A Time for Patriots

“Based on my discussions with the U.S. attorney, I think he’s reluctant to indict you,” Darrow said. “I’m pushing for probation and a fine in exchange for a misdemeanor plea, but he’s getting pressure from guys like former president Gardner to push for a felony prosecution. So I’m going to apply a little pressure of my own:

“Jon Masters has arranged to fly in to Battle Mountain to surrender his equipment to the FBI tomorrow morning,” she went on. “I’ve called a news conference with you, me, Jon, Brad, the robot, and the Tin Man, and we’re going to explain our side of the story and tell what crazy, irresponsible, and probably illegal foolishness the FBI has been doing out there. I want to tell the whole story, right from the very beginning — how the FBI was supposed to be going after extremists and ended up going after you instead, through Brad. I’m hoping the U.S. attorney will drop the case today after I tell him what I’m going to do, but if he doesn’t, we’ll smear Chastain and his goons all over the breaking-news segment on every TV channel in the country. All the networks and cable news channels will be there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Patrick said. “I’m ready and anxious to tell my side of the story to a judge, but I’m more than happy to tell it in front of news cameras too.”

“You bet we will,” Darrow said. “We’ll be in their face every week polluting the jury pool until the trial starts. We’ll make everyone in America thinks Gardner has a vendetta against you — which he probably does.

“Now, I probably can’t protect you from what the Tin Man and CID did to those agents, and we might even be facing a felony plea, but I think we can avoid confinement,” Darrow went on. “My plan is to have you admit that the Tin Man and CID were operating under your orders — I’m not even referring to the operators as persons. The U.S. attorney would rather focus on you than Macomber and Turlock, although they might get misdemeanor charges as well.”

“I agree,” Patrick said. “They were definitely following my orders.”

“But you were protecting yourself and protecting your son from Chastain and Brady, the best way you knew how. Good. It’ll be easy to make them the bad guys and the robot and Tin Man the defenders. So, how’s Gia? Am I finally going to meet this woman?”

“She left sometime yesterday morning, after we got back from Scottsdale. I think seeing the trailer destroyed was too much for her.”

“I’m sorry. Try not to let her distract you too much. Tomorrow will be a big day.”

“Okay. Give me a call when you get close and I’ll meet you at the front gate.”

“Can’t wait to see you again, Patrick,” Darrow said, and she sounded very sincere about that.

Toiyabe Range near Mount Callahan, Central Nevada

That same time

“Well, I can’t see anything from here,” Leif Delamar said. Leif was a retired mail carrier and avid hunter, and his rugged six-foot-five frame, creased face, and weathered hands were living portraits of his longtime love for the outdoors. He was looking through a pair of binoculars at the base of Judah Andorsen’s Freedom-7 mine. He and Michael Fitzgerald were in Leif’s Land Rover about a half mile from the mine at a barbed-wire fence that marked the edge of Andorsen’s land. He handed the binoculars to Michael. “What do you see, Fid?”

Michael searched for a few minutes, then lowered the binoculars and gave them back. “Nothing. Looks like business as usual.”

Leif studied the printout he made of the computer image, rotating the page so it was oriented the same way they were facing, then started tracing the different roads snaking up and down the face of the open-pit mine. “Okay, I see the two main truck roads going in,” he said, “and the west terraces here.”

“They’re called ‘benches,’ ” Michael said.

“Well, aren’t we the mining expert today?” Leif quipped. “Anyway, I see the haul roads, and the benches, and…” He picked up the binoculars and looked again. “I see a couple tunnels built into the sides of the pit. Do you know what they’re for?”

“Usually they’re just relief bores to keep water from loosening the rock,” Michael said. “They sometimes reinforce the walls with cables or shotcrete from inside the bores. If this mine ends up becoming a landfill in the future — most of them do — they also have to dig drainage tunnels to keep the pit from becoming a lake.”

“You are just a veritable font of fascinating information this morning, Fid,” Leif said. He focused in on one of the bores indicated as an activity spot on the printout. “Well, those bores look pretty big — almost like tunnels. I do see a lot of water coming out, and… hey, I think I see a couple cars lined up near one of those bores.” He looked more carefully. “Why, I think one of those cars is a sheriff’s cruiser.”

“What?” Fid took the glasses and looked. “It sure does. What in heck is the sheriff doing down in an open-pit mine?”