Chapter 8
Rogue kept his rifle trained on the clearing as the two women ran in his general direction. He popped off shots, taking out the searchlight and a few of the tactical team who were firing into the woods. He held off the others while the women ran toward them.
They were well into the shadows and moving quickly. As long as they reached him and then made it to his truck before the men in the SUVs charged into the woods after them, they had half a chance of getting away.
When Keira and Jane were within fifteen feet of him, he rose from his position on a little rise and ran toward them.
Jade ground to a halt and raised her handgun.
Keira stepped between Jade and Rogue. “It’s okay,” Keira said. “He’s with me.”
Still, Jade refused to move.
They didn’t have time to stall.
Bullets pelted the ground and trees around them.
Keira pulled Jade behind a tree. “We have to go.”
Rogue stepped out of the line of fire from the tactical team and faced the frightened woman. “Jade,” Rogue spoke softly, though his tone was intense. “Do you want out? Do you want to find and free Lily?” He’d heard everything Keira had and tapped into the woman’s concern for her sister.
She nodded, her eyes wide and frightened. “Who are you?”
Rogue’s eyes narrowed. “I’m the guy who's going to help you and Keira burn this whole operation to the ground. Are you with us?”
Her eyes still wide, Jade nodded.
“Then come on.” Rogue reached out and took Keira’s hand. “The truck isn’t far.”
The haze of dusk had transitioned into night with stars blinking to life, giving just enough light for Rogue to find his way back to where he’d hidden the truck.
Shouts sounded behind them, and the cracks of rifle fire continued.
As they neared the truck hidden in the underbrush, Keira called out, “I’ll drive. You two cover.” She yanked open the driver’s door, slid behind the wheel and started the engine.
Jade jumped into the back seat, lowered the window and aimed her gun back toward the men crashing through the woods.
Rogue took shotgun in the passenger seat, lowered the window and half-hung out with his rifle, firing toward the shouts.
Keira shifted into gear and punched the accelerator, sending the truck bumping out onto the country road without turning on her headlights or pumping the brakes.
The men following on foot emerged onto the road, shadowy figures firing at them as Keira drove west, away from Bandera.
Balancing precariously out the window, Rogue returned fire. He ducked back in as they approached a curve in the road ahead.
Three sets of headlights flashed on the road behind.
Keira floored the accelerator, skidded around the curve and increased their speed when the road straightened.
Rogue sank back into his seat and rested his rifle across his knees. He brought up the map on his cell phone and provided the navigation to get them out of the area.
As soon as they’d put enough distance and farm roads between them and Kaufman’s mercenaries, Rogue asked, “Are we going back to where we were last night?”
Keira shook her head. “I know of another place we can go for tonight.”
Rogue turned to Jade in the back seat. “Do you still have your cell phone on you?”
Jade nodded and pulled it out of her pocket.
Keira rolled down the windows. “Toss it.”
“I can’t,” Jade said, her brow furrowing.
“You have to,” Keira insisted. “Viktor probably found you by tracking your cell phone.”
“But it’s all I have of my sister,” she said.
“How so?” Rogue asked.
“They’re holding her hostage. Every two weeks, they send me proof of life. She’s only okay as long as I do what they tell me.” Jade brought up a photograph on the screen and passed the phone forward.
Rogue studied the photo of a girl with jet black hair down to her shoulders, petite and pretty like Jade. She was thin with dark circles under her eyes. A date and time stamp had been added to the bottom of the picture, indicating it had been taken two weeks ago.
“I don’t think they’re feeding her enough,” Jade said. “She looks tired and hungry.”
Keira met Jade’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Jade, you have to let it go, or we won’t live through the night to start our search for Lily. Toss the phone.”
Jade stared down at the photo of the teenage girl. “She’s all I have left. I can’t lose her.”
“And you won’t,” Keira said. “But lose the damned phone, or we won’t have the opportunity to save Lily.”
Jade stared down at her sister’s image once more and then tossed the phone out the window.
Keira drove for the next hour, zigzagging on county roads and going deeper into the Hill Country.
When Rogue was beginning to think she’d lost her way, she turned onto a dirt road and drove between overhanging live oak trees, up a steep hill and down into a valley, where a cabin sat tucked into a stand of trees.
It was dark, alone and isolated enough that, maybe, Kaufman’s tactical team wouldn’t find them there.
Keira parked behind the cabin and turned off the engine.
The silence was almost overwhelming after the gunfire and adrenaline rush.
Keira leaned back and peeled her hands off the steering wheel. “Everyone all right?”
Rogue nodded and glanced over his shoulder at Jade.
She sat in the backseat, her face pale, staring out at the night. “I’m okay,” she said. “I just hope Lily is. What is this place?”
“It’s one of my safe houses.” Keira pushed open her door, dropped to the ground and opened Jade’s door. “Come inside. You’re probably hungry and could use a shower.”
Rogue got out with his rifle and looked around the area. Starlight lit the open areas and cast shadows beneath the trees. “You two go inside. I want to scout the perimeter.”
Keira nodded and helped Jade down. She reached for the bag she’d stowed in the back seat and slung it over her shoulders.
Then she hooked Jade’s arm. “You have some cuts and scrapes. I have a first aid kit inside.” Keira led the other woman up the steps to the cabin, fished a key from a gap in the window casing and unlocked the front door.
Rogue conducted a thorough reconnaissance of the area around the cabin, noting trails leading away from the cabin and up a hill.
This building didn’t have the camouflage netting like the other one, but didn’t need it.
Live oak and red oak trees bent over the structure, making it invisible from above.
He suspected this cabin was a backup and not used as often.
When he was satisfied they hadn’t been followed and that he knew which way to go if they had to make a run for it, he retrieved his go-bag from the back seat of the truck and entered the cabin.
He followed the voices into a kitchen.
Jade sat in a chair next to a table while Keira sorted through a first aid kit. She pulled out alcohol pads and bandages and worked on the cuts and scrapes across Jade’s arms.
“He’s going to kill her,” Jade was saying. “I didn’t complete my mission. He’s going to kill Lily.”
Keira applied a bandage to a cut on Jade’s hand.
“He won’t. Not if he thinks he can get you to come back.
We need to get Lily away from Onyx and shut down their entire training program.
What they’re doing isn’t right. None of us should’ve been turned into weapons and then lied to about the missions we were assigned. ”
Jade nodded. “How could we be so gullible?”
“They were very effective in their brainwashing techniques. They took the most vulnerable girls, like me. I had no one and no place to go. They made me feel like I belonged, like I had purpose and was doing good for our country. That’s pretty powerful for girls who have been victims. We finally had the training to protect ourselves and the power to protect our country.
” Keira snorted. “Only it wasn’t about protecting our country.
It was about protecting their personal, political and financial interests.
With our testimonies, we can stop them and put an end to their misuse of girls and young women. ”
Jade stared into Keira’s eyes. “I'll give you everything—names, dates, locations of all Viktor's operations I’m aware of. I’ll sign anything you want and testify in court, even if it means I go to jail. But only if you help me get Lily out first."
“Do you know where he’s keeping her?” Rogue asked.
Jade nodded. “The main compound—West Texas, near the Mexican border. It's where they train new recruits.”
Keira frowned. “It’s where I was taken as a new recruit.”
“It’s where all of us were initially trained,” Jade said.
Keira met Rogue’s gaze. “It's a fortress. It’s hard to get into and nearly impossible to get out. They keep recruits there until they’ve assimilated and succumbed to the indoctrination.
Then they move the assets to a less fortified compound near Corsicana and give them a little more freedom of movement, always bringing them in for more propaganda and programming. "
“Get my sister out, and I’ll do anything you want,” Jade said.
“We will,” Rogue said, his eyes narrowing. “Since the compound won’t be easy to breach, we’ll need a plan.”
“I can help,” Jade said. “Since completing new recruit training and indoctrination, I’ve been back several times for briefings.”
Keira’s lips twisted. “It’s been a while since I’ve been back. If the layout hasn’t changed, I recall where most of the buildings are located.”
“It hasn’t changed,” Jade assured her.
“It’s suicide,” Keira frowned. “Even with insider knowledge.”
“Possibly,” Rogue said. “But we don’t have a choice. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Okay, then,” Keira said. “We plan.” She left the kitchen and returned a minute later with a long cardboard tube. She shook out the contents, revealing a map of Texas. They spread it across the table and located the area where the compound was.
Then Keira flipped the map over, produced a couple of pencils and handed one to Jade.