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Judge drove the number of miles he remembered from his mad dash to Kalispell, stopping half a mile short of the turnoff.
He pulled off the road, parked the SUV behind some trees and jumped out. The other SUV pulled in behind his SUV.
Hank handed him a bulletproof vest loaded with ammo magazines and a small flashlight. Judge slipped his arms into the vest and buckled the front clips. Then Hank handed him a radio headset. Once Judge had the earbud in his ear, Hank spoke into the radio, “Lead the way.”
Judge didn’t wait for the others to finish gearing up but headed through woods, keeping parallel to the highway. The clouds had moved on, and the sky was clear with a billion stars shining down, lighting the way. He followed the highway until he could see the break in the trees ahead where the road cut back to the camp. He turned and headed in, his pulse picking up, his pace increasing.
Hank stayed on his heels. As they neared the camp, the trees thinned.
“Slow up,” Hank said.
Judge waited for Hank to come up beside him.
He could barely see into camp, but he could already tell there was no movement.
“They’re gone,” Judge said softly.
“Maybe so, but we can’t charge in until we know for sure,” Hank said.
Judge’s heart slipped to the bottom of his belly. They were gone. PJ would have gone with them.
Unless… His gut knotted. Unless they blamed her for letting him get away with Mud. In that case, they might have left her behind. The only way they would have done that was if she were…
Judge lurched forward. He didn’t want to find her there, but he had to know.
Hank ran alongside him.
As they neared the perimeter, Hank grabbed his arm to bring him to a sudden stop and held onto to him to keep him from pitching forward.
Anger surged in Judge’s chest at being held back until Hank pointed at a thin wire stretched between the trees at shin level.
“Look out for trip wires,” he said softly into his radio for the others to hear. He had his man Taz move forward and position himself at the wire to get the others through safely.
Hank and Judge, followed by the others, carefully stepped over the wire and moved slowly through the woods to the edge of the camp, searching for any other boobytraps that might have been left behind.
When they reached the outer chain link fence topped with concertina wire, Hank had Bear come forward with the bolt cutters he’d been tasked to carry. He made quick work of cutting through the fence until there was a hole big enough for them to get through.
Judge was first inside the compound. Hurrying past the empty yard where all the vehicles had been parked only hours ago, he headed straight for the infirmary. It was the last place he’d seen PJ.
The door was ajar. Judge unclipped the flashlight from his vest and shined it into the old house. The folding table and chair that had been in the front reception area were gone. The desk and cabinet containing medical supplies were gone from the next room. He pushed through to the back room where he’d found Mud and where PJ had helped him collect the teen. The bed and IV pole she’d flipped over to make it look like they’d fought were gone.
The room was empty, as if no one or nothing had been there. Except for a few dark spots on the floor, it was clean.
Judge aimed the beam of his flashlight at the spots and squatted to get a closer look.
“Dried blood,” Hank said behind him.
Judge nodded, his heart clenching in his chest. It wasn’t enough blood for a bleed-out, and he couldn’t be sure who it belonged to, but he’d bet it was PJ’s.
“All the buildings are clear,” a voice said into Judge’s headset. “They’re gone.”
Judge straightened, his gaze still on the dried blood. “That’s it then,” he said softly. “We’re back to square one.”
Hank laid a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find them.”
“Augustus is actively and aggressively recruiting. He’s planning something.”
“Then we have to find him sooner than later.” Hank squeezed his shoulder and dropped his hand. “Come on. Let’s go home. A convoy of trucks that big will have to show up somewhere. I’ll get Swede looking through online security cameras. Maybe we can get a general direction and go from there.”
