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CHAPTER5
“We’re goingto have to move up the timetable,” Vern snapped. He was pissed, and everyone knew it.
“I thought it was set in stone,” Stryker said. “This is a pretty complicated operation to start making changes.”
“It’ll be a disaster if something like a bunch of strangers fucks it up,” Vern pointed out. A muscle ticked in his jaw.
They had stashed Leslie against one wall of what she’d discovered was a mammoth cave. A large portion was taken up by giant trucks, and the rest of the place was set up for people to stay there. Did they live here or what?
“Don’t move,” the man named Vern ordered her. “We’ll decide what to do with you later. If you’re a good girl, we might not kill you right away.”
Nausea bubbled in her throat, and she clenched her fists in her lap. Kill her? She prayed silently that Brotherhood Protectors would look for her and find her before that could happen. Meanwhile, she’d make herself as invisible as possible. Five rows of huge trucks were parked neatly along one wall, stretching deep into the cave itself. She assumed most of them were loaded, but there were still rows of crates stacked ready to be loaded. She had no idea what was in them, but she was damn sure it was nothing good.
She wished she knew who these men were. There were at least fifteen of them in the mammoth cave, maybe more, and none of them looked very friendly. Despite the fact they dressed like bums, there was a military air about them enhanced by obvious arrogance. These were no run-of-the-mill criminals, and whatever they planned was a lot more than something like a holdup or bank robbery.
She was sure by this time people had noticed her extended absence from the campground and hopefully instituted a search for her. She figured her best bet was to huddle in the corner and not make a sound. Maybe they’d get so busy, they’d forget she was there.
Huh. Fat chance.
“We need to have a satellite call,” Vern told the others. “First, let’s get the guys still out there back here. Get everyone online, lock down the timetable, and start moving out.”
“We’d already planned to stagger our exits,” Stryker pointed out. “At the time, we didn’t know we’d have an audience, but this works to our advantage. Our exit’s no different than we designed it. We don’t need to make any changes, except maybe in the size of the groups. We’ll just send a small one out each hour and assign them different routes once they hit the bottom of the mountain. A caravan is sure to attract some attention.”
“Why can’t we adjust the way we roll the trucks out of here?” a man leaning against a stack of crates asked. “A few each day.”
“Because we don’t have the luxury of time anymore, asshole,” Stryker snapped. “If that crowd across the way is aware of us, that throws a monkey wrench into the works. They may decide to come after us and play the heroes.”
“Don’t forget,” Stryker reminded them. “We have the woman. When she doesn’t return, they’ll figure we have her, and rightly so. Probably mount a search for her. She’s a good bargaining chip.”
“And then what do we do once we’re out of here?” the man by the truck asked. “Get rid of her?”
Vern nodded. “If we have to. But we can’t leave a trace of her. Not like we did with those other idiots we just tossed down the mountain like they’d had motorcycle accidents.”
“But it worked,” Stryker reminded him.
“Because there was nothing else going on at the time. But now we’ve got this crowd of people I discovered are something called the Brotherhood Protectors. The situation is different. These guys are all former military who decided to become do-gooders and won’t be happy with us. They can find us if we hang around here much longer. And we’ve got to get those explosives out of here.”
“Maybe we can use her as a bargaining chip,” one of the other men offered. “That is, if we get squeezed into a tight corner.”
“That means we need to get started as soon as possible,” Rusty told them.
“It’s going to take twenty-four hours to complete this,” Vern reminded everyone. “If we start tonight, we’ll have some wiggle room when we get to our destination to gather everyone and get set up. But we need to have a backup plan if something gets fucked up.”
“Well, no one’s leaked a word of the target so far,” a man named Gates brought up. “If we use different routes and spread it out, and are careful about reaching the gathering spot, we should be okay. I do agree that all those explosives demand careful handling.”
Vern’s lips stretched in an evil smile. “I can’t wait for the big boom. Lotta people gonna be shocked.”
Gates nodded. “We’ve been so quiet, they probably wrote us off. Big mistake on their part.”
“Until those assholes on the other mountain showed up. Fuck it all anyway.”
“But, after this, we won’t have any trouble taking control of this country. Yes, indeed.” Leslie thought his smile was evil. “Everything will be ours.”
“Well.” Stryker took a gulp from his water bottle. “We’d better finish loading the goods so we can get started. Want me to set up the satellite call?”
Vern nodded. “If you would. Then we have to decide what to do with this bitch here.” The stare he gave her was pure evil. “Maybe we’ll take her with us and use her as an example.”
A chill raced down Leslie’s spine. She had no idea what he had in mind, but she knew it was no good. The chill grew more intense when they began hauling the crates over to the trucks and opening them to check the contents. From her seat, it was hard to miss the guns and what she could identify as explosives. She’d attended a seminar on them for an article she wrote, and she’d never forget what they looked like.
God! She had to find a way out of here and let everyone know what was going on. Maybe if she made herself as invisible as possible they’d forget about her. Open the door again and she could slip out.
“Meanwhile,” Gates added, “we need a non-threatening presence outside in case anyone is out looking for the little tumbleweed here. You know, if she doesn’t get back to where she was, that’s gonna happen. We don’t want them to see any of us and get suspicious.”
Vern nodded. “Good idea. Hey, Jocko.”
