Rogue Angel - Footprints Part 34

Ellen looked up. "Sorry?"

"The men in his office. They've been waiting a long time?"

"They were here when I arrived about an hour ago. They smell like smoke. Probably been camping the past few days. Got that kind of funk to them. You know, sort of like how you and Jenny smell."

Annja laughed. "We could do with hot showers."

Ellen smiled and looked back at her report. Annja leaned forward. "Have you seen them before? Around here, I mean."

Ellen frowned. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

"I'm curious by nature," Annja said.

"Nope. I've never seen them around these parts before. Of course, that doesn't mean much. We have a lot of folks who live sorta off the grid, so to speak. They make their own way in life and every once in a while turn up. Could be these guys are like that, too."

Annja took a breath. "I doubt that."

Jenny sat down next to her. "So what do you want to do? Barge in and confront them?"

"Well, they did hold a gun on me yesterday," Annja said. She stood.

Jenny grabbed her arm. "You're not serious."

"Why not? No time like the present to figure out exactly what the h.e.l.l is going on around here."

Jenny shook her head. "Annja, you can't just barge in there. What if-"

"What if what?" Annja jerked her arm free. "I'm tired of wandering through the woods. You've got big-foot fever. I've had guns held on me. You nearly died from exposure. A fourteen-year-old kid who can communicate with wolves is off on his own. I took some sort of weird spirit trip."

"You did?"

"Don't ask." Annja shook her head. "No, I want to know what is going on and I want to know now."

Ellen looked up. "Everything okay with you two?"

Annja smiled at Ellen. "Does David's office door have a lock on it?"

Ellen frowned. "What would make you ask a thing like that?"

Annja shook her head. "Never mind. I'll find out."

She walked across the office and kicked David's door open.

The door banged against the inside wall and the blinds rattled. David and the two men jumped out of their seats as Annja blocked the doorway. "Hi, guys. I've got some questions I'd like answered."

David started to stand behind his desk. "Annja, what the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?"

She kept herself in the doorway. While the gunman had initially jumped at her entrance, he had regained his composure and sat staring at Annja with an expression of mild amus.e.m.e.nt.

Annja glared at him and then looked back at David. "That guy's the one who came into Jenny's camp yesterday and made us all leave at gunpoint."

David frowned. "Annja."

"And now you're sitting here with him in your office and I don't particularly like it. I see this and I have to think that's something is rotten in Denmark. And I want to know exactly what it is."

The gunman cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should leave, Sheriff."

David held up his hand. "No one's going anywhere. Stay put." He looked at Annja. "You shouldn't have come in here, Annja. This doesn't concern you."

"Gun-toting jerks always seem to concern me," Annja said. "And I'll be d.a.m.ned if I don't say something about this."

The gunman shifted in his chair. "I told you this would be a problem."

David shook his head. "You're wrong. It's containable. Just let me handle it, okay?"

"Sure, sure." The man started picking his teeth with a small toothpick Annja hadn't noticed earlier.

David took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. "Annja, you've sort of stumbled onto something here that I wish you hadn't."

"What have we stumbled onto?" Jenny asked, suddenly appearing behind Annja in the doorway.

David shrugged. "These men are not what they seem."

"They're not nasty pieces of work?" Annja said. "Could have fooled me."

The men didn't even bristle from the insult. Annja frowned. Something had changed about the gunman's demeanor. The look of a redneck seemed to be slowly peeling away. Something far more sinister replaced it.

David turned to Jenny. "I asked you out here for a reason."

"What was that?" she asked.

"Your expertise. I did find something that I wanted you to take a look at. Something I think proves the existence of the Sasquatch."

"Well, where is it?"

"We have it," the gunman said.

"And why on earth would you have it?" Annja asked.

The man stared at David and then at Annja. "Because the government happens to be interested in it," he said coldly.

Annja chewed her lip. That's why he seems so different. He works for the Feds, she thought. She had interacted with enough government agents to recognize one when she saw one. This guy definitely fit the bill. Albeit in a sc.u.mmy way.

"What agency do you work for?" she asked.

He shook his head. "You don't need to know that."

Annja pointed at David. "I take it they showed you some identification?"