Randi came back for him, pulling him to his feet and taking some of his body weight as they hobbled down a slippery bank toward a stream turned black by the moonlight. They dropped to their stomachs in the mud and searched behind them, but there was only the dark outline of the forest. The three men were still coming—of that there was no doubt. But they’d gone silent.

“Damn!” she said, so quietly that he barely heard despite the fact that they were lying nearly on top of each other.

Her frustration was understandable. He’d played a similar game countless times over the past months. Their opponents had heat detection, light amplification, outline enhancement, targeting, and a host of other military-specific apps. What he had was a thin polo shirt, a swelling ankle, and a pair of slick-soled penny loafers.

“I can’t keep up,” he said, lips brushing Randi’s ear in an attempt to defeat their pursuer’s audio enhancement. It would be canceling out the sound of the wind and the brook behind them, searching for any noise that could be human-generated. “I hit your damn barbecue on the way down. But even if I hadn’t, we’re outmatched.”

She spoke equally softly. “Are you suggesting we surrender?”

That wouldn’t end well. But neither would their current non-strategy. The fact that their attackers hadn’t appeared and taken them out might suggest caution on their part. Or it could just mean that they were taking the time to flank them and would soon be coming in from all sides.

“No,” he said, looking at the water behind them as an idea started to form. “But we’re not going to win a fair fight with these three.”

“I’m all for making it an unfair fight if you’ve got something figured out.”

He pointed at a dense row of bushes to their right. “Go for those. When you get through them, head north.”

Even in the dim light he could see her skepticism. “Bullshit. You’re going to sacrifice yourself so I can get away.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like you that much. Keep your earpiece in. If you don’t hear from me in five, you’re not going to. If you do hear from me, do everything I tell you to the letter. Now give me your knife.”

She handed it to him but clearly wasn’t happy about the plan. Alternatives were hard to come by, though, and a moment later she was slithering into the bushes.

Despite her skill, the branches moved enough to be picked up by their pursuers’ motion detection overlay, but still there was silence. No doubt they didn’t want to give away their positions until they had a high-percentage shot.

Smith lowered his head and waited. Thirty seconds. A minute. Finally, he heard the rustle of branches at eleven o’clock.