Spy High (33 page)

“A dozen.”

“Let’s each carry two,” he suggested.
“Since we don’t have radios, we’ll need some way to communicate if
there are new developments while we’re separated.”

“And you’re brilliant, too,” I said
gratefully. “Wait here and I’ll go and get them from my cache.”

“Where is it?” Kane asked. “Will you be
long?”

“No, it’s in the pond. I’ll be right
back.” I pulled on my rubber boots and ducked out the tent
flap.

Back inside the tent with my dripping
box, I handed out the burner phones and we programmed the numbers
into their speed dials. Then I tucked the tranquilizer pistol into
my shoulder holster, strapped my survival knife to my hip, and
pocketed a couple of sets of hand restraints before reaching for my
own backpack.

Hellhound eyed me narrowly. “Expectin’
trouble, darlin’?”

I sighed. “I don’t know what to expect.
And I don’t want to leave anything suspicious in my tent in case
somebody searches it, so I’m bringing everything.”

I loaded the rest of the gear into my
backpack, briefly considered my laptop, and then added it and the
spare battery, too. At least if Stemp wanted a private conversation
I could fire up the laptop out in the woods without having to trek
all the way back here.

And Kane and Hellhound didn’t know
about my secret communication system, or about Stemp’s family. I
trusted both men with my life, but Stemp’s little daughter’s life
was in my hands alone. What they didn’t know, they couldn’t be
forced to tell under torture.

I shuddered at the thought of what Kane
must have seen that had shaken him so profoundly. Whatever it was,
I wouldn’t let it happen to Anna.

“Ya okay, darlin’? Ya look like ya just
saw a ghost.” Hellhound’s worried voice brought me back to the
present.

“Sorry. I’m fine.” I pushed a smile
onto my lips. “So are we good to go?”

“Yes. When do you want to meet back
here?” Kane asked.

“Um…”

I did a rapid mental calculation. Hike
out, report to Stemp, possibly exchange a short conversation on the
laptop, then come back via the kitchen to check on Nichele, and
check Moonbeam and Karma’s tent to make sure they were in for the
night. I’d have to stop and visit for a few minutes if Nichele saw
me. But maybe I could just peek in the window…

“An hour and a half,” I decided. “Does
that work for you guys?”

They both nodded and I shouldered my
pack and turned for the tent flap.

“Hang on.” Hellhound’s voice stopped
me.

I turned back. “What am I
forgetting?”

“This.” He drew me into his arms and
kissed me.

It wasn’t the chaste kiss he usually
offered when Kane was present.

He didn’t linger unduly, but he didn’t
rush, either.

“Be safe, darlin’,” he murmured against
my lips. Then he stepped back, meeting Kane’s nonplussed gaze
squarely. “Be safe, too, Cap,” he rasped. “But I ain’t gonna kiss
ya.”

Kane let out a bark of laughter. “Thank
God. You be safe, too.”

Hellhound grinned and ducked out the
tent flap.

Kane turned to me and a wry smile
twisted his lips. “Well…” He hesitated, then shrugged and pulled me
tight against his body.

He definitely lingered over the kiss.
By the time he released me I was breathless and my wobbling knees
barely held my weight.

He cupped my face between his palms.
“Be safe.” He kissed me lightly again and turned for the tent
flap.

“Uh,” I croaked. “You, too.”

I stood blinking at the flap for a
moment after he disappeared through it.

Okay, that had been a little weird and
awkward.

My lips turned up in spite of myself.
But hell, if they were going to turn this into a competition, I
could foresee only one winner.

Me.

My grin widened and I blew out the
candles and left, securing the tent flap behind me.

My smile didn’t last long. Creeping
along the moon-dappled path with my head swivelling like a manic
owl, I felt as though at any moment Orion would pop out in front of
me wearing night vision goggles and carrying a detonator.

Though heaven knew why he’d want to
blow the bridge.

A trickle of fear oozed down my spine.
What if the bridge wasn’t the only thing rigged with
explosives?

The fear gushed into an icy torrent.
Oh, God, what if he’d rigged the main building, too? He could kill
everybody in the commune with a single bomb. He could be on the
other side of the river and still hear the damn Spirit bells
ringing. He’d know exactly when everybody was gathered and he
wouldn’t have to be anywhere near it when it blew…

I yanked out a burner phone and punched
the speed dial. The phone rang once before Hellhound’s gravelly
voice issued from the speaker.

“What’s up, darlin’?”

“Arnie, did you check the main building
for explosives?”

Momentary silence on the other end
confirmed my fear.

“Shit,” Hellhound rasped. “They
wouldn’ta… Fuck! On my way! Call ya soon’s I know.” The line went
dead.

Heart pounding, I stood on the dark
path clutching the phone. Should I call Kane, too?

A moment later logic asserted itself.
No point. Hellhound was closer, and in a few minutes we’d know.

And there was no reason for Orion to
blow the building immediately, so Hellhound should be safe unless
the Spirit bells rang.

Oh, God, let him be safe.

I forced my trembling legs to carry me
farther down the path. I might as well continue on as planned. I
couldn’t help Hellhound. I knew nothing about explosives. And if
the building did blow, there would be nothing I could do
anyway…

Shut up. It wouldn’t explode now; that
didn’t make any sense. I’d just get my ass out to where I could
call Stemp without being overheard. Hellhound would probably have a
report for me by then and I could pass it all on to Stemp.

By the time I reached the outer limit
of my trail’s loop, my heart was pounding. No word from Hellhound.
Surely that was good news. If he’d found explosives he’d have
called me right away.

Or maybe he’d found so many he was
still itemizing them all…

The phone’s vibration made me jerk with
nerves and I nearly dropped it in my rush to answer.

“What?” I demanded.

“Nothin’. All clear.”

“Oh thank God.” I hunkered down on the
path, my legs shaking too hard to hold my weight any longer.
“You’re sure?”

“Pretty sure, ‘less they’re in the
walls or somethin’, but you’d hafta tear the whole buildin’ apart
to find out. An’ they couldn’ta hidden anythin’ in that concrete
part on the bottom. It’s like a fuckin’ bunker.”

“Right, and I can’t see anybody having
a chance to hide bombs inside the walls anyway,” I agreed. “There
are people in and out of there constantly.” I drew a deep breath
and eased it out. “Okay, thanks for checking. Sorry for the false
alarm.”

“No sweat, darlin’, it woulda been a
helluva lot worse if ya hadn’t thought of it an’ it turned out to
be rigged. I’ll get back to scoutin’ my positions. What’s your
tracker say?”

I extracted it from my pocket and eyed
the dot. “Orion’s still on the renters’ land so don’t go near the
bridge yet.”

“Okay. Call me soon’s I’m clear to
move.”

We hung up and I punched the speed dial
for Stemp. At his crisp greeting I drew a deep breath and gave him
as concise an update as possible. When I had finished, the line
hummed with a few moments of thoughtful silence.

“I agree, there doesn’t seem to be any
tactical reason to blow the bridge except to allow the renters to
isolate themselves,” Stemp said. He hesitated, then continued,
“Disable the explosives if it can be done without detection. I’ll
leave Kane and Helmand at your disposal for the rest of the week.
After that we’ll re-evaluate, and if the situation warrants it I’ll
assign a support team.”

“Okay. What about the renters?” I
asked. “Can you get the analysts to dig for any information about
them?”

“Already done,” he replied. “No
paramilitary groups are claiming to operate in the vicinity, and my
parents don’t use a computer system so no records were available to
hack online. If you knew where to look you might be able to find a
paper rental agreement with some names, but I never saw my parents
doing paperwork as a child so I doubt the records are kept in their
tent or in the main building. I don’t know where else they would
be.”

I sighed. “Okay. I’ll start digging
tomorrow. Any more information on Skidmark?”

“No. There are no military pension
cheques being issued to anyone of the correct age and personal
details anywhere around Port Renfrew.”

“Shit.”

“Indeed,” he agreed.

“All right, we’ll see if we can disable
the explosives and I’ll keep you posted.”

I hung up and checked the tracker
again, but Orion’s red dot was still stubbornly planted on the
renters’ side. I was turning to trudge back along the path when my
phone vibrated again.

When I answered, Kane’s tense voice
issued from the speaker. “I’m off the road about two miles out. Two
five-ton moving trucks just passed here heading toward the commune.
ETA less than five minutes.”

“Outside vehicles aren’t allowed,” I
said reflexively.

Kane must have dialled Hellhound and me
simultaneously on separate phones, because Hellhound’s
slightly-muffled rasp spoke next. “I can get eyes on the main gate
by then. Ya sure they were movin’ trucks?”

“They were standard cube trucks and I
could see the rental-company logos in the moonlight. Who knows
what’s inside, though. I’m not at my cache yet and I still have to
report to Stemp. Unless you want me to come back now, my ETA at the
main gate is about thirty minutes. Aydan, what are my orders?”

Orders? He expected
me
to give
the orders?

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think it
makes more sense for you to get your gear- …oh!”

“What?” Kane snapped.

“Sorry, I just realized I forgot to
tell you that there was a cougar in the area a couple of days ago,
so be careful. But I suppose that’s the least of our worries
compared to bombs under the bridge.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, but I’m not
too worried about a cougar. They tend to look for smaller prey than
me. And I don’t know that there’s any need to get caught up in an
artificial sense of urgency about the explosives, either. They’ve
clearly been there for some time. I don’t like the timing of these
moving trucks, but…” I sensed his shrug at the other end of the
line before he continued, “Let’s keep this connection open until we
know where those trucks are going, but maintain radio silence
unless reporting.”

“Okay, I’m still about fifteen minutes
out,” I said. “I’m going to switch over to my hands-free, so if I
lose you I’ll call right back.” I burrowed into my pack and fumbled
out my earbud and cable. “Okay. There. Can you hear me okay?” I
waited for their confirmations before breaking into a trot. “This
path loops close to the river so I’ll keep my eyes open,” I added.
“But the trucks will probably be gone by the time I get there.”

After that I saved my breath for
jogging, the phone clutched in one hand, the hands-free cable
slapping annoyingly against my chin. My laptop dug into my spine
through the backpack and the night-vision headset thudded my
forehead.

I clenched my teeth and kept jogging,
my embarrassing panting echoing over the open phone line.

A few minutes later Hellhound spoke in
a barely-audible growl. “Got ‘em. Comin’ through the front gate an’
it looks like they’re headin’ for the renters’ side.”

“Maybe they’re moving out,” I panted.
“Skipping in the middle of the night without paying their
rent.”

“Followin’ ‘em now…” Hellhound’s terse
update reminded me I was supposed to be maintaining radio silence.
I bit my tongue and kept moving.

“…An’ they’re over the bridge,”
Hellhound announced a couple of minutes later. “Lost ‘em in the
trees on the other side. Aydan, where’s Orion?”

I halted to juggle the phone and the
tracker. “Still with the renters.”

“Well, if they’re loadin’ or unloadin’
somethin’ they’ll be a while,” Hellhound said. “I wanna find one
more position around the main buildin’, an’ then I’ll be ready to
start scoutin’ near the bridge whenever ya give me the
all-clear.”

“Okay, Stemp says to disable the
explosives if we can, so I’ll let you know as soon as Orion’s back
across the bridge,” I agreed. “I’m almost at the edge of the
commune, and I’m going to check on Nichele. I might have to close
the connection for a while if she wants to visit, but I won’t be
long and I’ll pick up if you call.”

Murmurs of assent floated over the
line, and I slowed my pace to a walk as I reached the part of the
path that wound up and down through small gullies near the river.
Bad idea to go dashing over a hill with all my gear on display only
to run smack into one of the commune members.

And anyway, I needed to dry some of my
sweat before I showed up to visit Nichele. It might be tough to
explain why I looked like I’d been working out in the middle of the
night.

Then again…

My steps slowed even more as a wave of
mortification engulfed me. First she’d walked in on that orgy scene
in my tent and then I hadn’t showed up for her presentation. It
would be far too easy for her to infer a plausible reason for my
disheveled state. I suppressed a groan.

A moment later I was glad I’d
suppressed it. The sound of nearby voices made me whip off my
night-vision headset and click off the phone, stuffing both into my
pocket.

Breathing silently through my mouth, I
stood in the darkness waiting for my eyes to adjust to moonlight
instead of green-tinged night-vision.