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CHAPTER8
Leslie shifted in her position,wriggling her feet and her hands to keep them from falling asleep, but without moving them too much so she didn’t call attention to herself. So far, these men had been too focused on their situation—whatever it was—to pay the kind of attention to her they probably should. She could see that as time passed, they were getting restless, and why not? When she managed to sneak a look at her watch, she realized she’d been inside with them for more than an hour. She herself was getting twitchy, and she didn’t have a big deal like whatever they were involved with sitting on her shoulders.
Just making sure I don’t get killed.
An air of edginess had drifted over the men, disturbing the sense of arrogance they’d worn when they first brought her into the cave. Some of them were sitting on big smooth boulders, cleaning their weapons. Others were toward the back of the cave, doing exercises. But Vern and the men she’d figured from observing that he was closest to were gathered in front of one of the trucks. And Vern was pacing in a narrow space, flipping his key ring back and forth. She kept hoping they’d forget about her, except then how would she get out of there?
Where the hell was Roman McClain and the Brotherhood Protectors? Beck made them all sound like they walked on water, so how come they hadn’t located her yet and swooped in to rescue her?
How come I was so arrogantly stupid as to think I could go haring off on my own in unfamiliar territory and not even bother to tell anyone what I was doing?
“We can’t hang around here forever,” Stryker said, for what must have been the tenth time.
“And we won’t.” Vern’s voice was hard and even, a sure sign that he was having a hard time controlling his anger. “Damn. We had this planned so well. How did it get so fucked up?”
“Something fell through the cracks.” Rusty raked his fingers through his slightly longish hair. “We were sure we had all the bases covered.”
“We for sure didn’t plan for those assholes who are playing war games or whatever, one mountain away from us,” Stryker reminded them. “Damn, Vern. How did we miss that?”
“The guy in charge of that group apparently has connections up the ass. They wanted to do their little dog-and-pony show under the radar, and apparently they have the clout to make that happen. I had to do a little digging to find that out.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. “I’m calling Monte to run everything past him. He needs to know what’s happening, and he can get us a sitrep from his location.”
“Okay. Let us know what he says so we can figure out if we have to make any changes.”
“We also need to know what those assholes across from us have planned. We can send someone out through the escape tunnel to keep an eye on them. What if they decided to go exploring over here, for whatever reason? We can’t have them rolling up on us and scoping out the territory.”
“Yes, send someone out through one of the tunnels,” one of the men hollered. “We’ve got enough of them.”
“Yeah,” someone else added. “We all agreed from the beginning we needed a way to get out of here that doesn’t involve raising the big door. And to do it in a way we can’t be seen. Lucky for us, this mountain is filled with narrow tunnels, many of them carved by rainwater running through the rock.”
“Lucky we have one with an exit,” Rusty said. “We can use it without being seen, and it has a place to use for a lookout.”
“Okay.” Vern blew out a breath. “Rusty, you’ve done lookout work the most. Navigating the tunnels is easiest for you. Get your ass out there and see what’s going on. Take that new two-way radio with you. I’m going to give Monte a call.”
Rusty picked up the small leather case that held their newest toy, took one unit out, and gave it to Vern then climbed up a small stack of rocks to an opening in the cave wall. Leslie watched until he had completely disappeared.
Vern walked away from the rest of the group, punching a number into his cell as he moved. He stopped just past the cab of the truck that Leslie was doing her best to hide behind.
“Monte? Yeah, it’s Vern. I wanted to touch base with you and let you know what’s going on here.”
In brief sentences, he gave him a quick rundown of the situation. Leslie listened carefully, stunned to realize these men were planning some kind of attack somewhere in the United States with the goal of killing a lot of people and destroying a lot of property. But she had a feeling the chosen target was a lot more than just “some place,” and the fallout would be disastrous.
“Yeah, okay.” Vern turned and headed back toward the other men. “Fine. Just keep everything the way it is until I give you a call that we’ve started moving out. Maybe we’ll be lucky and not have to make any adjustments at all. If we do, I’ll call you with a new schedule. Pass the word to everyone there that we may have to make some adjustments. What?” He frowned. “No, we’re not calling this off. It’s too important and too long in the planning. We will pull this off successfully. Right now, my priority here is getting these jerk wads off our backs. Okay. Got it. I’ll call you when I have an update.”
“Well?” Stryker asked.
“No changes for the moment. We have to see what’s going on outside and let Monte know if we need to alter our departure in any way.” He looked at his watch. “Let me see if Rusty has eyeballed anything. Then we’ll decide what to do. We have a very small window here, and I don’t want to blow it.”
“What about Miss Bright Eyes over there?” Dewey Russell asked. “What do you want to do with her?”
Vern glanced back at where Leslie was doing her best to be invisible.
“Well, now. Maybe she can be of some use after all.”
Fear tightened into a ball in Leslie’s stomach, and she began to silently pray.
* * *
“Heads up.”Hank’s voice sounded in everyone’s headphones. “Daks is almost at your position, Roman. Everyone else be alert. Acknowledge.”
Beck heard a series of “Rogers” and “ten-fours.” She and Roman moved up to the shoulder of the road just seconds before an SUV rounded a curve and pulled over onto the shoulder.
“Okay.” Beck studied him. “So do you have any idea where to start searching for these explosives? In the cave? I that’s what they are?”
“Oh, I’m sure of it,” he assured her. “Especially after hearing about this event that’s tailor-made to be a target for them. I have to wait for Paladin, so what I’d like to do is have the other four teams scope this road more intensely. They’ve been taking a deliberately lazy ride on it. Now I can tell them better what to look for. Let’s see if we can pin down some likely places they’re hiding this shit.”
“Good.” Leo said what Beck knew they all were thinking. “Let’s divide up the road on both sides of the mountain into sections and study every inch of it. If they’ve got trucks, we’ll find them as well as whatever’s on them.”
“And find Leslie at the same time,” Beck reminded them, “before they decide she’s of no use to them.”
“Okay, everyone, get going. Roman, let me know when Daks gets there with Paladin.”
They didn’t have long to wait. It seemed barely seconds had passed before a small pickup crested the little rise in the road and pulled over to the shoulder. Before Daks could even exit the truck and open the door, Roman was there being greeted by Paladin. The Belgian Malinois nudged Roman’s chin then waited while Roman snapped the leash on and escorted him from the truck.
“Jagd,” he told the dog, a word Beck knew meant hunt.
