Camouflage

by Aaron Pogue

  Avery shook his head and handed over his own handheld. Ken looked at it for a moment, confused. Then he raised his eyes to Katie. "What the hell is this?"

  "That's my team," she said, with more certainty than she felt. "We've been waiting for you."

  Ken swept one look out into the trees, but it wasn't with the same panic Avery had shown. This one was considering, searching for any sign of confirmation, and Katie felt a touch of fear clawing at the back of her breastbone.

  She took a step forward, brandishing the shotgun, and said, "Down on your knees!"

  "Sure, sure," he said, more offended than pliant. "Just gimme a minute."

  He changed something on the handheld, closed out the map Avery had been watching, and opened something else. He saw her piercing look and shrugged, then handed it back to Avery before sinking casually to his knees, two steps away from her. Even kneeling he was close to eye level with her, and he met her glare with a profound impudence.

  But he was unarmed, and Avery too. She took a step back, to cover them both with the one weapon, and turned her gaze to Avery. "You too," she said. "Down on your knees."

  He didn't respond. "Avery Dean!" she snapped, but she stopped short when he looked up from his handheld to meet her eyes. And then he turned just as deliberately to Ken, his face asking a question Katie couldn't even guess at. "Get down!" she yelled, and stomped toward him.

  It worked. He crumbled, falling down on his side in his haste to comply, but he never took his eyes from Ken. Ken gave that same sweeping consideration to the forest once more, and then he nodded. Katie shifted her attention back to Avery just in time to see what was on his handheld.

  A big red button, nearly filling the screen, and even as Katie spotted it, Avery pushed it.

  Ken nodded slowly. "You made the right choice."

  Katie frowned. "What choice?" She nodded toward the button and tried for a haughty unconcern, but she didn't really pull it off. "What's the button?"

  "Remember..." Avery said, then he nodded to himself, and pushed up off the ground. He still held his thumb down hard on the button, squeezing the handheld between his thumb and forefinger. He squirmed up into a comfortable sitting position and leaned back against the Jeep. "Ah. Remember when I told you about the explosives in the bunker?"

  She knew where that was going. "Reed?" she said. "Guys? They claim they've got a detonator for the bunker. Do we have any eyes in the valley?"

  Reed and Phillips both assured her they were there and nothing had happened, but Avery explained himself at the same time. "Oh, they won't see anything fancy. Pressing the button isn't the trigger. Releasing it is."

  She met his eyes for a long moment. Then she nodded. "I see."

  "And you understand?" Avery asked, demanding. "Faye Burke is still in there. Very alive, and very scared. You can still save her—"

  "If I let you go?" Katie shook her head. "That's not going to happen."

  "If you honor the deal you already offered," he said. He arched an eyebrow at her. "Remember? I know you never really intended to, but we've managed to make it a little more compelling."

  He raised his voice. "You hear that? All of you! I'm holding the trigger to a detonator that will kill an innocent hostage. If anything happens to me—" His voice cracked there, and Ken slapped him on the shoulder with the back of a hand.

  "There's no one there," he said.

  "Shut up," Katie said. "There are enough guns trained on you right now to kill you both a dozen times over."

  Ken shook his head. "No way," he said. "No way they could move that far in that little time. And if they had the resources to do all that..." He shook his head, completely certain.

  Then he rocked back on his heels, then heaved himself to his feet. He looked down at Katie in complete contempt. "They can't do any of this. She got lucky, but the rest is a bluff. If the government had access to that kind of technology, I'd have heard about it."

  Avery watched Ken for a moment before he nodded, convinced. "Yeah," he said. "Hey, yeah, that's right."

  She snorted with a frail disdain. "Okay, guys," she said, trying to keep the desperation out of the request. "These guys are looking for a demonstration."

  "Not really," Ken said. He shook his head. "Maybe you've got a trick or two—"

  Katie tuned him out, her attention on Martin speaking in her ear. "I'm sorry, Katie. I can't think of anything."

  Far away, in the direction of the bunker, Phillips fired the rifle. Three booming reports reached them, but Avery just nodded slowly.

  "I see," he said. "Maybe you really had one or two in the woods. But that was...how far away was that?"

  "At least two miles," Ken said. "Sounded like the compound."

  "Martin," Katie said quietly, on the verge of abandoning her pretense, "I need you to do something about that detonator."

  "I can't!" he said miserably. "I'm sorry, Katie, but I can't isolate anything about them. If I had more time...maybe...."

  "What's the problem?" Phillips asked. "Just shoot 'em."

  Katie shook her head. Reed answered for her. "She can't," he said. "All Avery has to do is let go, and Faye's dead." Katie nodded in answer.

  Meanwhile Ken and Avery were having their own silent conversation. She watched it happen, watched them take confidence from each other. They made a show of it, too, testing her. They stood in front of her, stretched their arms and legs, and watched as she said nothing.

  Then Avery turned his back on her and headed for the driver's-side door of the car. "Avery, stop!" she shouted, but it was too late. She'd lost all power.

  He didn't answer. Didn't even turn. He just raised his right hand high above his head, showing off his handheld. He did stop when he got to the door and turned in place. He met Ken's eyes across the hood. "Ken," he said lightly, as thought Katie weren't even there, "get the guns."

  She brought the gun to bear on him, right on his heart, and said, "Don't."

  Ken met her eyes. He sneered. She couldn't let him get the guns. She'd have to shoot him. Then she'd have to shoot Avery, but it would be too late for Faye. She felt a dread in her stomach. She'd already killed way too many people. She didn't want to kill anymore.

  Ken watched her eyes and caught enough of the war waging within her. He nodded, slowly, and a smile curled his lips. He took one slow, careful step off to the shoulder where she'd thrown his rifle. She raised the shotgun to her cheek, but when she didn't fire he took another step. Then he laughed.

  "Do something," she whispered, a prayer for Martin, and she heard him sigh in answer.

  "I'm sorry, Katie," Martin said. "You're just going to have to shoot them."

  "Don't let them get armed," Reed said. "No matter what, don't give them that." He sounded breathless, and she realized he was coming to join her. Him and Phillips both, probably, but this was going to be over in a minute or two, one way or another.

  Avery spoke in answer to her thoughts. "Quit messing around," he snapped. He climbed up into the car, and held his right hand up high in the air to make sure she could still see the handheld with the button. "Just grab the guns and throw her in the back," Avery continued. "She'll make a much better hostage than Eddie there."

  Katie had forgotten about Eddie. He had a strip of cloth tied into a gag in his mouth, and the way he stooped forward she could tell his hands were secured somewhere in the car. His eyes were wide and locked on Katie's.

  As soon as she met his gaze, he furrowed his brows and moved his eyes. When she didn't follow he nodded once, fiercely, to the shotgun in Katie's hands. Then he jerked his head to the right, casting his gaze up into the trees, but she didn't need the second clue. She understood.

  She snapped her eyes back to Ken, raised the shotgun an inch, and squeezed the trigger. The gun roared in her hands, and Ken threw himself to the ground.

  "Are you out of your mind?" he screamed, then realized he'd stopped one step short of his weapon. He stretched out a hand toward it but she crossed to him in two quick ste
ps and slammed the third step down on the top of his hand. He howled in pain and recoiled.

  She kicked him once in the chest and he shrank away, back toward the Jeep. She followed after him, her gun trained on Avery now. He met her eyes and shook his head sadly. Then he dipped his head to the right, indicating the handheld, and his thumb standing well clear of the touchscreen. When her eyes snapped back to his, he shrugged.

  "You made your choice," Avery said. "It's sad, really. I don't look forward to the tedium of facing your jury trials, if you can even get a prosecutor to convene one, but you'll get to live with the widow's death on your conscience forever. And for all that, you didn't even hit him."

  Katie shrugged one shoulder. "I wasn't sure it would work with a hit. You know, since it's all about the sonic frequency." Avery knit his brow, completely in the dark, and Katie nodded to his handheld. "You've got an error message."

  She had one, too. She hadn't heard the tone over the boom of the shotgun, the little beep as Hathor connectivity failed, but she could feel the silence now. She had to hope it had happened fast enough. She hadn't heard anything from the direction of the compound to make her think otherwise.

  For now, she still had two men to subdue. Avery had played his last card. She saw his eyes dart to the handgun still on the ground, but he had a long way to go to get to it. Katie met his eyes and gave a little shake of her head.

  "No," she said. "You, I've got good reason to put you in the ground. Don't even think about it."

  His bravado lasted all of a heartbeat before it failed again, more miserably than the first time. He collapsed forward against the steering wheel, looking numb.

  15. Identity Cult

  Katie considered Avery for a moment then jerked her head toward the horse trailer. "Get on your feet. You're moving to the back." He stared, bewildered, but she gestured with the gun, and he was quick to obey.

  He held both hands high and moved with exaggerated caution, apparently taking her earlier threat to heart. That suited Katie. She gave Ken a little kick in the ribs to get his attention. He hadn't moved. "Join him," she said. "Same thing."

  When he didn't respond she dropped the end of the gun to prod him below the shoulder, and that got him moving. He scrambled up and into line behind Avery, walking meekly to the back of the trailer. When they stopped, she gestured with the gun toward the closed doors, then nodded to the keys still dangling in Avery's hand. He fumbled with the lock for a moment, steel rattling against in his nervousness, but finally got it open.

  He let the door fall open and stepped back so she could look inside.

  She kept the gun trained on Avery's gut while she threw a gaze over the trailer's contents. Both men were watching for her show of surprise, but she saw just what she'd expected. Stacks and stacks of boxes, every one of them branded with Eddie's logo.

  Katie shook her head with a tired sigh. "Clear a spot." They just looked blank. She shrugged a shoulder. "One stack should do. Dump them in the road." Her impatience must have shown in her face, because they didn't even hesitate. They pulled the boxes out onto the dirt road, then at a gesture from her stepped up into the space they'd cleared.

  "Face the wall," she said. "Hands through the gaps." As soon as they'd complied with that she darted forward, dropped the gun, and cuffed the two men's wrists together outside the trailer, trapping them in place. Then she reached up with an ungentle gesture to rip the keys from Avery's unresisting hand.

  She stared through the slots in the trailer's side for a moment, meeting Avery's eyes, and her rage burned cold. Then the pile of boxes beyond him drew her eye, and she frowned. Just like the boxes they'd spilled on the road, and like the one she'd seen in the storeroom of the bunker. Each box held maybe thirty-six devices if it was full. She stepped back and headed toward the Jeep.

  Another nine boxes were crammed in there, counting the ones in the bed and those in the back seat by Eddie. The trailer behind her must have carried twice as many. Maybe more.

  She moved around to the passenger side by Eddie. When she tugged the door open, she found his wrists cuffed and his ankle shackled to a bolt in the Jeep's floor. She raised an eyebrow in admiration at that before reaching up to loosen the knot in Eddie's gag.

  As soon as she got some slack in it he worked his mouth and spit it out. Then he rolled his eyes over to Katie and gave her a look of wild gratitude.

  "Oh, Katie!" he said. "I'm so glad you're here! You rescued me. Just help me with these cuffs."

  "Huh-uh," she said, and gave him a little shake of her head as she backed away again so she could keep the other two in her line of sight. Eddie craned his neck trying to watch her.

  She jerked her head to indicate the boxes. "What are these?"

  "Practically my entire inventory!" Eddie said. "Can you believe it? I had no idea. These guys were buying them in ones and two, seriously. They had proxies in several states."

  Katie nodded. "I can believe it." Martin had said there were lots of groups like this. She shook her head. "What did you do for them?"

  "Not...not much," he said. She held him with her gaze, and at last he shrugged. "Okay. I helped them figure out how to generalize Ken's transmission protocol."

  She gaped. "Generalize? You mean...all of these...." She trailed off, but Eddie was in no hurry to fill in the blanks. She moved her face closer to his and asked in a hiss, "All of these can broadcast from long range now?"

  "Well...." Eddie shrank away from her and grimaced guiltily. "Technically any SpectreShield could do it now. If they had access to Ken's code."

  "And you helped them," Katie growled.

  "I mean, come on Katie, what did you want me to do?"

  She only shook her head in response. He wasn't really a partner. She never should have expected it. She leaned back to glance down the road, then moved closer to the trailer so she could keep a better eye on the other two.

  While she walked, Eddie called out to her. "Oh, come on! Really? You're upset that I did what they asked? They had guns, Katie. What, you wanted me to be true to the FBI code?" He scoffed. "What has the FBI ever done for me? Hell, you let Wade Hartman shoot me!"

  She stopped directly in front of Avery and Ken. The two men had been whispering before, but they were dead silent now, staring at her through the gaps in the trailer wall from less than a yard away. She gave a smile she didn't really feel.

  She said, "For what it's worth, Eddie, I paid him back for you." Eddie gasped, and Katie nodded. She held Avery's eyes. "And for Randall, too. And Jim." She put a little emphasis on that last one, and Avery might have had a clue what she meant by it, because he turned deathly pale and then sank his head forward against the cold steel wall.

  She nodded. Then she heard a voice, a shout in the distance, and she took a quick step to the right and leaned past the end of the trailer. Back up the lane, Reed and Phillips were coming her way. She waved once with the shotgun, high overhead, then turned her full attention back to her prisoners.

  They weren't whispering anymore, though. They were defeated. But from his place in the Jeep, Eddie was moaning.

  Katie went to check on him. "What?"

  "I didn't have a choice!" he wailed. "They were awful. They locked me in Ken's stupid horse barn and asked me to work on his code with nothing but a printout and a notepad. What was I supposed to do with that? Right?"

  "You could have sabotaged them! You could have gotten a message to Reed."

  "How? Seriously, I had no connection to Hathor at all. And when I complained about it, they dragged me out to the bunker where they threatened me with instant death if you tried to come save me."

  "Yeah, about that—" Katie snapped.

  "Don't even worry," he said. "First thing I did once they got me onto their system was erase the triggering process. They were so busy trying to figure out what to do about you, they never even noticed."

  Katie frowned. She stepped closer. "Then what was all that about with the shotgun and the recorders? You sure sold it."
/>
  "That was for me!" he said. "For everything I did to help you." He strained against his cuffs, trying to turn and get a look back in the direction Phillips was coming from. "I thought for sure you had backup coming, and I needed some kind of cover if I'm going to get out of here before they show up."

  She stared, stunned. "You're serious."

  "Yes, I'm serious!" he said, shrill. He was sweating, and his eyes bulged as he heard the sound of Phillips's footsteps fast approaching. "Come on! Just let me go. You got them!"

  She just shook her head, baffled, then took a step back as Phillips arrived. He shut Eddie up with a glance, checked the cuffs securing him to the bed of the Jeep, then met Katie's eyes. She led him to the horse trailer where he could cover the other two with Wade's rifle. Katie saw a tremor of fear shake Avery head to toe when he recognized the gun, and she nodded to herself, then went to join Reed over by the spilled boxes.

  As soon as she approached, he looked her up and down once, worried. She smiled when his eyes got back to her face. "Hey, boss."

  "You know you just disappeared?" he said quietly. "We were in the middle of trying to make a plan, and you just stopped responding."

  She looked away. "I'm sorry. I didn't think about that. I just saw an opportunity—"

  "The shotgun?" he said, and he nodded right after she did. "Yeah, that was Martin's guess. He tried to explain it to us...."

  "I'll give you the simple version later," she said. They had somehow drifted a little too close together, and she had to crane her neck to meet his eyes. She blinked up at him. "Thanks for coming for me."

  "Hey, no problem." He reached out an arm and wrapped it around her, pulling her into his warmth.

  She sighed against his chest, savoring the moment, and then she made herself pull away. He smiled down at her. "You've had a couple rough days, Katie."

  She nodded slowly. She couldn't come up with a clever response. Instead she just met his eyes and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I have."

  He laughed. Then he jerked a thumb toward the trailer. "What's in the boxes?"