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Golden sunrise highlighted the granite bulging from a field on his right. Reese crossed the parking area while trying to look as if he was just another person supposed to be there, breezing past a couple more uniforms and around the other side of the building into waist-high grass.
How the hell was he supposed to find a path?
An engine revved, and he startled. A Hummer pulled from its parking space, backing up far enough for the bumper to extend past the edge of the building. Reese pressed himself against the wall using the shadows for cover. If someone saw him, they’d ask questions.
A cloud of exhaust puffed from the tailpipe, and it pulled away.
Reese leaned forward, but there was nothing else within sight, meaning he wasn’t within sight.
He pushed through the grass, looking for anything that resembled a footpath. After a couple hundred feet, a narrow bare strip of ground cut a zig-zagged line down a steep ledge.
It barely qualified as a deer trail, let alone something people walked on.
Equipment clanged from inside the building, and someone shouted. It might have been an order, a warning, or a dozen other responses, but it sounded too close to Reese’s name.
He hurried down the hill.
More voices rose, blending with the rattle of grass swaying in the wind.
Fear pushed Reese faster, and the trail cut a path into the incline as it steepened to a near-vertical drop-off.
Reese slid to a halt.
Had he taken a wrong turn?
Reese backed up.
Grass and rocks parted, and he teetered forward.
Reese threw his arms out, successfully keeping himself from nose-diving over the near-vertical slope.
He exhaled a sigh. “That was—” The dirt crumbled, and he ass-planted on the ground. Gravity pulled Reese forward, sending him into a tumble. Briars and sticks gouged his exposed skin, and his sweats did nothing against the burs pricking the back of his legs. He buried his face against his forearms to protect his eyes. The ground leveled out faster than he expected, and he came to a stop.
Reese lifted his head.
Stone walls cradled an abyss of water.
The abandoned quarry wasn’t as large as some he’d seen, but it plummeted a good fifty feet before it even reached the pool at the bottom, where green algae turned the water opaque. It could have been a foot deep or a hundred.
Reese pushed himself up.
The edge of the dirt cliff slid away, sending a stream of dried soil to beat ripples into the surface.
He froze, hoping if he was still the ground wouldn’t give way. Then another cascade of soil broke apart near his thigh and he had no choice but to climb. He got to his knees only to have the ground drop. A thick hand closed on Reese’s wrist, stopping his descent with enough force his shoulder popped and lightning shot through his scapula.
Reese was pulled from over the edge.
“Thank’s that was—” Reese lifted his gaze.
The man who held him stood over six-foot and had a wide chest and hard earth-brown eyes.
Eyes that belonged to the monster who almost killed him.
A dead man named Paul Dekker.
* * *
Jonathan watched the warehouse through his binoculars.
