“Ready?” I asked her.
“I guess so.”
I gave her a serious look and then nodded. “Put the first charge about fifty feet that way, and the other fifty feet that way. Remember, only use it if you have to, and run like hell afterward.”
“Got it.” She took my arm as I went to walk away. “Good luck, Travis.”
I grinned at her. “Don’t worry. I don’t need luck.”
I turned away from her and melted into the darkness, heading down the ridge and toward the buildings.
This was the real reason we’d gone on that ATV tour. Fun as it was, I had needed a chance to scope out the surroundings. I had a pretty good idea of where the cameras were and where the motion-sensing lights were, which meant I could sneak around undetected. Still, I pulled a black cotton mask down over my face just in case. If a camera caught me now, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
I reached the first little buildings and crept around its side. I poked my head inside and saw nothing but touring equipment. I quickly moved away from that, reaching the main building and pressing my body up against the side.
My heart was beating slow, slow, slow. I took a deep breath, keeping my body under control. I crept along the side before shimmying down low, keeping in the blind spot of a camera.
I came up around the other side and found a window. It was locked, which was fine. I didn’t need to get into the main building.
My real targets were the barns on the opposite side of the compound. They were big enough to hold what I needed to find, and they were secluded enough on the property to be defensible. They made sense from a logical standpoint.
I kept moving, staying low, crouching down under cameras and sticking to the blind spots. I had to go the long way to avoid tripping any of the motion lights, but it was worth it to stay in the darkness. I didn’t see or hear a single person, which wasn’t too surprising.
I finally reached the first little barn. It smelled like hay and animals as I pressed my face to the window. Inside it was musty and dark, and the only thing I saw was more farming equipment.
On to the next building. I slipped through the darkness, moving like a ghost. Up ahead was the largest of the barns, and a single light was burning above the front entrance.
I skirted around the side toward the back of the barn. I didn’t see any animal tracks back there, or really smell anything animal-like. In fact, it seemed pretty clean for a barn, which was a good sign.
As I came around the back, I stopped short in my tracks. There were two men sitting at a table outside, smoking cigarettes. They were playing cards and had serious rifles at their sides. The barn doors were shut.
Fucking pay dirt. Nobody kept guards around a building unless there was something worth guarding, and I suspected they weren’t watching over horses. I crept closer, keeping low. The men weren’t too far away, but I had to go through them if I wanted to get inside that barn.
No use in delaying it. I moved fast, emerging from the shadows. The man facing me saw me but didn’t have time to react as I clubbed his friend in the back of the skull with the butt of my gun. The man I hit toppled to the ground, making only a strangled grunt.
I held the gun level at the other man, causing him to freeze. His hands were on his rifle, but he hadn’t raised it up.
“Don’t,” I said softly. “Don’t do it.”
He stared at me, his face hard. He wasn’t a professional, but he sure as fuck was brave.
“Think about it,” I said softly. “You raise that gun. Think you got time to squeeze off a round before I put a bullet in your head?”
“Maybe,” he said.
“Look at me. I know what I’m doing. Do you?”
He stared hard at me, and he made his choice. He raised his gun, squeezing the trigger.
I put a bullet in his skull. His weapon fired off but missed by a mile. He toppled back to the ground, dead on impact.
Fucking shit though. That gunshot had been loud. I knew I didn’t have much time before someone came to check on these boys. The other guy was out like a light, and so I rooted through his person until I found a set of keys.
I moved fast to the barn door. It was locked with a nice padlock. I tried three keys before I found one that would open it. I let the padlock fall to the ground and cracked open the door.
Instead of horses and tractors, the barn was full of crates. The crates were stacked high and deep. On the right there were rows of tables, and unless my eyes were deceiving me, those tables were covered in weed. It looked like they were weighing and packing the drugs, ready to be sold.
I took a step into the barn, but all hell broke loose before I could get to a crate.
As soon as my foot touched the floor, two world-shaking explosions went off in the direction of the forest. “Fuck,” I said out loud, and turned away from the barn.