The fence was through that patch of woods just ahead, and there was a
path through them. They could play Q&A later. One step at a time.
Be in the moment... Monday, June 13th Gakona, Alaska
It had been a long time since Howard had done any real hunting, and
even the most realistic VR scenario was not the same as creeping
through the woods and sneaking up on a vehicle that might or might not
contain unfriendlies.
In this case, it had to be done by feel--it was so damned dark he ran a
real risk of smacking his face into trees if he didn't go slow. He
couldn't use his flashlight, that would be way too easy to spot, and he
didn't even want to think about bumping into some hungry critter bigger
than he was.
His advantage was that if he couldn't see them, they probably couldn't
see him. Even if there were a couple of bad guys in the SUV and they
had starlight scopes, he'd be hard to spot unless they were looking
right at him, and unless they had eyes in the backs of their heads, or
just happened to have their scopes pointed at the real-view mirror,
they weren't apt to be looking right at him.
Once he'd left the edge of the woods and moved in deeper to circle
around behind the vehicle, it took a few minutes to crawl up behind it.
He inched his way forward in the old knees and elbows locomotion, until
he was only a couple of meters behind the black SUV, a Ford Explorer.
The thing had tinted windows so dark he probably couldn't have seen
inside even in bright sunshine, much less the near-pitch night out
here. Nobody inside smoked cigarettes to reveal themselves with a
telltale glow, there was no radio playing, nobody talking. No sign
that the Explorer was anything but empty. And wouldn't he feel stupid
if it turned out he was stalking an empty car?
Yeah. But worry about that later.
He inched closer, until he was right at the back bumper.
He had in mind listening very carefully, maybe making a little noise to
see if there would be any kind of response, but he didn't get that far.
A man's voice said, 'I gotta piss.'
'We're supposed to stay in the car until we see the signal.'
'Fuck the signal. I can see it just as well taking a leak as I can
from in here.'
The passenger door opened, but the dome light didn't go on. The door
stayed open and the sound of footsteps approaching on dry fir needles
got louder fast. The guy was walking around to the back of the
truck!
Even this dark, he'd likely see or hear Howard if he tried to crawl
away.
Howard flattened himself fully prone and used his knees to push himself
under the Explorer.
Three heartbeats later, the sound of a stream of urine splashing
against the side of a tree came loud in the night.
It went on for a long time, and Howard could even hear the man's pants'
zipper going back up when he was done.
The peeing man was halfway back to the car door when the driver said,
