Page 43 of Zero Visibility

Ben snatched him up. “You’re coming with us.”

The man struggled to free himself. “Are you crazy? I’m hurt. I need help.”

Ben worked quickly to tie off the man’s leg above the wound. “There. That will keep you alive until we get someplace safe.”

“Get their weapons and disable their phones.” Ben destroyed the injured man’s phone, then grabbed his weapon and hauled him over to the Jeep.

Lincoln and Garrett quickly disabled the two deceased men’s phone and took their weapons before following Ben.

“Jen, get in the back with Lincoln and Garrett.” He assisted the wounded man into the Jeep and handcuffed his hands to the glove box handle. “Don’t try anything foolish or you’ll be as dead as your friends back there.”

Climbing behind the wheel, he fired the engine and peeled out, driving the short distance to their turnoff. Ben pushed the vehicle to its limit while Jen clung to the grab handle to keep from being tossed around despite the seatbelt.

The SUV ate up the miles while Ben kept a careful watch behind them in the rearview mirror. “If they notified others, then they’ll be trying to track us. Lincoln, you have the cloaking software app on your phone, correct?”

“I do. Let’s see if we can install it on the Jeep.” He reached over and connected the phone to the vehicle’s entertainment system and uploaded the software. The app appeared on the entertainment screen. “Looks like it’s working.”

A relieved sigh slipped from Ben’s lips. “Still, we have to stay off the beaten path as much as possible in case we should stumble upon some more of Legion’s men, which means we need to get off this road now.”

“Hang on a second.” Garrett searched for another route. “Got it. There’s another road coming up on the left. It’ll dead-end after a little while and there’s a sign that announces that before the road begins. If you take that, it will put us within a couple of miles of the hunting cabin.” Garrett paused for a moment. Ben noticed him enlarging the screen on his phone. “We’ll have to go cross country from there and get through a fence. It’ll be rough, but at least the way is mostly level.”

Ben nodded and tried to push aside his worried thoughts. If Legion did come this way, he hoped they wouldn’t notice the tire tracks turning off the county road they were on.

He spotted the road in question and stopped. The dead-end sign was mostly obscured by tree branches. “We should clear that out, so the sign is visible. They might believe we chose a different route.”

The man beside him scoffed. Ben ignored him.

“Roger that.” Garrett got out with Lincoln and shoved the branches from the sign.

Once they returned to the vehicle, Ben crept onto the road that was shaded with trees. Potholes confirmed the place rarely received maintenance.

“You’ll never get away. They know who you all are. Everyone is searching for you traitors.” A satisfied look covered their prisoner’s face.

“Keep quiet. How far up before we reach the end of the road?” Ben asked while he mulled the man’s words. There was little doubt in Ben’s mind this man believed they were all traitors, which seemed to indicate he and probably the rest of his comrades weren’t part of Legion’s elite circle of confidants.

Garrett checked his phone. “About another mile.”

Ben did his best to dodge the holes in the road, but in places they stretched entirely across it.

“Looks like we’re here now.” Ben reached the dead-end sign and stopped. He stared out the windshield to the right. An old fence barely stood erect from far too many Idaho winters.

“We should be able to push through the fence easily enough. Once we’re on the other side, I’ll see if I can put it back in place just in case,” Garrett said.

Ben understood what Garrett was trying to do, but if Legion’s men did come this way, there would be no way to hide the path they’d taken.

He eased from the road and up to the fence. Placing the bumper guard against the smooth wire fence, he punched the gas. The fence lay down in front of them. Once he’d driven through, Garrett and Lincoln did their best to repair the damage.

“It should hold,” Lincoln told them.

Ben drove across the rough terrain for a while until they reached a heavily wooded area. “We can’t get the Jeep through there. We’ll have to leave it. The good news is, we shouldn’t be too far from the cabin.”

He found a good spot to hide the Jeep out of sight and got out. Ben uncuffed their hostage and helped him out of the Jeep.

“We’ve got him.” Lincoln grabbed one of the man’s arms while Garrett took the other.

“Are you ready?” he asked his wife. All he could think about was how she’d be forced to endure another treacherous hike.

“I’ll be okay,” she said. “Despite being shot, I’m healthy.” Another beat passed while he stared at her pretty face and wished so many things were different. “Come on.”

---