Jude pulled it out, wiped it on the man’s clothing, and sank down beside them. Searching the woods around him, he didn’t notice anything out of place. He grabbed the walkie-talkie one of the men had and listened.
“Do you have him?” a voice asked excitedly.
The men he’d just taken out were scouts. “Yes,” Jude answered.
“Dresden is coming up the pass now. Hold him until the boss gets there,” the man said.
Goddamn! Dresden had found him.
Jude got up, ran back toward the house, and hurried inside, the cat following him, meowing like the end of the world was upon them. Jude opened the door to the comm room, and the cat flew in behind him.
“Ella!” he called out.
“I’m here,” she said, rushing to his side.
“Get dressed. The smaller bag is yours. I’m going back out. Dresden is coming up the pass, and I’ve got to prepare the traps. I need you to stay here. See that door right there?” He pointed behind her.
She turned, saw it, and nodded.
“I’ll be coming through that when I come back. Nobody can get in here except you and me. I’m letting King know what’s happening. They won’t make it to us in time to help, but if I go down, you stay here until King calls you. Do you understand me, Ella?”
“No, Jude! I can help you out there,” she pleaded.
He grabbed her face between his hands. “You can’t. I’ll be pulled in two different directions. You’re a hell of an operative, Ella, but Endgame needs you alive. The world needs the information you have. And I need you safe.”
“I need you, Jude,” she responded.
“I’m right here. I’ll always be right here,” he promised, holding his hand over her heart. “I’m not planning on dying today, but you need to be prepared, Ella.”
She nodded. She’d become a better soldier while she’d been away from him, but she was still soft.
He had about fifteen minutes before Dresden topped the pass and was at the house. He led Ella to the console in front of the computers. “See that button right there?”
She nodded.
“See that monitor?”
She nodded again.
“When you see me hold up my fist, press that button and then take cover. I had the cave surveyed. It should hold up, but I don’t know what Dresden is packing, and I’ll never take chances with you.”
He sidestepped her and began walking to his armory.
“Uh, Jude?”
“Yeah?”
She didn’t say anything, and he turned around. She was holding his Knight’s Armament Mk11 SWS. Best sniper weapon in the game. SEALs always used the best. “Hooyah!” he said with a smile. “Loaded?”
She rolled her eyes and handed him three ammo packs. “You need more than that, you gotta hit me up. It’s all I had time to load while you were gone.”
“Load more. There’s an H&K in there for you. Load up, and then settle down,” he said as he slung his weapon over his back.
“Jude, come back to me,” she demanded.
“No other place I’d rather be, baby,” he said with a grin, then headed to the door. “Lock this after me.” He had about twelve minutes now.
“Oh, one more thing,” she called before he walked out. “There’s another front rolling in bringing even more snow. It’s on us now.”
He nodded. That would be to his benefit. These were his mountains, and he knew them sun or snow. “Safe,” he said, his voice deep and dark.
She held up six fingers, and he walked away, out of the comm room—listening for the snick of the electronic bolts that locked the door into the stone surrounding them—and then out of the house.
He made it up to the north quadrant and began loading his traps. He’d built them in the first two months after Ella died. He’d never stayed in the house, but he’d come here and prepared for any war anyone wanted to bring to him.
War was now. If Dresden was coming, he wanted Ella alive. Jude was going to make sure he didn’t make it to her at all.
He worked fast. Realizing he didn’t have time to set the traps on the southern side of the property, he began stringing wire across the road that led to the cabin. He was only able to set two incendiary bombs along the road that he would remotely detonate before he heard the sound of vehicles heading up the pass.
He hightailed it back to the fallen tree and settled into the snow beside it, lying on his stomach and prepping his rifle. Once he had his sight trained on the road, he waited.
He hit the ear mic. “Ella?”
“Here.”
“There are two vehicles coming up the pass. Both of them SUVs. I’m going to guess that between the two of them, there are six, maybe seven men including Dresden. More will be coming though. Once he has confirmation we’re here, he’ll call in a strike team. I’ve got to take them out. If he calls back to a strike team, we could be in trouble. You’re going to hear the explosions, and I’ll be out of contact. Stay in the room, baby.”
“Ten-four.”
She was a great partner—a great operative, he thought again. And she was going to let him do his thing, trusting he’d keep her safe. He pulled his satellite phone from his pocket and hit 1.
“Talk,” King McNally said by way of greeting.
“I just sent you coordinates to my cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I also forwarded satellite images of the cave system I built the house over. I’ll be coming out on the north end of
