Off the Grid Read Online Free PDF Page B

that her mother had a terminal illness, she’d driven into town to call her, as well as the doctors in Louisiana. She’d done it from the only pay phone remaining in the little Wyoming community of Saratoga, and from borrowed telephones in the grocery store and convenience store.
    Nate said, “You monitored every outgoing call from the Platte River Valley?”
    Tyrell said, “Mr. Romanowski, we monitor every call in the United States. We didn’t have to focus our efforts here. We can see and hear everywhere. You should know that.”
    “Who are you with, the NSA?” Nate asked.
    Tyrell and Volk exchanged glances.
    “Not exactly,” Tyrell said.
    “Then who? You guys have ‘fed’ written all over you.”
    Volk said, “Are we that obvious?”
    “Yes.”
    “Maybe we ought to grow our hair into ponytails and start hanging around hawks?” Volk said to Tyrell. “Then we wouldn’t look like G-men?”
    “Maybe,” Tyrell said. Then to Nate: “Let me give you some background on us. I’m telling you more than I want to because it’s important to establish credibility. I have the feeling you won’t cooperate with us unless you have more background.”
    Nate nodded and tried to fight back his anger toward both of them.
    “Do you love your country, Nate Romanowski?” Tyrell asked. It was a serious question.
    “I do.” It was a serious answer.
    “Do you love your government?”
    “That’s different,” Nate said.
    “I’ve read the agreement you signed earlier this year with Special Agent Stan Dudley of the FBI,” Tyrell said, tapping his screen with his finger. “You agreed to quite a few conditions that led to your release from federal custody. You made an agreement with the U.S. government, in effect.”
    Tyrell swept his fingertip across the screen as he read.
    “Let’s see. You agreed to wear a digital monitor so your movements could be tracked at all times.” Tyrell’s eyes rose from the screen to Nate.
    “I wore it until they cut it off at the hospital. There’s nothing in that document that requires me to get a new one.”
    “A technicality, but okay, I’ll buy that,” Tyrell said. “Next, you agreed to check in every day with Agent Dudley via smartphone.”
    Nate said, “The phone was damaged when I was ambushed by two men with shotguns. The FBI never provided another one.”
    Tyrell smiled at that. “Another technicality, but legally you have a leg to stand on, according to our lawyers. How about ‘Subject agrees to cooperate with all ongoing federal investigations concerning one Wolfgang Templeton and his criminal network. Subject agrees to provide testimony in court if requested by the DOJ. Subject agrees to participate in any local operations, if asked by the DOJ, involving Wolfgang Templeton, and to serve as an agent of the prosecution during said investigation’?”
    “There has been no trial I’m aware of,” Nate said.
    Prior to the agreement, Nate had been persuaded by his friend Joe Pickett to provide state’s evidence against Templeton, who had successfully run a high-powered murder-for-hire operation out of his ranch in the Wyoming Black Hills. Nate had been hired byTempleton to do what he considered honorable work that turned out not to be. After Nate turned, Templeton fled in a private plane and had not been located or arrested, as yet.
    “Does this have to do with Templeton?” Nate asked.
    “No,” Tyrell said. “The FBI would love to catch him, and there’s some political heat to get that done, but no, we’re not here about Wolfgang Templeton. In fact, if you ask me personally, I approve of most of the murders he committed. He took out some real dirtballs we couldn’t touch through legal means.”
    Nate shook his head. He said, “You’re an unusual fed, that’s for sure.”
    Tyrell shrugged and continued scrolling through the document. “It says here you signed away your right to carry a gun.”
    “That was my mistake,” Nate said. “I didn’t realize at