Depths of Blue Page 14

  She checked the horizon and grunted in disgust when she realized once again that not much time had passed. If only she had something to do. She really disliked being at loose ends. How did Jak do it, she wondered, all by himself for so long with nothing to do but watch. Obviously she wasn’t cut out for the life of a sniper. With a grimace, Torrin forced herself back to the surveillance.

  The next thirty minutes passed painfully slowly. As soon as the sun was in the remotest vicinity of the area of sky Jak had indicated, she scrambled down the hill. Jak was nowhere to be found. She entertained herself by pacing back and forth in the shallow valley. The enforced inactivity of surveillence had reminded her of how hungry she was. While she was sick and tired of their meager meals of aetanberan meat, to her cramping stomach even that now sounded great. Turning on her heel to stomp the other way, Torrin bit off a scream when she almost collided with Jak.

  “Holy hells!” she hissed. “You just about gave me a heart attack.”

  “You need to pay better attention to your surroundings. I could’ve been a patrol of Orthodoxans for all you know.”

  Torrin rolled her eyes. “Well, how lucky for me that you weren’t.”

  “Yeah, it is lucky.” Jak’s voice heated. “You aren’t taking this very seriously. Those people want to kill us or worse.”

  “I’m being plenty serious, but I can’t keep up the constant vigilance like you can. I’m a merchant, not a soldier. Those days are far behind me.”

  “Just be more careful. And pay attention!” Jak looked at her soberly. “Just because I haven’t seen any sign of patrols doesn’t mean they won’t send one. Did you see anything useful?”

  “They have two men in the booth, but I didn’t see anyone else. A farmer drove by and had his truck searched and his papers checked. If you’re thinking of stealing or hijacking a vehicle to get through there, think again. They’re searching whatever passes to see what they can help themselves to, not just in the interests of being thorough.”

  “I was afraid of that. The other side of the river has a couple of men also. We’re going to need to do more surveillance. I need to see what their shift change looks like.” Jak chewed at his lower lip in thought. “We need at least one shift change, but two would be better to get a decent count of their total numbers. We’re already outnumbered two to one, but they’re Orthodoxans so we still have the upper hand.”

  “So what does that mean for food?” Torrin was very conscious of just how empty her belly was.

  “We can finish up the last of the meat. It’s too dangerous to hunt out here, though. It’s going to be a hungry day.” He contemplated his hands for a few seconds. “We should eat now, I think, then get back to watching.”

  He pulled the very paltry chunk of meat from one of his pockets and unwrapped the leaves from around it. Torrin happily accepted the thin slice that he cut off for her and he helped himself to a small piece. What was left was barely more than a thick slice.

  “At least we have breakfast,” Jak said as he wrapped the meat back up again. He wolfed down his piece in a few bites. Torrin’s slice was long gone by this point. The meat had blunted her hunger a little, but she could still feel where it gnawed at her backbone.

  “Back to it,” he said, wiping his hands on his pants, then started up the hill.

  “Do you want me to go watch the other side, then?” Torrin asked.

  “I’ve seen all I need to over there. We need to see exactly what we’re up against over here.”

  They clambered back up the hill. The shadows had started to lengthen, and clouds moved in front of the setting sun casting them in brilliant hues of orange and pink. They glowed from behind, and Torrin was struck by the contrast between the blue of Haefen’s landscape and the orange flames of the sky. The setting sun glinted off a distant object, and she tapped Jak on the shoulder. He had his rifle trained on the buildings below.

  “What’s that over there?” She pointed off in the direction of the glint. “The sun was shining off something metallic or glass.”

  Jak swung around in the direction Torrin pointed. “Get down, as low as you can!” With his rifle and scope trained away from the buildings, he scanned the landscape. The tip of his tongue protruded from between his teeth. Torrin realized that he was ready to pull that trigger; his entire body vibrated with tension. She flattened herself against the ground.

  “Someone could be out there with a high-powered scope,” Jak said. His voice was distracted, most of his attention on the far hills. “Slide over to my right and pull out the scope from my top jacket pocket. Carefully. I don’t think he’s seen us, but if he’s out here, he’s looking for somebody.”

  Torrin barely breathed as she carefully slid down the hill and around Jak. She slipped a hand into his jacket and pulled out the scope and went to hand it to him. He shook his head slightly without taking his eye from the scope on his rifle.

  “I need you to help me spot. Check out the area where you remember seeing the glint. Also, check on the toll bridge every now and again. The last thing we need is for someone to stumble on us because we’re looking for a sniper that may or may not exist.”

  Torrin swallowed hard as she raised the scope to her eye. The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she felt like she was about to crawl out of her skin. As she perused the far hills, looking for anything that might be a person Jak pulled in his rifle and slid down the hill a couple of meters. He screwed a device onto the end of the gun’s muzzle.

  “What’s that?” she asked, attention on the hills in the distance.

  “Silencer and flash suppressor. I hate to use them since they’ll lessen my effective range, but we can’t let the Orthodoxans down there know we’re here.” He crawled back up the hill and took up his position.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “Nothing yet. The shadows are making it hard to find anyone.” She was getting frustrated, and her own tension was ratcheting up exponentially. By contrast, Jak was entering a more relaxed state.

  He scanned back and forth with the rifle. “Look for shapes that don’t belong. Lucky for us, this guy isn’t too good, or you never would have seen that glint. The setting sun might outline him, so look for that too.”

  She had to strain to hear his murmured instructions. He slowed his breathing and allowed calm to wash over him.

  Once again, she trained her scope where she thought she’d seen the shine of light and considered the terrain, keeping his advice in mind. Every stump and rock looked like an enemy. Her eyes almost slid past one rock formation before she moved back to it. This rock formation had a branch sticking out of it that looked a little too straight to be found in nature. It was deep in the shadows cast by a taller hill.

  “I think I found something,” Torrin said.

  “Talk me over to it,” Jak instructed. “Let me know the major landmarks and then talk me in.”

  “Okay. It’s the shorter hill in front of the tall one with the exposed rock formation at the top that looks like a broken fist. Two-thirds of the way to the left is a stunted sapling.”

  Jak adjusted his aim, following her instructions. “You’re doing great, keep going,” he said in a soothing voice when she paused.

  Torrin knew her instructions were likely to end with someone’s death. She had killed before but always in self-defense or other justified reasons. The other person had always known it was coming. Stalking someone and delivering death before they even knew what was coming didn’t sit well with her.

  She took a deep breath. “Follow the top of the hill from the right of the sapling. There’s a small rock formation there that doesn’t look right.”

  “I see him!” Muted excitement colored Jak’s voice. “He has no idea where we are. He’s actually facing the wrong way, back the way we came.”

  “How do you know he’s looking for us? He could be a local out hunting or something.”

  “Not likely. That’s a military grade sniper rifle. Some farmer out hunting wouldn
’t use a weapon that would blow large holes in his dinner. That and most people don’t wear helmets to go hunting.”

  Torrin watched through the scope with trepidation and heard Jak exhale. She knew what was coming but couldn’t look away. Now that she’d been watching the spot for a while, she could make out the different parts of the man she’d mistaken for a pile of rocks. His head was covered by a helmet with a piece of cloth coming off the back, creating a line to his shoulders. It disguised the silhouette of head and shoulder with some effectiveness. Coming off the front, she made out the long barrel of a high-powered rifle. He was indeed facing the wrong way, but she could tell from the way he moved that he was doing what they just had. He was definitely scanning the area for someone or something.

  A spray of red bloomed on his shoulder. Torrin jerked. The silencer did its work well. She’d barely heard anything. The force of the bullet’s impact rotated the Orthodoxan sniper around to face them. She saw the look of surprise on his face before it disappeared in a mist of crimson. His body collapsed and disappeared behind the far hill.

  “We got him!” Jak’s voice was fierce in triumph.

  Torrin felt nauseated. Her gorge rose, and she had to force it down around a lump in her throat. She knew they had had no choice, but killing in any state other than the heat of the moment didn’t sit well with her. It seemed unfair. She slid a few meters down the hill and lay there looking up at the rapidly darkening sky. This was a fine time to discover a sense of fair play. The stars were coming out, and they twinkled down at her, unconcerned by her moral quandary.

  Jak dropped down beside her. “Are you all right?” he asked. “You did really well. You’re a natural.”

  “I don’t know how I feel about that.” Torrin laughed bitterly.

  “You never killed anyone before?”

  “That’s not it. I’ve just never killed anyone who didn’t know it was coming.” She placed her head in her hands. “It feels a lot different this way.”

  “Does it help to know that if you hadn’t seen the sun off his scope, we would be dead? If not now, then very soon. He would have found us and one or both of us would be gone, with a bullet in the brain.”

  “I know that.” Torrin sighed, frustrated. “If only I could believe it.” She moved down the slope, away from Jak.

  Jak wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to talk to Torrin, to find out why she was so upset, but she also knew they needed to take care of the situation with the bridge. The enemy sniper had been about three kilometers away, close enough to reach. He probably had supplies that would help them survive longer out here. She’d seen precious little in the way of wildlife. This area was more desolate than she was used to in her forests.

  She cleared her throat. Torrin looked up at her, eyes hooded. “You’re not going to like this, but we need to retrieve what we can from the body.”

  “Are you serious?” Torrin’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Won’t that be dangerous? What if he has a partner?”

  “If he had a spotting partner, the guy would’ve been there with him. Another rifle and the supplies he’ll have on him will help our chances of survival.” She slid down next to Torrin. “It’s no easy thing that I’m asking, I know, but I wouldn’t suggest it if it wasn’t important.” She put her hand on Torrin’s shoulder and felt unaccountably wounded when she twitched out of her reach.

  “Well, I’m going,” Jak said, more harshly than she intended. “You can come along or stay here on top of the Orthodoxans.”

  Torrin shot her a dark look. “That’s a low blow. You know I’m not going to stick around where they can stumble over me.”

  “Good, it’s decided then. Time to move out.” She made her way down to the bottom of the hill and started off in the direction of the dead Orthodoxan. After a few moments she heard Torrin following her. She suppressed a smile; Torrin still had no idea how to move quietly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Their journey to the dead sniper was uneventful and quiet. Torrin refused to engage with her and Jak was no good at drawing people out. She hadn’t been good at engaging others before her brother died. After two years of self-imposed solitude, she was even worse at it. It wasn’t long before she decided it was too much work and stopped trying to talk to Torrin. Whatever crisis she was in the middle of, she’d made it clear it was one she would weather on her own. Jak just had to leave her to it.

  Jak cast her mind back to her first human kill. For years she’d been hunting and was no stranger to dealing death, but it was different when it was a person, even an Orthodoxan. Though she’d known the other soldier would have happily killed her, it had been difficult to reconcile taking a human life. Her first time had been much like today’s kill, at an uncomfortable remove through the scope. When she’d made the kill, Bron had been so excited. The only way he would have been happier was if he’d pulled the trigger himself. Back then, it had been clear that he was the better spotter and she the better sniper, but he’d definitely preferred taking his own shots. It had taken most of their first year before he’d stopped demanding his fair share of time on the trigger. In fact, he hadn’t been convinced until she’d almost gotten them both killed because she’d been so focused on their target that she missed the enemy patrol that had passed within three meters of them. After that, he’d understood that his part was to keep them both alive to get the job done.

  In her mind’s eye she could still see the hapless soldier’s head as it exploded in a fountain of blood. She’d wanted to cry, but in the face of Bron’s enthusiasm and their instructor’s approval she hadn’t been able to do anything except grin and try to ape her brother’s excitement. When they’d gone back to camp, she’d cried herself to sleep and sworn that she would never kill a human being again. At the first opportunity, she’d planned to slip away from camp in the night and live out her life deep in the woods where no one would find her.

  Two days later an enemy sniper had gotten their instructor, and she never cried over an Orthodoxan again. She threw herself into their training and concentrated on getting the Orthodoxans before they could get her people.

  It had been years since she’d thought of her early days as a sniper. The idealistic, naive girl who’d joined up was gone. She and Bron might have joined up because they had no other options, but she’d believed in what they were doing. As the shine wore off, she’d gained a grim satisfaction in being the best at her job. That satisfaction had hardened into a single-minded resolve for revenge that had glowed white-hot in her mind since the day Bron had taken a bullet through the throat. The appearance of Torrin in her life threatened to shatter that resolve. She should be strong enough to move past the irresistible pull she felt for the woman, but no matter how hard she resisted, she could feel Torrin setting up camp in her head. The longer it went on, the less energy she had to fight it, the more natural it felt. She felt equal parts hope and terror over Torrin’s unexpected reaction to the death of the enemy sniper. Hope that Torrin might decide that Jak was too horrible to deal with and leave. Terror that Torrin might do exactly that.

  “Stop it,” Jak growled.

  “What was that?” Torrin asked.

  Shit, had she said that out loud? “Uh, nothing. Trying to figure out where we are, that’s all.” She scowled and hoped that her excuse didn’t sound as hollow to Torrin’s ears as it had to her own.

  Night had fallen and the clouds that had provided such a spectacular sunset now blocked out the moon and stars. She’d already had to engage her night vision. Torrin kept up pretty well, but Jak had to slow occasionally to let her catch up.

  “We aren’t far, I think.” She looked around. The hill with the broken fist was right in front of them, and it was all she could do to make out the sapling at the hill’s crest. “Up there.” She pointed and Torrin gave her a look. “That’s right, you probably can’t see that far. Sorry. If you want to stay here, that’s okay. I can get what we need on my own.”

  “That would be okay.” Torrin sat down
quickly with a sigh of relief.

  Jak climbed the hill, angling toward the back where she’d seen the man disappear after he went down. He laid in a crumpled heap a third of the way down the hill. She made her way over to his still form and flipped him onto his back. The upper third of his face was gone, exposing the sinuses and brain. Insects already crawled in and out of his wounds.

  Exhaling heavily to clear the stench of death from her nostrils, she pulled a data cord from her pocket and plugged one end into the jack on her hand. She pulled open the collar of his shirt and exposed the top of his chest. Digging around, she located the dataport set into his right collarbone. Her people had their input devices in their hands, but they were accustomed to sharing information. The placement of the Orthodoxan jacks seemed designed to discourage sharing. It was fortunate that her first shot had hit him in the other shoulder. If she’d hit him in this shoulder, his collarbone and port would have been gone.

  “I hate this shit,” she muttered as she plugged herself into his system. It was the only way to retrieve his orders, but rummaging through a dead man’s data was extremely disorienting. There was no way to access the thoughts or feelings he’d had while alive. If he’d still been alive, the neural activity along his nerves would have allowed him to prevent external access to whatever data packages he’d uploaded. Now that he was dead, the information was ripe for accession. Everyone stored their internal data a little differently, so it took her a little bit to find his last set of orders. Her heart sank as she scanned them. He’d been sent out after them specifically. The Orthodoxans had at least some inkling that they may have headed out this way. The orders didn’t note an exact location for them, however, so it was possible they’d sent out as many men as possible to cover all likely routes. She hoped that was the case; it would give them a fighting chance.