Page 82 of Mongrels United
“Nash!”
“Go!” he cried. “I’ll be right behind you, but you’ll be faster.”
“Don’t let him out of your sight,” Jack murmured in Grady’s ear, through the tiny transceiver nestled just inside. “I got him in the arm. He’ll leave a blood trail. Follow that, if you do lose sight of him.”
“You can come out now, can’t you?” Grady said, breaking into a run.
“Not until we’ve got the lab pegged and we know the location of each bad guy. You need to look like you’re on your own for a bit,” Jack said. “Go. I’ve got you covered, and Radomil is moving ahead of you to get in place. We’ll leapfrog around you, but you won’t know we’re here.”
Grady nodded as she ran. She hadn’t spotted a single sign of them on the way in. Jack and the others had been in the forest since late last night, hiding and waiting for Nash and Grady to draw the lab people out. Nash’s return would alarm them, and Grady with him would double their alarm. They would be unable to resist trying to deal with Nash a second time, and get Grady out of the way, too. And that had made them careless.
The man ahead of her was thundering through the undergrowth, cracking twigs and making branches hiss as he brushed by them. He was breathing heavily, too.
Grady ran as silently as she could, trying to keep the man in sight. He kept dodging and changing directions. He’d heard Nash’s shout, and it had prodded him into his accelerated flight through the trees. He was outdistancing Grady, and she gave up trying to be silent and just concentrated on speed and not tripping over branches, while also keeping the man somewhere ahead of her.
She could barely glimpse him through the trunks of big trees and the foliage of smaller ones. Dappled sunlight cast funny shadows, that made her start with surprise when she glimpsed them from the corner of her eye.
When she lost sight of him, Grady cast her gaze to the ground, looking for the blood drops. They were hard to see, but when she spotted one, she now knew what to look for. She could hear him far ahead of her. Doggedly, she kept on, from one blood drop to the next. A soaked leaf here, a branch dripping red there. A large splotch on a tree trunk which Grady guessed was where the man had rested his hand to push his way along.
Silence.
Grady halted and froze, her heart screaming. Where had he gone? Why wasn’t he making a sound? Had he found somewhere ahead to lie in wait for her?
She crept along, her pulse heavy in her ears, making it hard to hear. If he was waiting for her, if he intended to leap out at her when she stepped into his view, she would lose. She had overcome one man by using surprise. She would never hold her own against one who was ready for her, even injured.
“We’re in place, Grady,” Jack said in her ear. “Go ahead. I’ve got eyes on you. Follow the trail.”
Grady wanted to nod but didn’t dare. She had to look like she was on her own, casting about helplessly.
She moved ahead, looking for the next splotch of crimson. They were easier to spot, now, because they were larger. He was bleeding more.
Grady picked up her speed, moving from spot to spot, until she emerged into a clearing that was so small, she could reach across it by spreading her hands. It was a blank, deeply shaded patch of bald earth, scattered with the same moldy leaves and twigs and old nuts.
Another blood spot was just ahead of her foot. Grady bent to look at it. “Can you see me?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Jack said. “You’re in my sights.”
That should have been an alarming statement, but it was vastly reassuring. Grady examined the blood. There was something wrong with the spot. She stood back, considering it from a more distant viewpoint.
Then she saw what was wrong with it. A short edge of the blood splotch cut off in a neat straight line.
Blood didn’t pool in straight lines.
Grady crept closer to look at it once more. She crouched, rested her hands on the dried leaves andreallylooked at it.
That was how she spotted the line running on either side of the blood spot. They’d worked to disguise the straight line. Dirt and leaves had been adhered to rest over it. Perhaps even individual clumps and grains of sand, and other matter.
The man she had followed had come into the clearing bleeding heavily and a drop had landed on the ground when the door had been open. Part of that drop had fallen inside. With the door closed, the blood appeared to have a straight edge.
Now she’d spotted the line, she could trace it with her gaze, picking up hints of it in the dirt. She moved along the line. Found a corner.
From nearby, she heard heavy steps and froze.
“It’s Nash,” Jack said softly.
Grady relaxed. “Um…guys?” She said it very softly. “I found the lab.”
“Where?” Jack said.
