Prologue
Silver Butte Lookout Tower, Douglas County, Oregon, 2007
Declan MacBride gazed through his binoculars at the rolling mountains stretching in every direction around him. Nothing out there but fresh air, wild animals, trees, and solitude—make that lots of trees and lots of solitude. And that was exactly the way he liked it.
When he’d told his boss at the regional U.S. Forest Service office in Portland he was fine with a full-time post out here, the guy had looked at him like he was insane. Silver Butte was the most isolated fire tower in the area—no one wanted to get assigned here. There weren’t any trails nearby, so you could easily go days without seeing another human being. It was also too far from civilization for the ranger on duty to go home between shifts, which meant you had to stay out here for the entire tour of duty—usually a week at a time. Put those two things together and it was a tough place to keep manned, even during the critical days of fire season. The only forest rangers who got sent here were the newbies and the screwups.
Volunteering to stay at the tower for the rest of the summer had confused the hell out of Declan’s boss. But the man wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. As soon as Chet made sure Declan knew he wasn’t going to get any bonus pay, he’d given the okay. The other rangers thought he was nuts, too. They couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly isolate themselves from human contact. But Declan had his reasons, and he didn’t care to go into them.
Declan moved around the interior of the tower, scanning in all directions for any sign of trouble. Fire was the big concern at this time of year, but he was looking for anything out of the ordinary: poachers, circling buzzards, campers in distress.
He’d just set down his binoculars and grabbed his book when he picked up the sound of footsteps approaching the tower. He sniffed the air before he could stop himself, then bit back a growl. He rarely relied on his sense of smell. It was better than a normal person’s—way better—but he went out of his way to ignore what his nose told him. He didn’t feel comfortable experiencing the world that way. It made him feel too much like an animal.
Fortunately, his sense of hearing—which seemed far more acceptable to depend on—was good enough to compensate for refusing to use his nose. And right now, his ears were telling him there was someone about five hundred feet to the north of the tower and moving this way.
Declan sat down and went back to his book. It was probably just an adventurous hiker who’d wandered off the trail. Once the guy saw the chain across the bottom of the stairs with a sign saying the tower was off limits to the public, he’d go on his way.
A few moments later, boots were pounding up the steps. Declan frowned.Whatthehell?
He tossed his book on the table and walked outside to look over the railing. “Sorry, Mister, but this tower is government property. It’s off-limits to the public.”
The man glanced up as he climbed, grinning at Declan. “I’m well aware of that, Mr. MacBride. That’s why I got permission from your boss before coming out here to see you.”
Declan did a double take. How the hell did this guy know his name? More importantly, why hadn’t Chet called him on the satellite phone to tell him the guy was coming out here?
“Nice to finally meet you, Mr. MacBride,” the man said when he got to the landing. He held out his hand. “I’m John Loughlin.”
Declan tried to ignore his nose as he shook the man’s hand, but it was hard—Loughlin’s clothes smelled like they’d just come off the rack at the nearest outdoor store. His boots weren’t even broken in for Pete’s sake. If the brand-new duds weren’t enough to tell him the guy wasn’t a hiker, the fact that he wasn’t carrying a pack would have been a dead giveaway. Who hiked all this way without food or water?
“How do you know my name?” Declan asked.
“I know a great deal about you Mr. MacBride.” Loughlin smiled up at him. “Though I have to say your personnel record doesn’t do you justice. You are a very large man.”
Declan’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t like anyone knowing too much about him. “You mean my Forest Service records? How did you get access to those?”
Loughlin motioned toward the tower. “Perhaps we could sit down and talk about this inside? It’s rather complicated and might take a while.”
Declan didn’t like the sound of that. But he led the guy inside the tight area that served as both an observation tower and living space. He grabbed a bottle of water from the small camping fridge that ran off rechargeable batteries tied to the solar panels on the roof and held it out to the man.
“Okay, so talk,” he said. “Who are you, how did you get into my personnel records, and what do you want with me?”
John took a deep drink of water, then saluted Declan with the bottle and sat down in one of the room’s two chairs. “As I said, my name is John Loughlin. And I didn’t look at your Forest Service records. The organization I’m with has its own folder on you already. To put it simply, I’m here to offer you a job.”
Declan leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. He had a feeling this conversation wasn’t going to take nearly as long as Loughlin thought. “Someone sent a headhunter all the way out here to scoop up a ranger from the Forest Service? I didn’t realize we were in such high demand.”
He didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm.
John laughed and took another swallow of water. “I’m sure you’re a very good forest ranger, Mr. MacBride, but those skills aren’t the ones my organization is interested in—as I’m sure you know.”
Declan swore under his breath. He should have known. The guy had “corporate manager” written all over him.
“Sorry you wasted your time coming all the way out here, Mr. Loughlin, but if you’d dug a little deeper, you would have learned I never finished that engineering program I started—or the design from my thesis you’re so interested in.” Damn, he hadn’t thought about that part of his life in a long time. “Besides, I’m not involved in that kind of work anymore. I’m a forest ranger. If you leave now, you can probably get back to your car before dark. Feel free to take another bottle of water with you when you go.”
Declan started for the door when Loughlin’s voice stopped him cold.
“Your engineering acumen—even if garnered at MIT—isn’t the skill set my organization is interested in.”
Declan wasn’t sure why, but alarm bells went off in his head. He eyed the door. There was nothing between him and that exit. And for someone his size, he could be damn fast when he wanted to be.
