The Fault With The Spy Read online

  The Fault With The Spy

  A Caldera Humorous Mystery Book One

  Linda Mackay

  Contents

  Untitled

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  THE FAULT WITH THE SPY

  A Caldera Humorous Mystery

  Book One

  By

  Linda Mackay

  Copyright 2017

  Dedication

  In memory of Laura.

  Every boot print I leave in Yellowstone is for you.

  Chapter 1

  The shaking dumped me on the floor from the comfort of my bed and a dream of a two-foot sasquatch brushing her teeth. My watch read 8:32 a.m. as I stumbled to the relative safety of the doorframe trying to figure out why I was dreaming about a vertically challenged hairy animal with bad breath.

  45 seconds after it began the quake subsided. Why am I watching the clock in the middle of a violent earthquake? It’s the curse of being a geologist living in one of the world’s most active seismic zones. While my career may rest on attention to details of quakes and volcanoes, my butt was resting on a sharp rock. I pulled the rock from under me and threw it at my new 60-inch TV lying cracked on the floor. I surveyed the rest of the destruction, grabbed my backpack, and jumped on the porch’s first step. The aftershock rolled me the other two steps.

  “I hope someone made coffee.” I said after finding Chaos, my neurotic cat, happily licking his woohoo in the middle of the pasture.

  “Darn quake, dumped the coffee beans all over the floor.” Todd stirred the campfire with the leg of a broken chair. He’s my closest neighbor, former intern, a Volcanologist who’s afraid of volcanoes, and my field assistant. I’m Dr. Marjorie Clark. PhD, not MD, because I can’t stand the sight of blood. I work for the United States Geological Survey, studying hydrothermal and volcanic activity, and I’m a total geek who gets to use the coolest technology ever.

  “Power’s out so were you planning to grind those beans with your hard head?” I said sitting down on the ground.

  “Just making it clear, your coffee will be mediocre.” Todd poured coffee from the pot brewing over the fire, “Hang on, here we go again.”

  Balancing my coffee cup in one hand, I planted the other on the ground next to me. “Where’s Amanda?”

  “In the trees peeing.” Todd used the broken chair leg to point at the trees on the hillside where Amanda was stumbling like a drunk.

  “Stop laughing! I just peed myself and can’t even get back in the house to get a new pair of pants.”

  “Hate to tell you, but it doesn’t look like you were wearing pants to begin with,” I said.

  “There is nothing wrong with my pink long underwear, which is more than Todd has on.”

  Todd stood up from his squatting position next to the campfire, an American flag on his t-shirt, everything else waving in the wind. “Hey, at least I’m dressed for the holiday.”

  I spit my coffee across the fire. “Geez, you didn’t grab pants when the quake hit?”

  “The jeans slipped out of my hands while I was running out of the house, and I have no idea where I dropped my underpants.”

  Amanda poured coffee in her cup and sat next to me. “He ran screaming through the house like a tween at a Justin Bieber concert.”

  “At least I was smart enough to be scared. You stopped to pick up tampons and a bottle of Scotch.”

  “Hey! Those were the top two things on my survival list.”

  When she was in college, Amanda was also my field intern. Her goal was to work with rocks near a beach, not in a down parka being chased by bears. After graduation when that didn’t materialize, she decided to work summers for me and sell art in the winter at one of the dozens of galleries in nearby Jackson Hole. There is more art in Jackson than people and animals combined. Lucky for us some people love to spend their excess wealth on art or Jackson would still be a small cow town with good skiing. I’m all for supporting the Arts, I just prefer to support my arches in a $300 pair of hiking boots.

  “Speaking of survival.” I said glassing the area with binoculars. “Looks like the ranch houses are standing, old out building heavily damaged, fences down, but Frank has the all-good flag flying from the porch.” Cowboy Frank owns most of the land and cattle in these mountains and then some.

  “Did we put up our flag?” Amanda asked.

  Todd pointed to the gay pride flag hanging on the downed tree.

  Amanda rolled her eyes at me. “I can’t believe you agreed to that being your ‘all-good’ flag.”

  “It’s better than the string of old bras I used to fly,” I said.

  The ground rolled like ocean waves under us. Todd checked his watch. “This is going to be a long day.”

  Amanda pointed at the cabin up the hill. “Has anyone checked on our new neighbor?”

  From my sitting position, I balanced the binoculars on my knees. He was tall and built like a brick wall. His hair was dark red. So dark it appeared brown until the sunlight reflected off it. His eyes were light blue and right now were wide open and searching the area. I was pretty sure he’d experienced his first earthquake. “You mean the dude holding the doorframe with the fear of God in his eyes?”

  Amanda grabbed the binos from me and glassed him. “I don’t care if he’s scared of his own shadow, that is one serious hunk of man.”

  “Don’t care what he looks like, we don’t have time to pamper a city dude who obviously isn’t hurt. I need to contact my dad.” I pulled out the radio in the emergency pack I grabbed as I rolled out my front door. “My guess is the Teton Fault went between a 6.5 and 7.0 magnitude.”

  “That baby definitely has a ‘tude.” Todd walked using wide side-to-side steps as the ground rolled again. “Last we heard from Joe he was working in the Columbine Creek area. If the quake is centered near here then he is probably more worried about us.”

  “Even if the quake is centered on the Teton Fault, we can’t predict what kind of activity it set off in Yellowstone. I think we should be worried about your dad.” Amanda stuck her tongue out at Todd.

  Some days I think it would be easier to train baboons than listen to these two bicker. Actually, I’m pretty sure it is easier, but these are my two baboons so you work with what you’re given. Right now the only given is communications are completely down except for radios. Not even my satellite phone is working, which may have more to do with my inability to remember to charge it than the satellite being hijacked by aliens.

  “Hey, I got chatter!” Todd said. “This is geo 22, what’s your 20 and do you have info on the quake location?”

  “Geo 22, this is black hornet seven, I’m near Moran. Ranger chatter is saying the epicenter appears to be at the head of Jackson Lake. The dam may be failing…I repeat the dam may fail.”

  “Well that’s a pisser?” Todd said as I relieved him of the radio.

  “Where did you hear the dam info?” Todd and Amanda laughed like the baboons they are. “I mean, black hornet seven, who told you about the dam failure?” Ah damn, I give up.

  �
��One of the park geologists reported it from his cabin near Jackson Lake. I think his name was Miller or Millet.” He is one of the best, so no bad information coming from him.

  “Other damage assessments?” I asked

  “Highway 26 is heavily damaged up here, no possibility of vehicle travel. I heard on my HAM radio, town of Jackson has damage to roads, old structures and utilities. Major problems seem to be, communication, cell towers damaged, and airport runway. Basically, no access in or out of valley, which means we better have a pantry full of beer as help is going to be a long time coming. First priority will be to stop total dam failure.”

  The giggles from the baboons continued. “Any reports from Yellowstone?”

  “Strange deal, I’ve heard only garbled chatter from the north. Sounds like something is breaking up the signal. I think they said there was an explosion, possibly before the quake.”

  Todd locked eyes with me. “Chicken or the egg?”

  Right now I didn’t care if the explosion or the quake came first. I looked at the sky and didn’t see any ash, which was a good thing since we were standing within miles of the caldera rim of an active volcano.

  “Thanks for the info. Stay safe and drink a beer for me. Over and out.”

  “10-4, you stay safe too geo 22. Take care of your mom; I heard she wasn’t feeling well. And that just ain’t right.”

  “Your mom died a long time ago so what was that about?” Amanda asked.

  I looked north toward the largest active volcanic area in the United States. “I have no idea, but something just ain’t right.”

  Chapter 2

  There was definitely something not right. My mom had been dead for over 25 years. This guy was not mistaking me for someone else; he was sending me a message. When you’ve lived all your life in the wilderness you learn a lot about paying attention to nature and ignoring humans. Nature is built on facts; most humans operate on emotion. Those emotions can skew the facts. However, the fact was nature acted up today and then a human sent a cryptic message. I think the emotions are worth listening too.

  “Jorie, we need to talk to Frank,” Todd said.

  Everyone calls me, Jorie; I don’t remember a time anyone used Marjorie unless it was Dad when he was mad at me. And Todd was right. If anyone could help us figure out the message it would be Cowboy Frank. Frank Ellis was born in these mountains to a family who’d been ranching for 150 years. Tall and hard muscled, his skin weathered from years in the Wyoming wind, he always wore a cowboy hat, bandana around his neck, and I’m pretty sure he was born with the bushy walrus mustache. As a kid I followed him everywhere and he never complained. I’d ask him what he was doing, and he’d say, “eatin’ an ice cream cone.” Dad told me that meant I needed to talk less and listen more.

  “Todd, you need to put pants on before we go anywhere.”

  “While you’re in there, stop at my room and grab my jeans, I think I threw them on the floor last night,” Amanda said.

  “No way. I’m not going in that pig sty, I might end up touching some panties that have been laying there for weeks fermenting,” Todd said.

  “I don’t wear panties.”

  “Look commando princess, if you want pants get them yourself. We’ll go in after the next aftershock.”

  “While you two dress, I’ll start up the four-wheelers.” I left the bicker twins to get dressed, while I went to find gas for the wheelers. I had been riding one yesterday and returned home on fumes. I was not in the mood to have Todd lecture me about how vehicles should always have at least half a tank of gas in case of emergency. I’m pretty sure this qualifies as an emergency, and a reason to lecture me on my failures.

  All I could focus on was discovering if Dad was safe. He works for a private company doing research on hydrothermal energy. Before that he worked for the USGS for 35 years until they decided his findings were going to scare people from coming to the park. He was terminated and his research confiscated. That was almost ten years ago. The super volcano had not gone boom annihilating the planet. Madonna had not gained 150 pounds, and Mickey Mouse had not changed sides and was in love with Goofy. (Note to self: stop listening to Todd and his Mickey and Goofy theory.)

  Basically, the world marched on, just like it always had. In geologic time we are nothing but a blip, and right now I’m a carbon-based disaster blip.

  Dad never stopped thinking there was something else they did not want him to find, which was the real reason he was terminated. People had been investigating the Yellowstone super volcano for decades. Tourists weren’t scared away even when several bison died from poisonous gas in Norris Basin a few winters ago. The next summer they all loaded up their RVs and headed to the geyser basin to check out the stinky gases. So why was Dad fired? What was he getting to close too? Oh boy, I was starting to think like him.

  I didn’t like him in the backcountry alone, but after 40 years of researching the Yellowstone Caldera, and outweighing me by 50 pounds, I wasn’t going to stop him.

  After the small hydrothermal explosion at Mary Bay on Lake Yellowstone last October the park had been closed to the general public. The damage was only to roads and port-a-potties in the Mary Bay area. However, in the infinite wisdom of government all of Yellowstone was closed. Once winter arrived they opened for normal winter use, except the East Entrance to Fishing Bridge, it remained closed until today, July 4. Total overkill, if you asked me, but I wasn’t high enough on the political ladder to get a vote.

  Dad had backpacked in as soon as the high country began to shed the deep snow in June. He refused to take an assistant since he didn’t want anyone else being thrown out of the park or going to jail if they were caught venturing into closed territory. I knew from his last radio transmission where he should be camped, but it wasn’t much to go on.

  Normally I would be in Yellowstone working today, even on a holiday, but the Secret Service had shut out all unnecessary personnel saying we created a security risk for the President’s appearance to deliver a speech reopening the entire park. An earthquake, possible hydrothermal explosion and the President together at the same time; sounds like more of a security nightmare than a geologist in the backcountry researching. I hoped those guys were enjoying nature’s free fireworks to give them a real security nightmare.

  I finished pouring the gas in the wheelers. “Glad you two are here. We need to talk to Frank ASAP. Let’s go Twinkie twins!”

  “What crawled up your pants?” Todd yelled revving his wheeler down the gravel drive.

  “Let’s just say, I don’t believe in coincidences.”

  Frank was yelling orders to the cowboys as we skidded our ATVs to a stop in the main ranch yard. Each cowboy raced to carry out his commands. When Cowboy Frank yelled you didn’t ask questions unless you wanted walking papers. I certainly wasn’t about to interrupt him; instead I let my eyes settle on the tall stranger watching from the safety of the open yard. After our neighbor, Sam, died last year his grandson inherited his cabin. From my view through the binoculars earlier I knew this was the dude. I hoped his rattling introduction to Wyoming would be enough to convince him this place wasn’t for him. To say I was opposed to any outsiders invading our remote mountain home would be an understatement. I had my reasons, which looking around at the destruction weren’t important right now.

  My earlier glance through the binoculars was cursory, and obviously horrendously flawed. I think it was the image of Todd half-naked, and the half naked I would have preferred not to see, that clouded my vision. While the buildings were still standing, windows were broken, doors ajar unable to close properly, porches sunk, and fences down. The horses were nowhere to be seen as the rolling earth sent them running in every direction. It was then I realized there wasn’t a truck anywhere. The parking area on the high bank above the river had disappeared taking every vehicle with it.

  “Hey! Are you okay?” The deep and all too sexy voice said.

  “What?”

  “Are you hurt?”

>   “NO!” Me hurt? What was wrong with this idiot?

  “You just sat on that machine perfectly still through an aftershock.”

  “Did not.”

  “Did too.”

  “Nanny, nanny, poo poo,” Todd chimed in. “We could use a little help over here children.”

  I turned off the wheeler, stood on the seat and jumped off the back. The sexy city dude rolled his eyes at me. At second glance he really wasn’t that sexy. He was too muscular, too tall…he was just too everything.

  “Jorie! Grab this end of the gate.” Frank motioned to me. “We need access to these wheelers to round up the horses.”

  I lifted the end of gate as the rest of the cowboys shoved it out of the way. “Frank, we need to go find Dad.”

  “Kiddo, Joe can take care of himself.”

  “Radio chatter said there was an explosion up north, before the earthquake.”

  “What?” Now, I had Frank’s attention.

  “Coincidence?” I prodded him.

  “You know as well as I do, ain’t no such thing as a coincidence. We ride as soon as we secure the ranch and round up the horses.” Frank looked at the newcomer, and back at me. “You wanna tell him where we’re going, or you want me too?”

  “Why’s he going?”

  “I’m in charge. I want him to go.” I opened my mouth to argue, but Frank’s expression shut it fast. “I’ll talk to him. You, Todd and Amanda get supplies for five and be ready to ride.”