Page 92 of Princess

“Three hours,” he said to let me know how long I’d slept.

I yawned, turned my head, and gave him a pointed stare.“What about you?”I ground out.

His jaw did its rendition of a smile.“Yes, I woke up a few minutes before I woke you.”

I was still tired.I looked around and saw the Warriors were no better off.Yawns and stretches took a few minutes as we gathered ourselves for the next run.The sun would go down within two hours.If we didn’t hit major obstacles, we would be at the shore an hour before nightfall.

The radio crackled.

“This is Mike Two.We’ve got a Sierra in the harbor.”

The radio went silent.

“Mike Two rendezvous in sixty.”

Mike Two was one of several Warriors we left hiding outside the Federation camp to keep an eye out if anything changed.We were en route within five minutes.

We didn’t encounter problems and had an hour of sunlight by the time we located the bay.Besides the water splashing against the shore, it seemed eerily quiet.

“Something isn’t right,” I told King.

“It’s too quiet,” he said.

I looked at a single ship and pulled out binoculars.I scanned the vessel slowly.Uniformed soldiers stood on the deck in key locations.Moving the binoculars back again, I noticed something strange.No movement.

I did it again.

“They’re decoys dressed in Federation uniforms,” I told King and handed him the glasses.

“Fuck.They’re running us sideways.”

“Yep.The crew must have slipped into the water and made it to shore.I need the other paperwork Landan provided from the area.We’ve got to find Barnes.”

King left, then returned with the satchel that Stevens had given me.I pulled out the papers and rifled through them until I came to the one I’d glanced at before.New Orleans had a tunnel system along with catacombs.I myself wouldn’t use the catacombs due to the probability of hellhounds, but the Federation was collecting the hounds, and the catacombs were a maybe.Each tunnel had a name that connected to another document that provided a map of that tunnel or tunnels.

Harvey, Belle Chasse, and the Houma Tunnels were possibilities.There were also service and utility tunnels, others abandoned and unused, and last were the catacombs.I flipped through the papers and handed King the info on three of them.

“Check through these.We’re looking for the most likely tunnel system near here.”

“New Orleans has a tunnel system?”he asked.

“More than one.President Barnes likes underground spaces.I guarantee he’s set up in one of them.”

I examined the maps closely.Houma Tunnel had an asterisk next to it.It was outside New Orleans and too far.

“This group of utility tunnels has promise,” King said a few minutes later.

I was studying the Harvey Tunnel and only half listening.

“Look at this,” King said and placed the map in front of me.

It did have promise, but Barnes wasn’t there.I passed the Harvey Tunnel map to King.A minute later, he grinned.He saw exactly what I saw.It was large enough and perfectly located.

Nokita joined us.

“The figures on the ship are dummies,” he said.

“We came to the same conclusion.President Barnes likes tunnels, and we think we know where he’s at.”

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