Cliff Ryder - The Ties That Bind

"Sorry," Jason said. "But I'm not buying it." He stepped out from behind the counter and headed for the door. He decided to try a different approach. "Look, I don't know for sure who you are to me," he lied, "but I do intend to find out. Maybe, deep down, you'd like to know, too."

Jason pulled on the door.

"Jason." Jesse's voice was deep and quiet, barely above a whisper.

"Yeah?"

For a long minute, silence held them both, then he said, "My life is complicated. I don't know that you want to get too close. It might be better for both our sakes if you just left it alone."

Jason watched him carefully, wondering if his words represented a threat, a warning or genuine concern. Maybe a little of all three.

After another moment, he nodded, then said, "Everyone's life is complicated, but maybe helping with that is what families are for."

Jason left the shop and returned to his cabin to find Tina waiting for him.

"What've you been up to?" she asked.

"Oh, just wandering about, really," he said. "Come on. I've got something to show you."

They started up the quads and Jason led the way back to the beach where he had seen the smugglers the night before. The tide had washed away most of the tracks, but not all of them.

She knelt down to examine what was left. "There were quite a few people here," she said. "What was going on here?"

"Another arms deal," he said. "I need to figure out where they're storing all this stuff and who is paying for it. I haven't seen this many illegal arms deals since I was in the Middle East. This is a real hot spot."

"One of the advantages to living in the middle of nowhere," she said, looking around, "is that no one sees anything. From the tracks, it looks like two larger trucks and maybe a couple of smaller ones left from here. How many people were there?"

"About a dozen," Jason said. "But some of them went back to the boats that were anchored out there. Three of them."

Tina nodded, keeping her thoughts to herself.

"Tina," he finally said, "where are they taking the weapons? What's the drop point?"

She blushed slightly and had the grace to look at him sheepishly.

"I know we've covered this," he said, keeping his voice gentle. "But if you're involved somehow, you need to tell me or this is going to get really ugly.

You know my mission, and I've revealed far more to you than I should have. I'm not after you and even the smugglers are really a secondary consideration for me. But I do have a duty to fulfill, too."

"I already told you," she said. "I'm not involved. I just can't help but feel that I'm betraying some of my people by helping you."

"Tina, this can't just be about your loyalties or where people are getting the money to survive in hard times. These weapons aren't heading for soldiers or warriors. They're going to end up in the hands of criminals who will hurt people. Maybe a lot of people." He felt himself tensing up again and purposely took a deep breath. "These aren't small shipments. The whole situation is bordering on a major business. If someone is planning something big, do you really want your village to be seen as the staging area for whatever ends up happening?"

She nodded her understanding. "I know you're right," she said. "But I don't want to see people prosecuted who don't deserve it. Most of them are just trying to get by."

"No worries there. I'm just a surveyor, remember?" he said, grinning. "Whoever is helping them on this side is not who really needs to be stopped. Most likely, they are just a pawn in a much bigger game. The person I need to find is the one setting up the deals and supplying the contacts and help. A couple of dock lackeys — for want of a better expression — aren't that interesting to the government. Most of the people involved or helping are probably already flagged and their activities are being monitored to see if they become a bigger threat."

"If federal law enforcement — like the FBI — knows that some of them have been doing illegal things, why not shut them down?" she asked.

"For a couple of reasons, really," he explained. "First, why settle for the little fish when, with a little patience, you can catch the big one? As of right now, what they probably know amounts to a few misfits in the far frozen north smuggling a handful of Russian rifles into the country for small-time profit. In other words, why bother?"

Tina glared at Jason, her dark-brown eyes flashing.

"What?" he asked. "Now what's got you riled up?"

She held up a finger in accusation. "In the last few sentences, you've equated everyone in the village to misfits, lackeys and pawns. Do you really think that everyone here is that ignorant?" she asked, then continued before he could get a word in edgewise. "I'll have you know that there are a lot of sophisticated, intelligent people here. They might not know how to build a computer or a space shuttle or do neurosurgery, but what they do know has kept our culture going for as long or longer than almost any other on the planet."

She paused for a breath and Jason took the opportunity to break in. "Whoa! Whoa! Hold on a minute. That is not what I think. What I was trying to illustrate is how this is going to be seen by the law-enforcement community in the continental United States. If you'll recall, you were the one who pointed out to me that it's my heritage, too, so I don't have any reason to start slamming the people in the village. What I do know, however, is how perceptions work and when they can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending entirely on how they're utilized."

"I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at," she admitted.

He took a seat on a dry log and gestured for her to sit down. When she did, he continued. "Think of it like this. The village is small and — by population — is largely uneducated in the same sense as most communities down south. The government isn't going to see this place as either a threat or a significant asset. It's a place — a dot that's not even visible on most maps. Can you agree with me on that?"

"Sure," she said. "It's not a really accurate perception of the place, but I can see how people might view it that way."

"Okay," he said. "The danger happens when people assume those views or perceptions are accurate. In general, I don't think that the people in the village are dangerous, but I do know that it would be really easy for a dangerous person to hide up here among the people and never get picked up. The reverse is also true. I wouldn't think to ask most of the people here for help with advanced calculus, but I'd trust almost anything they had to tell me about the environment in this part of the world, the waterways or really anything having to do with the area itself. To me, this is a huge asset. A resource that many people would overlook, based on those inaccurate perceptions we've already established."

"I see what you're saying," she said. "In other words, you aren't going to take a resource for granted any more than you're going to utilize that resource for something that it isn't suited for."

"Exactly," he said. He got to his feet and motioned for her to follow him. They moved back up the hill, following the tracks made by the smugglers the night before. At the top, the tracks split, with one set heading in the direction of the village and the others heading northeast.

"Where would that set be going?" Jason asked, pointing to the second set. "They'll get stuck in those trucks."

"If they were regular trucks I would agree, but you aren't the only one with cool technology," Tina said. She knelt down and examined the tracks again. "I've seen these trucks. They're built with a track system that can be fitted over the wheels. They'll drive through or over just about anything, kind of like a tank or a snowmobile. I bet if we followed the tracks they would go pretty quickly from wheel marks to the track ribbing they use over the wheels themselves."