Wild Hunt - Kali Argent Page 0,69
rock a little smaller than a baseball at the leaves. There was a thud, a whoosh, then a metal zing that followed the activation of the trap. A thin, luminous wire whipped up from the ground and stretched tight between two trees ten feet ahead of him. It wasn’t a type of metal he had ever seen before, but the fact that it had deployed at approximately neck-height for an average-sized man felt pretty fucking ominous.
Snorting in disgust, he rose out of his crouch and stepped back onto the pseudo path that wound through the forest.
“I wouldn’t do that, amigo.”
Cade whipped around, gun raised, the barrel trained at the heart of a man about his height and build. Dressed in black from the soles of his boots to the crown of his thick beanie, the guy strolled toward him, his own weapon held loosely at his side. Seemingly unconcerned about the gun pointed at his chest, he stooped to gather up a handful of loose pebbles. With a level of casualness that Cade found disconcerting, the guy took another couple of steps past him, then tossed the rocks so that they scattered across the path several feet in front of them.
Cade heard the electronic whirr, but he didn’t see anything. Before he could question what was going on, three silver balls the size of his fist dropped out of the trees and exploded with a series of loud bangs and blinding lights. The flashes weren’t lethal, but given the location of the explosions—only a couple of feet in front of the wire—it wasn’t hard to guess their purpose.
“Duck the wire,” the stranger said, still oddly calm under the circumstances, “the explosions drive you back for a second go.”
Cade’s training told him to shoot the guy where he stood and keep going, but his conscience staid his hand. He was supposed to be one of the good guys. Shooting this stranger who had, so far, done nothing threatening didn’t sit right.
Still, he remained wary. “Who are you?”
“Sergeant Michael Dominguez.”
Cade narrowed his eyes, growing more confused by the second. The rank meant nothing to him. Dominguez could be Coalition, Revenant, former United States military, or none of the above.
The sergeant smirked. “You’re trying to decide if you should trust me.”
Not true. Cade instinctively distrusted him. He was more so trying to work out if killing him would be considered justified. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I already told you, amigo.”
“Right. Try again.” Damn it, he didn’t have time for this shit. “Why did you help me?”
“There’s no time,” he said, echoing Cade’s thoughts. “I can explain later.”
“You can explain now, or I can put a bullet in your head. Your choice, friend.”
Dominguez considered him for a moment, then dipped his head curtly. “I’m the one who left the cage unlocked so the she-wolf could escape.”
He said it as if he thought the information would soften Cade toward him. He was mistaken. In fact, he was deadly mistaken, because there was no possible way he could know that Cade or the rest of the team had any connection to Mackenna. Not unless they’d been watching her.
If they’d been watching her, watching the Revenant, the Hunters had known they were coming. Dominguez hadn’t helped Mackenna escape. He had intentionally set her free.
It all made sense now. How easily they’d been able to access the service road. The lack of resistance at the edge of the forest. Hell, the Hunters had probably been the ones stealing from the grocers, making them responsible for the Coalition patrols at the hospital. They’d dangled the worm and lured them in, but how?
No one except members of the Revenant knew about the plan. Even Dr. Lancaster hadn’t been privy to all the details until just hours before they’d set out for the camp. Cade knew his team. He trusted them.
“You won’t blindly trust someone just because they claim to be Revenant, but you trust your friends.”
Mackenna’s words rang in his ears, bringing with them sudden and infuriating clarity. “Seth Barnes.”
He’d been such an idiot. Barnes had appeared at the hospital two days after Mackenna. He’d claimed to be coming from a safe house in Wyoming, and not a single person had questioned him, but they should have.
They’d searched for him for days when he’d gone missing. They’d even started making plans to check some of the ARC controlled towns near the safe house for him, and the bastard was probably right there in the forest with them. Cade hoped he