Page 35 of Atone in Darkness
Lonzo shook his head. “A lab and some damn prison cells. They’re in pristine shape, so it’s impossible to know if they’ve ever been used or if they cleaned up really well afterward.”
Eli really—really—wanted to get his hands onTyson’s former employer. “The cell on this side at least used to have an occupant. It’s impossible to know at this point if it was Chase, but Doc took sample swabs from places he might have touched.”
No one looked happy, but it was all they had to work with.
“What exactly happened here?”
That came from Jake, who was looking to Jarvis for direction. The Paladin leader gave it a few seconds.“They didn’t just cut bait.”
He glanced at Tyson before continuing. “This looks more like a scorched-earth policy. Maybe whoever came in to clean house managed to convince everyone that it was a normal evacuation, but maybe not. While it’s still daylight outside, let’s go look around for any signs that someone got away. We know Chase was already in the process of trying to escape when he contactedus. Maybe he got away, and all of this”—he paused to wave his hand around the surrounding area—“is what this black-ops group did in response.”
It felt good to be back outside. They filed out through the gate and split up into three groups. One followed the outside perimeter of the fence that surrounded the installation. Another took the left side of the road leading away from the gate, whilethe other took the right.
Eli made himself walk past the burned-out hulk of the busses, ignoring the toxic smell as best he could. Instead, he concentrated on the rocky soil and looked for any sign that someone had made it away from the place alive.
There. Down in the ditch he spotted a footprint. No, there were two. One looked to be about the right length for a man Chase’s size. Right nextto it was a much smaller one. He knelt to study the pair up close. Once he did, he could see another set closer to the trees that sat a few feet back from the road.
After snapping a picture, he whistled. “I’ve found something.”
The others came running. Once they were all there, he pointed at the ground. “Two people walked through this ditch into the woods. It looks like a man about my size,which would match the description you gave me of Chase. The other one looks like it belongs to a woman, maybe the scientist Tyson mentioned.”
Each member of the team stooped to study the prints. After they’d all taken a careful look, Eli pointed toward the trees. “I didn’t go that far, but it looks as if the prints lead into the underbrush right there.”
Lonzo did the honors, carefully skirtingthe few prints they could see. He disappeared into the trees for a few seconds. “They definitely kept going. Before we grab the gear, let’s finish looking for other prints. I don’t want to miss anything before we leave this site. I also want to boot up the computer to get a look at the map and satellite photos of this area. We need to know what kind of terrain we’ll be heading into.”
It didn’ttake long. Larem found another set of footprints heading roughly in the same direction, while DJ followed another trail off to the other side of the road. He came back looking pretty unhappy.
When Jarvis asked him what he’d found, DJ grimaced. “The trail went about a hundred feet into the trees before they stopped. The tree next to the trail has a row of bullet holes at about chest height, andthere were drag marks back toward the road.”
“Okay, then. I’ll update Devlin on what we’ve found. While I do that, get loaded up. We’ll be heading across country as soon as I get done.”
Eli hung back with Tyson while the others got busy and asked, “You doing okay?”
“Yeah.” Then Tyson drew a deep breath and sighed. “Actually, no, I’m not. I want to line up the bastards who did this and givethem a dose of their own medicine. I don’t know who died here, but no one deserved this.”
“You’re right, they didn’t.”
He couldn’t imagine what this kind of betrayal would do to a man, especially one who took things like honor and duty seriously. He risked putting a hand on Tyson’s shoulder. “We won’t stop hunting until we find who did this and who gave the order. I can promise you that much.”
Tyson shrugged off Eli’s hand, but he didn’t step away. He stared out into the distance, his mouth an angry slash. When he spoke, his words were chips of ice. “And when we do, there will be one helluva reckoning. I want to be there.”
Eli met his hard gaze head-on. “Me, too.”
Fifteen minutes later, they left the road behind, and the real hunt began.
