Ghostwalker 03 - Night Game

keeping his weight evenly distributed at all times until he gained solid ground.

    Gator leapt to his feet and began his pursuit of the other soldiers. No one had answered his question, but they were enhanced and Rick Fielding had definitely been in the same room with him while he took the test to determine psychic talent. Gator had assumed, obviously erroneously, that Fielding hadn’t made the cut.

    The GhostWalkers drifted out of the trees, pacing alongside of Gator, checking his condition out. Ian MacGillicuddy. Tucker Addison. Kadan Montague. They were in full combat gear and tossed him a rifle and several clips of ammunition.

    “You okay?” Kadan asked. “I brought a medic kit.”

    “Flame needs it. Alligator attack. It broke her arm, but she fought it off. We’ve got three men left here. One’s a definite shielder. I’m using low-frequency sound waves to keep them sick and disoriented so they don’t have a lot of fight in them. They just want to get the hell out, We need someone alive so we can follow them back to who ever is running them.”

    They kept on the move, covering ground as fast as possible. “You’re certain these men aren’t part of Jack Norton’s team?”

    Gator shook his head. “Jack’s team works mainly NCIS when they aren’t running ops.
    These men are more like mercenaries. I’d met one of them. His name was Rick Fielding.
    He took the test in the same group I did. I don’t know who they work for, but they aren’t very pleasant. And the dead one threatened Flame.”

    Kadan shot him a quick glance. “No wonder he’s dead.”

    The GhostWalkers spread out across the small island, several feet between them as they began to stalk their prey. The men ahead of them would have no choice but to keep moving or turn and fight. They wanted to regroup. And they didn’t want to take on a skilled army no matter how small it was. Gator continued to pulse low-frequency waves in front of them, not hard enough to kill, but to make the men sick.

    “They’re splitting up,” Tucker announced, pointing to tracks. “Can you hear them, Gator?”

    Gator shook his head. “Their shielder is strong. He’s been very resistant to the sound waves. I figured they’d split up. It’s the only chance they really have for any of them to get out.” With the sound waves coming at them, they knew if they split up, they had a better chance to elude the pulsing waves Gator was sending at them.

    Ian indicated he was climbing He slung his rifle around his neck and went for the tallest cypress tree in their vicinity. As he climbed, Tucker, Kadan, and Gator looked over the tracks carefully.

    “That’s the shielder,” Kadan said, indicating a path to their right. “He’s moving fast.”
    For the first time there was a note of worry in his voice. “He’s locked on and is hunting.”

    Gator felt a sudden cold chill go down his spine “Flame’s back there.” He indicated the other side of the island. “I’ll take the medic kit to her.”

    The sound of rifle fire reverberated through the swamp. Birds rose shrieking their annoyance. Ian joined them on the ground. “Knew one of them would get the clever idea of lying back to wait for us. He was sitting in a tree a few hundred yards from here.” He nudged Tucker. “Must have not liked your looks. He had his sights set for you. Guess I saved your life.”

    Tucker gave a derisive snort. “Guess you’re full of yourself. Bullets bounce off me. I’ve got my superman shirt on today.”

    “Is that where my shirt went? You thief. I been looking for it ever since I did laundry.”
    Even as they wrangled back and forth good-naturedly, they were scanning the ground for more tracks.

    Kadan dropped down to examine a footprint. It was small and right over the top of it was the shielder’s print.

    “There’s blood here, Gator, and it isn’t from one of their team,” Kadan announced.

    Gator crouched down to touch the smears of blood on the leaves. “She left me. Damn her for this. She left me.”

    The earth vibrated beneath their feet and shook the smaller puddles of water gathered in several depressions, drawing his attention. He sucked in his breath and fought back the need to express his anger and growing fear. Already the trees around him were shaking.
    He drew in a hard breath. “One of them is tracking her. When I catch up with her, I’m going to shake that woman until her teeth rattle.”

    That’ll help,” Ian agreed.