Jonas relayed the information to Ryland and Kaden. They couldn’t hear Kyle, and Jonas didn’t necessarily want to try to explain how Kyle was getting the information.
Again, there was that brief silence before Ryland spoke. These men are enhanced, and they didn’t jump the ravine? How wide is the ravine?
Sixteen feet, Jonas relayed. The second-in-command leapt thirty feet vertical. Kyle saw him do it.
When they let the tree trunk go, it smashed to pieces and fell into the ravine. Crawley just took off down into the ravine. He didn’t even try to jump it or find another bridge, Kyle said. The others have followed him down. The steep incline hasn’t deterred them or slowed them by much.
Do you recognize any of the soldiers? Kaden asked.
Jonas relayed the question to Kyle, who replied in the negative. None of them, Kaden. But we have to go. We need to find a place to intercept them. Once we have more information, we’ll get it to you, but prepare for war. If you decide it’s too dangerous to send Daniel and Lily away, stash them somewhere safe.
Keep the team alive, Jonas, Ryland ordered.
Always.
9
The morning sun beamed down through the forest canopy, streaking rays to spotlight the dense fog that rolled along the ground in grayish-lavender clouds. The fog crept along the forest floor, barely covering the vegetation in some places and in others rising up to form thick banks of fog that were impossible to see through.
Crawley glanced back at the men running behind him. This side of the mountain was steep with ravines and thick, nearly impenetrable brush in places. They were keeping to a game trail that was barely discernible. The attack was orchestrated purposely from this side of the mountain because it would be unexpected. His men were stoic as he expected, even in the nasty and unexpected fog from hell.
The trail veered slightly and he glanced at his GPS again. He’d studied the maps given to him and this didn’t feel right. He kept directions in his head easily. He never got lost, not in deserts or jungles. The GPS wasn’t making sense. The trail continued to wind through a grove of trees and then was in the open for a moment. He felt a little better about that. When he pulled up the maps in his mind, he recalled a small clearing. Nothing was ever the same on the ground.
Dex moved up to join him, matching his pace so they ran side by side. “Something’s off, Crawley. Really off. I think we should stop again and let Hound and Bear do their thing. We’ve got time.”
Crawley shook his head. “I got word from Shaker. They’re dropping the troops in earlier than we thought. They’ll be here in four days, and we still don’t have information on either of the two fortresses. Shaker says to get it for him. You know what that means. Four days isn’t much time. We’ve got to get Lily and her kid out of the line of fire. Just sneak and peek, like we were ordered at the other fortress, and get the hell out.”
Crawley knew he sounded grim, but he felt that way. Initially, he’d been sure they could get in and out of both fortresses, no problem. Surveil the fortresses, stage some sort of diversion so they could pop in and grab Lily and her kid, plus kill a few easy targets and disappear. But that initial confidence had evaporated, and his opinion of this mission had done a complete one-eighty. An inexplicable sense of dread had come over him. Like Dex, he had a bad feeling something was off; he just didn’t know what it was.
They were out of the small clearing and back on the narrow, twisting path that went through the trees. The game trail was so narrow, it forced Dex to drop behind Crawley. The damn fog was rolling around like it was boiling up from a witch’s cauldron, tumbling over and over like high waves at sea. There was no wind. Not even a breeze to move the dark lavender-tinged fog around.
Maybe Dex was right. He needed to make certain they were moving in the right direction. It would be easy to get lost. The map in his head said there was a lot more stone at this elevation and fewer trees. Had he veered off course by that much? Crawley was beginning to doubt himself again. He glanced down at his wrist and the GPS, trying to pinpoint where they were. He couldn’t see the face of his watch clearly. The fog had penetrated the face of it, which was virtually impossible.
He blinked several times in an attempt to clear his vision, then wiped the watch on his thigh, slowing the pace. He was really becoming disoriented. He wiped his eyes to clear them as well. Glancing over his shoulder at his men, he could see they were having as much trouble or more than he was. Lance, one of his trackers, actually staggered and nearly went down. If the other tracker, Dwayne, hadn’t caught his arm to steady him, he would have fallen.
“We’ll find a place to stop where the fog is at its lowest point and there’s room for everyone to sit down. The sniffers can get ahead of us and see if they can ferret out any danger. If they can’t, Snake, it will be your turn.” He didn’t like the idea of putting Snake in the field. Snake ended things in a permanent way. There would be no prisoner to interrogate if they came across someone, but better to protect his men than run into a problem.
He kept to the narrow trail but continued at a much slower pace, winding in and out of the thinning trees, grateful to see the rockier terrain he’d been expecting. A ribbon of water gleamed silver and blue to their right, winding in and out of the trees as well. He remembered that little stream, and satisfaction eased some of the tension in him. Eventually, the game trail widened enough to appear more like the original hiking trail he had seen on the map. Not that many hikers ever went up this way. That was why they’d chosen this entry point. Even the GhostWalkers seemed to have forgotten to be vigilant in the steep forest miles above them.
That made Crawley give a little sniff of contempt. He was sick of hearing about the GhostWalkers and how dangerous they were. The attack on them had to be planned so carefully because they were enhanced. Well, big deal—so was he. So were his men. He’d heard the first team, the one Lily and her kid were with, were nothing but fuckups. The second team might give them more trouble, but they had problems as well.
The path widened even more, just enough to tell him he was definitely back on the main trail. Unfortunately, the fog continued to roll along the ground, winding around the trees and small boulders, burning over his skin and then retreating to show the vines on the trees and strangely smooth rocks. The sun shone down on the rocks so that they glittered with veins of what looked an awful lot like gold. The area was wealthy in minerals and, some said, gold mines. Crawley had no idea how true that was, but he wouldn’t mind stumbling across one of them.
Crawley slowed the pace even more so he could actually look at one of the larger rocks. He tried not to do more than glance, so none of the others could see what he was doing. If the rock actually contained a vein of gold, he would come back and mine that sucker. He’d be a millionaire from that alone. He didn’t want to stop where any of the others on his team might spot the gleaming veins in the rock.