The response comes back immediately.
"Copy, Forester. Maintain position. Do not engage. Federal units moving to intercept."
Through the darkness, I can hear the faint sound of helicopters spooling up somewhere in the distance.
The final confrontation is about to begin.
And this time, the good guys have federal backup.
Vivian Ashworth picked the wrong mountain hermit to mess with.
The helicopters never came.
By dawn, the three mysterious vehicles had vanished like ghosts, leaving me wondering if I'd imagined the whole thing.
But Agent Reeves calls at 7:00 a.m. with news that explains the midnight theater.
"Mr. Forester, those vehicles you spotted were ours. Federal surveillance teams repositioning for today's operation. Thanks for the heads-up, though. Shows our perimeter security is working."
"Today's operation?"
"Final-phase arrests. We're picking up the last of Viv's associates, including some players from out of state who thought they could skip town before we connected the dots."
By noon, the news is reporting federal arrests in Texas, Florida, and Arizona, all connected to what they're calling the Pine Ridge Fraud Conspiracy.
Seventeen people in custody, with more arrests expected.
The financial crimes alone are staggering.
$23 million in stolen HOA fees, fraudulent property transactions, and what prosecutors describe as the largest organized HOA fraud scheme in U.S. history.
But Vivian Ashworth is nowhere to be found.
Mini twist.
While federal agents are rounding up her network, Viv has apparently gone completely off the rails.
According to Jake's sources, she's been calling in bomb threats to federal buildings, claiming she has explosive evidence that will bring down the whole conspiracy against her.
The woman who spent months calling me unstable is now making terrorist threats against federal agents.
Her desperation reaches peak insanity when she files a $100 million lawsuit against me, the FBI, the EPA, and unknown federal conspirators for what she calls malicious prosecution and destruction of her legitimate business enterprises.
The lawsuit is 47 pages of paranoid rambling that reads like it was written by someone who's completely lost touch with reality.
My favorite claim is that I'm secretly a federal agent provocateur who was planted in the valley to destroy her development through illegal surveillance and environmental terrorism.
Rex Sterling, her lawyer husband, has apparently refused to represent her.
Smart move, since he's facing his own federal charges for conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Viv's been forced to represent herself, which explains why her legal filings read like the manifesto of someone who's watched too many conspiracy-theory documentaries.
Jake calls that afternoon with an update that's both hilarious and deeply concerning.
"Deck, you need to hear this. Viv's been calling county officials claiming she has smoking-gun evidence of a federal conspiracy to steal her property. She's demanding they arrest you for treason against the state of Colorado."
"Please tell me they're not taking her seriously."
"Are you kidding? After federal agents arrested their commissioner for bribery, county officials are avoiding her calls like she's got the plague.
"But here's the concerning part. She's also been trying to hire private security firms to protect her constitutional rights and defend against federal tyranny."
That evening, I'm splitting firewood when I notice something that makes my blood run cold.
Fresh tire tracks in the mud near my property line.
Tracks from heavy vehicles that came and went during the day while I was in town getting supplies.