The Oracle (Fargo Adventures #11) - Clive Cussler Page 0,65

staring in shock, his gun pointed into the room.

“You okay?” Sam asked.

“He was going to kill them.”

Okoro leaned against the wall, looking faint. Sam aimed at the two fallen men, making sure they were dead, recovering Joe’s weapon before moving to the window next to Lazlo. Inside, the three remaining hostages looked as shell-shocked as Lazlo, unable to take their eyes from the dead man on the floor.

Sam looked over at Okoro. “How many gunmen?”

“Four.”

“We’re good. For now.”

“What do you mean ‘for now’?”

“Maybe we should go inside, where we can sit down.” He surveyed the road that ran across the north end of the farm, leading up into the hills toward the school. Typically, it was at least a forty-minute drive down that winding road to there. Assuming the kidnappers left when Pete first called them, they should’ve been long gone. What didn’t make sense is why these men were still here. And now they were dead. He looked at Lazlo, handing him the key fob for the Land Rover. “Take one of Okoro’s men with you to get the car. Hide it behind the barn. Warn me if you see any vehicles coming from that direction.”

Lazlo nodded, appearing grateful that he was remaining outside.

Sam envied him in that moment. Informing a father that his only daughter was a kidnap victim was not something to look forward to.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Those who move are the ones who see the lion’s footprints.

– AFRICAN PROVERB –

Remi heard the second volley of distant gunshots coming from the direction of the farmhouse. The timing would put Sam in the vicinity. Though she wished she had some way to contact him, she had every confidence that he was the one doing the shooting. The thought buoyed her spirits, something she desperately needed since Makao had failed to take her bait and returned to look for the upper trail.

Remi waited several minutes. When she no longer heard the sound of his pickup, she worked her way through the shrubs to the road, coming out beside the supply truck. Moonlight caught on one of the bullet holes in the side panel from their first encounter with Makao’s gang. If Nasha hadn’t escaped the Kalu brothers by hiding in the truck, they might have fallen prey to Makao back then.

A twist of fate had brought them all together.

As much as she worried about Sam and Lazlo, the girls were her first priority.

She needed to get back to Makao before he and his men found that upper trail. Though the truck would get her there faster, she didn’t dare risk it. Instead, she jogged the quarter mile up the hill, dismayed to discover he’d parked almost on top of the trail’s entrance.

Makao stood near his open driver’s door, the engine running, while all of his men seemed to be searching the road above them, the surface lit by the pickup’s headlights. She ducked behind a tree, watching through the branches as they tromped around, knowing that the only tracks they’d see up there were hers from when she dragged the sign to the back of the truck.

“Well?” Makao called out.

“This looks like where the truck stopped,” Jimi said, pointing toward the side of the road, perilously close to where the sign had once stood. “You can see the tire tracks where it pulled off.”

Makao joined them in front of the truck, the headlights casting a gigantic shadow of the four men up the hillside.

“Why would it pull off here?” one of the others asked.

“Why do you think?” Makao said. “The Fargo woman set us up. She let the girls out here somewhere, broke the sign off, and led us on a goose chase. The trail has to be there somewhere.”

Had he parked just a few feet back, he would have easily seen the brush covering its entrance.

Even better, they were blinded to anything behind the truck. She edged toward it, doing her best to stay in the grass on the side of the road, hoping to avoid leaving footprints.

When she reached the tailgate, she eyed the path just a few feet to her right. A single tree trunk was all that stood between her and the upper trail. She ducked behind it when Makao returned to the truck, reaching inside for a flashlight. He turned it on, shining it across the ground, then up onto the hillside, searching for evidence of their escape.

Remi pressed herself against the tree, edging around it to keep it between her and him. Two more steps