Dangerous Minds (Knight and Moon #2)(69)

“Probably not,” Emerson said. “I imagine he’s leading the horde running after us.”

The sounds of footsteps and angry voices were getting closer.

“What have you got in your pack?” Riley asked. “Matches, flares?”

“Yes and yes.”

“Give me the Swiss Army knife you always carry.”

Riley took the knife from Emerson and flipped the large blade out into the locked position. She dropped to the tunnel floor and cut the fuel line on the forklift, allowing the diesel fuel to pour out.

“Brilliant,” Emerson said. “And impressively diabolical.”

Emerson and Riley scaled the forklift and joined the others topside in the pitch-black jungle. Emerson fished around in his backpack and pulled out a signal flare. He lit it and handed it to Riley.

“Do you want to do the honors?” he asked.

“It’s not like the universe provides you with the opportunity to blow up a forklift every day,” Riley said. “I suppose it would be negligent of me not to drop this flare.”

Emerson smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”

Riley tossed the flare into the hole, and everyone jumped back. Seconds later the lift exploded, and a fireball rose out of the skylight.

“Guess we don’t have to worry about the crew in the tunnel,” Alani said. “Between the debris from the explosion and the destroyed forklift, I imagine they’re trapped for a while.”

Emerson and Vernon tugged Berta over to a large ohia tree and tied her up so that she was hugging the tree.

“We’ll send the authorities to pick you up once we get the Penning trap to safety,” Emerson said.

“You said you’d take me with you!” Berta screamed. “You can’t leave me alone in this jungle.”

Emerson stuck a Post-it note to her back. It said “I’m an evil murderer. Please leave me tied to this tree until police arrive.”

“We did take you with us. And now we’re leaving you here,” Emerson said. “You’ll be perfectly safe. There aren’t any predators out here, assuming Tin Man doesn’t find you.”

“You don’t think he’s imprisoned below?” Riley asked.

Emerson shrugged. “No way to know for sure.”

The sound of ATVs and human voices carried from far off in the jungle.

“They’re organizing a search party,” Alani said. “They know we’re here and that we have the Penning trap. I’m sure reinforcements are on the way.”

“Bart Young is desperate,” Emerson said. “He’ll throw anything he can at us now. Soon this entire forest will be crawling with Rough Riders.”

Alani called her dad on her cellphone. “Is there a clearing where you can pick us up?” she asked. She nodded and turned to Emerson. “He’s refueled and is back in the air. He’s flying over Ola’a now. I’m going to give him our GPS coordinates so he can aim the infrared camera at our location, and you can link up to it on your iPad.”

Emerson powered up the iPad and loaded the app for the security camera.

“I hope that’s not us,” Vernon said, pointing at six human figures clustered together at the center of the image.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Emerson said.

All around them other human figures in shades of red and yellow crept around the jungle while several ATVs patrolled the perimeter.

“There must be thirty soldiers,” Riley whispered. “They’re sweeping the area.”

“My dad says there’s a small clearing he can land in two miles east of our location,” Alani said. “If we can make it there, he can pick us up and fly us out of here.”

“How will we get past the patrols?” Wayan Bagus asked.

“It won’t be easy, but with the infrared camera, we have a chance. We just have to be extra sneaky,” Emerson said.

Riley grinned. “I’ll take those odds. You have superior skills when it comes to sneaky.”





TWENTY-NINE




RILEY, EMERSON, WAYAN BAGUS, VERNON, AND Alani lay facedown in the muddy rain forest, waiting for the patrol to pass. They’d come close to being discovered several times in the past half hour and had spent more time hiding in the dense vegetation than they had making forward progress toward the clearing.

After the soldiers were gone, Emerson stood up and looked at the iPad. “They’re slowly tightening their search grid, basically herding us into a smaller and smaller pen. And that’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m sure they hear our helicopter making passes and have called in one or two of their own.”

Vernon stood. “Part of the problem is we’re lugging around this here Penny trap. I’m plumb worn out,” he said, resting the trap on the ground.

Alani looked at her cellphone. “We have another problem. Dad just texted. He can only fly around for another hour, then he’ll have to go refuel.”

“That’s not good,” Riley said. “If he’s not up in the air taking infrared video for us, we’ll lose any small advantage we might have. Plus, it’s going to be sunrise soon and they’ll find us for certain.”

“Right,” Emerson said. “This isn’t working. Time for plan B. We need to go on the offense.”