David & Jessi

David told her that the goons had used their cell phones while they were in the area and that the GPS chips in the phones could likely track them to the where they were at the time, so it would be best if they packed up and moved to an alternate campsite David's grandfather had shown him many years ago that was actually a better campsite than this one but did not have the view of the desert floor that this one had, and that it would mean a trip across the mountain of close to two miles. They should be able to get everything in three loads, one for Jessi and two for David. Jessi said that that did not sound fair but she could be making the new camp home while he was getting the last load and hiding the footprints and covering up the trash pit.

David was really thinking about and hating the idea of calling Thom at the office and letting him know what had happened, but he had to as there was a mole or traitor at the FBI office and that mole was tied directly to the killers, and there was no way for them to tell who it might be from where they were and asked if Thom might have an idea of how to see where the leak was, with Elton or with Jessi's organized crime unit boss. Thom said he could figure out a way to get the name and phone number of Jessi's boss and then they could come up with two different messages that would at least show what department had the leak. David thought that was a good idea, and told Thom to hold on just a second to let him ask Jessi about her bosses in the Organized Crime Unit and how to get hold of them. She told him and he relayed it to Thom and told Thom to send the plane and have him drop the package a mile south of where the last one had been and to send a couple more phones also, and then he hung up and destroyed the burner phone.

David and Jessi started to pack up their camp. David asked Jessi if she felt up to carrying a load across the mountain for a couple of miles and she assured him she would be fine, even though she might have to ask for a breather and some water from time to time. He told her no problem and they set off over the hill towards their new campsite.

It took them a little over an hour to go the 2 miles to get to new site. Jessi said that it did look better and nicer that the other one, but was it as safe without the view of the desert floor. David told her it should be as this one was harder to find and also harder to get to from the floor as there was only one trail and it was pretty steep and rocky for those guys in their Italian leather loafers so "accidents" could happen if they tried to come up that trail.

It took a couple of hours once they were at the new site to make it as comfortable as possible for themselves and get ready to call it a day as it was getting late in the afternoon. David rounded up a good supply of dead and dry wood and placed it close to where the fire would be. This area had more and thicker trees which should make it even harder for anyone to spot their smoke, so his mind was eased some about that.

With his mind eased somewhat and fatigue hitting him hard right then, it was decided to fix a bit of supper and eat and then sit and drink coffee and talk about the day and what the future might hold. Jessi said that as her left arm and shoulder was doing so much better and that she could use her hand and arm, that David was to just sit there and relax and that she would fix something to eat for them. When he sat back against the tree he was going to claim as "his", he dropped off to sleep and stayed asleep until Jessi woke him for supper. He apologized and told her he did not know he was that tired. Jessi told him that it was alright as she had needed a little extra time to make supper. When she served it, he saw that she had combined a couple of things and had fixed the best meal he had had now in over 3 months, almost 4 now.

"You are going to make someone a wonderful wife, Jessi." David commented

"I doubt it. In order to be a wonderful wife, you have to have a wonderful husband and those seem to be in very short supply these days, and it may get worse for a shot up ex agent accountant and computer......can I use the word geek or what do we call ourselves?" she asked sort of smiling.

'Humm, I really don't know as I have not thought of it in that fashion. I would think that I would use the term digital detective or something. Maybe just say forensic accountant and let it go at that. By the way, how rusty are you on your accounting practices and laws?"

"Oh, I am quite current on all of it as I had to keep up to date to help find the white-collar criminals."

"That is good, but I bet we will use little of what you have learned once we get up and running on this."

"You said 'We.' Does that mean I have a new job? I sure hope so. What will you do if the government does shut you down and forces a sale to them?" she asked.

"Darned if I know. That is not what I planned on happening when I started this but it does seem as if things have changed considerably of late. I do have a couple of possible ideas though."

"I bet you do."

And then as darkness fell upon them they finished their coffees and crawled into their tent. Once there and laying down, Jessi once again rolled onto her side and with her good arm she hugged David tightly to her chest and kissed him on first the forehead and then on the cheek then lightly on the lips and told him again how thankful she was that if she had to be where she was, that he was here with her. She said that she was not afraid with him near as he seemed to know the answer to all the questions and that made her feel so much better.

As they lay there, Jessi asked "David, why have you never married? You seem like a great guy with a lot to offer a woman and I cannot understand why one of them of them hasn't snatched you off the market line."

"I have never found the woman I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. Truth be told, I have never had a girlfriend let alone a meaningful relationship as they call it. I actually have never even had a real date. And no, I am not a virgin, but that was the result of an excess of alcohol and some cash changing hands a couple of times. I was just too busy trying to get my education and reach my goals and help take care of my mom and sister. Pathetic, huh?"

"No, not at all. Sad, yes, but not pathetic. You are honorable beyond belief and are to be commended. Good night, my Shining Knight." And after another light kiss off to sleep they went.

The next morning, the campers slept a little later as the morning sun did not shine directly into their tent as it had at the other site. The bit of extra sleep was appreciated by both of them, but as soon as the morning activities were taken care of and some breakfast downed, David said he had to leave and return to the other camp to finish cleaning it up and covering the trash and hiding all the evidence of them being there. Jessi told him that she was going with him to help or just offer moral support, but that she was going. Period, end of discussion. "Damn, I told you that you would make a wife. That is how I imagine them to be." David commented and off they went. David took the AR-15 slung it over his shoulder and each of them picked a Glock with extra magazines and off they went. Jessi had said she would leave her SIG 9 MM there so they would both have the same ammo with them.

Again, it took over an hour to make it to the old campsite and once there they quickly set to the task with Jessi finishing the gathering of the last of their gear and David finishing the covering of the trash pit and then using a branch with sprouts on it wiped out all the footprints and signs of them ever being there. There were just about finished when they heard it, the sound of an approaching helicopter. David and Jessi moved deeper into the forest and hid in some trees that the wind had blown over where they would not be seen but could have a fair view of the area to see what was happening.

David saw that the helicopter was a Bell observation type with the Plexiglas bubble front and not one that someone could shoot from easily or accurately, but it could happen so he told her to keep her head down and covered. The helicopter seemed to be flying a search pattern grid by grid, evidently looking for them so the bodies must have been discovered and someone was pissed and wanted her or rather them badly.

After about 15 minutes of searching, the helicopter started moving in a different arc looking for any sign of life. This was a game changer he thought. If the bad guys were going to keep trying to find them by helicopter or plane, then they were going to have to take care with their fires. And then maybe it was time to see how large a set of balls the pilot had, thinking of the 7MM mag back at the tent. A couple of rounds of that bouncing off the windshield should put some fear into the pilot, and if not, then one in the transmission sure would. If he did that, the transmission would lock up but most likely the pilot could auto-gyro down and make a fairly safe landing before his long walk home started.

As soon as the helicopter started leaving the area David and Jessi grabbed their remaining stuff and started the trek back to the new camp. As they were walking, David asked Jessi "Are we having fun yet?" This got her to laughing and she said that she had never dreamed of anything like this when her education and then her career started. Never any idea at all, and was she ever going to have stories to tell her kids and grandkids if she ever had them.

When they got back to the new camp, they sat for a bit and then had a bite of lunch and David told her that from now on that each of them would be armed at all times and he asked if she could shoot the AR15 as it had virtually no recoil. She told him that she thought so and asked what he was going to do. He told her that he was going to use the 7 Mag from then on, as one: it makes a Hell of a noise and can scare people, especially when one of a group just starts to fly through the air for a bit after they are hit, and then two: It makes a heck of a hole whenever it hits something, and third, it would shoot a long way and pack a major whollop when it got there.

The next day was the day the day the supply plane was supposed to make its drop and so David and Jessie went to the area where the drop was going to be and David helped Jessi set up in a natural fighting hole. She could observe what happened on the desert floor and warn David of any danger she might see.

After the supply plane made its drop, this time on a small parachute, meaning it must have more in it David made his way down to it after an hours wait and after retrieving the package, they returned to the camp. Once there, David opened the package and found the notes from the pilot and Thom and he opened the one from Thom first. Thom told him that he gave tainted information to both Elton and Jessi's boss and it looked like Jessi's boss was the leak. Either him or someone high up in his office. He also said that he was trying to figure out how to narrow the field and then get the evidence to put them away. He also said that the car with the dead sex partners had been found and had caused quite a stir and that the word on the street was that the cops were privately laughing their asses off but there was major hit money being offered for the heads of those involved, whoever that might be. He told him that the police and FBI were actively involved now in searches to find David, a missing FBI agent, and looking into the heinous murder of a group of the areas upstanding citizens as one mob lawyer put it. Thom said that David's little message about the score had really waved the red flag so to say, and the bad guys were calling in their friends from out of town for assistance. Family members from Chicago and St. Louis. Close cousins maybe, he thought and laughed. Thom also said that while there was still a major search on for David, no one had even whispered a hint that the two happenings were related and the same man was involved in both. Gosh, what a riot that information would cause if it got out. Thom casually mentioned that whoever was guilty of causing all the mayhem and aggravating the fine Italian gentlemen around Denver would get caught if their fingerprints were ever found or the ballistics from the weapons used were ever connected to an individual or group of individuals and that a smart person would get rid of those weapons once all the hostilities subsided. David could read the hint plainly. He would have to talk to Jessi about her sense of moral obligation and dedication to duty, or if these shootings were going to be chalked up to unsolved Mafia turf wars or some other thing meaning case closed with no perpetrator identified.

The next morning, David got out of the tent to a wonderful and bright day and had just taken care of his morning functions and was preparing to make a fire and coffee when he heard the helicopter again. He called Jessi and told her to stay hidden and that he would be back soon. She asked him where he was going and he told her he was going to caution the helicopter pilot about flying through areas where there was flying metal buzzing around like flies. She smiled and told him to take a flyswatter along with him and handed him the 7 Mag and a pack of bullets.

David took off on a quick trot trying to get as far away from the camp as possible before he was seen or before he started the attitude adjustment of the pilot. The helicopter was flying a loose search pattern further up the canyon towards where their old camp was when David found just the spot he was looking for and settled in to watch. He pulled the caps of the scope and sighted in on the helicopter and saw that the passenger had what looked like an M-16 and it looked ready to fire. David waited his time and when the helicopter was about 300 yards away, he took careful aim and took the shot, hitting the M-16 right above the trigger and causing it to almost fold in half and fall out of the bird. As quickly as he could, David chambered another round and just aimed for the windshield of the Helicopter. This would probably not do much damage except maybe put a hole in the plastic bubble which would be very expensive to replace, but it would serve notice to the pilot that he should consider other paying customers and flight paths, or even a career change. The helicopter immediately jerked up and sideways, banking left as it headed back up the canyon as fast as it could. He did not know what damage the bullet hitting the M-16 had caused but he had seen similar wounds before and he knew the other guy was going to need some hospital time for a broken hand and fingers and if the bullet had gone through the other rifle, then he also had a penetrating wound in one or both legs with lots of shrapnel damage to worry about and explain also. The authorities were a bit touchy and very inquisitive about gunshot wounds. Maybe the mob boys might just hide him behind a rock in the desert like they did Jessi. Didn't seem like they had all that great a retirement plan, and doubted they even had a 401-K either as he chuckled and headed back to camp and Jessi. Jessi?? Damn, but that girl was spending a lot of time in his thoughts anymore he thought.

When he got back to camp, Jessi ran to him and hugged him tightly and planted a rather passionate kiss on his lips and said that she had heard what sounded like a cannon going off and that she had been worried. He told her that all was well, and that someday someone would find a badly damaged and bent M-16 laying on the dessert floor and then explained what he had done. He did tell her that he had to get one of the goon's cell phones out so he could keep them informed of the new score, which right then was Indians 6, Goons 0. Possibly 7-0. He chuckled and did just that, removing the battery again as soon as he had texted that short message to everyone in the address list.

As soon as he sat down he got back up and started a morning fire and made coffee and fixed some breakfast for both of them and then told Jessi that he needed to check her wounds again for any sign of infection. She came to him and sat on the ground by him an after tilting her head towards him stated to unbutton her shirt and when she did she surprised him by taking if all the way off. When he asked what she was doing she said she was going to clean up and also see if she might temp him off his white horse for a bit. The coffee pot was going to need a good cleaning as it boiled dry before it got any attention.

As they lay there on the sleeping bag, Jessi snuggled into David and said that for someone that had only done that a couple of times he did a pretty damn good job she thought but said that she was no expert as she had also had many goals in school like he did. The horrible experience she had at the academy had been her only real romance. David asked her about protection and she said she was in her safe time so not to worry, but that they could not continue without some form of protection.

He asked her if wanted to continue, and she answered, "Silly Boy, of course I do and I think for a long time, too. I have never met a man like you, and I cannot say that I am already in love with you already, but I can say that I suspect it will happen pretty soon. Right now I am just in total awe of you and just being around you thrills and excites me to no end and gives me tingles all over."

"Wow! Wow and double Wow! I never expected to hear something like those words come from the mouth of someone like you. You are so beautiful, smart, beautiful, talented, educated, beautiful, daring, dedicated, beautiful, and fun to talk to and to just be with. Did I mention that I think you are beautiful? And besides, I think you cook pretty well, too."

"So, you don't think I am too skinny then? What about the scars I am going to have?"

"I think that you are just right in all places and in all aspects of womanhood, and the battle scars you will carry will be a badge of honor and bravery for all to see and wonder about and for those who know how you got them to be awed and impressed to no end. They will not distract from your beauty, only enhance it."

"You just may be Irish and don't know it. What country did Scott come from anyhow?"

"I am not sure but I think either England or Scotland. Heck. I guess most Americans are descended from people from the British Empire, especially in the beginning. Never did matter to me and I never really thought about it all that much. What about Miller? It sounds English. Is it?"

"Yes, it is. My ancestors came to America in the early 1700's from what I have been able to discover from the genealogy sites on line. Nothing big or no one fancy or important, but we are long time Americans and do love our country and most of my ancestors fought in the wars to keep it free starting with the American Revolution. Grandfather's brother was killed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, and my father lost a cousin in Vietnam, and you liked to have lost a lover and potential mate to the Mafia wars that are starting."

"Going to be a short war unless the bad guys get smarter or get a lot more of them. Probably not much chance of getting any smarter as these gorillas just seem to be like trained monkeys and follow along with whatever someone tells them. No original thoughts at all it seems."

"That is kind of what I grew to believe also. If the mob wants smart they look for an Irish or Jewish lawyer or CPA and entices them with tons of easy money and the lavish lifestyle of the master criminal. Tempting offers to lots of people just making ends meet and wanting more and not really caring how they get it. Man, I can hardly wait to get going on catching those jerks with your software program. When do you think it will be finished and ready to market and where will our main office be and how many employees with we have and will I be an executive or a peon and if I am executive, do I get a nice office with a personal assistant and a secretary and company Mercedes and credit cards and a liberal expense account and all those other perks? Huh? Do I?? Huh?" She said wile smiling widely and batting her eyes at him.