Page 36 of Trusted Instinct
Just go do your job and come home safe,chérie.
Which was the same sentiment Creed’s mamma said to him. He had aged his mamma with worry while he was deployed. She was married to a man damaged by war. Of course, she knew what could happen to her son.
Now he felt that darkness himself, and he was sorry for what he’d put his mother through. He wouldn’t have changed his choices—not that he’d change Auralia’s decisions—but he did have a newfound sympathy.
Creed had seen that Auralia had parked at the very front of the parking lot area, nose out. It was Auralia’s mentor, Remi, along with the others in her WOMBAT sisterhood—women who worked in dangerous jobs in deadly areas—who made sure Auralia always positioned herself for success and safety. And when he saw Remi’s experience put into play by Auralia, he was always grateful.
Creed followed their progress with his monocular.
Auralia and Doli were side by side with the men.
The daughter was falling behind. The wife was doubling over to catch her breath. One of the suits turned back, grabbed her hand, and dragged her forward. Based on the guy’s height, Creed thought that was Representative Braxton. Had to be. Morrison was out front. And Mayor Early was beginning to struggle, falling back toward the daughter, Brandy.
As people in the woods saw the politicians race away, they began to run in the same direction.
If they stopped and thought about it, the target was probably one of those guys. If the sniper was repositioning for a second shot, the crowd would be running toward his rifle scope.
Auralia and Doli were rounding toward the car. They merely needed to pull the steering wheel to the left, head up the dirt road, and they’d be out on the rural highway, good and gone.
Creed swung his monocular around to get a visual on his teammates' positions. He wished someone would pull the plug on the speaker system with all its noise. It jangled the nerves, and calm was the best thing for these people.
As he thought that, he spotted Gator scrounging around by the stage.
A moment later, the silence was as startling as the screeches had been.
The air, void of sound, held its own kind of danger, like the inhale before a scream in a horror film.
A sudden boom of thunder was the jump-scare that dragged shrieks from people’s throats.
The low rumble stretched menacingly across the blue sky.
Back to the west, there was a wall of sooty swells that rolled past the horizon like a wave across ocean waters.
Nerves were taut.
The air became thick with humidity.
There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of hundreds of terrified people rose like a plague of locusts thatswarmed toward the parking lot, looking for a way out of the holler.
Chapter Ten
Auralia
Stick around for a sniper?
Maybe. That calculus depended on the situation.
Doli was filming and obviously had no intention of moving.
Sometimes, Auralia wondered if there was a part of Doli’s survival brain that was underdeveloped. The weapons of war never intimidated Doli. Drone, RPG, bullet strafe, they were nothing to her. She’d stand out in the middle of a hailstorm of falling debris and incoming shrapnel without the slightest flinch, not asoupçonof inquietude.
It was eerie.
People might watch Doli and call her a fool. But, honestly, in the places where they were reporting, it was always luck of the draw who survived and who didn’t.
Doli said she walked through the rain the same way she did rifle strafe. She sensed the movement and made sure she flowed in the open spaces.
Auralia had her talents. Walking through live fire wasn’t one of them.
