Horton pointed at Summer. “I tracked you, didn’t I? Couple of times.”
“I thought that was the fat Rambo guy?” Summer asked.
“Who, Slayer?”
“Yeah, that asshat.”
“He was team commander, but I did all the tracking.”
Summer brought her focus to Krista, her eyes indicating she was looking for advice.
Krista shrugged. “No way to know for sure. Even so, it’s a bad idea.”
Horton continued. “Seriously, I know how she thinks. You need me out there.”
“That’s the last thing we need,” Krista said, wanting the man to shut the hell up.
“Without me, there’s no chance you’ll ever find her.”
“I doubt that. We’re pretty good at finding people on our own.”
“Well, she’s not exactly people, now is she?” Horton asked in tone that sounded rhetorical.
“True,” Zimmer quipped, looking at Krista. “He’s got a point.”
“We’ll find her. Count on it,” Krista snapped.
Horton threw up his hands, his face twisting a bit as he spoke. “Even if you do, she’ll never come in willingly. You need me to talk her down and convince her to come in peacefully. I can do that. She trusts me.”
Krista looked at Summer, then back at Horton. “Even if I decided to break protocol, which I would never do, that ankle of yours would just slow us down.”
Horton lifted his leg and put it down. “It’s not that bad. Really. Just need your medic to patch me up and throw in some pain meds. I’ll be good to go.”
“I hope you realize there’s zero chance Helena stands up to Fletcher’s interrogation,” Lipton said. “I’ve seen what that man can do. You have no idea.”
“He’s right. She’ll talk,” Krista said to Summer.
“Or grunt,” Lipton added, beaming a twisted smile. “All depends on your definition of talking.” Lipton peered at Wicks, scanning his size from bottom to top. “I’ll bet Gigantor over there would understand what she was saying. He looks grunt-capable.”
Krista shot Lipton an intense stare, holding it for a full beat. “You think this is all funny, don’t you?”
“That it is, ma’am. Sometimes life provides you with a little unexpected entertainment. I’d say this situation qualifies. It’s all about doom, gloom, and boom around here. Gotta love it.”
“What’s wrong with you? We have families here. Women. Children,” Krista said, wanting to send a sharp jab his way, but she held it back.
“That was Edison’s first mistake. One of many, I’m sure. Just look at you three right now,” Lipton snarked, his face pushing in close to the bars with his hands on either side. “It’s nothing short of comical. I can literally see the smoke rising from your ears as you try to wrap your minds, as insignificant as they may be, around what’s really happening here.”
Zimmer stepped forward and landed a punch on Lipton’s face. The blow caught the scientist in the jaw, sending him backward in a stumble, his butt landing on the floor in front of the cot along the back wall. “I’ve heard just about enough out of you!”
After Zimmer whirled around, Krista sent him a single head nod, appreciating his quick response. He did what she couldn’t.
They say rank has its privileges, but not in this case. Not when every cell in your body wants to pummel a mouthy asshole standing right in front of you, running his gums for amusement, all the while taking shots at everything you stand for.
Horton walked over and helped Lipton off the cement and to his feet, then returned to the front of the cell. “You really need to listen to me. You don’t know who you’re dealing with out there. She’s not some helpless cannibal. I can help you bring her back without anyone getting hurt.”
“You need to give it a rest,” Krista said, waving a finger at him. “No chance that’s ever going to happen.”
“So just give it up, already,” Zimmer said, faking a punch at the man behind the bars. Horton flinched before Zimmer spoke again. “You’re going to spend the rest of your days in that cell, so you might as well get comfortable.”
“You were right,” Summer said to Krista in a downtrodden tone.
“About what?” Zimmer asked.
Summer took a deep breath before she answered him. “We should never have brought them here. Krista knew something like this would happen. Damn it, I should’ve listened.”
CHAPTER 10
Summer made it up the stairs and to the surface inside the barn, skipping over the top-most step as she exited the silo.
Krista was right on her heels with Zimmer somewhere below, his feet only taking one step at a time instead of two.
When Summer turned for the transport truck, Krista caught up and passed her on the left, using one of those freakish Olympic fast-walker techniques, her hips rolling in conjunction with her arms.
Summer tried to match Krista’s style and speed, but couldn’t get her shorter legs and less-experienced hips moving fast enough. She broke into a full sprint instead, tearing past Krista in a rush of wind.
Seconds later, she tagged the tailgate on the truck first, then whirled around with a mile-wide grin on her face, watching Krista arrive a moment later, her face blanketed with an intense grimace.
“That’s cheating,” Krista said, gasping for air as she peered back at the stairs for a moment, just as the top of Zimmer’s head came into view.
“Cheating? How do you figure?”
“You ran.”
Summer shrugged, feeling damn proud to have finally beaten Krista at something. “I don’t remember anyone mentioning any rules.”
“Well, there were. You saw me.”
“That walk-thing you were doing—that was your choice. Not mine.”
Krista shook her head, still struggling for air. “Not cool, Summer. Not cool at all.”
“Don’t take it so personally. It’s not like that race was planned or anything. It just happened.”
“Still,” Krista said as Zimmer trotted in, his old man knees making his steps ragged and uneven. The noise his mouth made as he gasped for air reminded Summer of a freight train engine chugging away.
His cheeks beamed red, with sweat streaming from his forehead as if he’d sprung a leak. He put his hands on his knees and bent over with his head angled up, maintaining eye contact. A few beats later, his knees went into a tremor and his face turned a pale white.
“You okay?” Summer asked, wondering if the man was about to pass out. Or worse.
“I’m fine,” he said between deep, powerful breaths. “Just need a minute. Old bones and all. Been a while, you know.”
Yeah, like forever, is what Summer wanted to say. “Sorry about that but we were in a hurry.”
“I get that, but next time, how about a little warning?” Zimmer said, his words puffed with extra air. He pointed at the back of the truck. “Go on. Get to it. I’ll be fine.”
Krista took another few gulps of air, then pulled her sidearm and began to circle the vehicle, bending low and inspecting the undercarriage.
Summer turned and tore open the tarp on the back of the truck, then hopped in and scanned for clues. The area was how she remembered, except for a strip of cloth and a coil of paracord in the corner closest to the driver’s seat.
There were also red stains dotting the steel surface below her feet. It was blood, most of it belonging to Edison, pooling where his body had lain covered. The rest was from the dog and the prisoners, based on the locations of each.
There was, however, one smear of red that was out of place—to her right. It was higher up on the vertical framework supporting the canopy.
She ran a finger across the metal strut, feeling a rough spot. The protrusion held a sharp edge along its top, from a poorly-finished weld. She leaned in and inspected the defect, realizing someone had repaired the framework, welding in a new piece and not grinding it as smoothly as it should have been done.