Danny pulled his cap out of the pocket on his cargo pants and let it float up. As it breached the surface, Danny saw the familiar trace of a bullet fired through water—not unlike a jet stream racing across the sky. The guy was trigger-happy—nervous. Danny knew he had two or three seconds before the sniper was ready for him again. He couldn’t let that happen. Danny shoved toward the surface, swinging his Springfield up as he broke through the water and emptied the magazine into the man standing at the edge of the pool—four, five, six, seven shots. The man staggered back and fell—clearly dead—and Danny gasped for air. His arm was aching and bleeding—the bullet had torn straight through his left triceps.
Danny clutched at his own arm and stepped out of the water, climbing up beside the dead sniper. He tore off a strip of the soldier’s uniform and used it to wrap his arm. Then he untucked and unbuttoned the sniper’s shirt and placed a large rock on top of his chest. He buttoned the man’s shirt back up as far as he could, dragged him into the water, and shoved him into the deepest part of the pool. Danny watched him sink and then climbed back up toward Blake. They needed to hide the other bodies to hopefully prevent Qi Jia from narrowing their search to this one river—if they hadn’t already.
SIXTY-ONE – Mountain Ghosts (Hayley)
Danny was angry now… perhaps more than he’d ever been. More than I’ve ever seen him anyway. Blake had followed Danny after the escaping sniper and was now helping him come back up the mountain to us. When I saw Danny’s arm bandaged up, I panicked, but he glared at me and waved off my concern. “I’m fine.”
You don’t look fine. Ava wrapped her arms around him, but he even brushed her off. “Let’s bury these assholes.” He stepped away from Ava.
Eddie, Blake, and I hurriedly helped him bury the bodies of the other soldiers. Flynn and Ava were on lookout, watching and listening for any approaching danger. Satisfied the bodies wouldn’t be found, we grabbed all our gear and nearly ran down into the valley. Danny wouldn’t tell us what had happened with the last sniper—or even why we were in such an obvious hurry now—except to say we didn’t have to worry about him. I figured Danny knew they were on to us and didn’t want to say it. They are coming.
We moved steadily downhill for almost an hour before coming to a sudden stop. “Damn,” I heard Blake say.
I was right behind him. “What?”
He pointed ahead of us at a large rock and clay wall in the middle of the river.
“You’re hilarious,” I whispered.
“It’s a non-sexual double entendre,” he replied. “A dam with a damn big hole in it. Someone blew it up.”
He appeared to be right. We moved up the north side of the river to the clay wall and looked down the steep waterfall that now split the two sides of the dam—likely the result of a Qi Jia drone strike some time ago. It was a long way down to the river valley below—couldn’t even see the actual base of the falls. “I’ve been here a few times before and never seen more than a controlled stream below this dam. That…”—He pointed at the wide river below. —“looks more like the Mississippi.”
Flynn, Eddie and Ava had already joined us and Danny was approaching now. “Have you guys gone up there yet?” He pointed at the rock platform above us.
“No, we were just checking out the damage—looking down the falls,” Blake replied, a slight grin on his face.
“Would you stop it already?” I elbowed him.
“How far down is that?” Flynn asked.
Blake shrugged. “Four hundred, five hundred feet… who knows? A lot higher than Niagara Falls if that gives you a better idea.”
“So you’d die if you fell down it?”
Blake smiled at her and nodded. “Twice.”
“Was that Redlands we saw down there?” I pointed southwest of our location.
“Yep.” Blake nodded. “Should we check it out, Danny?” Blake, suddenly serious again, pointed at the ledge above us.
Blake and Danny crawled up to the rock ledge and looked down into the valley. They came back to us a few minutes later. I didn’t like the look on either of their faces. “What?” I asked.
“Go look for yourself,” Blake nodded toward the ledge. Eddie, Flynn, and I scooted up the slope and peered over the dam’s edge at a mass of soldiers gathered around a bridge below us. The bridge was about three-quarters of a mile west of our perch, with vehicles on both sides and constantly crossing over it—all loaded with soldiers. Some trucks were heading up into the mountains—another hint they didn’t yet know for certain where we were. I noticed they were only going up the north side though. Whoever had blown out the middle of this dam was stupid. There was no road up the south side of the dam anymore. However, there were two helicopters in a large parking lot below the dam’s control tower—three-quarters of the way up the south side. No doubt troops there were watching over the valley. We were in a funnel, and the end was a dead one.
This roadblock was not at all unexpected—it did cover four of the roads into Redlands and Riverside beyond it. But there didn’t seem to be any way we could descend from the dam without being seen. And even if we could… there didn’t appear to be any way around the soldiers.
Eddie, Flynn, and I slid back down to Ava, Danny and Blake. “What do we do?” I asked Danny.
“Nothing we can do. We have to wait for dark.”
“But—”
“I know, Hayley—we might not have time for that. If they get Keena to launch the missiles and shut down the Shield before then, we’ll be too late. It won’t even matter then. But honestly, they could fire the missiles whenever—any minute now even. They’re not waiting for our permission.” He seemed defeated.
What happened to the angry Danny from an hour ago? “We can’t give up.” I looked to Blake and Eddie for support. “And we can’t just sit here for another six hours.”
“What do you want me to do?” Danny snapped. “What do you propose we do?”
“Easy, Dan.” Blake gently placed his hand on my brother’s arm. “She just wants to know if there are any alternatives.” Danny relaxed a little and Blake continued. “Can you think of anything? What would you do if it were dark now?”
Danny took a while before answering. “I don’t know.” He leaned his head back against the rock wall and closed his eyes. “We could steal a helicopter if we had a pilot. No offense, Blake, but you’re just learning how to fly a plane.”
“None taken.”
“With a hundred or so guys down there,” Danny continued, “we can’t just go down the face of this dam in broad daylight and walk—or swim—past them. It’s just so exposed—almost no cover…” He paused. “If it were dark it’d be no problem—we’d just climb down around it.”
“So let’s do that.”
“Now?” He opened one eye, watched me nod, then closed it again. “Come on Hayley. Didn’t you see the helicopters? They’re watching from above too.”
“I know…but why not?”
“I just explained it. It’s ridiculous. You don’t think there are guys on that bridge assigned to just watch this canyon?”
“But what if we didn’t stand out?”
Danny still hadn’t opened his eyes. “But we would.”