Chapter 13 #2
The man smiled. "Stop the relay situation. Stop you." He laughed. "You’re a fool." He grunted, and with that, he got a burst of power as he lunged at her, catching her legs with his arm, knocking her to the ground.
Bang!
The man jerked and dropped, dead weight two feet from where Zadie had crash-landed on her side. Her hip, ankle, knee, hell, half her body swore at her as if she’d fallen from the sky.
She turned her head and her breath caught. The man lay there, his hand covering a bullet hole in his neck, and he was still smiling. Still laughing. And still trying to move.
Zadie scrambled to her feet.
"You okay?" Neve asked.
"Remind me that enhanced assholes aren’t worth talking to." She adjusted her rifle, scanned, and broke toward cover, her heart in her throat.
More gunshots echoed in her comms.
"These assholes don’t get tired," Coulter said.
"Fall back, and draw him west," Neve said. "I'm coming around behind."
"Moving."
"I need five more minutes," Gideon said. "And then I’m done."
"We’ve got a third vehicle," Scout said. "Coming up the access road. Same profile."
"How many?" Neve asked.
"Two men exiting. Geared up. Moving toward the south tree line, fast."
"We need to clear a path." There was an edge in Neve's tone that was rarely ever there. "Coulter, I’m in position. Let’s finish this."
More gunfire. More than ever before.
Then silence.
"Don’t think he’s going anywhere anytime soon," Coulter said. "Thanks for the backup."
"Anytime," Neve said. "To the tower. Zadie, what are the two fresh ones doing?"
"Can't see them from here." Zadie needed elevation. The transformer platform—there was a maintenance ladder on the back, six feet up. She ran for it, keeping low. Every step sent a jolt through her twisted ankle and bruised knee. Her elbow throbbed where she'd cracked it on the concrete.
The metal hummed under her hands as she climbed, vibrating with the current from the lines overhead. From up there, she could see the south fence, the tree line, and the two new arrivals working their way toward the cut section.
"These two aren't moving the same," she said. "They're still fast, but slower than the others."
"The original compound wears off as time goes on," Gideon said. "But if they weren’t given KTH-1, they’re going to have some serious issues."
Zadie sighted the first man at the fence. She held her breath and fired. The round hit his shoulder. There was no point going for center mass when someone was wearing Kevlar.
She needed to hit joints. Knees. Shoulders.
Or hit his head, but he was moving too fast, and she ran the risk of missing him altogether if she did that.
He staggered backward, caught himself, and kept moving through the cut section. Body armor. She adjusted down and fired again at the knee. He buckled and hit the ground inside the perimeter.
His partner dropped flat behind a tree stump outside the fence and returned fire.
Three rounds hit the transformer platform.
One so close to Zadie's position that she felt the heat of it pass her shoulder.
She flattened against the metal grating, her ribs slamming the steel.
Pain bloomed through her chest, and she tasted copper at the back of her throat.
"Taking fire on the platform," she managed. "One down inside the fence, one in the tree line."
"I've got an angle on the tree line from the ravine," Wynn said. "He's behind a stump. I need him to shift."
"Give me a second." Zadie rolled to the edge of the platform and fired two rounds into the dirt near the stump.
He rolled left, exposing his flank for half a second.
Wynn fired. The man jerked and went flat.
"He's hit," Wynn said. "Side of the torso. Below the vest. He’s losing blood fast."
Zadie scanned from the platform. The man she'd dropped inside the fence was on his stomach, trying to army-crawl toward the relay tower with a shattered knee. He'd covered maybe ten feet. At that rate, Coulter would reach Gideon long before he did.
"Coulter, are you at the tower?" Zadie asked.
"Thirty seconds out."
"Scout, what's Isaac doing?" Zadie controlled her breathing. She focused on the mission. Focused on what she had been trained to do.
"Front door is open. Engine’s running, and he’s got a cell phone pressed to his…shit, do you hear that?" Scout asked.
"Sounds like a chopper headed this way," Neve said. ""Gideon, tell me you're done."
"Two more minutes, and everyone stop talking to me."
Zadie reached for the ladder, and her ribs screamed.
Her knee nearly buckled on the second rung.
She bit down on her lip and did her best to ignore the pain shooting up and down her leg, but at least that sensation reminded her she was alive.
She hit the ground harder than she’d intended, stumbled, and caught herself on the transformer base.
She was going to feel all of this tomorrow. Every bruise, every impact, every place where concrete, steel, and gravel had made themselves known.
"Isaac just jumped into his vehicle, backed up, and took a turn that wasn’t a road. He’s headed northeast, which doesn’t make sense," Scout said.
"There’s a clearing over there," Wynn said. "I can see it from my position."
"Not sure they can land a helicopter over there," Gideon cut in. "But it’s a decent place to come in pretty damn low. The good news is I’m done."
"Everyone head in, and let’s get the hell out of here before we meet anyone else," Neve said.
Zadie didn’t need to be told twice. She ran off, and each time her foot touched the ground, she winced.
Less than a minute later, she was back with her team. Coulter stood at the base of the relay tower. He had his rifle across his chest, and the gauze on his left arm had a fresh spot of red bleeding through.
Neve stood next to him, rifle ready, body still alert.
Gideon crouched, stuffing wires and his laptop into his bag.
"Tell me you got what you needed," Zadie said.
"I got something." Gideon stood, adjusting his bag’s strap.
"Then, let's go." She turned toward the west, took a step, and moaned a little louder than she had wanted to.
Gideon came up alongside her. "You’re hurt."
"It’s not bad."
"You’re limping."
She shrugged.
"Make sure you let Wynn and Darwin take a look at it."
She couldn’t help it. She smiled. It was nice to have someone care about her. Not that the rest of the team wouldn’t have said the same thing, they just wouldn’t have said in the same tone.
"Chopper’s getting closer." Coulter pointed toward the sky. "I don’t want to find out if there are more enhanced soldiers, or if they’re just here to pick up bodies."
She moved a little faster, her heart still hammering in her chest.
They cleared the fence in a staggered line—Scout first, then Neve and Coulter, then Zadie with Gideon's hand on her elbow. Wynn brought up the rear, scanning behind them with her rifle raised.
They staged the SxS vehicles a kilometer out and tucked them under a canopy of cedar where the logging road dead-ended into dense timber.
Three machines. Two seats each. Scout had picked the spot because the tree cover was thick enough to hide them from the air, and the road was firm enough to move fast when they needed to.
The chopper's rhythm had increased in volume. Not directly overhead, but the sound carried through the valley like a drumbeat.
"Scout, take the lead. You know these roads better than the rest of us," Neve said.
"Know is generous," Scout said as she and Wynn climbed into their SxS. "I've studied the map."
"Close enough. Zadie and Gideon you take middle. Coulter and I will take up the rear."
Zadie climbed into the passenger side of the second SxS and regretted every decision her body had made in the last hour. She pulled her rifle across her lap and gripped the roll bar with her free hand.
Gideon swung into the driver's seat, tossed his bag between his feet, and cranked the engine.
"So much for stealth," she said.
"I’m learning you’re not particularly quiet." He threw it into gear.
Scout's vehicle lurched forward, tearing down the logging road with Wynn gripping the roll bar, her hair whipping sideways.
Gideon hit the gas, pressing Zadie into the seat as the SxS sped onto the bumpy trail.
The logging road was barely a road. Two tire-width ruts carved into hard-packed dirt with grass growing between them and branches scraping both sides of the vehicle. The canopy overhead was dense enough to block most of the sky, which was the only reason Zadie's heartbeat wasn't redlining.
"Chopper's coming right at us," Scout said over comms.
"How far?" Neve asked.
"Can't see it through the canopy. But the sound's getting louder."
"Let’s find a spot to get off the road," Neve said. "Keep us going in the wrong direction for a bit."
Scout's vehicle disappeared around a bend. Gideon took the turn hard enough that the SxS tipped onto two wheels for a stomach-dropping second before slamming back down. Zadie's ribs reminded her they existed.
Scout went deeper into the timber, away from the valley, climbing the grade toward the ridge. The trees thickened. Branches slapped the windshield and scraped across the roof cage.
"Chopper's too damn close," Wynn said. "It's flying low, but I can’t see it."
"They're grid-searching," Coulter said.
She gripped the roll bar and grunted as Gideon wrestled the wheel over a root that nearly sent them sideways.
"Find us a spot we can hide with three fucking SxS’s," Neve said. "Or in ten minutes, we’re going to have to split up."
The road climbed. The grade steepened, and the SxS's engines whined with the effort. Zadie watched the canopy above them. The mountainside featured thick, layered, old-growth cedar and fir that loggers hadn’t harvested for decades.
As long as they stayed under it, the chopper couldn't see them. But it was risky to continue moving.
Scout's brake lights flared.
"In about a quarter of a mile there’s a road," Scout said. "And a clearing. If they believe we’re in here, then they’ll believe we have to come out the other side. Our best bet is to hold and see where they go."
"Copy," Coulter said. All three vehicles slowed and stopped, staying hidden in the thick trees.
"Kill engines," Neve said. "We listen and we wait."
Gideon turned the key. Now, the only noise was the thud of rotor blades.
Zadie held her breath.
The helicopter passed overhead. The downdraft moved the upper canopy enough that broken light flickered across the forest floor. The rotor noise grew faint. Then cycled back, louder again, but from a different angle. East now.
"Standard north-south sweep with east-west offsets," Coulter said. "Every pass covers new ground."
"How long until they give up?" Gideon asked.
"Depends on fuel, and how much time Isaac is willing to spend. Could be twenty minutes. Could be an hour."
"Patience is my strong suit," Neve said.
Coulter coughed.
Gideon's hand found Zadie’s on the console between them. He said nothing. Just wrapped his fingers around hers and held on.
The chopper passed again. Further east this time. Each pass took it further from their position.
Minutes bled into each other. Five. Ten. Fifteen.
Zadie listened to the forest reclaim itself. First the silence, then small sounds—a branch shifting, something scurrying in the underbrush. Then a bird. One tentative note followed by another.
The chopper was a ghost now. A faint mechanical hum somewhere to the southeast, barely distinguishable from the blood moving through her own ears.
"I think it’s safe to head back to the bunker," Scout said.
"Give it five more minutes," Neve said.
"How about ten," Coulter added.
Gideon squeezed Zadie’s hand. "How’s the ankle?" he asked.
"Present."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting until we're home."