“Just back up the Jeep already,” I called with more than a little irritation.

Mogwai loved her jeep. Loved her Jeep so much that despite driving like a demon on the interstate, once we hit the back roads of Frozen Dog Lane, she turned into the kind of jeep owner that parks their car in the north forty to avoid possible door dings.

“Its too tight,” Mogwai whined, but considering the space between the trees was twice the width of her car, I wasn’t buying it.

Growing annoyed, I raised my voice to a loud whisper and said, “use the backup camera, for goodness’ sake Mog. If I’d known you were going to be such a weenie, I would have come alone.”

Gravel popped, and small branches snapped under the oversized tires. All of this was illuminated by the pink undercarriage lights, as Mog slowly, ever so slowly, backed the jeep off the dirt road.

Crawling back into the passenger’s side, I looked at the on-board GPS, obviously something Mog upgraded and programmed. Unlike other GPS, this one picked up things like heat signatures, and IR light. It was like being inside an A1-Abrams tank without a forward gun.

“Mog, this thing doesn’t have a forward gun, does it?” I asked. Maybe Mogwai didn’t take the question seriously, because Mog was too busy filling up her Smiling panda to-go mug from her pink and white thermos to answer my question.

“I’ll need this for the trip. Things could get harry out there,” she said and sealed up her mug, then shoved the thermos under the seat.

On the Navigation screen, several brightly colored small dots floated on the fall breeze. Based on their erratic pattern I figured moths, or mosquitoes, or something, but there was no sign of a large ape. Not that I would have known if it were an ape, or a freaking bear, a heat blob is a heat blob.

“How do you make any sense out of this thing?” I asked and checked The Judge to ensure I had the right load out.

“You have to have an eye for the images, it takes a trained professional to understand it,” Mog said blandly, then reached over to the system and punched a button.

“Or, you take it off heat only mode,” she scoffed as the bugs became distinct.

“You tech savvy young punks, get off my lawn!” I shook my fist at her playfully.

“Why, Mog, back in my day, thermal vision was when it was cold enough to see the vapor from their last gasps of life,” I shook a trembling finger at her, feigning age to hide my own embarrassment.

Mog eyed me for a moment, her eyes narrowed, “you’re twenty seven. While hardly in your sexual prime, you’re not completely over the hill.”

Yeah, I guess I knew thermal readouts were more sophisticated these days. But hell’s bells, we were in a Jeep for Pete’s sake, not a battle tank.

“I’ll have you know other cougars look at me with envy!”

“Other cougar’s look at you with sympathy. If you date much younger than yourself, you’ll be listed on the offender’s registry,” she quipped.

I shot a slow wink at her and grinned. “well, you said you have an ID.”

Mid sip from her mug, Mogwai choked, and blew coffee down her shirt.

“I saw a smile, Mog!” I declared, but if Mog smiled, it was fleeting.

“This place smells,” Mog responded and plugged her phone into the car, then flipped down her sun visor and pulled it off the window and down into her lap.

“What the heck, girl?” I asked, then realized she’d pulled the cover off it and a keyboard was concealed there.

“Modern cars have the computing capacity of a sophisticated home use computer. I added some RAM, and a few terra-bytes of memory, and made a general user interface that was accessible wirelessly. With my Jeep effectively my operations base, I can command the battlefield from practically anywhere,” Mog said, but I was floored.

I honestly didn’t know what to do at the moment. It was like I was living in some alternate world, where at any moment a digital scream would announce the awakening of a network access agent from hell. “I swear to god if you dial in and ask for an operator, and go all matrix like, I’m walking out.”

“We all have to come prepared in our own way,” Mog stated and motioned to my black duffle bag in the back seat.

SFRS LLC wasn’t some fly-by-night operation. I understood this when Felix showed up at my place with five large green cases and a mischievous grin on his face.

“I’ve got some new toys for you, troop master,” Flex said and opened the cases with a flourish.

“Felix, you even got me a Mossberg with a black walnut stock, you know me too well,” I’d gushed, but he was just getting started.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It wasn’t just the Mossberg, there were other Tactical Shotguns from , Remington, and Benelli to Savage, and the M&P 12 by Smith and Wesson. They all tempted me as I picked through the styles and ammo selection, but the AKs and ARs just plain tickled my fancy.

Diamonds might be a girl’s best friend, but the Heckler & Koch G36 is her East End Boy!

Now that I was on site the bag of tactical gear made me smile even wider. It was time to get operational on that Skunk Bear!

“Did Felix toss in any night vision into one of those bags, or is it a lot just hyper-masculinity as compensation for sexual inadequacy?” Mog asked.

“Yes, It’s a tool of the trade. Common among real soldiers who know their kit,” I said all formal and cool like.

I admit it, I was feeling pretty fucking bad ass just then.

Mog still looked skeptical of the black duffle bags full of combat gear, and scoffed, “now just throw in ED pills and Jerky for the trifecta of male inadequacies.”

“Say what you will, but I’d rather have what I need, then need what I don’t have,” I grinned and checked the chamber of the H&K.

Mog meanwhile stared at her computer screen, only bother to look up to say, “I guess the 600mW Laser rifle site is standard? I didn’t realize you needed to blind the international space station.”

“Yes, I brought night vision, and who knows what we will meet out here, little girl. We are looking for a ‘Skunk Ape,” I shot back.

“Besides you have those claws. I bet you bought those right out of the Marvel Universe’s prop warehouse,” I used my fingers as a three fingered claw and mimed a slash.

“Combat X Wolverine Claws are sold exclusively at Karate-Market. The true warriors armory,” Mogwai was playing like she wasn’t interested in what I was saying, but we both knew she’d taken some goat hide off those Chort.

“Hello Kitty, has claws,” I laughed

The banter had done me some good. Silly as it was, it was easing the butterflies in my stomach that had grown increasingly active since I read the dossier on this Skunk Ape.

With a strength listed at eighteen plus four when angry, I was seriously out classed. And it wasn’t like I was lucky enough for it to be big and slow either, the damn thing was supposed to be fast and stealthy as well.

Looking out at the night, then back at the monitor I realized I had no idea what to do next. You can’t stake out a freaking forest, “Okay Mog, other than get out and wander aimlessly through the forest like some Wild Adventure show, what are we doing here?”

Mog straightened up, then brought up a tab on her navigation screen. The colors were dark red, fading to bright yellow, but the cliff top dwellings were easy to make out.

“Mansions and Ranchettes, who would have thought so many people would move out to basically nowhere?” I grumbled.

Mog sat down her coffee and pointed at the screen, “people want to avoid the capital gains tax. They sell their two bath, three-bedroom house on a corner lot down south. Then buy a four bedroom three baths on five acres here. Everyone but the locals call it progress.”

I grunted my understanding, but I really didn’t want to get into it. Everyone knew the wild spaces were disappearing, it is just how things are.

The view was from above, around two hundred feet up, would be my guess. We could literally see the whole valley, and with the thermal it created a sharp contrast between the city lights and the country night. “This view is amazing. How do you do it?”

Mog sat back in her seat, then shut off the overhead light, and picked up her coffee, “DEA drone network. They send out drones in a grid pattern at night to look for grow sites.”

I caught myself looking up out the front window nervously, but Mog just chortled. “They aren’t up there all the time, but they can be deployed if there is a reported location.”

“They can do that? I mean sure one or two, but a network of them?” I asked.

“You ever watch the Chinese New Year’s celebration? Screw the fireworks, with drones they can make it look like Xi Jinping is blowing you a kiss,” Mogwai said like it was the most mundane thing in the world.

Confused, I turned to her to ask, “If we have all this cool tech, why are we up here on a ridgeline near the stank bog?”

Mogwai leaned back over and typed, her fingers moving like a blur on the keyboard. She was in full hacker geek mode, and I just sat back and watched. It was like watching a piano virtuoso in competition. Unstoppable and undeniable.

On the screen the view zoomed in on the edge of the map, drawing down until it covered the river basin and ridgeline where we were currently at. “Using the current electric company billing information, I could isolate the areas of known power usage. Once I isolated those, I scrubbed them from the view, and that just leaves a few locations with active heat signatures hot enough, and yet stationary, to be of interest.”

“That’s cool an all, but what makes you think this thing is going to have a stationary hide out?” I asked, but my skin was crawling with that sense of dread that told me she was on to something.

“The profile sheet said they like to hold up in caves and hide out from people. If this is a Sasquatch, it should be somewhere in the caves along the lower bluffs. My guess is that he is hiding out right here.” Mogwai pointed out a faint red glow from the base of the cliffs.

Just to the east of us, down a steep cow path, was what we call a teacup. A cut out from the cliffs with a depression at its base. Mogwai was pointing to it like she had it all worked out, but I still wasn’t sure.

“What if it isn’t there?”

Mogwai sighed forlornly and with white knuckles she gripped her mug before she took the last belt of her coffee.

“Then it’s Drop Bears, and we’ll already be dead.”