Another footprint. Elise knelt and checked the width. The treads appeared the same as the partial print she had found earlier. She rose swiftly, keeping her eyes on the track for more impressions. A movement came in the brush ahead. She opened her mouth to call out, but her training asserted itself. Impulsiveness often resulted in disaster.

Men’s voices.

Elise’s heart leaped. Harry? Had he remembered their conversation after all?

The men spoke again, and her heart sank. Definitely not Harry.

Elise crouched, her fingers squeezing the clump of moss beside her as two men and a woman appeared, spaced twenty meters apart, working in tandem up the hillside. One carried a handgun at his waist.

Her breath hitched. The forestry commission would not be thus armed. These three must be part of Gilmont’s crew.

Slowly, Elise edged backward into a thicket, her heart thundering. They came on, one of the men passing within two meters of her hiding place.

If these three continued toward the gorge, they would undoubtedly reach the ravine where Elise strongly suspected Sammy had gone.

Gilmont’s minions would doubtless question the lad and discover his ties to her. Once Gilmont found out, he would use Sammy as collateral to precipitate her surrender. One thing was certain: Gilmont and his underlings never left witnesses. Sammy would never go free. She had to reach the lad first and hide him in a secure location.

Selecting a thick-sized branch, she stepped onto the trail and cracked the bough over her knee. The young man spun around and caught sight of her. His eyes bulged.

Pivoting, she darted off the trail and ran up the hillside, zigzagging through the trees to lead them in the opposite direction from the gorge.

A shout. Crashing through underbrush. More shouts.

Like a gazelle, Elise bounded, her adrenaline fueling her flight.

A shot rang out. Bark on the tree ahead of her splintered.

She veered away. Weaving, she darted up through the trees, then slithered to a halt beside a gully. It was deep, etched away by years of natural runoff. Stepping back to give herself some distance, she sprinted forward, then jumped. Landing on scree, her hands clawed for a hold on the opposite side.

Rocks slithered beneath her. Grabbing a root, Elise pulled herself up and over the gully lip, then hid behind a downed tree, too winded to continue. She bent over her knees, gasping for breath while she took stock of her hips. Pain? No. Not really.

Exhaling, she peeked around the trunk, then peered through the vegetation. Her hunters had reached the gully south of her location.

She had to get them off her tail so she could find Sammy. If anything happened to the bairn, how could she ever face Harry again? Or even hold up her own head?

Picking up a rock, Elise flung it uphill and to the west, then crouched low in the fauna.