She shook his hand.“I’m Erin.I’m a Montanan too, grew up outside of Billings.I recognize your name and know of your family.”
“Well, sorry to interrupt your night, but given what Ruby told me tonight, I thought this needed to be looked into more.”
“Sure, no problem.”Erin took the seat Wade pulled out for her and scooted in closer to the table.
After all the introductions, Grandma clapped her hands once.“All right, let’s sit down and get started.”
“On what?”
She shot Candace an exasperated look.“On the camp your boys found up in the hills.”
Everybody looked at Taylor.
“My company does contract work for the government.I’ve been gathering intel on something, and given what you found the other day, I thought you should all see what I’ve got.”
They all moved closer to the table.A map was laid out in the center of it, this one complete with all the topographical information the previous one had lacked.“Ruby tells me the site you found was about here?”Taylor said to them.
Wade nodded.“Ryan’s got the exact coordinates.”
Ryan released her to pull them up again on his phone and Taylor marked them on the map.“And about how many casings would you say were out there?”the man asked.
“Few thousand at least, maybe more,” Ryan said.“Some of the smaller trees up to about ten inches thick were cut in half by the volume of fire.”
“Know something about it?”Cam asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“There’ve been rumors,” Taylor said.“Stories about hunters hearing large volumes of fire in the distance, but no one’s ever seen it happening.People are saying they’ve heard talk about a militia operating in the area.”
Jackson frowned.“What kind of a militia?”
Wade spoke before Taylor could answer.“Are you talking about the March Madness?”
Taylor nodded, face grave.“Yes.”
“What’s that?”Candace asked, not liking the sound of it or the direction this was taking.
Wade straightened but kept his palms flat on the tabletop as he answered.“For over a year now there’ve been rumors of a guy named Eric March forming a secret militia here in Montana.He’s former army, and after he was court-martialed and convicted of conduct unbecoming, he received a dishonorable discharge.”
“What did he do?”
“Got caught up in the politics of war,” Wade said.“Intervened to stop a nine-year-old boy from being raped by a villager and beat the shit out of the guy.Put him in the hospital.The villager pressed charges and the Afghan government put pressure on ours to do something.So to calm the situation down, they charged March with assault causing bodily harm, convicted him, and kicked him out of the army.”
It disgusted Candace.“That’s so twisted.”He should have been praised for his actions, not punished.
“Yeah.Needless to say, he wasn’t too happy, and now he’s anti-government and looking to stir up shit by training his own militia to attack government installations across the state.”His gaze shot to her grandma.“Sorry, Ruby.”Apparently even Wade knew her grandma didn’t like people cussing in front of her.She preferred to do all the cussing herself.
“No, something about this smells bad, so it’s definitely shit,” her grandma said.“He should have gotten a medal, not a conviction, but even though he was right to be angry, it doesn’t excuse his current plans to arm and train people around here to attack the government.Does he pose a serious threat?”
Wade nodded.“Yep.And now word is, various agencies have been looking for him for a long time.He went off grid a few years back and no one’s been able to find a trace of him since.Unless we did just that last night,” he added, looking at the other guys.
“Got a file on him here,” Taylor said, laying a manila folder on the table and opening it to reveal a picture of March.
Candace studied it.White male, early forties.Graying, light brown hair, pale blue eyes.
“Latest intel estimates his followers are numbered around a thousand or so, but it could be more.His ability to avoid detection and capture says a lot about his capabilities.Wherever he is, he’s well stocked and has had lots of time to plan whatever he has in mind.”
“Potential domestic terrorist attacks?”Maya asked him.
“Yes.”
