Rebecca glanced to the right through gaps in the sparse trees as they tore along a somehow even narrower road. It looked like the second truck had come to a halt behind the rolled one. Whether it was simply blocked or stopped to help, she'd take it.

Meanwhile, Sam was on the radio to Chrissie again. "Mile and a half on this until we hit solid tree cover. Then both next lefts, ten miles apart."

Rebecca lifted one hand from the wheel to poke at the GPS, zooming it out. Sam was taking them back across the road they'd originally been on, beyond the view of their pursuers. It was roundabout, but devious. "Nice."

Sam grinned then slumped back against the seat, lowering the maps with a sigh. "Let's not do that again."

"Yeah, right there with ya." Rebecca glanced in the mirror. "You alright back there, Landry?"

He was sitting back on the other side now, behind Sam, rubbing red seatbelt marks on his forearm. "Ten fingers and ten toes. Fun little gun you've got there."

"You did good. I really didn't want to have to drive and shoot at the same time if they got past you... or have Sam's SMG in my face."

He gave her an informal Boy Scout-style salute and turned his attention to draining a significant portion of a canteen, so Rebecca shifted her attention back to Sam. "Y'okay, Rosie?"

Sam was still catching her breath. "Ish. Starting to think I'll run out of adrenaline by the time today is over."

Rebecca reached over to squeeze her hand briefly before grasping the steering wheel again. "You wanna try checking in with Ronnie? She should probably know about this."

"Yeah, okay." Sam fiddled with the radio controls where it was bolted to the center console near her leg, then started transmitting again. "Victor Three, Echo. Victor Three, Echo, come back."

Sam waited several seconds and tried again. "Damn. Guess we're out of range or line of sight." Then, into the radio handset again, "Any Victor units from Echo Two. Please respond."

A crackly reply came back a moment later. "Echo, go for Victor Two Romeo."

Sam and Rebecca both breathed sighs of relief. Davis and his folks were at the armory, last they'd heard. "Victor Two, Echo. Encountered unknown hostile checkpoint near grid four-eight-triple-zero, four-zero-eight-double-zero. We're fine, pursuit evaded. Continuing mission. Please relay status to Victor Three Six, over."

"Copy, Echo Two. Hostiles near four-eight-zero-zero-zero, four-zero-eight-zero-zero. Echo green, charlie mike. Will relay. Over."

Rebecca gently reminded Sam about the uniforms and Humvees.

"Shit, right." She pushed the transmit key on the handset again. "Victor Two, supplemental - initial hostile contacts were in US military uniforms and vehicles. Additionals in civilian trucks." Then after a moment's contemplation, "Comm security unknown, over."

Fuck. Rebecca had been too busy to think of that, and was glad Sam did. Hopefully the fact that Tierman regularly ordered new encryption seeds for her units meant the badguys couldn't hear them, even if they possessed and knew how to use military radio gear.

Rebecca had time to think all that through before the reply came back. "Victor Three copies. Any additional traffic? Over."

"Negative, Victor Three. Echo out."

"Stay safe, Echo. Victor Three out."

Everyone stayed silent for the next few minutes, as Rebecca made the second left turn back towards the original road. After they crossed that intersection, Sam spoke up again.

"So... funny thing. There's no fucking towns near here. Do you want a convenient shady spot overlooking where we first ran into those assholes so we can see where they go, or do you wanna just keep heading northwest?"

Rebecca grinned over at her. "Well when you sell it like that... it would probably be good to get a little more intel on them. Let's talk to the others though, offline."

"I figured you'd say both of those. I'll find somewhere to pull over for a minute."

**

Sam was good for her word. After a quick roadside conversation inside a partially enclosed tractor shed, she guided them up a winding road into the hills bordering the valley they'd been traveling through. Right near the crest, the trees gave way to a ridge top road with excellent lines of sight.

Landry suggested they park the SUV's blocking the road behind them for cover, just before exiting the woods. He stayed there watching their flank with Patrick and Christine, and Rebecca led the others forward — Sam for the maps and Epstein in the hopes he might be able to recognize something useful about the Humvees.

About a hundred yards past where they'd parked was a gravel turnout at the side of the road. As they approached the edge where it dropped off into the hillside slope, they hunkered down and belly-crawled the last several feet to peer over the side with binoculars and the long scope on Felicia. Sam helped them match their position to the view, and it didn't take long to follow the curving county road to a familiar looking tree and cluster of vehicles.

Miles away, there was no hope Rebecca could tag one of their attackers from there. It didn't stop her from fantasizing about it though. "Looks like the one pickup truck came back. Strange that they're just sitting around though."

"I guess they're not worried about us coming back, or calling friends," Sam muttered. "Fools."

"Right? Lance, can you pick out anything special about their rides?"

Rebecca heard him shift on the dirt and gravel past Sam. "Other than the fact that there's nothing special at all, no. Those are just pretty standard cargo and troop carriers, most exciting thing might be a winch."

"At least there's that. These guys seem pretty small time. Locals who scooped up some surplus trying to trick folks?"

"Probably. We saw incidents of that overseas too."

"Charming." Sam's voice was possibly record levels of droll.

Rebecca lifted her head away from the scope and looked at her in concern, but wasn't sure what to do about it just then. This day was hitting Sam unfairly hard and Rebecca deeply wished she could do something to fix it for her. Having to accept she couldn't sucked, big time. It was especially difficult whenever she looked at Sam's eyes, absent their usual spark. Just something smoldering there within... even a blaze would've been more familiar.

She waited several minutes until Epstein was back down the hill in search of an available tree. The next time Sam to look up from the binoculars, Rebecca lay a gentle hand on her elbow. "Hey, any time you need to talk..."

Sam set the binoculars down and rested her head on her folded arms, looking at Rebecca. "I know, sugar. I know you wanna help. If I think of something, I'll let you know. Promise."

"Okay. I'll stuff my pockets with pennies until you're ready."

That at least brought a little smile that managed to touch Sam's eyes briefly. "Sounds like a plan, thank you Remy." With that, she resumed her vigil through the binoculars.

Rebecca might have given her rifle a cat-like name, but right now as she withdrew her hand, she couldn't help feeling like Sam, her dear vivacious Sam, was the dangerous tension crouched in the grass next to her.

Close to sunset, maybe an hour before, the tiny distant figures entered their vehicles. As the afternoon had drawn long, Rebecca told Epstein to break out the night vision goggles, one in each driver's seat, and to pull the fuses for the SUV's daytime running lights. Now, once it was clear their foes were on the move, she gestured at both vehicles and made a key-turning motion.

Sam had picked out two more vantage points that their group raced to along the ridge in the fading light, not quite needing the light amplification yet. They also didn't need both locations — at the first, they waited for their quarry to come into view, then watched them turn down a side road, into the shade of a valley that seemed to widen beyond the initial constricting gully. Rebecca thought she caught a glint in the distance, called for Landry to bring up the goggles, and held them to her eyes.

Most of the terrain on the far side of the valley was still whited out in the fading sun. The auto contrast took some time to compensate, darkening the gulley... and drew out a pair of bright pinpoints in the distance.

The vermin had a nest.