She hadn't asked Irwin how far they were from Rainerville, but she didn't trust him to tell her the truth, anyway.
Before she tied herself up to sleep, she walked to the end of her branch.
Irwin was gone.
She huffed out a silent breath. So much for keeping watch on him.
She felt a rising sense of unease, as well.
She wanted to know where he was. Instead, he was sneaking through the forest.
She walked back to the trunk, sat down, and then faced the fact that there was nothing she could do about it. She wasn't going to run around in the dark looking for him.
She strapped herself to the branch, so wide she could fit one and a half of herself on it, and got herself comfortable.
She had dozed off, was almost asleep, when she heard the sound of footsteps.
She had come to recognize the Caruso's walk in the last few days, and fear caught her by the throat and her heart leapt like a wild cat in her chest. The little helpers seemed to come awake in a wave from her head to her toes, and her skin was suddenly freezing, icy to the touch, while her belly felt like it was on fire. Her heart rate sped up even more as she tried to make sense of what was happening.
Her little helpers kept her absolutely still.
The soldier moved past her, and she heard him stumble, and then a short, sharp curse.
He was answered by someone in a low, furious voice, and even though she didn't know a word of Caruson, she guessed he had been told to shut up.
Both of them must have entered the pool, because she heard the splash of water.
As suddenly as it turned icy, she felt her skin warm, felt the shift of temperature until it had evened out again.
She had to fight back a cough.
They had shielded her, she realized with an audible gasp. Her little helpers had shielded her.
They'd hidden her from the Caruson's heat sensor.
There had been a thick branch between her and the Caruson below, but she would bet that by concentrating the heat of her body in her core, if she had shown up at all, it would have been as something a lot smaller than a grown woman. She would have looked like an animal, crouched in the tree.
Her heartbeat leveled out, too, and she accepted there was no safer place for her than right where she was. They had cleared this part of the forest.
This was the first time they had hunted through the night. It was also the first time she'd seen Irwin, and given him an idea of where she was going to sleep.
She didn't think it was a coincidence.
But she'd have to deal with it, with him, in the morning.
She closed her eyes and began to inhale and exhale, using the slow, calming breathing techniques she'd used as a teenager in her exercise class before she joined the military.
It seemed . . . familiar to her little helpers.
She could sense them sliding into it without a murmur, and she wondered if they had lived inside someone else, someone who had died on that ghost ship.
The thought hitched her breathing higher, interrupting the rhythm. It was both fascinating and horrifying.
Her mind skipped back to the moment she'd met Ben, when she'd been a little thrown by the sharp, handsome lines of his face, the intelligence in his eyes, and how she'd held out her hand and grasped Ben's to shake it in a greeting that she'd never used--never seen--before.
Was that the greeting once used by the people on the ghost ship?
She felt a stab of guilt because she would never tell that to the scientists combing the ghost ship right now. There was no way to verify it, but she had a strong feeling she was right.
There were no more sounds from the Caruso, and she let herself relax again, drifting off in a light sleep as she clung to the hope that Ben would finally catch up.
Chapter 21
Ben had spent the night sleeping in short, two hour snatches, alternating with moving through the forest.
He had the special forces training to sleep anywhere, taking what he could get and using it to his advantage.
His side still ached, but it was healing well, the skin knitting back with the help of growth gel and anti-infection dressings.
The cool anesthetic properties of the dressing helped him move more easily, and his only real worry had been the concussion.
But there was medication for that, too, and he knew it had probably been a mild concussion anyway.
He also hadn't come into contact with a single Caruson.
He'd found their camps, the ash of their fire pits blowing around, and the bones of whatever deer they'd caught and roasted scattered around.
It meant they were following Tally, which should have been a good thing. She was leading them away from Soo, Lenny and Frangi, and that had been the plan.
But it didn't feel good to him.
The only thing that calmed him was that they obviously hadn't caught her.
Yet.
After he'd come across the last camp yesterday afternoon, he'd pushed himself, following their trail, rather than waste time looking for Tally's, and he'd fallen into the two hours of sleep, three hours of walking rhythm he'd used on countless operations before.
He covered a lot of ground, but when he stepped into the new Caruson camp, he stumbled to a halt in disbelief.
This one didn't have a cold fire pit and a half-hearted attempt at clean-up.
This one had live coals still glowing in the pit, and dark, tunnel-like tents set under the trees, almost invisible until you were close enough to trip over them.
He shook himself out of his shock and eased back, a step at a time, until he was behind a tree, and then crouched down.
His wrist unit told him the only heat source was the fire, which meant they were not here, but they would be back.
He was considering his options when he heard the sound of voices, and slipped back a little further.
Four soldiers walked into the clearing. They spoke to each other in snappy, quick sentences, and then turned in, crawling into their tents and settling down.
Ben waited long enough for the first snores to drift across to him, and then climbed the biggest tree he could find that would give him a view of the camp the next morning.
He could keep going, looking for Tally, but in the dark, with no idea where she was hiding, it was a losing proposition. They had obviously gone out themselves to look for her, and come back empty-handed.
It wasn't much, but he'd take it.
* * *
Tally slid down the tree, jumping lightly to the ground, and then worked her way along the thick line of bushes to the place where the stream left the pool. She used the dark, enclosed space of a fountain bush as a place to get out of her clothes, and walked into the water in her underwear.
She washed herself first this time, relishing her second bath in two days, then did a quick cleaning job on the trousers and shirt she'd had to put on wet the day before.
She went back into her makeshift changing room, and emerged in her spare clothes, her trousers rolled up to her knees as she washed the underwear she'd bathed in, and then set everything out on a rock that had full sun to dry while she crouched to get more water.
She was standing in the water, loving the swirl of the cool current over her bare feet, sipping from her bottle and eating a breakfast bar, when Irwin burst from the trees on the other side.
Her instinct was to reach down to the side pocket in her pants to pull out her laz, but something told her it would be a mistake to let him know she had it.
“You're all right!” He skidded to a halt just before he stepped into the water.
“As are you.” She watched him with cool eyes. She was grateful, suddenly, for the lies she'd told him about Soo, Frangi and Lenny.
If he'd passed them on to the Caruso, they would hopefully decide it wasn't worth their while to send anyone else after the two who'd already gone looking for them.
And she could only hope Ben had managed to stop those two.
“Where did you go last night? I was looking for you.” His surprise and delight at finding her had morphed quickly into resentment.
“I told you where I was going. To find a tree to sleep in.”
“You had to have heard me calling for you.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
She shrugged. “I heard you, but I'd already told you what I was doing, and I wasn't interested in more conversation about it.”
He opened his mouth to respond, and then must have thought better of what he was going to say. “Look, I get you're low on trust, but your hostility isn't helping here.” Irwin's eyes narrowed. “We'd be better off working together, and you have to know it.”
She wondered if he'd practiced that slightly disappointed, slightly condescending tone and look.
She wanted to snort in amusement, instead she raised an eyebrow, then forced herself to relax and sigh.
Ugh! She hated even pretending to play nice with this asshole.
“Do you blame me?” she asked him--a hedge, because she couldn't bring herself to actually tell him all was forgiven.
One thing she knew, she'd have to get away from him at the first opportunity, even if it meant using her laz.
She guessed he'd gone to fetch the Caruso last night, had told them that he'd found her, and had given them an idea of where to look for her. She didn't think he had a way to communicate with them other than speaking to them face to face, but she didn't want to take the chance of him having some kind of Caruson comms unit.
He was watching her carefully, suspicious perhaps of her sudden change of heart.
“What?” She raised both hands and her voice. “You don't think you've screwed up at every point in this fun-filled excursion?”
“This isn't my fault,” he answered, suddenly aggrieved. “I didn't shoot the runner down.”
“No, but you're the one who knows the terrain, you're the one who's theoretically in charge of the whole thing, and you've been suspiciously missing in action.”
He looked away from her, shaking his head. “That's true, but I've said sorry and I'm not going to keep apologizing. What's done is done. We've got to cooperate now, move forward and get out of this alive.”
“You're right.” She didn't have to feign the grudging tone of her voice.
She turned and walked to the rock to check on her clothes. They were almost dry, and she climbed onto it and crouched down, gripping the rock with her bare toes, and enjoying being barefoot for a little while longer. She sipped the last of her water and finished her bar, her eyes never leaving Irwin.
“You nearly ready to go?” he asked her.
She nodded. “Just another ten minutes, then my clothes should be dry.”
He seemed to relax, and she tried to keep her face blank, but she was disturbed by how happy he seemed that she'd agreed to go with him.
No doubt in her mind. Irwin was going to sell her out.
Chapter 22
Ben heard the low murmur of voices over the sound of running water.
They were indistinct, but he thought one was higher, more melodious than the other, and he started into a shuffling run, pushing through the pain in his side.
He found the stream, a shallow, rocky thing that curved between the trees, and he used it as a pathway, stumbling a few times, and slipping more than once on the slick moss growing on the stones.
He came to a halt at the top of a bridge of rocks, and stood for a moment, caught in the tug of water flowing over his boots into a big pool below.
Across the glitter of light on water, at the far end of the pool, Tally was crouched on a rock beside some of her clothes, obviously laid out to dry, a water bottle in one hand.
She was talking to Irwin, who stood on the side of the stream, arms crossed over his chest, his pack on his back.
Something about the scene struck a wrong note, and he jumped off the low waterfall. When he landed with a splash in the pool, their conversation came to an abrupt halt.
“Ben!” Irwin's arms dropped to his side, surprise and shock on his face.
Tally said nothing, but she rose up on her rock and he had to shade his eyes to see her over the sparkle on the water.
She waited for him, silent, as he walked toward her, although her expression was like pure energy to him; sustaining, uplifting.
When he reached her, she slid her arms around his neck, standing slightly taller than him thanks to the rock she was on, and bent her head to kiss him.
He vaguely heard Irwin's sound of surprise as he pulled her closer and let that energy engulf him.
She was alive.
Unharmed.
She pulled back, smoothing his hair with gentle fingers. “Where are you hurt?” she asked him quietly.
“Right side,” he told her, murmuring it against her lips. “Irwin?”
“The little helpers and I are in agreement.” She bent her head so her lips were touching his ear. “Do not trust.”
“You finished?” Irwin's voice rose high enough to cut through their little bubble.
Tally dropped her arms, stepped back, and scooped up her clothes. Without a word of explanation, she jumped down into the water.
He noticed now she was barefoot and her trousers were rolled up to her knees.
He didn't take his eyes off her as she climbed the bank and then disappeared behind the hanging branches of a fountain bush.
“What is with her?” Irwin asked. “She--?” He made a twirling gesture over his head. “Not that there's any shame in that, after what she went through.”
Ben forced himself to look over at the Trail guide. “What are you talking about, Irwin?”
“Her.” Irwin flapped his hand at the bush. “She's hostile, she just goes off when she feels like it. I was hunting for her for over an hour last night. She had to have heard me calling for her, and she didn't answer.”
“Why were you hunting her?” Ben asked. He kept his tone excruciatingly polite.
“For her. Hunting for her, Ben.” Irwin's mouth snapped shut. His eyes narrowed. “What's with you two? I thought you didn't know each other.”
“We didn't until this trip. We know each other now.”
“Sure.” Irwin rolled his eyes. “Won't be the first hook-up on the Trail, won't be the last.” He gave a little sneer. “Never known one to last longer than two weeks, and sometimes, not even that long, which makes things a little uncomfortable toward the end of the trip.”
Ben laughed. “What's your point?”
Irwin blinked. “Just, use your head, man. What is with that woman?”
Tally emerged from behind the bush, boots on, pack on her back. “I'll cross at the waterfall so I don't get my socks wet.”
She disappeared again, and he kept watch until she appeared above them, then gracefully jumped the rocks to the other side.
He waded across the pool and stepped onto the bank just as she pushed through the bushes beside him.
He held out a hand to her and she took it, letting him help her through the thick foliage to stand beside him in the open space.
Irwin was fighting his own way through the bushes on the other side, but gave up and jumped into the water, wading around toward them, as if nervous to let them out if his sight.
“What's going on?” Ben's voice was low.
“We need to lose him. Soon as we can.”
She'd just finished speaking when Irwin pulled himself up the bank.
“You injured?” he asked, looking Ben over.
“A little. Nothing serious.” Ben couldn't remember if he'd favored his side, but he guessed Irwin would have noticed if he had.
“What happened?”
“I already told you.” Tally's voice was icy. “Ben and I came under attack.”
Irwin looked at her, then at Ben, in an exaggerated, see what I mean way.
“I don't know what more to tell you.” Ben shrugged. “As Tally says, we came under fire. We got separated, obviously, and because I was injured, it took me
a while to catch up.”
She had been covering for him, Ben realized. Making it seem like they'd both been headed in the same direction.
She obviously didn't trust Irwin with the information that Ben had gone back to stop the soldiers following Soo and Lenny's trail.
“You just left him?” Irwin shot the question at Tally.
She shot him a cold smile and then turned her back on him to look up at Ben. “We need to go. There were Caruson hunting through here last night, and I'd rather not be around if they try again.”
She adjusted her pack and started walking, and before he followed her, Ben looked down at the ground.
There were footprints all around, and he realized for the first time some of them were the big, heavy boot prints of the Caruson.
He didn't like having Irwin at his back, but for now, he forged ahead, following Tally.
As she said, they'd have to ditch him as soon as possible.
Chapter 23
They stopped walking when the sun was directly above them.
Tally had initially taken the lead, but Irwin had stomped irritably ahead when she'd led them unwittingly into a dense section of bush that had stopped their progress.
Even though she hadn't meant to, she was glad she had. It forced Irwin in front, where she could keep an eye on him.
She didn't think he had a way to contact the Caruso remotely, but she couldn't be sure, and as long as she was watching, he wouldn't dare do it.
She wondered what his move would have been if Ben hadn't found them.
Would he have incapacitated her? Led her straight into the Caruson's arms?
Or just killed her.
It depended on what the Caruso's plans were. And she didn't know enough to work that out.
It was irrelevant anyway. Ben had found them, and he would be a lot harder to kill. Especially when it was two against one.
Thinking of Ben, and possible death, she turned back, her gaze going to his side. He worried her.
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