Jade nodded worriedly. “Right. And how do you think she’ll react to that?”
Woo Tang thought a moment. “Uncertain. I presume it will likely startle her.”
“Startle her? Dude, your scheme entails sneaking up on her in the woods after dark while she’s alone, provoked, highly motivated, exceedingly well-armed and incredibly pissed off. That’s a considerable underestimation, even if we get the drop on her.”
“Go on.”
“I venture it best to anticipate a full-on, aggressive response on her part,” Jade advised, “and we should ready ourselves accordingly. Otherwise, we’re better off wandering around like a couple of idiots calling out her name with our flashlights burning.”
Descending Wolf Gap Road’s strict curves to a forestry road shrouded by overgrowth on the left, Woo Tang made the turn and continued ahead at a snail’s pace through a deep, winding valley until finding a spot to conceal the vehicle in the woods. There, they waited for several hours in silence until the sun dropped below the westward mountain’s horizon.
Jade took one final look at the active blips on the tracker’s screen before rendering it inoperative once again, then got out and began situating her gear. Woo Tang unstowed his helmet-mounted NVD and activated it, then allowed his eyes time to adjust. Jade did the same with the Harris NVD binoculars attached to a skull crusher, the device setup she’d used to navigate the Marauder from Butch’s hideaway into the Shenandoah Valley in months prior.
“All set, Jade Hensley?” Woo Tang asked, shifting into reverse.
“I really wish you’d stop calling me that.”
“My apologies. All set, Miss Hensley?”
Jade gave him the stink eye. “I reckon, dude.”
“Very well. I will retrace our route here and locate the forest road’s other terminus, then insert from there, stash the truck, and reconnect with you at a midpoint near the last-known coordinates. If we do not find her, we will regroup and exercise other options.”
“What other options?” Jade asked, but Woo Tang had already reversed the vehicle out of earshot.
Jade watched him pull away, and walked the gravel road for a distance before moving off and cutting a path into the woods. After a mile or so, the full moon beckoned her in the darkness, reflecting off an object through the trees ahead. The object appeared unnatural, and as she got closer, she found it to be the dust-covered gloss-black paint of a vehicle’s quarter panel. She made her way to it in defensive fashion, M4 pulled to her shoulder at low ready, while questioning herself as to why she was doing so.
Jade put her hand to the vehicle body to feel for warmth. The rear portions of the truck were cold to the touch, but as she neared the engine compartment, she felt a drastic temperature change. The engine had been running recently. Opening the unlocked driver’s side door, she found the front and back seats empty save a few random items. She examined the interior, discovering a collection of automatic rifles, sidearms, magazines and ballistic helmets in a pile on the backseat floorboard, then went to the rear hatch and popped it open, expelling a gasp.
There in front of her lay a collection of small arms, explosives, and anti-personnel and anti-armor weapons. Lauren had evidently gathered every sample of ordnance found in each DHS vehicle and relocated them to this one. Jade counted two dozen M67 fragmentation hand grenades, two dozen M84 flashbangs, four shoulder-fired AT4 eighty-three-millimeter anti-armor rocket tubes, and eight half-kilogram bricks of C-4 plastic explosive coupled with a pile of shock tube detonators. She almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Jade looked deeper, spotting two familiar nylon duffels near the seatbacks. “Pretty sneaky,” she said, pulling them close. She unzipped one and felt inside until the rigid form of a unique bolt-action rifle was detected. “Dammit, Lauren. I hope you took care of this thing. Otherwise, Butch will never let me hear the end of it.” She released the magazine and brought it close, pushing down on the top round with her thumb and feeling the spring give beneath. The mags had been fully loaded the last time she’d checked, leaving little doubt that the weapon had been fired. She dropped the mag into the duffel and felt around for another, finding it completely empty on inspection. Lauren had put the rifle to use a number of times.
Unzipping the second duffel, Jade heard a twig snap from behind. She bounced in place, pivoted on the ball of her foot, and swung her weapon around on instinct. Once aligned, she snapped off the safety just as an intense beam of light hit her in the face, blinding her and shutting down her NVDs. She dropped to a knee, went to stow them with her free hand and transition to the torch mounted to her M4 in time for her visitor to announce herself.
“What are you doing here?”
Jade squeezed the momentary button on her Surefire. She squinted through the beam still aimed at her to find Lauren standing several yards away behind a tree with her Glock leveled. “What the hell? Put your gun down and smother that torch. We came for you.”
“You put your gun down,” Lauren instructed. “And why?”
“Lauren, come on. This is stupid. And I think you know why.” Cutting off her weapon light, Jade engaged the safety and fully lowered her M4, then pointed inside the sport-utility’s rear deck.
“Christian spilled, didn’t he?” Lauren asked in a sigh, gliding out from behind cover. “He told you where to look.”
Jade flitted her eyes. “He gave us an idea of where to go and showed us how we might find you via GPS.”
“Asshole,” she hissed under her breath. “I expected as much. Well, who else is with you? No way you came by yourself.”
“No, I didn’t. Your buddy Jae came with, or rather, I came with him.”
“True to form. And where is Jae?”
“He is right behind you.” Woo Tang emerged now from the woods’ edge at Lauren’s aft, his NVDs stowed, guided only
