Page 118 of The 9th Man

“Who fired the rounds?” he asked his men.

“None of us. We only used the flashbang.”

A stray from the helicopter?

Maybe.

Or at least that’s what he’d tell Rowland.

***

LUKE AND JILLIAN SPRINTED TOWARD A SHALLOW DEPRESSION IN THErock wall and pressed themselves into it. The Sikorsky’s spotlight traced a path along the ravine’s bottom. In what seemed to Luke like slow motion, the beam glided past their hiding place and disappeared around the bend.

Then the helicopter thumped away.

“They’re moving off, but not giving up,” Jillian said.

“Talley will run us to ground or die trying.”

With no choice they kept going.

Twenty minutes of careful hiking and the ravine made a sharp turn to the south and abruptly ended at a rock ledge. Three times the helo and its searchlight returned, each pass coming from a different direction in the hope of catching them moving out in the open. Below them lay a keyhole meadow with the mining camp Eckstein had mentioned, the buildings mere fuzzy shapes in the dim light and blowing snow. They leaned against the cliff face and caught their breath. In the commotion Luke had forgotten about the horses. As thorough as Talley was he might have shot them rather than let Luke and Jillian use them to escape. With them already gone, hopefully he’d leave them alone.

“At some point,” he said, “we’re going to need to double back and get the horses.”

“We can wait Talley out here,” she said. “We’re out of the wind and hidden from view.”

He disagreed. “They know we came in this way. If he hasn’t already, he’ll send men down the saddle. And if we keep heading north the storm and the mountains will swallow us. Our best bet is that camp down there. We need to get out of sight.”

And not be easy targets for the helicopter.

Especially considering its pilot was surely equipped with night-vision helmets. His Ranger brain was skipping ahead, working through the various scenarios. He and Talley were engaged in a chess match, one where the loser died. Talley’s warning ambush at the Francorchamps heliport had reaffirmed the former Delta soldier as a three-dimensional thinker. Talley had them on the run, in a storm, with only one sheltered and defensible position within miles. Once Talley found the camp—and he would, of that Luke was certain—he’d order it under surveillance and wait. That might explain why the helicopter had not returned for a fourth pass.

Talley might be loosening the leash.

Just a bit.

“We have no choice,” she said. “We won’t survive for long out here.”

She was right.

The temperature was still falling, but that was the least of their problems. Avalanches could soon become a real danger. Something else was also on Luke’s mind. The inevitable fight coming their way might not be survivable. Since Belgium he’d watched the toll of their journey chip away at Jillian’s spirit. Physically she was strong as ever. A seasoned combat vet. But her eyes had lost their shine. Her smile was less frequent and increasingly forced. More and more he’d caught her staring off into space. Having gone from watching helplessly while Benji withered before her eyes to seeing him shot dead she was shell-shocked, and rightly so. He should have seen it sooner, though he wasn’t sure it would’ve made any difference. In excruciating detail she’d relived the horror of that terrible day in Dallas, then listened as Eckstein chronicled Rowland’s sixty-year trail of regret. She’d endured Talley’s relentless pursuit and the near-constant threat of death. Even if they survived this ordeal, would she ever be the same? His thoughts were neither pity nor patronage, but rather simple concern for a dear friend.

And that she was.

Her end would not come in the middle of the Wyoming wilderness.

Not a chance.

He looked her in the eyes and tried to convey his resolve. “Okay. The camp is where we make our stand.”

***

TALLEY STUDIED THE MAP.

Not an electronic display.

An actual paper map, which he’d acquired yesterday. In the light from the burning house he surveyed the location the helicopter had reported last seeing Daniels at. Nothing but wilderness for miles in every direction.