“I think birds around here are much wiser than we are used to.”
“It’s hard to say, but you could be right,” Garret replied. “Just keep an eye out.”
“No problem there,” he said. “Last thing I want is to have a sniper take me out before I get anywhere.”
“Really didn’t need to think about that one,” Garret said, with a note of humor.
“Doesn’t change the fact that, if somebody is here and knows that we are too, we’re in trouble.”
“I don’t think anybody has our location here yet,” he said.
“Are they running decoys in Australia?”
“Decoys all over the place at this point,” he said.
“Good,” Eton said. “Let’s hope they don’t get shot either.”
“Right, that’s not part of the plan,” he said, “but you can never really tell what the hell is going on.”
“I know.” He crested the top of the hill and muttered into the phone, “I’m up at the top now.”
“Good. Take a look around,” Garret said. “I’m still getting the signal. Let me track your location and see how close I can get.”
“You should get pretty close,” he said, “and I’m on the top of the hill, so maybe that will help you identify where the signal is coming from at least.”
“Maybe,” he said, but his voice was distracted once again.
Eton searched through the darkness, looking for signs of anybody out there. He couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean much at this point. As he waited and watched, he tried to adjust to the silence around him. He absolutely adored silence, but it was weird to actually get it. There was nearly always buzzing from electrical appliances or lights, traffic noises, and, of course, people.
At the very least, he would have expected sounds of animal life up here. But, since he’d arrived, it was like all the birds had stopped and were now watching him instead. Hopefully they were also watching anybody on the other side. Eton was hoping to contact somebody, well, as in to capture somebody—whoever it was and whatever phone he had in use—in order to figure out who else was after him and his team.
So far it hadn’t been terribly easy finding clues, and, every time they got to their prey, he was often already dead or was dead within minutes. That was a problem Eton had to deal with, too because it was frequently his own fault that he was coming up against bodies. He had a tendency to shoot first and to ask questions later. It worked a lot of times but not when you needed answers. And that was definitely a problem right now.
Eton moved from tree to tree, as silent as the night around him. But it didn’t take long to realize that the wedge of a hill that he was on extended in both directions, probably for miles. But he was currently at the closest point to the condos down below. He stopped and studied them, looking for lights, looking for anything. He put his phone on Silent and sent a text to Garret. No lights on at the condos.
Not inhabited yet, Garret responded. Fully sold, not yet able to move in.
The vehicles?
Company trucks.
Dead end?
No, Garret typed. The signal is still coming, but again the perimeter is wider than we would like.
I’m not seeing anything up here. Maybe I’ll go down and take a look inside the condos.
Do that, Garret typed. But watch your back.
Eton picked his way down the hill, once again keeping his movements silent and as simple as possible. By the time he reached a large jump off, where there was framework for a retaining wall but no roof yet, he managed to scramble on top and jump down to the concrete. He landed a little more heavily than he would have liked.
As he waited here, crouched in the darkness, no lights came on, and no sounds emerged, suggesting no one heard him. He quickly made his way toward the building, happy to see it wasn’t at the total lock-up stage, so it was easy to get inside. There were definitely locks on doors, but one of the garages was open. He stepped inside and made his way through that condo. A quick search told him that they were at the finishing-up stage. Drywall was installed; paint was being applied. He made his way into four of the homes, but the other four were locked. He checked the windows and found them not secured. He quickly scanned the rest. By the time he was done, he stepped outside and texted Garret that nobody was here.
Garret quickly replied. The signal stopped then started again from the same direction. Is anything else around you?
A couple single-family houses, about a two-minute walk away.
So, on your way up, you passed a dirt road, Garret texted. It leads to two houses.
I’ll check that out.
Eton made his way back to his vehicle and, without his headlights on, slowly drove down the road, until he saw the dirt road that Garret mentioned. As it was, a grove of trees was farther down. He pulled off the main road and parked in there, then got out and walked back to the dirt drive. He headed along that road but immediately heard dogs barking. He sent a message to Garret, telling him dogs were nearby.
So much for getting in silently.
Wasn’t that the truth? Dogs were great for this kind of thing, if they were on your side. But it was pretty shitty now, when Eton didn’t want anybody to know he was here. He got as close as he could without triggering any further alarms, but he was still outside the gates on one house, and another gate farther up showed more dogs at the second house. He quickly sent back a message. Dogs at both.
Might as well come home then. We’ll do more research first.
With that, Eton turned and headed back to his car. As he reached his vehicle and was just about to get in, he heard the sounds of a vehicle driving toward him, coming down from the condos. He disappeared into the tree growth and waited. The other vehicle slowed down when it got to his, and it looked like somebody was checking the license plate. He quickly sent Garret a message about it and received an immediate reply.
Interesting. And you didn’t see anybody at the condos, right?
Right.
They were watching you maybe?
Quite possibly.
Come on home.
That’s the plan. Eton waited in the darkness for the single driver to pull away, but it seemed like he was more concerned about standing there and taking a photo. If Eton had been on guard duty at the townhomes, he’d have done the same thing because security never wanted something like this to happen without at least checking it out. What Eton didn’t know was who this guy was and why he was doing it. He wondered about jumping forward and saying something but decided that wasn’t a good idea. As soon as the driver got in his vehicle and drove away again, Eton sent a message back to Garret, saying he was doing a quick switch of vehicles.
Good enough.
Eton headed toward the town, looking for an option. When he got there, the place seemed to be just as dead as it had been before. If not more so. A couple lights were on in the small town, but that was it. As he passed the road heading toward his place, he remembered where Sammy had said she’d been, at her friend’s house. He wondered if a small shopping center was up ahead, but it was mostly just three or four stores, and, with all the businesses closed right now, he saw no sign of any other vehicles. He would have to drive into the major city center. With that, he quickly made a U-turn and headed out.
He could make it back again in an hour, as long as he booked it. And now that his vehicle had been spotted, he didn’t have any reason or excuse for being up here and had no cover. So getting another vehicle immediately was really the only option. As he drove, he sent a message to Garret. We shouldn’t stop searching yet.