The man tipped forward, falling into a thicket of bramble only to pop back up, the report still echoing through the trees. He sprinted ahead, zeroing in on her. No hesitation. No reaction, just pure aggression tearing through the brush.
Neve followed suit, switched to her pistol, caught the bastard in the head with only ten feet to spare. A red mist splattered the redwood behind him as he crumpled, a solid thud shaking the ground. She waited, breath held, gaze still raking the foliage, but he stayed down, an eerie quiet settling over the trail.
She turned, raced after her team, twigs cracking behind her, muffled footfalls quickly closing in. A few speculative rounds whizzed through the salal and salmonberry bushes, disappearing into the undergrowth with a hollow thump.
Neve caught up with her crew at the top of a steep gorge, the roar of the rapids below mixing with another crash of thunder. Scout had a length of webbing wrapped around a tree, a poor excuse of a line trailing over the edge.
Scout pointed to a dead cedar hung up in one of the hemlocks along the trail a hundred feet behind them. “We could use a barrier. Might buy us enough time to reach the river before they’re on us.”
Neve slipped off her pack. Fraser had been their ordinance guy, but she had a couple breaching charges stashed in a pocket.
She grabbed one, then slung her pack back over her shoulders. “Go. As soon as you’re clear, I’ll blow it.”
Scout readied the rope, Archer in front, his good arm wrapped around the line as she followed him over the edge. Rocks and shale sloughed off the side, rolling down the steep face with an angry screech.
Neve backtracked to the widow maker, strapped the charge around the trunk, when more rounds shredded the brittle branches next to her shoulder — grazed a groove down one arm. She returned fire, hit the timer, then dove for cover.
Boots pounded up the trail, more brass ripping through the fern and brush when the charge detonated, exploding in a spray of wood and mud. A massive crack echoed the blast as the tree ripped through the snagging branches, smashing into the forest floor amidst a cloud of dirt and bark.
Roots clawed at the air like gnarled fingers, a tangle of rotting branches spanning across the path, weaving through the other trees like a web. Needles and dead leaves floated down from the canopy, dirt and dust clogging the air.
Scrambling to her feet, Neve raced back to the edge of the ravine, a handful of mercenaries already picking through the debris, breaking off snags thicker than her wrist. Scout neared the bottom, Archer half-sliding, half-bouldering down the scree in front of her. Wynn followed behind, working the line as if she’d spent years hanging from a rope as Zadie brought up the rear.
Lightning flashed overhead, the rain kicking up into a steady downpour, as rivulets trickled down the rocks. Neve waited another thirty seconds before spraying a line across the cedar, chewing through some of the smaller branches as she grabbed the rope, jumped over the edge.
Stones rolled with her, tumbling over each other in a mini avalanche as she tripped her way down the gorge, landing on the rocky bank amidst a spray of mud and gravel. Scout already had Kane waist deep in the water, one hand locked on his vest, keeping him from going under. White-capped rapids roared down the river, logs and other debris rising and falling within the churning depths.
Wynn shadowed Archer, glancing back every few moments to check their six as they got carried downstream, both women fighting to get to the other side.
Neve tapped Zadie’s shoulder, relieved her from her position on point, then waved her on, following her into the icy stream. Neve focused on the ridge line behind them, counting down the seconds until those assholes appeared at the edge. She didn’t know how they moved so fast — took hits that would drop an elephant without blinking — just that if her team didn’t find a defendable position soon, they’d get overrun.
Searing cold choked off her next breath, cramping her muscles as she waded through the current, diving under when a large log shot out of the water, nearly striking her in the head before it plunged beneath the surface, vanishing in a swirl of white. She gasped in a breath, fighting the constant pull as she reached her teammates — grabbed Archer’s arm. He mumbled something about dragging his own ass out of the water, but it got lost to the clap of thunder that boomed overhead.
Beside them, the banks rose like crooked walls, blocking any view of the ridge behind, though, the water had only bought them a brief reprieve, not safety.
Scout signaled a minute later, and they fought the rising rapids, finally scrambling onto the far side — tripping their way across the rain-slick gravel onto an old two track. Weeds and Scotch broom clawed at their fatigues as they hurried along the muddy road, heads on a swivel, Kane leaving a bloody trail behind them.
Ahead, a large rocky outcrop cut through the forest like a festering wound, water falling in sheets off the broken face. Off to the right, a black void blended into the shadows, the yawning opening blocked by a rusted, metal gate.
Scout moved out in front, kicked the damn thing open, the hinges giving with an ear-piercing screech. The gate swung inward, bounced off another chunk of rock, then teetered in the opening, each creak like an explosion in the uneasy stillness. They ventured forward, staring into the unforgiving darkness, the sharp scent of wet clay and stagnant water cutting through the air.
Neve moved to the opening, flashed a light down the main tunnel. “You know these old mines are just as likely to cave in on us as provide any form of cover, right?”
Scout shrugged. “I said you weren’t going to like it.”
“Not like we have many options. I’ll take a quick look then?—”
Men.
Rising over the bank, moving with an eerie symmetry that sent shivers down Neve’s back. The same way Coulter’s team had executed countless black ops missions. The approaching men didn’t fire, just flanked to either side, closed in with incredible speed. Fraser appeared at the riverbank, still smiling at them before he flanked right — seemingly vanished into the fog, reappearing impossibly closer.
No hesitating, this time. Neve just fired off a stream of rounds, slowed down a couple of the mercenaries with non-lethal hits as her team rushed inside, following the main section until the light from the entrance bled into utter darkness.
They donned their night vision goggles, switched to low level IR flashlights to enhance the visibility a bit, before weaving through the dank corridors, following a rusty rail system deeper into the mine. The temperature dropped, their breath clouding around them in feathery white wisps, the air heavier than before, a slight breeze freezing the water clinging to Neve’s skin as Scout veered left, then right. Empty tunnels branched off like hollowed fingers, the occasional shovel resting against the hard dirt walls.
Water dripped in the distance, echoed footsteps splashing through puddles behind them, fanning out in different directions in what felt more like herding than tracking. Neve kept her flashlight on that IR beam, the NVGs bathing everything in an eerie greenish glow as she mentally tracked their location until they stopped at a tear-shaped chamber, a creaky metal ladder bolted into the wood braces vanishing into a large hole in the ground.
Scout kept them angled right, Neve covering their six, when the radio crackled.
