by Matt Hilton
‘Maybe once they learn how easily their friend was killed they’ll back down. It’s like you said, they’re just guys earning a wage. Who’d want to die for a few dollars?’
She obviously didn’t understand the world of mercenaries and soldiers of fortune.
‘They won’t,’ I said.
‘How can you be certain?’
‘I know their type.’
‘Your type?’
I glanced at her. It was enough to see her face was set, her eyes steady as she peered at me from between the seats. I returned my attention to the twisting road, but could still sense her perusal. ‘Unlike my type,’ I corrected. ‘I’d never take on a job that threatened an innocent woman.’
She laughed. It was short and sharp. I’m not sure what it meant. Billie didn’t explain. She sat back in her seat, and I was relieved because her perusal had been uncomfortable.
Something struck me as important. ‘Is there a more direct route from Hill End to Hope End, or is this the only road?’
‘There’s another way north of these hills,’ Billie said. ‘Why?’
I’d followed the road from Hill End to Baker’s Hole, travelling more or less south-east. Now we were travelling north-east. I’d driven the two longer sides of a triangle. A direct road from one town to the other would be much shorter. ‘How far?’
‘Ten or eleven miles at most. Oh!’
Billie had got it too. If the man whose neck I’d broken had given our direction of travel to his friends, our destination would stand to reason. Anyone coming from Hill End could get to Hope End before us. Cut us off.
‘We should turn back,’ Billie said.
Perhaps we should’ve, but anyone with sense would send men along that road too, in case we did so. I wondered how many men Procrylon had sent after Billie. I couldn’t assume that it was only the four I’d seen. What was it that merc said when I asked how many people were with him? ‘Enough for you to know not to mess with us.’ I took it that he was referring to more than another three then. Unless the respect he held for the abilities of those Jaeger brothers wasn’t as overblown as I first suspected.
I pulled over at the side of the road. The drop off to our right was steep, wooded, pitch dark.
‘What are you doing? They’ll catch us if we sit here.’
‘I need to check my phone,’ I said, digging in my jacket pocket. A quick look at the screen showed me I had no signal. ‘Did you bring your phone, Billie?’
‘Yes, but out here there’s no service.’ She leaned over my shoulder, looking at my phone as if to confirm her suspicions. She nodded upwards, vaguely indicating the surrounding mountains. ‘Maybe if we were on top of one of the higher peaks, but down in the valleys the signals can’t get through.’
‘Damn it,’ I said. I had hoped to text Rink, give him a status update, then call Brandon Cooper and tell him to get his arse out here to back us up. Now I could do neither. ‘OK, we’re on our own for now.’
I had my handgun, spare ammunition, and a couple of antiballistic vests. We weren’t exactly equipped for a full-on fight but that never stopped me before. Except this time I had Billie’s welfare to care about. I thought hard, and was only partly content with the idea I came up with. I started the car again and drove. ‘You know these hills, right?’
‘I know them well enough not to get lost. I regularly go out this way to paint.’
‘I take it you don’t stick to the main routes?’
‘No. I prefer going off-road. The scenery is more dramatic once you get up on the peaks.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘I need you to think. If you wanted to hide out, where would you go?’
Billie didn’t have to give it much consideration. ‘There’s this cabin. During hunting season people stay there if they’re caught out by the weather. Right now I doubt that there’s anyone there.’
‘Is its location well known?’
‘Only by local hunters.’
I mulled things over. Came to a decision. ‘How do I get there?’
‘Keep going,’ she said. ‘In about two miles you’ll see a trail on the left. It takes you up into the hills a couple more miles, but then we’ll have to trek in.’
The cabin sounded remote. An ideal hideout until I could figure out somewhere more appropriate. My initial plan was to shake off any pursuit, lying low while our trail went cold, then in a day or two head to a more populated town than either Hill End or Hope End where I could rendezvous with Rink. From there we could help Billie disappear until things were resolved at this end.
My plan was probably the most ill-thought-out of my life.
16
Less than a mile up the hunting trail I regretted not bringing Billie’s Chevrolet pick-up. My rental car was wholly unsuited to the type of terrain we’d to navigate. Hitting a soft patch of earth, turned almost to soup by the frequent rain, the car slid sideways off the road and the tyre went into a ditch. Ordinarily that wouldn’t have proved too bad, except that the low profile of the car meant it became wedged on the roadside, and it didn’t matter how much power I gave it, all I achieved was to dig further into the mud and ensure the car was well and truly trapped. In desperation I had Billie clamber into the driving seat while I put my shoulder to the trunk and tried to shove us clear, but there was no hope. It would take a tractor or four-wheeled-drive truck to pull us free.
‘It looks as if we’re walking from here,’ I said, wiping spots of mud off my face and shoulders.
‘We didn’t exactly dress for a hike,’ Billie muttered. She was still wearing her sweats and pumps, though she had thought ahead and brought a jacket, mainly because it helped conceal the vest.
‘Didn’t you pack a sturdier pair of shoes?’
She shook her head. ‘I thought we were driving. You said we’d pick up what we needed along the way. Sadly there’s a shortage of hiking stores around here.’
I looked up the trail. It was still dark, and the trees concealed most of the sky overhead, but I could see that the trail was humped at the centre, where grass grew between the ancient tyre tracks. ‘Try to stick to the middle and you should be fine. I think your pumps will be good for a few miles, but try not to get them wet and muddy, or walking will be hell.’
‘You don’t say.’
‘If it comes to it, I’ll carry you,’ I offered, but maybe my delivery didn’t sound convincing. Billie gave a scornful laugh, shook her head again, and set off without me. I allowed her to gain a short lead before setting off after her, carrying our bags over my shoulders. My gun and ammunition were close to hand. I kept an eye on the trail behind us, checking back at regular intervals, but more than that I listened. At that time there was no hint of pursuit.
Billie wasn’t a young woman, but she was fit and healthy. Her lifestyle as an artist suited her, and her frequent treks into the mountains to find new vistas to paint had prepared her well for our walk in the night. The trail sloped sharply upwards, but she walked with that same spring in her step and her breathing was regular. I could feel the pulling of my muscles at each step, and was soon breathing harder. I’d neglected my regular runs these past few weeks and made myself a promise that once this was over with I’d get back to my usual fitness routines. Supposing, that was, that I was still well enough, uninjured or even alive.
About a mile further up the trail I called a halt. Billie stood with her hands on her hips, peering up at the tree canopy. While I caught my breath, I checked my phone for a signal but got none. I swore softly, but it carried to Billie’s ears.
‘I told you, we need to get up on the peaks if we have any hope of getting a cell phone signal.’
‘I just thought it was worth a try.’ Really I was concerned that we were stuck out in the wilds and nobody knew where we were. That was good concerning our pursuers, but it also meant we’d no help coming. ‘OK, let’s get moving again. I want to contact Rink as soon as.’
‘Maybe we should’ve stayed put at the farm,’ Billie said, ‘and called t
he police like you suggested.’
‘You’re probably right.’ But that didn’t matter now. We were on our own and had to make the best of a bad situation. Shoving away my phone, I followed as Billie again led the way.
Another half a mile on Billie was the one to stop this time.
‘Did you hear that?’
All I’d heard was my puffing and panting. I stopped, listening. I didn’t hear a thing. ‘What was it?’
‘Listen.’ Billie stood with one finger in the air.
‘Shit. You’re kidding me?’ I could hear the distant whop-whop of rotor blades.
‘What’re the chances it’s them?’ Billie asked.
‘The way our luck is going, I fear the worst.’ The huge sum that Richard stole from Procrylon might warrant the company going to the expense of a helicopter to track down a direct conduit back to the cash. ‘Let’s hope it’s just mountain rescue or something like it.’
Billie stared upwards. ‘Sometimes light aircraft pass over, but I’ve never seen a helicopter here before. And if it was a regular flight what are the chances they’d be flying at this time of night?’
‘I don’t like it.’ I was never much of a believer in coincidence. ‘Come on, let’s get going. If it sounds as if it’s approaching we should get into the trees.’
In the darkness Billie’s eyes gleamed, as if this was some exciting adventure and with little inkling of the concern I felt. I wished that I’d paid more attention to Agent Cooper’s suspicions about Procrylon, and asked a few more questions to determine their strengths and resources. If the men had access to a helicopter, they might also have the appropriate equipment to conduct a manhunt in the dark. It wouldn’t matter if we hid in the trees if they had access to thermal imaging technology, as our body heat would mark us out like flares against the cold, damp forest. I thought back to the bold statement I’d made to the man I’d killed earlier. You’re entering a battle you’re not going to win. Well, if Procrylon had the numbers and resources I now feared, then I’d been a tad ambitious with my prediction.
The sound diminished, which for the moment was a good thing. I encouraged Billie to get moving again, and she went ahead. Now I paid more attention to our back trail than before. If those in the chopper had spotted our abandoned vehicle they could be directing those on the ground up the mountain behind us.
A short time later we came to a fork in the trail. We hadn’t heard the chopper for some minutes, but now that we stood deciding our next move I could again make out the distant chop-chop, and below it the thrum of another engine. Bad news. ‘Which way is the cabin?’
‘That way,’ said Billie, pointing up the left trail.
‘We go to the right, then,’ I said.
Billie gawped at me as if I’d grown a second head.
‘If they’ve got a helicopter, it stands to reason they’ll spot the cabin. They’ll know that’s where we were heading. We go the other way.’ I waited for her to understand the logic of my plan.
Finally she nodded towards the right-hand path. ‘That way goes out and over the hills. The trail was used by loggers, but not for a while. It disappears after about another mile. After that there’s nothing but mountains until you get back to the north road to Hope End.’
‘Good. More space for us to lose ourselves in,’ I said.
‘Or just to get lost in.’ Billie scowled.
‘Without any hope of backup, our best hope right now is to get lost. We don’t want to be found, remember?’
Billie fisted her hands on her hips, refusing to budge. ‘And there was I trusting you knew what you were doing.’
‘Sorry?’
‘When Agent Cooper encouraged me to ring you I thought my safety was going to be in good hands.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’ve kept you alive until now haven’t I? What do you think might have happened if I hadn’t answered your call?’
Billie chuckled. ‘Stop being so serious, Joe. I’m only joking.’
I stood there. Was she only joking, though? Fair enough, up to this point I hadn’t exactly made all the best decisions, but it was like I said, she was still alive. If I’d not been around when the Jaegers and their pals turned up at the farm, she wouldn’t be enjoying her liberty now.
She waved away any concern. ‘Come on. Let’s get moving then. Going that way does make sense when I think about it.’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I think.’
She grinned, and I was again reminded that she felt that this was some grand adventure. We still stood eyeing each other, Billie wearing that grin. My face felt stern. Billie shrugged, then turned and marched up the right-hand path. Her enthusiasm placed a worm of unease in my guts, the way her excitement over witnessing a fight to the death had. Somehow I felt that Billie welcomed another confrontation, and she didn’t care if it was with me or with those chasing us.
17
The helicopter was back, and this time there was no doubting that we were the subjects of a search. The surrounding peaks played havoc with the acoustics, and we had no warning before the chopper hove into view a little over four hundred yards ahead. Thankfully its cockpit was turned away from us as it skimmed over the treetops, and I was able to lunge forward, grab Billie and steer her off the trail before it swung around. We hid beneath a fallen tree trunk while the chopper flew back down the trail we’d just followed. Somebody directed a high-powered flashlight between the trees, sweeping it down the trail, playing it into the woods on either side.
‘The idiots are going the other way.’ Billie stated the obvious, sotto voce, when there was no need. The racket from the chopper would have covered her voice if she’d blared out at the top of her lungs.
I didn’t reply, instead urging Billie further into the woods. We were in the wedge of woodland between the forked trail, and I’d have preferred if we had gone the other direction so we weren’t trapped between the two routes. But it was what it was, and it was up to me to change things as best I could. I touched Billie on the shoulder, indicating she should crouch beside a tree. ‘We need to get across the road,’ I said, ‘before they turn round and come back this way.’
Billie gave no argument this time. She nodded, and her body tensed, ready for the run. The chopper was out of sight from our position, but it still thundered nearby. A few hundred yards to our left another engine grumbled, a vehicle moving up the trail towards the hunting cabin. I shook my head, silently berating myself for the poor decisions I’d made. But there was nothing for it. ‘Don’t run, move slowly, and when we reach the road let me check it’s clear first.’
‘OK,’ she whispered.
Nodding her forward, I stayed slightly behind her, watching behind me through the woods in case anyone had decamped the vehicle and was searching on foot. There was no hint of pursuit between the trees, but you never could tell. We arrived back at the road and Billie crouched by the tree line without bidding. I leaned out a bit further. The chopper hovered like a massive hummingbird against the night sky. The flashlight beam stabbed the darkness, but thankfully in the wrong direction. ‘They’re at the point where the road forked,’ I informed Billie. ‘Come on, before they come back.’
Taking Billie by an elbow, I urged her across the road. She pulled gently from my grasp before we were halfway across, and jogged forward, then crouched again at the treeline. The bags hanging off my shoulders bounced uncomfortably as I jogged after her. They were an encumbrance, but if I ditched them it would give a clue to our pursuers as to where we had re-entered the woods. I should have dumped them out in the wedge of woodland, thrown them off the scent for a few minutes.
Further down the slope another engine roared. The vehicle was out of sight but its headlights flared between the trees. At least two cars were now on our tail, and it was apparent that having found our car stuck in the mud our pursuers had pushed on up the hill. Coming to the fork they had enough vehicles to take both ways. I tapped Billie on the shoulder, flicking my hand in the direction of
the deep woods. Billie stood, and jogged bent over into the trees. The forest floor was thick with needles. They covered Billie’s footfalls, but I could easily see the deep swathe as she kicked through them. Anybody with experience of tracking would immediately spot the trail if they stumbled across it, even in the dark. I backed into the woods trying to kick the needles back into place, but it was largely a fruitless task. I searched through the gloom for higher ground, rocks or even packed earth where we could tread without leaving a trail a blind man could follow.
A hundred yards in, Billie paused, waiting for me to catch up. She took a moment to adjust her pumps, emptying them of invading needles. Running in them must have been hell, and I again regretted not advising bringing sturdier shoes.
‘Everything OK?’ I asked.
‘Apart from being hunted through the woods by a bunch of hired killers, you mean?’ She smiled to show she wasn’t over-troubled by the notion. But I noted that the smile wouldn’t hold. She grew tight-lipped, less excitable than before. I knew that the initial flush of adrenalin would dissipate and with it she’d feel drained. Through the darkness I could barely make out a rocky feature in the terrain, but it was there. Billie followed my gaze, and without comment headed for it. It angled back towards the road and a crest in the hill, but it was better than working our way through the deep drifts of fir needles.
A car shot up the trail, going too fast for the conditions, but the driver probably didn’t care about the depreciation of the vehicle he was driving. As it moved its headlights danced up and down among the trees. By now our pursuers had probably guessed we’d gone into the woods and were more concerned with cutting off our progress than anything. Lower on the slope a third vehicle joined the search, coming at a slower pace. It stopped and I heard the clunk-clunk of opening and closing doors. I could neither see nor hear the helicopter. I didn’t believe it had left the area, only that it had continued its search along the other trail towards the cabin.