The Hill - BLACKBIRD book 5

8. into the night

Back behind the line of vehicles and lights, Gillian and Fred jumped out of the jeep. Aldana was there with Allen and Coltrane, three large backpacks at her feet.

"Did Al explain what we need you to do?" Gillian asked Coltrane.

The young woman looked shaken and a little scared, but nodded firmly. "Stay here with the Tac leaders, so the subjects won't notice your absence."

"Exactly. Allen, you'll be my eyes when the big guns start talking."

"Yes, ma'am."

Allen and Fred helped Gillian and Aldana hang the backpacks from their shoulders, then Fred took the third one and grabbed his rifle.

"T?" called Gillian.

"Nothing, Reg."

"You keep an eye on the front part. Kurt, you stay on those sheds."

"Yes, ma'am."

Gillian met the Tac leaders for the last time, to make sure they remembered what they had to do, and especially when. Then she nodded at Aldana and Fred, and the three of them hurried away from the command post and into the woods.

Fred turned on a GPS and led them east first, up to the end of the fence. Then they turned north. They couldn't use flashlights if they wanted their moves unnoticed, and only a dim trace of the searchlights reached that part of the woods, so they were forced to let their eyes adapt to the increasing darkness before they could press on down an animal trail.

"I got you," said Kurt then. "Loud and clear."

"Good," Gillian replied.

"I'm coming to meet you," said Ron.

They kept walking along the fence. The small hill showed among the trees on their left, blocking their view of the buildings and the command post. Gillian studied the dark shape, smooth and rounded like a dark animal lying there for the winter under a warm cover of trees. She heard the murmur of water coming down from the hill up ahead and focused on it. Because it was better than her drumming heart. Every step they took in the darkening woods seemed to feed that hideous, almost aching certainty that they were too late.

"Don't shoot me," said Ron on the radio. A moment later, they heard the cracking twigs and he showed up among the trees. "Follow me."

Ron seemed to have memorized the way, so he warned them about treacherous roots, stones, low branches, and they could move faster despite the darkness. They were already near the end of the hill when they heard a shot echoing under the trees from the command post. And then another. A moment later, it sounded as if all the Tacs were shooting.

"What the hell?" Aldana growled.

"Kurt! T!" called Gillian on the radio.

"I don't know what happened, Reg!" the girl replied. "They just opened fire!"

"C'mon! We're almost there!" said Ron.

"What are Balken's men doing?" Gillian asked, as they hurried after Ron.

"Shooting back, obviously."

Aldana grunted under her breath. "Damn idiots! They're gonna screw it all up!"

"We're going in anyway," Gillian said.

They found Hank a couple of minutes later. He was crouching by the fence and had already cut enough wiremesh to crawl through. From there, the furious gunfire at the front of the compound was but a distant noise.

They crouched with Hank before the hole in the fence. "The sheds are up ahead. And there's been some commotion here around since Ron left," he said. "A man came running from the third shed, I think—the one further west. I don't know what news he brought, but a bunch of them rushed out of this shed and the next, all of them armed, and they spread out into the woods, most of them toward the hill."

A cruel fist shrunk Gillian's heart at those words. She didn't know why she was so sure. She would've given anything to have any doubt, but she just knew exactly what it meant.

"Brockner tried to escape and literally ran for the hill," she said. The others turned to her with questioning frowns. She breathed deep. "He's trying to protect Russ, dragging after him the men guarding this side of the compound. If the black guy escapes, they would forget all about us at their doorstep to hunt him down. But if the white guy escapes, they can chase him down without distracting their friends from defending the buildings."

"Then we need to find'im before they do," said Fred.

"I'll do it. You guys get to Russ and try to take him outta here."

"You're not going alone into those woods full of murderous freaks ready to shoot down anything that moves," said Ron.

"I have the tracker on me. Go get Russ. Then come meet me."

Ron turned to Fred. "You go with her."

Gillian knew there was no use arguing, and every minute they wasted talking was a minute the hunters got closer to their prey—Brock. So she just nodded with a loud sigh, to state she didn't agree, and got on her hands and knees to crawl through the fence.

When they were all inside, she rested a hand on Aldana's arm. She didn't need any light and see her face to know that fear was killing her. "He's tough, Al, and he's still kicking. Else Brockner wouldn't have escaped," Gillian whispered. "Now go find'im and keep'im alive."

Aldana could only nod, pressing Gillian's hand on her arm.

"Which way did they go?" Fred asked Hank.

"All over. But at least half of them headed up the hill."

"T, update?" called Gillian.

"Balken's boys are still barricaded inside the buildings. Don't know if they have any casualty. Our cowboys are shooting to keep them there as you wanted."

"Let's go!" urged Aldana.

Fred stepped aside to let her, Hank and Ron sneak to the first of the three sheds. Gillian flanked him, watching them as well, until he turned to her.

"What d'you think Brockner did, Reg?" he asked.

She looked away at the dark bulk of the hill, trying to keep her head clear and think straight. It didn't matter how badly she wanted to just run around, calling Brock out loud, that wouldn't help him. "South, to the post," she said. "But he didn't cross the fence."

"That we know. So down along the hill," Fred said. "Okay, now Daddy Ron's not around, here's the plan: I'm gonna search the foot of the hill from here, moving south. And you're going up the hill, fifty, seventy feet high, to search in the same direction."

Ron's voice was an agitated grunt in their ears. "I heard that."

"But I don't think Brockner went up that way."

"I need eyes on higher ground, Reg."

And keep her away from the hunters, of course. Ever since Palmer and the hostage crisis, they'd become overprotective to an annoying extent. But it wasn't the time to have that argument. So Gillian set her jaw and nodded.

Fred nodded back with a quick smile. "Go. I have your back till you find a trail you can follow."

She spun around and hurried away toward the hill, her eyes down and her ears focused on any noise that could mean somebody near. Soon she heard the muffled noises of men moving in the woods. She spotted a grayish line on the ground, going up and south into the thickets, and followed it.

"I've found a trail, Fred," she whispered on the radio. "Stay sharp. You have them a hundred yards ahead, moving south."

"Got it. Stay low."

Yeah, yeah, she thought, her eyes on the gentle slope going down at her right.