The man with the cigarette laughed. “Sure,” he said. “Set me up a drink, I’ll be there in a minute.”
The first guy went back inside while the second man smoked for a moment longer before tossing the cigarette to the ground and crushing it out with his boot. As he finished grinding it into the dirt he looked up, staring almost directly at Kurt. He lingered in that pose for a moment the way a hunting dog might freeze as it pointed toward a sound its master couldn’t hear.
Kurt held perfectly still. Hidden in the shadows at a distance of forty feet, he doubted the man could see him. All the same, he firmed his grip on the railgun and slid his gloved finger onto the trigger.
The smoker held his place for another second and then he turned, grabbed the door handle, and stepped back inside.
“Cover me,” Kurt whispered. He moved quickly toward the door and placed his ear beside it. He heard the sound of a radio and voices. Too many voices. They were loud and boisterous and, as near as he could tell, all male. It sounded like a locker room inside.
Convinced the prisoners were not present, he moved back to where Joe waited.
“Do we have the right address?” Joe asked.
“Not unless you’re looking for a frat party. I think this is a bunkhouse of some kind. Brèvard’s men are blowing off some steam.”
Joe looked around. “So where to next?”
Kurt glanced down at the screen on his arm. The next building was a hundred yards off. Closer to the wall of the third terrace. “Just up the road,” Kurt said. “Follow me, if you can.”
“Better be quick,” Joe said. “We turn back into pumpkins in less than five minutes.”
Moving past the building that housed Brèvard’s men, Kurt and Joe snuck onto another path. The next building was much like the first, low-lying and rather plain, without any windows, but it was guarded. Two men at the door, one sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on a bucket, the other standing with a rifle over his shoulder.
The main problem was a pair of exposed bulbs on a black wire above the entrance. The suits would not keep them hidden in that kind of glare.
“This has got to be it,” Kurt said. “I’m going to work my way around back and find the power line. Get in position. When I cut it, take the closest guy out with your Taser. By the time the second guy figures out what’s happened, I’ll be on him.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
As Joe moved to a new position, Kurt doubled back and went around the far side of the building. Moving quickly and quietly, he arrived on the far side of the structure and began looking for the power cable. He found a spot where a buried line came out of the ground and ran up the wall, held in place by rusted clamps. Pulling out his rubber-handled knife, Kurt sawed through the insulation and then with a quick cut severed the cable.
As the light spilling from the front of the building flickered and died, Kurt raced for the corner. He came around it just as Joe hit the standing guard with his Taser. The man went stiff as a board but made no sound, and all Kurt heard was the rapid clicking and snapping sound that the Taser made as it electrified the man’s body and triggered his muscles into a rigid state.
Realizing that something was wrong, the guard in the chair grabbed for his rifle, but Kurt was on him before he could bring it to bear. He clamped one hand over the man’s mouth and yanked him backward, bringing the black carbon steel blade of the knife up against the man’s throat.
“You make a sound, it’ll be your last,” he warned the man.
The guard went still and then nodded, his sense of shock growing as Joe appeared under the overhang like a specter materializing from another dimension. As Joe dropped down on the ground to truss up the other guard, his movements were a blur as the armor continuously changed both its color and texture. Kurt noticed the man he’d captured scrunching his eyes shut and then
looking away as if he were hallucinating.
“You people are holding some friends of ours,” he whispered to his captive. “Are they here? In this building?”
The guard nodded.
Kurt glanced at Joe. “Check the door.”
Joe was already in the process. “Locked tight.”
“Keys,” Kurt demanded.
The guard reached a shaking hand into his breast pocket and pulled out a ring with two keys on it.
Joe took the ring and went to work, finding two bolts, one for each key. Having unlocked the door, he cracked it open. “It’s dark, I don’t see anyone.”
“I must have cut the power to the entire building,” Kurt said, pulling the guard to his feet.
As Joe pulled the door open, Kurt pushed the guard through first in case someone attacked. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.