He had spoken already to Bob Hill, who was expecting him. Dutifully, Hill had conformed to the media caricature of a backwoods gun-nut. He asked to have Will’s full name and social security number: ‘That way I can check you out. Make sure y’are who y’say y’are.’ Will tried to imagine what Hill’s research would turn up on him. Brit? That would be OK. Americans usually liked Brits. Even if they hated limp-wristed, faggot Europeans, Brits were OK: they were kind of honorary Americans. Father a federal judge? That could be problematic; federal officials were despised. But judges were not always lumped in with the rest of the hated bureaucrats who represented ‘the government’. Some were even seen as the protectors of liberty, fending off the encroaching hand of the politicians. If Hill looked, though, he would find plenty in Judge Monroe’s record that was bound to offend. Will hoped his host was not going to dig too deep.
What else? Parents divorced: that might rile the militia men. Mind you, this wasn’t Alabama; the survivalists were not the same as the Christian right. There was some overlap, but they were not identical.
The daydream ended the moment he saw the signs. ‘Welcome to Noxon, Population: 230’. He looked down at the scribbled note perched on his lap: Hill’s directions. He had to turn left at the gas station, down a road that would become a path. The SUV began rocking from side to side, over the ruts of mud, earning, or so Will liked to think, the extra charge he, and therefore the Times, had had to pay for it.
Soon he reached a gate. No sign. He was about to call Hill, as arranged, but he was halfway through dialling the number when a man became visible in his windshield. Early sixties, jeans, cowboy boots, old jacket; unsmiling. Will got out.
‘Bob Hill? Will Monroe.’
‘So you found us OK?’
Will went into a hymn of praise for Hill’s directions, seeking to break the ice with some shameless flattery. His host grunted his approval as he trudged up a hard mud bank, heading in the direction of what seemed to be a thick patch of forest. As they got closer, Will began to make out a glow of light: a cabin, rather brilliantly camouflaged.
Hill looked to his waist, where a thick jailer’s ring of keys was weighing down one of his belt loops. He let them in.
‘There’s a chair there. Make yourself comfortable. I’ve got something to show you.’
Will used the few seconds he had to look around: a metal shield on the wall, bearing a vaguely military insignia. He squinted: MoM. Militia of Montana. There were a few framed photographs, including one of his host holding the head of a dead stag. On the metal shelves, a box of leaflets. Will peered inside: ‘The New World Order: Operation Takeover.’
‘Help yourself, take a copy.’ Will whisked around to find Bob Hill right behind him. Ex-Marine, Vietnam; of course he would know how to creep up on a mere civilian like Will. ‘Wrote it myself. With the help of the late Mr Baxter.’
‘So he was . . . deeply involved?’
‘Like I told you on the phone, a fine patriot. Ready to do whatever it took to secure the liberty of this nation – even if his nation was too duped, its brains too addled by the propaganda of the Hollywood élite, to realize its liberty was under threat.’
‘Whatever it took?’
‘By whatever means necessary, Mr Monroe. You know who said that, don’t you? Or was that before your time?’
‘It was before my time, but I do know. That was the slogan of the Black Panthers.’
‘Very good. And if that was good enough for them in their struggle against “white power” then it’s good enough for us in our struggle to keep America free.’
‘You mean violence? Force?’
‘Mr Monroe, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You can ask me all the questions you like, I got plenty of time. But first, I have something to show you. See if this interests the great East Coast intellectuals of the New York Times.’
By now, Hill was seated, behind a battered old metal desk, one that would not have looked out of place in the office section of an auto-repair shop. He handed Will, who was still standing, two sheets of paper, stapled together.
It took a few seconds for Will to work out what he was looking at. The notes on the autopsy performed on the body of Pat Baxter.
‘Missoula faxed it over this morning.’ Missoula, the nearest big town.
‘What does it say?’
‘Oh, don’t let me spoil it for you. I think you should read it for yourself.’
Will felt a twinge of panic: this was the first autopsy report he had ever seen. It was almost impossible to decipher. Each heading was written in baffling medicalese; the handwriting beneath was just as inscrutable. Will found himself squinting through it.
Finally, a sentence he understood. ‘Severe internal haemorrhaging consistent with a gunshot wound; contusions of the skin and viscera. General remarks: needle mark on right thigh, suggestive of recent anaesthesia.’
‘He was shot,’ Will began, uncertain. ‘And he seems to have been anaesthetized before he was shot. Which does seem very odd, I grant you.’
‘Ah, but there’s an explanation. Read on, Mr Monroe.’
Will’s eyes scoured the document, looking for clues. Scribbled handwriting, sent through a fax, did not make it easy.
‘Second page,’ Hill offered. ‘General remarks.’
‘Damage to internal organs: liver, heart and kidney (single) severe. Other viscera, fragmented.’
‘What leaps out at you, Mr Monroe? I mean what word there friggin’ jumps out and grabs you by the throat?’
Will wanted to say ‘viscera’, simply because the word was so undeniably powerful. But he knew that was not the answer Hill was looking for.
‘Single.’
‘My my, you Oxford boys are as bright as they say you are.’ Hill had not been kidding about his research. ‘That’s right. Single. What do you think’s going on here, Mr Monroe? What strange set of facts do we have here which Montana’s finest have so far chosen to overlook? Well, I’ll tell you.’
Will was relieved; the guessing game was making him sweat.
‘My friend, Pat Baxter, was anaesthetized before he was killed. And his body is found minus one kidney. Put two and two together and what do we get?’
Will muttered almost to himself, ‘Whoever did this removed his kidney.’
‘Not only that, but that’s why they killed him. They wanted it to look like a robbery, a “break-in gone badly wrong” they’re saying on the TV. But that’s all a smokescreen. The only thing they wanted to steal was Pat Baxter’s kidney.’
‘Why on earth would they want to do that?’
‘Oh, Mr Monroe. Don’t make me do all the work here. Open your eyes! This is a federal government that has been doing experimentation with bio-chips!’ He could see that Will was not following. ‘Bar codes, implanted under the skin! So that they can monitor our movements. There’s good evidence they’re doing this with new-born babies now, right there in the maternity ward. An electronic tagging system, enabling the government to follow us from cradle to grave – quite literally.’
‘But why would they want Pat Baxter’s kidney?’
‘The federal government moves in mysterious ways, Mr Monroe, its wonders to perform. Maybe they wanted to plant something inside Pat’s body and the plan went wrong. Maybe