They’d hunt her.
Even though she’d tried to conceal her tracks and the wind was helping shift the snow around, someone with training would be able to find them unless they were completely covered over. If they were still visible, it was only a matter of time before someone came after her, maybe even caught up to her if they used a drone to guide a helo in.
Not happening.
Briar stared through the binos at the scene unfolding down the mountain as the wind whistled through the rocks around her. The men disappeared behind the screen of trees blocking her view of the cabin and she lost sight of them.
She still didn’t move, kept her breathing slow and her heart rate calm. Patience had never come easily to her but her trainers had demanded it and she’d learned to master her restlessness in a situation like this. Concealment offered the best protection for now. Because as soon as those men searched the cabin, they’d come looking for her.
Inwardly, she smiled.
I’ll see you, but you won’t see me.
The moment Briar considered it safe to move, she’d pull a phantom and disappear.
Chapter Two
Someone was following her, and it wasn’t the team down the mountain. Not with how fast she’d been moving on her snowshoes.
Briar felt that all too familiar prickling at her nape again as she paused in her ascent and swept her gaze across the snowy ground behind her. Nothing but swaying branches and swirling snow filled her vision. She knew better than most that just because she couldn’t see her enemy didn’t mean they didn’t have eyes on her.
It had been a little over thirty minutes since she’d left her hiding spot and headed up the mountain. The NVGs fitted to her ski goggles allowed her to see in the darkness. Here tall pines and Aspens grew in thick stands, their branches stretching up toward the swirling storm clouds. The wind blew through them with a loud moan that rose to a wail, shifting the drifts of snow around and scattering the icy snowflakes in every direction. The next storm system had moved in much faster than predicted.
Briar stood motionless as she surveyed her surroundings. Nothing else moved, there were no other sounds to alarm her but she knew someone was out there, dogging her steps.
Nobody there. Get moving.
She hitched her pack up higher on her shoulders and adjusted the sling on her rifle before starting forward once more. She’d left the snowmobile hidden below the ridge about a half mile from here, a safe enough distance from the cabin that even if someone heard the sound of the engine, they’d never catch up to her.
It was too miserable out here for a random civilian to be out and about. No, it had to be someone else, and to track her in these conditions despite her considerable skill at avoiding detection, it had to be someone with motivation and training.
This development upped the urgency of her escape because getting caught wasn’t acceptable. She’d never had her cover blown, not in all the ops she’d performed over the course of her seven year career. And she wasn’t going to wind up being dumped by The Company after busting her ass to build an impeccable service record as a clandestine operative.
When they needed a dangerous target eliminated, they sent her, off the record. They’d trained her to be invisible, and expected her to remain so. If she got caught they’d deny any knowledge of her or the op. Risks she knew well and accepted because she was just that good.
Her snowshoes bit into the icy crust on top of the dense snow as she quickly made her way through the trees. There was only so much she could do now to conceal her tracks and she couldn’t afford to slow down to do a better job. All she could hope for now was that the wind and snowfall from the intensifying storm continued to obscure her movements and that the forest protected her from any eyes in the sky searching for her. Forecasts had called for another ten to fifteen inches of snow by morning, with another storm moving in hours after that.
By then she’d be long gone, safe and warm, on her way back to her place in New York, talking to Janaia and figuring out just what the hell had gone wrong with the intel for this op.
At least Ramadi was dead. Another confirmed kill to add to her tally.
Her body warmed quickly as she rushed up the slope. The altitude here made the air thinner than in the mountains back home. Already her cardiovascular system was working harder than normal to allow her to maintain her pace. She could feel the sweat gathering beneath all the layers, was glad for the moisture-wicking material that would take any wetness away from her skin and prevent her from developing hypothermia when she stopped.
The wind and snow slowed her progress a little but at least the weather was nasty enough that no helo could fly in here. As the forest began to thin near the top of the tree line, she again felt that internal warning signal and paused behind the trunk of a tall pine. Her breath puffed in and out in icy clouds, whipped away from her mouth and nose by the swirling winds.