Chapter One
Layla
Layla hung off the cliffside, hundreds of feet above the alien landscape of the Nevada desert. She paused to check her GPS, wondering why her boss had sent her this far off the course she had been set upon. Her rock hammer dug into the brutal side of the mountain. She had strapped herself against the cliff, digging each centimeter to look for a vein. This was the third place she had been sent looking for a thread of mineral, and it had begun to appear to be another miss.
Her dark sunglasses protected her from the harsh light reflecting off the swirling pastel colors resulting from the local erosion within the crater of the sharp red stone. The landscape breathtaking to her, she could take several photos while hanging off the cliff. The GoPro on her head was for work, allowing them to see all the footage of the dig sites she worked on. She had the area to herself, the last town she had stayed in was nearly thirty miles away, and no one else was rock hunting. The area belonged to the government, but she had special permission to hunt through the region. Her work with Titan Ki Technology was contracted with the military and government, allowing them leeway into unusual parts of the Nevada desert owned by them.
She continued to sweat faster than she could drink in the over hundred-degree weather. Her skin had been turned a dark golden tan over the summer dig through Nevada. Taking her bandana to wipe off the sweat, she adjusted the ropes to keep her steady while she took a quick drink of water from her canteen to keep her going.
The scream ripped through the air. Layla dropped the canteen with a jerk, looking up from the echoes of a woman’s voice bouncing off the rocky area, the body falling off the cliff above Layla. Grabbing her rope and stays, she pulled herself right onto the off-patterned stone, ignoring the possible intake of radioactive materials she would be breathing in. The canteen bounced off the ground a moment before the body joined it. Clinging to the wall, she heard someone else shouting from the top. Layla made a desperate grab for her satellite phone from Titan Ki Technology for emergencies and hit the speed dial for help. There was a first time for everything, this being the first call made on the phone. The rarity of thinking about it with the habit of carrying it, she loved she had it turned on, and the call reached out.
“Layla?” The woman’s voice came through clearly and without the static of regular satellite phones being out in the middle of nowhere. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone was just tossed off the cliff I am on. There are other people up there screaming,” Layla sputtered quietly to avoid bringing any attention from those above her that someone was hanging off the cliff below them.
“Stay calm if you can. Give me a minute.” She paused at the statement. Layla held herself against the wall, gritting her teeth given there was nothing she could do. She had to stay here pretending to be calm.
The male voice started shouting again followed by a new high-pitched screech. Layla gave another glance upward, seeing the edges of a man on the cliff heading back toward her. They would be falling tragically toward her and there was nothing she could do. It wasn’t like an action movie where she had a chance in hell of grabbing him midfall. The man started to make a howling noise of pain.
Another voice, cold as the day was hot, spoke clearly for her to hear. “Yes, little monster, I am not what you think. No government lackey here to worry about what you are. I am the exterminator of things like you.” The shot rang off the stones around her and it rained blood specks down as the next body zoomed past her to the ground, far too close to the other corpse and canteen she had dropped when it all started. Tears leaked from her eyes— two lives lost below her and nothing from the phone line she held tight to. It was a useless lifeline. For now, she had to play it smart and avoid the other man. Ripping her gaze away from the bodies, she looked up to see the man leaning over the edge, looking down at her. He saw her and was pulling out a scope to get a better look at the witness to his crimes.
They stared with surprise and wonder at one another. The man broke off first, pulling his gun to attach the scope, then he was watching her hanging against the cliff face. She cursed before the first bullet rang near her, missing but hurrying her along. She had spent years repelling and climbing, this being the first time running for her life. Down was the only direction she might be able to go before he could get her. He too had gear and would have to follow her, but he didn’t seem to from her angle.
Letting the hooks loose, Layla took a moment to check everything was fully attached, hanging the phone on her belt after a quick explanation about being found and the GoPro had been filming everything. She turned her body to start the frantic repel down the mountainside, each bounce making her a moving target and she reach the bottom, nearly a hundred foot drop. Layla had to assume that a mark on the move was harder to hit than a stationary one. This was one of the moments she hoped Hollywood had gotten correct.
Several gunshots continued around her, none hitting her before she heard him curse. The bullets stopped and she finished the last fifty feet, landing roughly and close to the bodies crumpled on the ground. Ripping off the lines, she would have to leave some of the gear attached. Layla looked up to see if she could see him, but he had left the edge of the mountain. She ducked under the overhang. She slowed her head to capture the scene around her on the camera. Once she was in range, it would upload to her work server, preserving her work and this crime.
She heard voices on her phone and grabbed it to listen as two people were speaking, trying to get a response from her. The woman who answered and Grant, her direct boss, were on the line.
“Layla? Please answer,” Grant spoke, thankfully not yelling but loud enough for her to hear him over the blood rushing through her ears.
“Grant,” Layla started as both voices silenced against the background clicks from the phone system. “I’m here, and okay for now. There is a guy here that has killed two people and shot at me several times.”
“We have your location. None of our people on the ground are close enough to help. We have a call into the military and government, given the land you are currently on,” Grant said before the woman who answered spoke up.
“Can you get to your vehicle, Ms. Black?”
“It is nearly ten miles away in fairly open terrain. I am currently using the mountain as cover,” she replied, switching her rock hammer to her dominate hand and propping the phone against her shoulder to hold it up, giving her a second free hand to help hold herself against the rock side. “I have it on video.”
“That won’t update until you get closer to a cellular tower,” the woman spoke against several more clicking noises from keyboards.
“We are using our contacts to get help to you. It will have to be military, they are closer,” Grant spoke. “We have them on another line to work out a deal. We will have them use the GPS attached to you for tracking.”
“Understood.”
“They don’t know about you,” the woman spoke, the understanding sitting between them.
“I can manage.”
“But if it is your life or not, do what you must,” Grant spoke, leaving it open for Layla to have some wiggle room. She wasn’t one to go against the rules to keep them safe.
“Agreed. What do I do until help arrives?”
“It is being arranged with our contacts. Until then, keep out of sight, don’t return to your car or places you have been to recently,” Grant explained as other conversations continued behind him. “It looks like they are sending an agent to retrieve you safely.”
While they figured out what to do about her situation, Layla altered her items in the backpack to get the spare water bottle and attach the phone with a small bungee cord to keep it close to her head, allowing her to start ducking and slowly walking and crawling next to the mountain. She worked to stay out of the high line of sight, as there was no idea if he had considerable firepower or gear to get down quickly. It would be useful if he had to drive down the mountain. It might give her enough time to escape.
“What about the killer?” Layla asked. She was being tracked through the sands and mountain terrain by the network security, but the possibilities continued to run through her head.
“The satellite has not shifted completely into range yet, so no visual at this time.” She understood, she was alone, no signal was going to stay active to keep tracking her. Neither her people nor the guy following her could track her. “Did you get footage of the two who were killed?”
“A passing glance. I can get another pass before I work on where to go.” Turning low to the ground, she made her way back to the bodies, which were starting to smell in the heat. Glancing upward, she couldn’t see anything on top of the mountain or cliffside, so she hurried to the corpses to take long scans over each of them. The girl was maybe in her mid-twenties, close to Layla’s age, with the blessing of blonde hair, or a great hairdresser, and a suntan.
She had the worst of the damage, broken and battered before the fall finished her. The guy might have been older, but his face was ruined from the bullet and it was hard to tell given the damage he sustained from the fall. Pieces of sandy hair were scattered around his thin, frail body. Returning to the edge of the mountain, she gave the information she had before they found a pathway for her to take away from the SUV and towns. She would continue to keep to the mountains and rocks if she could manage. Several abandoned mines were around along with several day treks to the military town used in testing, not a real town but one built to see how it withstood a nuke dozens of miles away.
She dragged out the old geological study to map out where they were sending her. Layla knew that help was coming, but no one could tell her when someone would or could get to her. All she had to do was not die before someone arrived and until then avoid an armed and dangerous killer. Layla left the call less sure than before, but her ability to handle a desert was one of the reasons she was so good at her job. She updated her coat of sunscreen and dust, working on blending into her background. Keeping to the shade and avoiding the cacti, she left the scene to disappear well into the daytime heat.
Chapter Two
Alex
The call coming from someone Alex never intended to deal with again, he only answered out of duty and the small chance the old favor was being called in finally. He didn’t like the idea of General McNamara knowing where he was, his new encoded phone number, or ruining his short vacation. The quick call explained enough to get Alex on a flight from Tahoe to a base in the southern part of Nevada that wasn’t spoken about or generally considered in the ordinary world.
Getting off the plane, he was searched and showed all his Army vet identification, only a slim mark in the barcode hinted at his status as a retired Green Beret. He went through the short but effective process to enter the undisclosed base to be escorted to the General. The favor or job appeared simple, fetch the lost asset in the desert with a complication of a killer trying to tie up loose ends with her death. She worked for a private company that had deep ties with the US government and military contracts, he could ID them easily. He had skimmed through the small file sent to him on the flight. She must be a geologist of some note and skill since they allowed her to stay in the desert to hide. Alex could only hope all the live data had arrived, so he would have information on who the hunter was before hitting the field, making his job more manageable.
The General’s office met the standards Alex expected, overdone and more like a politician’s than a military man, but McNamara had an unusual history and a long line of friends to keep him in power. The small polite talk ended before it began as McNamara explained the situation as it stood, with one new piece. They had gotten footage of the hunter and bodies. The killer matched the few images of the recent appearance of Thomas Clark, serial killer and ex-military before his dishonorable discharge. He was on the government and military’s most wanted list, killing people for money across the past decade. He would be going against someone with a similar skill set and fewer morals. The woman, Layla Black, was in definite danger. She had seen him, and no one had lived to tell that tale in years. Thomas Clark was an efficient killer, and now for once, they knew where he was and what he wanted. The orders shifted enough for Alex to get armed and an off-road vehicle to retrieve the woman and to hunt down the killer.
Alex took only a short time to change into desert gear, camo, and light Kevlar and then check over the vehicle. The Jeep had been loaded with supplies, weapons, water, and food for days along with the survival gear. The medical supplies were in case Ms. Black was injured. Since she had spent the morning and afternoon on the run, he would be lucky to reach her by the time the sunset. Once she was retrieved, he was to keep off the radar with her to draw out Clark.
Taking the keys, Alex left all personal items within the base and drove into the landscape as harsh as previous deserts he had been assigned to in the past. The drive gave him time to evaluate the civilian’s data. She was a doctorate student in Vegas, working for a high-end technology firm based in San Francisco. The pull to retrieve her went deep and the company wanted her back alive, enough to tug more strings than it took to get permission for her to dig in these restricted areas of Nevada. Alex followed the simple order to get her back and take care of Thomas Clark once located. He would use the woman as leverage to draw Clark out. For once, he agreed with some of his orders. Taking out Clark was critical. He just disliked the ‘by any means necessary’, especially with the civilian thinking he was there just to get her out, not use her as bait.
Once in the desert, Alex flipped on the GPS tracker given to him by Titan Ki Technology, which had advancements not yet in the fieldwork. It located Ms. Black deep into the mountain range, miles away from her starting point. She was making good time. They had not found Thomas Clark. He probably didn’t have any technology on him that would leave a trace. Alex left the minor dirt road, completely off-roading toward Ms. Black. His map tagged him as a friendly, adjusting his path toward her to get him there swiftly and safely. Several satellites had been allowed to track through the classified territory.
The rough terrain made speeding impossible, keeping him down to a slower pace than preferred. When he got twenty minutes from Black’s current location, his satellite phone rang. He answered on speaker, loudly over the crunching of rocks.
“Yes, sir?” Alex answered, keeping the rigid politeness ingrained from years of service.
“The updates should have reached you by now. There is a belief of heat exhaustion. She had slowed given the evening and was given the code phrase. You will ask her where the rainbow is, and she is to reply with Seattle. Understood, Douglass?”
“Copy that. Question, where the rainbow is with the answer, Seattle. Possible medical issue upon arrival.”
“Correct. We need a confirmation of the footage of the bodies and Thomas Clark. There will be a team sent to retrieve the bodies. You will tag them after retrieving Ms. Black.”
“Understood. I assume to make sure no one else gets to skill set first?”
“Affirmative. Good, you are still swift on the pickup, Major Douglass.”
“Special Agent Douglass. I’m retired, General.”
“We don’t retire. We just pick up different hats.” The line ended. Alex shook his head at the General, knowing he meant it even if he was trying to put his military life behind him. Alex kept the steady drive, changing only when the tracking unit updated. She had stopped moving, meaning he didn’t have to change. Slowing the Jeep, he approached the outcropping near the tail end of the mountain range. He turned off the Jeep, the small number of lights barely denting the approaching darkness. He pulled out the medical kit and grabbed a pair of water bottles before holding his gun to search the area. The day had reached nearly one hundred four degrees but cooling drastically as the sun disappeared behind the stone landscape.
Sauntering toward the spot where she was located, he continued to scan the area around him, seeing the ledges and rocks anyone could hide behind with little skill. He couldn�
�t make her out before he spoke the code phrase to ease the tension.
“Where the rainbow is?” The statement, the question, echoed for a moment around him before he heard a short sigh.
“Seattle.” Her voice came from within a crevice of rocks, barely audible over the distance between them. He continued to walk toward her hiding place. He stopped once she started to come out from the rocks. She was armed with an oddly shaped hammer and an oversized flashlight. Her dark hair was tied up in a long ponytail, pushed back with a colorful bandana. Her clothing, dust-covered, the typical climbing gear with a tank top, cargo pants that could unzip apart, a belt like Batman’s with equipment attached, and several bags carried over her shoulders. Her dark tan skin had been cooking, showing fresh redness and the concern of the dehydration and heat exhaustion. She tucked in the flashlight to pull off her sunglasses as she started to approach him. He could see scrapes and bruises, sun and sweat. Once she got close to Alex, she stopped to look him up and down as he had done her. Handing over the water, she took it to slowly drink as he tossed a poncho over her, keeping her from cooling too quickly as the desert had been doing. She was taller than he expected, nearly six feet, with a lean muscular frame he didn’t associate with teachers and grad students, although she appeared to be both.
“You’re my knight in shining armor?” she asked, tilting her head. He could see her odd-colored eyes. The left eye was a nearly glowing golden amber shade and the right eye a pale husky blue color. It was marked in the file but seeing it up close and personal was something different.
“I hope not. I don’t have a horse, nor do I know how to joust.” She gave a quirky smirk, finishing the first bottle of water. He handed her the second with a handshake. “I’m Special Agent Alex Douglass, Ms. Black. We need to be leaving here to tag the bodies for the retrieval team and escort you to safety.”
Web of Lies Page 23
