The Collected

CHAPTER 53

Nate created half a dozen weapons caches in places where he thought he’d need them. Each cache consisted of at least one of the seized firearms and two softball-sized rocks.

As he was doing this, he kept an eye on the fort in case anyone ventured out, but the door didn’t open once. After he was set on the weapons front, he moved on to creating the lure.

He figured there were two ways to get their attention-visibly or audibly expose himself. A visible exposure was not very appealing. One of the soldiers might get off a lucky shot, and injure or even kill him. A loud sound, though, was different. He could control that.

He searched around for anything that could aid him in making the noise, and finally found something he thought would work. It was a tree, dead, but still standing. The branches looked brittle and easy to snap off. There was a large one, about the size of Nate’s arm, halfway up. If he could break that off, the noise would be heard by the sentries on the wall.

He found the strongest vine he could, secured a stone to one end, tossed it up and over the branch, then did it one more time so that it had a good grip on the limb.

Tentatively, he gave it a pull and then let go. The branch was definitely ready to break, but he wondered if it would be enough. They might just think it was a natural occurrence, and he’d be wasting his efforts. He would have to reinforce it with a little human touch.

Grabbing both ends of the vine, he moved to the side, and set his legs so he could jump out of the way when the branch came tumbling down toward him. He gave it another test pull. This time, it let out a tiny pop that echoed faintly into the jungle.

He put his whole body into his next pull and jerked down on the vine. As he’d hoped, the crack of the branch as it separated from the tree was thunderous.

Just as the noise started to die down, he added the second part of his lure-an agonized groan. As soon as he was done, he sprinted into the brush and headed for his first cache of weapons.

He could hear a raised voice at the top of the wall, but couldn’t make out what was being said. It didn’t matter. His interest was on the door, and the soldiers that he was sure would soon be swarming out. He’d wait for them to pass and then cull them from the herd, one after another.

He settled into his hiding spot, his eyes on the wall. That’s when he heard it. Faint. Just a brush of something on sand. But it wasn’t the wind, or a palm frond falling to earth.

A step. He had heard a step, and it had been behind him, not in the direction of the fort.

Was a soldier still out there tracking him? Could Nate have missed him? Maybe the guy had hidden like Nate had, and now he was moving in for the kill.

Whoever it was, they were good, Nate had to give them that. After the first brush of sand, there had been no other sound. But Nate knew the person must’ve been moving toward the sound of the breaking branch.

He started to pick up the pistol, but then selected a stone that had an ax-like edge instead. If he shot off the gun, the echo could keep the other soldiers from coming back out.

With a quick glance at the still-closed door in the wall, Nate moved back into the jungle.