Sean popped up first and spotted the two exactly where they said they'd be. Adriana wasn't far behind him and caught up as he swam slowly toward the shore.
"Did you find anything?" Tommy asked eagerly. He'd been sitting on a small rock next to Reece. Their spot was situated in the canyon's shade. Even so, Tommy had already dried off completely due to the warm, dry air.
"Yeah, but we don't know what it is."
He found a place where the rocky ground ascended onto shore and trudged up to the others. Once out of the water, Sean disconnected the cord around his ankle and then removed his gun and the odd cube.
"Take a look at this," he said, tossing the rock to Tommy.
Tommy nervously caught the cube after almost fumbling it to the ground. He stared at the still-wet object with Reece looking at it over his shoulder.
"Another boomerang," Tommy said.
He flipped the cube over and examined the other engravings. "Not sure what these letters represent. Any ideas?" he asked Reece.
"Not off the top of my head, but that paw print I recognize. Looks like a wallaby's foot."
"You recognize that?"
"Of course I know that. I'm an adventure tour guide. Part of that entails tracking animals sometimes."
Sean was impressed. "You hunt animals for sport?"
"Nah, mate. Well, not wallabies. Really, I only take a few hunters out every year, but I don't like it. Only do it for the money."
"What happened to this part?" Tommy asked as he turned the cube again. He pointed at the place where it appeared the image had been dug away.
"No idea," Sean said. "We found it like that."
"I guess whoever put it there wasn't happy with the way it looked so they took it off."
"Seems odd," Reece said. "The rest of it is so perfectly done."
"Here, hold this for a second," Tommy said to Reece and handed him the cube. "I want to take a few pictures.
Reece held out the stone with the divot facing up. Tommy took his phone out of the gear bag at his feet and took the first picture. "Okay, now turn it."
Reece started to twist the cube, but a loud bang stopped him. The sudden noise was accompanied by a bullet ripping through Adriana's upper chest. Blood splattered onto Sean's side. He looked into her shocked face. Adriana's eyes went wide with shock, and then she fell over backward into the water.
"Adriana!" Sean shouted.
Tommy reacted, shoving Reece behind the nearest boulder. He charged at Sean, diving at his friend who desperately reached out his hands to grasp at Adriana as she splashed into the pool. Another shot boomed from above. Tommy's shoulder struck Sean in the midsection and drove him behind another giant rock just as the second bullet smashed into the rock where Sean had been standing.
Tommy hit the ground hard with Sean on top of him. Sean struggled, but Tommy wouldn't let him go, keeping his weight pressed down on his friend.
"Stay down," Tommy ordered. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Adriana… I have to save her, Schultzie." Sean's protests were muddled. He still hadn't fully comprehended what happened.
Tommy felt like he was riding a crazed bull. Sean fought with every ounce of his strength, but he couldn't get his friend off of him.
"It's an ambush, Sean. There's a sniper up there on the other side. And he's got us pinned down. You go out there, you're a dead man. We're in a kill box."
Sean's breathing increased. "Where's Adriana?"
Tommy poked his head around the boulder and saw Reece tucked down, out of the sniper's view. He pulled his head back before the gunman could see. There was no sign of Adriana.
"She's gone. Reece is behind the rock next to this one. I need you to focus, buddy."
Sean searched his friend's eyes for answers. Usually Sean had an idea for every situation. This time was different. Sean's emotions poured out of his eyes that kept twitching left to right as if searching Tommy for answers.
"Let me go," Sean said. "I don't care if I get killed. I love her, Schultzie."
Tommy gripped his friend's shoulders tight. "I know you do. But you walking out there and getting killed isn't what she would want. Right now, we have to get out of here. You, me, and Reece. You hear me? We have to move, or we're all dead. We need a plan."
Sean still held his weapon in one hand. Tommy's gear bag was sitting twenty feet away, close to the water. Adriana's was next to it, meaning they only had one gun between the three of them, and only one magazine of ammunition. No chance he could go for the other bags. The sniper would cut him down. At the moment, Sean didn't care about that.
To make things worse, Sean knew they were up against a skilled sniper with nothing more than what equated to a pea shooter. His .40-caliber was plenty of gun when it came to a short-range firefight. Hundreds of feet away from the target, it would do little more than scare the other guy.
Tears welled in Sean's eyes. He started to speak but had to choke back the words. Finally, Sean pushed his mind back to the way it was when he worked for Axis — to times when he'd lost comrades in the field and had to push on without them. This was different, way different. The mental exercise strained his faculties to their utmost. He sniffled and then realized what he had to do.
"That's it," he said, more to himself than to Tommy.
"What's it?"
"Do as I say, and we might just get out of this." Sean swallowed hard, shoving down his emotions to the back of his mind as much as possible.
Tommy stared at Sean with uncertain eyes. "You just came up with a plan? Like, right now?"
"Yeah. But you're not gonna like it. Listen to what I say." He leaned around to the side of the boulder, keeping his head out of view and tucked away behind a bush growing right beside it.
"Reece," he hissed.
"Oy," he said, using common Australian slang.
"You and Tommy do exactly as I tell you. When I start shooting, you two sprint to the water. Get in, and don't come up for air as long as you can stand it. Swim downstream. I'll catch up to you."
"There's no way you can hit him from here," Reece said. "You're good, but even you have limitations."
He wasn't wrong.
"I'm not trying to hit him, although if I get lucky I'll take it. I just need to buy you guys a few seconds to get in the water. Once you're in, make sure you stay a few feet below the surface. Bullets lose most of their force within a foot or so of hitting the water."
"What about you?" he asked. "Who's going to cover you?"
"If I do it right, I'll buy enough time for myself, too. Just get to the water when I start shooting." Sean didn't say what he was really thinking. He didn't care if the shooter moved for him or not. His plan was to get Reece and Tommy to safety. If he died trying, so be it. Sean was in a reckless place now, a place where personal safety was no longer an issue.
He turned around and found Tommy crouching right behind him. "I don't like it, Sean. You don't even know where that guy is."
"I will."
Sean reached out his hand and jiggled the base of the bush. Another shot boomed from the top of the canyon. Sean peeked over the top of the rock and immediately ducked back down.
"Got him," Sean said through gritted teeth.
"What do you mean, got him?" Tommy tried to imitate his friend's voice.
"I just need the general area. He may move around a little, but I have a feeling he likes his spot. I saw the gunsmoke lingering in the air from some rocks across the way. He's got a shooting hole for his gun. I'll put some rounds close to his position. He'll have to duck for a minute."
"There's no other way out of this, is there?"
Sean leveled his head and locked eyes with his friend. "Other than a dead sprint down the trail? No. And if you want it that way, I'm game for that, too."