Page 16 of Edge of Steele
Colin tossed the plastic wrap in the trashcan. “I’ve never seen an ecoterrorist group engage in an action like this where there was a potential loss of life.”
“These groups usually want to protect life,” Ryleigh added. “Means they direct their attacks on property, hoping to cause economic harm to industries that destroy the environment. Sovereign Earth believes logging in any form is bad.”
Colin strode back to the truck. “Then if we go with their philosophy, they’d need to be sure no one would be on site. Means they could have someone on the inside who knew the place would be deserted at lunchtime today.”
Finn frowned. “Or they’re just good at recon. This place runs on a routine schedule. If I watched the site long enough, I could predict what would happen at any given time of day.”
Ryleigh agreed. “Besides, wouldn’t it be easier to set the bomb to detonate on a regular day after the second shift ended, and our guards would be the only people in the area?”
Colin cocked his head. “Good point, but maybe they thought the bomb would start a fire like it did, and a volunteer response could be slower at night.”
“Sounds possible,” Finn said. “If not quickly contained, a fire could wipe out the trees the group was trying to protect.”
A grave expression tightened Colin’s face. “I really need to get a look at those threats.”
Ryleigh opened her phone to her photo app and held it out to Colin. “I scanned them. You can take a quick look now, and I’ll email them to you too.”
He swiped the images and studied the files one at a time. “They’re certainly framing the threats as protecting the environment, and no doubt the message is consistent with an ecoterrorist group.”
“Looking deeper into ecoterrorism seems like the way to start for sure,” Finn said.
Colin’s lips turned down in a deep frown. “Yeah, but we don’t want to count Virgil Eckles out. He was onsite and could be involved. I’ll start with him before digging into Sovereign Earth and then widen the search to include all ecoterrorism.”
“Wouldn’t it be faster to limit our focus to groups with their sights set just on logging?” Finn asked.
“You’d think so, but these groups can be very erratic and unpredictable,” Colin said. “A group protesting one environmental issue could be enraged over something they see or read in the news and jump on the anti-logging bandwagon in support of another group.”
Finn nodded, but his attention drifted to Ryan, who had come to his feet and was stretching.
“Excuse me,” Finn said and made a beeline for Ryan.
“Me too.” Ryleigh gave Colin an apologetic look. “We want to ask if Ryan saw anything related to the bomb.”
“Then I’ll join you. The device used could tell us who’s behind it.”
She hurried to follow Finn. By the time she reached Ryan, he’d planted his hands on his hips.
Had Finn gone in guns blazing?
Ryan looked at her, at Colin, then back at Finn. “Okay, what gives? You’re not ganging up on me to see how I’m doing.”
“We’re hoping if you saw any bomb fragments that you could tell us about them,” Ryleigh said.
His eyes widened. “Guess my tight-lipped brother is being his usual self, and you want to pick my brain.”
“He is,” she said, as there was no point in denying it.
Ryan eyed Ryleigh. “And you’re going to try to find the bomber on your own?”
“Not alone,” she said. “I’ll work with Finn and Colin. Nick at Veritas too.”
“But you won’t be working with Russ?” Ryan pointed at a patrol car pulling up on the road behind them.
Drat.Why did Russ have to pick this moment to show up?
“Right,” she said to hurry Ryan along before Russ joined them. “So if you saw something…”
“I did actually,” he said, as Russ’s car door opened.
