Green Fields (Book 10): Uprising:

by Lecter, Adrienne

  “Soon,” I replied, deliberately not giving away more should anyone listen to us. With the drone of the storm and rain outside—which made talking between the three of us hard enough—I doubted it was something I needed to worry about, but you never knew.

  “Good.” The following pause was a pregnant one, making me glance down to Nate. He was staring straight up at my face, his gaze turning imploring as it caught and held mine. “Bree, you have to promise me. As soon as Richards gets the bars off, you’re out of here, do you understand?”

  “Sure, after I’ve found a rope and gotten you two out as well.”

  Only then I noticed how bleak his expression really was. “The gap’s too small for either of us,” he explained. “But it’s large enough for you. Just get out, sneak out of the town, and get help. That’s the best you can do.”

  I was already shaking my head, making Nate squeeze my legs—hard enough to hurt, if only for a second.

  Just then, Richards gave a hard jerk, whooping in triumph as he pulled the first bar free. “Got it!”

  “Keep going,” Nate called up, only then making me realize that his revelation had been spoken too softly to carry up all the way to the top. But then Richards was smart, and I didn’t doubt he’d soon come to the same conclusion, if he hadn’t already.

  I really didn’t like this.

  “By the way, Romanoff and Zilinsky say hi. I’m sure they’d whoop my ass if I didn’t tell you,” I offered conversationally. No response came, but then I hadn’t expected any.

  Richards saved the day when he pulled the second bar free minutes later, making me guess Nate had known they were ready to come off but had bided his time until he could get a third loose—only that he hadn’t had the opportunity to. I was very happy to get Richards off me, and with a little scuffing we ended up on the ground once more to regroup.

  I was already gearing up for the protest of the ages but Nate cut me off by gently cradling the back of my head and neck in his hand, leaning in so he could touch his forehead to mine. His eyes, so close to mine, stared at me imploringly. “Bree, I need you to be free,” he whispered, barely loud enough to be heard over the rain and storm outside. “Trust me, after how long? Going on nine weeks—”

  “I wish I’d managed to get here sooner,” I offered, chagrined.

  “Doesn’t matter,” he was quick to assure me. “You’re here, and you brought backup, and after what little I’ve managed to hear from others, in this world with what’s going on out there that’s close to a fucking miracle in itself! I’d give anything to be out of here right this fucking second, but I’ll hold out a while longer. Problem is, I don’t have anything to give up, and the only thing that’s kept me holding on so far is knowing that you’re safe. That you’re not here.”

  “How did you know—”

  The shushing sound he offered made me fall silent. “Not important. I’ll explain once we are out of here. My point is, if you’re still here when they come back, things will get bad. Fucking bad, fucking quickly. And I’m talking your level of imagination bad, just so we’re clear here. You’ll help me the most by not being here. And don’t bring up Richards, I know he’ll agree with me once he gets what’s at stake.”

  “No protest from me,” Red, ever the traitor, provided.

  Nate ignored him. “Promise me.”

  I really didn’t want to—and not being able to feel real, deep-seated fear didn’t help—but I swallowed thickly and nodded. “Promise.”

  “Good. Then up you go. In this weather, it shouldn’t be hard for you to slip away unseen.” Any and all protest I could have offered up he cut short with a deep, lingering kiss, and then they were already boosting me up to get to the window.

  Damn fucking martyrs!

  But considering Nate’s stance on heroes and shit, he must have had a very good reason for his actions, and I had nothing to put up against that.

  The window was barely more than a large slit in the wall, making it fucking impossible for me to find a way to pull myself through, but I somehow managed, scraping my stomach and back up good while maneuvering. It would be hell for anyone substantially more solid than I was, and not just because of the remaining two bars set into the frame. Part of the problem was that the bottom of the window was level with the ground, giving me next to no purchase. It would have been easier with a rope—or pretty much anything else—to cling to. Outside there was a large, open area, some kind of yard if I wasn’t mistaken. Rain and wind assaulted me immediately but I didn’t care, pushing and kicking until I was finally free. At least all that mud made me feel less naked.

  I had barely straightened, hesitating in my decision whether to bolt or call down into the cell one last time when a piercing whistle made me jump. A single figure materialized out of the shadows at the other end of the yard…

  Fucking Marleen!

  “What are you doing here?” I whisper-shouted as she came over, her hair drenched but the rest of her looking warm and cozy.

  “Why are you naked?” she asked instead of an answer, peering down at the gap in the wall that I’d just crawled out of.

  “It’s complicated,” I offered, then thought better of it. “Or not. Whatever, not important.” I looked at the shadows she’d come from. “Is that farm equipment?”

  She glanced at what I was looking at. “I think they are using those trucks for bringing in produce, yeah. Why?”

  “Any way you can get one working? One with a winch, and four-wheel drive would be best.”

  “What do you need it for?”

  I pointed at the remaining bars. “Something that’s strong enough to tear the bars out. Likely, a chain wrapped around them will do. Quick! We’re running out of time!” From the outside, it was easy to see where the bars had been installed, set into concrete. A hard enough pull and something would give, either the bars themselves or their foundation.

  Marleen didn’t ask any further questions but instead ran over to the trucks to check up on them. I went to investigate the crates that were stacked up along the wall. No convenient stacks of clothes, sadly, but I found some rope and chains, and some roughly hewn wooden poles that could work well as makeshift weapons if one didn’t mind splinters too much. The sound of a truck starting up made me cast around frantically, but no guards came running. Marleen was quick to drive it over in reverse and back it all the way up to the window so we could get the chain wrapped around the bars and locked on to the trailer hitch—and then it was time for some action. Also for me to lose my balance and land smack on my ass in the mud, but little did I care about my dignity right then.

  Marleen started up the car, spraying water, mud, and gravel everywhere as she tried to go forward. Metal groaned, then screamed, making me look around, paranoid that now someone must be coming for us—but the yard remained empty. Something snapped, the chain suddenly no longer taut, and the car jumped forward. I was afraid the chain itself had snapped but when I checked on them, both bars were gone. Marleen was already backing up again so I could replace the chain with the longest rope I’d found and throw the other end down into the cell. It remained slack for maybe five seconds, and within a minute, Richards was proving my guess right that getting him through would be a tight fit. The mud seemed to help some, and another five minutes later, he was out. As soon as he’d caught his breath, we started pulling up the rope, not quite trusting the car for the job. Nate’s obvious starvation diet had the advantage that he was out in no time, staggering to his feet with something between bewilderment and disbelief on his face.

  “Told you time and time again—I’m amazing,” I preened, but held back on the impulse to jump him then and there.

  “You are,” he simply offered, then frowned as the truck door opened. “Marleen?”

  The assassin came sauntering to the back of the vehicle, giving Nate—and Richards, I didn’t miss that—an appraising once-over.

  “I already asked your wife why she’s crawling, buck-ass naked, out of holes in the gr
ound so I won’t repeat the question, although I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind that. Instead I’ll say, damn, guy! You absolutely managed to find the one woman crazy enough to marry you, and she’s continually proving the point! We really need to catch up.”

  I hated to rain on their parade—and found the pun hilarious enough to start snickering—but someone had to do it. “Can we maybe do this where we won’t get caught and dragged off to God knows where in a sec? This fucking camp here really makes me realize that I don’t have a nudist gene in my body.”

  Marleen squinted at me—and not my tits, that was for sure—and then Richards. “Shit. You’re both high as a kite right now.”

  “Yup,” I confirmed her guess.

  “Perfect,” she drawled, but actually looked excited rather than taken aback. For a moment only, I felt a hint of paranoia come up inside of me, but it was gone a second later.

  “What’s the quickest way out of here?” I asked. “Clothes would be nice but I’ve already spent a day running through the wilderness around here with my ass hanging out, I don’t mind another if it means I can go where I want to.” Nate gave me a weird look for that but didn’t ask. “Can we get to the cars we came in with? We have clothes, gear, and weapons there. And the cars.”

  Marleen considered but then shook her head. “I’m still sketchy on the layout of the camp but we’re pretty much on the opposite end. I don’t think it’s worth risking it.”

  “Where are we?” Maybe a stupid question from me, but I had spent a little time snooping around the outside of the camp. And if those were the trucks for the produce, maybe—

  Marleen nodded at a large building at the other end of the yard. “That’s one of the warehouses, and beyond that are the worker barracks. We could try the trucks here but I’m afraid they will make too much noise. Plus, there’s a gate over there that’s locked tight, and I don’t think we can pull it apart like those neat little prison bars. But we can climb over it, no problem.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Nate agreed with her, talking right over anything I could have offered. I didn’t mind. For once, I had zero objections.

  “You might want to grab some clothes along the way,” Marleen advised. “Love the view, but your lily-white asses shine in the darkness like nobody’s business.”

  “Good idea,” I replied. “If you happen so see a clothes line somewhere—”

  Her dark laugh made me cut off. “Not in this weather. But I just told you, that building over there is full of people. Most of them like to wear clothes. The rest are likely not asked about their preferences.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure with these assholes,” I muttered, ignoring the sidelong glance Nate gave me. “The barracks it is!”

  Climbing out of the cell had been one thing; running and sneaking turned out to be quite another. Running without boots was weird for me on a normal day but tonight was everything but. Shivering from the torrential rain and gusts of wind strong enough to force me to add some extra steps to get where I wanted didn’t exactly help. Without Marleen scouting ahead to warn us when to wait and when to run, things would have gotten complicated. As it was, it took us an ungodly amount of time to get to the barracks, which didn’t bode well for the rest of our escape.

  There were a lot of bolted-shut doors and windows with iron bars, but after rounding the building to get to the backside we found a door unlocked. It turned out to be a stroke of luck—a washroom, very basic, but we didn’t need much. Threadbare towels to dry off a little were pure luxury. There were several hampers stored inside brimming with dirty, torn clothes—and no freshly washed ones, I checked every container available—but that was still better than nothing. Nate didn’t hesitate for a second, and Red’s delay seemed more because a thunderbolt outside made him blink stupidly into the rain than actual revulsion. Not for the first time in my life I was glad I couldn’t catch normal diseases anymore and swallowed my reluctance. Even with the storm, it was warm enough that we wouldn’t die of exposure, but it wasn’t just predators lurking in the night that made me glad to have some clothes on once more. We didn’t find any boots but nothing we could do about that.

  Marleen appeared once more, having left us to our dressing efforts while scouting ahead. “You ready for a quick climb?” she asked, still way too chipper.

  “You seem awfully familiar with the terrain,” Nate remarked, still busy tying some extra rope around his hips as a makeshift belt. When Marleen—and I guessed, me as well—only stared at him, he looked up, raising his brows. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but judging from the so-far bungling approach to all this, you didn’t have a lot of intel going in. So what’s up with your great topographical knowledge?”

  Marleen’s expression turned smug. “I may or may not have tracked down Rita’s spy and forced him to give me the deets,” she explained. “Someone had to do the work, while others got themselves punched in the face and thrown into cells. I’m not throwing shade there—you did a great job cutting down recon time on that part of the mission, but it’s a little sketchy on contingency options.”

  “Well, that’s what we have you for, apparently,” I quipped. “Can we move on now?”

  We were just about to leave the building when a figure stepped through the door—Scott, I realized, followed by two more guys who looked vaguely familiar—likely his men. He ignored Marleen so I figured they’d already met outside. He briefly nodded in what must have been Richards’s direction while I got a glance only, his attention flitting to Nate. I knew they could have handled introductions themselves but ever the cheerful socialite, I offered, “That’s Scott, he’s—fuck.” And there went my memory. Nate, his attention on the newcomers, gave me a sidelong look. I shrugged. “If I say he’s a marsupial, someone’s going to gun me down in a sec, so I’ll just leave it at that.”

  A hint of a smirk crossed Nate’s expression. “Shit, I’ve missed you,” he muttered in my direction, then louder, “MARSOC, I presume?” He turned to Scott, offering his hand. “Miller, as you probably already guessed. Glad to see some of the Raiders still around.” Scott accepted the handshake, somewhat mollified by Nate’s words but still finding the time to glare at me. “I’m not going to apologize for anything she says or does,” Nate went on, now earning himself a glare from me.

  “Understandably,” Scott offered gruffly. “Would be a full-time job from what I’ve seen.”

  “Can we go now?” I heard myself whine, hating how that came out. “If you’re done disparaging me, that is. We still need to find a way out and not get caught.”

  Scott had the audacity to look surprised at my straightforward approach but didn’t protest—and, much to my surprise, handed Nate his backup gun plus holster and had his men do the same to me and Richards. I wasn’t sure I should be using that thing right now but it felt great being armed with something besides a piece of wood again. Scott continued his explanation while we put the guns away. “We ran into Marleen just as she was returning. Something’s going on out there, which may be related to your prison break, or maybe not, but we should use the distraction. Over the gate and up the hill is our best exit route. We’ve briefly connected with our contact here and that’s the best way out they’ve settled on.”

  “Your contact’s a woman?” I asked, flummoxed—and hating my own hypocrite ass for it.

  Scott snorted but didn’t deny it. “The more machismo the place, the less visible a female operator is. Unless, of course, she has to prove to the world that she has the biggest balls and is screaming for everyone to cut them off.”

  I took his criticism with as much stoic ignorance as I could. “No idea why you all keep ragging on me. So far my escape plan is working amazingly well! None of you could shine if I didn’t set the bar this low.”

  Scott, ready to debate my claim, snapped his mouth shut and instead nodded at the doorway. “Let’s go.” It was only after we were all out and heading for the gate, using what cover was available, that he held Richards and me back
. “Why the fuck are you both stoned as hell? None of us inhaled. Why did you?”

  “First off, they also gave us a shot when they caught us,” Richards objected.

  “Because I’m not a pansy marsupial who has to fake it to make it,” I hissed, although I was more amused than offended. “You do things your way, we do it ours. You would have stuck out like a sore thumb as we got in, we have slight memory and fine motor function issues now. That’s how teams work. Can we please have this discussion once we’re out of the camp? And preferably once I’ve had time to sober up, because I’m really not at the height of my intellectual capacity.”

  I was almost surprised—and a little disappointed—when no protest followed. Seconds into the thunderstorm, I was drenched to the skin again, and I slid somewhat awfully without boots in the mud and puddles, but we made good headway toward the gate as no one was out and about in this torrential downpour. With plenty of strong, tall men about, neither Marleen nor I needed to ask for a boost up, and Red was smart enough to simply keep his hands ready to help Nate without him requiring to, either. The grass on the other side was greener than in the yard—my own pun making me snicker, which got me a weird look from one of Scott’s men—making dropping down easy, and then it was away from the camp, up the trail to the fields that I’d hidden by on my escape. Still no guards in sight, making me a little loopy with excitement—until I saw something ahead of us.

  “Lights,” I hissed to one of Scott’s men who was walking directly in front of us. “To your eleven.”

  He squinted into the darkness. Without flashlights, it was pretty much walking blindly through the muck until someone broke a leg—unless the flashes of the thunderstorm blinded us. “You sure? I don’t see anything.”

  Nate, previously behind me, caught up to us, staring in the same direction. “Five vehicles. All ATVs. They’re headed in our direction.”

  “A patrol, looks like. They’re going too fast to be searching for someone,” I confirmed. They were driving along the same road we’d been following. “They’ll be here in three minutes, maybe four.”