night Watchman, and mister Bright didn't know what to do, so he sent
Cam an email and here we are, mister Bright, says he thinks the
culprits are squatches. I've seen one before, he told me. I sat
in silences. He continued talking. I think I was distracted getting an almost
confirmation that we had squatches on his land. But who wrote that note?
It wasn't a squatch. That's the dumbest animal on the planet. They can't
even seem to figure out that water will wash squat shit out of their hair.
There's no way they wrote that letter. No, it's a human,
I thought, But who and why am I down here in this poor country.
There are squatches here, that's the answer. We don't know how many,
and we don't know how the people involved are working with these creatures.
I wanted to come down and spend a few hours looking around to see if
it was worth bringing my team, And when mister Bright threw me in number
he was willing to pay to resolve this problem, it became worse. Staying
a while longer, it would almost double our pay depending on how many squat
watch as we could take. The trip had turned from a curiosity to a
surer thing. But I had to see it for myself. Two more raccoons
climbed the outside of the tree, and it sounded like one was coming down
to investigate the intruder me. I didn't want to fight with a raccoon.
They're a vicious little critter, and I was hoping he'd go back up,
not bother me. Before I left for this place, I had called Lewis
and hug asking if they wanted to come with me, and since this was
only an intel gathering trip, they declined. Lewis had a party hattening at
his trailer that night. Lewis always had a crowd at his pad. I
walked down there once, hoping to meet some of his friends a few weeks
ago, and I felt out of place and I left now. No one
was rude to me. Maybe I don't relate well with others. Maybe I'm
a loner. I don't feel comfortable in crowds. Hook was in a feud
with his old lady. Well, there's nothing new there. Hook and I
grew up together, and I don't remember him ever staying with a woman longer
than three months. Ever, he was on number three for the year.
And I'm not sure what it is about him that draws the controversial type,
but his life is filled with angry women. He falls in love with every
one of them, and he'll hang on with them till the end, which
is usually within two months of him moving them in. Now, I'll say
this, He's never with an ugly one. Hook is a tall, lean,
handsome fellow, and he has no trouble attracting beautiful women. I think
he should be a little more patient before he moves the crazy one's in,
he says, every time there's a breakup that she's shared in come off that
way in the beginning. I guess he has a point. Sometimes people don't
show you who they are up front. I'm hoping he draws a good one
after this one walks out, But I'm not holding my breath. On the
other hand, there might be something he's doing to make them so angry.
Maybe they can't fix old Hook. None of my business. I'm only the
observer. I met mister Bright at a town square cafe this morning. He
seems to be as normal as they come, and is perplexed by the events
of the last two weeks and his newly acquired property. I would guess he's
fifty years old, give or take a year. He's average height and weight
and looks and demeanor. There's nothing unusual about the man. Everything really is
average, making the story he told me more believable. I opened the Google
Maps on my phone and we pinned the location of the excavation site, and
then I asked him to show me the boundaries of his property. Two hundred
acres is a pretty big place. The job site was only in a small
area. I'm glad you came, Steve, he said, you know the
story. What do you think. I'll just have to take a look,
I said. If I find anything, I'll call you. Wait, he
said, don't you need me to drive you out there to show you around.
It's better if I go alone. Something has its eye on the area
you've started construction. I need to get in there without alerting whoever this is
that anyone is there. Now, I know what to do. I don't
worry. I hope we can get this resolve for you soon, I said.
He paid for my breakfast and we walked into the parking lot. He
asked that I follow him to his truck, where he produced an envelope and
then extended it to me. Well what's this, I asked. It's half
the money, he said. I almost took the cash, but I thought
better of it. I didn't know how long this gig would take. I
wasn't sure he was dealing with squatches at all, although the chances were high.
If it hadn't been for the note they found on the outhouse, I
would have been sure it was only squatches. But people were involved with this.
I'd wait until after I reconed the area and assess the situation before I
would take his money. How about we wait on that, mister Bright.
Now, I'll call you when I know what we're dealing with, if I
can figure it out at all. All right, sounds good, he said,
and we parted ways. I opened the pen location on my mobile and
I began looking for a way to come onto the property without using the construction
entrance. It was a new road that was once an old road used for
extracting timber. The trees had not been cut in several years and had not
been replanted in pines. Hardwood grew everywhere. The excavators made quick work of
the existing pathway, and they laid gravel, and that was the only egress
onto the property that had been used since Sprit bought the land. I needed
to come in on foot from another angle. The property really was in the
most remote area of the county, and I wondered how much Bright would pay
to get power out there. No one lived within several miles of this place,
and the surrounding area was nothing but forest as far as I could swipe
the screen out until I saw the town, and I found a way in
from the opposite end of the construction entrance, and I'd have to walk across
property that didn't belong to Bright. It was early September and squirrels were the
only game in season, but squirrel hunters don't go to these areas. They
don't work that hard for a tree rat. I wouldn't run into hunters,
and I felt like it was a good plan, so in my truck and
I headed that way. The gravel road into abruptly, and the map showed
that it went on through to the next paved road, but it didn't.
A gate blocked the timber egress, meaning that this was probably least for hunting,
and I got out and threw on my pack with my rifle across my
back of my nineteen eleven on my hip. I walked around the gate and
I started the walk that would take me twice as long as I had planned.
While sitting in the diner parking lot two miles in, I cut into
the woods on my right. I still had a half mile to go to
reach a Bright's property line, but I felt good and had seen nothing but
a few doze and started into the thick leaves. I had to move slower
now because the noise I was making. Once I was at a spot I
thought to find Bright's property, I stopped and I took a break. The
roast beef sam which I had packed, was tasty, and I washed it
down with two bottles of water. And I sat as still as a mouse
for an hour, and I listened. It was now four pm, and
I had not heard anything out of place. There was, however, a
faint smell of wood smoke in the air. It wasn't thick and heavy and
not all the time. I caught whiffs of it every ten minutes or so.
The wind was cooling the right side of my face, and I moved
toward the only evidence of human activity. Only people built fires. By five
thirty I had reached another property boundary. It had taken me that long to
move a mill. The leaves were especially dry, and any sound I made
would alert anyone in the area that I was there. I wasn't necessarily worried
about people, though squatches have a unique sense of hearing. They were who
I was trying not to alert. And I'm glad I came this because I
stopped at a big blowdown poplar tree, and I sat on the trunk and
I waited. Sooner or later, if there was activity in the area,
I would see something. Throughout the day, I had not seen any evidence
that a human had been in these woods, and I had traveled for miles.
There were no dear stands and no beer cans or dump sits. There
was no way to make out tracks in the leaves, so I couldn't find
any tracks. I felt like I was the only person who had been in
here for the last hundred years, except for the smoke. It got stronger
the further I moved into the wind. I couldn't see it, but I
could smell it, and it was now heavy and strong and close. I
sat there and didn't move a muscle, and I watched, and I listened.
In the midst of the roar of silence in my ears, the faint
sound of leaves crunching and limbs cracking subdued the roar. The only part of
my body moving were my eyeballs. And before me emerged a squatch, and
it was a big one. He had not made me. He was just
walking, oblivious to everything around him. I sat tight. I could have
killed him where I stood, but I didn't want to ruin the area until
I knew how many we were dealing with. Once you shoot, the squatches
either run like hell away or they run like hell at you. Neither would
have worked for us at that moment. This was a reconmission. Assessed the
situation, make a plan, execute the plan. It is the only way
to do this for the maximum pay day. The problem now was that the
squatch was coming right at me, and another fifty yards I wouldn't have time
to react. Don't move. A whisper from a female voice slid into my
ear. He's going to veer to the left and a few steps. Do
not move. Something was poking in my back. I assumed it was the
nasty end of a weapon. I never twitched throughout the event. I'm sure
enough. The squatch turned slightly and went to my left and was soon out
of you. And then he was out of hearing range. He was walking
the track I had taken to get here. He's gone. Now, before
you get up, take that rifle off your lap and hand me the safe
end. Do not turn your body. I'll shoot you right here and now,
now move slow, said the almost beautiful voice from behind me. Well,
I did as she said, and before she could ask and butt in
the nineteen eleven on my right hip. Now, I pinched the grip with
the finger and the thumb and held it above my head, hanging from the
trigger guard, to which she removed it from my possession. Do you have
any other weapons? I have a knife on my belt and a pistol on
my ankle, I said, hand them over, real slow, like you
did the others, she said. Now, this woman was so calm that
I was never nervous. When someone is going to kill you, they just
do it, not like in the movies where the antagonist gives a big speech
given the captive time to work out a maneuver to overcome him or her.
Now, in real life, they just shoot you and they walk away.
And if she was intent on killing me, it would have already happened.
Plus she didn't sound like a killer. For what that was worth. Well,
I was now fully relieved of my weapons, and she said, stand
up and turn around. She was as beautiful as she sounded in my ear
with that whisper. She was a brunette, no holler than five and a
half feet, slimming the waist and hips, and decked in modern camo,
probably a military issue. And she stood in front of me holding a standard
R fifteen. She was not nervous at all, and in a way it
endeared me to her. Damn she looked sexy and that outfit, but I
kept my big mouth shut. Toss your pack over here and sit down on
that log, she said, and I did as she commanded. Who are
you, she asked. My name is Steve Lily, and I've been hired
to investigate those things that just walked through here. Why, she asked,
And who hired you? Mister Jack Bright. He's been having trouble with vandals
on his excavation site. He thinks it could be those creatures. I said,
you've confirmed it. Now, what she asked, I'm going to kill
as many as I can find, I said, paid to do that.
What are those things? She asked, I've never seen anything like them.
They showed up a month ago, and they do a lot of damage to
the and she stopped in the middle of her sentence. Well now, she
had me curious. They do a lot of damage to what I asked.
Never mind that, I want you to walk out the way you came in.
Just go and we can forget about all this. Now. Go on,
get moving, she said, moving the barrel of her rifle in that
direction. I'm not leaving without my weapons, I said, And you saw
that thing, you'd send me down that path defenseless. It's either that or
I shoot you, she said. I paused to come up with something to
say. I think I was still caught up in those beautiful brown eyes.
There was an awkward silence. Go she said, I'm not leaving without my
weapons. Now, you can shoot me, but I don't think you won't
to You know I'm not here for you, but you also know you can't
trust me. And I think that's where you're going to have to take a
leap of faith. It's either that or we stand here all day while you
try to figure out how to gather up all those guns and knives on the
ground there without me making a move, which I will not do, and
then get out of here. Even if I were to walk out without those
weapons, that means you have to carry them wherever you're going. Now,
why not just lower your rifle and let me carry those things. You're safe.
Over her right shoulder, I saw something move. Maybe it moved,
and maybe it was the instinct I had developed over many years of squatch hunts.
Whatever the reason, I knew something was there. And is he rode
in on it. I'm not sure she noticed my stare. Maybe she thought
I was trying not to make eye cond intact. Who knows, but she
never said anything about it. It was the face of your typical squats,
obscured by a hundred green leaves and twigs standing in thick brush only a few
yards behind her. If I didn't do something quick, that thing was about
to kill both of us. Keep talking to me, I said, what
that's it. Just keep the conversation going, because when it gets quiet,
that's when that beast in that brush behind us is gonna charge. She had
a puzzled look on her face, But this girl was smart. In the
depths of her mind, she knew there was something back there. I think
it was a natural instinct she possessed. The ball was back in my court.
Okay, she said, what now, just keep talking to me.
Now, I'm gonna walk slowly towards you and pick up my rifle like it's
just another day in the woods for two people standing around talking about the weirdest
shit you can imagine. Now, don't turn around, don't make any movements.
They like to observe, and that is their downfall. I've killed a
hundred of them. I know how they behave by now I had my rifle
in my hands. I was two feet in front of her. Damn,
this girl was a looker. I could have stood there in those woods and
looked into those eyes all day, but we had other things happening. I
pulled the charging handle of my ar ten to see that the brass was there.
And now I released it slowly, and I slid my finger into the
trigger guard. If you shoot me, she said, I ain't gonna shoot
you, girl, You're too pretty. Now he's moved a little to my
left. You're right, so I'm gonna raise this rifle while you're blocking this
vision. They know a little bit about guns, and if you raise the
rifle, they will charge. They can cover a lot of ground in a
split second, so let's do everything real slow. When I get my rifle
free of your legs, I'm gonna say the word and I want you to
turn around, going counterclockwise away from my rifle, and I want you to
back me up if this thing doesn't go down quick? Now, do you
follow me? My rifle was ready to raise you ready, I said,
Well, I guess okay, let's have some fun. There was a brief
moment where I caught her facial expression that said, clearly have fun. I
snapped my aar up and I gave that fucker three rounds in his chest.
He was already moving before I could snap off another round. She sent two
five, five six round into that squatch's face. It dropped in a heat
ten feet in front of her, and then it slid another two feet,
folding its arms under its torso slightly and folded it into an inverted V.
I could have sworn I heard her yell he oh, yeah, oh,
he looks like a baby sleeping with his butt up in the air. She
said, well. I had to laugh at that one. Not only was
she beautiful, but she had a sense of humor too. That was some
good shooting girl. Now we need to move I said, gunfire draws him
in sometimes. Where's your car? Well, my four wheeler is a half
mile that way, she said, Let's get to it and get out of
this area. It's already dark and I need to make a phone call.
You won't make a phone call from here, she said, no signal.
I can take you to your vehicle, though, we'll have to take the
long way around. Well, that sounds good, I said, by the
way, what's your name? Quilla Trice? My sister and I owned this
land. The four wheeler ride was exciting but uneventful. One of those things
could have jumped us at any minute. I had the the seat cover sucked
up in my butt waiting for it, but the attack never came. We
popped out on a gravel road after a furious ride through the woods. Nquilla
slowed down. At that point. We weren't any safer on gravel than we
had been in the woods. I should have told her to keep the hammer
down, but I was intoxicated with the smell of her hair. I could
have stayed behind her on that four wheeler all night. The slower she drove,
the longer I got to hold on to her waist and taking all that
female scent from the back of her neck. It was a chance I was
willing to take. There's my truck, I said, pointing toward the end
of the gravel. She stopped at the end of the truck and killed the
engine and I sat there, not moving. Are you going to get off?
She asked, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I said,
I'm listening for danger. Get the hell off my bike. I thought she
would head off down the road, but she stayed and she helped me get
my gear in the back seat. I'm glad I didn't have to ask her
to stick with me for a few minutes. I had several questions. Once
everything was loaded, I turned to her and I said, I'm gonna tell
you everything I know. Then I'm going to ask you some questions. Not
now, you aren't, she said, We're still in the middle of nowhere,
and it's dark and those monsters are out there. Where are you staying
tonight? Well, I had no plans, I said, I was going
to get a room in town or head home, depending on what I found
today. I guess I'll go find a room in town now that we know
the area is active. Look, I don't really want to ride that four
wheeler back to my car, now that I know what's out there. The
woods give me the creeps at night anyway, and that's when I didn't know
about these things. Can you give me a ride to my car and then
you can follow me home and you can stay with us tonight. We have
two counties away, though it'll be an hour drive from my car. I'll
stash this forward here in the woods and come back here to get it later.
I didn't show it, but I was doing a little jig in my
head. Yes, sure, I said, that sounds fine if you don't
mind a strange man in your house overnight, even if you were a creep,
which I doubt you are. My sister and I can handle ourselves.
Now, come on, it'll be fine. She said, you do know
I have weapons. I said, with a wink, we do too,
She said, I think she meant business. At ten pm, I followed
Quilla Trice into the driveway of an average looking house and a small Mississippi town,
two counties away from the town I drove to that morning. Her sister
was sitting at the kitchen table when we walked in. She stood and introductions
were made. This is the man I told you about, Quilla said to
her sister. Priscilla, she had called ahead to warn her sister that she
was bringing a new friend home. It was like I had double vision.
They were identical in every way. They had the same hairstyle, the same
figure, the same posture, and their faces matched. Even their voices and
speech had imperceptible differences. Had Priscilla not been wearing yoga pants and a long
sleeved t shirt contrasted with her sister's military garb, I would not be able
to know which one I was talking to. How about some coffee. Have
a seat, said Priscilla. Well that sounds good, I said, I'm
going to change Steve. I'll be back in a minute, said Quilla,
as she walked into the back of the house. My sister told me what
happened today, said Priscilla. She says, you saved her life. What
are those things that have shown up in my daddy's wood. I didn't save
her. She may have saved mine, I said. If she hadn't hit
that squatch in the head when she did, both of us would be digesting
in a monster's stomach right now. She is a cool hand when the pressure
is on. She is that she told me. You hunt these things.
Can you tell me more about them? They are a mutant creature that does
not belong in the woods of any continent, the foulest creature on earth if
you ask me. They can stay hidden from most of the public, namely
because people don't go to the places where they live. But there are thousands
of encounters with humans, and most of the time it's a generic auditory or
visual sighting and then it's over. Those are the stories people tell in her
soon label crazy. It happens a lot. But if they can catch you
alone, they will kill you and make a meal out of you. Now
that is the broad over you. I could get more into detail, but
I'm tired of thinking about them tonight. If you understand, I understand,
said Priscilla. Quilla walked back in the kitchen, wearing similar clothing as her
sister. She poured a cup and sat down across from me. Okay,
you said you wanted to tell me all that you knew and that you had
some questions, so let's hear it, said Quilla. Thirty minutes later,
they now knew about the land sale and the construction that had begun before the
papers were final the vandalized equipment and the dead animals and the dead night watchman,
and finally they knew about themselves being sought for questioning in both crimes.
The story they told me was completely different than the story Jack Bright had relayed
to me. Now, I don't think he was lying. I believe he
told me what he had been told. Their father, Jeremiah Trice, had
inherited the land from his father. Trice was a farmer, and the family
owned over two thousand acres in the county. The land where I had met
Quilla was a standalone piece of property, not connected to the family farm,
and it was purchased two generations before for the timber. When Jeremiah Trice died
fifteen years earlier, the girls were fourteen years old. In his wisdom and
after his wife had died unexpectedly, Trice set up a trust so that in
the event of his death, the fund and all the property would be kept
current in taxes and least to a large corporate farming outfit until the girls were
twenty one. At that time, the twins could decide what to do with
the investments as well as the land, with the advice of good attorneys in
Memphis. The twins elected to sell the land to the farming corporation that was
now leasing it and invest the money. They weren't interested in keeping the big
farm. They weren't farmers, and they had no way to keep the ground
prep for what it was used for. The investments their father had made were
solid, so with the minor revisions, they left the cash alone and had
been living off interests since they had come of age. Jeremiah Trice had planned
well for the girls, and now they were set for life. The part
of his estate that went unaddressed was the two hundred acres now in question.
It had not been recorded in the estate, but the deed to the land
remained in Jeremiah Trice's name in the courthouse. It had been moved to a
secret file. That is the only way this could have happened. The twins
didn't know about the property until a month ago, when a certified letter stating
the property was considered abandon and had been auctioned. Their attorney requested all pertinent
documents and then the file. Were six letters to the twins giving them legal
warning of the impending sale if the taxes were not paid, including a final
notice. All letters had been signed via certified mail, but were addressed to
the farm where they had not lived since their father died. The signatures were
not theirs. They had been forged. The attorney was taking steps to challenge
the judge's decision to confiscate the property. Lawsuits would be filed on their behalf.
Hence mister Bright had not received the final papers. Had they known they
owned the land, the taxes would have been paid through the trust, but
the tax bills were never sent to the trustee. Furthermore, they would have
kept the taxes current, or they would have sold the land after the trust
was dissolved. It wasn't like they didn't have the money. The whole thing
had a distinct odor about it. They said, why would the ownership of
an obscure piece of land be hidden from them? County records were kept with
great care, rarely misplaced, much less hidden. There had to be a
motive, and they wanted to find it. The first step was to see
the property for themselves. Well, that was going to be my next question,
I said, But before you get to that, tell me about the
rifle and the clothes you're wearing when you snuck up on me in the woods
today now, not many people can do that. Also, the smell of
the fire brought me to that place that you sneaked up to me. On
did you build a fireback there? They both laughed at me. They looked
at each other, and Priscilla explained we both spent four years in the Army.
We were infantry. We never saw combat, but we were trained.
We aren't rangers or special ops like most people claimed to be in the Army.
We were regular infantry. Our training was enough that we could move through
the woods like a ninja compared to all the Emmett deer hunters around here.
It's basic infantry knowledge, but I think it puts us at an advantage over
an enemy without training. Quilla interrupted, no doubt I would have been able
to get behind you undetected had you not been locked onto that creature in front
of you. He had you distracted, and I saw my chance to find
out who you were, and I took it. Why did you know that
squatch would turn where he turned? I asked, We have been watching them
for the last two weeks, she said. We built a hide close to
where I caught you. They're such odd creatures that We wanted to see what
they were, sort of an observation post. Basically, we were fascinated with
these creatures. Okay, I said, let's get back on track. Now
you find out about this land and your first step is to see it.
Can you tell me about that? Yes, they both said together. I
thought I was hearing it in stereo. Their voices were identical. Before we
tell you what happened, you need to know that we know why this land
fraud happened. There is a marijuana grow on that property. There's several clear
areas to get sun, and every one of those places is thick with marijuana
plants. If you would not run into me, you would have walked up
on one of those many fields. Now, this is the end of the
growing season and the plants are huge. No, I don't know if they
have harvested the buds. Who knows what the value of this crop is,
but it has to be big. Things were beginning to make sense to me.
Now it would all become clear in the next thirty minutes. They went
on to tell me that they drove to the property. Jack Bride had not
started his project yet, and there was no road into the area. Only
old logging roads that had never been maintained. They followed one of those and
saw that someone had been using it as a foot trail. They guess folks
were hunting or camping in there. This is until they saw the tall tale
markers for a path that rang a bell. While in infantry training, they
had learned to look for things that were out of place in remote areas,
and Priscilla noticed a reflective tack pinned to a tree. Ten yards further,
she saw another, and then another further down the trail. She stopped her
sister and they both got quiet. The twins went into combat mode following the
tax until they walked up on a trip wire connected to a claymore strapped to
the base of a tree. The reflective tax led them around the device.
They kept pushing forward, placing each step like it was life or death,
which it was. It was quite a distance further, but they walked into
a green field filled with the healthy marijuana plants. For the rest of the
day, they followed the tax, finding more patches, some larger and some
smaller, but always full of well cared for plants. And they never saw
a person, which confused them. All this money growing in these fields and
no one to look after it. They tend to the plants at night.
I said, how do you know that, they asked together, I know
a little about how that business works. I said, it's not a people
business, and the customer is not always right. You stumbled on a dangerous
situation. Now we can talk about that another time, but I assume you
got out safely. We did, They said. It was after dark before
we got back to the car, and we never saw anyone. But as
we we're getting in the car, we heard a claymork go off. It
was followed by a roarer from several locations in the area. I wanted to
see what was up, said Quilla, but my sister insisted that we leave
right then. She almost killed us, speeding us out of there. We
aren't identical in every way, said Priscilla. Quilla rolled her eyes and grinned
her sister. Quilla as the wild one. I think things through before I
jumped one of those squatches, tripped the mine and blew himself to hell.
You don't happen to know where that corpse is, do you, I asked,
I know exactly where it is, said Quilla. All right, then
hold that thought, I said, I'll need to gather something from that site.
Well, they looked at each other like I was crazy, but I
ignored it. There was a big chunk of chains laying in those woods riding.
I wanted every dollar I could get out of it. All right,
I'm with you up to this point. Why were you there today, though,
I asked. Quilla took a deep breath and looked at her sister.
After a pause, she said, Okay, you aren't gonna like this,
but I've been back there a few times this month. I know I should
have told you, but I knew what you would say. I knew you
were going back stupid, But I also know I've never been able to change
your mind on anything. You were armed up and could take care of yourself,
so I hope, like hell you could. So I never said anything.
You always waited until I left for work to go anyway, When would
I have been able to object? Well, what's done is done, Quilla
said, now here. It's why I went back. It was a guess
on her part, but if she only went back during the day, she
would be safe, assuming the pipe crew only came in at night. It
was the roars when the Claymore went off that piqued her curiosity her and was
to build, to hide and observe nothing else. Within an hour of getting
in her makeshift hide, one of the creatures moved through. Before the day
was over, she had seen three more At dusk she moved out. Later
that week, she was back in another location, but always close to one
of the fields, and this time she set up in line with a safe
trail. The creatures were moving through but avoided the booby traps. They had
learned where they were and how to get through the area without getting blown up.
Well. She thought this was remarkable, and I told her it didn't
surprise me one bit. They were smart in some ways, but real dumb
in other ways. On the second trip, she stayed all night and watched
the men come in and tend to the crop. They were now removing the
buds and transporting the dope out and backpacks. Three came in. They worked
for four hours and left with the buds. She assumed they picked the whole
field, and one thing she noticed was that the creatures avoided the fields while
the men were working, but when they left, the creatures came back,
always avoiding the Claymore's, and then they'd walk in the field and then come
straight out. I think they were gathering a few buds left so that they
could eat them and get high, she said. A few days lapsed and
she went back to spend the day and a night observing. Upon entering that
morning, she heard heavy equipment in the distance, and she made her way
there to investigate. Heavy equipment was digging and moving dirt. They had been
there a while because it appeared they had made some decent progress. She set
up her height on the field closest to the sight, and she just watched.
Like clockwork, the creatures came into the field to steal some pot,
but it was otherwise uneventful. By that time, the job sight had gone
quiet. There were two hours a daylight left, so she walked over to
see what they were building. Before she could walk in, two trucks pulled
in and parked, and men walked around, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.
And by dark they had built a fire and had broken out their own pot
and started getting high. She could smell it. The men had gotten back
in their trucks and they were asleep. I guess I had thrown four trail
cameras in my pack, and I wanted to use them, so I crept
to the edge of the sight and I set one up where it wouldn't be
noticed. There was nothing happening there at that point, so I moved back
into the field that I was watching that day. It was the same thing
again, four men, different guys than were at the work sight. They
came in and they picked the buds and they left with full backpacks. I
didn't see any creatures that night. Well, I was bored and I left
before dawn. But before I did, I set up the remaining three cameras
on three fields I knew had not been harvested, and by the time there
was enough light to see, I walked out and I came home. Are
the cameras still there? I asked, yes, And that's why I was
there this morning. If I had gotten them on the camera's harvesting pot,
I could send that to our lawyer. I thought he could offer the evidence
as to why this whole land deal had happened. But I ran up on
you before I ever got a chance to collect the SD cards, and once
we killed that squatch, anyone in the area would have known we were there,
so I took your advice and I left with you. And that smoke
that lured you the night crew must have built that fire. I guess it
was still burning because I could smell it too. There was one question I
had and waited to ask until I heard the whole story it was time to
drop that bomb. Did you kill the two night watchmen? Of course I
didn't kill the night watchman, she said. I didn't know about any murders
until you've told us to night. I haven't seen anything about it on the
news or the web. It's all news to us, or me an the
note taped to the outhouse? Did you leave that note? I asked,
I don't know anything about a note, said Quilla. Ok, I believe
you, I said, were any of the men who you saw work in
the crops armed? Only one was? He stood by while the others worked.
He did carry a pack out, though, she said, So nobody
knows you've been in there looking around? Is that right? As far as
I'm concerned, only you know, she said, right, that's good.
One last question, Quilla, how many of those creatures would you say,
or in there? She thought for a minute, nodding her head in a
barely discernible movements. As she was counting, she finally said, I think
there's a dozen or more. I saw ten for sure, ten unique individual
creatures. It amazed me how different they looked from each other, and how
their bodies move in different ways. I have notes in my car, so
I was keeping up with them after each trip there. I made meticulous notes,
and I've seen ten, but I heard others. Whenever one would venture
into the field, they acted excited like they were giddy about gettin high that
night. So I would be safe saying that there are at least twelve in
there, and there could be more. Well, that was music to my
ears. This was goin to be a big pay day. I needed to
get my team in motion in on their way. Thank you for telling me
the whole story, I said, I'm sure it's frustrating having to deal with
this. Quilla spoke up. Not frustrating at all. I've enjoyed the action.
Priscilla rolled her eyes. You can trust what she's saying. She's an
action junkie. Now I have a question for you, said Quilla, why
are you here? I didn't have time, nor could I tell them everything
I can inform folks on what I do, and if they spread the news,
they get laughed at. But I did my best to make it as
simple as I was able. There are three of us that make up a
team that hunt and kill these things. We get paid to do it.
That is basically all I can tell you regarding your problem with the land and
everything that's happened outside the squatch problem. I can't help you with that,
but I know some people who can. Plus, if the camera angle on
the trail camas wide enough to see what happened that night to the security guards,
you are in good shape. You just need to get those SD cards.
We could do that for you tonight because I'm going back, and you
girls don't need to go back there until this is all sorted out. I'm
going said Quola. Me too, said Priscilla. All right, well we
can talk about that. I said. Right now, I need to step
outside and make a phone call. Then I'm headed back there. Now I
need to go alone, but when we start hunting, you can go.
You seem to handle yourself well under pressure, and sometimes we could use the
help, Lewis, I said into the phone. Lewis, I had to
raise my voice. There was a crowd of people talking in the background at
his house hold on Steve. He said, let me step outside, so
I waited. All right, what's up, said the deep voice of Lewis
Shanks. I gotta send us some money down here. Brother. Can you
get hooked to quit fighting with his new old lady for a few hours and
you both get down here by dark tonight. Where's the job, said Lewis.
I just sent a pen to your phone. You're only an hour and
a half away. Now this is a big one, and I already have
a plan coming together in my head. Why does that not make me feel
good about this gig? Lewis said, laughing, It's a good one,
trust me. Now call hook and get down here. Pack heavy and plenty
ten to four, said Lewis. We'll see you tomorrow. Crawling into the
hollow tree trunk was easy. Staying there was the hard part. Raccoons weren't
the only animals that live in these places. Bugs do too, and there
were several taking a stroll over my body, some on the outside, and
I think I felt a roach make its way under the waistband of my underpants.
That is a hell of a thing. When moving to squash it,
we'll bring the heat down on you. I had been there for two hours
and the sun would be up soon, and I needed to get busy.
But I had four wasted squatches a few yards in front of me, acting
exactly like they were high. One of them was grabbing at things in the
air that weren't there. Two were dancing around, playing in the water like
kids on a rainy day. Those were the females. The one male kept
pawing at them in a rude way, if you know what I mean.
It didn't seem to bother them too much, but it was pissing me off.
On any other hunt, I would have dropped off four of them right
there, taking their heads, and been on my way home. Quilla had
seen a dozen maybe more in the area. If I shot now, i'd
be leaving money in the woods. I had not slept the night before,
and I kept the twins up too late, asking questions about when the harvesters
came in, when the squatches showed up, and when they left, And
I tried to get the best picture in my mind so that I could do
what I needed to do. Quilla had only been here a few times.
There was no way we could be certain that this was an every night's schedule.
Things could change, and they had changed. These squatches were supposed to
be here if they followed a pattern, and they were holding me up.
But after considering that during the day there was little activity, I began to
relax and wait. In reality, we did have a little bit of time
right now. I was a spectator watching something. No one else on the
planet gets to see. Four squatches high on dope, having well, I
would suppose you'd call it a squatch party. There was a minute there that
a tinge of guilt swept over me for what I would do to these creatures.
I mean they were almost cute, splashing around in the water, all
screwed up like they were. That shallow wave of guilt went away as fast
as it appeared when the male got violent with the females. At some point
on their way here, one of the females must have dropped a young squatch
off at a tree while she was having her girls night out. The male
left the group when it became obvious that the girls were not receptive to his
advances. When he returned, he had a small one in his hand.
That poor little soon to be terror from hell. Was being dragged by its
leg through the water or squalling the whole way. The party ended with those
screams. The big male roared at the baby's mama, and then he began
to club her to death with her own offspring. Before it was over,
two female males and the young squatch lay dead in the water, and the
calm of the absurd. He shook the only part of the child left in
his grip at the remaining female. She knew exactly what he wanted, and
if she didn't give it up, she would be laying there with the others.
She submitted, and I had to sit as quiet as a mouse while
he threw that leg next to the mother and drug the female away. The
party was over, and I could not wait to kill this fucker. I
was going to punish this one. With the festivities now over, I felt
like I could move. I poked my head out and I looked around,
and I stepped away from the seclusion of the big oak tree. Then I
reached in my drawers and I squashed that roots that had been digging around in
my crack. He was a big one, and I had to wash my
hands off in the water before I did anything. Else and roach guts grossed
me out. The first order business was to collect the SD card from the
trail cam at the construction site. I would get the remaining three as I
visited each pot grow for an hour before dawn until two hours after. I
walked to every patch of dope I could find. I was moving fast,
hoping not to alert the squatches in the area. There have been opts where
they have lookouts to warn the pack that humans are in the area, but
I never saw one. Maybe they were all sleeping off the activities of the
night before. When everything was set, I ran all the way to my
vehicle and I left. It took me an hour to get back to the
Twins house. Hook's SUV was parked at the curb. Knocking on the front
door produced nothing. I knocked once and I rang the bell. It was
the door we walked in last night, so I knew this was the entrance
that got used the most. The door was unlocked, but I didn't know
these people that well to just walk in uninvited. So I walked to the
grudge, which was open. Both cars belonged to the girls were parked inside.
Now knocked on that door still, I got no answer. Then I
heard Lewis's big laugh from the backyard. Now I let myself in the gate,
and there sat my brothers with the twins, eating on a massive spread
of eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy and a stack of waffles.
Damn, make yourselves at home, I said to the squats killers, Come
sit down, Steve, there's plenty left, and it's still warm, said
Quilla. Steve. These women can cook, said Louis. Dry the waffles,
said Hook. It's better than I huk. I dug in and I
ate. I was hungry and I was tired. Priscilla was laughing as I
shoved or water eggs in my mouth. I looked up and she was pitching
small pieces of bacon at Hook. He was catching every piece in his mouth
and giggling at her. Oh shit, I said, looking at Louis,
while I pointed my thumb at Hook. Don't say nothing to me about this.
You know how he is. And I've already warned this nice lady about
this maniac. Apparently she's hard headed, said Louis, shaking his head.
Hook. How long have you been here? I said, Well, he
didn't acknowledge me. Hook was z rode in on Priscilla and her animal training
technique with the bacon toss. She threw another and he caught it and then
made a puppy sound. Y'all are making me sick, I said. Now,
I got up and took my plate inside. Louis and Quilla followed me.
Now, I looked out the window. After I was settled over my
plate at the table, Hook was now tossing Priscilla pieces of biscuit coated and
gravy. She'd miss and get gravy on her face, at which time he
would scoot this chair closer and wipe her mouth with his napkin. Can you
close those blinds, I asked, Quila, I'm about to vomit. Lewis,
spoke Steve. You know how he is. You've seen this a dozen
times. Yeah, but I didn't think I left the sentence and die before
it left my mouth. Forget them, said Louis. Give us a sit
rep. The girl said they didn't know why you went to the woods.
Right now, Lewis, I need some sleep if I'm going to be any
good tonight. Now, let me get three hours of couch time and I'll
run it by you all when I wake up. Romeo is being house trained
on the patio at the moment, and I don't want to go over this
twice. I'm out of gas, brother, Lewis. You guys can hang
out here all day if you want, said Quilla. While Steve is sleeping,
I can tell you what's happened on my end. At least you'll have
that information and Steve won't have to retail all that we have Netflix and other
TV. If you want to rest up until we leave later, well that'll
be fine, Quilla said, Lewis. Did you say we She's going with
us, and she knows the lay out of the place. She's already has
hides built in three locations, Lewis, she's good with a rifle and she
can handle herself. I said, Plus, she won't listen to me.
She'll be you're back up tonight while we go to work on this pack of
squatches. Quilla reached over and punched Lewis in the arm. I've got your
back, Lewis. I won't let those big, old mean squatches get you,
okay, Quilla said Lewis. He looked at me and asked, what
does she know? She knows enough to do this, I said, now
enjoy your Netflix. I'm crawling on that couch if that's okay with you,
Quilla, we have two spare bedrooms. Steve, go to the first door
on the left, just down the hall, there's a bathroom if you need
to shower, she said, Why thanked her and I left the kitchen.
After a hot shower, I collapsed onto the clean sheets. I could hear
hookin Priscilla giggling through the wall with a pillow wrapped around my head. I
finally drifted off to sleep. You don't think we hurt Hook's feelings, do
you, Quilla asked. Don't worry about Hook. Lewis said, he's bulletproof.
It was five p m. And we were halfway to the property.
When I left the front door earlier. Everyone was already outside waitin on me.
I had a quick bagel an That was all I needed to add some
energy to this machine. Hook was in the driver's seat of his big excursion
with Priscilla next to him. Get in, we're burning daylight, Hook yelled.
I walked straight to my truck. I ain't riding with them, I
said, I'm riding with you, Steve said Quilla. Lewis was right behind
her on the way I explained my plan. Lewis thought it was good.
We would give hook his instructions when we got there and blow my hand.
In the console was a small plastic box that contained the SD cards I had
removed from the trail cams set out by a Quilla, and I handed it
to her in the back seat. I've looked at this card from the sight.
Quilla haven't had time to look at the others, but I know what
they'll show. This should clear you regarding the murder of the night watchmen.
And by the way, there were four of them there. Looks like those
boys brought some buddies along. Two were killed and two were dragged away by
the squatches. I never saw any sign of em while I was there this
morning. I doubt they'll ever be found unless someone stumbles on them by chance.
Anyway, it's all there on the card. That was a damn good
move setting those out. Quilla, Are you saying the creatures kill these men?
She said, It's not fun to watch, but yeah, they killed
them. You'll also see who penned the note on the outhouse. That may
surprise you either way. I suggest you make a few copies before you decide
what to do with this information. I can't help you with any of that.
Your attorney will be helpful. I'm sure our focus is on the creatures
infesting your land. I have never asked, and I have been assuming we
have your permission to kill these things. I said, you assumed, right,
Stee, she said, one of those things tried to kill me.
Remember, by the way, I will need you to show me where the
creature is that was killed by that claymore when this is all over, I'll
need that one in the three I saw killed by one of their own yesterday.
I have those heads dashed. We get paid by the head count.
It's a sort of a bounty they kill their own, she asked. Believe
me when I say it is not an easy life being a female squatch.
It is a vicious world they live in. I watched Quilla give me a
thumbs up in the rear view mirror. We pulled to a stop and got
out and started prepping our gear. Hook pulled in ten minutes later. He
and Priscilla joined us. I spent the next few minutes explaining to Hook Don
Juan Johnson my plan for the first time on this top. I brought up
the SAT image of the property on the laptop. Before I left yesterday,
I had penned locations for the claymores. I had found each man would have
a handheld device to navigate, and the pens had been transferred to those devices.
Beside each pen were symbols showing everyone how to avoid the minds. We
had an additional problem. The crew watching over the marijuana grow had been coming
in each night to harvest buds. We didn't want any human casualties if we
could help it. More than likely the crews worked for an organized outfit,
and if their people were killed, they would find us. We didn't want
to get crossways with the local cartel. Hook had the most experience with these
types, so I send him to the small trail they used to come in
and out of the area. If they showed up, he would intercept them
before the shooting started. I wasn't sure how he would make them understand,
but like with the ladies, Hook out a way about him that convince people
to see things his way. He is diplomatic, but he is also a
savage when he needs to be hooking. Priscilla headed for his vehicle and I
stopped him. What are you going to do with her? I asked,
well, Priscilla heard me, and she pointed her finger my way. Don't
you worry about me and Hook. Steve Levy, you keep my sisters safe.
I think I'm in good hands. And she walked off with her arm
under Hook's elbow, swishing her fanny as she went. She turned back once
to wink and throw me a thumbs up. From the rear of the suv,
she extracted one of Hook's ar tens, pinned it to her vest,
and pulled the charging handle. She was ready to rock and roll. If
this relationship materializes, they can tell their kids their first date was on a
squatch hunt in a cartel dope field. Now that's just weird, I thought.
On the screen, I saw several squatches. They were moving toward the
fields, but it would be a while before they made it there. After
a calm's check, I relayed that intel to Hook. He was now fully
up to date. I showed Lewis where I thought he would have the most
luck, and then told him to take Quilla. They would be team two.
Who was Team one? Asked Lewis, you want to be Team one?
I said, what are you? Steve whatever team you're not. How
about Hook? What team is he? Lewis as sort of grinning by this
point, Kiss my ass, Lewis. I finally called on to the joke.
I'm team one. You and Quilla are team two, Hooking Priscilla are
team three. I said, all this with my mic engaged. Did you
copy that? Hook? Team three? Copy that? How about you quit
talking and let's get in the woods. We get the plan. Let's take
some of these fuckers out, said Hook. Let me know if the pot
growers show up. I said. We split up and headed to our positions.
It would take an hour for everyone to get set up. I was
now using a handheld device to take the shortest distance to the field that I
would cover. There were three squatches showing bright green on my screen between me
and my destination. I would have to move fast and possibly take them on
if they figured out I was there. I was hoping they had the skunk
weed on their mind and they wouldn't notice me. I was right. They
were there and they were sitting still. These bastards had learned when the field
hands showed up. They were sitting back and waiting for the humans to come
and go. My guess was they had remained hidden from the growers. When
a squatch reveals himself to a human, more times than not, the areas
get more human traffic, mainly from the goofy researcher types. If they stay
hidden, they get to live in peace. I don't think the dope growers
even knew the area was covered up with these nasty creatures. With them remaining
static, I was able to thread through them like a ninja and set up
on my field. Now I found the hide quilla head built and I crawled
inside. I drained two bottles of water, eight a boxer mass and checked
my gear. And I've waited this hunt would be one to go in the
bucks. It would be dangerous, but it would be epic. I hope
the dope growers wouldn't show up. They had probably harvested all of their product
and there would be no reason for them to come back. That hope was
dashed when Hook called in that four vehicles were approaching his location and here's the
way. He later told me how that went. He parked his big Green
Excursion crossways in the road. It's the road they used to get close to
the property, and he stood in front of the vehicle. Priscilla had been
sent into the woods as a backup should there be any misunderstandings if things got
out of hand. Hook and Priscilla were lucky. This crew was coming in
for a one long night job of cutting plants down and stashing them in the
woods. I learned from Hook later that that's what they'll do on these large
scale grows, so that the fields won't be discovered by hunters or winter campers.
This way they can treat the soil in the spring and begin their grow
again for the next summer. Since this was the demolition crew and not the
team that guarded the fields, they were not armed. There was nothing left
to protect. Hook says it took them some time for the first two to
get out of the cars to talk to him. He wasn't going to approach
their car with his rifle in his hands. When the two in the first
car approached, Hook told them that they needed to postpone their work until the
next night. They were curious why this monster of a man they had never
seen was telling them to get lost. They said they had been hired to
do the job and they wouldn't be paid until it was complete. They needed
to make a phone call, they said, before they could agree to this,
but Hook persua wait at them with a small envelope packed with one hundred
dollars bills. The possibility of an altercation diminished by several notches at that point.
Take this and give us the area for the night. Come back tomorrow
and do your thing. That's all I'm asking, Hook said to the eight
men and one woman, who were all standing in front of him by then.
Two of them held rifles. Hey, or you a cop? One
of the men asked. It was an understandable assumption the man made. Hook
stood there in jeans and weathered boots and a black t shirt and a ball
cap with a long ponytail hanging out from underneath. His arms were covered in
tattoos, and the man was in shape. He actually looked like someone who
might be undercover in one of the federal agencies. But when he turned his
back on them, they saw the full patch and rockers displayed by the motorcycle
club and which Hook belonged on his vest. They all gave a side of
relief and their minds. Hook was another criminal who just happened to be a
full member of the most feared motorcycle club in the South. Had they wanted
to take Hook out, the outcome would have been questionable to begin with.
Maybe they could get the drawn him, and maybe not with the knowledge just
revealed to them. If they did take him down, they would then face
the full vengeance of the motorcycle club. It might not be tomorrow, might
not be next week or even the next month, but it would come.
Take the cash as a token of our appreciation. There is no need to
even tell whoever hired you. Just come back tomorrow and finish. No one
will ever know the difference. We have no interest in your crop. This
is about something else, do you understand, Hook said to them, with
a not so genuine smile. They all nodded, and they took the money,
and they got back in their cars, and they left. When they
had gone, Priscilla joined Hook at the end of that road and she kissed
his cheek. You're a good negotiator. I would have taken out every one
of them if they had twitched, she said, Ah, Hook said,
those guys are just trying to get by. I'm glad you didn't have to
show me your wicked side. Oh I do have one, you know.
I hope I never have to show it to you. Priscilla said she wasn't
smiling, and Hook took a hard swallow. Let's get moving, he said,
the show should start in the next hour or two. They walked to
their assigned position, and Hook explained how to and where to shoot the creatures
when it all started, where the kill shot was, and now she was
smiling. While I did my thing that morning, I had found eighteen clay
mores. I thought there might be more, but we weren't going to travel
in any direction we had not already been if we could have avoid it.
If there were more and we had to move in an unknown area, we
would have to do it slow and deliberate, which would not be good in
a crisis. I wondered where and how this outfit had acquired clay moars.
Now we had a few, but those were furnished by our employer. We
had never needed to use them. Clay mores weren't for sale at Walmart or
the Army surplus store. Whoever these fields belonged to had deep connections to have
this type of security protecting their cry. Furthermore, clay mores are designed to
be set off with a remote trigger. A man has to manually activate them
with a handheld plunger. They do not come rigged with a trip wire detonation
mechanism. Someone had rigged these to do what the minds were not designed to
do. Now, I wondered if Agent Blue could look into this for us,
if there was any blowback on this op. Maybe there was intel floating
around one of the bureaucracies as to who may have sold or bought the weapons.
I suppose the minds could have been bought out of the country from an
illegal arms dealer. The logistics of getting them in the country undetected were a
nightmare, though, but so was growing in selling dope. It was all
part of the risk, and apparently these people were willing to take huge risk
to grow the stuff. I had been sitting still for three hours when the
first mine went off. It was in the field where Lewis and Quilla were
set up. The radio chatter was brief and to the point Lewis chimed in,
all right, here we go. Let the mindes do our work for
us, I said, trying not to give your position away before you have
to. There's a bunch of these things in here. Copy that I heard
from both teams. Two more thuds came from Hook's field. Damn these mines
or vicious, said Hook over the coms. We just saw a big mail
come in and he's down with one mind. We got to start using these,
Steve, how many does Lewis have in his dash? I have four,
said Lewis. Make a note to get more, said Hook. This
is awesome. This pack of squatches had gotten so used to the locations of
the minds that they never thought twice about following the exact trails into the fields
that they had been using since they migrated to this area. Even as their
mates were being riffed to shreds, they just kept coming. They are creatures
of habit and they are easy to fool. I had spent the whole morning
slightly moving the reflective tacks in the trees and moving the trip wires attached to
each mine to the opposite side of the tree. I was apprehensive about even
touching the damned things, but I knew someone would come in at some point
and collect those. That meant they had to have a mechanism to disarm them.
I took a huge risk and found an arming switch on the back of
the canisters. If I had not found those, I wouldn't have touched them.
But as luck would have it, it all worked out, and now
bombs were going off all around us, and with each explosion, I whispered,
cheching. I counted fourteen explosions in thirty minutes. While I was happening,
I heard squatch screams and cries. I heard them running in all directions
around men, toward men, away from me, No matter how hard they
tried to escape. The habitual travel all summer long had conditioned them to head
straight for the flying ball bearings propelled by the sea. Four explosives and then
everything went silent. We waited thirty more minutes while we watched our devices.
How many do you all count on the ground, I said through my mic,
And then I waited two minutes clicked off. I count ten down in
four running, said Lewis. I heard him saying, then to Quilla,
here he comes. Now. Rifle fire ripped into the night from Lewis's location.
I sat tight and waited. Make that eleven. Lewis said, this
girl is steady under pressure. I don't think it knew we were here,
but he was charging our direction all the same she dropped him like a sack
of quick creet. Steve, Oh, she's a killer, I said,
how many do you count? Hook? Hook didn't answer. I heard two
rifles expending several rounds in his direction. I look back at my device and
two more lay behind their hide, and Priscilla was getting out to look at
them. Make it thirteen, Steve said, Hook. He sounded it a
bit shaken. I heard him tell her get back in the damn blind.
Priscilla, you okay, brother, I ask, yeah, thanks to this
girl especially watching the field, and she had my six. They were on
us before I knew it. They must have been slow creeping up behind us,
and she took them both down. I helped with the one still moving.
Other than that, I'm good. That left one and I could see
him on my device fifty yards away from me, and he was moving in
after crawling quickly out of my hide. I stood straight up and I flipped
down my nvg's There was on hands and feet, doing that creepy ass spider
crawl they'd do. I looked close at his face and guess who was coming
to pay me a visit. It was that asshole that beat the mother to
death with their own offspring. Well, I didn't give a shit about the
mother or their offspring, but it was the principle of the matter. I
don't care if you're human or a nasty mutants night faced woodbugger. You can
take care of your people. And what he did would never in my world.
And I was about to painfully end his. When I stood up.
He saw me, and he knew he was made coming out of by all
four position was like lightning, and he was in motion. In a fraction
of a second. I put two rounds into his gut. That stopped him
for a few seconds, but before he could make another charge, I took
out both shoulders at the joint. The squatch was hurting, but he could
walk. And on he came, and I started moving to my left.
He had thirty yards to go, and even without his arms, he would
mutilate me if he could get to me. I was going to inflict as
much pain as I could before I let him die. Still, I kept
moving now at a sideway's jog, never taking my scope off his main body
mass. He was turning to intersect me in an angle of approach, just
walking. Now, I guess those thirty caliber rounds do a little damage.
And no matter how much adrenaline he was pumping, the pain was coming in
waves twenty yards away. Now I was still moving around him in a clockwise
position. I sent another round into his left thigh. Oh that shit hurts,
doesn't it? I yelled. He roared furiously, and he made a
final lunge. Now dove back to his right and covered my head as I
heard the trip wire do that tell tale zip. It blew that asshole all
over the woods. And I was laughing into the dirt, and I began
picking leaves out of my mouth. I had enjoyed every minute of that encounter.
To date, it has been my favorite kill. Give us a sit
rep, Steve. I heard Lewis's voice in my earpiece. I'm good,
I said, do you see any activity on the screen. Looks like we
got them all. They both agreed meet up at Hook's SUV and have a
drink. I said, Hook, do you have a bottle in your car?
Always, brother, We'll see you there. Hello, mister Lily,
how can I direct your call? The voice came over the satellite phone like
maple syrup on a stack of pancakes. What agent are you? Well,
I'm at the switchboard. Sir, switchboard operators do not have code names.
She said, you're now Agent waffle House. How do you like the sound
of that? What she asked, sounding perplexed, because I bet you like
pancakes? Am I right? This conversation is weird? Mister Lily, who
can I connect you with? How about Agent Blue? I said, Hey,
before you connect me? Between you and me, what does Agent Red
look like? Is she cute? There was a pause hold for Agent Blue
looks beside me, shaking his head. While you always messing with these folks,
Steve, They're gonna think you're crazy, keeps them on their toes.
That throws them off, makes me an enigma. They can't ever figure me
out. Hell, I can't figure you out either, said hook. Mister
Lily. How can I help you? Agent blues? Cool voice broke in.
We have eighteen subjects we need to get out of these woods. Eighteen
heads will be difficult to haul out and back to Memphis. Will you take
another body part on this one as proof of kill? I said, in
a hopeful tone. I didn't want to mess with Agent Blue today. I
was asking for a favor. An ear from each animal will be fine.
Steve, we will need one head for research though. Good job down there.
This is your biggest haul to date. We watched the festivities on the
life Ee from the sky. Your team handled it better than we thought.
You did have a little help from the marijuana growers, and I doubt they're
going to be happy. Most of their booby traps have been used, said
Blue. They did come in handy. I said, I don't want bad
blood between us and the druggists, but the minds were available and I used
them to our advantage. On that subject, we have become acquainted with a
pair of twins who rightfully owned this land, and they've been cheated out of
it. Do you think Agent Blue cut me off. We know all about
it, Steve. Tell the girls things will be handled in the next thirty
days. The property will be returned to them. Everyone will be compensated and
made whole, including mister Bright. We're hoping they go ahead and sell the
place to him. And regarding the SD cards you collected, please ask the
Trice twins to give you a copy so that you can forward those to us.
They are not obligated to do that, but it would help on our
end. Last, we have other agencies looking into the drug sellers there.
I don't know where that will go. They seemed to have known something was
up. This wasn't new information for them. It is out of our hands
now, Okay, then I'll tell the Twins what you've said. You're all
right, Agent Blue? Hey, is Agent Red or available to talk?
Have a good day, mister Lily. We will set up a meeting to
collect your specimens in the next forty eight hours. Stay well, Steve Hey.
But about Agent Red? The line went dead. Who is Agent Red?
Asked Quilla, Never mind, I said. I went on to explain
what was happening with the land and the SD cards, and the Twins couldn't
believe how well this worked out, and they thanked me over and over.
They didn't care about the land, and they went on to say they wouldn't
make Jack Bright a good deal on it. Everything had worked out perfectly.
There were no injuries and no bad blood between us and the Druggies as far
as we knew, and we had just made the best pay day ever.
I decided later that I wouldn't charge mister Bright. He was a good man
trying to get some work done, and you can't fall to guy for that
and then charge him for something that you were going to do anyway. It
took two hours to find the dead creatures in the woods, and I collected
the one head from that asshole I killed at the end. He had a
big scar across his face. I wish I could have mounted his head,
but I didn't want that nasty thing staring at me with those evil human eyes
every time I walked in my trailer. The twins had stayed with the vehicles
while we gathered ears, and when we returned, they looked at the face
of the creature in that toatsack. That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.
Steve said, Quilla, you sure got that right, said Louis. Makes
it easy to kill him. Hook said, I wonder if I could do
it if they had a cute face. Everyone laughed. An hour and a
half later, I pulled to the curb in front of the house to return
Quilla to her home. We stood in the front yard waiting for Hooking Priscilla
to arrive, and we talked. Quilla was full of questions, and Lewis
and I answered the questions that we could. She was a nice girl,
and had I lived closer to her, I might have asked her out.
I'd need to know if she was seeing anyone. But I never cracked the
ice. Why bother. I was too busy to maintain a relationship anyway,
and I'm just not the type to settle down. I need to be free
to move when I want to. But I think Quilla would have said yes
if I had asked her for a date. It is a journey I will
never know. The noise from Hook's vehicle roared from the stop sign at the
end of the street. He looked to be in a hurry. He turned
into the drive a little too soon and bounced the rear into the air on
the curb. Priscilla immediately jumped out, screaming at Hook through the passenger window.
He looked over at us with a shit eating ground while he rolled that
window up, shutting her down. With that, Priscilla rounded the front of
the suv. Hook couldn't get his window up in time to not be hit
by the full sonic Root forty four cherry coke. The window was finally up,
and I could see his face as Priscilla screamed at him through the glass.
I don't know what she was saying I was too busy laughing and watching
Hook sit there with his head bowed and cherry coke and ice dripping from his
head. Threw his long beard and into his lap. He was a defeated
man at that point. I need to go see about her, said Quilla.
She is high strung with men sort of a cling her, and some
guys don't like that. I'm assuming Hook just found out about that and said
something, and you fell us drive safe on your way home. On her
way inside, she smiled and waved it Hook, who had now rolled his
window down. She lifted her shoulders and hands as if to say, I
don't know what to tell you, and she walked inside. We could hear
Priscilla screaming from the back of the house. Lewis and I walked over to
Hook's window, but he already had his car in gear. Don't ask,
he said, I'll tell you about it when we get home. I'm not
staying here another minute. She might come back out. Lewis was laughing so
hard he said he was about to pee on himself. Well, I was
the same. Lewis and I stumbled back to my truck and we left.
We never caught up with hook, however, was a refer