Conspiracy Game (50 page)

“Son of a bitch,” Jack grated.

“So I took a little trip up, and sure enough, we’ve got company waiting.” Ken flipped open his canteen and drank, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Can we take them?”

“They have the better position and a helicopter, Jack.” Ken glanced at Briony, went to speak, and closed his mouth.
They’d kill us for certain.

“Don’t do that,” Briony said sharply. “I’m not a child and I don’t wilt because it gets rough. I want to know what’s wrong.” She captured Jack’s hard gaze with her own. “Am I a part of this family or not?”

“You know damn well what you are to me,” Jack snapped. “The only real way out of the canyon is the pass. We didn’t think anyone knew there was a way up. The canyon is a box, and essentially we’re trapped here. There wasn’t a pass at all until we made one.”

“So how did they know?” Ken asked. “No one’s been here.”

“He guessed. The bastard guessed,” Jack said. “He’s a fucking genius, and he looked at the map and figured out exactly how we think. The canyon’s a natural trap. He knew we’d lead them here, and he put his men up above to sit and wait. We make the climb—it’s steep and dangerous and will sap our strength, and they’ll shoot us like ducks in a pond.”

Briony took a deep breath, inhaling to try to catch the scent of danger. She smelled pine and fir and night air, but not soldiers. The temperature was falling rapidly, as it often did up high in the mountains. She shivered and reached for Jack’s pack, pulling out a jacket to wrap around her.

“We’ll be fine,” Jack assured her.

“I know. I’m just cold.” She wasn’t certain how true what Jack said was, but she wanted it to be true. Fear was a constant companion, familiar to her and therefore easy to rise above. She shrugged it off and tangled her fingers with Jack’s.

“We don’t have a lot of choices,” Jack said. “If we try the pass, it’s tantamount to suicide. Maybe with both Ken and me giving you a lead, protecting you, you might make it, especially if they don’t want to kill you.”

She shook her head. “I’m staying with you.”

“I could protect the two of you,” Ken offered. “It makes sense, Jack. You know we have to get her out. It comes down to who’s more important. Briony is carrying the babies. I’ll lie up on the pass with the rifle… ”

“The hell with that. We go together or not at all,” Jack snapped. “If you think I’d run when they were gunning for you, Ken, you don’t know me very well.”

Briony shook her head violently. “I’m with Jack. Absolutely not.”

“It was an idea.”

“A stupid one.”

“What about going back?” Briony interrupted, her fingers digging into Jack’s palm. “We could go down the mountain—get some help.”

Ken shook his head. “No way. They have us boxed in with heavy artillery.”

“We stand a chance if we try to hold out right here and wait for reinforcements to arrive,” Jack said. “We can radio the team and they’ll move as quickly as possible.”

“Twenty-four hours at the most. Twelve probably. If we’re lucky they could be here by morning. We have the ammunition. We might do it,” Ken agreed. “We’ve got enough C4 and you’ve already rigged some wires. It might be our best shot, Jack.”

“What’s wrong with the idea?” Briony asked. “Neither of you like it much.”

“They can just as easily bring in reinforcements too,” Jack replied. “Whitney has access to much more sophisticated equipment if we stay too long. We can’t give him that kind of time—not unless we have no other choice.”

There was a small silence. Ken sighed. “I’ll climb up as high as possible and see if I can get a clear enough signal to call for help.”

“Wait.” Briony held up her hand. “You have to climb the cliff anyway to get a signal? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“We have no choice,” Jack explained. “We’re in a canyon, baby. We can’t call a dog, let alone our team.”

“If there’s a way for Ken to climb the cliff and get high enough to call out, why can’t we scale the cliffs and get out of here? We’re all strong,” Briony ventured.

Again there was a small silence, the men exchanging a long look.

“Maybe,” Jack said thoughtfully. “With you pregnant, that’s probably the last thing he’d expect.”

Ken rubbed a scar on his left cheek as he frowned. “We tried the northern face that time, Jack. It has fingers and toeholds, some crevices we could maybe use, but most are a good fifteen feet apart. It would be tricky, especially in the dark.”

Jack glanced up at the sky. “How much of a moon do we have?”

“Fairly decent. More than half. The night’s clear.” Ken turned his head to study the sheer, rising cliff.
She’ll never make it, Jack. She’s strong, but she’s pregnant.

Briony knew they were talking about her in private. She pulled her hand away from Jack. “I’m a flyer, a high-wire performer and a darned good one at that. There isn’t much I can’t do.”

“You don’t like heights,” Jack reminded her. “It’s all right, Bri, we can hold out here.”

“I don’t like a lot of things, Jack, but it’s never stopped me before. If I wasn’t with you, what would you do?” she challenged.

“You are with us, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to
me
. I don’t want to sit here and wait for them if we have a chance to get out. I can handle heights as well or better than either one of you. Don’t sell me short because I’m pregnant—or worse, because I’m a woman.”

“We can’t climb in the conventional manner, Briony,” Jack explained. “We have to become a human ladder, one anchors while the other swings him like a pendulum and throws him up to the next hold. It’s difficult and dangerous.”

“So is staying here. Would you do it if I wasn’t here? Tell the truth.”

“We’d already be gone,” Jack said.

“That’s it then.” Briony kicked aside the blanket and stood up. “Let’s go.”

Ken shook his head. “This is how it all starts, bro. She’s getting bossy. I’ve heard women do that. They start out all soft and kittenish, leading a man on, and then the claws come out and they dig in and take over.” He stood up, the rifle looking a natural part of him. “You’re in for trouble, Jack.”

“Probably,” Jack agreed, pride and respect for her in his voice. “Let’s get moving.” He flashed her a small, approving grin.

Jack reached down to roll the sleeping bag, and an explosion rocked the night, shaking the ground, a huge red and orange ball churning with black smoke blasting upward and outward like a violent mushroom cloud. Birds screeched, taking to the skies, and the world seemed to be in chaos.

“They’re coming for us,” Jack said.

Both men calmly shouldered their gear and indicated to Briony to walk between them in single file, Ken leading the way. As the smoke and flash faded, the night once again turned eerily silent.

Jack handed Briony a gun and a knife, which she slipped into her belt as she walked behind Ken. The men made little noise, and she tried to do the same. There was enough moonlight to see their surroundings. There was no trail, not even a deer trail, but Ken seemed to know exactly where he was going.

Briony walked with them, trying to analyze why, when she was in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation, she wasn’t nearly as afraid as normal. Oh, the adrenaline was running and her pulse was racing, but it wasn’t debilitating like fear almost always was on the onset. She didn’t have to force herself under control; she just walked between the brothers, trying to emulate their heightened awareness. It wasn’t even the fact that the two men kept her from feeling the effects of the violence surrounding them, or from the battles they’d already fought.

Confidence. They exuded complete confidence. It was in the set of their shoulders, the way they moved with fluid, easy strides, the easy camaraderie between them, and the fact that they simply worked so well together. She glanced at Jack over her shoulder as she walked. He wasn’t watching the ground, but all around them, up in the trees, the rising walls of the canyon, and their back trail. She tried to follow his actions, tried to see with her enhanced vision and hear what the night had to tell.

“Remember, baby,” Jack whispered softly against her ear as they stopped just under an outcropping that grew a good twenty feet above their heads out of the steeply rising wall. “Sound carries in the night. We’ll communicate with telepathy, and when we climb, try to make as little noise as possible. If this is going to work, we have to be ghosts just fading away.”

She nodded to let him know she understood.
How do we do this?

We jump up to the outcropping and go from there. I’ll take the lead and we’ll have to use a swinging motion to get the person below up to the next hold. You’ll see. It’s much like you do on the trapeze. Jeb catches you—here, it will be either Ken or me.
He bent down to look in her eyes.
Are you okay with this? There can’t be any hesitation once we start up.

She took a breath.
You’ve climbed this before? Successfully?

Jack pulled her into his arms.
Yes. I wouldn’t risk this if we weren’t in such a bind, baby, but I wouldn’t try it if I didn’t think you could handle it.

That gave her more assurance than anything else he could have said. He had faith in her ability and respected her enough to try a hazardous gamble. She was more than a good flyer—she was a gifted one. She wouldn’t let Jack down. Briony stroked her hand over her stomach in a small caress, her knuckles rubbing against Jack. He instantly placed his palm over hers and held her for a moment, his breath warm against her neck.

This is going to work, Briony.

I hate leaving our home.

We’ll be back someday. We’ll have a cleanup crew out here by tomorrow night if Whitney doesn’t pack his dead off with him, as I suspect he will. They did some damage to the house, but nothing we can’t fix fairly quickly.

Another explosion shook the earth, sending small rocks rolling down the slope of the ravine to bounce over branches and brush. Light flashed, and someone in the distance screamed hoarsely.

Ken cleared his throat softly to get their attention.
We have to move now, before they make it through all the trip wires. We’ve only slowed them down, not stopped them.

I’m ready
, Briony assured them, and tipped her head back to look at the outcropping.

Jack went first, crouching right below it and leaping. It was an extraordinary distance from a standing jump.

You need help?
Ken asked.

Briony shook her head, but backed up a few feet to get a running start. She’d never been good at just standing and jumping like Jack had done. She cleared the distance easily and landed beside Jack, who instantly caught her by the arms and hauled her against the rock face. Ken followed them up.

Get as close to the wall as you can to give me, room, baby.
Jack tied his pack firmly and strapped his rifle down.
Ken, use the radio as soon as we get high enough to make the call. Every minute will count. Make them aware of that. Call in both teams if you have to, but tell them we need an extraction like yesterday. Full combat conditions, tell them to come in hot.

Will do. I’ll need to be up another thirty or forty feet before trying it.

Briony watched with her heart in her throat as Jack looked up the sheer cliff face. Before he could react, she caught his hand and tugged, lifting her face to his. This was a life-and-death gamble—a struggle they might not survive—and she wanted him to know how important he was to her.

Jack framed her face and kissed her gently.
We’ll get through this.

I know
. She poured her trust into her mind. If anyone could keep her safe—it was Jack. She felt his concern for her and smiled.
I can do this, Jack. I know I can.

He nodded, kissed her a second time, and looked up at the sheer face rising above him, frowning a little. The crevice was to his right, and he had to leap up and jam his arm into the narrow opening. He’d done it once before successfully, but it had been full daylight. He crouched low and sprang, arm outstretched, fist closed tightly.

Beneath him, Ken waited to spot him. If Jack missed and came crashing down, he would only have a sliver of hope to keep him from hitting the ground below the outcropping.

The edges of the jagged rock face ripped and peeled back his skin as Jack slammed his fist hard into the tapered crack. Blood seeped down his arm, and his shoulder nearly snapped as it took the brunt of his full weight. He took a breath to still his rapidly beating heart, and slowly let it out, easing the pain away from his mind while he searched with the toes of his boots for the two-inch ledge he knew was there. It was a relief to find the tiny jutting rock to help take the weight of his body. Insuring his fist would hold tight in the crevice, he glanced down below him, free arm outstretched back toward his family.

Ready Ken? Briony?

Briony swallowed. Ready for what? They hadn’t told her what they expected yet, but Ken tugged at her arm, drawing her away from the safety of the steep wall. She moistened her suddenly dry lips.
Tell me what to do.

Climb up onto Ken’s shoulders and crouch to get extra spring. He’ll help launch you. You have to hit my wrist, baby, just like your work. I’ll catch you.

One-handed. In the dark. Briony blew out her breath, rubbed one hand soothingly over her rounded tummy, and stepped onto Ken’s bent thigh to get to his shoulders. Once in place, it was easy enough to keep her equilibrium. He was strong, his shoulders broad, and she was used to working with balance. She remained in a crouch, judging the distance, waiting for Jack’s signal.

Go.

Briony burst into the sky, launched by her own powerful leg muscles as well as the extra push from Ken. She flew straight up, arm outstretched, gaze locked on her target. Her palm slapped Jack’s wrist, fingers curling tight as he caught her in a viselike grip.
Feel for the ledge with your toes. It’s only a couple of inches wide. Reach with your free hand and feel for the crack above your head.
With his enhanced strength, he pulled her up beside him.