“You okay in those hiking boots?” Rubin asked.
“Yes. I only have a couple of pairs of shoes. These work for almost every type of situation I run into.” That wasn’t altogether true. They weren’t as cute as she would have liked, but when you wanted serious hiking boots, you sacrificed looks for performance. She really needed performance. Since she wasn’t around people most of the time, it all worked out.
They shrugged into their packs and Diego took lead, setting a fast pace, cutting through the woods on a narrow game trail that he seemed very familiar with. He didn’t slow no matter what obstacle was in his path. He leapt over small logs or large ones and clearly expected Jonquille to do the same. She did so effortlessly. In fact, her body welcomed the stretching after sitting for so long. She wasn’t used to visiting with others and the activity felt good.
Rubin was behind her, at least she was pretty certain he was—she couldn’t hear him breathing. She couldn’t hear footfalls. Or twigs snapping. Or leaves brushing against his clothing. For that matter, Diego didn’t make any noise. She was smaller than both men, so not snagging her clothing or hair or pack on brush as she moved through the denser woods should have been easier for her, but it didn’t seem as if it mattered one way or the other.
She found she was enjoying herself. Her body felt like a machine, heart and lungs working perfectly, her eyes adjusting to the darkness, seeing everything. The nerve endings at the base of her hair follicles acted like radar, communicating where everything around her was so that she knew how close animals were to her. How close she was to trees or boulders, so she wouldn’t trip or get too near a drop-off. Her hearing was more acute. Everything was just more.
They ran in formation for over an hour, covering the distance between the two homes until Diego slowed and then came to a stop. Immediately, Jonquille recognized where she was. They were on the Campo property and had been for some time. Diego had set a ground-eating pace, and with the shortcut they’d taken, even though it was all uphill, they’d made it in record time and were close to the cabin.
“I’ll go ahead and hunt for signs just to make certain no one came to visit while we were out,” Diego said. “You two can wait here.”
Rubin shrugged out of his pack. “Or I can do it. You took lead.”
Jonquille didn’t like a little note in his voice. Just one single note. Or the look Diego shot Rubin over his shoulder. She’d recognized that first night when they’d arrived a difference of opinion between them, and it had to do with the way Diego looked after Rubin. Rubin didn’t like it.
She felt protective toward Rubin as well. She understood Diego’s need to watch over him. Rubin was a good man, and he looked after everyone around him. She could tell the two brothers were arguing again telepathically in that way they had. The energy between them flew back and forth. Rubin was more mild-mannered than Diego, but no less stubborn.
In the end, all three of them chose a direction and went out looking for signs. She could tell Diego wasn’t happy, but neither was she. She took the area assigned to her and went over it very carefully. Nothing was out of place. There were no tracks. She didn’t expect there to be. She had come well ahead of anyone looking for Rubin with the idea that she would be ready for them. She wanted a little time before she destroyed his enemies. She would leave in the early morning hours and go hunting them. Now that she’d met him and spent time with him, she knew she’d been right about him. He was a good man with a brilliant mind, and she wanted him alive in the world.
9
Rubin slid his weapons into the many loops of his mountain jacket and pulled on his gloves before stepping out of the cabin silently and into the night. He inhaled almost without thinking. It was so automatic to scan the world around him with every sense, every enhancement Whitney had given him. It was these times that he was grateful for the animal DNA giving him the ability to know every creature that was close. Every enemy approaching.
He wasn’t going to allow his brother or Jonquille to slip away in the middle of the night to search for Whitney’s team of soldiers. If Jonquille was there in his cabin, Rubin knew the soldiers weren’t that far behind. Whitney had prepared for this moment. The man liked his little games. He couldn’t have known about the terrorist cell or whoever the foreign team hunting Rubin was, but he would have waited for Jonquille to seek out Rubin so he could test his best soldiers against the pair.
Whitney would have given those soldiers his most advanced weapons and enhancements. They would have been psychics that had been rejected for one reason or another from the regular Ghost-Walker program but that Whitney had enticed with money to work for him. They rarely lasted long because he souped them up so much that their bodies couldn’t take the overload. Rubin figured that sooner or later, just as Whitney had made improvements with his teams of GhostWalkers, he would with his own soldiers.
Rubin shouldered the small pack of supplies, water and provisions that he would need just for a day or two. He was traveling light, wanting to cover distance fast. He’d only have a four-hour start before his brother would be coming after him. Diego would be pissed, but then he’d be torn about whether to trust Jonquille enough to have her at their backs or to have to stay there to keep an eye on her—although by now, he most likely believed Jonquille wasn’t their enemy.
He kept his movements in tune with the natural rhythm of the wilderness. Their property had been one of the wildest in the area, and nothing had changed in all the years since they’d been gone. When neighboring farms came up for sale, they paid top dollar for them in order to ensure their privacy. They didn’t want the trees to be cut down as they had been in so many other parts of the country. Wildlife had a foothold in the extensive wilderness surrounding their cabin. Black bears, bobcats, coyotes, even a small wolf pack had come back, sustained by the ever-growing resources available to them.
Early on, when they’d first joined the military, they’d brought an expert on wolves with them to work with Edward Sawyer. He was interested in conservation. Every time Diego and Rubin talked to him about the surrounding wilderness and how they needed to protect the trees and wildlife, he actually listened. They hired him to manage their property for them. It turned out to be one of the best investments they’d ever made.
Edward then approached them about his older brother, Rory, who had had an accident at a mill and had returned home. He had spent hours talking with Edward, and had gone with him several times to the Campo property. He wanted to know if they would be interested in what he might be able to do for the forest itself. He had always had an interest in trees and plants. That next spring they brought up an arborist to talk specifically about the trees and flora and fauna in their area. Rory was hired to manage the woods.
More than anything else, hiring the two men helped the Sawyer family through harsh winters and provided them with a decent living. It also promoted goodwill. They weren’t after the small wolf pack that had established a home there, although the wolves claimed a good hundred miles as their territory.
Rubin felt an affinity with the wolves. He had a bit of that DNA in him, enough that he could detect motion immediately and see easily in the dark. He had a highly developed sense of smell. The hairs on his neck and face had extra nerves that allowed him to process information around him, changes in the air current that might indicate activity close to him. He could determine the size of something he couldn’t see, the speed it might be coming at him, even the shape of it. He could move fast, leap over objects, including downed tree trunks if necessary. He could move in absolute silence and go long distances at a steady run without getting winded.