Running the Maze by Jack Coughlin & Donald A. Davis

Author:Jack Coughlin & Donald A. Davis [Coughlin, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2012-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

18

THE VALLEY

KYLE SWANSON LET THE night speak to him. He was fully alert, all of his senses constantly bringing in and updating information, but those people down below, except for the one guy who had stayed up and was walking around, were at the low point of their entire day: bored, tired, and hard asleep. The darkness felt heavy, and the steady grinding of big equipment up on the bridge was almost like white noise, lulling the brain into restfulness, assuring everyone that things were normal.

“OK,” he said, giving an easy shake to Beth Ledford’s arm. “Time to move out. Police up your trash. Leave no target indicator. No one should ever know that we were here.”

Beth sat up and arched her back to work out the kinks. The hump of a thick tree root had been digging into her shoulder while she slept, but there had been little room to shift positions. “Anything going on?” Half of the Snickers bar was still uneaten, so she wrapped it tightly and put it into the pack.

“Same old, same old. Most of them seem to be getting a good night’s sleep. They’re not professionals, that’s for sure. Hopefully, they won’t bother us, and we won’t bother them.”

Beth checked her CAR-15, made sure the flash suppressor had not been plugged by dirt, then slid down the night-vision goggles. “Ready. Are we coming back here?”

Kyle shook his head. “All hides are temporary, Coastie. We go down and look at the fallen bridge, then find another place. There will be plenty of opportunities in this junkyard. Remember what I told you earlier. With the cover of the night, we don’t have to crawl. Step with your toe down first, then ease your weight onto your heel. Toe-heel-toe. There is no hurry. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Got it?”

“I remember that lecture from the first time,” she griped. “Quit treating me like a baby. Let’s get out of here and take care of business.” She squirmed onto her knees, facing outward.

He left the hide without another word; one step, then another, then stood upright. The direct available light from the campfire was amplified further in his goggles by the faraway illumination at the big bridge, and Kyle took his time to do a 360-degree scan. Nothing was moving. Bizarre shapes and shadows were cast by rocks and brush and trees. Two more steps and he stopped again to wait for Ledford to emerge. When she stood, he held up his right hand and waved four fingers, motioning her to follow him downhill.

He covered the first ten meters in just a few moments and heard her moving behind him, trying to be quiet but sounding to him like a marauding buffalo. Remembering that she had a smaller stride, he shortened his own step. Yeah. That was better. They settled into a tandem glide.

The first hundred meters went by quickly on the gently sloping ground, and they worked around a couple of minor obstacles without incident. The

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