The Alberta Connection Read online

  Ryce pulled his laptop from his suitcase, and plugged it in. Tanya heard him mumble, “I hope this place has free Wi-Fi.”

  As the laptop booted up, Tanya heard a knock on the motel room door. When she opened the door, she saw two male and one female uniformed Idaho State Police officers, and the motel manager. Tanya noticed that none of the officers had nametags. One of the officers turned to the manager, thanked him, and asked him to return to the motel office.

  Tanya turned to Ryce. “Honey, I think we have a slight problem.”

  When Ryce walked to the door, the female officer glanced at a page she was holding in her hand.

  “There is an alert on the Dodge Dakota you included on your room registration at this motel. Please ensure you have your driver’s licenses and come with us.”

  As Tanya walked through the door, she noticed that two cruisers were blocking the motel entrance, and two were idling at the opposite end of the parking lot. The female officer motioned for Tanya to follow her to the cruisers near the street. Ryce followed the two male officers toward the other end of the parking lot.

  A woman in civilian clothes was standing near the cruisers parked next to the street. Tanya was asked to provide her driver’s license, which was keyed into the computer in one of the vehicles. The officer using the computer frowned and waved the female uniformed officer over. They discussed something for several moments, while pointing frequently to the computer screen. Finally, the male officer got out of the vehicle, opened the rear door of the cruiser, and asked Tanya to please get into the vehicle. He then flipped open his cell phone and dialed a number.

  “The female suspect does not check out. What would you like me to do with her?’

  Tanya began to panic. How could she not check out?

  The driver was speaking once more. “Ten-four, we will transport the female subject.”

  The driver pointed at the woman in civilian clothes, and then at the back seat of the cruiser where Tanya was sitting. As soon as the door clicked shut, the cruiser was in motion.

  When Tanya began to feel she was hyperventilating, she started some breathing techniques. After a few moments, she felt that she could form words.

  “What seems to be the problem? Where am I going? What doesn’t check out?”

  Neither the driver nor the woman sitting beside Tanya said a word. When Tanya began to tear up, the woman next to her pulled a handkerchief from her handbag, and passed it to Tanya. As Tanya cleaned up her tears, she thought that the handkerchief smelled nice. Do people with nice smelling handkerchiefs harm other people? Tanya certainly hoped not.

  Chapter 5

  The drive took almost a half hour. Tanya heard the cruiser computer announce a message had been received three or four times. Or perhaps she just concluded the ‘ding dong’ was a message. She forced a weak smile after the first ‘ding dong.’ The computer operator could certainly find better system sounds.

  Tanya tried to keep track of where she was being taken, but she had never been to Coeur D’Alene. She had no idea where she was. What was Ryce going through? For that matter, where was Ryce? Tanya began to formulate some plans to escape. She was not handcuffed. Her Glock was in her handbag. She checked the front seat. Her handbag was in plain sight where it had been placed after she had replaced her ID. The only problem was the Plexiglas screen between the rear and front seats.

  As she was devising a back-up plan, Tanya saw two police vehicles directly ahead. They were parked on the side of the street, with a stretch Hummer limo positioned behind them. Through a rush of tears, she saw that Ryce was standing with three uniformed ISP officers. And, he looked like he was laughing.

  The cruiser carrying Tanya pulled up behind the Hummer. The driver, now wearing a nametag that read ‘O. Pendergast,’ got out of the cruiser, walked to Tanya’s side, and opened her door. Through a new rush of tears, Tanya could see more nametags. She was in the company of ‘J. Pendergast,’ ‘M. Pendergast,’ and ‘F. Pendergast.’

  ‘J. Pendergast’ walked over and held out his hand. “Hi, my name is John Pendergast. Welcome to Idaho.”

  As John helped her out of the cruiser, Tanya looked around. They were parked in front of a small building with a sign that read ‘The Hitching Post.’ Tanya felt her knees begin to tremble.

  Ryce walked over and held her close. “Honey, I’d like to introduce you to some friends of mine. The organizer of this deception was John Pendergast, assisted by his wife, Marge. You have heard me talk about O2. He was the one who drove you over here. His wife is Ramona. She was with you on the trip over. The driver of the cruiser that escorted you over here is Fabian, the youngest Pendergast sibling. Fabian also owns the Hummer parked behind me. You haven’t met Hollie, who is Fabian’s wife. Hollie was here getting everything arranged.”

  After Tanya had been introduced to each one in the group, John handed Ryce a document.

  Ryce smiled and held the document for Tanya to read. It was a marriage license. Tanya’s knees began to buckle, and she started to fall. If Ramona and Hollie had not been close, Tanya would have harshly contacted the pavement. Ramona helped Tanya to a park bench near where they were standing.

  After a few moments, Tanya asked, “Don’t we need blood tests to get a license?”

  Ryce chuckled. “We got the tests a month ago, and I had the results sent to O2.”

  Tanya briefly had a puzzled look on her face. “So you didn’t come into contact with some hazardous substance at the cabin?”

  Ryce shook his head ’no’ and then smiled. “I had to get the test done without you knowing about it.”

  Marge chuckled and then looked over at John. “I think I am going to like this pair. Can we keep them?”

  Tanya wrapped her arms around Ryce. “But you didn’t know we were coming to Idaho until Saturday, only two days ago.”

  Ryce smiled. “This was going to happen right here somehow. This has been in preparation for three months. We just did not know when or how I was going to get you here without you knowing about it. Marge came up with the idea about getting you sort of arrested. O2 had the internal camera turned on, so we could watch. There were a couple times you looked really pathetic.”

  John looked over at The Hitching Post. “Speaking of when, this place closed three hours ago, but agreed to marry you two when we got you here. We got you here. Let’s not keep the crew up later than needed.”

  As they walked up the sidewalk, Tanya looked over at Ryce. “How the hell did you pull this off?”

  Marge started laughing. “When we heard that the Army Ranger who kept O2’s butt out of trouble wanted to get married, the sky was the limit. Ramona was especially thrilled. It was her husband Ryce kept safe.”

  With O2 as the best man and John as the father of the bride, it took only a few minutes before Ryce and Tanya were man and wife. John pulled several bags of birdseed out of his pockets and passed them around. Before John would allow them into the Hummer, Ryce and Tanya were carefully brushed.

  As soon as everyone was seated in the Hummer, John looked around. “We have reservations for a celebratory dinner. After dinner, everyone goes back to the motel, and then we will drive to Pendergast City in the morning. Tanya and Ryce can ride in this Hummer to Pendergast City, or drive Ryce’s Dakota. We can provide a driver for your Dakota if you want to take it easy.”

  Tanya almost crumpled to the sidewalk when she exited the Hummer at the motel. Marge and Ramona assisted her to the door to the room, hugged her, and returned to the Hummer. Ryce opened the door, picked up his new wife, carried her into the room, and placed her gently on the bed.

  “Well, I think that went over nicely.”

  Tanya grimaced. “I didn’t know where you were, I didn’t know where I was going, and no one was talking to me. If I had gotten my hands on my Glock, there might have been some dead people.”

  Ryce began laughing so hard, he sat down at the table. As soon as he caught his breath, he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a handful
of cartridges.

  “Your Glock has not been loaded since the restaurant in Bozeman. When you went back in to use the lady’s room, you left your handbag in the Dakota.”

  Tanya pulled Ryce onto the bed. “I know this didn’t come together over night. And, even though you frightened the hell out of me, I love you for what you did. And, I love all the crazies you brought in on your plan. Thank you for making me Mrs. Dalton.”

  After checking out of the motel, Ryce and Tanya started the remaining leg of the trip to the Ranch, which was only three hours away. Tanya snuggled for about thirty minutes, found the travel pillow she had brought for sleeping, and then adjusted her seat back. As she drifted off to sleep, she softly told Ryce that he was in substantial trouble when she figured out what she was going to do. Or, as he well knew, pay backs are real bitches.

  The caravan reached the Ranch before lunch. John sent Ryce a text message to follow him to the Marina Apartment complex. A furnished apartment had been made available for their stay at the Ranch.

  The moment Ryce and Tanya placed their luggage in the apartment, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

  “I hope you don’t ever plan anything this traumatic again, Mr. Dalton.”

  The apartment telephone rang at 5:30 PM. It was Marge. She asked if they had eaten. When Ryce replied that they had not, Marge explained there was a ‘family dinner’ in the chow hall. Fabian would pick them up in thirty minutes, preferably dressed. Ryce heard laughter in the background when Marge added the part about being dressed.

  Exactly thirty minutes after Marge called, the doorbell to the apartment rang. It was Fabian and Hollie, who escorted Ryce and Tanya to the parking lot. The stretch Hummer was festooned with crepe paper ribbons, balloons, and even a string tied with cans. On the darkened windows, someone had gotten very clever with white window paint.

  When Tanya began to tear up, Hollie smiled. “Fabian and I wanted to do this when you got married in Coeur D’Alene, but we got over-ruled by John. He didn’t think we should be driving around with a half dozen police cruisers and ‘Just Married’ painted all over a Hummer.”

  When they arrived at the chow hall, they noticed Marge and Ramona were waiting outside.

  Marge turned and shouted, “They’re here!”

  The main chow hall had been expanded several times and could now seat over three hundred diners. Two hundred additional diners who liked fresh air could eat on the porches. As they walked in, Ryce noticed that almost all of the interior tables were occupied. Along one wall, three eight-foot tables were piled high with wedding gifts from people he did not know. He pulled Tanya close, saw she was crying, and started to drop some tears himself.

  Ryce eventually heard O2 tapping on a glass.

  “I would like to present Mr. and Mrs. Ryce and Tanya Dalton.”

  The guests erupted in applause. O2 smiled as he waited for the applause to die down.

  “Ryce and I got into a couple scrapes in Afghanistan. He pulled my butt out of the fire a couple times, and I actually dragged his butt out of the fire once. Literally. However, he is one of only two Rangers that I consider my best friends. Some of you know Ramona, the head chef here at the Ranch chow hall, is my wife and was a Ranger. Now I have spilled the beans that Ryce was one, too. And, both of them can shoot the center out of the Ace of Spades from over one thousand yards.”

  Ramona signaled the kitchen, and two waiters came out with a cart carrying a five-layered wedding cake. Tanya started crying once again, wrapped her arms around Ryce and announced to the room that she loved him.

  Tanya turned to Ramona. “I still don’t understand how all this got put together in such a short time. I wasn’t even engaged to be married until last Saturday.”

  Ramona smiled. “We have been getting text messages from Ryce for almost three months, but the date had not been carved in stone. Nor did we know where we would do it. John suggested he could fly you and Ryce to the Ranch, and you could get married here.

  “O2 suggested The Hitching Post, where he and I got married. Marge thought the place had a cute name. When we finished voting, The Hitching Post had won. As soon as Ryce put his stamp of approval on Coeur D’Alene, O2 and I did some checking and confirmed you needed blood tests to get the license. That was the biggest hurdle. How could we get your blood tested without telling you what it was for? Pen, our resident brilliant doctor, solved that one. She said to make up some killer virus.”

  Ramona laughed at the look on Tanya’s face.

  After a few seconds, Tanya looked to Ryce, and then back at Ramona.

  “Ryce told me that he had read something from the CDC about remote locations in Glacier National Park having some airborne pathogen. He said he did not remember the name of whatever it was, but he was sure it was the ‘you are gonna die’ virus. I went to my doctor, he took some blood, and the blood was sent to a lab in Spokane.”

  Ramona laughed. “That’s a drop for Pen’s lab at Pendergast Memorial Hospital.”

  Ramona laughed once more and then continued. “O2 got another text from Ryce last Saturday afternoon, telling him you were coming to the Ranch. Everyone knew what to do. I started the cake at midnight Sunday morning. I think O2 would do almost anything for Ryce.”

  Tanya now had so many tears running down her cheeks, she was actually standing in a puddle of water. She was handed a clean dishtowel from the kitchen, and with some help, cleaned up almost all of the streaks.

  John, Marge, O2, Ramona, Ryce and Tanya spent almost three hours in the receiving line. John or Marge introduced each guest as he or she arrived. Ryce was amazed that they knew the names of almost everyone.

  At 8:00 PM, Ramona rang the dinner bell to announce that dinner was served. Every available table in the chow hall and on the adjoining porches was filled.

  During the salad, O2 asked if Ryce had heard about or from Bok Choy. Ramona didn’t understand the question and piped up that she had lots of Bok Choy in the kitchen. O2 started choking on a tomato slice.

  All eyes were on Ryce.

  “Bok Choy was my XO when I was a company commander in Afghanistan. He was a second-generation American of Japanese descent. His grandfather had been posted to England as an attaché after World War I. When the grandfather was recalled to Japan before World War II, he refused to return with his English wife and two sons.

  “One of the sons, Bok Choy’s father, immigrated to the US, and went to work at Stanford University. It was at Stanford where he met Bok Choy’s mother, also of Japanese descent. Bok Choy’s mother loved the history of the Samurai. When Bok Choy was born, they named him after seven different Samurai. He runs out of room when he has to fill in his full name, and no one could pronounce any of his names. We took a vote and called him Bok Choy.”

  Everyone at the table began to laugh.

  O2 looked over at Ryce. “I ran into him in Hawaii. He was on his way to Japan, and I was on my way from Okinawa to the mainland. He pulled out his Florida driver’s license. It said his name was Choy, Bok, no middle initial.”

  The table erupted in laughter again; this time twice as loud.

  After dinner, Ryce and Tanya cut the cake and thanked everyone for coming. Marge announced that the gifts would be transported to Research 1 and would be opened the following day.

  Before the party broke up, John called O2, Phil, and Vince over to talk with Ryce and Tanya.

  “You two are TAD to the Idaho State Police.”

  Tanya got a puzzled look on her face.

  John smiled. “TAD is a military term for “temporary attached duty.” The Joint Border Task Force has officially given you to me for a while. I must tell you that my people have checked you out. I think Doug, my computer genius, even knows what you got for your first birthday.”

  O2 laughed. “You’ll meet Doug tomorrow.”

  Phil laughed. “Do you think we should really throw Ryce into the Doug Zone?”

  John looked at Ryce for a moment. “I think Ryce can take care of hims
elf. We just have to keep a weapon out of his hands.”

  John paused. “Tomorrow, we are going to induct you into the Idaho State Police. You need to be members of the ISP in order for you to qualify to play with all the systems we have. I set up the rules, and I won’t break them.”

  Phil let out a giant laugh. “Even for family. Ask Fabian.”

  Both Ryce and Tanya had confused looks.

  Vince stepped into the conversation. “We’ll cover everything in the morning.”

  John looked around at the group. “OK, I will see everyone in the conference room at 8:00 AM, tomorrow.”

  Ramona put her arms around Tanya and hugged her. “I’ll pick you two up at 7:30 AM. My house is just across the street from your apartment.”

  Chapter 6

  Rice didn’t hear his alarm going off, but he knew that he was expected to awaken. This was the first morning that the woman in his bed was his wife, and the emotions were certainly different. Ryce reached out and pulled Tanya close.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Dalton.”

  Ramona knocked on the apartment door at exactly 7:30 AM, and the trio walked to a six-passenger golf car in the parking lot. During the ride to the Pendergast District ISP headquarters, Ramona gave her best impression of a tour guide.

  “The original Pendergast Ranch consisted of a large barn and a three-bedroom ranch house built by John’s great-grandfather on four hundred acres. Both of the buildings are still on the Ranch, although they have been relocated.

  “John’s grandfather created a self-sustaining dude ranch that could house almost two hundred vacationers who paid for the opportunity to work. Guests would come from all over to fix fences, work cattle, clean stalls, hoe corn, and sometimes repair their own bunkhouses. They became part of an actual working cattle ranch.

  “John’s grandfather expanded Pendergast Ranch to over five thousand acres when he purchased the two thousand acre Cromwell Cattle Company just north of here. John’s father expanded the Ranch even more with the acquisition of three additional ranches east of the Pendergast Ranch. When John took over management of Pendergast Holdings, he opened up several areas of the Ranch to developers. Those developments created Pendergast City and the City of Sanctuary. He also expanded the Ranch with the purchase of almost six hundred acres at the Sanctuary, and the LeClerque homestead with one thousand acres.”