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CHAPTER7
They waitedin place another fifteen minutes, just to see if there was any action on the road, before they decided it was time to get going.
“Okay, it’s time to get the troops moving again.” Roman nudged her with his elbow.
Beck nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Roman pressed the button on his headphones.
“McClain here. Call out.”
Everyone identified themselves and gave their position.
“Okay,” he went on, “here’s the deal. Beck and I are heading down this road and around to the one on the other side of the mountain. We want to approach where we heard engines from the other side.”
“We heard them, too,” Dean Turner told him. “But everything echoes around here, and we’ve been trying to figure out the exact location.”
“Where are you now?” Roman asked them.
“Close to the top of the mountain,” the other man told him. “But I believe we’re on the same side of it as y’all.”
“Hold position,” Roman told him, “until we change ours.”
“Roger that.”
“This is Leo,” a voice broke in. “Cygny and I are not far from Dean and Melody, but we’re on a dirt path that breaks off from the paved road. Want us to take a look around?”
Roman thought for a moment. “Not on the bikes. If you can do it using the bushes and trees to hide yourselves, go for it. Just keep in mind, these guys might have lookouts stationed somewhere, and we don’t want them to see you.”
“Copy that. If we see anything, we’ll signal with three clicks.”
“Logan? Walker? Report in with your status.”
Logan Tackett answered first. “At the bottom of the road on the opposite side from where you are. Just waiting for your orders.”
“Ditto.” This was Walker.
“Hold your positions,” Roman told them. “We’re heading in that direction in a minute.”
The others acknowledged.
“Okay.” Roman rose to his feet. “Time to move this along.”
Once the cycle was back on the road, he straddled it, waited for Beck to climb on behind him, then began slowly coasting down the twisting, turning pavement. The feel of his body where she was pressed against him would have been a distraction if she hadn’t been so totally focused on what they were doing.
She gave silent thanks that the road pitched as much as it did so they could coast all the way to the bottom. She did wonder why they met no one on their way down. If the Loyalists were truly here, why wasn’t there a sign of them? Or anyone else, for that matter. The more she thought about it, the fact they hadn’t seen another soul was just too weird.
Where were the motorcycles they’d heard? Where had they and whoever was riding them disappeared to?
When they reached the end of the road, they turned on to the one that wound around the base of the mountain. Again she thought it weird that they hadn’t seen a single person.
Roman looked at her over his shoulder. “Ready for this?”
“Ready to find my sister and shut down these assholes.”
“Okay. Let’s hope this will lead us to them.”
Roman kicked on the engine and headed to the other side of the mountains where the road that crested at the top began its opposite journey. Beck concentrated on looking for signs that vehicles had traveled this road recently. They had gone about a quarter of a mile when she spotted something and tapped Roman on the shoulder.
“We need to scope this out,” she told him. “Pull over.”
He nodded and edged the motorcycle over to the edge of the road. She hopped off and pointed to some marks on the dirt shoulder. Roman crouched down beside her.
“Good spotting,” he told her.
The marks were faint and obviously not new but visible enough to have caught Roman’s attention. And when you looked close enough, you could see that they were layered, as if either more than one truck had swerved here or the same truck made a lot of trips.
“Definitely truck tires,” Roman told her. “See how wide they are? Not motorcycles or mountain bikes or any other narrow vehicles. I’d say heavy-duty trucks. And loaded.”
Beck frowned. “With what?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. I think it depends on whatever they’ve got planned for their big event. And look. Either one truck made a lot of trips, or several trucks came this way. The road takes a little swerve here and, when the truck or trucks came around the curve in the road, they veered slightly onto the shoulder.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and shot some pictures.
“We need to let everyone know,” Beck reminded him. “The teams and Hank. And look for other indications of heavy vehicles in this area. We need the teams up here to help us look. And as invisible as possible. They can be tourists looking for whatever. Or stopping to take pictures of the great view. Whatever. They can be creative enough. They’re all smart people who are used to this kind of stuff.”
“Yes. Right. Okay, let’s get them up here.”
She heard the click in her ear as he activated his headphones again.
“All teams. Proceed to access the far side of the mountains, away from the view of the Brotherhood Protectors’ setup. Space yourselves out. Watch for tire tracks on the shoulder. Both sides. Be sure to get pictures. Act like you’re taking tourist pictures of the scenery.”
“I think we can figure that out,” Logan snarked.
