The night was quiet; nothing moved in the cold and precipitation. Jude didn’t even see signs of forest animals moving in this weather. A twig snapped just outside the cave entrance. Jude raised his rifle and peered through the scope. Nothing but darkness. He got down on his belly and crawled to the entrance, settling behind a snowbank. He slowly created a hole in the snow and put his rifle through. He listened. He waited.
Nothing moved.
A shadow separated from behind a cedar. Big and stealthy, it headed toward Jude’s location. Everything narrowed to that shadow, though Jude’s other senses flared out, seeking more threats. Nothing else moved. No sounds of weapons hitting cloth or feet moving over snow hit Jude’s ears.
Just that shadow.
He’d never seen anyone but Jonah Knight move that silently. But this man was shorter than Knight—hell, shorter than any of Jude’s Endgame teammates.
The shadow drew closer. Jude pulled out his KA-BAR, palmed it, and lowered his rifle. He’d take the man as quietly as he could. He didn’t want anything to draw other scouts to this location.
The man reached the mouth of the cave, which put him right beside Jude. Jude flowed to his feet, rising above the man and stroking the knife across his neck. Jude’s movements were too fast for the man to be prepared, so he went down fast and easy. Jude ripped the man’s balaclava off and exhaled in relief when he didn’t recognize him.
Jude dragged the man farther into the cave, checking for a radio and finding none before he hid the body behind a boulder so Ella might miss it when they left. He had to do recon, and that meant leaving the cave. He checked on Ella, made sure she still slept, then moved back to the cave’s entrance.
He was wearing another set of white camo outerwear, and it remained pitch-black outside. He blended into the snow effortlessly. Jude used every last ounce of his training as he slithered out of the cave and into the tree line beyond the caves. Jude glanced back, checking the cave to make sure he’d hidden his path, and saw it still looked pristine.
The cave’s entry was hidden by low, overhanging trees that grew out of the sides of the rock. The mountain was a formidable foe, but life grew in the most bizarre places. The man he’d just taken out had to have known it was there, and that wasn’t good. It meant Dresden knew, or had guessed, about the caves.
Jude worked quickly, finding no one else hiding in the immediate perimeter. He hustled back to Ella. “Baby, get up. We gotta move,” he urged.
She was up in a second, asleep one moment, completely alert the next. His hands fisted. She’d been conditioned to do that by Dresden, no doubt. Yes, she had training, but nothing that would have prepared her for that instantaneous alertness. That only came from combat situations, and Jude was finally realizing that’s what her entire year alone with Dresden had been. Combat.
Ella zipped the cat in, folded the thermal blanket, and handed it back to him. He shoved it in his go bag and helped her load her bag and her weapon onto her shoulders. She was dressed exactly like him. He was about to test her endurance as they trekked up the mountain, hopefully reaching the pass that would take them down the other side.
“We’re heading up the mountain. We have to move quickly and silently. You loaded?” he asked as he strapped his bag to his back and checked his weapons.
“Yes,” she whispered, her voice husky from sleep.
“Dresden knows about the caves. You stay right on me, Ella. Step where I step, and do what I say when I say do it,” he commanded.
She didn’t bristle, and that more than anything told Jude she understood the precariousness of their situation.
“He’s not getting you,” Jude bit out.
She threw back her head. Ella had her game face on as she pushed her comm device into her ear.
Jude took a moment to trace the curve of her brows before he leaned down and kissed her lips. “Let’s handle business.”
They made their way out of the cave cautiously. Jude’s neck wasn’t prickling, but that didn’t mean Dresden wasn’t close. They hit the trees, and Jude forced a hard pace as they scaled the mountain. The path was rocky, and the forest began to thin out, their cover disappearing too rapidly. Jude motioned her to take cover behind a big cedar, and then he sank to the snow and pulled out his ocular scope.
He scanned the vista below him. In the distance, he could make out tendrils of smoke from his still-burning house. He didn’t hear any signs of big earthmovers, although he’d expected Dresden to be searching the crater he’d created when he blew the explosives.
But the mountain was silent.
“He’s here,” Ella’s voice whispered across the ear mic.
Jude nodded. Dresden’s strike team had arrived. The air quivered with their presence. “Stay where you are. I’m going hunting.”
“I’ve got your six.”
“Safe, El.”
Jude belly-crawled through the trees. He’d pinpointed two areas where Dresden could funnel men through the trees. He pulled two claymores from his go bag and set them in those places. He could hear a low drone now, the sound of snowmobiles echoing up the mountain.
Dresden was coming. Those claymores would slow them, but he and Ella had no choice but to run now.
“Get up, Ella,” he called out. “Run southwest. Hit the tree line.”
She was up and running, Jude on her heels, when the first claymore exploded
