Page 64 of Redemption

He made it perfectly clear that he wanted nothing to do with her, and so we’ll make sure that he has no contact with her at all.

Or at least we will try to.

Almost predictably, Linda decides to ignore Trick and opens fire. We instantly return fire, trying to make sure that we don’t actually take her out. We need to bring her in alive. She has a lot of information that we need.

She’s shooting haphazardly and not really taking aim at all, apart from making sure that it’s in the direction of the cars. I have no idea if that’s intentional or she’s just panic firing.

Suddenly, all gunfire from her stops.

We share a look, she could be reloading.

After a moment, when she doesn’t start shooting again, Trick calls out again and receives no response.

“Move forward cautiously,” Trick orders. “Surround the car.”

Everyone follows the order. Moving in formation, we slowly approach the car. We’re all on guard, waiting for her to pop back out and start shooting again. Especially since it’s pretty obvious at this point that she doesn’t plan on coming quietly.

Of course not.

We surround the car and cautiously look inside, waiting for Linda to pop back up.

“It’s empty?” Rage frowns.

Chapter Twenty-One

Ever

“The gun is here,” Atlas says, pointing his gun at the front seat where Linda’s gun has been left. “She could have another one. I would guess that she disappeared into the woods while we were all shooting.”

“I didn’t see her go,” I say with a frown. Something has become increasingly obvious while we’ve been on this island. “I think we may have underestimated her, again.”

“Agreed. Spread out in the woods. Stay alert,” Trick orders, his eyes on our surroundings.

We all nod automatically, splitting up into small groups, and heading into the woods at the different likeliest points that she could have entered on either side of the road. It’s more likely that she entered on the side that the car is closest to, but we’re not going to underestimate her again. She may not be able to handle a gun very well, but she can certainly escape like a pro.

I’m with Pete and Riot, and we cautiously enter the cover of the trees. Unfortunately, if she wanted to escape, this is the perfect place to do so. There are so many places to hide.

I don’t like this at all.

“I don’t see anything,” Peter says quietly after we’ve been in the woods for a while. “I don’t think she’s come through this way.”

“I think you’re right,” Riot agrees, as his eyes dart around us. “There are no tracks, no broken branches or signs that anyone or even anything has been through here recently, and it’s quite densely packed, so it would be obvious if someone had come through.”

“Agreed,” I say. There are too many places to hide, and not enough of us to properly comb the woods. Plus, Riot is right. There would be signs, and there just aren’t. I pull my phone out of my pocket and add, “I’ll message Trick and see what he wants us to do. I’m guessing that they haven’t found anything either, or someone would have let us know we could head back.”

“Good point,” Pete admits, staying alert and watching the surroundings like the rest of us.

I get a reply from Trick immediately.

“He says to head back. No one has found anything. We’re heading back to the cars,” I tell the others.

“I have to hand it to her. She’s managed to evade several highly trained agents. I really do think that we’ve underestimated her in a big way. I think people underestimate her because of what I read in the files. She seemed relatively naïve, which would suggest she either got lucky now or she’s been playing everyone for a very long time,” Pete says thoughtfully, his brow crinkling.

We start to walk back the way we came, still keeping an eye on everything around us to make sure that she’s not hiding somewhere.

“We need to warn Mr. R that she isn’t what she seems to be and that there’s a very good chance that he will need to warn the agents dealing with her and not take her at face value,” Riot adds.

We carry on walking, staying silent so that we can stay alert, and we all arrive back at the cars within moments of each other.