Harvey Bennett Mysteries: Books 4-6

by Nick Thacker

  “He’s ruthless. Willing to break any rules put in front of him, just to watch his men struggle with them. Kind of guy who puts you through hell just to see how you react to it.”

  “Like SEALS training?”

  “No, like entertainment. The stuff he cooked up for training exercises left a few men severely injured, and I heard rumors that more than one guy died.”

  “Christ,” Derrick said.

  “No joke. He’s a monster, but no one could ever put their finger on exactly why. Never would be caught red-handed, I suppose, and the kind of grunts that get attracted to his style of leadership seem to be the types who worship him. They think, like he does, it’s all necessary.”

  “Sounds a lot like organized crime,” Derrick said. “I’m surprised we haven’t heard of Ravenshadow.”

  “You may not have,” Reggie answered. “But I’d bet there’s a thick file on someone’s desk back at your office. Dig around a bit when this is all over, I’ll bet you’ll find quite a bit on them.”

  “Will do,” Derrick said. “If we can’t take them down now, you’d better believe I’ll be doing my research.”

  Reggie and Derrick found a path that led deeper into the forest, the direction they were already heading. He started along it and they walked a half-mile until they came to the tree line, overlooking a deep bowl cut into the valley.

  The ridge they were on was steep, but it wouldn’t be impossible to traverse if they had to.

  “Nice view,” Derrick said. “Wish we would’ve packed a picnic.”

  Reggie smiled. “I knew I liked you. Glad to see you’re lightening up a bit.” He turned back to the bowl and strained his eyes to see across it. “Any idea what we’re looking for? Little soldiers marching in a line into a cave?”

  “That would be convenient.”

  “This is the square, though, I think. Joshua’s coordinates place this bowl right in the center of the grid, so maybe we start at the edges of it, circle our way —”

  Reggie stopped, then crouched. Derrick did the same.

  “You hear that?”

  Derrick waited a few seconds before answering. “You mean the sound of a helicopter?”

  As Reggie nodded, he watched the bowl’s opposite ridge. Two mountain peaks stood taller than all surrounding area, and between those two peaks, at the rim of the bowl, a tiny black helicopter sailed into view. The rotor wash bounced and echoed off the walls of the bowl, directly into Reggie’s ears.

  “Well, I think we found what we’re looking for.”

  Chapter SIXTY-THREE

  “YOU THINK THEY SAW US?” Derrick asked.

  “No way,” Reggie answered. “They’re coming in hot, heading straight down where that river is. No way they’re looking up here.”

  “Still…” Roger Derrick slid behind a tree, moving carefully and smoothly so as not to attract unwarranted attention in case the men in the chopper were looking their direction. Reggie slid the opposite direction, knowing there was nothing wrong with being a little extra cautious.

  “How many are in there?” Derrick said.

  “Holds up to eight, maybe nine, as long as they’re packing light. My guess is they are — the chopper will park it and wait for them to be done, then extract them back out to civilization. No reason to carry anything extra.”

  “So they’re not staying to camp.”

  Reggie smiled. “I doubt it.”

  The chopper landed in the only section of forest Reggie could see, and he was impressed with the pilot’s ability to navigate perfectly down through the trees and their extended branches with only a few feet to spare on each side. It wouldn’t have been a legal landing anywhere else, but Reggie had a feeling the men that were about to disembark weren’t much into abiding by the law.

  “Let’s follow them,” Reggie said.

  “Don’t you want to wait until they get out, see where they’re going?”

  Reggie shook his head. “The trees are way too thick. We’ll lose them immediately. But if we head down the slope here, follow this rockslide a bit, I think we can keep an eye on them and stay mostly out of sight.”

  Derrick examined Reggie’s plan, then nodded. “Works for me. You ready?”

  Reggie checked the magazine again in both guns, then stood up. “Ready.”

  Reggie led, half sliding down the mountainside into the bowl the helicopter had landed in. He was right; they could see the men — clearly the same soldiers who’d confronted them behind the yogurt shop in Philadelphia — exiting the helicopter and gathering in a small circle near it, beneath the rotors.

  Another reason Reggie had wanted to move quickly was that while the chopper was still spinning down, they’d be able to move without being heard. Only a lucky glance in their direction and a glinting of something metallic off the fading sunlight would put Reggie and Derrick at risk of being seen. The cover was perfect — enough to hide behind as they moved down, but not enough that they couldn’t still use their height advantage to see down into the bowl and The Hawk’s unit.

  The men checked their weapons — assault rifles — and then one of them raised a hand and pointed toward the trees.

  “They’re going away from us,” Derrick said. “That’s good.”

  “Yeah, unless we lose them. Come on, let’s speed up. The pilot’s staying behind, so we’ll have to move around the chopper as well. And I’d bet The Hawk sent an extra set of eyes to watch their bird, so the pilot’s got a gunner in there, too.”

  Derrick nodded, but didn’t say anything. They had been walking side-by-side, but Derrick fell back a few paces as the route narrowed, walking now directly behind Reggie. Neither man was breathing hard, and Reggie was glad to have a partner who was nearly as in shape as he was.

  They reached the bottom of the bowl just as the other group — four men — entered the trees. Reggie began to jog, staying inside the thick forest about ten or fifteen feet and running around the perimeter of the open section to ensure the men in the chopper wouldn’t spot them. Derrick kept up, and within another ten minutes they were at the opposite side of the clearing.

  “See them?” Derrick asked.

  “Nope, but I see their tracks.”

  Reggie wasn't a great tracker, but he'd learned enough to be useful in situations like this. Besides that, the men hadn’t been interested in moving carefully — there were broken sticks about every five feet, and bootprints in the soft forest ground.

  They followed along, slowing again to a reasonable pace. The chopper was silent, so Reggie didn’t want to take the risk of being heard stomping through the woods.

  The soldiers’ path was nearly straight, only turning around trees and large boulders. It started back uphill after about a hundred feet, and Reggie and Derrick followed until they heard voices up ahead.

  “Right there,” Reggie said, pointing. “There’s a guy to our right. See him?”

  “Yeah,” Derrick said. “But he’s talking. Who’s he talking to?”

  The man was relieving himself, talking the whole time. Reggie squinted through the trees, trying to see anyone else that might be near the soldier, but saw nothing.

  Finally he saw the tiny transmitter on the man’s neck.

  “They’ve got a shortwave radio comm,” Reggie said. “He’s probably talking to the rest of his team, which could be anywhere at this point.”

  “They wouldn’t have split up much, would they?”

  “Probably not,” Reggie said. “But let’s wait a bit, see if he joins up with them again.”

  The man zipped his pants back up and turned to leave, still talking. Reggie couldn’t make out the man’s words, but he thought he caught the word ‘shadow.’

  “We’re looking for a cave, right?” he asked.

  “The Cave of Shadows, yeah,” Derrick said.

  “I think he just said ‘shadow.’”

  “So they do know where it is.”

  “Seems that way. They’re probably expecting us to already be there,
or to walk up after they get there, which gives us an advantage.”

  “It does?”

  “It does. We’re not there already, but they don’t know that. So they’ll either check it out to see if we are, or they’ll split up and leave two guys at the entrance to guard while two others go inside to see.”

  “Got it. So we need to speed up and make sure we’re there right behind them, when they first get there.”

  “Exactly.”

  Reggie pushed forward again, satisfied that the man had just been left behind the remainder of his group for a minute. They caught up to him when the hill steepened into a nearly vertical cliff.

  Reggie held his hand out to stop Derrick, and the man they were following spun around.

  Reggie and Derrick hit the ground, landing on their hands to prevent any noise.

  “You think he saw us?” Derrick asked.

  “No, but I think he knows we’re out here. That’s good, though. He’s scared. Not sure which direction we’re coming from.”

  “And he thinks there’s four of us,” Derrick added.

  That’s true, Reggie thought. They would have no reason to suspect that Ben and Joshua were heading back to Philadelphia right now.

  He calculated, trying to determine if they needed to adjust their plan at all to account for the additional ‘phantom’ members of their group. They already would have the element of surprise, but Reggie wanted to capitalize on that as much as possible.

  “You remember the first fight scene in Patriot?”

  “The movie?”

  “Yeah, with Mel Gibson.”

  Derrick made a disgusted face.

  “But at least you’ve seen it. Anyway, remember how he pretends he’s more than just one person by running around, staying hidden as much as possible? Even set up weapons in different spots on the trail so he could run to another rifle and fire again quickly?”

  “Yeah, I remember how Hollywood made that seem realistic.”

  Reggie chuckled. “Point is, that’s what we’re going to do. Since they expect four people, I say we run in, guns blazing, but keep moving around in different directions so they never really know how many of us there are.”

  “Got it.”

  Derrick paused, then tilted his head toward Reggie. “The Patriot was the best example you could think of?”

  Reggie shrugged. “What? I liked it.”

  Chapter SIXTY-FOUR

  THERE WAS ANOTHER CLEARING AT the top of the small cliff, and there were enough boulders protruding from its face that scaling the cliff was no big deal. The man Reggie and Derrick were following jumped from one to another until he’d reached the top, and Reggie followed suit.

  At the top he waited for Derrick, then poked his head up and over the edge to get a good look. The four men were standing together, all facing away from Reggie.

  Facing the mouth of a tiny cave.

  The Cave of Shadows.

  “That’s got to be it,” Reggie whispered.

  “It’s way too small,” Derrick said. “There’s no way a man could —”

  One of the men, the one who had been leading them, suddenly ducked and walked into the mouth of the cave. He disappeared from view, then Reggie heard him yell out.

  “It’s a lot bigger inside,” the man said. “I’m standing up. And it looks like it goes on for a while.”

  The cave was situated on the side of another hill, this one taller and steeper than the one Reggie and Derrick had just climbed. He wondered if Lewis had known about the cave from local Indian tribes or if he had discovered it on his own.

  “Look,” Derrick said, pointing. “That’s why Lewis called it Cave of Shadows.”

  Reggie watched, at first unsure of what Derrick was talking about. Then, after watching the mouth of the cave for a few seconds and the men standing near it, he saw it.

  The shadows created by the trees on either side of the clearing seemed to be fighting. They leaned down, their tips almost touching the sides of the cave’s small mouth.

  “The shadows are pointing to the cave,” Derrick said.

  “And I’d bet they look like that most days of the year. Fascinating.” Once again Reggie was disappointed that he had no time to explore and examine the unique geological features of this place. Once again he was disappointed that he was here to fight these men, not take a leisurely stroll through the woods.

  “I should’ve been a geologist,” he whispered.

  The leader returned from the cave, holding a lighted flashlight. He flicked it off and waved for the others to join him.

  “It keeps going, like I said,” the man said. “And they could be in there, even farther down.”

  Reggie looked at Derrick and raised an eyebrow.

  “Johnny, Evans, you stay out here,” the man said. “Kalib, you’re with me.”

  Reggie nodded, silently praising the soldier for his decision to take the largest man in the group with him into the cave. He likely wanted to keep the huge beast of a man near him for protection, but Reggie was just glad he wouldn’t have to fight him.

  Kalib nodded, a slow, arcing thing that swung his head down almost to his chest and then back up. He gripped his rifle, then followed his leader into the cave.

  “Now’s our chance,” Reggie said. “Remember, invoke your inner Mel Gibson.”

  Derrick smiled, shaking his head. “You want to lose this fight?”

  Reggie chuckled and checked his weapons once more, then prepared to stand up. He slid backwards on his toes, then let his feet fall onto one of the boulders below him. Derrick did the same, preparing for their surprise attack.

  Just as the men were about to push off the rock and charge up and over the hill, Reggie looked at his partner.

  “Here goes nothing,” he said.

  Derrick shook his head. “No. Here goes everything.”

  Reggie was reminded once again that to the man next to him, this battle was everything. This mission was everything.

  Reggie nodded, and crouched down another few inches, ready to pounce.

  And that's when he felt the gun against his back.

  Chapter SIXTY-FIVE

  “MOVE,” THE MAN SAID.

  REGGIE dared a glance over his shoulder. The man was wearing a black flight suit and carried a large radio on his belt.

  The pilot.

  It was one of the men from the helicopter — they must have been spotted as they snuck by, and this man had followed them all the way here, waiting until the perfect time to spring into action.

  And he had, in Reggie’s professional opinion, nailed it.

  Neither he nor Derrick had been prepared for an ambush.

  But we can adapt.

  Reggie took stock of the situation. Derrick was to his right, and the two goons on The Hawk’s team were still standing in front of the cave, watching their leader and the man named Kalib disappear into the mouth of the cavern.

  That meant Reggie and Derrick still might have the advantage. There was only one man holding a gun to Reggie’s back, and though it might mean a bullet through his spine, giving Derrick an opportunity to attack was now the ultimate goal.

  He met Derrick’s eyes, then he nodded. Please understand me, he thought. I don’t want to have to spell it out for you.

  He wanted Derrick to strike the pilot, to knock him back off the hill, or at least to charge ahead and make it obvious to the pilot that they weren’t planning on being easy prey.

  He saw Derrick tense up, knowing that the man understood. He breathed out, a sigh, feeling a plan start to take shape.

  “Over here, Evans!” the pilot suddenly yelled. “Johnny, give me a hand.”

  The two men near the cave spun around and saw their pilot standing behind two new faces.

  Or rather, faces they hadn’t seen since Philadelphia.

  “They snuck by the chopper down in the valley. I followed them up here. Rodriguez and Swartz are still back there, guarding the bird.”

  Great, Reggie thoug
ht. There are two more at the chopper.

  That made seven men total, to Reggie’s count. Enough room in the chopper with a bit to spare.

  Evans and Johnny, the younger recruit whom they’d seen relieving himself earlier, jogged over to their spot just over the edge of the steep hill. Evans held his rifle out, pointed directly at Derrick’s gut, while Johnny sneered at Reggie.

  Reggie recognized him from the alley in Philadelphia.

  “Sup, kid,” Reggie said.

  “Sup yourself. Get up here, asshole.”

  “Woah, hey, I didn’t do anything to you. Yet.”

  Johnny’s sneer only grew. “The Hawk’s going to be very excited to see you again, Red. He’s been talking about you, telling us all about your little escapades together.”

  “Well he’s full of shit, then,” Reggie said, stepping up and over the edge of the cliff and onto solid ground. “We never actually served together.”

  “That’s not what he said,” Johnny answered. “He said you were one of us, one of the recruits. Said you washed out.”

  The memory came back to Reggie in a flash. The kid was right, of course, about wanting to be part of The Hawk’s newest endeavor. That had been years ago, and Reggie had never regretted ‘washing out’ for an instant. He’d seen what this group was about, and what they valued, and he’d wanted none of it.

  Derrick shot him a glance.

  Reggie shrugged. “I told you I knew the guy, back in the day.”

  “I’ll have to hear that story sometime,” Derrick said.

  “Yeah,” Reggie answered. “You’ll have to.”

  Johnny’s abrasive voice cut in. “Get moving. Andrews and Kalib are looking for you in there already, so we need to go tell them what we found.”

  He stopped, then studied Reggie for a moment. “Shame you couldn’t cut it, dude. You’d have been a good soldier, but The Hawk says you couldn’t hack it.”

  “Why don’t you and me square off and you’ll see exactly what I can and can’t hack?” Reggie asked.

  Johnny turned around and Evans and the pilot pushed their quarry toward the tiny cave.