Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

“When was the last time you shaved?” Keo asked. When he got a confused look back, he said, “Never mind, just thinking out loud.”

He crouched in front of his captive and waited for him to gather himself. Like all the other soldiers he’d met, this one had a name tag with letters stenciled across it: “Eric.”

“In and out, slow breaths,” Keo said. When Eric had turned less blue, “There you go. Better?”

Eric nodded. He opened his mouth to say something, but Keo shook his head and Eric stopped short.

“Just listen,” Keo said. He produced Tobias’s ring from his pocket and held it up, then turned it around, making sure Eric got a good look and had enough time to read the inscription at the top. “See it?”

Eric stared at the gaudy piece of jewelry as if his life depended on it.

“Got it memorized?” Keo asked.

The teenager looked unsure.

“Good enough,” Keo said. He stood up. “I want you to go back to Steve and tell him what you saw. Tell him Keo wants to give it to him. He’s to meet me at the bridge in an hour. Got all that?”

Eric nodded.

“Get up.” The teenager stood up and Keo patted him on the shoulder, then pointed him across the river. “Off you go.”

The soldier looked at him, then at Jordan, maybe wondering if this was a trick. It didn’t take him long to decide to risk it anyway, and soon he was running off. They could hear him snapping branches as he barreled his way through the woods long after he had disappeared out of view.

Keo turned back to Jordan and found her staring at the dead soldier behind them.

“You okay?” he asked.

She didn’t answer, and he wasn’t even sure if she had heard him.

Keo put a comforting hand on her arm. “Jordan. You okay?”

She finally looked up. “I know him.”

“The kid?”

“No, him,” she said, looking back down at the dead man.

“Who was he?”

“He was in the camp when we first arrived. His name’s Dominic. He helped us get used to how things were. We…” She paused. “We were friends. I always thought I’d be helping him escape one of these days. The last thing I expected was to see him out here in that uniform.”

The last thing he expected was to see you out here, too, Keo thought, remembering the stunned look on the dead man’s face when he saw her.

Jordan had gone silent next to him. She had said they were friends, but the way she was looking down at the back of Dominic’s head, with broken twigs in his hair, he guessed they were more than that.

“Sorry,” he said. “I had no choice.”

“I know,” she said. Then, already moving off again, “Let’s get out of here before your messenger boy decides to bring back more of his friends.”

*

“So how’s this brilliant plan of yours going to work?” Jordan asked. “You’re going to kill him when he shows up on the bridge? Then what?”

“Killing him isn’t going to get me closer to Gillian,” Keo said. “That’s the whole point of this, remember?”

He looked out of the tree line and toward the bridge, almost a full 200 meters in front of him. They were far enough to be invisible among the woods, but close enough to see with binoculars. It had taken them an hour to find the location, most of that time spent skirting around areas that could potentially have soldier presence.

By the time they reached a safe spot, his watch had ticked to 2:16 P.M.

He could see the two behind the guard station in the middle of the bridge easily enough. They looked alert behind the M60, as did the four soldiers walking around them. Four, instead of just the two that were there yesterday. They kept to their half of the steel structure, probably because they didn’t want to get caught in front of the machine gun. Smart.

There were no signs of Steve, which was problematic. It shouldn’t have taken Eric all that long to report in. Unless Steve sensed an ambush, then he wouldn’t show up. It wouldn’t surprise Keo if he was wary of just that, especially after what he had done to Tobias less than twenty-four hours ago.

Maybe he’d even send Jack in his place-

Or not, Keo thought as Steve himself appeared on the other end of the bridge with Jack riding on a horse next to him. The lesser Miller, perched in his saddle, made for an awfully tempting target.

Next to him, Jordan was clutching her rifle so hard he could hear the sound of her fingers tightening.

“Don’t,” he said. “I need him alive for now.”

Jordan didn’t say anything.

“Jordan…”

“I heard you the first time,” she snapped. Then, in a softer voice, “So what now?”

“I’m going to go out there and give him the ring.”

“And then?”

“Hopefully he’ll keep his word and take me to Gillian.”

“‘Hopefully’? Christ, Keo. I didn’t know you were that stupid.”

“I think he’ll keep his word.”

“What makes you think that, for God’s sake? He can’t be trusted.”

“I’m relying on what I know about men like Miller.”

“What, that they’re all assholes?”

“That, too.”

“And if he does exactly what I think he’ll do, and shoots you as soon as you hand the ring over?”

“That’s what you’re here for.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Can you hit him from this distance?” he asked.

“Are you kidding me? It’s too far. I’m not that good.”

That makes two of us.

“Then you’ll have to get closer,” he said.

“How much closer?”

“As close as you need to make the shot if I’m wrong. But you have to promise me you won’t kill him if I’m still alive.” He looked at her, catching her eyes and holding them. “Remember, we’re here to save Gillian. After I make sure she’s fine, we can all get out of here. I told you about the Trident? ”

“The yacht?”

“Yeah.”

“What about it?”

“I know how to contact them. All I’ll need is a ham radio. When I get Gillian, we’ll leave Texas behind. The three of us.”

“Your friends on the boat will come get us?”

He nodded. “All I need to do is make contact.”

She clenched her teeth for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. But what about Miller?”

“If he gets in the way, I’ll kill him.”

“What if Gillian doesn’t want to leave, did you think of that? She didn’t want to leave with me last time.”

“Yes, but I have to find out for certain. I spent six months looking for her, Jordan. I can’t just half-ass it now.” He paused, still holding her gaze. “Agreed?”

“You’re risking a lot on a hunch, Keo. Miller could order them to shoot you down as soon as you show up and just take the ring from your cold, dead hand.”

“I agree, he could do that. But I’m going on faith that he won’t.”

Jordan almost laughed. “Faith in Miller? ”

“Not in him, but in men like him. He thinks of himself as a commander, and every commander collects soldiers. Certain types of soldiers. If he believes that I’ve killed Tobias for him, I think he’ll want to keep me around.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Any man who accepts the kind of job I did-and can pull it off-is valuable these days, don’t you think?”

She smirked. “You ever consider that maybe you’re thinking way too highly of yourself?”

He chuckled. “That’s entirely possible, but I don’t think so.”

“You willing to bet your life on that?”

“Why not? I’ve been doing it for the last six months, looking for you guys. What’s one more day?”

She shook her head before staring intently back at him. “Just shoot him, Keo. Then we can try to save Gillian my way. Without Miller around, the town won’t be nearly as dangerous. We can do this together. You don’t have to go out there and risk everything on some stupid hunch.”