Page 67 of V-Day
16.
PARRIS’ PLAN WAS TO WORKin a big curve around the base, moving in a southerly direction until far enough south to be out of interest range of the base. Then they would cut across the island directly east, aiming for the coast. There was a bay where they could rendezvous with a Navy vessel which would take them off the island…or to a new operation somewhere else.
Once they left the higher elevations and moved down the mountains to the flatter alluvial plain, the going was much easier and Chloe found she could move faster. She didn’t want to drop where she was and sleep, anymore. The air was richer down here.
Perhaps that was why everyone relaxed.
They were bending in a slow curve, heading east. Chloe could tell because the sun swung from her right to line up behind her. Plus, they were heading downhill.
The trees changed from evergreens and a few hardy kapok and banyans, to mostly kapoks and cypress, all of them tall. The canopy thickened, until they were walking in dense shade all the time. The undergrowth thinned out because there was no direct sunlight. The soil underfoot was dark and loamy, muffling their steps.
Yardley held up his fist and everyone halted.
He came back to Parris. “There’s a road just ahead. Dirt. There are fresh tracks.”
Parris nodded. “We’ll bunch up to cross over.” She waved and the others moving closer with soft patters of feet.
Then a branch cracked, somewhere deeper in the trees.
Chloe’s heart rocketed skyward. Everyone was here. Everyone was accounted for. Chloe was the only one in the group who couldn’t move silently. It was someone else sneaking through the trees.
Who else would need to sneak around but Insurrectos? Civilian Vistarians would just use the road.
Parris didn’t hesitate. She waved her finger in a big circle and her team spread out, heading in a dozen different directions.
Cristián, too.
Parris pushed Chloe toward the nearest tree, a huge kapok with chest high gnarled old roots. She pushed down on Chloe’s shoulder, to make her squat between the roots. Chloe would be hidden from anyone unless they walked right up to the base of the tree.
Parris disappeared.
From the same direction as the cracking branch came more sounds. Soft steps. Murmured words. Then, farther away, similar sounds.
How many of them were there? Had they really followed Parris and her team from the base? Where else would Insurrectos come from, this far north? Every other rebel was in the city, Parris said, defending against the combined armies of the Loyalists, America and Mexico.
Chloe pressed her fingers to her temples to halt the flow of panicky ideas.Think!
Parris had shoved Chloe here because she was too tired and couldn’t move silently through the trees. Conclusion: She was a liability.
More than one Insurrecto moved through the trees. Perhaps many of them. Parris had spread her men out not to fight them, but to see if the Insurrectos would pass through them and not spot them.
The Insurrectos had continued to search for them, even though they had moved far away from the base. Their relentlessness was new, Parris had said. Conclusion: they were determined to find Parris and her team.
Something must be done to divert the Insurrectos, to distract them.
Before she fully considered the wisdom of it, Chloe lurched to her feet. There was no one in sight. The forest looked empty.
Chloe headed for the road Yardley had spotted. It was a narrow track winding through the trees. Dirt, as he had said. The dirt was packed down from lots of traffic. It was a well-used road.
Chloe turned north, the direction from where the cracking branch and shuffled bootsteps had come from. She headed up the road at a leisurely walk. She didn’t look around to see if she could spot anyone. Her heart was in overdrive and it was hard to hear anything for the thudding in her brain.
The track was nothing close to straight. There were too many big root systems to go around. It was a relief to be able to walk without having to watch her step, though. Chloe rounded a sharp curve and came to a halt.
There were two Insurrectos conferring in the middle of the track, their heads close together.
Chloe gave them five seconds, then turned and walked back the way she had come, picking up her pace a little.
“Halt!” one of them yelled in Spanish.
