Page 78 of Over the Edge

Trevor passed behind her, touching her shoulder to indicate that he was taking over point. She fell in behind him as he moved to the next cover, a man-high block of limestone that had calved off the rock face above.

It took them nearly a half-hour to move ninety degrees around the compound and approach it from the same direction the first Reaper team would have.

They passed a small hollow behind a boulder, and Anna spied a bit of white paper packaging fluttering in the wind, caught between two rocks. She bent down to pick it up.

Gauze Pad, Sterilewas printed in block letters.

This must be where a field medic had paused to patch up the injury of someone that night. Jojo maybe? He’d been caught in one of the buildings when it collapsed and had crawled out from under the rubble, dazed and bleeding but not critically injured.

She could almost hear bullets flying, explosions booming, screams and shouts, an Apache attack helicopter thwocking in and opening up with its chain gun. It would have been chaos.

Trevor moved out and she followed, watching her footing in the loose gravel. There was no more cover between them and the compound, and Trevor didn’t stop gliding forward until they stood in the lee of the compound wall itself, next to a ragged, door-sized hole. This must be where Leo’s breaching team had opened up the wall for the other SEALs to gain entrance to the compound.

It was eerie retracing the steps of her comrades, two of whom hadn’t come home from this place.

Trevor slipped through the hole and paused inside and to the right. She mimicked him, except she slid left. The concrete at her back was cold as she scanned the rubble and open spaces of the compound’s interior for any sings of life.

Again, nothing.

Where was everyone? She got that the people would have left this area, but where were the animals?

Over the next hour, they cleared each building. It was slow, tense work that demanded the utmost in patience and caution. The structures were unstable, and a single slip could send the remaining walls and upper stories down on their heads. They worked far enough apart so that, if one of them caught got in a rock fall, the other would stay alive to dig them out.

She couldn’t believe Trevor had thought it was a good idea to do this mission by himself. It was crazy dangerous for two operators, let alone one.

At long last, Trevor circled back to the least damaged building. It had once been a single-story barn. The roof was long gone, but the west and north concrete walls were still intact and provided a windbreak from the gale blowing down the valley.

A few tiny, icy snowflakes started to ride the storm winds, stinging her cheeks when they hit.

Trevor squatted next to the stable wall, leaning back against it to take the weight of his pack off his shoulders. She followed suit.

He murmured, “Let’s shelter here, overnight. We can hike back to the Range Rover in the morning and drive further up the valley. Next permanent human settlement is about fifteen klicks north of here.”

She nodded and helped him pound stakes into the hard-packed dirt. They erected their low, arched rib tent. It was too windy for a fire, so they crawled inside to build up body heat and eat.

Trevor cracked a cyalume stick and its yellow glow illuminated their shelter.

Now she understood why Cal had included a down sleeping bag in her gear. Her breath fogged as she leaned back against her pack to down a power bar, which delivered about a thousand calories of fat and protein. It was like chewing sawdust, though, and she downed a bottle of water along with the bar.

“Wanna set a watch rotation?” she asked.

“No reason to. There’s not a living thing to be found anywhere near here.”

“Why is that?”

He shrugged. “My guess is Haddad poisoned the water supply on his way out of this place.”

“That’s downright unfriendly of him.”

“He’s a scorched earth sort of guy. Don’t forget that if we get into a confrontation with him,” Trevor instructed. “He won’t hesitate to kill you. Don’t hesitate to kill him.”

“Have I not proven my ability to pull the trigger when necessary?” she demanded.

“I suppose you have.”

She checked her watch. A little after two a.m. local time.

Trevor said carefully, “I am grateful you’re here.”

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