Christina was both elated and frustrated.
“Glad to be back,” Noah whispered, speaking in as low a tone as he could.
She saw his lips move but she couldn’t hear him. Not a surprise. Once they’d spotted him, they’d tried catching his attention in his earpiece and concluded it must be missing.
Now she could see that he’d been stripped of all weapons, communication devices, and safety equipment. They left him walking around out here like a little duck. Christina pulled a spare earpiece out of her pocket and held it out to him. She was down to one spare now and she didn’t like it, but this is what it was for.
Her outstretched hand competed for his attention with Walter’s. Only Walter had offered him a spare gun and holster.
They stayed low as he awkwardly checked and holstered the new gun and then slipped the earpiece into place. “Good to be back.”
She tried to file it into her memory that he was still without a vest…
It had taken too long to find him. The four of them had managed to get far enough away from the little cluster of captors before they’d begun to talk, but now they were too close to another group.
This time, seven soldiers were hunkered down in the grass and hadn’t seen them. No one even twitched as she and her little group approached. Christina had worked hard to make sure that happened.
So far, she’d only managed to drop a quick message to Will, giving him locations and numbers. The sky was losing daylight and she was losing hope that they might simply run into Dr. Murray Marks out here.
Her list was getting longer.
Don’t let GJ kill her own grandfather. Don’t let Noah get shot, he has no vest. Don’t forget to update Will on what they found.
“What do we do?” The voice in her ear belonged to GJ, but Christina had seen no movement from the junior agent. Good for her.
“We came out here to get one of them,” she replied. But even as she said it, Walter shook her head.
“Recon.” She held up one finger—their number one priority.
That was true. Their intent had been to learn as much as they could. They didn’t yet have enough agents to leave anyone back at the compound. Their explicit instructions were to gather intel but their second highest objective, which was Cristina's favorite, was to grab one of Marks’ people and see if they could make them talk. Between Noah and herself, she figured the interrogation techniques might work better.
Unfortunately, the only person getting captured so far was Noah. It wasn’t his fault. Everything else he’d done had proven he was sharp and on his game. She told herself, it could have been any of them, though she wasn't quite sure she believed it.
“Are we going back?” The words traced across her ear drum, low enough that they were barely more than a sensation. Christina didn't quite have an answer to the question. Though they were prepared to be out overnight, it was a backup plan only.
She didn't like operating on backups.
Even as she was thinking it, GJ motioned around with her finger toward the ground as though it were a map. “We have more places to check. If we continue recon through the night and head back in the morning, we won’t wind up sleeping out here.”
“It cuts our vulnerability,” Walter added, perfectly in sync with her partner.
Christina thought it through. They'd been prepared to sleep in shifts. Set up a tiny camp. However, as they moved slowly toward another set of Marks’ soldiers, she began to think their camps might be relatively easy to find. If they slept, Christina could cover them—no one would see or hear them—but the mental work would have left her exhausted. Being the only one with that particular skill meant she would be up all night, while her fellow agents slept. It was not a good situation to have one agent fully expended.
GJ’s plan made the weight of an overnight a little easier. She nodded. “We’ll stay out, but we still want to get one.”
Walter tipped her head as if to say, Don't we all? But Christina knew Walter was still military-rigid in her decisions. Her first objective remained recon. Capture and interrogate would become her issue only if it became available.
With a return nod, Christina looked at the others and made a motion.
They continued toward the north, farther from the de Gottardi/Little family property line.
She thought about that for a moment, finding it odd… The first person they'd seen had been a lone gunman, seemingly standing post. He’d been on the actual property, while everyone else was forming a ring around it.
Then that thought blended into another. People seemed to have little concern for the law out this far, but Marks’ soldiers were watching the property lines like hawks. They knew when they crossed onto private land, as if they were ready for some local sheriff to come in and harass them. As if trespassing was their concern.
It continued to nag at the back of her brain. Such an odd situation. But she pushed it aside to keep her eyes forward.
As the sun slowly set, they zigzagged wide trails. At one point, they came almost face-to-face with two armed guards. Christina wanted to grab one or both and head back in. But Walter mouthed “Recon” to her with a harsh glare, and Christina ceded.
Walking slowly, they stayed low and remained undetected. She wondered if they'd passed any clusters of Dr. Marks’ people—if they’d been seen and allowed to pass…
She wouldn’t be surprised if someone actually knew they were out here … and was letting them get away with it.
She was having this thought as she slowly rounded a tree. It was getting harder to stay vigilant, but it had been a while since they'd seen anyone. She was beginning to conclude that the ring around the property was only about two, maybe three clusters of guards deep—which was still a lot, but maybe not as much as Walter had originally predicted.
Moving together, they aimed for a large tree and then slowly came around. Christina’s weapon was aimed at the ground in front of her. As she cleared the other side, she came up against two guards.
Her heart felt like it spiked in her chest.
Even as her body thought to suck in a breath, her brain countermanded it and fought for reason, stability, calm.
Hoping the others would stay behind and duck back when they saw what she’d encountered, she looked at guns aimed her way. It would be an advantage to appear that she was a lone idiot out in the fields.
Her gear would distinguish her from a lost hiker certainly, but maybe she could convince them—
Her relief lasted only a split second, as one gun swung, aiming at someone behind her.
Walter? GJ? Noah?
She couldn't turn her head and look. Swearing to herself, she watched as five more soldiers popped up from the grass, and she realized they were outnumbered.