Down

by Brett Battles

  She swiveled the other way and felt unexpected pressure against her hip.

  The knife.

  She thrust her foot at him, ramming the sole of her boot hard into his chest. Staggering backward, he lost his grip, and she was able to tumble the rest of the way over the counter. She pushed to her feet, pulled out the knife, and removed the sheath.

  “Hey, stop,” he said as he lumbered around the end of the counter.

  Wanting only to distract him so she could get the door open, she cocked her arm and threw the knife at him. As she grabbed the door handle, she heard a grunt, but she didn’t allow herself to look back until she was outside.

  She had expected to see him nearing the door, but instead he was lying on the lobby floor, her knife sticking out of his abdomen. Blood poured from the wound as he feebly tried to grab at the knife, but his movements were uncoordinated and within seconds his hands dropped to his side.

  As much as she knew she should keep going, she stepped back inside. Her attacker’s breaths were coming in short, pronounced bursts, and his eyes were full of confusion.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  Dear God, what had she done? She’d never even hurt anyone before. Not on purpose, anyway.

  His gaze slowly turned to her, his incomprehension growing. His lips parted to say something, but then, like someone threw a switch, his chest stopped moving and his muscles relaxed.

  Riley stepped backward toward the door before she forced herself to stop.

  As horrifying as it was, she returned to the man and pulled her knife from his gut. Using a roll of paper towels she found behind the counter, she wiped off the blood and slipped the weapon into her bag. She patted him down and rolled him over. That’s when she found the pistol tucked under the waist of his pants. She wiped off the blood covering the grip and shoved it into her bag.

  The world was a different place now, and no one could afford to leave a weapon behind.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again, and then hurried outside.

  __________

  NOREEN TENSED WHEN she heard a key slip into the door lock. Other than bringing them some water not long after they’d been put in the room, the captors had left her and Craig alone.

  Noreen had known that wouldn’t last.

  “Craig?” she whispered.

  He was still out.

  The lock clicked and the door creaked open. She watched as a surprisingly small silhouette stepped across the threshold. As soon as the person was inside, the door closed again.

  Noreen heard some fumbling, and then a light sliced through the darkness. She narrowed her eyelids to slits. Though the beam was small, to her unadjusted eyes it was as bright as the sun, blinding her to everything.

  “Noreen? Thank God.”

  __________

  RILEY KNELT DOWN next to her friend and asked, “Are you hurt?”

  “Riley?” Noreen said, squinting.

  “It’s me. How about we get you guys out of here, huh?”

  Noreen tensed. “What are you doing? They’re going to catch you, too.”

  Riley quickly put a finger over Noreen’s lips. “They won’t if you’d stop yelling. Everyone’s asleep.”

  Using her knife, Riley cut Noreen free. Once her friend was sitting, she moved over to Craig and removed his restraints.

  “Craig?” she said, gently shaking him. “Craig, wake up. We’ve got to go.”

  “He’s been like that since they took us,” Noreen said.

  Riley tapped his cheeks. “Come on, Craig. You need to wake up.”

  A low groan.

  Riley knew they didn’t have the luxury to wait around until he was conscious again, so she said to Noreen, “You’ll have to help me.”

  After draping Craig’s arms over their shoulders, they lifted him to his feet and maneuvered him to the door.

  “Hold him for a moment,” Riley said, transferring all of Craig’s weight to Noreen.

  She cracked the door open enough to stick her head through. All was still quiet at the Ragged Point Inn and Resort.

  She pulled back inside and whispered, “We go out and to the right over to the highway. Got it?”

  Noreen nodded.

  “Okay, we’re going to carry him like this.”

  Riley demonstrated, putting one arm behind Craig’s back and the other under his thighs so he’d basically be in a sitting position. Then she eased the door all the way open. Its hinges creaked a little but that didn’t seem to bring anyone out.

  On a count of three, she and Noreen picked up Craig and headed out.

  When they reached the highway, Riley guided them south.

  Noreen shot her a questioning look. “We’re not walking out of here, are we?” she whispered.

  “Shhh,” Riley said.

  They continued around the bend until Riley’s motorcycle came into view.

  “We can’t all fit on that,” Noreen said.

  “Sure we can.”

  It would be tight, but doable. The problem wasn’t whether they’d all fit or not. It was how they would keep Craig from falling off. When Riley had come up with her plan, she hadn’t taken into consideration that one of them might be unconscious.

  “I’ll drive,” she said. “We’ll put Craig between us so you can hold on to him. There are a few bungee cords under the seat we can wrap around us to help.”

  “Bungee cords?” Noreen said.

  “If you have a better idea, I’m listening.”

  Short of going back to the motel and getting some rope, the bungees would have to do.

  To create enough room for Craig, Riley gave her backpack to Noreen to wear, then they sandwiched their injured friend between them. They had enough bungee cords to create two separate loops, so one went around chest high and the other closer to the waist.

  “Ready?” Riley asked.

  “Not really,” Noreen said.

  “Hang on!” Riley started the engine, swung the bike around, and headed south on Highway One.

  __________

  COLTER’S EYES OPENED.

  What the hell was that? He’d heard something. Maybe it was a dream.

  Sitting up, he realized he’d passed out on the table. He rubbed his head and looked around. Where was that prick Dugger? He’d left to get some more beers and hadn’t come back.

  Colter pushed to his feet. “Dugger?”

  He headed outside.

  “Dugger?”

  19

  EVERTON, VERMONT

  6:28 AM EST

  SOMEONE MOVED OUT of the trees onto the highway just as Ash was about to head into the woods to join the others. The person was about three hundred yards ahead and had immediately turned down the road toward the parked convoy.

  Ash knew it wasn’t one of his people. He was the only one this close to the trucks.

  The security guard, he realized.

  He considered pursuing her, but stopping her before she reached the others would be difficult at best and not worth the effort. She’d be dealt with soon enough.

  “Blake for Ash.”

  Turning from the road, Ash clicked on his mic and headed into the woods. “This is Ash.”

  “DNA. Sat.”

  DNA? That was a code he hadn’t heard since his army days. DNA—do not answer. And sat? That wasn’t standard code but was easy enough to figure out: sat phone. He turned off his radio and pulled his phone from his pack just as it started vibrating.

  “Blake?” he said.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’ve got a problem. Someone knocked Bobby out.”

  “What? Is he all right?”

  “He’s sore, but he’ll live. Whoever did it grabbed his radio, though.”

  Ash looked back toward the road. “The missing guard.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  Ash swore under his breath and then asked, “How long since it happened?”

  “Not sure. Thirty minu
tes, maybe.”

  Which meant if the guard had been listening in, she’d heard their plans to reposition and would soon be sharing the info with her friends.

  “We have to assume we’ve been blown,” Ash said. “We’ll need to readjust. Get word to everyone—sat phones only. I’m going to find someplace where I can see what they’re doing and call you back.”

  “Copy that.”

  Ash shoved the phone into his pocket so it would be closer at hand, and then angled his path north and a little east.

  __________

  A BULLET FLEW within a foot of Reni’s head.

  “Stop right there!” a voice yelled.

  Reni halted and raised her hands as two men stepped out from the trees. “I’m with the Project,” she said.

  “No talking!”

  While one man aimed his rifle at her, the other approached her and pulled the rifle from her shoulder. After patting her down and finding the spare magazines and radio she’d taken, he stepped back. “That’s it.”

  “Name!” the other man demanded.

  “Reni Barton. Project Eden security, grade two. Dream Sky.”

  She’d hoped her words would be enough to get him to lower his weapon, but the barrel didn’t move.

  “You are a long way from your post, Ms. Barton.”

  “Dream Sky has been invaded. I was barely able to get away!”

  He studied her for a moment, eyes narrowed, and then motioned down the road with a nod. “Let’s go.”

  They escorted her to where the five trucks were parked at the side of the road. Two were heavy-duty GMC snowplows, while the other three were SUVs.

  “How many of you are there?” she asked.

  The main guy answered her with a glare.

  His partner disappeared around the side of the vehicles and returned a few moments later with several others.

  A hard-looking man with close-cropped hair and matching beard walked right up to Reni. The one in command.

  “You’re from Dream Sky?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir. Barton, Reni. Security division.”

  “So I’ve been told.” He looked her up and down. “All right, Barton, you said Dream Sky’s been taken?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “By who?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  He frowned. “Not sure or don’t know? There’s a big difference.”

  “Don’t know, sir,” she said, her mouth dry. “They were—”

  “How many did you see?”

  She thought for a second. “Maybe a dozen, sir.”

  “A dozen? That’s all?”

  “That’s all I saw, but there could easily be more.”

  “Tell me this, security officer Barton, how the fuck were they able to get in?”

  “I wasn’t on duty, sir. I was on level seven. When I returned to my barrack, I found everyone unconscious and tied up so I went to inform my supervisor. That’s when I discovered the others. They’d incapacitated him, too.”

  “You didn’t engage them?”

  She hesitated. “I thought it was more important to find out all I could and then get word to the Project about what happened.”

  “If you’d done that, I would have heard about it.”

  “I…I barely escaped and didn’t have a phone.”

  A grunt. “I need you to tell me where you saw them, what they were doing, and what kind of weapons they have. Everything.”

  “Of course, but there’s something else you need to know first.”

  “Oh, really? And what would that be?”

  “They know you’re here.”

  Several of those behind the man exchanged surprised looks, but the leader just stared at her.

  “And how would you know that?” he asked.

  “I took their radio.” She nodded toward the man who’d patted her down. “He has it. I heard them making plans. It’s how I knew you were here.” She paused. “They know you plan on approaching the base from the north.

  The leader shot his hand out toward her escort. “Give it to me.”

  As soon as the man handed over the radio, his boss turned it on but there was only static. He looked at Reni suspiciously.

  “They were talking earlier, I swear,” she said. “They’re probably busy getting into position.”

  “Tell me exactly what they said.”

  __________

  WHEN ASH HEARD the crack of the rifle, his first thought was that he’d been seen. After dropping to the snow, he waited for a second shot but none came. Perhaps the bullet hadn’t been meant for him after all.

  Moving up the hill, he found a narrow ridge running across the slope in the direction he wanted to go. After a few hundred yards, he found a pile of boulders that gave him a clear view of the land below. The highway ran parallel to the hills for a quarter mile before diverging eastward, opening a lowland mix of trees and meadows between the two.

  Though the sun was still a good thirty minutes from rising, the brightening sky provided enough light to give him a good look at the convoy parked along the highway. A couple of plows and some transport SUVs, enough room for about thirty men. That was more than he would have liked, but a lot fewer than he’d feared.

  He scanned the vehicles with his binoculars. Hard to tell, but they looked deserted. There was definitely no one standing around outside. He scanned the meadow the convoy’s occupants would have had to cross if they were taking the path he’d predicted. No one was there, nor did he see marks in the snow a group that size would leave.

  “Where are you?” he muttered.

  He slowly panned the binoculars across the land adjacent to the highway, stopping every hundred feet or so for a few seconds. His diligence paid off when he saw a shadow slip between two trees. Seconds later several more did the same.

  They had bypassed the northern route and were heading closer to town.

  No question, then. The Dream Sky guard had definitely overheard Ash’s plans and told her friends.

  The ambush he had ordered was not going to work, at least not where it was currently located. So where were these people going? He watched them move farther south. Going through town would be the long way to the hut entrance, but maybe that was no longer their goal.

  No. Not their goal at all.

  He called Blake and relayed a new set of instructions.

  “Probably take us twenty minutes to get ready,” Blake said.

  “You’ve got fifteen.”

  “I’ll get them moving.”

  20

  NB016

  6:34 AM EST

  CELESTE’S HEAD ACHED from lack of sleep and too much coffee.

  In the past half hour, they had lost contact with seven more bases, and received reports from three others that had sustained so much damage that the locations were now worthless. Three of the Project’s elite strike teams had been completely wiped out, while most others had lost at least a few men.

  What she needed was some good news. What she got was—

  “Director Johnson?” Dalton said. “Commander Vintner calling in.”

  “To me,” Celeste said. As soon as the indicator light began blinking, she answered the call. “Commander, this is Director Johnson. Have you arrived?”

  “Almost, ma’am. We are just outside town, making our final approach on foot.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. “Is there a problem?”

  “We’ve come in contact with someone who says she’s part of Dream Sky security. She’s telling us that the base has been infiltrated, but I’d like to verify her identity before we assume anything.”

  Celeste barely maintained her composure as she said, “Of course. Ms. Dalton? Are you on the line?”

  “Right here, ma’am,” Dalton said.

  “Go ahead, Commander.”

  “The woman says her name’s Reni Barton.”

  “Checking,” Dalton said. A brief pause followed. “Confirmed. There is a Reni Nicole Barton at Dream Sky. She’s security
level two. Let me send you her picture.” Another pause, then, “Okay, you should have it now.”

  “It’s her,” Vintner said after a moment.

  “What did she tell you?” Celeste asked.

  As Vintner relayed the information the woman had given him, Celeste’s already elevated blood pressure skyrocketed.

  “You must get them out of there,” she said after he finished. “At all costs, you must regain control of Dream Sky. Do you understand?”

  “Don’t worry, ma’am,” Vintner said. “We can deal with whoever it is. Give us a few hours and this should all be over.”

  “Make sure it is.”

  21

  EVERTON, VERMONT

  6:37 AM EST

  WITH BARTON’S IDENTITY confirmed, Vintner decided, based on her intel, they would ditch the approach from the north and enter Dream Sky the same way the invaders apparently had. Tasking two members of his twenty-one man team to keep an eye on the woman, he led everyone into the woods in case the highway was being watched, and headed south.

  A few minutes after his phone call with Director Johnson, he heard a muffled “Ash for Blake.”

  Vintner halted and pulled the radio from his pocket.

  “They’re talking again,” the woman said excitedly.

  “Shut up,” he growled.

  “Go for Blake,” another voice said.

  “You guys set yet?” the first voice—Ash—asked.

  “In position above the northern pass.”

  “All right. I want to make sure we stop these people before they even know what hit them, so I’m going to send whoever’s not needed inside over to you.”

  “Copy that.”

  “I should be there in about ten. Any update on where these assholes are?”

  “I sent out a couple scouts to the other side of the pass. They should be there in a few minutes. If they see something, they’ll let us know.”

  “All right. Keep me posted. Ash out.”

  “Blake out.”

  Vintner shoved the radio back into his pocket.

  “See, I told you,” the woman said.