Fourth Day by Zoë Sharp

Author:Zoë Sharp [Zoë Sharp]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780749010027
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2011-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

I walked in to Fourth Day’s land with the sunrise, dressed in cargo trousers and a lightweight cotton shirt, neither chosen with camouflage in mind. My booted feet scuffed at the dirt, not attempting to hide my trail. I had a bush hat with a floppy brim to keep the sun off and a sports-type water bottle in a neoprene holder slung on a strap over my shoulder.

On my back was a canvas rucksack containing two switched-off cellphones, a deactivated radio distress beacon, a map, two chocolate bars, a bundle of cash, a knife, a first-aid kit which included shots of morphine and adrenaline, my SIG, and a box of 9 mm Hydra-Shoks. The gun, wrapped in an oiled cloth, had a single round in the chamber, but the magazine was out and empty. Everything was packed into two plastic Tupperware boxes to keep out the elements. It was like going on the most bizarre picnic ever.

Apart from that I carried no bag, no wallet, no ID, and no weapon other than what lurked inside my own head.

Sean dropped me by the side of the road that bordered the cult land, almost the same point of entry we’d used for our surveillance of Thomas Witney. He gave me a brief ‘good luck’, but we’d said our farewells before leaving Van Nuys in the dark, and had been largely silent on the drive.

There was nothing left to say.

For the last mile, the only sign of habitation had been a wind-blown roadside bar, hunkered down by the side of the road, its neon faded and blinking in the pre-dawn glow.

By the time I’d climbed carefully through the barbed-wire fence, Sean was already accelerating away. I didn’t look back and, I suspect, neither did he.

I struck out roughly east, using the hour hand of my watch to work out a rough north-south bearing from the sun, and ready-reckoning from there. The watch was a cheap analogue I’d bought purely for this purpose, with a simple face and a rubber strap. It would be a classic disorientation technique for them to take it away from me, and I didn’t want to lose the Tag that Sean had given me.

The sun lifted solemnly from the horizon, stately in its progress, a pinkish globe that slowly lost definition as it began to burn more fiercely. The misty light hardened, the shadows of the dumpy trees shrinking back towards their trunks as if compressed by the heat. Overhead, some large bird of prey drifted lazily, feathering at the high thermals with wing tips splayed.

It was a long walk, which gave me plenty of time to think about the briefings I’d had from Chris Sagar over the past few days, sitting in a cramped office in the government hangar where we’d set up a temporary base of operations. This time, we had taken no chances with security.

‘Fourth Day use a form of attack therapy,’ he told me. ‘Think of it as a hostile encounter group. The object is to jar you out of your personal belief system.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.