“Blake?” he said.
“Yes, Captain.”
“What’s going on?”
“We’ve got a problem. Someone knocked Bobby out.”
“What? Is he all right?”
“He’s sore, but he’ll live. Whoever did it grabbed his radio, though.”
Ash looked back toward the road. “The missing guard.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Ash swore under his breath and then asked, “How long since it happened?”
“Not sure. Thirty minutes, maybe.”
Which meant if the guard had been listening in, she’d heard their plans to reposition and would soon be sharing the info with her friends.
“We have to assume we’ve been blown,” Ash said. “We’ll need to readjust. Get word to everyone — sat phones only. I’m going to find someplace where I can see what they’re doing and call you back.”
“Copy that.”
Ash shoved the phone into his pocket so it would be closer at hand, and then angled his path north and a little east.
A bullet flew within a foot of Reni’s head.
“Stop right there!” a voice yelled.
Reni halted and raised her hands as two men stepped out from the trees. “I’m with the Project,” she said.
“No talking!”
While one man aimed his rifle at her, the other approached her and pulled the rifle from her shoulder. After patting her down and finding the spare magazines and radio she’d taken, he stepped back. “That’s it.”
“Name!” the other man demanded.
“Reni Barton. Project Eden security, grade two. Dream Sky.”
She’d hoped her words would be enough to get him to lower his weapon, but the barrel didn’t move.
“You are a long way from your post, Ms. Barton.”
“Dream Sky has been invaded. I was barely able to get away!”
He studied her for a moment, eyes narrowed, and then motioned down the road with a nod. “Let’s go.”
They escorted her to where the five trucks were parked at the side of the road. Two were heavy-duty GMC snowplows, while the other three were SUVs.
“How many of you are there?” she asked.
The main guy answered her with a glare.
His partner disappeared around the side of the vehicles and returned a few moments later with several others.
A hard-looking man with close-cropped hair and matching beard walked right up to Reni. The one in command.
“You’re from Dream Sky?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. Barton, Reni. Security division.”
“So I’ve been told.” He looked her up and down. “All right, Barton, you said Dream Sky’s been taken?”
“Yes, sir.”
“By who?”
“I’m not sure.”
He frowned. “Not sure or don’t know? There’s a big difference.”
“Don’t know, sir,” she said, her mouth dry. “They were—”
“How many did you see?”
She thought for a second. “Maybe a dozen, sir.”
“A dozen? That’s all?”
“That’s all I saw, but there could easily be more.”
“Tell me this, security officer Barton, how the fuck were they able to get in?”
“I wasn’t on duty, sir. I was on level seven. When I returned to my barrack, I found everyone unconscious and tied up so I went to inform my supervisor. That’s when I discovered the others. They’d incapacitated him, too.”
“You didn’t engage them?”
She hesitated. “I thought it was more important to find out all I could and then get word to the Project about what happened.”
“If you’d done that, I would have heard about it.”
“I…I barely escaped and didn’t have a phone.”
A grunt. “I need you to tell me where you saw them, what they were doing, and what kind of weapons they have. Everything.”
“Of course, but there’s something else you need to know first.”
“Oh, really? And what would that be?”
“They know you’re here.”
Several of those behind the man exchanged surprised looks, but the leader just stared at her.
“And how would you know that?” he asked.
“I took their radio.” She nodded toward the man who’d patted her down. “He has it. I heard them making plans. It’s how I knew you were here.” She paused. “They know you plan on approaching the base from the north.
The leader shot his hand out toward her escort. “Give it to me.”
As soon as the man handed over the radio, his boss turned it on but there was only static. He looked at Reni suspiciously.
“They were talking earlier, I swear,” she said. “They’re probably busy getting into position.”
“Tell me exactly what they said.”
When Ash heard the crack of the rifle, his first thought was that he’d been seen. After dropping to the snow, he waited for a second shot but none came. Perhaps the bullet hadn’t been meant for him after all.
Moving up the hill, he found a narrow ridge running across the slope in the direction he wanted to go. After a few hundred yards, he found a pile of boulders that gave him a clear view of the land below. The highway ran parallel to the hills for a quarter mile before diverging eastward, opening a lowland mix of trees and meadows between the two.
Though the sun was still a good thirty minutes from rising, the brightening sky provided enough light to give him a good look at the convoy parked along the highway. A couple of plows and some transport SUVs, enough room for about thirty men. That was more than he would have liked, but a lot fewer than he’d feared.
He scanned the vehicles with his binoculars. Hard to tell, but they looked deserted. There was definitely no one standing around outside. He scanned the meadow the convoy’s occupants would have had to cross if they were taking the path he’d predicted. No one was there, nor did he see marks in the snow a group that size would leave.
“Where are you?” he muttered.
He slowly panned the binoculars across the land adjacent to the highway, stopping every hundred feet or so for a few seconds. His diligence paid off when he saw a shadow slip between two trees. Seconds later several more did the same.
They had bypassed the northern route and were heading closer to town.
No question, then. The Dream Sky guard had definitely overheard Ash’s plans and told her friends.
The ambush he had ordered was not going to work, at least not where it was currently located. So where were these people going? He watched them move farther south. Going through town would be the long way to the hut entrance, but maybe that was no longer their goal.
No. Not their goal at all.
He called Blake and relayed a new set of instructions.
“Probably take us twenty minutes to get ready,” Blake said.
“You’ve got fifteen.”
“I’ll get them moving.”
20
Celeste’s head ached from lack of sleep and too much coffee.
In the past half hour, they had lost contact with seven more bases, and received reports from three others that had sustained so much damage that the locations were now worthless. Three of the Project’s elite strike teams had been completely wiped out, while most others had lost at least a few men.
What she needed was some good news. What she got was—
“Director Johnson?” Dalton said. “Commander Vintner calling in.”
“To me,” Celeste said. As soon as the indicator light began blinking, she answered the call. “Commander, this is Director Johnson. Have you arrived?”