Dex moved up to join him, matching his pace so they ran side by side. “Something’s off, Crawley. Really off. I think we should stop again and let Hound and Bear do their thing. We’ve got time.”
Crawley shook his head. “I got word from Shaker. They’re dropping the troops in earlier than we thought. They’ll be here in four days, and we still don’t have information on either of the two fortresses. Shaker says to get it for him. You know what that means. Four days isn’t much time. We’ve got to get Lily and her kid out of the line of fire. Just sneak and peek, like we were ordered at the other fortress, and get the hell out.”
Crawley knew he sounded grim, but he felt that way. Initially, he’d been sure they could get in and out of both fortresses, no problem. Surveil the fortresses, stage some sort of diversion so they could pop in and grab Lily and her kid, plus kill a few easy targets and disappear. But that initial confidence had evaporated, and his opinion of this mission had done a complete one-eighty. An inexplicable sense of dread had come over him. Like Dex, he had a bad feeling something was off; he just didn’t know what it was.
They were out of the small clearing and back on the narrow, twisting path that went through the trees. The game trail was so narrow, it forced Dex to drop behind Crawley. The damn fog was rolling around like it was boiling up from a witch’s cauldron, tumbling over and over like high waves at sea. There was no wind. Not even a breeze to move the dark lavender-tinged fog around.
Maybe Dex was right. He needed to make certain they were moving in the right direction. It would be easy to get lost. The map in his head said there was a lot more stone at this elevation and fewer trees. Had he veered off course by that much? Crawley wasbeginning to doubt himself again. He glanced down at his wrist and the GPS, trying to pinpoint where they were. He couldn’t see the face of his watch clearly. The fog had penetrated the face of it, which was virtually impossible.
He blinked several times in an attempt to clear his vision, then wiped the watch on his thigh, slowing the pace. He was really becoming disoriented. He wiped his eyes to clear them as well. Glancing over his shoulder at his men, he could see they were having as much trouble or more than he was. Lance, one of his trackers, actually staggered and nearly went down. If the other tracker, Dwayne, hadn’t caught his arm to steady him, he would have fallen.
“We’ll find a place to stop where the fog is at its lowest point and there’s room for everyone to sit down. The sniffers can get ahead of us and see if they can ferret out any danger. If they can’t, Snake, it will be your turn.” He didn’t like the idea of putting Snake in the field. Snake ended things in a permanent way. There would be no prisoner to interrogate if they came across someone, but better to protect his men than run into a problem.
He kept to the narrow trail but continued at a much slower pace, winding in and out of the thinning trees, grateful to see the rockier terrain he’d been expecting. A ribbon of water gleamed silver and blue to their right, winding in and out of the trees as well. He remembered that little stream, and satisfaction eased some of the tension in him. Eventually, the game trail widened enough to appear more like the original hiking trail he had seen on the map. Not that many hikers ever went up this way. That was why they’d chosen this entry point. Even the GhostWalkers seemed to have forgotten to be vigilant in the steep forest miles above them.
That made Crawley give a little sniff of contempt. He was sick of hearing about the GhostWalkers and how dangerous they were. The attack on them had to be planned so carefully because theywere enhanced. Well, big deal—so was he. So were his men. He’d heard the first team, the one Lily and her kid were with, were nothing but fuckups. The second team might give them more trouble, but they had problems as well.
The path widened even more, just enough to tell him he was definitely back on the main trail. Unfortunately, the fog continued to roll along the ground, winding around the trees and small boulders, burning over his skin and then retreating to show the vines on the trees and strangely smooth rocks. The sun shone down on the rocks so that they glittered with veins of what looked an awful lot like gold. The area was wealthy in minerals and, some said, gold mines. Crawley had no idea how true that was, but he wouldn’t mind stumbling across one of them.
Crawley slowed the pace even more so he could actually look at one of the larger rocks. He tried not to do more than glance, so none of the others could see what he was doing. If the rock actually contained a vein of gold, he would come back and mine that sucker. He’d be a millionaire from that alone. He didn’t want to stop where any of the others on his team might spot the gleaming veins in the rock.
“This looks good, Crawley,” Dex said. “We can send out the sniffers, see if they can pick up a scent.”
“I think there’s a place right up ahead, Dex,” Crawley said without pausing. “A little more room for everyone to rest while Hound and Bear go out.”
Dex didn’t protest, and Crawley rounded two trees and found himself with a trio of fairly significant boulders on either side of him. The trail cut right through them. The fog rolled along the ground and crept up the sides of the rocks, making it difficult to see their shapes. He caught glimpses of them. The boulders were taller than they were wide, stretching upward like thick fingers pointing toward the sky.
Crawley felt uneasy, a kind of dread knotting his gut, but the sun shone down on the middle rock to his left, just as the gray-lavender fog parted. Once again, he caught sight of glittering color that dazzled his eyes. He turned his head to look to his right at the trio of boulders standing there like guardians of a gate. The vein of gold ran along two of the fingers. His heart pounded. He wouldn’t need to work for a superior asshole who sent him out to fight rejects. He would have enough money to buy his own army of soldiers and bodyguards.
He hastened through the tall archway of boulders, leading his men through so they wouldn’t notice the thick veins of gold running along the stones. There were trees that draped over the very large rocks, the canopy high above them. The sun beamed through the branches and the vines dangling from them. He’d only seen vines like that in rain forests. They were snakelike, some green and some banded.
The trail didn’t widen as he’d hoped, it remained about the same. Dex could have run along beside him, but it would have been a tight fit. They were in some kind of corridor. He definitely didn’t remember this from the map in his head.
Crawley slowed to a walk, suddenly concerned that he’d gotten off the main trail again. He didn’t understand how he kept veering off course. He was best at directions, his brain always keeping him exactly where he meant to be. He felt very disoriented. He didn’t remember the rocks at all, and he stumbled a little, the droplets of mist on his skin starting to burn.
“What the fuck?” He swiped at his exposed skin. What the hell was this? Some sort of acid rain–type fog? He looked back at his men. Like him, they were trying to cover their exposed skin. The fog created a weird sensation on skin. There were no blisters or burn marks, nothing to indicate in any way that there was an actual burn—only the impression of one.
“You might want to stop where you are and raise your hands over your heads.” The voice came out of the mist. It was impossible to tell where it came from. The sound seemed to roll with the gray-lavender fog that was now up to their necks.
“Snake, hunt,” Crawley ordered. Mist or not, it wouldn’t matter. His number one killer would find their enemy and dispense with them in record time. Once given the order, Snake was relentless in his pursuit. He could kill in seconds.
His men went back-to-back. They couldn’t see their enemy, even with their enhanced vision, not through the thick fog that continued to spin in giant waves as if alive. Crawley suddenly realized there was no sound either. He had excellent hearing. He should have heard breathing. Birds. Reptiles scuttling in the vegetation beneath their feet.
Because the silence was so intense, when the half-muffled grunt came through the fog, choked off, it sounded especially chilling and ominous. Fingers of fear crept down Crawley’s spine.
“What was that?” Dex asked.
“Don’t know.” But Crawley was afraid he did know, even if he didn’t believe it was possible. No one could get to Snake. He was too fast, too lethal. When he struck, he was like lightning. The toxin he injected worked to paralyze his victim so quickly they had no time to retaliate. He raised his voice just above a whisper. “Hound? Bear? What are you getting?”
The two members of his crew were known as “sniffers.” Their sense of smell was so acute they could ferret out anything or anyone for miles. He and his men had come to depend on their abilities in tight situations such as this one. At no time did he stop looking around him with his enhanced vision, using everything he had in order to penetrate the bands of rolling fog.
“Nothing, Crawley.” There was regret and even shame in Hound’s reply. “I can’t smell anything at all.”
“Neither can I,” Bear added. “This fog has layers to it that seem to confuse my ability to smell anything.”
Crawley cursed under his breath. “Dex? Can you see through this shit? Because I can’t.” He hated to admit it, but it was the truth.
The disembodied voice came out of the rolling fog again. “Put down your weapons. There’s no need for anyone else to get hurt. Any sign of aggression will earn retaliation.”
