Page 12

Chapter 11

It’s always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.

“Come on.” Mari growled down at her phone in clear frustration.

“We’ll get service eventually.” Colin’s phone didn’t have service either, but they’d deal with it. “I’ve hiked in Tunica Hills before and sometimes I’ll get service but mostly I don’t. It’s this general area, I think.”

She still grumbled but tucked her phone into her backpack. “Hopefully someone will be able to track the plane.”

The National Transportation Safety Board would likely work with locals—state troopers or a nearby sheriff’s department, it just depended. But they needed to get out of here regardless. “We should be gone before that happens.” Under different circumstances, he might have stayed nearby, but the plane had been sabotaged. And at this point they had to assume it was Ackerman. Her client could have easily told him about this morning’s flight. Not to mention anyone at the hangar.

It hadn’t been empty when they’d been there. There’d been at least a dozen different people milling about.

Though she’d been scheduled to fly the plane tomorrow anyway, so the EMP could have been planted at any time in preparation for her next flight. Which meant they had no idea who had done it. Not without getting a look at the camera feeds at the hangar, and even then… He sighed, shelving those thoughts.

Right now his priority was getting them to safety. Mari was more than capable, but he was the one with the survival training. Not that he thought they’d need it for what was essentially a long-ass hike through the forest. But he was still glad for the training. And at least it was still early enough that they had plenty of daylight and the real summer wasn’t here yet so it wasn’t sweltering. “You hear that?” he murmured as he paused by the tree line, taking in the quiet.

From the map and what he’d seen aerially, there was at least six hundred acres of green surrounding them. He’d seen a few farmhouses dotted below before they’d landed, and a property he recognized as a horse farm. That was the closest, so heading there was the plan.

“It’s like a buzzing—”

“It’s a drone. More than one. Shit. Come on.” The back of his neck tingled as they hurried deeper into the forest. They were close to a national park—one that didn’t see much foot traffic.

“Drones?” Mari whispered. “That’s weird, right?”

He nodded. “Especially with your plane being sabotaged. And now random drones show up? Could be someone local but…”

“Let’s see if we can spot them before they spot us?” She had the straps of her backpack cinched around her chest and waist and her dark hair pulled up into a short ponytail.

“Exactly. I’m not trying to give you orders, but it’ll be better if you hunker down while I head back out there.”

She nodded and glanced around before pointing at a huge gap in an old oak tree. “I’ll hide in there.” She was already moving, crawling through fallen brown leaves to hide among large, exposed roots .

As he hurried back to the tree line and the direction of where they’d left the plane, he could barely see her. And if he hadn’t been looking for her, he wouldn’t have known she was there.

That made it easier for him to leave her.

Because everything about this situation was bizarre. Her friend Berlin had done something to their phones and assured them that they weren’t being tracked by anyone, so he didn’t think they were at risk of being found that way. But it was something to consider.

The buzzing was louder now so he slowed, going down on one knee as he crouched behind the trunk of a southern live oak that had to be a few hundred years old. Keeping his backpack on, he pulled out his phone, turned on the video function and zoomed in as far as he could, then slowly slid it around the trunk.

The buzzing was louder now but he didn’t hear voices.

Still, he wasn’t taking any risks. He’d seen some next-gen tech while in the Air Force and wasn’t going to underestimate whatever this was. After recording for about thirty seconds, he pulled his phone back to him.

The angle was awkward, but he watched as two small drones buzzed around the plane. One was smaller than the other, but they both seemed to be inspecting the plane from all angles.

Slowly, methodically.

He zoomed in on the video, trying to get a better look at what they were dealing with, but everything was grainy.

Suddenly the buzzing grew louder as if it was headed in his direction. He plastered himself back up against the tree.

Moments later, one of the drones zipped by, deeper into the forest.

He remained still, waiting to see if he’d been spotted. The machine looked as if it had a camera on the front, but he’d been trying to stay immobile and out of sight .

Taking a chance, he peered back around the tree and saw the other drone disappear past the tree line on the opposite side of the clearing.

Okay, so someone was definitely looking for them. And there was no way they were friendlies. Because the one thing he was sure of was that these weren’t normal drones you could buy at a big-box store. This was some serious tech so he doubted the drones were being piloted by some random farmer who’d seen their plane.

Moving fast in the direction the drone had flown, he veered off slightly to the east so he didn’t follow it exactly.

He was headed back to Mari, but didn’t want to give away her location in case he was spotted. Unfortunately he couldn’t even text her because he still didn’t have service.

When he heard the buzz again, he lay flat against a fallen log. From his angle he couldn’t see it, but the buzzing sound traveled back the way it had come.

Once it sounded far enough away, he rolled up and jumped over the log then sprinted back to Mari’s hiding spot. “Hey,” he whispered as he slid in between the roots with her.

“Did you see the drone? It came through here but didn’t linger. Just flew through, then sort of looped back around. It looked like almost military grade.”

“There are two of them, and whatever they are, they’re not cheap. They inspected the plane then split up. They’re looking for us.”

Her jaw clenched tight. “Should we try to take them out?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t want them to see us at all if possible. That way they don’t know which direction we went. And if they don’t have any idea…” He trailed off at another buzzing sound.

Mari scooted back deeper into the shadows of the roots and he did the same, gathering some of the leaves and pulling them up over their sneakers and legs.

The drone flew up higher in the trees, making it difficult to see. But the buzzing remained. It drifted away momentarily, then grew louder, then drifted, and on and on as it continued scouring the woods.

An hour later it flew back in the direction it had originally come. After thirty minutes of silence, he said, “Want to stay?”

“It’s been half an hour. I say we start making our way toward that horse farm. If the drones come back, we should hear them. And it’s not like they can watch us from the sky. Not yet anyway.”

At her words he looked up. The forest here was too thick for any eyes in the sky to see them well, if at all. And no matter what kind of tech they were, they would have to recharge eventually.

***

“Well, shit.” Mari looked over the edge of washed-away road to the canyon below.

Yeah, Colin seconded that. “This wasn’t on the map.”

“I know.” She looked up at him in surprise. “This wasn’t your fault. I’m not, like, blaming you.”

They’d been hiking the last two hours and were well into the afternoon, steadily making their way through mostly woods until they’d found the hiking path and then road they’d been looking for. Unfortunately there was a huge crater in the road, with a yawning clay canyon beneath it.

“This should be roped off or something though,” she muttered, looking back down at it.

“It doesn’t look like this area gets many visitors.” There was a huge rock face next to the drop-off with plenty of space to walk around, and no graffiti. That was the giveaway for him. Because hikers and campers often couldn’t resist leaving their mark and there was nothing on that rock.

“It almost feels like we’re the last two people on earth.” She shivered slightly. “It’s weird.”

“I know.” He’d been in more remote places than this, but she wasn’t wrong. “If it wasn’t for the couple planes we saw overhead I’d feel like we were on another planet.”

She nodded and looked back at the crumbling road. “Want to risk moving around this?” She motioned at the slim strip of asphalt still standing that would allow them to make their way around it to the other side.

“There’s nothing to hold on to if we fall or if it breaks away beneath us.” He looked past the rock face. “But we could try climbing around it, then coming down on the other side.”

Mari looked at the briar-covered boulder dubiously.

“I’ll boost you up.”

“You just want to touch my butt,” she muttered. Then her eyes widened as she looked at him. “Obviously I’m kidding.”

“Well you’re not wrong.” What he wouldn’t give to get his hands on her. But now was definitely not the time.

She stared at him. Blinked once. Twice. Then turned away from him. “Okay, then.”

Damn it. Maaaaybe he should have kept his mouth shut. Before he could say anything, she swiveled. “Drone!”

And that was when he saw it, way across the canyon hovering above the pine trees of the forest—that would eventually lead them to semi-civilization.

It started in their direction.

“There’s nowhere to hide,” he muttered. “And I’ve seen drones that disperse weaponized biological agents. Doubtful that this drone has that capability.” But he liked to keep shit like that in mind. Right now everything was a threat to Mari as far as he was concerned and his only job was to keep her safe.

“I say we knock it out of the sky if it gets too close.” Mari bent down and pretended to tie her shoe. “Act casual and grab my flare gun out of my pack. Once it gets close, let’s take it out.”

Colin did as she said, keeping his body angled in front of her so that whoever was manning the thing wouldn’t see what he was doing. “If there’s one, there’s at least another one.”

“I know, but taking out one’s better than nothing. Once we incapacitate this one, I say we hunker down somewhere.”

He nodded and still hadn’t turned. “How far away is it?”

“Fifty feet,” she murmured as she stood. “Crossing the canyon opening now. And there’s definitely a camera on it. At your five o’clock and moving in.”

He half turned at the approach, the buzzing annoying but a good indicator of its location even if he hadn’t had Mari telling him where it was.

As he zeroed in on it, the drone slowed as it neared them then hovered, clearly deciding not to get too close.

Too late.

He raised the weapon, aimed, fired.

The flare made a loud whooshing sound as it exploded from the barrel then slammed right into the two-foot drone.

Metal and plastic splintered out in every direction. On instinct, he turned, using his body to cover Mari as parts hit his backpack and the backs of his legs.

“Colin!” she cried out and it took him a moment to realize she was worried about him, not hit.

“Are you okay? ”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you?” she demanded, inspecting him as he took a small step back.

“I’m good.” Glancing down into the open hole, he paused then looked at her. “Want to climb around or risk it?”

“Let’s climb it and then regroup. I don’t know if we should head to the horse farm anymore.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” It was the closest place according to the map. Exactly where their pursuers would expect them to go.