Matthew Dunn - Spycatcher

He knew he was lying on snow. He knew that the ringing in his ears was from the explosion. He knew he could not move his legs and arms. He used all his strength to turn his head to look at Lana. Her own head was still slumped, but he could tell that she was breathing heavily. He felt overwhelming relief. They both should have been dead. And then he realized what had happened. The explosives had been stun grenades. Megiddo had wanted to keep him alive.

He turned away from Lana. The movement was excruciating, and he could still do nothing more than just lie on the ground.

Then Will saw him. Even though his vision kept blurring and fragmenting, he saw him.

The man seemed distant at first. He walked quite slowly. Snow fell around him, but it did not seem to touch him. He carried a gun. He was looking at Will. He was coming toward him.

The man was tall. His gun was a rifle, and it was held in one hand with its barrel resting on his shoulder. The man looked calm. He came right up to Will. He looked at him. He said, “You deserve a better death than one by explosives or being shot like a dog on the ground. And I have now decided that there are things you need to know before I give you that more honorable death. But now is not the time.”

Then he slammed the butt of his rifle onto Will’s skull.

“Come on, come on.” The man’s voice was hard, and his hand felt icy as it moved roughly over Will’s face. “I know you can hear me, so start thinking and start moving.”

The large hand moved roughly over Will’s face and felt even colder.

For a moment Will thought he could not move or do anything. His head throbbed. His face tingled in pain from the man’s hand. He felt anger at the man and decided that whoever the man was, Will was going to make him stop. He sucked in air, and the action caused an icy slush to enter his mouth. He shook his head to try to break away from the man’s hand. The man kept smothering his face. Will felt overwhelming anger. With all his strength, he grabbed the man’s wrist and yanked it away.

Laith was above him. He looked serious and concerned. His face was bloody, and he had half an ear missing. He nodded and said, “About time.”

Will sat upright and felt his face. It was covered with snow. He brushed the snow away and looked around. He was still on the mountain summit, wind and snow swirling around him. He looked at Laith and knew that the ex-Delta operative had been rubbing snow into his face to try to bring him around. “How long have I been unconscious?”

Laith checked his watch. “The last time you and I spoke was over sixty minutes ago. I’d say you’ve been out for twenty to thirty minutes.”

Will cursed. He placed fingers against the area on his head where the rifle butt had struck. He winced in pain but could feel only bruising. He held out his hand, and Laith grabbed it to pull him to his feet. He wobbled, steadied himself, and stared out over the southern valley below him. He muttered, “Why the hell didn’t he kill me?” He looked at Laith. “Where’s Roger?”

“I strapped up his leg and took him back to our vehicles. He’s going to limp, but he’ll live.”

Will checked his pockets. His handgun, knife, and tactical communications system were gone, but he was relieved to find that his hidden cell phone was still in place. He pulled out the phone and called Roger. “Can you drive?”

Roger told him that he could.

Will nodded and turned around to face the lakes, the lodge, and Roger’s location. “All right. Megiddo’s still got Lana, and they must be heading back north toward you, since there’s nothing but endless wilderness to the south. All the time they’re on foot, Lana will slow him down, so he’ll be desperate to find a vehicle or other means of transport to get out of here quickly.” He thought for a moment. “After we attacked the lodge, Megiddo’s reinforcements came through the woods from the north. Tell me about the road network around the lakes.”

Roger told him that there was only one road that ran along the eastern side of the lake, the road they came in on, the road that Megiddo’s men would have had to use to approach and leave the lodge.

Will nodded. “Okay, Megiddo’s vehicles must be somewhere close to that road, northwest of your position and beyond the lodge.” He checked his watch. “He’s got a head start on us of probably thirty minutes, but I doubt he’s reached the vehicles yet. Drive in that direction now, and we’ll head to you on foot.”

Will scoured the ground around him. He saw his Colt M4A1 assault rifle, walked to it, picked it up, briefly examined the gun, swore, and tossed it away. The bolt had been removed. He looked at Laith. “What weapons do you have?”

“Only one handgun. I had to leave the fifty-caliber behind to reach Roger and you quickly.”

“Goddamn it.” Will looked in the direction of the lodge, then at Laith. “We need to move very fast.”

“You sure you can do this?”

Will’s head throbbed with increased pain. “I have to.”

The two men sprinted down the mountainside. They kept a gap of thirty meters between them to minimize the chances of them both being shot, but even so, Will knew that they were running too fast and too blindly to spot Megiddo before he could easily shoot one of them. Will desperately hoped that Megiddo’s only priority now was escape.

They ran past the bodies of men they’d shot. They ran until they reached the base of the mountain and the slope leveled. They ran faster and changed direction slightly so that they were heading toward the road. They ran over ground covered with snow and trees, ground that had earlier been pretty and innocent but would soon be remembered by others as the location where a bloody battle had taken place.

Laith stopped suddenly and crouched. Will did the same, sucking in air after the excruciatingly fast run. Laith looked around him, looked at Will, and pointed ahead. He was silently telling Will that they were now very close to the road.

Will nodded, calmed his breathing, pulled out his phone, and called Roger. He cupped his other hand over his mouth and the phone to reduce sound and spoke as quietly as he could. “We’re very close. What can you see?”

“Nothing. Not even any signs of recent tire tracks.”

Will briefly closed his eyes in frustration. “Could he have gotten past you in a vehicle without your seeing him?”

“Impossible. But it’s possible he got to a vehicle and headed southwest away from me on the road.”

“What do you think?”

“I can’t be sure. But I’ve been driving up and down this road, and I can be sure I’ve seen no evidence of recent vehicle movement.”

“Shit. All right, well, I can’t be sure either, but I think we’ve got to assume he’s still on foot and heading north to the village of Saranac Lake.”

“I agree. I’ll meet you on the road.”

Will ran low to Laith, patted him on the shoulder, and moved forward with Laith close beside him. Trees began to thin, and Will spotted glimpses of the road. Laith turned, held up a hand to tell Will to halt before moving forward in a crouch position while twitching his handgun left and right. As Laith came to within a few meters of the edge of the road, he stopped altogether, lay down on his front, gathered snow up around him, and waited.

From his spot forty meters behind Laith, Will also waited. He looked around and felt totally exposed. He imagined Megiddo emerging from somewhere in the dense forest behind him, walking up to him unseen, and cutting his throat with the knife he’d removed from Will. He heard a distant noise and glanced quickly toward the road and Laith’s hidden position close to it. The noise grew louder, and Will knew it belonged to a vehicle. He watched Laith, but the man remained motionless.