A crackle broke through the earpiece. “Fox Two to Raven One. If you can hear me, click your com.”
Again, static.
Shit.
“That can’t be good,” Brick muttered.
“We need to get up there,” I said more to myself and shielded the rain from my vision to inspect the mountain. “Come on.”
He grunted but followed. He slipped a few times, and I had to wait for him to continue to climb.
“Follow in my footsteps, so the mud isn’t as thick.”
He tried, but his Vans were filled with sludge.
Fifty-six minutes later, we made it to the top of a ridge where I could get my bearings.
“You ever think of working out more?” I smirked, and he tossed me the finger.
“I work out, just in different ways.” He chuckled, but his eyes widened, and I felt the danger before I saw it. I whirled around and jammed my fist straight into the guy’s nose then punched him in the throat. He fell back, and his head slammed into a rock.
Quickly, I ripped his weapon free and handed it to Brick, who admired the AR with a silent whoop.
The fat guy moaned, and blood drained from his nose, but it would be a while before he’d wake fully.
I cut his jacket off and tossed it out of my way. My knife had sliced his shirt too, and when I rolled the bastard over, I caught sight of some ink on his forearm.
Seven. I memorized the number and the design then went back to removing his weapons.
Taking off my watch, I flipped it over and bit the back of it off. Cole had added two different tracking devices inside the watch, one for us and one if we needed to monitor someone else.
“Watch my back,” I ordered Brick, who stood and scanned the cliff.
Carefully, I removed the tiny device and used my knife to cut into the tongue of the fat bastard’s sneaker and tucked it neatly inside. I patted his pockets and felt a thin wallet.
Dammit, no ID.
I improvised instead. Removing one of his credit cards, I pressed his thumb onto the plastic and slipped the card into a baggie in my side pocket.
“Hey!” I hit Brick’s shoulder to grab his attention. “Time to go.”
“Yeah.” He waited for my lead.
“Do you have any idea how far you’d been walking since you saw a road?”
“Maybe forty minutes.” He turned around like he was finding the direction he came from. He started to climb higher to another part of the cliff. “Look, there.”
I squinted through the rain that was finally tapering off, and sure as hell, there was a road.
“That’s pretty good.” I was impressed.
“Well,” he followed me to the edge, “this ain’t my first rodeo, my friend.” His fake drawl made me grin.
Carefully, I dipped low and scanned the area. There was the road a few miles out, but what was more appealing was the gas station off in the distance.
“How good are your knees?”
Brick shook his head, confused. “You want, like, a zero to ten here or…”
I ignored his sarcasm and pointed to a bush.
“See that bush?”
“You mean that cactus?”
“Sure.” I dropped my voice when someone shouted from behind us. Company was coming. “When I say jump, jump, and once you land—”
“You mean once my knees shoot up into my chest? That’s, like, thirty feet down.”
“Correct. Pull them out and run southwest and meet me at that gas station.” I pointed it out to him.
“And where are you during all of this?”
“I’ll be running parallel to you so if we get seen they’ll have to split up.” I moved closer to the edge and planned out my moves step by step.
“Ready?” I turned to Brick, who was now beside me.
“No.”
“Too bad.” I gave him a nudge, and he dropped off the ledge. He landed awkwardly and shot me the finger before he jumped up and scrambled across the terrain and into a gully.
I glanced back at the fat man, as his noises were getting louder.
Easing my body over the crumbly rock, I balanced my weight on my fingertips and dropped straight down. My knees absorbed the impact, and I landed without a sound. I kept low as I raced across the clearing and slipped into the tree line and blended with the brush.
I kept my eye on Brick. He was a distance ahead of me, and we both ran like cheetahs through the brush. Low ground was not my comfort zone, and we could be attacked at any moment. I constantly scanned my surroundings,