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“Sounds inviting,” Joe said. “Let’s go.”
The first stairway they came to was a fire escape connected to the outside of a building. The rusted metal was flaking badly and had pulled away from the building in several places. Definitely unsafe.
Kurt pushed on it with his boot and the entire thing swayed. “That’s not going to support either of us.”
“Let’s find another way,” Joe said.
He found a caved-in part of the roof where one side of a concrete slab had dropped. It angled down into the building like an off-ramp. The wet surface was slick and they scaled it carefully, sliding the last few feet.
The interior of the building was a dank, fetid world. Rainwater was dripping through a hundred cracks in the ceiling; plants and vines grew in many places. Several inches of muck covered the floor.
“Housekeeping must be on strike,” Kurt mused.
The infrared goggles were useless inside the dark concrete building, but they soon found an inner stairway, forced the door open and began descending toward a bridge that led between two buildings.
“If we cross here, we can get down to the ground level without having to go outside,” Kurt said.
“Staying inside won’t keep us dry,” Joe said, sidestepping some
more runoff, “but at least it’ll keep us out of sight.”
They crossed the span with caution, avoiding the gaping holes and burgeoning cracks that suggested the bridge would not remain in place for much longer. And came out on the other side. Kurt dropped down to one knee and signaled for Joe to hold up.
“I was wrong,” Kurt whispered.
“You? No.”
Kurt nodded. “Not everyone is out of sight. There’s a patrol on the hillside. Two men. From up there, they will see us as soon as we hit open ground.”
* * *
• • •
PATROLLING in the rain was miserable duty. So thought every soldier who’d ever been forced to do it.
Han’s men were no different. They did as ordered, but they didn’t have to like it. They started out hiking up the central hill that dominated the island; climbing through the foliage was even more difficult than navigating the slick and well-worn stairs. The arrived at the top of the hill and took their positions.
“You see anything?” the leader of the two asked.
His partner shook his head. “Something’s wrong with my equipment,” he said, pulling off his night vision goggles. “All I see are flares.”
The leader pulled the hood back on his rain slicker and stepped over to his subordinate. Each of them had a pair of night vision goggles, but the scopes were less effective in the rain. Raindrops, like all water, bend and refract light. Studying the terrain through the falling drops was like looking through a kaleidoscope.
The leader looked through the goggles and then handed them back. “Turn down the resolution.”
He did the same with his own. The lightning in the distance was another problem. The goggles had a circuit that prevented it from blinding them, but it still caused flaring on the screen that lasted for several seconds each time it flashed.
“Why are we even out here?” the subordinate said, putting his goggles back on and pulling the rain gear up over his head.
“Because the boss wants you here,” a voice said.
Han’s men turned but they were too late. One took a tree branch to the face, the other a gut punch and then a knockout blow to the back of the head when he doubled over.
By the time they woke up, they were bound and gagged, tied to a tree, and had been relieved of their weapons, ponchos and night vision gear.
* * *
• • •
