Beau, Page 3

  She studied the grate and decided she would have to replace it; otherwise, it would be too obvious from the ground if the guards did a perimeter search or whatever. Besides, she didn’t want to get turned around and end up running and falling into this hellhole once again. Plus she wanted to make sure that nobody caught wind of her escape immediately, at least giving her a few minutes of spare time. Even five minutes would make a difference here. She’d take her chances with the wildlife of wherever-the-hell-she-was before she faced any more of these two-legged predators.

  Moving till she lay on her belly, she slowly replaced the grate into its original position and then rolled over and over until she was several feet away from it. At least now it didn’t shine from its higher position in the moonlight. It looked completely normal. She kept rolling slowly, trying to get away, farther and farther. She was also looking to see if there were more grates—she highly doubted she was the only prisoner. Ever-so-slowly, she got up on her hands and knees and crawled. She headed for the closest trees, and finally she got to her feet and bolted forward. As she carried herself across, almost making it to the trees, she heard somebody crying.

  Swearing to herself and knowing that she wouldn’t leave anybody behind in one of those hellholes, she stood with her back against a tree trunk, gasping hard and waiting for the sound of gunfire to splinter her body.

  But there was nothing.

  It was as if the world was dead around her. But she knew somebody was out there. There had to be. And then she heard it again: a cry. Tears from a woman. Another woman, likely another prisoner.

  Damn.

  Beau raced across the countryside swiftly, his body moving effortlessly, even with all the gear he carried. His body knew this rhythm well. The only difference was the absolute darkness of being up north, with few man-made structures here to illuminate the nighttime, nothing except for the moon and the stars that shone like bright flashlights above his head.

  He kept moving with his destination in mind. He’d studied the compound online. One corner at the back was their weakest spot, he figured. That area had heavy tree growth, and, even if they did have somebody in that corner watch tower, nobody would be looking through that section easily. The live satellite feed made a huge difference because the Google images were years old. But they had been good enough to show Beau that the trees were all still there and that the growth had increased over the last years.

  He minimized the heavy pounding sounds as his feet came down. He’d learned to run lightly through his military work, but running lightly in the dark and carrying a heavy load was a trick in and of itself. By the time he came within fifty yards of his target corner, he was silent as he approached in the darkness. He sidled up to the first big tree and determined absolutely nobody was in that lookout tower position. Now that was good news—unless they were crouched and waiting. And that was the first thing to check.

  He quickly dropped his bag of gear, went to the closest tree, and climbed. By the time he was at the top, looking down, he could see the lookout tower was completely empty. He shook his head at that. Surely the compound had been given a heads-up by the armory guy. Either this place was filled with fools or their leader didn’t think anybody would come this way, given how remote the compound was. Plus, if they’d never had any intruders, they’d feel secure without guards. Maybe they had security shifts that came and went, but Beau didn’t have enough time to check for any foot patrols. But he did want to get into that lookout tower and see if anything there could help him.

  He studied the barbed wire, wondering how much of a problem that would be to string in this vast wilderness. The top was covered with razor wire, and that set all his nerves on edge. He’d seen a man who had tried to escape through razor wire, but it had slashed enough of his skin that he bled out, caught up in the middle of it.

  Regardless Beau had to get inside that tower.

  Now at the base of the guard tower at the southwest corner, he looked up and studied the wire connected on the side. He brought out his climbing spurs and quickly attached a set to each of his boots, which he used for climbing utility poles and smooth surfaces. He put two more on each of his gloves. With those attached, he quickly scaled to the top. It wasn’t as quiet as he’d have liked because he was working so quickly, but he swung his legs over into the lookout, sank down, and waited. He didn’t dare use a light, and, with the rooftop coverage here, it was hard to see if anyone was around. But his eyes quickly adjusted, and he studied all the interior walls, looking for any notes, memos, or any clue what was going on here.

  He found nothing.

  From this lookout position, he could see another lookout tower, but it had to be hundreds of yards to the left, at the northwest corner, and another tower hundreds of yards to the right, at the southeast corner. He was at a corner post, marking the perimeter. As he understood it, the buildings were opposite him. There had to be at least fifteen acres fenced in here, and it looked bigger now than when he’d seen it on the map, but the darkness distorted distances.

  No matter how big this place was, he would have to adjust his approach time. He quickly tapped his communication device to check in and to make sure Asher was receiving him. When Beau heard two taps back, he smiled and quickly sent a tapped out Morse code message. Time?

  Asher’s response came back quickly. Four minutes.

  Good. Beau brought up his nightscope binoculars and quickly searched the area, looking to see if anything moved. It was the time for predators—owls and other things that hunted in the night.

  Like him.

  Beau saw no sign of anybody in the two lookout towers within his purview and no sign of life anywhere along the acreage visible from where he was. Nothing. Not a sound. Not a ripple of grass. Then the wind whistled, and he tilted his head, hearing the loud, almost echoing sound. That would distort things too. But it happened when you got to some of these lonelier parts where it was just wilderness. Mother Nature tended to create her own music, which was great as a cover but not good if you were trying to hear human activity.

  The first thing he needed to do was get inside the compound, and he also needed a way out. He reloaded his gear and scaled down the compound side of the lookout tower. While he stashed some of his gear near the tower in the overgrown brush, he took most of it, and he picked up the wire cutters in case he needed them and carefully slipped along the inside edge of the fence, heading toward the next of the lookout towers. He wouldn’t take a chance just because they appeared empty. He needed to make sure they were.

  As soon as he scaled that northwest one, he could see it was empty too. He sent a message to Asher letting him know that the northwest and southwest towers were empty. Asher tapped back, One minute away from northeast tower.

  He nodded at that, checked his watch, carried forward another fifty yards, and then he hunkered down. What was that? His gaze moved swiftly through the area, searching for anything that moved. But found nothing this time. He brought up his binoculars, slowly let his eyes adjust, and scoped out the area.

  The problem was, he saw no signs of any buildings, and, for the first time, he wondered if he was even in the right place.

  Chapter 5

  Danica should go help that woman.

  I can’t! her heart cried out.

  You have to, her mind answered. You can’t leave someone else to suffer.

  I have to get to safety. I’ll send help back.

  That’s not good enough.

  It has to be.

  She warred with herself and then realized that, depending on where she was located, it could take her a long time to find any safety herself. Yet she also considered that it was always easier if there were two—two to fight off anything, including four-legged predators.

  Swearing, she crept closer to the sound, but stopped at the thought that she would be visible with all the moonlight. She dropped to the ground and inched her way forward. The woman continued to sob; yet the sound was still far away and faint. Danica
followed the sound, knowing she was putting herself in danger. She still hadn’t found a way out of this damn place.

  Just then she thought she heard something. Immediately she rolled over and stared behind her, but she saw nothing. By now her palms were sweaty, her heart pounding, and she knew this was beyond stupid. Not just stupid—this was the stupidest thing she’d ever done. She was already free. Why would she head back into this nightmare?

  She crept forward a little bit and heard the woman’s cries again. Cries that broke Danica’s heart. Finally she came across another grate. She stared at it in horror. In her mind, she knew that other underground prison cells were here, as well as other victims. She just hadn’t wanted to believe it. She tried but couldn’t see anything below, but she could now clearly hear the woman. She picked up a rock and dropped it. It didn’t even seem to dent the woman’s torment. Danica picked up another and dropped it too.

  With that came a cessation of tears and crying. Danica picked up another rock and dropped it. Suddenly she heard a scrambling from below, and a pale white face glowed in the moonlight as she stared up at the grate. Danica kept her face hidden enough that she could check out the woman.

  She was tied up and was hopping too. She stared up at the sky, and she whispered, “Is somebody there?”

  The woman had somehow got her gag partially off her mouth. It was still caught on her chin though. “Please, if you’re out there, help me,” she cried out pitifully.

  Without answering, Danica rolled onto her back and stared up at the sky. Could she do this? Or should she leave to get help for the woman? Danica did not feel comfortable with that thought, not with the woman she had just seen. In the time that it took her to find help and then return, this woman’s life could have been taken from her in a most horrible way. Danica rolled over and let her face be seen.

  The other woman stared up at her and whispered, “Please, please, help me.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” Danica said. “These grates are heavy. Can you get your hands untied?”

  The other woman shook her head. She started to panic, staring at the door.

  “You have to be quiet,” Danica said. “Otherwise I’m gone.”

  Instantly the woman shut her mouth. Danica nodded and struggled with the grate, and it lifted the same as hers had.

  As soon as the woman saw that, her eyes widened in hope.

  “I don’t know how to get you up here,” Danica said, “if you can’t get your hands free.” She looked at her bindings and asked, “Can you get your hands in front of you?”

  The woman sat down and, following Danica’s instructions, got her hands under her butt and up over her feet. It was awkward and hard, and she could see the woman panicking again. But suddenly she got one leg through. And, with the second now free, Danica could see the woman’s hands in front of her. She bounced to her feet, looked up at the distance separating them, and whispered, “I still can’t get up there.”

  “Get your hands free,” Danica ordered. “Loosen the cord so it goes over the top of your fingers. And use your teeth.” The woman followed her instructions again, while Danica slowly moved the grate enough that she could hopefully get the woman up and through the opening.

  “Is this how you got out?”

  Danica nodded. “Yes, and I’ve only been free for about ten minutes. If they find out, they’ll recapture both of us.”

  The woman chewed away on her ties. “I can’t let that happen,” she whispered.

  “No, neither can I,” Danica said. She peered into the woman’s cell, but it was a mirror image of the one Danica had been in. She motioned at the bed. “Can you drag that to this side?”

  The woman’s eyes lit up as she understood, and, even hopping, she quickly moved to the bed as she continued to work on her bindings. She almost cried out and immediately clapped her hands over her mouth. She looked at the door, but there was no sound outside it. She undid the bindings on her hands and then unclipped the bungees on her feet.

  Now free, she picked up the bed and moved it gently underneath the grate. The headboard of this bed was a big rounded wrought-iron headboard, but she got up using Danica’s hand for balance. She crawled up to the very top of the headboard, and then together they got her belly up and over the edge. Danica pulled as the woman moved her legs up and out. She lay here on the grass, while Danica slowly moved the grate back.

  “Why did you put the grate back?”

  “Because I don’t know if anybody else is out here,” Danica whispered as they lay here in the moonlight, not moving for a long moment. Danica turned toward her and asked, “How weak are you?”

  “Weak,” she said. “The adrenaline is still rushing, but I know when that stops …”

  “I know,” Danica said. “Those trees over there. That’s where I first heard you.”

  “So, is that where we’re going?”

  “Yes. We’ll count to three, and then, as fast as we can, we’ll race to the trees. Got it?”

  The woman nodded as she lifted her head, looked at her, and said, “My name is Nania.”

  “And I’m Danica,” she said with a smile. “Now let’s go. One, two …” And, on three, the two women hopped to their feet and bolted as fast as they could across the ground. As Danica traveled, she kept looking for more of those grates but didn’t see any.

  Finally they slammed up against a tree trunk, gasping for breath. Nania sank in the grass, her chest heaving. “I can’t do that much more,” she said. “I’m so terrified. I heard them say a shipment is leaving within hours. At daybreak.”

  “We can’t get taken again. We’re not out of the compound yet, and we are not out of danger,” Danica said. “Do you want to stay here while I look around? We need to get help fast.”

  Immediately Nania perked up. She shook her head and hopped to her feet, saying, “No, let’s go.”

  They kept moving as far away from the grates as they could. There were more trees, but they kept on—under, over, around—and then made another dash that was more panicked than well-thought-out. They kept racing forward until they came to something that made Danica’s heart stop.

  A fence.

  Not just any fence but a barbed wire fence. As she stared higher at the wire that would stop her from getting anywhere, she saw the razor wire at the top.

  Beside her, Nania whispered, “Shit.”

  “Double shit actually,” Danica said, staring at it with her heart sinking. “We have nothing to cut this with, and we have no way to get over the top. It’s also dug deep into the ground from what I can see.” Or maybe it wasn’t, but she had no tools and tugging hard at the wire here wasn’t loosening it at all from the ground.

  “But surely it can’t be all around the compound,” Nania said.

  “We’re about to find out,” Danica said. Grimly she grabbed hold of Nania’s hand and said, “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Inside the compound, Beau headed to the far side, ensuring he knew which approach would raise the least amount of alarm. He could hear rustling in the underbrush but wasn’t sure what was going on. Fifteen acres was big enough to hide all kinds of predators. He was most concerned about guard dogs, but since none had picked up his scent yet, he figured there was a good chance the cult had none. He just didn’t want to get caught out in the open.

  He quickly raced across, sticking to the shadows, until he was on the far side of the compound. It took him fifteen minutes to make it across, and, from where he stood, he saw just the shadows of the first building. It looked like a shed, maybe a greenhouse shed or some drying shed. There were no windows, and, with his ear against it, he couldn’t hear any sound inside.

  The door was unlocked. He stepped inside, quickly shone his flashlight to make sure nothing was here, and then shut it down. But, finding this first building, the others couldn’t be too far away.

  Just then clouds moved across the moon. He both swore and applauded the move because it would take away the shininess and the light that he des
perately needed, but it also gave him the darkness to cover himself. As soon as the moon was fully covered, he ran silently along the edge of the fence to the third of the towers, the northeast one. He scaled it, and once again it was empty. He tapped out the message to Asher and got a crazy message back.

  Not moving. People.

  Shit.

  Beau hunkered down in the lookout tower and studied what looked to be several large hall-like buildings. He could see them better now, without all the brush to hide behind, but also noted the farmhouse buildings had been painted a dull green, with brown roofs, to better blend in with their surroundings. Other buildings nearby looked like homes, adjacent large fenced-off areas which appeared to be full of greenery. He thought these might be gardens, but there should be animals up here too, if the people were living off the land. Did that make any sense here? Homesteaders in Alaska were everywhere, but it didn’t make sense that there would be such a big group here. Then he remembered the word cult and thought quite possibly this was one. But they should have had chickens and pigs. At least in his mind that would make sense.

  But he wasn’t sure any cult made any sense.

  An uneasy stillness hung on the world below. Were they all asleep? Did they really think they could kidnap people and not have sentries keeping watch? Were they so oblivious to the world around them? Beau doubted that the cult members had taken the man’s daughter. It had been a professional job, and that worried Beau more than anything. Something here must confirm that somebody gave a shit as to whether they had trespassers or not.

  Just as his gaze worked his way through the buildings, he saw a large driveway with two great big gates of solid steel at its entrance, joined to the barbed-wire fencing. He shrugged at that. Everybody always assumed that, because they had a gate, they were invincible on the other side of it. Most people would look at that gate, shrug, and just go around it.