Page 107 of Over the Edge

“Our armed dude is leaving building twelve,” Trevor said tersely.

She whipped her binoculars over to the corner of the compound, and picked up the guard. He didn’t look disheveled or sweaty as if he’d been walloping on someone. She checked her watch. “Thirty-three minutes. Long time to spend in there. An armory, maybe? Or a storehouse?”

“Maybe. Except he didn’t carry anything out.”

They settled into silence as dusk fell and kerosene lamps went on in windows below their position. An electric generator, as loud as a dirt bike without a muffler, ran beside building number five, confirming its status as some sort of central gathering place.

“Time?” Trevor murmured a while later.

“Eight twenty p.m. local.”

“Compound seems to be settling in for the night,” he observed.

“Ready to head out?” she breathed.

He answered, “Let’s wait till the lights go out. We’ll be able to move much more quickly without illumination to deal with.”

She settled into the patient, almost zen, waiting state she’d learned over the past year.

Nearly an hour passed and the lights were starting to blink out when she spotted a shadow slipping out of building ten. It was a smallish figure and moving furtively.

“Movement, south side of building ten,” she murmured.

Trevor stared hard in his binoculars and pulled the NOD’s down over his eyes to take a better look. “Teenage boy. Maybe thirteen or fourteen by the looks of him.”

“What do teen boys sneak around doing in this part of the world?” she asked.

“Sneak around with teen girls?”

“Not likely. The girl would be killed if caught.”

“Sneak around with a cute goat?” Trevor suggested lightly.

“Gross.” Then she exclaimed under her breath, “He’s heading into building twelve, too!”

“The mystery of building twelve deepens. Looks like he’s wearing some sort of rucksack.”

“Could there be a drug stash in that building? Maybe folks are going in there to get high?” she suggested.

Trevor shook his head in the negative. “The man from before wasn’t walking stoned when he came out. He strode away from Number Twelve quickly and energetically.”

A full hour passed, and the boy still didn’t emerge from the building.

“Is he sleeping in there?” she murmured.

“Maybe. But we can’t wait much longer to roll,” Trevor fretted. “But I can’t for the life of me figure out what that kid is doing in that building for so long. I don’t want to get down there in the middle of the compound and have him decide to sneak back home. Not to mention, building twelve is the first place I’m planning to look for Ken. We need that kid out of there.”

She responded, “It’ll take us a little while to get down there, regardless. Maybe we’ll catch a break and the kid will go home while we’re moving in. We’ll be in a position to see him until the last few minutes when we get right up close to the compound’s gate.”

“There’s no ‘us’ in who’s going down there—“

She cut him off. “Trevor, you can’t make me stay up here. “

“Yes, I can.”

“How? Short of hamstringing me, you can’t. I’ll ignore any order you try to give because my orders from Cal—who outranks you—are to watch your back and keep you alive. If you knock me out, I’ll wake up and come after you. If you tie me up, I’ll find a sharp rock and saw the ropes off. And you know there are plenty of rocks nearby that would do the job.”

Something akin to panic lit in his eyes, but she barged on. “Wouldn’t it be better for us to be in actual communication and working together instead of me trailing behind you without any ability to take instructions from you or feed you information?”

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