12
Diggs felta shift in the air and froze, throwing up his hand, palm flat gesturing for Audra to be silent. Even though he knew she didn’t know hand signals, she’d gotten good at reading him and she kept quiet. They weren’t alone in the woodsanymore.
Slowly, so as to draw the least amount of attention to his movements as possible, Diggs bent his knees and lowered Trigger to the ground. Trigger, radiating tension just the same, stopped panting. Diggs slipped his thumb underneath the thick black strap over his shoulder and lifted his rifle over his head, fitting the butt against his shoulder as he remained in a crouch. He listened to the sounds in the woods. The crickets calling out to each other, frogs croaking, squirrels chattering. They were all just as loud and natural as Mother Nature had intended. Then abruptly, a section off to his left fellsilent.
Grabbing his weapon with one hand, Diggs dove for Audra, covered her head with his hand and attempted to shield her as much as possible. Three bullets spit into the dirt around them, sending chunks flying up onto his neck and shoulders. Audra took in a breath to scream and he clapped a hand over her mouth. They lay as flat as possible, trying to give the sniper the least amount of target as he could. Audra didn’t struggle, even though he could feel her pulse hammering away in the base of herthroat.
The bullets seemed to have come from the west. There was a large tree a few feet ahead of them, shielding Trigger’s body but leaving them exposed. If they stayed here, they were sitting targets. If they moved, it would give away their position. He didn’t have achoice.
His rifle was on his right side, facing away from the sniper. Diggs began slowly inching it up his body, ready to fire. As quietly as he could he whispered in Audra’s ear, “I’m going to lift off you. Roll to Trigger and get behind thattree.”
She nodded to let him know she’d heard and understood hiscommand.
Diggs found the trigger well and hooked his finger over the front of it so that all he had to do was slip his finger over the trigger andpull.
“Ready, go.” He rose up on a knee, lifting his rifle with him as part of his arm. He squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew in a direction toward the west as Audra rolled to the tree. An answering round of fire hit the ground at his knees. Diggs sprang into the air, somersaulted to his right, and came up in front of Audra behind the camouflage of thetree.
They were still pinned down. If they moved to the right or the left, he’d be waiting. For some reason, Diggs got the feeling he was toying with them. Any sniper worth his salt would have easily put a bullet somewhere in Diggs’ body when he lifted off the ground. An expert sniper would’ve taken them both out. If that was hisintention.
Relying only on his enhanced senses, Diggs held as still and silent as possible listening for any hint of movement. Complete silence came in answer, but he could still feel the malevolent violence skating through the nightair.
The sniper was still out there, but they were trapped and sitting blind. He could go up into the tree and try to track the threat, but that meant he’d have to leave Audra alone on theground.
Her eyes had gone wide with horror again. This was too much for someone like her to take in, and he knew he shouldn’t expect her to handle more. But he had nochoice.
Still in a crouch, Diggs eased his way closer to her, cupping her face once more. In a low whisper he said, “Audra, I need you to be strong just a little longer. I’ve got the direction of fire, and I think I can take him out. But I’m going to need you to stay here with Trigger behind thetree.”
If possible, her eyes rounded even more and glinted with unshed tears. She’d been so brave allnight.
“I won’t go far, okay?” He wanted to stay here and comfort her and hold her and protect her with his own body, but if he did that, he would sign their deathwarrants.
Audra bit her lip and then finallynodded.
Diggs didn’t question his need, but gave in to the desire to lean and press a quick kiss against her soft lips. Then he slung his rifle over his shoulder and went up, climbing the tree as easily as he’d run through thewoods.
The rough bark dug into his fingers, giving him more to grip as he continued to climb, keeping his body hidden behind the thick trunk until it became too narrow to span the breadth of his shoulders. He slowed, careful to stay low against the tree so that his body didn’t show an outline, or what snipers like to call “tree cancer.” That telltale sign could giveaway his location as easy as if he stood up and waved aflag.
Diggs found a branch sturdy enough for him to balance on. He snubbed the rifle up close to his shoulder, leaned his head down, and peered through the scope, using his night vision to see through the thick trees. He didn’t move, not a single muscle, except to scan his surroundings as carefully and thoroughly as possible. There was nothing. Not even a rustling limb in thedistance.
That meant the sniper was an expert, and confirmed Diggs’s suspicion that when he’d missed them earlier, he’d done it on purpose. Why? Was he simply trying to hold them here until backup arrived? The men in the cabin hadn’t gotten the information they’d been seeking from Audra; it could be they wanted to make sure they got her back alive for furtherinterrogation.
Then why not kill him? He was obviously their greatest obstacle. It didn’t make sense. But right now, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was protectingAudra.
Diggs let out slow, measured breaths, sweeping and re-sweeping from his location off to the west. He knew that’s where the sniper was set up, and even though he couldn’t see or hear him, he could feel him. Any decent sniper could sit and hide for days on end waiting out the target, but Diggs didn’t have days. He didn’t even have minutes. His team would show up for extraction any second and they would be driving right into an ambush. As if on cue, he heard the sound of their Jeep coming closer andcloser.
Son of a bitch. He’d taken his phone out of his pocket when he’d rolled toward safety, and now it lay on the ground a few feet from Trigger. He had no way to warn them of the impending threat. Sweat popped along his brow and he kept his eye pressed hard against the scope, desperately searching for any sign of the otherman.
Nothing. Not even the smell of mansweat.
The Jeep got closer, headlights painting shifting shadows as it maneuvered toward their extraction point. Even if he yelled out a warning right now, they wouldn’t hear him inside thecar.
The Jeep stopped and killed the lights. Silence returned to the forest as Diggs stared down. Diggs scanned the treetops faster, back and forth, sensing the sniper’s bead landing on the Jeep. The driver side door clicked and began to open. Diggs did the only thing he could to warn his team. He turned and fired off one single bullet that landed in a tree closest to the Jeep and spun back around, searching for the sniper oncemore.
He heard the Jeep door slam shut and the very distinctive sound of King cursing. Audra was still plastered against the tree trunk, but she managed to draw Trigger a little bit closer to her, further shielding him from thefire.
He needed to draw the sniper out, so his team could get a bead on his location. Diggs used his senses to try and locate the other man as best as possible, and then he fired off a single round, ducking behind the width of the tree trunk. In the next second, an answering bullet came right back at him, taking out the chunk of tree where Diggs’ head had been only secondsbefore.
A small red light flashed on and off from within the Jeep, signaling to Diggs that they’d got the sniper’s location. Diggs held his rifle straight up and down against his chest and pressed his back against the tree, waiting on his team to make their move. They didn’t need words to communicate, not in situations like this. They’d trained too hard and too longtogether.
