Backwoods Read Online Free PDF Page B

sort of company identification? A
driver’s license?”
    “Of course I do,” Andrew shifted his weight,
raising his hips to reach for his back pocket, his wallet. Then he
bit back a groan as he remembered. I always lock it inside the
glove compartment whenever I’m out in the field.
    “It’s in my Jeep,” he told Prendick,
sheepish.
    “Which is currently sitting top-down at the
bottom of a flooded gulley,” Prendick said. “How convenient.”
    Andrew frowned. “Am I under arrest or
something?”
    “That’s what I’m trying to determine,” the
Major replied.
    “What the hell for?” Andrew demanded.
    Prendick raised the corner of his mouth in
tandem with his brow, as if amused by the antics of a petulant
toddler. “For starters, violating Title Eighteen, Part One, Chapter
Sixty-seven, Subsection Thirteen-eighty-two of the United States
Penal Code, wherein the first paragraph stipulates that entry to
any restricted portion of a military base or facility for any
purposes prohibited by law will result criminal trespass charges
punishable by imprisonment of six months in jail and a fine of up
to five thousand dollars.”
    What? Andrew shook his head. He
glanced between the Major and Santoro, hoping she’s say
something—anything—to back up his story, to clear him.
    “You’re kidding,” he said, more to her than
Prendick when she remained tight-lipped, eyes averted from him.
“You can’t keep me here if you don’t arrest me. I know my rights.
And you can’t arrest me because I didn’t do anything wrong, and you
know it.”
    The corner of Prendick’s mouth flicked in a
quick smirk. “What I know, Mister Braddock, is that if it was up to
me, you would be out of here even as we speak. Dr. Moore is
conducting experiments of an extremely sensitive nature that are of
vital importance to national security. This facility contains
classified materials and information to which you or the general
tax-paying public may not, under any circumstances, be made
privy.”
    “Then let me go,” Andrew said, exasperated.
“Put me in a truck and drive me to the nearest payphone so I can
call my guys to come pick me up.”
    “Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible,”
Prendick said. “The storms last night triggered landslides up in
the hills. The roads coming and going are buried under at least
fifteen feet of mud and rocks, at least three hundred yards wide in
either direction. It’s going to take earth moving equipment to get
them cleared out.”
    Beautiful, Andrew thought, biting back
the urge to laugh. That’s just fucking great.
    “Give me a couple of canteens, let me hike
out of here on foot,” he said. “I can cut through the woods to get
back down to the highway, then follow it from there to—”
    “Mister Braddock, it’s more than seventy
miles to the nearest town,” Prendick interjected. “That’s one way.
Even if you average walking a mile in twenty minutes, that would
make it an almost twenty-four hike. And that would be non-stop on a
flat surface, not cutting through the bush out here in the
backwoods.”
    “I think I can manage,” Andrew replied, even
though this was a lofty statement made more out of hubris than any
real confidence. He was a proficient and experienced hiker, but it
required a significant amount of gear and supplies to make the sort
of trek he was proposing—none of which he had on hand, and none of
which he was willing to bet Prendick would loan him. At best, he
was looking at least at a three-day miserable hike through the
wilderness. At worst, he was looking at winding up hopelessly lost
and dying of starvation, thirst or overexposure.
    Prendick met his gaze evenly. “I think I
would be remiss if I were to let you try.” Cutting a glance and a
crooked smile at Santoro and Corporal O’Malley, he added, “Besides,
I wouldn’t want you to run into any trouble out there. Say, like
this hairless, hunchbacked bear or something you say you saw.”
    Santoro didn’t