Conspiracy Game (GhostWalkers, #4)(119)

“Wait.” Briony held up her hand. “You have to climb the cliff anyway to get a signal? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“We have no choice,” Jack explained. “We’re in a canyon, baby. We can’t call a dog, let alone our team.”

“If there’s a way for Ken to climb the cliff and get high enough to call out, why can’t we scale the cliffs and get out of here? We’re all strong,” Briony ventured.

Again there was a small silence, the men exchanging a long look.

“Maybe,” Jack said thoughtfully. “With you pregnant, that’s probably the last thing he’d expect.”

Ken rubbed a scar on his left cheek as he frowned. “We tried the northern face that time, Jack. It has fingers and toeholds, some crevices we could maybe use, but most are a good fifteen feet apart. It would be tricky, especially in the dark.”

Jack glanced up at the sky. “How much of a moon do we have?”

“Fairly decent. More than half. The night’s clear.” Ken turned his head to study the sheer, rising cliff. She’ll never make it, Jack. She’s strong, but she’s pregnant.

Briony knew they were talking about her in private. She pulled her hand away from Jack. “I’m a flyer, a high-wire performer and a darned good one at that. There isn’t much I can’t do.”

“You don’t like heights,” Jack reminded her. “It’s all right, Bri, we can hold out here.”

“I don’t like a lot of things, Jack, but it’s never stopped me before. If I wasn’t with you, what would you do?” she challenged.

“You are with us, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. I don’t want to sit here and wait for them if we have a chance to get out. I can handle heights as well or better than either one of you. Don’t sell me short because I’m pregnant—or worse, because I’m a woman.”

“We can’t climb in the conventional manner, Briony,” Jack explained. “We have to become a human ladder, one anchors while the other swings him like a pendulum and throws him up to the next hold. It’s difficult and dangerous.”

“So is staying here. Would you do it if I wasn’t here? Tell the truth.”

“We’d already be gone,” Jack said.

“That’s it then.” Briony kicked aside the blanket and stood up. “Let’s go.”

Ken shook his head. “This is how it all starts, bro. She’s getting bossy. I’ve heard women do that. They start out all soft and kittenish, leading a man on, and then the claws come out and they dig in and take over.” He stood up, the rifle looking a natural part of him. “You’re in for trouble, Jack.”

“Probably,” Jack agreed, pride and respect for her in his voice. “Let’s get moving.” He flashed her a small, approving grin.

Jack reached down to roll the sleeping bag, and an explosion rocked the night, shaking the ground, a huge red and orange ball churning with black smoke blasting upward and outward like a violent mushroom cloud. Birds screeched, taking to the skies, and the world seemed to be in chaos.

“They’re coming for us,” Jack said.

Both men calmly shouldered their gear and indicated to Briony to walk between them in single file, Ken leading the way. As the smoke and flash faded, the night once again turned eerily silent.

Jack handed Briony a gun and a knife, which she slipped into her belt as she walked behind Ken. The men made little noise, and she tried to do the same. There was enough moonlight to see their surroundings. There was no trail, not even a deer trail, but Ken seemed to know exactly where he was going.

Briony walked with them, trying to analyze why, when she was in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation, she wasn’t nearly as afraid as normal. Oh, the adrenaline was running and her pulse was racing, but it wasn’t debilitating like fear almost always was on the onset. She didn’t have to force herself under control; she just walked between the brothers, trying to emulate their heightened awareness. It wasn’t even the fact that the two men kept her from feeling the effects of the violence surrounding them, or from the battles they’d already fought.

Confidence. They exuded complete confidence. It was in the set of their shoulders, the way they moved with fluid, easy strides, the easy camaraderie between them, and the fact that they simply worked so well together. She glanced at Jack over her shoulder as she walked. He wasn’t watching the ground, but all around them, up in the trees, the rising walls of the canyon, and their back trail. She tried to follow his actions, tried to see with her enhanced vision and hear what the night had to tell.

“Remember, baby,” Jack whispered softly against her ear as they stopped just under an outcropping that grew a good twenty feet above their heads out of the steeply rising wall. “Sound carries in the night. We’ll communicate with telepathy, and when we climb, try to make as little noise as possible. If this is going to work, we have to be ghosts just fading away.”

She nodded to let him know she understood. How do we do this?

We jump up to the outcropping and go from there. I’ll take the lead and we’ll have to use a swinging motion to get the person below up to the next hold. You’ll see. It’s much like you do on the trapeze. Jeb catches you—here, it will be either Ken or me. He bent down to look in her eyes. Are you okay with this? There can’t be any hesitation once we start up.