Spy High (10 page)

A chill tingled down my spine. That
rhythm really did sound like weapons fire. A firefight, to be
exact. Gunshots and return fire.

I shook off the thought. If there was
one thing the past year had taught me, it was the noise of gunfire.
This wasn’t it. The rhythm was right, but the sound quality wasn’t.
No echoing crack, no whine of ricochets, just the flat bang of
explosive without a projectile.

I sighed and tramped through the
darkness. Stop looking for danger where there isn’t any. Think
positive thoughts.

At least it wasn’t raining, so our
sojourn in the field wouldn’t be quite so miserable.

Shivering on my knees a few minutes
later, I defied the ‘heads bowed’ protocol to peep at the sky. I
could see a few red and green spark trails in the sky, but they
were disappointing. More like flares than fireworks. Probably
cheaper. The commune likely didn’t have a lot of spare cash lying
around to splurge on fancy fireworks.

A roaring sound swelled from the trees
around us and other heads popped up around me as brilliant
spotlights flared. Blinded by the glare, I shielded my eyes and
blinked away afterimages. Four spotlights blazed at the cardinal
points of the field, one for each of our groups.

I squinted at them, first puzzled, then
annoyed. Karma and Moonbeam must have turned on the generator just
for this. What a fucking waste. I could have been basking in a hot
shower instead of freezing my butt off out here.

The lights abruptly extinguished, and
the leaders’ shout of “The blessings of the Earth Spirit are upon
you!” sounded slightly subdued.

“And upon you, too,” I mumbled along
with the rest, and hauled myself to my feet.

“I’ll walk you back so you don’t get
lost again.” Orion’s voice in my ear made me spin to face him,
clutching my chest.

“Jeez, don’t sneak up on me like that!”
I complained. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.” His smile gleamed in the
indirect glow from his downward-pointed flashlight. “I just didn’t
want you walking back alone in the dark. If the cougar is prowling
around tonight, we should travel together.”

“Mm.” I fell into step beside him,
wondering if I really was safer with him than with a large
nocturnal predator.

Probably. But I wasn’t quite as sure as
I might have been before.

“You seem really comfortable moving
around out here in the dark,” Orion said conversationally. “Most
newbies wouldn’t part with their flashlights for anything, and
they’d never forget them. Do you normally do a lot of camping?”

“I’m not really a newbie anymore,” I
objected. “But yeah, I’ve always spent a lot of time outdoors. How
about you?” I nodded teasingly at his flashlight. “I see yours is
glued to your hand.”

He laughed. “I’m a city boy. I like the
outdoors, but I always feel as though something’s going to sneak up
on me when it’s dark.”

I considered the irony in that
statement and made no comment.

“You seemed a little spooked by the
fireworks,” he went on. “Do they bother you?”

“No, I like fireworks.” I forced a
laugh. “It’s just that where I come from, if you hear that sound
coming from the woods you’d better get your blaze-orange on before
some hunter mistakes you for a deer.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’d spook, me,
too.”

“So what brings a city boy out here
into the sticks?” I bantered. “Most city boys I know wouldn’t
venture anywhere there wasn’t a four-star hotel.”

“Oh, the Earth Spirit, of course,” he
said earnestly. “That makes it all worthwhile.”

“How did you find out about the Earth
Spirit, though? I’d never even heard of it until I came here.” I
peered at his dimly-lit profile, wishing his flashlight was a
little brighter so I could read his reaction.

“I found it online,” he said without
hesitation. “I was searching for true meaning, and the Earth Spirit
guided me here.”

That sounded a little too glib. And a
little too weird.

“And have you found it?” I prodded.

“Oh, yes.” He glanced over at me, his
eyes unreadable in the gloom. “What about you? You don’t seem to
even believe in the Earth Spirit. Why are you here?”

I weighed the pros and cons. If he was
one of Stemp’s enemies, maybe it was time to see what kind of a
reaction I could get.

Watching him carefully, I said, “I’m
friends with Karma and Moonbeam’s son.”

No reaction other than an interested
nod that encouraged me to go on. Either he was an excellent actor,
or he wasn’t an enemy.

But if he
was
an enemy, he’d
likely be an excellent actor.

Shit.

“That’s nice,” Orion prompted. “But it
doesn’t really answer my question.”

I shook myself back to the situation at
hand. “Sorry, I zoned out for a second there. Too tired after all
this traipsing around in the middle of the night.”

He chuckled. “It’s only ten o’clock.
Not exactly the middle of the night. So, you were saying…?”

Damn, he was persistent.

“Um, yeah. Well, I was pretty stressed
out and Cosmic River Stone thought this would be a great place for
me to relax and decompress. He asked Moonbeam and Karma if I could
stay with them a while, and here I am.”

“Work stress?”

“Um…” I stopped myself before I could
fall into the trap of agreeing. Most people didn’t wake up
screaming every night because of too much paperwork at the
office.

“It was more than that, wasn’t it?”
Orion asked quietly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” I tried to temper the abruptness
of my response by adding, “Thanks, but no. I did go through a bad
time, but I’ve been having regular phone sessions with a
psychologist and I’m better now.”

“Oh, that would be the Dr. Rawling who
phones every Wednesday.”

“Uh, yeah, every second Wednesday now.”
Damn communal phone, everybody knew everybody else’s business. “I
didn’t want to inconvenience anybody so I always tried to be there
when he phoned for our appointments,” I added. “But I guess I
didn’t always succeed.”

“It must have been pretty bad, what you
went through.” Orion glanced over again, but I couldn’t tell
whether it was concern or prurient curiosity in his shadowed face.
“You did a lot of screaming at night.”

“Yeah,” I said shortly. The path to my
tent looked like a pale ribbon of salvation in the moonlight ahead
of us, and I drew a breath of relief. “Well, thanks for the light.
Goodnight.”

I hurried to my tent and ducked inside
without waiting for a reply.

Sinking onto my cot with a long breath,
I rested my aching forehead in my hands. I hadn’t wanted to be
reminded of my nightmares. Hadn’t wanted to feel this fearful
suspicion again. Had really wanted to believe this was a safe place
and Orion was simply a handsome man with no hidden agendas.

Well, you don’t always get what you
want.

I sighed and dug another secured phone
out of my bag.

Weighing the burner phone in my hand, I
stared at the moon-dappled canvas around me.

How long before I could leave my tent
unnoticed?

Orion had said ten o’clock wasn’t late,
so how long would he stay up? And did he sleep soundly enough for
me to sneak by without waking him once he did go to sleep?

If he had been anybody else in the
entire commune I could have walked on by and pretended I was going
to the latrine, but with my luck he’d offer to accompany me for
‘safety’.

Maybe my report to Stemp could wait
until morning…

I suppressed a groan and massaged my
temples. Or maybe Orion was planning something tonight and delaying
my report could mean the difference between life and death for
Moonbeam and Karma. Or for me.

Christ, I hated this.

I shook off that unproductive thought.
Focus.

Reporting to Stemp tonight wouldn’t
save any lives. He couldn’t change anything from there. But if
something did happen tonight and I ended up dead, at least my
report might help him react faster and with more precision.

I thumped my forehead gently with the
phone. Shit, stop overreacting. Nobody’s going to die.

So Orion had gone into Karma and
Moonbeam’s tent while they were gone, so what? It wasn’t like I’d
caught him stalking them with a weapon. And anyway, they might have
asked him to go in and get something when they’d spoken to him on
the path.

That must have been it.

I let out a slow breath, trying to
release my tension along with it. There would be a simple
explanation. This was nothing to worry about.

Probably.

But I didn’t dare ignore it.

Growling under my breath, I shed my
jacket and crouched to rummage in the duffel bag under my cot. A
rustle from outside froze me in place, my breath stopping while I
strained my ears. Was that human or animal? Or only the wind?

Long moments passed while I squatted
immobile, listening. At last I decided it must have been my
imagination and pulled out my lockbox, stopping to listen again
before I thumbed in the combination.

When it opened, I withdrew my new
shoulder holster and a spare magazine before relocking the box and
stuffing it deep in the bag. I transferred my Glock and magazine to
the shoulder rig and put it on, feeling reassured of a quicker draw
if I encountered the cougar. Then I donned my jacket, tucked my big
flashlight into the pocket along with the phone, and took my tiny
LED light out of my waist pouch. After a few more moments of
listening beside my tent flap, I eased outside.

The moonlit darkness was silent. No
sound or light emanated from Orion’s tent, but I didn’t trust that
to mean he was asleep. The man kept popping up where I least
expected him.

Flicking my tiny light over the
undergrowth, I stepped into the forest as quietly as possible,
circling behind our tents and giving Orion’s a wide berth. My back
tingled with the sensation of being watched, but I couldn’t tell
whether it was nervousness at the thought of getting caught by
Orion or fear of the cougar.

My pulse bounding at every night noise,
I resisted the urge to draw my gun but I slid my hand inside my
jacket for reassurance. The comforting feel of the pistol grip
eased the jittery nerves in my stomach, and after nearly twenty
minutes of stealthy movement through the forest I intersected the
main road at last.

Walking in plain view on the road was
probably more dangerous than sticking to the woods, but the
moonlight and open space made me draw a breath of relief
nonetheless. In the brighter open area my tiny flashlight had
little effect, and I tucked it back into my waist pouch before
moving cautiously out of the forest.

Every sense on alert, I strode along
the shoulder of the road, my hand hovering near my gun. The trees
seemed to lean farther over the road than usual, their branches
reaching for me like dark skeletal hands. The blackness of the
understory pulsed with menace.

I straightened my spine. Dammit, I
liked
being outside at night. It wasn’t any more dangerous
than the middle of the day when the forest looked soft and green
and welcoming. In fact, I was probably safer now. Far less chance
of meeting someone from the commune.

Less chance of meeting someone
innocent, anyway.

Well, that thought hadn’t been quite as
reassuring as I’d hoped.

Jeez, relax, already. Just enjoy the
silence and moonlight.

When nothing untoward happened after
several minutes of walking I switched to deeper belly breaths,
easing out my accumulated tension. At last I withdrew the phone and
punched the speed dial, still walking.

“Stemp.” He sounded as wide-awake as if
it had been the middle of the day.

“It’s Aydan. I caught Orion sneaking
into your parents’ tent tonight when they weren’t there. They might
have asked him to; I saw them talking to him right before he went
in. But I wanted to report it just in case.”

“Did he spot you?”

“Not until after he was out, and he
wouldn’t have had any reason to believe I’d seen him go in.” At
least that’s what I hoped. “And he’s been asking a lot of questions
under the guise of wanting to get to know me better. I’ve been
asking a few in return and there haven’t been any red flags yet,
but… I’ve just got this feeling…” I broke off, imagining his
expressionless face. “Sorry,” I added. “I know that’s useless. I’ll
keep digging.”

To my surprise, Stemp said, “Your gut
feeling is never useless. You have good instincts, and in our line
of work that’s sometimes the only thing that keeps us alive. Get
close to Moonjava and find out whatever you can using any means you
consider appropriate.” A hint of dryness tinged his voice. “Within
the scope of the law.”

“Uh, yeah.”

I was glad he couldn’t see me because I
was pretty sure I was blushing. I wasn’t proud of the way I’d
handled my last mission, but thanks to me Kane was alive and a
major criminal organization was all but destroyed.

But maybe some important part of me had
been destroyed in the process…

I jerked my mind back to the
conversation at hand. “Should I ask your parents about it?” I
asked. “If they told him to go into their tent, there’s nothing to
worry about.”

Silence hummed on the line for a few
moments. “True,” Stemp said at last. “But if they didn’t…” He
sighed. “My parents tend to be… direct. They’d confront Moonjava,
potentially causing an overt conflict and blowing your cover in the
process. If Moonjava has been there nearly four months without
attacking them, it means he’s either innocent or he’s planning
something more complicated than a simple assault. So no; don’t
mention it to them, and continue to observe. I’ll send you
night-vision equipment.”

“Okay.” Something rustled in the
undergrowth and I caught my breath, my hand flying to my Glock.
Wishing I had night vision now while I peered into the blackness
with my heart thumping, I lowered my voice. “We had a Spirit
Calling with fireworks tonight. Why didn’t you brief me about that?
I nearly pulled my gun in front of Orion, and he noticed me
twitching.”