Spy High

by Diane Henders

  Breathing silently through my mouth, I stood in the darkness waiting for my eyes to adjust to moonlight instead of green-tinged night-vision.

  It sounded as though the speakers were mere feet away over the next rise, but maybe it was only the still night air carrying the two men’s voices to me so clearly.

  Shit, that sounded like Orion’s voice.

  Heart thumping, I inched my fingers into my jacket pocket. The rustle of fabric sounded loud in the silence and I froze again. Slowly, a degree at a time, I tipped the tracker up to face me.

  “Did you take care of them?” The other voice sounded vaguely familiar, too. “She didn’t call the police, did she?”

  “Don’t worry, the old folks are stashed where they won’t cause any trouble.”

  My feet froze to the path. That was Orion. The red dot was practically on top of me.

  The thunder of my heart nearly drowned out his next words. “I’ll go and take care of them now. I won’t be long.”

  “Curse you to a thousand hells, you were supposed have done it already!” That venomous hiss had to be Ratboy. “Hurry up! You’d better be back at camp by one o’clock or Mesker will finish us both!”

  “Chill out. I’ll be there.”

  The sound of footsteps drove my hand to my shoulder holster. No time to run or hide. In an instant they’d be over the rise.

  My trank gun steadied on the place where they’d appear.

  The footsteps faded.

  Orion’s words drilled into my brain.

  He had Moonbeam and Karma.

  He was going to kill them.

  I jammed the night-vision headset back on one-handed, the fingers of my other hand tightening painfully around the trank gun.

  I’d kill him.

  If he had hurt them, I’d kill him.

  My feet were already in motion, carrying me swiftly over the hill. I snapped a glance around me. The path branched to cross the road at this point. Ratboy’s back was just vanishing around the corner to my right.

  To my left, Orion slowed his stride, then stopped facing away from me, fumbling at his head with both hands. Probably putting on his night-vision goggles.

  I dropped to a shooter’s crouch, the open sights of the trank pistol clear in my night vision. An instant later the small flat report was swallowed by the dark forest.

  Orion fell without a sound.

  I stuffed the trank gun back into my holster and dashed to his crumpled body. Clamping both fists onto his jacket, I dragged him off the path, fury and fear giving me strength. Only a few yards away the terrain dropped off into another little gully. Snarling with effort, I wrenched his limp body to the edge and shoved him over.

  The noise of his roll through the undergrowth brought me to my senses. No telling how far Ratboy had gone or when he might come back. Keep this fast and quiet.

  I hurried down into the gully and crouched beside Orion’s limp form. A quick survey of our surroundings assured me we were hidden from the path, and I glanced at my watch. Probably about fifteen minutes before the trank wore off.

  I searched him rapidly. A small pistol in an ankle holster. One of the scary bayonets sheathed on his thigh. A radio. A flashlight. A tiny device in his ear that I would have missed if not for a moonlit glint as his head lolled to one side. A couple of sets of nylon hand restraints that I set aside for later use.

  Ruthlessly, I stripped off his jacket and manhandled his entire body, checking every square inch and discovering one more small but vicious-looking knife in his boot. When I was positive he had no more weapons or communication devices on him, I sliced off the sleeve of his shirt for a gag and secured his wrists behind his back. Then I put his night-vision goggles on him and trussed his ankles with the nylon restraints. All his other gear went into my backpack.

  Panting, I flopped down on the ground, clammy with sweat and fear. Damn, damn, damn! Why hadn’t I found a way to tag Moonbeam and Karma? Now I had to figure out where they were. They could be anywhere in the forest. What if they were injured, succumbing to shock and blood loss?

  A glance at my watch showed the trank should be wearing off any minute. Should I call Kane and Hellhound?

  I eyed Orion’s still form.

  Maybe I didn’t want witnesses.

  Four months ago I had fooled a criminal into thinking I was torturing him with a secret weapon that had really been an ordinary depilator. He had told me what I needed to know at the cost of only a few leg hairs.

  But I didn’t have any beauty appliances with me this time. And I needed Orion to talk. Fast.

  I squinted at my watch and my hands began to shake.

  After eleven o’clock. In a little more than an hour, Ratboy would start to wonder why Orion wasn’t back. And if he found Moonbeam and Karma before I did, they would die. I had no tricks up my sleeve this time. Nothing but brute force and urgency.

  I would do what was necessary.

  And if there was a hell, I would burn there for all eternity.

  Chapter 32

  Orion groaned and moved feebly against the restraints, and I locked away the last remnants of my humanity and sprang. Knotting my fist in his hair, I yanked his head back and pressed the flat of my survival knife against his throat. His eyes jerked open at the touch of the cold steel and I leaned close to growl in his ear.

  “Keep quiet or I’ll slit your throat. Got it?”

  He stiffened and nodded, a bare fraction of an inch up and down.

  “Good.” I pulled off the makeshift gag.

  “Storm, what-” he whispered.

  I pressed the knife a little harder. He shut up, his rapid pulse vibrating through the blade and into my hand.

  “Where are Moonbeam and Karma?” I demanded.

  “I haven’t the foggiest notion.” His British accent was much more noticeable under stress. “Probably in their tent-”

  “The old folks are stashed where they won’t cause any trouble,” I hissed. “Last chance. Where. The. Fuck. Are. They?”

  “Why would I tell you that?”

  “Wrong question,” I ground out. “You will tell me. The right question is, ‘how much do you want to suffer before you do’?”

  He pressed his lips together, and rage overwhelmed me. I slammed my hand into his crotch, clamping down and twisting harder with each word. “If… you’ve… hurt… them…”

  “Wait!” The word came out in a strangled squeak. Even in my night vision his face had gone white, sweat beading his forehead and upper lip.

  I eased off a fraction and he gulped air.

  “Where are they?” I snarled.

  “You don’t want to hurt them?”

  “Why the hell would I want to hurt them? Now tell me where they are or I’ll twist your balls off and shove them down your throat!”

  “Let me explain!” He panted for a moment. “I promise they’re safe. Please let go of my tackle.”

  “I didn’t ask if they were safe! I asked…” I gripped and twisted harder. “…where are they?”

  “I’ll… tell… you…” The words grated out between his teeth. “Please…”

  I eased off again, guilt prodding me despite my attempt to ignore it. Not having testicles of my own I couldn’t exactly empathize, but I’d seen enough guys suffer a blow to the nuts to realize Orion was a hairsbreadth away from either puking or passing out. Or maybe both.

  I gave him a moment to recover. When his breathing eased from jerky gasps to rapid panting, I leaned in again.

  “I’ll take you there,” he said hurriedly before I could speak. “You wouldn’t be able to find it even if I gave you directions.” I eyed him in silence and he drew a deep tremulous breath. “Look, I know your real name is Aydan Kelly, and I’m pretty sure you belong to some branch of law enforcement. I do, too. I’m in the middle of an op and this is just a misunderstanding-”

  “Shut up.” I accompanied the command with a convincing squeeze, and he went quiet except for more jerky breathing.

 
Law enforcement. That would explain the hand restraints. Maybe he was undercover, investigating the renters.

  Or maybe he was full of shit and setting me up for an ambush.

  I gave him a toothy smile. “Okay, sure. I’m law enforcement. Now I’m going to read you your rights, so listen up.”

  A little of the tension went out of his body. Interesting.

  “You have the right to remain silent…” I leaned closer. “…because if you don’t I’ll slit your throat. Vocal cords only, so you won’t die. You have the right to take me directly to where you’re holding Moonbeam and Karma, and I strongly recommend you exercise that right. You’ll be pleased to know I grew up on a farm so I’m familiar with the technique for castrating large animals without any risk of them bleeding out.”

  He tensed up again. Imagine that.

  I showed a few more teeth. “If you lead me anywhere Moonbeam and Karma aren’t, I recommend you choose a place close to where they are because you’re going to be extremely uncomfortable walking there afterward with your balls cut off. If you try to signal anyone in any way, they have the right to die instantly and I will make sure that right is exercised.”

  “You, on the other hand…” I paused and let my gaze travel the length of his body before glaring into his eyes. “If you double-cross me, or if you’ve hurt Moonbeam or Karma, you have the right to scream and beg for death. It won’t do you any good because I won’t let you die, but you can do it all you want. Are we clear?”

  “None of that will be necessary.” His voice was faint but steady. “I’ll take you directly to them. No tricks. And please don’t kill anybody.”

  His final sentence really made me wonder.

  Not ‘don’t kill me’. ‘Don’t kill anybody’. It sure sounded like something a cop would say.

  Or somebody who wanted to sound like a cop.

  I hissed out my tension through my teeth. Only one way to find out. I let go of his crotch and stepped carefully around him, keeping the knife at his throat.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” I said softly. “See this?” I drew the trank pistol left-handed and moved it along his cheek so he could barely see the muzzle in his peripheral vision. Close enough so he could identify it as a gun; too close for him to be able to tell it wasn’t a regular firearm.

  He nodded very slowly and carefully.

  “I’m going to cut the ties on your ankles. If you so much as twitch, I’ll shoot you. Then I’m going to step back and you’re going to get up and take me to Moonbeam and Karma at a nice steady pace through the woods, not on the paths. We both have night vision, so if we see anybody at all, we’re going to stand nice and still and quiet until they pass. If you make noise, if you even step on a stick, I’ll shoot you. If you try to run, I’ll shoot you. If you make any sudden moves, I’ll shoot you. And I won’t shoot to kill, so don’t think you can escape that way.”

  “I understand.”

  “Good.” I took the knife away from his throat. “Roll onto your stomach.”

  He complied, and I cut the restraints on his ankles and backed away, sheathing my knife so I could transfer the trank gun to my right hand.

  “Stand up.”

  He squirmed onto his knees and hunched there for a moment, breathing deeply, his hands flexing behind him in their bindings. I tensed, the trank gun trained on him, but he was apparently only taking a moment to recover. He clambered awkwardly to his feet and stood still for another couple of breaths.

  “All right,” he said evenly. “I’m going to walk in the direction of the garage. I’ll do exactly as you said.”

  He moved slowly into the forest and I followed several paces behind, fervently hoping he’d do the ‘take me to Moonbeam and Karma’ part of what I’d said, not the ‘force me to torture him’ part.

  I didn’t even know if I could have tortured him while I was certain he was a criminal. Now that I was wondering if he was a cop…

  But dammit, he could just be a really smart crook. Putting doubt in my mind; trying to get me to drop my guard so he could make his move.

  I eased out a silent breath and willed my hammering heart to slow.

  As we passed through the woods between the bridge and the main building I flipped momentarily to thermal vision to scan around us. If Hellhound was on his way to the bridge, what would he do if he spotted us?

  I really didn’t want a witness right now; and I also didn’t want Orion to know I had allies just in case everything went to shit and he somehow got back to his buddies on the renters’ side.

  A few distant heat signatures flickered through the intervening tree trunks, but there was nothing close enough to be visible in night vision. Good. If I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me.

  Orion kept moving at a steady pace. We left the main part of the commune behind and began to climb the slope to the garage, but instead of aiming toward the building Orion veered off to circle around the hill.

  My arm ached with the strain of holding the trank gun at the ready. If we didn’t get there soon, I’d have to switch hands. Nerves and the exertion of climbing made my knees tremble, and the trank gun wavered. Shit, was he just leading me on a wild goose chase until I got tired so he could overpower me?

  I wasn’t sure how he might accomplish that with his hands tied behind his back, but I was certain Kane could do it if he was in Orion’s place. Who knew what skills Orion was hiding?

  I steadied the flagging muzzle of the trank gun again and panted through my mouth so he wouldn’t hear.

  What if he was leading me into an ambush? This far from the main encampment, nobody would hear the sounds of a struggle. And Kane and Hellhound had no idea where I was.

  The last of my rage-fuelled courage seeped away and my knees began to tremble in earnest. Who the hell did I think I was and what the hell was I doing? I wasn’t Jane Bond, Superspy. Hell, Jane Bond would have been smart enough to tell somebody where she was going. I should call Kane and Hellhound right now-

  Orion stopped and I nearly ran into him.

  Fortunately he didn’t turn to look at me as I blundered to a halt. To my right the lush fingers of Skidmark’s marijuana crop reached for the sky. Behind it an impenetrable tumble of fallen trees leaned against the hillside, overgrown with ferns.

  “I’m going to move to my left now,” Orion said quietly. “You’ll need to follow closely.”

  I hesitated. I could tell him to stop right here; call Kane and Hellhound and wait for them to back me up.

  But he was already moving, and I couldn’t afford to let him think I was doubting myself.

  In a couple of fast steps I closed the distance between us and clamped my fist on a handful of his hair, jamming my gun into his spine. He went rigid and I hissed, “One wrong move and you’ll be paralyzed from the waist down.”

  “I understand.” His British accent was very much in evidence. “Please stay calm. I promise this isn’t a trap. There’s a door hidden behind that log pile. Moonbeam and Karma are inside.”

  “Slowly,” I grated.

  We moved forward together, creeping step by step around the corner of the pile and ducking into a rough alcove formed by criss-crossed tree trunks. Even with my night vision, I couldn’t see anything but tree trunks and dirt.

  Orion stopped beneath the arch. “Aydan, there is a door concealed behind that large tree trunk,” he said evenly. “That’s where Moonbeam and Karma are. The control pad is above these logs. There’s no other way to open the door. You’ll need to either untie my hands or enter the code yourself.”

  “Yeah, right,” I growled. “On the ground, face-down.”

  There was barely room for him to comply in the cramped space. He managed a crumpled semi-prone posture and I stood over him, debating.

  I had no idea what to do next. No matter what choice I made, I could visualize some disastrous outcome.

  I gnawed my lip, scowling. I could second-guess this decision all night long. If I entered the code myself there mig
ht be a booby-trap that would take me out and spare Orion because he was lying on the ground. Or he might use a duress code that would bring a squad of armed men down on me. If I freed his hands so he could enter the code himself I was wide open for an attack if he had any martial arts skills at all. I could probably trank him again if he tried anything, but that would only delay the inevitable.

  And even if I waited for Kane and Hellhound, the choices were the same, only we’d all go down together. Not an acceptable risk.

  “Don’t move,” I commanded, and trained the trank gun on Orion while I fumbled a phone out of my pocket and pressed the speed dial button.

  “What’s up, darlin’?” Hellhound asked, his rasp sounding clearly over the speaker in the enclosed space. Damn, I should have used the hands-free. Too late now, unless I wanted to put down my gun.

  Not happening.

  “Aydan?” Urgency filled his tone and I pulled myself together.

  “I have Orion.” My voice came out flat and harsh. “We’re downhill north of the garage and he says Moonbeam and Karma are being held in a room concealed under a brush pile. There’s a control pad in the logs overhead.” I nudged Orion with my toe. “What’s the code?”

  “Five-one-niner-three-seven-seven,” he recited without hesitation.

  I repeated it to Hellhound, then added, “Hold your position there. I’ll check in again in five minutes.” I hung up on his protest.

  Before I could lose my nerve, I punched in the code, then swooped down to yank Orion up by the hair as the door opened.

  Warmth and light poured out, and my night-vision headset adjusted to compensate. I shoved Orion forward into the doorway, gripping his hair and jamming my body against the pistol I still held in his back.

  A moment later the scene inside the room registered, and my grip on Orion slackened, my hand falling to my side to dangle uselessly.

  “Shit,” I croaked, and holstered my pistol.

  Chapter 33

  “Hello, dear,” Moonbeam said, looking up from the console where she and Karma sat side by side, apparently monitoring feeds from multiple security cameras.

  On the opposite side of the large control room, Skidmark pushed his rolling chair back from a desk, swivelling to face us and grinning widely enough to show his gold tooth.