They all stared at each other, waiting. The other group, and Ivy and Amber watching the other house had to be doing the same—all holding their breath and wondering what had happened to Gisela and Brooklyn.
The line stayed open for the rest of them, but no one spoke.
Then, a voice came across the line. Ivy. “We can see some of what's going on. People just ran out of the house. Just a few, two or three.”
There was a pause, her voice was low, and they all leaned in close to hear it.
“I think Gisela and Brooklyn turned the phone off themselves to keep it from making noises and alerting anyone they were there.” Another pause. “I think they’re okay. If the house empties out and they can get away somewhere safe, they can talk.”
Joule’s racing heartbeat began to slow but this was not the normal activity of the group—not that she truly knew normal, but this couldn’t be it.
The night was still dark. She couldn’t see everyone, and she was petrified that, instead of bringing the three missing home, they’d just lost two more.
“Tell us what's happening.” Kathryn almost demanded it.
“Men ran out, guns in hand. One tall, skinny, brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin. Angry. The other one came out behind him. Honestly, he didn't look quite right, maybe drunk.”
A pause and Joule waited until Ivy could narrate again.
“They ran to the shed first. Looks like they see the ATVs missing.”
“Hold on,” Ivy took a breath in, and the line was so quiet they could all hear it. The wind picked up, whirring softly past Joule’s ear, letting her know the morning was coming. Soon.
“They’re coming out of the shed now and running out into the desert.”
What even was going on? Joule couldn’t make it work.
The first ones left on ATVs and these guys ran after them? They wouldn't catch up.
She looked to David then to Kayla, keeping her voice low, hoping not to be loud across the line. “Do you think the group split up? Maybe a few of them came back and got the ATVs?”
“Somebody's on ATVs and somebody is on foot,” Kayla said. “I don't know who the good guys and bad guys are in this story right now.”
True. The only known good guys were Cage, Aurora, and Sarah.
As far as Joule knew, there were likely more but she didn't know the players. And there were likely bad guys and very bad guys, if there was a cartel involved.
“We have to go back in,” David said.
“No!” Kayla protested quickly. “We're out here already. We just need to change direction to intercept wherever the group is. They're obviously not back. Or only three of them are.” She was talking a mile a minute.
“If they're close to the house, then that's the direction we need to be going,” David argued. “But more than that, we need to get back where I can get a connection and start combing satellite photos.”
As Joule and Kathryn watched the conversation, it was easy to see the moment Kayla's eyes lit up. “Yes, that's exactly what we need to do!”
“No!” This time it was Joule who uttered it sharply. “How long is it going to take us to get back in the first place? We're going to lose all our advantage.”
Kathryn moved the phone closer to her head. Had she heard someone talking? She held up one finger and asked into the device, “Do we have contact with Gisela and Brooklyn yet?”
“Not yet,” Ivy answered, Amber had been staying silent. “But I don't see anything. There was no fight. No shots fired. I don't see where they would be damaged. I suspect they're just laying low.”
It made sense, and Joule liked an explanation that made sense and kept her friends safe.
Jacob’s voice came over the line for the first time. Joule had gotten the impression that he was quiet because he didn’t like the plan. He probably liked it less now, but his tone was heavy and brooked no opposition. “As soon as you see them and we get them on the line, we need to reframe who's watching the houses. Two of the watchers have to head back to the car with one sat phone. They’ll hook up a hotspot and start searching satellite images and relay information to the searchers in the desert.”
But the women on the house were not the people who should be searching those images, Joule thought, that should be David and Kayla. Maybe Dr. Murasawa. All the people they'd put into the desert with the drones! Not one of their good image searchers or tech savvy people had been left to watch the houses!
Was there time to send their top people back?
Joule worked it out. She and Kathryn could stay out here, continue the search.
But there likely wasn’t enough time. What if they ran into someone? They would need to outnumber them if they could. Sending two of their people back would make that a problem.
They couldn’t send David and Kayla back. They were needed here, too. Joule simply had to have faith in whoever got on the computers. Faith that they can follow instructions and do the job.
“We keep the drones and we keep going,” Kathryn confirmed with her brother, then she instructed David to make wide sweeps with the drone.
Again, the conversation lulled except for a few moments where they heard that Gisela and Brooklyn were safe.
“I see them!” Amber called out. “They turned off their phone and hid.”
“Hi! Sorry for the scare,” Gisela told them. “We used the thermal guns, and the house is empty now.”
It seemed to take forever, but eventually the four at base camp reported back that Ivy and Amber were watching the houses now and Brooklyn and Gisela were almost into the SUV.
A little while later they were locked in, camped in the backseat and following instructions to start combing the satellite images.
Though Joule’s group had listened to all the updates, they'd stayed quiet with nothing to add until Kayla—who was occasionally looking over David's shoulder at the drone images—said, “Go over there. Look . . . check that.”
She pointed to one place and then another.
As Joule watched, David grinned. “Footprints.”