“With me?” Isaac whispered.
He dropped the wire and darted over in a crouch. “What do you have?”
“About eighteen yards in the distance.” Isaac handed him the binoculars.
The trees grew thick and twisted, the underbrush heavy and damp between them and the house. The sky overhead was a mess of angry storm clouds just itching to open up and saturate the ground.
He twisted the knob and zoomed in on two men lounging outside of a guard shack just west of the uncle’s home. The house was big and in disrepair with white chipped paint and an unkempt yard that grew tall with grass stretching across the small clearing to the trees.
“You really think Eddie’s in there?” He handed back the binoculars.
“Maybe. He might be hatching a plan with his uncle.”
“I think he already has a plan,” he returned, following Isaac in a hunched over run to get closer to the pair of armed guards.
“If he does, maybe we’ll find something about it inside.”
Zane held Isaac’s gaze and the sun broke through the cloud cover to send triangles of light cutting through the pine trees. Call him fucking sappy, but Isaac’s eyes sparkled like a clear blue freshwater lake.
“Bravo, you copy?”
“Go ahead, base,” he replied, dragging his eyes from Isaac.
“There is no security system in place,” Sam responded.
“That’s odd,” Isaac frowned.
“Copy that, base,” he responded, it was damned odd. “We have two guards, west side, in what looks to be a guard shack. Isaac and I are going in.”
Isaac gave him a wide grin, his blue eyes twinkling.
“Roger that, Bravo team, going in,” Sam said.
“Watch your six,” Maddox growled.
“Mad dog, this is Split Wire,” Spencer’s growly tone came over the mic. “Fury is coming in from the west.”
“Roger that,” Maddox responded to his old handle. Zane could hear the amusement from both men. Spencer and Maddox went way back.
Once they reached a few yards from the shack, he tapped Isaac on the shoulder.
Isaac went left and he went right.
They converged on the pair of guards who’d stood puffing on cigarettes instead of paying attention. The whole setup stank. Zane ran up behind one man and locked his arm around the guy’s throat. He squeezed and kicked away the rifle leaning against the wall.
Isaac disarmed the perp across from him and knocked the man’s head against the wall. Both suspects toppled to the dirt simultaneously.
Zane shook his head when Isaac gave him a cocky grin and zip-tied and gagged the two men. Isaac stomped out the smoldering cigarettes.
Snatching up the radio, Zane tucked it into his vest. Never knew when listening in might pay off.
They raced through the underbrush and trees until they reached the edge of the house. Isaac picked the lock and all appeared quiet when they entered the darkened hallway.
The first door they came to stood open and he did a quick look. Finding it empty, he entered it and moved quickly to the far door on the other side. Pressing his ear to the door, he heard voices.
Isaac leaned in and listened. “Sounds like more than a few.”
“It does,” he whispered.
They back tracked to the darkened hallway.
“Fury, you copy?” he said quietly.
“Copy, Bravo, we’re coming up behind you,” Spencer said, approaching with Link and Eagle.
He pointing to the far door. “It sounds like more than a few in there. A meeting maybe?”
“Dispatch, any heat signatures?” Isaac inquired.
“Bravo, stand by,” Sam replied.
Eagle, Link, and Spencer took up positions to guard their flank, semi-automatic weapons clenched in their fists. He and Isaac kept an eye on the empty room and the far door beyond.
“Six suspects. Three are possibly armed,” Sam’s voice came over the mic. “Alpha and Charlie team, report?”
“We’re at the front entrance, took out two guards,” Alpha team responded.
“Charlie is coming down through the attic,” Pia said.
The chatter over the mic didn’t distract him. He took point and slammed into the room in a front roll. Isaac advanced in on his six with Fury bringing up the rear.
Slamming his weapon into the nearest guy’s head, he swept his leg out and took the guy to the floor. The suspect dropped like a stone and Zane lunged upward, tackling the nearest body, knocking the weapon from the man’s grasp. They fell in a tangle of arms and legs. It took precious seconds to grip the man around the throat and choke him out.
Rolling, he came up to his feet just as the rest of the men were taken into custody and disarmed.
Wiping a hand along his sweating temple, he found Isaac handcuffing a suspect. The blond winked at him.
He snorted, but something fierce warmed his chest. Hefting up the suspect at his feet, he pushed the man toward the door.
Back out the way they’d come, he shoved the suspect at Oliver and Holden.
Catching a flash from the corner of his eye, Zane squinted through the trees and spotted a man running.
“Suspect on the run!” he shouted and lunged after the guy. A few seconds later, Isaac was hot on his ass, boots crunching in the leaves. He leaped a log in his way and skidded down the incline after the man wearing green fatigues.
“Is it Chambers?” Maddox shouted over the mic.
“Don’t know yet, Captain,” Isaac responded, breathing hard.
His boots hit the bottom of the hill with a hard jarring, and a slight pain shot through his knee. He wobbled and then righted himself to race after the fleeing figure. The guy ducked beneath several branches, slapping away large green ferns and then disappeared.
Zane charged beneath the trees and mud and rocks fell away beneath his feet. His ass hit the ground and his momentum swept him downhill.
For a fleeting second, he saw the suspect, but then the man was gone. The drop off came up quickly and he scrambled to grab ahold of anything, but every branch and shrub gave way beneath his grip. A piece of wood gouged his spine. Thin branches sliced at his palms and he hissed.
“Zane!” Isaac shouted.
“Stay back!” he yelled, not sure if Isaac would hear him or not. He hoped like hell he heard him. He did not want Isaac following him down this slope.
Approaching the end, a drop off emerged along with the roar of rushing water.
He clenched his teeth and made one last ditched effort to stop himself from plunging over and down the waterfall.
Isaac
Slipping and sliding after Zane, branches came up and smacked him in the face. He twisted sideways to stop his fall.
“No, no, no, no, no,” he choked the word out over and over when Zane was lost from view. His chest burned and his breathing came in huge gasps while blood rushed in his ears.
“Isaac!” Holden shouted and he realized the soldier had been on his ass since they’d left the house. So focused on Zane, Holden took him by surprise.
“Stay back,” he choked out.
It was a stupid idea to follow after Zane, he didn’t need Holden getting killed. A tree caught him beneath his armpit and stopped his downward tumble, but a stone cracked him in the temple.
The woods went dark.
“Isaac, wake up.”
Far away voices called his name and pain pierced his head. He shoved poking hands away, trying to roll over to get to his feet.
The world tilted on its axis.
“Easy,” Ethan said, pushing his shoulders down to the blanket. Blanket? When the hell had Ethan arrived? He squinted at the wavering figures hovering nearby and realized that several of his unit were staring at him.
“I have to find Zane,” he gritted between his teeth.
“Sam has eyes on his locator,” Pia said from over Ethan’s shoulder.
“I’ve got to find my partner,” he mumbled thickly, his tongue like lead. H
e fought the hands holding him down. The fucking wetness in his eyes raced down his temples and he closed his eyes against the piercing light. Hammers pounded in his head and he moaned. Zane, fuck. Zane.
“Easy, Isaac,” Oliver whispered.
“Did he go over the cliff?” he rasped, popping open his eyes.
“It looks like he went down the falls.” Lieutenant River Seeger approached and crouched by his side. “We think Zane hit the river below. Maddox took the rest of Alpha, Fury, and Echo teams to find his locator.”
“Colin’s got the drone?” he asked through his teeth, fighting the pain. Zane’s odds increased with the drone.
“Yeah, Echo team has the drone,” River assured him.
Echo consisted of Archer, Greene, and Colin. With all the experience in those three soldiers plus adding in Alpha and Fury? Eddie Chambers would be fucking dust, they’d make sure of it.
He closed his eyes, but the sight of Zane toppling over the edge of the cliff sent them snapping open and a shudder ripped through him. He gripped the thermal survival blanket in his fists.
Slowly this time, he eased upward and Ethan helped him to sit fully up. Oliver crouched behind him keeping him braced upright and he was glad for the extra support.
“Thanks,” he winced, his head swimming.
Ethan touched his chin, tilting his face up and briefly shone a light in his eyes. The brightness didn’t help the pain and after a few seconds, he pushed Ethan’s arm away.
“I’m okay.”
“How is he?” River asked Ethan, eyeing him.
“Slightly concussed.”
“How long was I out?” He glanced in the direction of the rushing water. The falls that had taken Zane stood not too far from them.
“A couple of minutes, just enough time for Holden to pull you up and carry you here.”
“Thank you.” He slanted a grateful look at Holden.
The gruff soldier gave him a slight smile.
“What now?” he said, holding a hand over his shoulder to Oliver. The man stood and pulled him up and then held tight while he got his bearings.
“That’s up to you,” River said with a frown. “I’d advise you to take it easy, but I doubt you’ll listen.”
“When have I ever taken it easy?” He squinted and bent slowly to pick up his weapon.
“That’s what I thought,” River smirked.
Pia and Blade came over. “You all good?”
“My head is harder than it looks.”
“I won’t touch that,” Blade cackled.
He grinned and almost laughed. “Ouch.”
“Serves you right,” Pia said, giving him a gentle hug.
“Looks like we’re hiking down the falls,” Holden said with a jerk of his head.
“I moved the rental with our gear closer. Let’s stock up first,” Ethan suggested.
They converged back the way they’d come to the rental vehicle and Isaac slipped on his pack filled with essentials and food, along with his bedroll.
River took a half an hour to fill in the local PD and FBI securing the scene around the house.
“Let’s move out. We only have a small amount of daylight,” River said after locking up the truck.
“Alpha team, you copy?” their Lieutenant said through the mic.
“Copy, River,” Maddox replied.
“We are heading your way.”
“Isaac, you good?” Maddox’s voice sounded worried.
“Yeah, I’m good.” He leveled his gaze and squinted at River, daring him to say otherwise. River rolled his eyes.
“We’re over an hour ahead of you,” Maddox said.
“We’ll get there as fast as we can,” River responded.
“What was in the house?” Isaac jerked his thumb toward the falling down structure.
“A family of drug dealers recently rented the place last week. The guards were theirs. One of the suspects said that Chambers knew we were coming and cleared out.”
“How the hell did he find out?”
“They must have spotted us blowing through town. Let’s move out.” River jerked his head toward the small trail.
With his boots slogging through the damp underbrush of the North Carolina wilds, he stepped in behind River and Holden, the rest followed at his six.
The roar of the water grew. Mist blasted the air and he lifted his face to it. The coldness felt good on his burning forehead.
Oliver paused next to him and then started down the small rocky trail that paved its way down the side of the falls. He started the long climb downward keeping Oliver in sight.
It took longer than it should have to reach the bottom of the falls because of him. When he missed a step and almost lost his footing, Ethan called a halt.
“We found Zane’s vest and locator,” Maddox reported in fifteen minutes later.
“Roger that, Alpha team. Sending in the drone,” Sam came back.
“River? We’ll leave the vest here,” Maddox said.
“Copy,” River responded with a press of the mic.
Isaac eyed the violently surging water as it slammed against massive rocks. How the hell could Zane have made it down? How far had the river carried him? Was he badly injured?
“Fast moving river,” Oliver shouted over the noise.
He didn’t care how fast it was, he’d find Zane or die trying. Somehow, Zane had managed to stay alive going down those falls. What worried him the most was the vest, because he knew goddamned good and well that Zane would have never left his vest behind on purpose.
“Bravo team, Sergeant Gannon’s vest is one klick east of you,” Sam advised.
He ran stumbling through pine trees and underbrush, their branches pulling at his gear, threatening to slow him down. The roar of the falls faded the farther he lurched through the underbrush. At first, he couldn’t find it and then he fell to his knees, sucking in huge gulps of air. Cold water and mud drenched the knees of his pants and he yanked up the vest that held Zane’s tracking device. Clutching the vest to his chest, it felt cold. Zane’s warmth had long been lost.
It took him a moment to realize that Oliver had crouched next to him. He gazed blankly at the man.
“Come on,” Ethan said from his other side, helping him up. “Let’s keep going.”
One hour longer and the dark crept over the trees but for the full moon spattering the forest every so often with its glow. Moving became difficult in the unfamiliar terrain, but time stood still, the fatigue pulling his body a distant pain.
“Let’s make camp. We can’t do any more until daylight.” River finally called a halt.
“We’ve got goggles,” he growled. “We can keep going.”
“Isaac.” River stepped closer. “It’s not the light. Everyone is exhausted. We can’t rescue Zane on zero sleep.”
As much as he wanted to scream, River was right. If Chambers stayed true to form, he’d put up a hell of a fight.
“Wake me up for a shift.”
“No.” River gave him a dark look. “Sleep.”
With no further argument from him, he snapped out his bed roll. Tossing and turning for most of the night, he woke up from dreams of Zane calling out for him and he couldn’t reach him. He fell into a fitful sleep just before daylight and woke up in the morning with a roaring headache. Gratefully, he took the pain relievers Ethan handed him, but only after he was examined again.
“I’m fine,” he squinted.
“All right, here.” Two pills were placed in his palm. “Stay between Holden and me.”
“Why?”
“In case you take a header.”
He scowled, but stayed nearby.
Zane
A shove to his back sent him stumbling forward.
He’d lost his weapon in the fall, but still had his boots and the fucker let him keep his jacket after demanding he lose the vest.
During his headlong chase, he’d completely missed the trail that lined the edge of the massive waterfall, but Eddie Ch
ambers hadn’t missed it. In fact, the guy hiked down the side and fished him out of the raging water. He would have thanked the fucker, but Eddie had saved him only to kill him later.
Eddie dug the rifle into his back. Plastic zip-ties cinched tightly around his wrists. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem to get out of, only his hands were cuffed behind his back.
“Keep walking.”
“Where do you think you can go where they won’t find you?”
“They won’t find me,” the ex-marine said with a guttural laugh. “Your tracker is back with your vest.”
“It’s an Army Special Forces unit. They’ll fucking find you.” He tossed a glance at Eddie.
“You think I’m alone?”
Another shove pushed him forward. “I have a whole bunch of people waiting for me. You’ll have a crowd to witness your death for taking my brother.”
“You do realize you’ve taken on the Army, right?” He tried again to talk some sense into the imbecile.
“I don’t fuckin’ care who’s after me.” He was shoved again. “You fail to remember that I have nothing to lose. I already lost the most important thing in my life.”
“What’s that, huh?”
“My brother.” Eddie shoved him harder and this time he went down. Rock and debris cut into his knees, and he twisted sideways and took the hit to his arm, just managing not to fall face first.
“Get up!”
With a grimace, he rolled to his feet and kept walking. He went from trying to talk reason into Eddie to planning his escape.
Were Isaac and the unit close? Had Isaac gone over the falls after him? All he remembered was shouting at Isaac to stay back and then he went over.
The unit had to be gaining ground. Even with his vest lying in a puddle of mud, the unit would find it and continue tracking.
They reached a dirt road and followed that for what seemed like hours before it spilled out onto someone’s property.
In the growing darkness, he spotted a cracked and broken porch gracing the front of the chipped, paint peeled house with boards hanging from the windows. A washed-out red barn in the same state of disrepair sat off to one side. A woman wearing a faded blue dress stepped out onto the porch along with several men.
Battle It Out Page 17