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“I’m ready.”
Maxen guards my six as we move like ghosts through the trees. A small amount of moonlight pierces the thick canopy, made lush by the mountain spring. We stick close enough to the dirt road that we won’t miss any newcomers. Otherwise, we’re invisible to the town and anyone in the cave.
About fifty yards from the clearing at the rock face, we run across materials to make a trip wire warning system. I point it out to Maxen, who forms up with me. “If we’re lucky, we’re getting to him before any anti-intruder measures are in place.”
He pats my back and turns toward our objective again. “Let’s keep moving.”
We cover the last fifty yards to the tree line, pausing briefly before sprinting to our terrorist homemaker’s van. I peer through the side windows to see if I can get an idea of the weapons our guy may be packing. “Shit. He’s unloaded everything already. He could have cotton balls, a lion, or a small nuke in there, and we wouldn’t know it.”
“Come on,” Maxen tuts. “Birdie watched this guy’s every move without him having a clue. If he had anything we needed to know about, we’d know about it.”
His point is valid, so I step around the back of the truck to study the rocky arch entrance. A generator sits just outside, the noise of its engine masking anything going on inside the cave. In the artificial light, our blackout gear is no longer helpful. We strip off the coverings, leaving our body armor on, and shove the rest into our packs along with our NV scopes.
Maxen peers around me at the entrance. Like me, all he can see from here is a string of lights on the ground stretching into the mountain. I’m guessing this setup is temporary until mounts can be positioned in whatever caverns are inside.
We check our weapons one last time before stepping out from behind the truck. I watch the opening for a while to ensure our guy isn’t in sight and then signal advance. We reach the right side of the entrance, where I check the tunnel with a mirror—no sign of our guy.
The passage is about ten feet high, four feet wide, and full of jutting rock formations. The lights along the ground shining upward cast gnarly shadows on the ceiling. I have no idea what’s behind this first tunnel, as about thirty feet inside the mountain, the path continues around a bend.
“What do you think?” Maxen asks over the rumble of the generator.
“Beyond thirty feet is a blind spot, and thanks to the generator, we won’t hear him coming.”
“Any places to hide?”
“None.”
Maxen picks up a loose stone and rolls it around in his hand. “I’m going to try something.”
He moves to stand in the mouth of the cave, throwing the rock inside and immediately diving out of sight. The two of us freeze and watch the image in the small mirror. A full fifteen seconds pass with no reaction from inside.
“Guess that means it’s safe.”
“Maybe, but I’m taking point anyway,” he insists.
We both step inside the tunnel, and Maxen moves ahead of me with a lethal grace I can’t match. We stop at the bend and repeat the process, this time looking into a relatively large cavern.
More lights are strung along the ground in this area, but some have already been attached to tripods set to a height of about seven feet. A quick scan of the hollow finds our guy to be missing, but the lights continue through one of the three additional passages that lead from this room.
Whatever he’s doing, he’s not loud enough to be heard over a small waterfall nearby. Maxen gestures to the lit tunnel. “At least we know which way he went.”
He steps out in front again and follows the string of lights. This tunnel is long and winding, sometimes becoming low enough that we have to stoop. It must lead to a hollow large enough to be useful, or our guy wouldn’t have wasted his time stringing lights through it.
The sounds of the falls become louder the deeper we go. The steady stream of water splashing into a pool below would typically be a peaceful thing to listen to, but it hides the enemy from me.
About sixty feet in, the lights shut off, plunging the tunnel into darkness. Oh shit. Our NV won’t work in conditions with no visible or infrared light, so I stop to get a light out of my bag.
Ahead of me, Maxen yells in pain, his cry followed by three rapid shots from his gun. The lights come on again just a few heartbeats later, revealing a body face down on the ground. In one hand is a large knife stained red.
Maxen is also on the ground, sitting against the tunnel wall. A rapid examination of his condition finds bloody hands pressing against his left thigh and his gun on the stone floor next to him. “Oh, shit.”
“I’m sorry, Sadie. He’s dead, isn’t he.”
He’s bleeding and thinks I’m worried about losing the asshole that stabbed him. “Don’t worry about him. Let’s get that leg fixed,” I say as I reach back into my pack for my bag of medical supplies.
I get my hands on the bag and pull it out, only for Maxen to take it from me. A frown creases his forehead, and his voice is soft, resigned. “I’ve got the leg. You need to contact Knot. We don’t know how far out this bastard’s friends are, and I think he hit…” Maxen’s voice fades out as he looks pointedly at his leg. A lot of blood is seeping through his fingers, but I shake my head anyway. “You are not dying on me.”
Though I don’t want to leave him, our target is dead, and Maxen is right about Knot. I remove his body armor, pull the belt free, and use it for a tourniquet. “Hold this tight,” I tell him after wrapping it around his thigh.
