Alice spoke in hushed tones. “We’ll be going in that Hummer.”
They’d picked up a backpack and some supplies on the way out. Leah shifted it on her shoulder, using the movement to steal a glance at the Humvee. For the most part, it was unremarkable, but there was a scrape on the front right corner. It also needed washing.
The guards at the gate turned to them as they approached. One of them, a wiry man with a thick coating of stubble on his chin, touched the peak of his cap with one finger. “Hey, Sarge.”
“Marcus,” said Alice. Her voice was flat, serious. “One going out.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows in surprise, but before he spoke, Alice said, “Billingham’s orders.”
“Ah, right,” said Marcus.
He looked at Leah, and she immediately felt intensely self-conscious. She was sure he could see right through her, perhaps even read her mind. He’d know what they were planning. Her idea had been stupid. Who’d believe that Alice would kick a fifteen-year-old out into the wilderness? Any minute now, he’d call Billingham, and they’d both be arrested.
Marcus moved over to the gate and unhooked the chain holding it closed. Without speaking, the other man pulled back the gate, opening it just wide enough for Leah to get through.
Alice placed her hands on Leah’s shoulders. “Be careful out there, and remember what I told you.”
Leah was convinced her nervousness must be written across her face, but hopefully the guards would put that down to the fact she was being exiled to a wasteland. She nodded and stepped through the opening.
The gate rattled shut behind her, and she heard the clatter of the chain being put back into place. She didn’t look back. Even though she knew it would only be a couple of hours before Alice picked her up, leaving her felt wrong. It was painful, like they’d never see each other again. Tears prickled Leah’s eyes. She blinked them away and walked into the wilderness.
21
Leah shivered as she waited, hidden from the road by a pile of boulders at the edge of a small wood. She’d walked for ten minutes, making sure she was well out of sight of the power station before finding somewhere to hide. The rocks were at the top of a slight rise, and the location provided a perfect view of the road until it curved out of sight around a hill.
She didn’t know what time it was, but the sun had dropped out of view, leaving her alone in the darkness. She kept looking over her shoulder. The idea that a hunter, human or otherwise, might creep up behind her picked at her nerves. It was getting colder too. Her hands ached, the bones apparently seizing up as the temperature dropped. The chill, added to the constant, nagging fear was making her edgy.
A gust of wind rustled between the rocks. Leah pulled her jacket closer around her. The road was still empty. The suspicion that Alice had lied to her was growing stronger by the minute. Leah went over their conversation again and again. She rolled the words around in her mind, examining them, plucking them apart, looking for hidden messages and unspoken meanings and finding none. Maybe the mission had just been abandoned.
Fear hit Leah, as solid as a punch. Maybe Billingham had worked out Alice’s plan and arrested her. Alice might be locked in a tiny pitch-black room while Leah sat around in the middle of nowhere, waiting for her.
Leah’s breath caught in her throat as she spotted a flicker of light on the road, far off in the distance. The flicker coalesced into two headlights cutting through the gloom. They bounced and bobbed as the vehicle moved slowly along the road. As it grew closer, Leah realized two things. First, she had no way of telling whether that was Alice’s Humvee until it got a lot closer. Second, Alice wouldn’t know where Leah was hiding. She could easily drive right past her in the dark.
The vehicle was moving slowly. As it crawled along the road, Leah weighed her options. It was a trade-off between staying safely hidden and risking Alice missing her, or making her presence known and hoping the vehicle wasn’t a Transport patrol.
It seemed unlikely it would be Transport. As far as Leah could tell, the road only went to the power station, and she hadn’t seen any other vehicles on the road all the time she’d been out here.
The low-pitched rumble of an engine reached Leah. The vehicle would be on top of her in a couple of minutes. Making her decision, Leah dug around in her backpack and pulled out a flashlight. She clicked it on, but nothing happened. Panicking, she shook it, desperately pressing the power switch on and off. The bulb flared to life.
Leah stepped out from behind the bushes. She pointed the flashlight toward the truck and swept it back and forth in a figure eight pattern. The sound of the engine rose in pitch as the vehicle sped up. Leah’s heart followed suit. She was still near the rocks, and if she needed to hide she could.
Tires crunched on gravel as the vehicle pulled alongside Leah. She swept the flashlight over it to reveal the bulk of a Humvee. It might have been dark green, but it was difficult to tell. Hurriedly, Leah checked the front corner of the vehicle. A long scrape marred the surface. Leah relaxed.
The Humvee’s passenger door swung open as Leah ran toward it. Alice helped Leah clamber aboard, and then the Humvee was accelerating away, wheels spinning on the loose gravel of the road.
There were two other passengers in the Humvee. One of them, a middle-aged man with graying hair and deep blue eyes, regarded her.
“So who’s the passenger, Sarge?” said the man.
He had a heavy, sonorous voice, but there was no aggression in the question. There was a slight accent there too, and after a moment Leah recognized it as the same one she’d heard in the City’s Greek zone.
“Stefan Doukas, meet Leah. She’s trying to decide whether she wants to join TRACE and asked if she could come along with us on our little trip.”
“And I’m sure Billingham thought it was a splendid idea.”
“You know, now you bring it up, I think I forgot to mention it to him.”
Doukas laughed. “Welcome aboard.”
“Thank you,” said Leah.
“Doukas is one of our best,” said Alice. “Do as he says, and you’ll be fine.”
“And I suppose she should just ignore me like everyone else?”
It was the fourth passenger—a tanned young woman with blond hair and what looked like an armory strapped to her body. Her accent was American, a deep Southern drawl that Leah struggled to understand.
“This is Rachel Da Silva,” said Alice.
Da Silva held out her hand and Leah shook it. “My pleasure, Leah.”
“As you can see, Da Silva is what you might call a gun enthusiast.”
“These here are my babies!” said Da Silva, tapping the pistol that hung from her belt. “A woman needs her babies.”
Leah counted five guns—two pistols on Da Silva’s belt, one in each of the shoulder holsters she was wearing, and an automatic rifle resting against the seat beside her. Then she noticed another pistol clipped to a holster on the woman’s left calf. Half a dozen or so magazines of ammunition hung from the belts and holsters too.
“Doukas and I will tell you what to do,” said Alice. “But Da Silva will make sure no one stops you doing it.”
Leah’s relief at being picked up was quickly being replaced by a nervous tension. The reality of the situation was sinking in.
“Don’t worry,” said Alice. “It’s just a precaution. This is going to be very straightforward. Right, Doukas?”
“Damn right, Sarge. Straight and simple, that’s my motto.”
Alice rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
The Humvee hit a dip in the road and rocked heavily.
“If Wichita can get us there in one piece,” said Da Silva.
“I heard that,” called the driver.
“Of course you did. I meant you to.”
Wichita snorted.
Leah looked between Alice and others. How could they be so relaxed? They could get killed going up against Transport. She took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before slowly letting it out, willi
ng the churning in her stomach to subside.
“What’s the data we’re after?” said Doukas. “You still haven’t told us yet.”
“We’re trying to find the location of a man called Eric Morgan,” said Alice.
“As in Eric Morgan the weapons engineer?” said Da Silva.
“Yes.”
“And Transport has him?”
Alice nodded. “He was gathering information on a big operation Transport are planning, but he got caught up in one of their raid.”
Da Silva let out a slow breath.
“The good news,” said Alice, “is they don’t know who he is. If we can find out where they’re keeping him, we may be able to break him out before they realize what they’ve got.”
“And if we don’t?” said Doukas.
“This war is going to get a whole lot harder.”
“Then we’d better make sure we get that data,” said Da Silva. “How far is this place again?”
“A couple of hours,” said Alice.
Da Silva settled back in her seat, resting her head against the window. She closed her eyes. “Y’all wake me up when the shooting starts.”
Leah took another deep breath and tried to relax. Maybe they wouldn’t need to wake Da Silva.
While Da Silva slept the others stared out the windows in silence. Leah tried not to think about what they were doing. Instead she focused on the why. She was going to find out who Katherine was. Knowing that would help her when she reached Oakdale. That was the reason she was about to risk her life breaking into a Transport facility. That was all that mattered.
Eventually, the Humvee slowed. They were in a forest, a few hundred feet down a rutted, muddy track that cut across the main road they’d been following since they’d left the power station.
“Okay, Wichita,” said Alice. “We go on foot from here.”
Doukas nudged Da Silva. “We’re here, sleepyhead.”
Da Silva frowned and cracked one eye open. “Hey, I was in the middle of my favorite dream!”
“Chocolate?” said Doukas.
“Assault rifles.”
Doukas was about to say something else when Alice cut him off. “Time to get serious. The facility is a thirty-minute walk from here. Most of that is under cover of the forest, but the last seventy feet or so is open ground. I’m not expecting any trouble, but stay alert.”
Alice opened a metal case at her feet, removed four sets of night-vision goggles and handed them out. Leah followed the others and put them on, resting them across her forehead. They felt awkward and uncomfortable.
“Once we’re inside,” said Alice, “Leah and I are going to go in together for the data collection. You two are going to keep watch and make sure Transport don’t ruin the party.”
Doukas and Da Silva nodded. Their earlier joviality had vanished. Leah could sense the tension in the air.
“Wichita,” said Alice, “you know the drill. If this location is compromised, move to rendezvous point B.”
“Got it.”
“Good, any questions?” said Alice. She paused. “Right, let’s move out.”
As Da Silva and Doukas clambered out of the vehicle, Alice picked up a backpack. She dug around inside then brought out two small black rectangular boxes. Each had a curved piece of plastic attached to it. She handed one to Leah and clipped the second to her ear.
“It’s a radio. Tap the side to turn it on. Once for general comms, twice to talk just to me. Tap it again to turn it off.”
Leah hooked the radio over her ear. It felt odd, as though it would fall off any moment. She tapped the earpiece and was greeted by three rising high-pitched beeps. She tapped it again and got two more beeps. These were low-pitched, and the second lasted almost a second. She turned the radio back on, then followed Alice out of the Humvee.
The clouds had mostly cleared, and an almost full moon gave them enough light to see by. Doukas and Da Silva had taken up positions a few feet away and stood watching the forest.
Alice retrieved a pistol and holster from the back of the Humvee. She fastened the holster around Leah’s waist, then offered the gun to Leah. “You know how to shoot?”
“No, not really.”
Alice pointed to the barrel. “You aim this end at the bad guy and squeeze the trigger.”
Leah hesitated. The gun looked big, heavy and dangerous.
“You wanted to be out here,” said Alice. “You need to be able to defend yourself.” The easygoing woman of a couple of hours ago was gone again.
Leah took the pistol. It was lighter than she’d expected, but it felt clumsy in her small hands.
Alice pushed Leah’s hand down, pointing the weapon toward the ground. “Don’t point it at someone unless you mean to use it. And keep your finger off the trigger.”
Leah considered giving the gun back. Instead, she clipped it into the holster and followed Alice as the four of them set off across the clearing.
They walked in silence. Da Silva and her assault rifle took point with Alice and then Leah behind. Doukas followed up the rear. At some point, the other soldiers had clipped grenades to their belts, and Leah eyed them nervously.
Leah’s pistol bumped against her hip as she walked, and she tried to imagine herself as a gunslinger or an intrepid explorer. She failed. All she could picture was a frightened little girl creeping through the forest like a child in a fairy tale. It wasn’t until she thought of Katherine that her resolve hardened.
Da Silva held up a hand, signaling for them to stop. Ahead, the path they were following widened out into a clearing. Leah peered around Alice, trying to work out why they’d stopped. Then she heard the familiar hum of a Transport drone. Moments later, the white sphere drifted into the clearing.
22
The drone flew slowly across the clearing. Laser light flashed as it scanned the area. Leah had to force herself not to run. When the drone reached the center of the clearing it stopped moving forward. It hovered there, occasionally turning left or right. The lenses on its cameras spun and elongated as they shifted focus.
Leah pulled her gun from the holster. It felt leaden in her hands, but she raised it slightly and pointed it roughly in the direction of the drone. Alice shook her head, then put her hand on the barrel and gently pushed it down.
Another drone appeared. This one came from above the canopy. It dropped down, slotting into place beside the first. Both drones were fitted with weapons—ominous-looking metal barrels hanging from the bottom of the spheres.
Then six Transport soldiers walked into the clearing. They moved casually, rifles pointing toward the ground or slung over their shoulders. If the drones had spotted signs of TRACE’s presence, the Transport soldiers were hiding it well. They chatted easily to each other and paid no attention to their surroundings at all. The men stopped near the drones and stood in a group, just talking.
Da Silva turned back, looking to Alice for direction. Alice’s face was pensive. The clearing was still thirty feet or so away. The trees provided enough cover to keep them hidden, but the soldiers were heading directly toward them. Unless they changed their minds and went back the way they’d come, they’d end up right on top of Leah and the others.
Alice pointed at Da Silva, then sharply at the ground. Then she pointed at herself, Leah and Doukas before making a curving motion with her hand. Da Silva nodded and turned back to face the clearing, her assault rifle at her shoulder. Alice gestured to Doukas and Leah to start backing up, the look on her face telling them to be careful.
The ground beneath their feet was littered with sticks and other detritus from the forest. Every step Leah took threatened to make enough noise to alert Transport to their presence. Leah’s heart pounded in her ears, the sound building to a crescendo that she was convinced everyone else must be able to hear.
After several, agonizing minutes they reached another trail—a narrow offshoot running perpendicular to the main path, but as Alice moved to head down it, Da Silva’s voice came over the rad
io. “They’re on the move.”
Leah looked back in time to see the drones sweeping across the clearing, heading straight toward the trail. Da Silva looked around, searching for a place to hide, but there was nowhere.
“Dammit!” snapped Alice. “Engage.”
Da Silva’s rifle barked, and sparks flew from one of the drones. It twitched and fell back, but the second moved forward to take its place. The men in the clearing scattered, shouting instructions to each other as they tried to work out where their attackers were.
Doukas pushed past Leah, crashing through the undergrowth, all attempts to stay hidden abandoned.
Leah froze. Alice grabbed her shoulder and pointed down the narrow trail. “We need to circle ‘round.”
Leah stumbled forward as more gunfire crackled through the forest. The thought of Da Silva and Doukas facing down six Transport soldiers on their own broke the trance and she ran, gathering herself as she charged along the trail, Alice just ahead.
The trail curved past the clearing. They followed it until they were halfway around, then Alice held up a hand, and they stopped.
Shouts filled the air. Leah caught glimpses of the battle through the trees. There was no sign of the drones, but the Transport soldiers had gotten over their initial confusion and worked out where Da Silva was. They’d fallen back, taking cover behind trees where they could return fire more safely.
“Sitrep,” said Alice, her words echoing in the radio in Leah’s ear.
“We’re in cover, but they’ve got us pinned,” said Da Silva. “One drone is down, no sign of the second.”
“Keep them busy,” said Alice, “we’ll try to get behind them.”
It was Doukas that spoke next. His voice was calm, quiet. “Sarge, it’s time for a change of plan.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Alice, “and the answer is no.”
“It makes sense; you know it does.”
“No, we’re sticking with the original plan.”
Wichita’s voice came over the radio. “Sergeant, I’m picking up some chatter. We’ve got two more squads heading our way.”
The Girl in the Wilderness (Leah King Book 2) Page 11
