Spy High (16 page)

Unless I turned out to be such a
disappointment in bed that he didn’t want anything more to do with
me…

I sighed and turned up the collar of my
jacket against the chilly breeze that always seemed to spring up
around twilight.

I probably couldn’t just lie there like
a blow-up doll. If he was any good at all, my body would give me
away. A hot tingle from my perfidious body reminded me exactly how
good his lips had felt.

Nope, ‘unresponsive’ wasn’t going to
work.

I sliced off some more wood
shavings.

Okay, ignore ‘how’ for now and
concentrate on ‘where’.

Where could I place the tracing device
so it would stay on him at all times? Sticking it onto an article
of clothing would only work as long as he didn’t change clothes. If
I stuck it to his wristwatch he might notice it. The device was
tiny but not invisible, and wristwatches tended to get looked at a
lot.

I whittled the end of my stick into a
point, then rounded it off, squinting in the fading daylight.

What did he take everywhere with him,
but wouldn’t examine too closely?

I carved a notch in the stick, rounding
it into a bead before beginning another notch farther down the
stick while I pondered.

Then I bolted upright, stifling a
triumphant cry. Wooden beads. Of course. He never let the Earth
Spirit’s bracelet leave his wrist.

My shoulders slumped as the corollary
occurred to me. He never let the Earth Spirit’s bracelet leave his
wrist. So how the hell could I plant the transmitter on it?

I considered and discarded several
other ideas including slipping the transmitter into a sandwich and
letting him eat it, but that seemed unnecessarily risky. Who knew
if the electronics could withstand stomach acid? And it would be
bad if he bit down on it, or if it poisoned him.

And it would only work for a day or
two. After that I’d be monitoring the latrine. A grin sneaked onto
my lips. This too shall pass…

I sobered. No; the bracelet was still
the best option I had so far.

Hauling myself to my feet with a sigh,
I straightened my aching back slowly after my long immobility in
the damp chill. First I’d look at the actual transmitter and see if
I got any brilliant ideas. I couldn’t tag him tonight anyway; it
would be too late by the time I finished up and got back to my
tent.

Another damn late night.

I stretched and rubbed my cold damp
butt before hunkering down again. Three hours to kill, and then I’d
make my move. Until then, this was the best place for me. I didn’t
want to encounter Orion until I’d decided whether to seduce him,
and as long as Moonbeam and Karma stayed in their tent I’d guard
them. Hard on my body, but easier on my nerves.

By the time ten P.M. rolled around, the
moon was nowhere to be seen under thick cloud cover and my
imagination had conjured so many cougars from the quiet sounds of
the pitch-black forest that it had taken all the self-control I
possessed to keep from fleeing pell-mell to the warm glow of
Moonbeam and Karma’s tent. Shivering, I coaxed my knees to unlock
from their bent position.

I stuffed my icy fingers into my
armpits for a few moments of warmth before withdrawing my little
LED flashlight from my waist pouch. Time to pick up my
equipment.

A quick flash of my light on the ground
ahead; a couple of steps; wait; listen. Then do it again. And
again. Moving with agonizing slowness, I worked my way around the
encampment, freezing every time I heard a voice.

At last I made it to the road but the
darkness was so profound my tiny light barely reached beyond my
feet. I sighed and rotated my shoulders, trying to release the
knots of cold and tension. I didn’t dare leave my light on. A few
small flashes of light might be dismissed as fireflies, but I
didn’t want curious eyes tracking a moving light source down the
road.

When I thought I might be getting close
to my cache at last, I dared to shine my light more frequently.

Nothing looked familiar in the
blackness. Where the hell was my jutting rock? Had I passed it? How
much farther should I walk before doubling back to try again?

But distances always seemed farther in
the dark. I probably wasn’t there yet.

Shit, why didn’t I at least have a
phone with a GPS? I could have just memorized the coordinates this
afternoon and then walked directly back…

Stealthy rustling made me whirl to peer
blindly behind me, my heart pounding, my tiny light devoured by the
night. Resting my hand on my knife hilt, I clenched my teeth and
walked on. Why the hell hadn’t I taken my shoulder holster out of
the box before I stowed it? I didn’t dare carry my gun drawn in
case someone with night vision was watching me…

Okay, I really wished I hadn’t thought
of that. Now my back crawled with the expectation of bullets as
well as teeth and claws.

Abandoning caution, I kept my light on,
its feeble glow barely illuminating the roadside.

Shit, what if its light didn’t reach
the rock? Was I doomed to shuffle along this godforsaken road until
dawn?

I was about to turn back and try
another pass when my light slid over the welcome contours of the
rock at last. Gulping down a sob of relief, I took my twenty paces
and dropped to my knees beside the fallen log.

My jaw cracked with the release of
strained muscles when I opened my mouth to grip my flashlight
between my teeth. After a quick re-reading of Spider’s
instructions, I selected the thermographic/night vision headset and
secured it around my head.

The details of the forest sprang into
visibility and relief turned my knees to jelly. I slumped down to
sit trembling on the log despite its icy wetness. Thank God, at
last a respite from the horrible sense of blind helplessness.

Flipping the headset switch, I briefly
altered the view to thermal-only and drew my first full breath in
what seemed like days. No large heat sources prowling in my
vicinity. Thank God.

Switching back to night vision, I
leaned my elbows on my knees and let my head hang, easing out my
tension in long shaky breaths.

When my heart finally eased its
pounding, I drew a few more slow calming breaths before scanning
around me one more time. The forest remained reassuringly
unpopulated, and I repacked the box and tucked it under my arm
before stepping out to the edge of the road.

My return trip seemed ridiculously
short by comparison, the headset showing everything so clearly I
felt as though I was walking in murky green-tinted daylight. I
flipped occasionally to full-thermal mode, scanning around me and
in the direction of Skidmark’s bench, but no warm bodies showed
themselves.

Inside the commune the occupied tents
glowed in my viewer, and I circled confidently around the
encampment to approach Orion’s and my tents from behind. Both were
cold and dark, and I stopped several yards away and lowered the box
to the ground to stand thinking.

Where the hell could I stash the box? I
hadn’t considered the difficulty of creating a concealed cache
until now.

If I was out in the middle of the woods
I could simply dig a hole, drag a log over it, and walk away. But
people wandered everywhere in the commune, not necessarily sticking
to the paths. And with no corporate rat-race to preoccupy their
minds, they tended to be observant. I’d be hooped if someone
noticed disturbed vegetation and started investigating.

Hands on hips, I scowled around me.
Rocks, trees, moss, and ferns.

Shit.

Okay, I could either put it so far away
that nobody was likely to stumble on it, or keep it so close that
nobody would invade my privacy.

Leaving it far away was just asking for
trouble. If I needed this stuff, I was likely to need it in a
hurry.

It would have been nice to bury it
inside my tent, but the raised wooden floor prevented that.

Double-shit.

I paced in widening circles, searching
for a place where I could easily conceal the signs of my
digging.

No good options presented themselves,
and I swore quietly. The fallen logs were either too big to move or
too small to hide a hole. The open areas would show footprints and
freshly-disturbed dirt, and the mossy areas would reveal the
disturbance in a few days when the moss died after being
uprooted.

Dammit.

I zigzagged back and forth all the way
to the edge of the pond without finding an appropriate spot for a
cache. The frogs fell silent as I approached and I trudged over to
stand staring out over the dark water. After a few minutes of deep
and futile thought I sighed and sank down on my favourite rock by
the water’s edge, clutching the box with mounting anxiety.

What the hell was I going to do? If I
got caught with this stuff, my cover would be completely blown. If
Orion caught me with it there was a good chance I wouldn’t survive
the encounter, and if anybody else saw it I’d be in deep shit for
revealing classified technology.

A silvery vee disturbed the surface of
the water, and the enhanced vision of my headset revealed a beaver
gliding through the water on some nocturnal errand.

I sighed, the peaceful scene doing
nothing to soothe my tension. Where could I…

Wait a minute.

The box was fully waterproof.

I scrambled down from the rock, my
heart pounding with hope. Hurrying back the way I’d come, I flipped
to thermal vision momentarily and drew a breath of relief when no
heat signature showed in Orion’s tent.

Thank you, technology.

Inside my own tent, I took the webcam
and tracking system out of the box and tucked them into one of the
big flap pockets of my jacket, then frowned at the rest of the
gear. What else would I need?

More to the point, what could I keep
hidden on my body at all times?

A couple more secured phones went into
my pocket. Then I closed the box, making sure the lid was firmly
seated on its rubber gasket, and exchanged my hiking boots for
high-topped rubber ones before plodding back to the pond. After
only a few minutes of searching I discovered the perfect hiding
place: a fallen tree beside an overhanging rock.

Cringing at the icy contact of the
water and the instinctive fear of putting my hands in a dark
recess, I fought the buoyancy of the plastic box, forcing it down
and under the rock and tree.

When I was sure it was firmly wedged, I
rose and surveyed my hiding place. It seemed completely hidden now,
but I was viewing it in the dark with night vision. Who knew what
would be visible in broad daylight?

Still, it was the best I could do. And
other people rarely came here. There was a much nicer view of the
river on the other side of the commune.

I let out a breath and glanced at my
watch. Ten minutes to midnight. Finally my day was done. I moved
cautiously back toward my tent, trying not to step on any twigs and
scanning frequently for heat signatures as I drew nearer. After all
my caution, it would really suck if Orion caught me walking around
wearing my night-vision headset.

There was no sign of him, though, and
his tent was cold and dark.

Made it. Home free.

I ducked into my tent and had just
removed my boots when a sudden thought made me straighten with
alarm.

Orion was gone and it was the middle of
the night. Where was he, and what was he doing?

Maybe he was sharing someone else’s
bed.

Or maybe he had night vision equipment,
too, and he’d simply been waiting for me to abandon my post at
Moonbeam and Karma’s tent before making his move.

Shit, shit, shit!

I stuffed my feet into my hiking boots
and ran.

Heart pounding, I blessed my
night-vision headset despite its thumping against my forehead while
I dashed along the winding trail.

Near the turnoff to Moonbeam and
Karma’s tent, I abandoned the path to hurry through the intervening
forest, panting through my mouth and trying to balance maximum
speed against minimum noise.

As I approached, a steadily-mounting
sound slowed my feet. What the hell was that?

A moment later I identified it.

Snoring.

I crept closer until my thermal imaging
showed the warm glow of an occupied tent. Even at that distance,
Karma’s raucous snores rattled the forest, and a giggle of giddy
relief escaped me.

Thank God.

And omigod, what a racket. No wonder
their tent was so far from the rest of the commune.

I drew a long breath and let it out
slowly as I faded back toward the path, a euphoric grin on my lips.
My charges were safe.

And moving through the dark forest was
so easy with night vision. I felt great. Wide awake. Competent.
Practically invincible. Look out, Jane Bond. Aydan Kelly will kick
your skinny little ass.

I knew it was only an adrenaline
reaction, but what the hell; I might as well take advantage of it.
Until it burned out of my system I wouldn’t be able to sleep
anyway.

I turned toward Skidmark’s hill. Time
to check the layout of the renters’ encampment.

On my way up, I trod cautiously beside
the road instead of letting my boots crunch on the gravel. Other
than my accidental discovery of the marijuana patch, I had never
snooped around Skidmark’s domain so I had no idea where his tent
might be. If he caught me poking around up here I couldn’t exactly
claim I was going up to the bench to enjoy the view in the pitch
darkness.

Several times I switched to
thermal-only and scanned around me, but I saw only a few tiny glows
that were likely slumbering squirrels. My euphoria mounted. For the
first time in days I felt perfectly safe.

I pumped my fist, grinning in the
darkness.

Perched on the bench a few minutes
later, I surveyed the encampment across the river in night vision.
Bathed in light, a single figure strode back and forth,
gesticulating occasionally, but at that distance I couldn’t make
out much other detail.