“I believe you struck a nerve,” Joe murmured.
“Or Jenny did.” She slipped her phone back in her pocket. “What next?”
“We move.” He went to the trunk and started pulling out the equipment he’d picked up on the way out of Sacramento. He put on the backpack. “On foot. And I lead.”
“No argument.” She fell in behind him. “Your qualifications as a SEAL far outweigh mine in this area. Just don’t try to leave me behind.”
He didn’t answer as he moved up into the trees at the side of the road.
*
One mile …
Bright moonlight on the lake below but only darkness here in the trees.
Joe was moving fast, smoothly, every step springy and catlike. He was making no allowances for her, but then he never did when he was on the hunt. He trusted her to keep up with him and not hold him back.
“I see a light,” he whispered as he stopped on the ridge ahead. He fell to his knees and took out his infrared binoculars. “But it could be only a decoy. Let’s take a look…”
“Walsh said another couple miles.” Eve knelt beside him. “Why would he lie about—” She stopped. Why was she questioning why Walsh would do anything? You couldn’t have any expectations about that murderer. You couldn’t believe anything he said. “Maybe he wanted to catch us off guard?”
Joe didn’t answer as his gaze raked the surrounding terrain, then he trained the binoculars on the steep, jutting cliff ahead. “The light’s being cast up from that cliff. But I don’t have a view of where it’s coming from. I have to get closer.” He was rising to a half crouch. “Stay here.”
“The hell I will.” She drew her gun and crawled after him. “Look, we see where he’s setting up his trap, but if it appears too dangerous we don’t go for it. Okay?”
Joe didn’t answer.
“Joe.”
“You want that reconstruction.”
“I want you alive. I’ll find another way to get the skull.”
“Not if he blows it up.” He pulled himself onto a boulder. “And, besides, the bastard annoyed me. He’s too sure of himself.”
She felt a chill as she recognized that tone. There was no one more competitive or deadly than Joe when he was zeroing in on the prey. “Maybe because he’s holding the best hand right now.”
“Possibly.” He’d lifted the binoculars to his eyes again. “But there’s almost always a way to get around that— There it is!”
Her gaze flew down the sheer face of the cliff to where he was staring.
A shallow ledge only twenty feet above the lake.
Two large Coleman lanterns illuminating an object sitting between them.
“What is it?” Her fingers dug into Joe’s arm. “Was he lying?”
He handed her the binoculars. “See for yourself.”
She raised the binoculars and focused.
At first she couldn’t make out the shadowy object because of the brilliance of the light blurring everything around the lanterns. Then, as her eyes became accustomed to the light, she began to see details.
Familiar details. Winged brows, high cheekbones, pointed chin.
Jenny.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Joe asked. “I only saw the completed reconstruction for a few minutes, but she has a face to remember.”
She nodded. “It’s Jenny. He didn’t destroy the skull.”
“Yet,” Joe qualified. “But he has her set up as a target.” He paused. “I think we’d better go get her.”