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I think they’re either out or they’re sleeping. I saw the guy who looked like the leader of the group from yesterday wandering around but haven’t seen the two from the grocery store.”
Jason continued munching on his crackers and chasing them down with swigs from a bottle of water. When he finished he belched, crumpled up the wrapper and threw it in his bag and stretched his back and shoulders. “What’s the plan, then? Any thoughts?”
“I’m just doing what you said, watching and waiting.”
“We’ve done plenty of that. Now it’s time to figure out a plan.”
Dianne flipped through her notebook to a sketch of the encampment she had drawn as a reference for her notes. “There are too many of them for us to take on in a direct assault.”
“I like how you’re already talking about assaulting their encampment.” Jason grinned.
“Do you want to go down there and negotiate?” Dianne turned to look at Jason. “There’ve been more than a few people who’ve traded with them and gone their way without any issues.”
“Hm.” Jason got his binoculars back out. “I was joking but now that you mention it, that might not be a terrible idea.”
“Jason. I was joking. There’s no way in hell we should go down there and talk to them. Even with our weapons we’d be no match for their numbers. I mean, sure, we might get them to talk to us and everything would be okay. But the risk of dying is big enough that I don’t think we should even attempt it.”
“So what’s your idea?”
Dianne pointed at the sketch of the compound in her notebook. “See there near the left side at the back where they have those burned out cars on the slope? A few of them don’t look like they were shored up very well. I bet we could sneak in back there at night, go through the cars and head for the shed where they’re keeping Tina.”
“What then?”
“I assume we’d sneak back out, go around the compound and hike back to the truck.”
“Hm.” Jason grunted again. “I like the core concept but I think it needs some work.”
Dianne laughed. “Okay, Mr. Expert. You tell me what we should do.”
“Yeah, yeah. Give me a few minutes. I’m thinking.”
Jason and Dianne sat quietly while Jason looked at both the compound and Dianne’s sketch. After a few minutes of pondering he pointed out across the road. “We need to distract them. Get their attention off of the back of the compound and out towards the front.”
“How do you propose we do that?”
Jason looked up at the sky. “It’ll be dark in a few hours. Once the sun goes down I’ll head down and position myself a few hundred feet to the right, along the east side. You’ll head down to the west side near those burned out cars along the fence. I’ll set up enough noise to pull every single one of them over to the east side while you go in, get Tina and get out. We’ll meet back up at the truck and get out of here.”
“That sounds incredibly risky for you.”
Jason chuckled. “Risky? You’re the one who’ll have to go inside the compound and get her out!”
Dianne thought about Jason’s proposal before finally nodding her approval. “Fine. We’ll do it. But if anything goes wrong I want you to get out of there. I’m going to do the same. We can’t help her or anyone else if we’re dead.”
“All joking aside I really think this is the least risky solution. I’ll be far enough from the compound that I can just slip away and head back to the truck. You’re going to be the one in real danger. If you end up getting stuck and need help just fire off three quick shots and I’ll head back.”
“I sure as hell hope I don’t need to do that.”
“Me too, D. Me too.”
Chapter 14
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
Outside Colorado Springs, CO
“Did you at least get his name?”
Rick rubbed his eyes and groaned. “No. Again. I did not get his name. Or his rank.”
