Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 3

JAKE MONTROSS

Jake Montross was a Game Warden for the Utah Fish and Game department. Unlike many of the states game wardens, he didn’t like to give out tickets to the hunters he found breaking some minor law. In fact when Jake applied for the job he didn’t realize what a Game Warden really was. He had heard about this great job where a person could be outside most of the time working with the wildlife in the State of Utah. The job advertisement didn’t even say it was for a Game Warden. “How would you like to be outside 90% of the time? Good pay, great benefits, apply now!” It sounded just right to Jake, so he had applied. The personnel director had looked at Jake’s application and talked to him. Her directive was to find some Game Wardens who weren’t the typical abrasive, arrogant, type A personality kind of person. Jake looked like the perfect candidate to her. He would be the first of the new generation of Utah Game Wardens. To her manager she said, “Let’s try this guy out.”

Jake’s friends had been astounded when they heard that he had applied to work for the Utah Fish and Game, had been accepted, and was to become a Game Warden. They couldn’t imagine shy, soft spoken Jake Montross as the typical arrogant, self righteous Game Warden.

Jake was so shy, especially around the opposite sex, that he had never married. In fact up to now he had been on two dates, the girls had asked him both times. He longed for the companionship of a sweet woman to become his wife, but had never developed the social skills to feel comfortable enough to even ask a girl for a date. He rationalized his shyness with, “Someday I’ll meet the perfect woman and we’ll both know we were meant for each other. Then I’ll ask her out.” There was an attractive single woman in the Springville Fish and Game office, where he had a small cubicle assigned to him, that teased him and seemed to be interested in him, but so far he had never build up the courage to even talk to her. ‘Maybe the next time Nicole tells me how handsome I am, I’ll say something clever and ask her to go out with me.’

Jake was surprised when he was accepted to trained to be a Game Warden. He wanted to be outside and in the mountains of Utah. It seemed to be a perfect job. When he learned that he would have to confront angry men who would be carrying loaded high powered rifles, he wasn’t so sure he wanted the job. He expressed his concern to his trainer and was told, “Hey look, most of the hunters in Utah are law abiding men who expect to have a Game Warden check their kills. If they’re breaking the law, they won’t be happy, but they’ll accept a ticket from you, if called for, and go on about their business. They might not be happy about a ticket, but they understand the necessity of laws to protect their right to hunt. A friendly attitude instead of a “holier than thou” attitude will gain you the respect of the people you meet in the wilds of Utah.

For the most part, the advice and counsel of his trainer had been correct. He would approach hunters, wearing his uniform, and they would give him the respect the uniform demanded. He gained confidence as he realized his trainer was mostly correct. However, there were some people in Utah who would like nothing better than putting a high powered bullet in every Game Warden they came across.

He spent most of his time in the wilds of Utah, except for regular big game hunting seasons, looking for those men who hunt and kill wild game out of season and without permits (poaching). Some were after the trophies, others wanted food for their families and others just wanted to kill something. He sympathized with those whose circumstances forced them to look to wild game for food and tried to ignore those. The others made his blood boil and he pursued them with a vengeance.

He was waiting for one of those in his favorite spot in all of Utah when he heard Roger and Patty talk about how they had met and Roger had killed her ex-boyfriend. As a Game Warden he was sworn to uphold the law and he should have marched down through the undergrowth and arrested Roger, but he couldn’t force himself to do it. He wanted to go down, shake his hand and congratulate Roger on a job well done. Of course, he didn’t do that either, he sat there and wished he had the guts to do the same thing Roger had done when he came upon a similar type of person.

It was as if someone whispered in his ear, “You can do it, you can do anything, don’t be afraid.” He asked himself ‘Why not, why can’t I do the same thing? Most of the time, I’m in the field by myself, where I see the worst of human scum killing trophy animals for the horns on their heads or for the fun of it. I don’t catch very many of them. Most of them are so careful that I’m not even in the same county when the animal is killed. I don’t think I could kill the young father out shooting a doe and taking it home to his family.’

Jake sat and thought about the young couple that had just walked out of his hearing range, he watched them walk beside the pond and then they disappeared in the undergrowth on their way back to the trail that led to the parking lot several miles away.

He drifted off into some kind of trance and slipped into a dream where he saw himself talking to Nicole, asking her on dates and getting married. He saw himself become a Game Warden that was feared by the poachers instead of laughed at. He felt the satisfaction of confronting poachers and bringing them to justice. Those who were trying to kill him, he killed without remorse. He awoke with a start, some small creature had just scampered across his chest and the sun had dropped below the horizon long ago. He couldn’t see the pond at all and the trees were dark shadows against a sky filled with stars. Up here on the side of Mount Timpanogos he had an unobstructed view of millions of stars that provided some light but not enough to see any detail in the plants all around him. He lay there thinking about the dream he had just had. ‘Was it a dream or some kind of vision or what?’ He could remember parts of the dream clearly and other parts seemed to be like a picture on high speed. He didn’t know what to think about it all.

If there had been someone watching Jake they would have seen him quietly sitting there deep in thought. They would have seen him lean back in the undergrowth and go to sleep. As the darkness flowed up the steep hillside they would have seen him twitching and turning as he went through a physical transformation. His shirt and pants had been loose fitting but now they were tight. He changed from a normal appearing man with normal features to a man whose physical appearance expanded and become more powerful. When his eyes opened they had gained a deep piercing quality. A quality not unlike that seen when a wild cougar focuses on its next meal. When he stood up his uncoordinated actions had turned into the movements of a highly trained athlete.

Jake didn’t notice any physical changes, except he felt stronger and now had a new sense of purpose. He wasn’t going to strictly follow the Fish and Game policies toward those he found breaking the law. Those polices said, “If you find a hunter taking protected game out of hunting season or without the appropriate permits, you will give said hunter a ticket. Under no circumstances are you to threaten or react to any actions by said hunter. Even if said hunter resorts to using his weapon against you, you may draw your official weapon and return fire, but you may not fire at the individual. In such a case, you are to report the facts to the appropriate law enforcement officer. Unofficially Jake had been told, “If you shoot a civilian, you had better have a bullet hole in you to prove he was shooting at you.”

From that day forward the poachers who killed whatever came in front of their scopes were in mortal danger of Jake. Jake would go after him and if warranted, would end his life of preying on the weak and available. The guy with $100,000 worth of truck, sniper rifle, infrared spotting scopes and every other piece of equipment available might be a candidate for extinction. ’I think it will be all about attitude. Some of the guys I have arrested would have killed me if they had a chance. They’re the ones I would now put in the ground with a smile on my face.’

Transformed, Jake left his place in the undergrowth with new goals.
First off, he now felt a need to go talk to Nicole; he knew she was waiting for him to ask her out.

Secondly he would go find and kill the worst of the poachers who thumbed their noses at the law and would kill him if given the chance. He knew of several and where they usually hunted. ‘I can’t wait to run into one of those guys.’

Jake walked down the path toward the truck and noticed the path seemed to be smoother. He normally would have stumbled time and time again as he kicked the tree roots growing across the path. Tonight, he stepped over them without thinking about it. The darkness wasn’t complete and the path seemed to almost glow in the starlight. He had never before felt like he did at the moment. The air was cool and fresh, he breathed deep and felt so good, he decided to quicken the pace, and he started jogging and then increased to a trot and then a run. A man running through a dark forest is unusual and some would say dangerous because of the ups and downs of a mountain trail; and the tree roots can be several inches above the path. Jake felt like he could run like this all night. He reached his truck in a few minutes and didn’t want to stop; regretfully he stepped into the truck and drove home.

He spent the night thinking about his new goal. At dawn he woke up before his alarm went off. This literally never happened. Normally he pulled himself out of a deep sleep when the alarm went off and was groggy for an hour while he had a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast. He noticed his shirt was tight across his shoulders and his pants were so tight he had to strain to button the belt. It didn’t dawn on him why his clothes were suddenly too small. He made a lunch because he never knew where he would be at lunchtime.

He felt rested and looking forward to the day. He carefully took his personal 9 MM pistol from his safe and put it into his holster in place of his official 38 special that was issued by the department. He had purchased the 9 MM from a man he had caught poaching years ago. The man had just killed a doe and was cleaning it out when Jake had found him. He had given Jake the story that he and his family were out of money and food and the pistol was all he had. He had killed the deer with it and planned on taking the pistol to the nearest pawn shop and buy some food on the way home. Jake may have been naïve but he wanted a pistol like this so he offered him a fair price which was much more than a pawn shop would have given him. The man accepted his offer and told Jake that he had bought the pistol from a guy in Arizona who told him it was not registered. Jake sent him on his way with the venison. Since that time he had used it occasionally at the target range, but didn’t ordinarily take it with him. Today was different, he was hunting human vermin and the 9 MM was his choice of weapon. If he had to use it, it wouldn’t be traceable back to him.

Jake needed to go by his small office in the Springville Central Utah Regional Fish and Game office to take care of some paperwork. He walked in with a smile on his face looking for Nicole. Nicole loved to tease him and jump up to see what she could do to embarrass him. She saw Jake drive up so she ran into his office. Her plan was to run into Jake and force him to put his arms around her. She knew it would embarrass Jake. He was disappointed in not seeing Nicole as he came through the front office. He turned to ask Sylvia where Nicole was as he stepped into his cubicle and ran into her. Her plan worked like a charm, he put his arms around her, but then he smoothly picked her up, gave her a peck on her cheek and put her down.

“High sexy lady.”

Nicole could not have been more surprised. This was so far out of character for Jake, she wondered if it was someone else. He didn’t quite look the same, but yes it was Jake. She couldn’t think of anything to say, she just stood there looking into his eyes. His eyes had changed, or maybe he just had never allowed her to look into them before. Jake winked at her. Nicole couldn’t believe it but she felt herself blush!
“Jake, what’s come over you, you, you’ve changed.”

“I was sitting up on Timpanogos thinking about you. I decided to ask you to go to dinner and a movie Friday night. How about it; would you go with a lonely Game Warden to supper and a movie Friday?”

Nicoles’ jaw dropped but she quickly recovered and said, “I thought you would never ask, yes I would like that, what time?”

“How about I pick you up at 7:00?”

“OK, it’s a date.”

“Oh, where do you live?” Nicole wrote down her address and cell number and gave it to Jake and went back to her desk on the other side of the building. She was so flustered she couldn’t think straight, so she sat down and just sat there for a few moments.

Nichole felt someone watching her and turned toward her good friend and boss, Silvia Porter who whispered “I have just witnessed a miracle. I truly believed that Mr. Montross would never work up the courage to ask you out on a date. Suddenly he comes in, a changed man and manages to surprise all of us. Way to go!”

Nicole blushed again and smiled, wondering about the changes in Jake Montross. “What do you think happened to him out there?”

“I don’t have a clue, but I like it! It’s hard to believe he’s the same guy. He looks like he’s been working out.”

“He picked me up like I weighed about as much as a 10 pound sack of potatoes! I’m not a huge girl but I’m not tiny either. I had no idea he was so strong.”

Jake climbed in his truck and waved at Nicole through the office window and pulled out onto State Street on the way to his assigned patrol area. ‘I think that went pretty well, I can’t believe I actually asked a girl out on a date!’

He drove into an isolated box canyon where he liked to do some target practice. He took the 9 MM out and carefully loaded and inserted the clip. He went through a box of ammunition before he was satisfied with his performance. He felt at short range he was deadly and would hit his intended target dead center up to about 75 yards. His plan was to patrol the entire Skyline Highway today and go look for Larry Beus, the worst of the poachers that he personally knew, after dark tonight. To be fair, Beus could be in his bed tonight, but Jake knew that Beus was a night person. A killer out looking for something to kill that would put money in his pocket. Right or wrong, legal or illegal distinctions were not applicable to Larry Beus.

Skyline Highway started at Highway 6 between Spanish Fork and Price and extended along a high plateau over 75 miles almost straight south. He would take highway 6 to the start of Skyline Highway and drive the 70 miles looking at the side roads and checking on campers and anyone else who might be a poacher. He would arrive at the high meadows above Manti after dark. The elk herds were healthy and he had seen some fantastic bulls as he patrolled the area. He knew this was a favorite poaching area for Beus. This is where he had tried to arrest Beus 3 times but in each case Larry’s friends had managed to destroy the evidence. The last time they had shot at Jake and he felt fortunate to have escaped alive. He had just arrested Beus and was standing beside him when a bullet hit a tree branch inches from his head. He dove to the dirt and Beus took off running. Jake had pulled out his pistol and shot over their heads, but they didn’t even duck. They knew he was prohibited from actually shooting at them. Beus rejoined his friends and they causally walked back to their truck.

This was the time of year that the bulls were tearing up small trees and bushes as they cleaned the velvet off their antlers. It was mating season and their bugles could be heard all along Skyline Highway. This was prime time for the poachers. Most buyers of the poached elk antlers didn’t want the antlers until the bulls had rubbed off the blood soaked velvet and the antlers were hardened and polished.

The biggest bull Jake had ever seen was hanging out around a meadow that held several springs and ponds and a dense stand of pine trees close by. On the downhill side of these meadows the hillside was more like a cliff. The bulls loved this meadow because it couldn’t be driven too, dense cover was close, food and water were abundant, and there was a lot of open ground around the areas that made it nearly impossible to sneak up on them. In earlier years Jake had seen Beus and his friends leave their trucks or ATV’s on top of a ridge a mile or so away, and walk to these meadows in the moonlight. They would shoot the largest of the bulls using a night vision scope and then remove the antlers and the cape. Many nights in this time of year, Jake had heard rifle shots in the darkness where he didn’t have a chance of catching the culprit with his limited equipment. He was always outnumbered and underequipped. The poachers also knew that Jake the Game Warden was forbidden to shoot them so they were fearless as they danced around just out of sight of Jake. He would surprise them this time.

There was one Game Warden, a friend of Jakes’ that was shot and killed in this area several years ago. Jake knew who had done it but couldn’t prove it. Jake knew that every time he drove down to this area his life was on the line. He had heard from the locals that Beus and his friends planned on killing him the next time they had a chance. When he first heard about their claim, it scared him, but now the fear was gone and in its place an eagerness to end it tonight.

Over the past 5 years Jake had made friends with many of the people in this part of Utah. All of them considered Larry Beus and his friends to be a cancer to the whole state of Utah. They all knew who he was and what he was doing. The local Chief of Police was an old high school buddy of Beus and had a gentlemen’s agreement with him, “don’t get caught doing anything serious and we’ll leave you alone.” The Chief and other officers were afraid of Beus and were only too happy to ignore what was going on. The local people wished Jake good luck and would watch him drive away thinking, “there goes a good man, but one of these days he’s going to get killed by the Beus bunch.”

He noticed he was hungry about 1 PM, so he pulled over, took his lunch cooler out and walked to the ridge above the road where he knew there was an old tree that had fallen and now offered itself as a ready bench and table. Jake had used this vantage point for lunch breaks many times. He put the cooler down on the log and stretched.

‘Rrrriiipppp!” This was a new experience for him; he couldn’t remember ever ripping an article of clothing before. He remembered the shirt and pants being tight this morning. Maybe I washed them in hot water instead of warm last time and the both shrunk. Suddenly he knew that all of his clothes were now too small for him. He walked back to the truck and opened his duffle bag for a spare shirt. It was too small, just like the one he had ripped. ‘Time for some new clothes I guess. Instead of going directly south on Skyline, I’ll swing down to Ephriam and get some bigger shirts and pants; then come back up the Ephriam Canyon road. Always before he could find a shirt in a Medium-Long and it would be just right and maybe a little baggy. He tried on some large sizes and they were snug, so he went to extra large, they gave him the feel he was used to, not too tight, a little on the baggy size. His pants were also a problem. His waist was 2 inches bigger. The size went from a 32 waist to a 34 waist, but the slim cut was too tight on his thighs and his butt. He had to move up to a baggy size to be comfortable. ‘This is just plain weird!’

Back up on Skyline, the sun had set as he took his time. Jake drove slowly down the main road, passing the reservoir for the Manti city water system. This ridge ran straight west of here and ended in a series of meadows and ponds before it ended and dropped into the canyon a thousand feet below. He drove down a side road to a hidden wash that would hide his truck from any traffic on the main road. He took his fanny pack that contained high calorie snacks, a space blanket, first aid equipment, a flashlight, and extra ammunition. He knew the Poachers would be watching for him, but he also knew where they would be and how to get to them without being seen. They couldn’t see or hear as good as an elk and he was no lovesick bull elk that they could easily find as he bugled. He expected them to have a night vision scope. This would put them at a distinct advantage if they knew he was coming. He had to get close to them before they knew he was anywhere close. His confidence range with his pistol was about 75 yards. That was about the distance from the ridge to the meadows. He would have to play it by ear and hope they didn’t have a lookout watching the ridge with night vision scope. He wanted to walk right up to them while they were working on the elk. That way if he had to run for cover he could go over the edge and get into the pine trees.

He attached the silencer to his pistol and returned it to the holster under his left arm. It was fully loaded and ready if and when needed. He reached the old road on the ridge line just as he heard a rifle shot echo through the night. It sounded like it came from the meadow, exactly where he thought it would be. He couldn’t see that far but if they had a big bull elk down, they may be watching for him but they wouldn’t see him. He would be on the other side of the ridge and come across just above them before he could see them or they could see him.

He increased his pace and soon was sweating, but it felt good as he hiked along the ridge. In fact he noticed he felt better than he had ever felt his whole life. ‘I don’t know what is happening to me but I feel like I could run for miles.’ The moon was bright enough that he could avoid the brush and boulders with ease. The old road was more like 2 paths running beside each other in the grass on the top of the ridge. Jake started jogging down the old road. It felt good and as he neared the end of the road, he should have been a little winded, but he wasn’t. He was breathing normal and felt great. The ridge peaked about a mile from where Jake had parked his truck and it was about another mile to where he thought Beus and friends had shot a bull elk. The old road ended there and there were 3 ATV’s parked under the old gnarled trees that stood at the crest of the ridge. He checked the 3 ATV’s and saw that the keys were still in the ignition switches ‘There would be at least 3 men out there but there could be more if 2 came on some of the ATVs. These guys were confident that they could do anything they wanted with no fear of the law, or anybody to challenge them. There was a steep drop off on the other side of the trees and a fence. Jake jumped the fence and landed far down the steep ridge. The ridge flattened out after it dropped about 100 feet and maintained the level until it ended and dropped 1,000 feet into Manti Canyon about a mile and a half further west.

Here the ridge was covered with all kinds of low growing grass and other vegetation. This area was lush and perfect for the elk herds as well as thousands of range cattle that spent the summers up here. The rainfall down in the arid valleys was maybe 10 or 15 inches a year with summer temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Up here the rain gently watered the lush grass almost on a daily basis and totaled 50 to 60 inches a year. The elevation was close to 11,000 feet so the temperatures in mid summer rarely moved above 70 degrees with the nights just above freezing.

‘I better slow down and walk from here or they may hear me.’ He dropped down the north side of the ridge 20 or 30 yards and kept below the ridge line until he reached where he thought the ponds and meadows started on the other side of the ridge. He was not using his flashlight but the moonlight provided him with plenty of light to see. There were a few trees that appeared as clumps of darkness in the moonlight strung out along the ridge above the ponds. He reached the ridge line and could see the first meadow below him. It was close enough for him to see two pools of light covering an elk carcass where one man was using the light to work on the head of the dead elk. The antlers were off to the side and the man was carefully working on removing the cape. The carcass was laying on the edge of the meadow. If the bull had taken another step or two before falling he would have rolled hundreds of feet down the steep hillside.

Jake was standing near one of the old pine trees that had decided to grow out instead of fighting the fierce winter wind to grow up. The hair on his neck moved to attention and a chill went down his back as he felt a premonition of danger even thought it appeared there were no lookouts watching for someone like him. He reached into the holster in recognition of the premonition and pulled the pistol out. As the pistol cleared the holster, he heard the click of a rifle safety being released behind him; he dove to the left, rolled and looked for a target. He saw a shadow just as a high powered rifle went off and the flames and bullet went screaming over his head and into the darkness. The flames coming out of the bore of the rifle temporarily blinded Jake. He heard the shadow eject a bullet casing and shove a live round home. Jake shot at the sound where he had glimpsed the shadow again and again. His sight returned just in time to see a shadow fall to the ground. He shot the last bullet from his magazine into the shadow and reached for more bullets. In the moonlight he could see that the shadow wasn’t moving or making a sound. The shadow must have been standing or sitting beside one of the pine trees as Jake walked past him.

From down below came an angry voice, “HEY CLINT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?”

Jake’s ears were ringing from the blast of the rifle, he tried to put a whining sound to his voice and yelled back toward the men below, “I TRIPPED AND THE GUN WENT OFF”

From the darkness came the retort, “YOU RETARD, WE CAN’T TRUST YOU TO DO NOTHING, NOW GET YOUR WORTHLESS ASS DOWN HERE AND HELP US PACK THESE ANTLERS OUT. YOU’RE NO GOOD UP THERE AS A LOOKOUT ANYWAYS.”

Jake allowed himself to relax and take a deep breath; they had believed his answer was from Clint, their deceased lookout.

More voices from below, “I told you not to call my brother a retard,” said Beus!

“I told you not to bring him, he’s worthless. We can’t depend on him for nothing. He almost killed me just now. I heard that bullet go over my head. Now he has the night vision scope up there and we don’t know what’s going on.”

“Settle down, he’s fine. CLINT COME ON DOWN, WE’RE ALMOST DONE!”

The comment from below clicked in Jakes’ consciousness, ‘The night vision scope is up here!’ Jake hurried to the shadow and jerked the rifle from the dead hands of Clint. He looked through the scope. ‘Wow I had no idea these night scopes worked this well. I’m lucky that none of my shots hit and damaged this scope or the battery pack, I hope the rifle’s ok.”

He looked at the three men 75 yards below him. They were still gathered around the dead bull elk. Two were still shining their lights on the elk so that the 3rd man could work on the carcass. ‘It’s a good thing those lights aren’t pointing at me or I would be blinded.’ It looked like the poacher was now cutting out the back straps to take with them. Jake checked the magazine and counted the cartridges with his fingers, there were 4 shells remaining in the rifle. ‘That should be plenty.’ He couldn’t feel any damage to the rifle. He found the safely and knew instinctively which way was on and off. It was still off from when Clint shot at him a few minutes ago.

Jake dropped to his belly and steadied the cross hairs in the night scope of his new rifle on the chest of the biggest of the three who he thought was Larry Beus. The man glowed fluorescent green in the scope.

The glowing figure in the scope turned toward Jake and yelled, “HEY CLINT, WOULD YOU GET YOUR SORRY ASS DOWN HERE.”

Jake felt around and found a fist sized rock. He picked it up and tossed it downhill toward the men below. They would think Clint was coming and had knocked a rock loose.
He could hear them talking about how much this set of antlers would bring from old man Turley in Phoenix, plus the cape would bring at least $100 from a taxidermist friend, and “don’t forget the loin meat”.

Jake squeezed the trigger, he didn’t know what kind of rifle this was, but he thought it was probably a 7 MM Magnum or a 300 Savage. Whatever it was, it kicked him harder than any rifle he had ever shot. ‘Ouch, I had better hold it a little tighter next time.’ The 200 grain cartridge hit Beus right in the middle of his chest. The coat, breast bone and back bone didn’t offer much resistance to the bullet as it went tearing through Beus on its way to the hillside on the other side of the ravine.

The big man was thrown backward over the edge and into the darkness. Jake worked the bolt to eject the empty casing and shove the next bullet into the chamber; he brought the scope back down and found the other guy that had been standing who was now reaching for his rifle that was laying on a backpack. He had turned his flashlight off, a deadly mistake. The angle had changed on this target and the bullet entered his chest slightly to the left of center and pulverized the heart as it passed through him at supersonic speed. He also went flying backward and landed at the edge of the drop-off and dropped his rifle as the heavy slug tore through his chest.

The third guy was crawling toward the trio of packs and trying to find a rifle. Jake gritted his teeth and prepared for the punishment of another shot. This guy was moving on the ground toward the backpacks and a lone rifle laying on top of them. He placed the cross hairs on his head and jerked the trigger. This time the heavy bullet missed its intended target and went harmlessly across the canyon in the moonlight.

“Damn, Damn, Damn, I must have flinched!” He put the final bullet in the chamber and looked for the 3rd man. At first he couldn’t find him. The beauty of a night scope is that the infrared shows the heat of a living person or animal. A man hiding in bushes is outlined as if the bushes weren’t even there. The third poacher had reached the packs and the final rifle and had dove behind a big bush to his right. Jake panned the area with the scope and found the fluorescent figure crouching behind the bush. The fluorescent man was searching for Jake in the moonlight. The moonlight was too faint for him to find Jake who was lying on his stomach aiming the rifle. This last poacher would see a bright light as exploding gun powder pushed the 200 grain bullet out the rifles bore at supersonic speed toward him. The light would get to the man a split-second before the projectile; but he wouldn’t have time to react and pull the trigger. His life would end as the echos bounced back and forth along the ridge tops. Jake placed the cross hairs in the middle of the guys’ chest and forced himself to slowly squeeze the trigger so that he wouldn’t miss again. This time the target was slammed against the ground with his rifle spinning into the bush as Jake was slugged again on his now tender shoulder. The first shot bruised his shoulder when Jake didn’t hold it tight enough. Each additional shot pounded the bruise. Jake’s shoulder should be black and blue and hurting him for weeks, but his newfound physical abilities would heal his shoulder overnight.

Jake watched the carnage below through the scope; nothing was moving so he went back to make sure Clint wouldn’t surprise him again. He pulled his flashlight out to see that Clint was a mess. It looked like most of Jakes shots had hit him. Jake put the rifle down and went through Clints’ pockets. He found some more shells for the rifle and a billfold. First he reloaded the rifle and then discovered about $100 in cash that went into his pocket. He put the billfold back in Clint’s pocket, clicked off the flashlight, picked the rifle back up and again panned the entire area down below. The body heat of the elk was still bright but not as bright as the body heat from the 2 dead men glowing bright in the infrared scope. The 3rd man was out of sight over the edge of the drop-off. He slowly walked down the steep hillside to the carnage below. He swung the scope from one body to the next and back again. There didn’t seem to be any life left in them, but he didn’t want to make another mistake. His overconfidence and assumption that all of the poachers were down by the dead elk had almost got him killed a few minutes before.

Jake looked at the antlers, they were the biggest he had seen in a long time. This was the monster he had seen up near the road several weeks ago.

Talking to himself, ‘Ok Jake, now what. Hunting season doesn’t start up here for another 2-1/2 weeks. By then these guys will be pretty well chewed up by the flies, maggots, bugs and all kinds of critters. If I leave them here with the antlers, a hunter will find them and report them to the first game warden they see, it will probably be me. Or they just might take the antlers and the rifles and let the next guy turn them in. Anyway, for now, I’ve got a 2 1/2 mile hike back to the truck.’ He decided to take the rifle with the night vision scope. ‘This was too good to leave out here to be claimed by the first guy to come along.’

As he was turning toward the truck, he decided to look in each mans’ billfold. ‘Robin Hood steals from the rich.’ Jake had to climb about 50 yards down the steep hillside to reach Larry Beus and found almost a thousand dollars in his pocket. His flashlight was still turned on and had fallen another 30 yards down the hillside. Back up to the meadow level he checked the pockets of the others; each had a couple of hundred dollars. He took the cash and returned the billfold to each pocket for later identification. He looked at the back straps that had been taken from the bull. This would compare to a T-Bone steak, Filet Mignon and New York Steaks. Most poachers will cut out the back straps and leave the rest for the scavengers. I might as well take them. They will be gone out here in a day or two if I leave them. He grabbed the biggest of the back packs that were stacked neatly together, and dumped the contents on the ground. A new lightweight hatchet-knife combo caught his eye and he threw it back in the pack. He filled it with the 40 pounds of prime loin meat (back straps) and attached his fanny pack to the back pack. ‘I’m going back to the truck with a lot more weight than I came out with.’

When he reached the fence below the start of the old road and the poachers ATVs, he had a feeling come over him like he had never felt before. It wasn’t a danger feeling like he experienced when Clint had tried to shoot him. It was more of a peaceful feeling. He climbed on up to the crest and sat on one of the ATVs putting the backpack and rifle on the ground. He let his mind go and tried to absorb whatever it was that he was feeling.

He watched his actions starting from the moment he decided to take control of his life. It was almost like having a ring side seat and watching every movement on a movie screen right up to where he now sat, and then it went forward to his walk to the truck, his drive back to Provo, his meeting with his boss, and his date with Nicole.
He awoke, lying on the ground beside the rifle. He didn’t know how long he had been there, but it was still dark. ‘I have got to get out of here!’ He quickly put the pack back on and jogged for a few yards but with the pack bouncing on his back, he dropped to a fast walk back to his truck.

30 minutes later he was back at his truck with the sweat dripping from his brow. He hoped nobody had come by and noticed his truck sitting in this hidden draw. ‘I need to establish some kind of alibi, so I’ll drive back home, take care of the elk meat, take a short nap, take a shower and go into the office first thing in the office. I need to stop in and see Nicole and get some paperwork done anyway.

The Skyline Highway runs along the top of the ridges so a person can see the lights of vehicles for many miles depending on where the other vehicle is located; other times a truck could be 100 yards away and be hidden in a depression. Jake tried to keep an eye on his rear view mirrors just in case there was somebody else out driving who may have seen his truck. He didn’t want it seen by anybody, especially by a county sheriff on an early morning patrol. He was almost to the Ephraim City turnoff when he saw a light. Jake estimated it was at least 20 miles behind him and no danger to Jake because he would be back on the main highway and headed home in Provo before that light reached the turnoff where he now turned. The Skyline Highway runs back and forth on the top of the ridges. It’s classified as an improved backcountry road but it has potholes big enough to lose a Volkswagen in.

The next morning he thought he was going to feel wasted all day from lack of sleep, but he felt great. He went into the office at 8 am with last nights’ weird dream still fresh in his mind. He thought about his shoulder and expected to feel pain and see a nasty bruise, but if there had been a bruise it was gone. All the way back to Provo he had the feeling of seeing it all before. Stepping into the office the feeling persisted. When his boss came in, every word was exactly as he had experienced last night.

“Well Jake, I didn’t expect you to show up until just in time for your date tonight with Nicole.”

Since Jake knew what the boss was going to say, he also knew what his answer would be. “I drove down Skyline and dropped down to Manti about supper time. Nothing much was going on, lots of campers and some people scouting the deer and elk herds but nothing like it will be in a few weeks when hunting season opens, so I figured I should head for the office and work on my paperwork. I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t late for my date tonight.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard of you going on a date, so I didn’t know what to expect. I told Nicole that there was no way for me to contact you to remind you about your date.”

Every word was coming out just like he remembered it from last night. “If I get started now on my reports, I should be able to bring them right up to today.”

Jake was a little concerned about his date with Nicole, but decided he would just rely on his experience of the night before. Everything up to now seems to be following the script. When it came time to kiss her goodnight, she put her arms around his neck and he straightened up and picked her off the ground and kissed her just like he thought he should. The feelings bursting through his consciousness were all new.”
“Wow big fella, I’ve never been kissed like that before!”

“I can truly say, I’ve never had a kiss like that before either!” He was still holding her firmly, 6 inches off the floor. He kissed her again and wanted to keep on going.
When they came up for air, Jake lowered Nicole back down to the ground. She was so flustered she just stood there looking at him. This is where Jake’s advance picture of his actions today ran out. He didn’t know what to do or say. It was ok, since Nicole was also at a loss of what to do now.

“Nicole, I have never enjoyed a night as much as I have tonight. Would you go with me to dinner and a movie next Friday night? We could see that movie that we saw the preview of tonight.”

“Yes I would love to. What are you doing this Sunday?”

“I don’t know, probably go to church, and then clean my truck.”

Laughing, “Would you like to come to church with me on Sunday?”

“Yes I would, what time?

“It’s at 10 am.”

“Ok, I’ll see you 9:45.” Jake bent over and kissed her again and then she turned and went into her apartment.

Jake walked back to his car and drove home. He sat in the driveway and thought about the evening. ‘Wow, so that’s what it’s like to kiss a girl! I can’t wait to do that again!’ I need to remember to go buy some church clothes tomorrow; I suspect my old ones won’t fit.

3 weeks later, the news outlets blasted the headline 4 POACHERS FOUND SHOT TO DEATH. The story went on to say that the 4 men were found by hunters on opening day of the general archery deer and elk hunt. They appeared to have been shot an estimated 2 to 3 weeks earlier. An elk carcass minus its antlers and cape was also found nearby. It is assumed by law enforcement officials that these four men were members of a big game poaching ring and some kind of argument must have developed while they were in the process of removing the antlers and cape. The antlers were missing and it’s assumed the winner of the fight took them. The black market value of a prize set of Elk Antlers is about $10,000. 2 of the slain men have a history with the Utah Department of Wildlife and have been accused but never convicted of poaching activities in the past.

Jake went into Penny’s Diner in Manti for lunch. It was a few days after the news release about the death of Larry Beus, his brother Clint, and 2 other local men who were reportedly business partners of Beus. Several area ranchers, who he had met before, came over and asked “is it ok if we sit down and talk for a spell?”

“Sure, what’s on your mind?”

The spokesman frowned, looked at Jakes plate and said “You’re not going to eat that are you?” Then all the ranchers laughed and made faces as they pointed at Jakes plate.
The owner of the diner, Penny, was walking by and good naturedly said, “if you guys don’t want your meatloaf, I’ll just cancel your orders!”

“That’s ok Penny, we’ll take them!”

Turning their attention to Jake, “When we saw you sitting here, we had to look twice, you look different. Have you been working out? From my memory you look 20 pounds heavier than the last time I saw you.”

“I try to keep fit.”

“We want to thank you for cutting out that cancer that has been eating us alive. Those guys were not only poaching wild game, but they were also stealing cattle from us. If somebody wanted a discount beef, or someone killed or beaten, all you had to do was go to one of those bastards and for a price the job was done. You probably knew that they had talked about how they were going to kill you this hunting season.”

“Yeah, I had heard that, one of them shot at me last year, obviously he missed. As far as your thanks, I just try to do my job, but you don’t need to thank me; I’m just a Game Warden. We aren’t allowed to shoot poachers even if we catch them in the act and even if they shoot at us first. As far as those 4 dead bastards, an archery hunter flagged me down as I was driving along Skyline. He walked with me out the ridge where he found the bodies. You all know what the carcass of an animal looks like after it’s been dead for a couple of weeks. Those 4 looked pretty bad, but I could recognize Larry Beus because his head was kind of wrapped up in his coat and his billfold was in his pocket. If the billfold had been missing, we wouldn’t have known for sure who he was without the lab people checking out his dental records. It’s a mystery to me as to what happened to those Bastards, I’m just glad somebody took care of them for us.”

“One of the ranchers at his table looked him in the eye and winked. Ok, whatever you say; I don’t know how you did it, but my hat’s off to you, thanks again. If you ever want or need anything, don’t hesitate to call on any of us. We figure that we could give you a prime beef every week and still come out ahead.” The ranchers stood, soberly shook Jakes hand and walked back to their table and Meatloaf Special dinners.

Jake sat and finished his Meatloaf Special dinner as he thought about the ranchers. The looks he was getting from all of the patrons in the eatery were of admiration and respect; this wasn’t the normal attitude towards a game warden. ‘If everybody thinks I killed those 4 outlaws up on the hill, I could have a problem with the Chief of Police and the County Sheriff. He walked out and there beside his truck was Allen Wyland, the County Sheriff.

“There you are Jake. I wanted to talk to you about those 4 ornery outlaws that were found up near Skyline Highway. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

“Sure, anytime’s ok with me. Where do you want to talk?”

“I was thinking here, but since you probably just finished eating, let’s go to my office.

“How about something to drink?”

“A diet soda would be great.”

“Jake, one of my deputies was doing a midnight patrol up the Manti Canyon Road a couple of week ago. He got out of his truck to relieve himself and heard 6 rifle shots up on the north ridge. Normally when a poacher shoots an animal there will be one or maybe two shots. This time he heard a shot, so he waited to try to pinpoint where it came from, and then probably almost an hour later he heard 1 more shot and then a few minutes later 4 more shots close together. He was at the bottom of that big ridge and as you know the road from there to Skyline Highway is about as rough a road as I know about. If there has been a hard rain in the last 24 hours, it would have been impassable. As he bounced and clawed up that road he saw a light on the hillside but it was so far away he couldn’t see anything else and it wasn’t moving. Anyway it took him a couple of hours to get up on the top to Skyline Highway. When he finally made it to the top, he pulled up to the highest point on the road and could see some taillights going north on Skyline, but they were so far away he couldn’t recognize them and figured there was no way to catch up with them. It could have been the murderer.”

“It could have been the murderer all right. What time was it?”

“He said it was about 4 AM, but not exactly sure. Where were you at 4 AM?”

“I don’t know. If you tell me the date I can narrow it down. Most likely I was asleep in bed, 4 AM which day?”

“Never mind, I figured if I kind of asked you out of the blue, you might react if you were the one who hammered those 4. You didn’t’ react, so that tells me nothing.”

“For your information, I can check back through my daily log and tell you exactly were I was on any given night or day patrol.”

“I said never mind, this was a good thing. Those 4 were outlaws. They liked to kill things and that includes people. I could never prove anything, they made sure of that, but I’m sure they were responsible for several murders around here each year. Probably more than I know about. Sometimes they would leave town for a week or two, and come back with lots of cash. I believe they were contract killers as well as poachers.”

“Did you ever go after them?”

“No, my deputies were all afraid of them. I figured if I ever went up against them, my deputies wouldn’t back me up. I just hoped something like this would happen. Anyway, if you’re the person who killed those 4 outlaws, I’m indebted to you, thanks.”

“I’m glad to see them gone as well. Every time I came down Skyline Highway, I wondered if that was the day that Larry Beus would finally find a way to kill me. If I knew who blew him away, I would send him a thank you note.”

“I heard that Beus was telling people that he was going to kill “that Game Warden” this year.”

“Yeah I heard that from several people. Did you get any evidence from the bodies?”

“Not much. Three of them were killed with a high power rifle. The bullets blew through them killing them instantly. We couldn’t find a scrap of metal from the bullets. The only inconsistency was that one of the four was killed with shots from a 9 MM pistol. He looked like he was hit with a full magazine of high powered pistol rounds. 2 of the slugs were still in the body. No match was found from the FBI data bank. The fourth guy was on the ridge above the others, probably a lookout. I think the killer, came down the ridge, saw the lookout, emptied his gun on him with his pistol and then took out the others from up there with his rifle. My deputy didn’t hear any pistol shots, so the pistol probably had a silencer. We found 6 rifle casings from a Remington 7 MM magnum rifle, so I guess he missed twice. We’ve got no clue of who the shooter was. There were no rifles around the bodies. The killer could have taken them or the hunters who found the bodies could have taken them, but we know they must have had a rifle with a night scope on it. The moon was out but it’s tough to shoot a bull elk with only moonlight. Do you have a 9 MM pistol.”

“Nope, I have my 38 special issued by the state. The archery hunter that flagged me down told me there were no rifles when he found the bodies.”

“Did you know that Larry Beus has another brother?”

“No, I didn’t know. I suppose he thinks I killed two of his brothers too?”

“Yep, be very careful down here. That’s a bad bunch. The youngest brother is mean and nasty just like his oldest brother and his dad. Clint, the middle son was the best and the old man is probably the worst but he’s dying from cancer or he would probably go after you too.”

“How old is this other brother?”

“16 years old and he has the hottest temper of the bunch. He’s quite a good athlete but they won’t let him play because he can’t control his temper. He would start a fight in every game so they kicked him off the high school football team.”

“Does this 16 year kid have some identifying marks or something that I could use to identify him?”

“He has the size and looks of his brother Larry. Now he also has his brother’s truck and hunting equipment. He has bragged to some of the other kids that sometime his older brother would take him along on their midnight runs. That truck is a new red Ford F-350 with every conceivable piece of add-on equipment.”

“I’ve seen that truck many times. I’ll keep that in mind. Does he have any other suspects or am I his only target?”

“You’re it and he’ll be looking for you. I expect that one night when you come through on patrol he’ll spot you and follow you and try to kill you. There’s nothing I can do until he tries to kill you. Then I can go after him?”

“Well that’s’ good to know. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me to know that once I’m dead; you can go after my killer!”

“There’s nothing else I can do. I’ll try to keep track of where he is. I’ll have my deputies take turns following him around, but my grandma could lose those jokers on her bicycle.”

“Maybe I should take some lessons from your grandma.”

Laughing, Sheriff Wyland said, “Good luck Jake, let me know if I can do anything to help.