“Aren’t there any birds around here?” he asked, quietly.
He could sense Steele rolling her eyes at the city slicker. “It’s October,” she said. “Besides, they know enough to stay quiet with a deadly sniper like you around.”
Matt smiled. He met her eyes for an instant as he continually swept his surroundings. She seemed a little stiff. A fake smile was painted on her face. “You ever been involved with a maneuver like this before?” Matt asked.
“I’ve seen my share of maneuvers.”
Matt looked at her. He wasn’t sure which way she was going with the comment. They walked in silence and Matt nodded to Nick intermittently to signal everything was clear. Matt was scanning the horizon when he heard Steele’s voice come at him as a low sigh.
“You let me leave,” she said.
Matt almost stumbled at the words. Suddenly, he couldn’t remove his eyes from her. She moved through the twilight and brushed away branches as if she’d never said a thing. If Nick looked over, he would think Steele was deeply entrenched with the pursuit. But nothing could’ve been further from the truth.
Matt’s heart swelled with regret. “You told me-”
“I know what I said,” Steele snapped. “What did you expect me to say-‘Hey, Matt, would you be interested in stopping me from leaving you?’ You had sex with a stripper the night before our wedding. What was I supposed to do?”
Matt hadn’t realized that he’d stopped walking until Steele was twenty feet ahead of him. “You mean you would have forgiven me?”
Steele didn’t respond. Nick snapped a finger at Matt to get back into formation.
Steele motioned Matt to catch up. “We’ll talk later,” she said. “We’re getting close.”
Matt took syncopated steps to regain position. Looking straight ahead, he said, “I was only twenty-three, Jen.”
“I know. You were a young twenty-three.”
For some strange reason it made him feel good that she seemed miffed. “Have you ever-”
“Not now,” Steele said. “Later. We’ll talk plenty. Right now we have a job to do.”
And that’s exactly where they were. The job. Something that was always more important to her than he ever expected.
“We’ll talk plenty,” Steele muttered, under her breath.
They walked further. Matt’s head swam with questions for Steele, but he needed to concentrate on his surroundings and get back to sniper mode. It was too dangerous to lose focus now.
They passed a clearing to the right and Matt saw a log cabin a few hundred yards away surrounded by tree stumps. He gestured toward the cabin. “How come all the trees are cut down around that place down there?”
Steele glanced over. “A forest fire threatened the region six months back and the homeowners were advised to clear the area around their homes. Sort of a fire line. Most homes burn because embers drop onto the roof.”
“How close did the fire get?”
She pointed to the left and Matt could barely make out a barren spot atop a mountain. “Two miles,” she said.
As they kept pace with the other groups Matt noticed Steele was swiveling her head in quick repetitions, as if trying to catch someone watching her.
“Relax,” Matt said.
Steele nodded. Her voice lowered as they approached the crest of the hill. “Have you ever been shot before?”
“Shot at, but never hit. How about you?”
Steele shook her head. Matt sensed a little tension as her stride seemed to shorten.
The entire team slowed significantly while they crept toward the summit. Nick motioned everyone into an army crawl. As Matt peaked over the crown, he saw that the scene was exactly as Steele predicted. The cabin was about thirty feet below them in a tree-cut clearing, just like the cabin they had passed. The sun was setting, but Matt could still see through the uncovered windows into each room of the place. There didn’t seem to be any activity inside or around the building.
Since they weren’t using communications, Nick motioned everyone to huddle up by him. Matt and Steele slid backwards until they were out of view from the cabin, then they hustled over and merged with the group.
Nick was on his knees and the team crouched down around him.
“All right,” Nick whispered, anxiously rubbing his hand over the loose mixture of dirt and pine needles in front of him. “We have a slight problem. The clearing around the cabin is too deep to make a covert entry. I want to wait another fifteen minutes for night to give us more cover.” Nick swept clean a patch of dirt and unfolded the drawing that Sheriff Skrugs had made them. “Here’s the cabin.” He put the cap of a felt pen in his mouth, quickly pulled the pen from the cap, then spit out the cap. He made two small circles on the diagram on opposite sides of the cabin. “These two boulders should give us the cover we need. Carl and Ed will take a wide path around the perimeter and belly down to this boulder here. It should be large enough to shield both of you. Dave and Mel will stay behind this boulder here and set up the Halothane launch.”
Nick searched the perimeter of the tree line in the woods. He pointed to a spot between the two tree stumps. His voice seemed to get lower as darkness fell around them. “There,” he said to Matt, “I want you and Steele tucked away up there. You’ll have an open shot at both ports of entry. Get your night vision gear ready, just in case.” He looked at his watch. “It’s 5:45. At exactly 6 we launch the gas. This gives everyone time to get into position. Remember, silence.”
Matt grabbed his duffle bag and resisted the urge to carry Steele’s bag. She remained quiet as they stealthily worked their way toward the firing zone. The wind died down giving the forest an eerie feel. Matt had the uncomfortable feeling that he was being watched, but he attributed that to darkness and the unfamiliar territory. Steele, on the other hand, seemed downright skittish. Her head pivoted from side to side in quick, jerky motions. She stopped suddenly and stared into the distance.
“I thought I saw something,” she said.
Matt looked but saw nothing. “Calm down,” he whispered. “Probably some animal looking for a meal.”
They moved on, but Steele was still jumpy. Matt grabbed her arm. “Stop it,” he said. “It’s easier to pick up quick, irregular activity than slow, deliberate motion. If there is someone out there, you’re a walking billboard.”
She was panting too fast, so Matt dropped his duffle bag and held her shoulders. She looked up at him with soft Bambi eyes. “I’m sorry,” she managed. “I guess I’m a little nervous.”
He squeezed her shoulders. “Listen to me. We’re going to get through this, okay?”
“Okay.”
“When we’re done. .” he looked off, his head fogged with guilt. “When we’re done, I’ll explain everything. Everything I should have done, and everything I did instead. I’ve spent too much time living with regret. I’m going to say my peace, then live with the consequences.”
She nodded. It seemed that she had something to add, but was afraid to give it up.
Matt looked over the perimeter, trying to get back to his task. “We’re going to make a nest to crawl into, give the team some cover and finish this assignment. Just think about our job and what we should be doing. Stay low, and when we get situated, stay still. Okay?”
She smiled. The tranquil expression on her face gave him a chill. He’d had sex with women who didn’t give him the thrill her smile had just delivered.
He let go of her and unzipped his duffle bag. He pulled out a stick of glue and told Steele to turn around. She did so warily and watched over her shoulder as he smeared the glue on her back, then took handfuls of pine needles and patted them on her shirt. When he was done, he handed her the stick of glue and said, “Here, you do me.”
They patched each other up with camouflage and rubbed black wax on their faces. When Matt was satisfied with the results, he picked up his bag and said, “Now we’re going to find a good spot to get invisible.”