She looked at him, and even in the dark, with greasepaint covering his face, she could read him. “You agreed,” she insisted.
“That was before we were attacked by a man with a knife and an AK who was guarding the path we were headed up. I lost my NVGs. I’m not taking you up into those dark woods where more men could be waiting. Not without night vision. Not without a gun.”
“I have a gun. A real one. If you want it.”
“You’re carrying?” She could hear the edge of hope in his voice.
She nodded. “A Glock 19. Last spring, some hikers harassed me when I was working alone. It was pretty scary, and they still haven’t been identified. So I got a permit to carry concealed. Jae taught me how to shoot.”
“I’m sorry that happened, but thankful you have a weapon.”
She slipped off her pack and pulled out the gun. She handed it to him, holding the barrel. “It’s loaded, but not chambered. The magazine is a standard fifteen shot. I don’t have any more bullets.”
He took the weapon and racked the slide, chambering the first bullet. “I’ll never complain about you insisting on grabbing your pack again.”
In spite of everything, she managed a smile. She wouldn’t park in an accessible space in front of a shuttered lodge, and she never hiked out of sight of her vehicle in bad weather without taking her pack.
“You still won’t take me to George, though, will you?”
“We need to get to the command center. The SEALs are in the air, on their way here now. They’re doing a High Altitude Low Opening jump. I need to get to a phone and call it off. We just saw proof there are armed men here. He tried to kill us without hesitation. The team only has paint pellets, and they won’t know the tangos in these woods are real.”
The horror of the situation sank in. The SEALs would be facing real enemies, but believe they were fake. Part of an exercise.
Xavier had known the man with the knife was a real attacker. One of the SEALs, in the same situation, wouldn’t know it wasn’t a simulation. They’d fire their paint pellets and expect to tally it as a success. But the tango—as Xavier had called him—would fight to the death. And they had real guns.
She took a deep breath as her heart cracked in two. She wasn’t in the military, but she understood triage. They weren’t even certain George was here and in danger, but the specter with the knife had made it clear the SEALs were. Not to mention she and Xavier both could have been killed. “Where is your command center? I might know a faster—or safer route.”
“It’s the yurt on the other side of the lodge complex from here.”
She bit her lip, mentally going over the trail map. It made sense that the yurt was their command center. The seventies-era home was not in keeping with the historic lodge and not yet old enough to fall under her domain with historic properties, so Xavier’s team didn’t need her approval for its use. Plus, being round and situated on a point as it was, it had an amazing view of the lake.
There was a trail that ran through the woods above the blacksmith shop and lodge. It intersected with the forest behind the yurt. If they hiked up the hill from the burial ground, they’d reach that trail in about a mile.
She described the route to Xavier. “We’ll have to go back to the meadow and burial ground, but we can bypass the road behind the blacksmith shop and lodge. Except for the switchbacks here, the entire route is in the forest.”
“For safety, we’ll have to do most of the hike without light, and I don’t have my NVGs. You up for it?”
She’d always said she could navigate these woods blindfolded. Time to put that bravado to the test. “My watch has a compass and Indiglo. As long as we can stop to check our bearing, yes.”
“Let’s go.”
He led the way back down the switchback, moving as fast as the terrain allowed. They reached the narrow trail where she’d slipped before, but he didn’t slow. She shifted her center of gravity toward the hillside and kept pace with him. When they reached the corner of the switchback, he stopped abruptly. She caught herself right before she stepped on his heels.
“What’s wrong?”
“Blood. I think.” He pulled out his flashlight and shined it on the rocky edge, and she saw the red streaks.
He glanced up, and she followed his gaze. “We’re below the ledge where you tossed him,” she said. She looked back at the bloody rocks. It hadn’t been a straight fall. He’d tumbled down the slope and hit this ledge. Had he continued down, falling to his death? Or had he managed to scramble onto the path here or on one of the lower switchbacks? “If he survived, he could tell others where we are,” she said.
He nodded. “And he now has military-grade NVGs.” He studied the streaks on the rocks and shook his head. “We need to hurry.” He tucked away the flashlight again, and they resumed at a brisk pace.
They reached the intersection for the trail that led to the archaeological site and jogged up the hill into the forest. Full darkness had descended. Storm clouds cloaked the sky, leaving them without moon or stars to light the path or provide direction. Audrey could barely see the ground beneath her feet, but she kept up with Xavier just the same. She couldn’t let him down.
They reached the top of the slope and continued to follow a game trail, just as narrow as the cliffside trail, but without the sheer drop-off. She used the glowing dial on her watch to check their bearing when it was time to leave one trail and cut a path to the other.
During the pause, Xavier tried his cell again. They were close to the cell tower up here, but it didn’t matter. Whatever had been used to jam all radio and cellular signals had been effective.
She could just make out his eyes in the shadows. Handsome and focused, he reminded her of another time, when he’d stared at her with similar intensity, but without the accompanying tension. Darkness made it easier to see the man she’d met in November. She didn’t see CW5 Rivera. He was Xavier, Jae’s friend, a man she’d been drawn to as if caught in a charismatic tractor beam.