He faltered. “Max.”
“Okay. I want you to listen carefully to me, Max.” She let out the breath. “I’m going to tell my friends to let you go.”
Gratitude flooded his eyes. “Thank —”
“On two conditions,” she cut in.
His mouth snapped shut.
“One, you get as far away from here as possible. Go to the coast, find a way to another colony, just get the hell out. We both know what Dominik does to deserters.” Did she, though? The punishment for desertion used to be imprisonment. For all she knew, it could be execution now. “And two, you can’t tell anyone you saw me.”
“Deal,” he said without delay.
“I want your word.” But even as she voiced the request, she had to wonder what the point of it was. Dominik had given her his word too when he’d promised to protect her, and look where that had gotten her. Swallowing, Hudson softened her tone. “Please. Prove to me that someone’s word still means something.”
Max’s expression went somber. “I promise to run like the wind, and I promise I won’t tell anyone I saw you.”
“And that includes my friends out there. Don’t say a word to them about who I am.”
“I won’t.”
“Good.” She rose to her feet, brushing dust off her jeans. “I’ll be right back.”
When she stepped outside, all the men snapped to attention. Whatever conversation they’d been having was abandoned as Connor marched up to her.
“Did you get anything?”
Hudson nodded.
“Son of a bitch.” He looked impressed. “He told you where the compound is?”
She nodded again. “I promised him we’d let him go in exchange for the information.” When Connor stiffened, she hurried on. “There’s no reason to hold him prisoner, Con. You said so yourself – he’s a kid.”
Rylan spoke up grimly. “He’s still an Enforcer.”
“Not anymore,” she corrected. “If we let him go, he won’t stick around in the area and cause trouble, not with the Enforcers hunting him. The kid wants to live. He’s planning on leaving the colony.”
Lennox piped up. “Well, I don’t want him. So as far as I’m concerned, he’s free to go.”
Connor still looked unsure. “What did he tell you? What if his intel is bullshit?”
“It’s not. The Enforcer compound is about fifteen miles north of the city. I can even draw you a map – he was very detailed about the location.”
He hissed in a breath. “What’s the security protocol?”
“Impossible to breach,” she admitted.
His eyes gleamed. “Nothing’s impossible.”
“Fine, not impossible. Just suicidal. There are two hundred men living on the compound. The barracks are located in the west building, training areas and offices are in the main one, and the senior Enforcers have their own quarters in the east building.”
She recited the details from memory, because she was describing her home, the place her father had moved them to after her mother died when Hudson was eight. There’d been no reason to stay in the city after that. Her father had thrown himself into his work, deciding he’d rather raise his children in a testosterone-fueled military facility than in the cozy house they’d had in the city.
“A twelve-foot electric fence surrounds the compound,” she said flatly. “Trip wires and land mines on the perimeter and security cameras and motion sensors situated about five feet apart. There are guard towers on all four corners of the property, with four armed guards posted on each tower.”
Lennox whistled. “Je-sus. The kid really was detailed.”
Connor looked unhappy with the report. “Could he be exaggerating?”
“I don’t think he is. My father told me their security was intense. If anything, there’s probably a lot the kid left out.” She implored Connor with her eyes. “You can’t ambush the compound. It’s not like the storage stations, not by a long shot. If you want to get to Dominik” – her heart ached at the thought – “you’ll need to do it outside the gates, because they’ll shoot you down like a dog if you get within a hundred feet of the fence. Oh, and speaking of dogs – I forgot about that. There are guard dogs patrolling the inside of the fence.”
He rubbed his jaw, and she could see his brain working over the implications. Then he gave a brisk nod. “I’ll think on it. But you’re drawing me that map when we get back to camp.”
“And the kid?” she pressed. “Can we let him go?”
He glanced at Lennox. “You tied him up. You can cut him loose.”
“Yes, sir.” Rolling his eyes, Lennox strolled toward the building. “Thanks for the lovely visit,” he drawled over his shoulder.