Chapter 20 #3
Although the ground immediately around the house might once have held gardens, they were long gone.
There wasn’t even a single weed in sight.
Instead, the space around the house was bare ground, punctuated here and there with what looked like old-fashioned oil lanterns.
Hallie frowned at them, trying to work out why Jonah would waste time and resources on something as frivolous and decorative as oil lanterns.
Then she remembered the deep dark of the nights on the island, and the press of the huge trees around her.
Once the sun disappeared, even a full moon on a clear night probably wouldn’t provide enough light for humans to navigate.
So the lanterns were there to accommodate humans outside after dark.
Which meant that was a regular occurrence.
Patrols? That made sense. There were no boundary walls here, nothing to stop someone doing what Hallie had done and working their way up the hill to get within sight of the house.
The traps she’d come across would stop a few people, no doubt, but not everyone.
And if Jonah was careful, there might well be patrols during the day as well.
No sooner had she realised that than she heard voices and the tread of heavy-soled boots.
She ducked down further, flat to the forest floor, completely swallowed by the great shadow of the tree, and pulled the collar of her jacket up to hide her face so only her eyes would be visible.
A pair of men came into view around the corner of the building.
From their direction of travel, it looked like they were walking the perimeter.
They were dressed in the same filthy, casual clothing that she’d seen on Vinny and his group, and each carrying a weapon with casual ease.
She didn’t recognise either of them, but then she hadn’t got a good look at the men who’d been outside New Hope in the night.
This pair looked young. Well past the innocence of their teenage years, but not scarred or battle-worn enough to be veterans.
And even though they had been assigned a patrol duty, they clearly didn’t expect any trouble.
Hallie was quite sure that more experienced thugs would have known to keep their chatter to a minimum.
This pair were talking in normal voices, their words carrying easily to where she was hiding, and not paying much attention to their surroundings.
“I asked Jonah to get on the next boat,” the first speaker said. He had dark hair shorn close to his skull.
The words next boat rang around Hallie’s head and piqued her interest. She hadn’t realised there was any kind of regular shipping to the island. But this wasn’t the island. This was Jonah and his operation, which seemed quite separate from everyone else.
“What? Why? Easy gig.” The second man had long dark hair pulled back in a knot at the nape of his neck. Hallie mentally named him Knot and the other No-knot.
“Easy? Try boring,” No-knot said. “Food’s rubbish. Power doesn’t work half the time. There’s no net. No TV.”
Hallie’s ears pricked up again. So, Jonah’s base had at least one boat, and access to some kind of power.
“Yeah. But we get fed, we get paid, and the locals are too scared to fight us. Easy,” Knot replied.
“Scared of a little show down with the locals?” No-knot taunted.
“If you’d ever actually been in a fight, you’d understand,” Knot answered, disgust clear in his voice. Not a happy partnership, Hallie thought. “Come on, this side’s clear. Let’s check around the back of the sheds.”
“There won’t be anything there,” No-knot said, sounding like a sulky teen. So much so that Hallie wondered if she’d got his age wrong. Always possible, but she thought it was more likely he was still young enough to be headstrong.
“We still need to check,” Knot said.
The two men kept walking, heading for the outbuildings behind the main house.
Regular boats and intermittent power. Good things to know.
Hallie wondered if she’d be lucky enough to have another pair of chatting patrol men come along soon and spill more information in front of her, or if she was going to need to go and find out more for herself.
Somehow, she didn’t think she was going to get that lucky again.
She watched the pair as they headed to the outbuilding closest to the forest and then snaked around the back.
They were making their rounds, however casually.
Hallie thought she could hear No-knot complaining even as they moved away, out of range of her senses, and couldn’t help but think that if they stopped talking there was a greater chance that they’d actually find something.
She also narrowed her eyes at what Knot had referred to as the sheds.
She’d told Girard that she could stay outside.
And in reality, there was no chance of her getting into the main house.
But the sheds were closer to the trees and she might be able to see into one, find out what was there.
It would give her more information to report back to Peredur.
With the risk of coming across another patrol, she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk actually going up to the buildings, but she did want a closer look.
Hallie slid backwards, making her way down hill a little more, out of sight of the space around the buildings, and then carefully got to her feet, making her way slowly through the trees, heading for the outbuildings.
She found more trip-wires and a couple more of the spring traps and made her way around them.
At length she reached a point where she could see the backs of the outbuildings.
The first thing she noticed was that there were no lanterns there.
It didn’t seem like the sort of oversight that Vinny or Jonah would allow, so Hallie stopped in the line of trees, and took a closer look at the buildings.
She was expecting to see something like the trip-wires or traps.
Instead, she saw a tiny red dot under the roof line of the second outbuilding.
A motion sensor of some kind. She didn’t think it would be a camera.
A motion sensor connected to an alarm seemed far too sophisticated for the set-up she’d come across so far.
It was more likely to be a light. A basic security light that probably ran on batteries.
She’d already learned that Jonah’s base had power from time to time, and access to a boat, which meant they might be able to bring in more technology.
As much as she wanted to learn more about what Jonah was up to, what was important right now was that his set-up meant she couldn’t approach the outbuildings from the back.
And if she tried to go in the side or the front, she would be spotted.
As distracted as Knot and No-knot had been, she was quite sure they’d notice another person walking up to the building, at least in daylight.
If she tried at night she might get lucky and find a dark spot between the lanterns she could use.
Night was several hours away. Hopefully, Girard would have found her by then and they would have made radio contact with Peredur.
Frustrated and aware that she was tired and getting cold, her thoughts going in circles, Hallie crept back through the trees until she found a spot where she was concealed by a large shrub, shadowed by two tall, old trees.
The shrub provided a little protection from the winter weather, at least, and she found a moment to be glad she was outside here rather than at Vertiger with its freezing temperatures and snow, and wearing clothes that Cotovatre had provided, ensuring she had layers of protection against the cold.
She could see the back of the house, the outbuildings, and along the side of the house from here.
It was probably as good a spot as any to settle for a bit and make some plans.
On that thought, she drew out the water bottle and another protein bar.
As she was finishing the protein bar, mind turning on various ideas as to how she was going to get access to the prisoners, she heard the sounds of engines.
ATVs. Looking back towards the front of the house, she saw the glint of metal through the trees.
There must be a road up the hill. Possibly the trail she’d seen earlier, when she’d been driving the ATV away from New Hope.
It hadn’t looked like a properly made road, even a dirt one.
More like a rough path that the ATVs could manage.
That made sense. Jonah would want the valuable vehicles close by, not parked at a distance from his base.
Even though she thought she was fully concealed, she huddled down a bit further, pulling her jacket up again to hide most of her face, and keeping her head low as the ATVs came into view at the front of the building.
They disappeared behind the far side of the house from where Hallie was hiding and then came into view at the back of the house in the open space in front of the outbuildings.
Despite the daylight, floodlights switched on along the back of the house and front of the outbuildings, bathing the whole area in brilliant white light, making Hallie very glad she hadn’t tried to get closer to the buildings.
She hadn’t anticipated that extra security measure.
The floodlights were harsh, even in daylight, and made Hallie’s eyes water, but they did let her see more detail of what was going on. Even better, when the ATV engines were cut, she found she could hear almost all the conversations as well.