Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Watching from the road, where he’d circled around to get behind the twelve men who had been in those cars, Blade saw them split off into pairs and start trekking into the forest.
Perfect.
Time to make his move.
If all he wanted to do was kill them, he could have just started shooting as soon as they got out of their vehicles.
One to twelve didn't make for great odds when it came to a firefight, because as soon as he fired that first shot, they’d have his position, and he’d be unlikely to take out more than three or four before they rallied and started firing back.
Chances were, he’d still get the other eight, but it would be a lot riskier, especially when he had someone with zero training to protect.
But he didn't want to just kill them.
He was taking Whitney into a potentially volatile situation when he got home.
While his team had all agreed to trust his gut that she was telling the truth, especially with the small things they could verify, that didn't mean there still wasn't wild distrust on all sides.
If he could have some concrete facts to back up what Whitney had told him, it would help immensely.
And he wanted his team to trust her.
Accept her.
It seemed more important than it should.
So he needed to get at least one of these men alive.
From what he’d heard so far, he did know that these men knew who Whitney was, and they wanted her back.
They’d called her baby genius, which again backed up what she’d told him about her age and her intellect.
But he wanted more. Enough to put any doubt to rest and convince all of them that they weren't enemies and would achieve more if they worked together.
Assuming the men were wearing comms units, given that they’d been split up between three SUVs, Blade knew he’d have to kill them silently.
His plan was to take out five of the six pairs first, and then one from that final pair, so he could interrogate the final man.
Might even take the man with him. Who knew what other interesting and helpful intel they could get from him?
Picking one of the pairs as all twelve men disappeared amongst the trees, he followed after them. It was clear that these men were trained, likely former military, they were moving mostly silently through the forest, and if he were anyone else, he probably wouldn't have been able to hear them.
But since he wasn't anyone else, he could hear every step they took, and easily kept track of their distance and the direction they were moving in.
That wasn't the only thing he could hear easily.
Each ragged breath Whitney took echoed through his head. She was afraid, he knew that, but he’d made the right call in having her hide in that tree. It was a gamble, but everything was a gamble, and the men would be expecting her to run, not hide, because they believed her to be alone.
The first pair never saw death coming.
Blade merely crept up behind them, sliced the blade of his favorite knife through first one man’s neck and then the other.
Carotid arteries slashed wide open, all they could do was fall to the ground, blood gushing out everywhere.
Knowing these weren't survivable injuries he’d inflicted, he didn't bother to stay and watch until the life drained out of them.
That was two down, but there were still ten to go.
Thankfully, both the second and third pairs also went down without a hitch.
With six dead bodies behind him, half the men taken from the equation, Blade began to breathe a little easier.
Tracking the fourth pair, he was glad that so far, not only had nobody heard the muted thuds of dead bodies hitting the ground, but nobody had spoken anything into the comms units either.
There was no need for him to take one of the sets to monitor it, he knew no one had spoken because he would have heard it if they did.
They might not think much of Whitney’s abilities to evade them, but at least they knew she would hear them if they spoke, so they kept quiet.
Unfortunately, when he went to make his move on pair number four, the second man turned right as he was slicing through the neck of his partner.
Letting go of the dying man, Blade threw himself at the other guy.
The last thing he wanted to do was use his gun.
He would if he had to, but it would alert the others, and there were still four other men hunting Whitney.
Four other threats to go after the little genius if he didn't eliminate them.
Colliding with the other man, who had raised his weapon, but the moment of surprise had given Blade the upper hand he needed.
While these men had likely served, they were no match for a former special forces soldier, who had been injected with a drug that enhanced all of his natural abilities and who trained with his team virtually every single day.
Using his body to pin the man in place, Blade placed his hands on his wriggling opponent, who was trying desperately to buck him off while simultaneously trying to get his weapon up.
Blade had a knee on the man’s shooting hand, there was no way he was getting a shot off, and one jerk of his hands had the man’s neck snapped, his now lifeless body joining the others littering the forest floor.
Eight down, four to go.
Wiping off his knife, Blade was just pushing to his feet when he heard the last thing he wanted to hear.
Whitney was panicking, and it was messing with her ability to think logically because she was climbing down from the tree.
No, darlin’.
Trust me.
I'm not leaving you hanging.
Almost there. Four to go, just stay put, go back up there, please.
Of course, there was no way she could hear the thoughts screaming through his mind, even if they seemed inordinately loud.
The moment of distraction by his fear for Whitney almost cost him his life.
Realizing a split second before he was a dead man that he’d been spotted, Blade raised his gun, knowing he wouldn't have time to use his knife to kill both of the men before one of them could get off a shot.
Even distracted as he’d been, something he knew better than to be in the field, especially when he had an innocent in his care, he fired two shots, dropping both men before they could fire at him.
They were dead, but there were still two other men out there, and now they knew that someone was shooting at them.
Would they think that Whitney had been armed and was now trying to defend herself, or would they assume that someone had been with her when the car crashed?
Deciding the next man he found would be interrogated, Blade listened, figured the distance between himself and the nearest man, and took off at a dead run in that direction.
Enhanced hearing helped in the field, even if he wished it had an off switch so he could get some peace and quiet.
He quickly climbed a tree just before where the man he was hunting would soon come running.
Then all he had to do was wait.
When the man was directly below him, Blade dropped, taking the guard to the ground. There was no hesitation, he snapped the man’s weapon arm, causing him to howl, but he was no longer worried about being heard. That ship had sailed when he’d had to fire two shots to kill the last pair.
Besides, there was only one other man out there, and he’d hear his approach before the man was within shooting range.
“Hi,” Blade said with a grin when the man’s now pain-filled eyes locked on him. “I take it you know who I am?”
“One of them,” the man whispered, and Blade was pleased that he’d managed to end up with one of the guards who was going to be easy to get talking.
“You know who she is, too. Tell me her name.”
The man hesitated, and Blade slammed his fist down on the man’s broken arm, making him howl.
“Whitney,” he screamed. “Whitney Daley.”
Checked with what she’d told him, so she wasn't lying about that. “How long has she been working for Dr. Gardner?”
“Don’t know, man, I swear. I've only been there a year. But she’s been with them a long time. Please don’t hurt me.”
Begging.
Pathetic.
“Why did Dr. Gardner send so many men after her?”
“Needs her. She’s the center of everything.
Baby genius is what they call her because she’s so young, but without her, Dr. Gardner wouldn't be able to do what he does. Talk is if he stopped butting in, the drugs would work the way he wants, but he’s a control freak, has to stick his nose into everything, even things someone else is better at. ”
Blade opened his mouth to ask another question, but a scream echoed through the night, one he didn't need enhanced hearing to hear.
Whitney.
“Don’t kill me, man, please.” His victim moaned beneath him, but there was no chance he was leaving anyone alive today.
A single swipe of his knife through the man’s neck took care of him, and then Blade was up and running, wishing he had Thunder’s enhanced speed, because the last man left alive must have found Whitney, and he wasn't sure he could get to her in time.
January 12th
9:19 A.M.
Climbing down the tree, Whitney almost lost her grip and fell several times.
Her hands were shaking too badly, and she wasn't coordinated enough to climb trees.
She was the kind of person who bumped into walls and crashed into furniture.
There was always some bruise or other dotting her skin, and she was usually lost in her own mind enough that she never even remembered where she got the bruises from.
They just seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Not today, though.
Today, if she fell, she would know exactly where the bruises had come from, and they wouldn't be the last to mar her skin today.
Blade was long gone. He wasn't killing any of the men who had chased them, he’d just left her there and disappeared. If he were out there somewhere, she would have heard gunshots by now.
There had been none.