Carly looked back at her from the south window. “Keo sent him down to the northwest cliff in case they had managed to sneak someone closer when we weren’t watching.”
“Did they?”
“The kid hasn’t seen anything,” Keo said.
“Benny’s still hurt.”
“He’s fine enough.” He handed his binoculars to her as she walked over. “North. That means they came from the same staging area I told you about.”
“The same one you’ve hit twice now.”
“That’s the one.” He smirked. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or annoyed by their refusal to abandon that place. A part of me feels just slighted enough to go back there and hit them a third time.”
“Hey, you shoot the grenade launcher, and I’ll drive,” Carly said.
“I thought you were leaving soon,” Lara said to him.
“That’s still the plan,” Keo said. “But I had a few minutes to kill.”
“Thanks.”
He gave her a noncommittal shrug, then pointed again. “See them?”
It was impossible to miss them with the binoculars. Even half a kilometer away, they looked clear as day drifting on the water. It wasn’t as if they were trying to hide. A couple of the men were standing and peering back at her with their own binoculars, while the rest seemed to be lounging about without a care in the world. All four boats were powered by outboard motors that were shut off, and the only sound was the crashing of waves against the rocky formations at the edges of the island outside the window.
There were only two in each boat, and although they were heavily armed, the way they were just loitering around made them look like fishermen hanging out for the day. Of course, the fact that they were all heavily armed and wearing what looked like army uniforms said otherwise.
“You’ve seen those before?” Lara asked. “The uniforms.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “They’re the same ones I’ve run across.”
“But are they Army?”
“As in US Army?”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“I’ve been around grunts all my life. Those aren’t standard army issue. They’re assholes dressing up in costumes.”
Carly chuckled behind them. “Damn, you and that silver tongue of yours, K-pop.”
“I try,” he said. Then, “My guess? Whoever’s in charge already knows that you know they’re coming. Maybe he figures there’s no point in hiding it.”
“Maybe it’s a she,” Carly said. “Just because it’s the end of the world doesn’t mean you can be a sexist pig, Keo.”
“My mistake. It could be an asshole chick calling the shots.”
“Better.”
“So what’s the point of this?” Lara asked, lowering the binoculars.
“Maybe just intimidation,” he said.
“That makes sense to you?”
“Beats the hell out of me. I just do the shooting. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the psychology of why, how, and when.”
Lara shook her head. “Well, I do spend a lot of time thinking about that, and none of this makes any sense to me.” She keyed her radio. “Benny, come in.”
“Benny here,” the young man answered.
“Are you seeing anything out there?”
“Nothing. I’m halfway to the western half right now, but so far, I don’t see anything.”
“How’s the leg?” she asked.
Benny had come to them with a broken leg, and she hadn’t expected very much out of him as a result. But the young man had proven himself more than capable, and with the help of a custom leg brace designed by Stan, he was moving around again. To help maximize his abilities, she had given him jobs that didn’t require a lot of constant movement, such as standing watch on the shack at the beach or in the Tower.
“It itches,” Benny was saying, “but I’m still mobile.”
“Okay, keep looking. I need to make sure they’re not trying something.”
“Roger that.”
“Carly?” Lara said, looking across the room. “Anything along the shoreline?”
“Not a thing,” Carly said. “If they’re out there, or planning something, they’re really being sneaky about it. Sneaky buggers, as Danny would say.”
The not knowing gnawed at her. What the hell were they doing out there? Or was Keo right? Were they just trying to intimidate them? Maybe whoever was in charge didn’t even know these bozos had come here? Maybe they were trying to figure out what all the shooting last night was about? Did they know about the yacht yet?
She had so many questions, and so few precious answers.
To keep her mind off the growing frustration, Lara keyed the radio again. “Blaine, come in.”
“Blaine here,” the big man answered.
“Anything on your end?”
“There’s nothing coming at us. It’s all quiet on this side.”
“Okay.” She put the radio down and glanced at Keo. He was staring out the window at the men in the boats. They were mostly stick figures with the naked eye, but that didn’t seemed to deter him. “So?”
“So?” he repeated.
“You’re the expert. What happens now?”
“I’m the expert?” he said, sounding amused.
“Compared to the rest of us? Yes.”
“They’re going to attack tonight, aren’t they?” Carly said behind them.
Keo did that noncommittal shrug again.
“What does that mean?” Carly said, echoing Lara’s own thoughts.
“Pretty sure, yeah,” he finally said.
Lara waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. She was about to press him on it when she heard the roar of outboard motors starting up. She looked through the binoculars as the four boats turned around and began moving away, back in the direction they had come.
“They’re leaving,” she said.
“They’ll be back tonight,” Keo said.
She handed the binoculars back to him, catching his eyes as he took it. “We could use you tonight.”
“Your boyfriend will be back by then.”
Hopefully, but I’ve been living on hope for so long, maybe I’m just deluding myself this time, too, she thought, but said, “I know, but we could still use your help.”
“I told you, army guys and me don’t get along.”
“After what you’ve done for us, I’m pretty sure Will and Danny aren’t going to have any problems with you, Keo.”
He didn’t reply right away. He hung the binoculars back up on the hook along the wall and looked across the room at Carly, who had also turned around and was watching him intently as well.
He turned back to Lara. “Look, I respect what you guys are doing here, fighting for this island. But you know my feelings about it. Sooner or later, this place is going to fall and you’re going to lose people. It’s not worth it.”
He stopped for a moment and seemed to be trying to gather his thoughts. Lara could tell talking things out wasn’t something Keo did on a daily basis and that this was all new territory for him.
“But I can tell I’m not going to change your mind,” he continued. “I hate to say it, but I’m a selfish bastard, and I can’t die for a cause I don’t believe in.”
She could see he was struggling with it, which actually surprised her. Will had called Keo a mercenary, and maybe he had been once upon a time. But he had clearly changed a lot since The Purge, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
Lara decided to take pity on him. She keyed her radio and said into it, “Maddie, come in.”
“Are they attacking?” Maddie asked through the radio.
“No. They left.”
“They just left?”
“Looks that way.”
“That’s good, right?”