Page 27 of Cole

Cole listened as Janice laid out everything she'd discovered, his mind cataloging each detail, assessing the threat level with every new piece of information.

She was in deeper than she realized. And the fact that she'd gone out alone in the morning to document the illegal staging area made his chest tighten with a combination of admiration and frustration.

Brave. Reckless. Exactly the kind of person who could get herself killed trying to do the right thing.

He pulled out his phone and sent the GPS coordinates to Sadie. “I’m sending my team the location you gave me. They can pull satellite photos.”

Her eyes widened. “Wow… that’s… um… kind of sophisticated.”

He grinned, nodding. “We have a lot of resources at our disposal.”

It didn’t take long for Sadie to send the images. "Here is the satellite imagery," he said, turning his phone so Janice could see. "This shows the clearing where you found the equipment."

She leaned closer, studying the screen. "Um… it’s hard to tell.”

He enlarged the image, and she began to nod. “That's it. You can see the blue tarp over the tailings pond."

His phone buzzed with an incoming call from LSIMT, and he hit speaker. "Cole, it’s Todd. There’s no visible activity now. Storm is probably keeping them at bay." Cole scrolled through the images Sadie had sent, then turned to Janice. “Did you see any housing? Tents, temporary buildings?”

She shook her head. “No… just what I have in my photos.”

"Got the intel you sent," Logan's voice cut through. "Landon's been digging into Northern Summit Resources. They're extracting rare earth minerals, specifically neodymium and dysprosium. Used in everything from smartphones to electric vehicle batteries."

"Big money," Cole surmised.

"Huge money. And the permits they filed show a modest operation outside protected wilderness. But if they're staging equipment where your Ms. Lynch says they are, they're way outside their permitted zone."

Janice spoke up. "This is Janice Lynch. I’m a veterinarian with a background in chemistry and limited experience in mining. I’m studying the effects of climate change on wildlife. But I'm seeing elevated levels of potentially harmful chemicals in the water."

"Can you prove the contamination is coming from their operation?" Logan asked.

"Not definitively. Not without samples directly from their tailings pond." Janice's frustration was evident. "That's the missing piece. Right now, I can prove there's contamination in the creek, and we can prove they have illegal equipment staged in protected wilderness. But I can't definitively link the two without samples from their waste containment."

Cole watched her as she spoke, noting the passion in her voice, the way her eyes lit up when discussing her research. This wasn't just a job for her. This was personal. The wildlife, the ecosystem, the delicate balance she'd spent months documenting… she cared about all of it with a fierceness that was both admirable and dangerous.

"Landon's also looking into Charles Penson's connections," Logan continued. "Who's protecting him, who signed off on his permits, who's got a financial stake in his operation. This kind of thing doesn't happen without political cover."

"How long until you have answers?" Cole asked.

"Normally not long, but to ask the right people he trusts without sending an alarm to Penson, these things take time." Logan paused. "In the meantime, you should probably stay with Ms. Lynch. If Penson knows she's been documenting his operation, she's vulnerable out there alone."

Cole glanced at Janice, who was chewing her bottom lip, clearly torn between wanting the protection and not wanting to admit she needed it.

"Agreed," he said. "I'm not going anywhere."

After the call ended, Janice sat back in her chair. "The best way to get absolute proof is to go back out and get samples directly from the containment pool. That would give us everything we need to prove Northern Summit is contaminating the watershed."

"No." Cole's response was immediate and flat.

"It's the only way⁠—"

"It's too dangerous. You already went out there once. If they catch you going back..." He didn't finish the sentence. Didn't need to. The implications were clear.

"So what, I just sit here and hope my current evidence is enough?" Janice's frustration flared. "You know I can't definitively link the contamination to their operation without direct samples."

"Then we find another way."

"There is no other way." She stood, pacing to the window. "The site will hold the source of evidence. Samples from there will show exactly what chemicals they're using, what's leaking into the groundwater."