Footprints. Alex Archer
the distance.
“Is that a waterfall?”
Joey nodded. “Yep. Better to see it in the daylight, though. At night it’s not the same thing. Unless, of course, there’s a full moon. Then it’s pretty spectacular.”
“I’ll have to remember that. How much farther along is she?”
Joey stopped and pointed through the trees. “There. You see the fire? She’s right there.”
Annja couldn’t see Jenny but she could make out the glow of the firelight. So could anyone else who might be out tonight. “You think that was such a good move? That fire’s like a spotlight.”
“It was either that or your friend dies,” Joey said. “I thought saving her was a little more important than being stealthy about it.”
Annja nodded. “You’re right, sorry. It’s just I can’t help thinking about those guys roaming around in the night, looking for someone to kill.”
Joey waved his hand. “Those guys are probably back in their tents, sleeping off a drunk. I saw an empty beer can in one of their jackets.”
“What about animals? Would any of them attack Jenny if they knew she couldn’t defend herself?”
“Highly unlikely. Cheehawk is about as big a predator as we get around here and he wouldn’t bother her.”
“Mountain lion?”
“Last report was from twenty years back,” Joey said. “Long before my time. And I’ve explored these woods well enough to think that if there was one around, I would have run into him.”
“Okay.”
Joey led her farther down the trail and then the ground sloped upward again. “How she made it as far as she did is pretty amazing. I would have guessed that she’d lie down close to the waterfall, but she apparently wanted to get to high ground and try to use it as a navigational aid.”
“Jenny’s made of tough stuff,” Annja said. “She knows how to handle herself.”
“Well, weather can break anyone down,” Joey said. “Even with training and various other tools, the weather can still beat you. You’ve got to respect it. She should have just hunkered down and gotten shelter and waited out the storm.”
“Good advice,” Annja said. “I’ll make sure she gets the message.”
Joey smirked. “I already read her the riot act. She knows she screwed up. But she’s looking forward to seeing you.”
“So am I,” Annja said. “Is it much farther?”
“Just over the next rise.”
Annja smiled. It would be good to see Jenny again, even if she was in a state. At least she was alive. That was the important thing. All they had to do was get her back to town so she could be checked by a local doctor to make sure she had no lingering problems.
Joey ducked off the trail.
“She went this way?” Annja asked.
Joey nodded. “As I said before, in her condition, her travel wasn’t orderly. The stumbling kept her going along downhill, but once she started to climb, she veered from the trail and ended up a few yards off the beaten path, so to speak.”
“How’d you find her, then?”
“I cast around looking for her tracks and found them. As I got closer, I could hear her murmuring something and that was it.”
“Lucky the wind died down enough so you could hear her.”
“I can filter the effects of the wind on my ears,” Joey said. “It’s an old trick I learned a long time ago from my grandfather. It helps to always be able to hear even when the wind is screaming.”
“That grandfather of yours is something else.”
“Just old family traditions, Annja. Nothing more.”
“So you say.”
Joey pointed. “It’s just over the next hill there. I moved her out of the wind and got a fire wall built to reflect the heat back on to her. Then I covered her up with a bunch of pine boughs. She should be nice and toasty by now.”
Annja crested the hill with Joey still in the lead.
Joey stopped abruptly. “Hey…”
Annja came up behind him. “What’s the matter?”
Joey pointed down the hill. “What the hell?”
Annja looked. She could see the fire with its flames still eagerly eating their way through the wood. The fire wall and pine boughs were also nearby.
But Jenny was nowhere to be seen.
6
“Where is she?”
Joey shook his head. “She was here, I swear it! I left her right there. She was sound asleep. Exhausted. There’s no way she could have just gotten up and walked away.”
“Are you sure?”
Joey eyed her. “Of course, I’m sure. You don’t think I had something to do with this, do you?”
Annja had to remind herself that Joey was only fourteen years old. The way he carried himself, he seemed so much older. But did it make any sense for him to somehow hurt Jenny? She frowned. Of course it didn’t.
“Sorry. I guess I’m used to too many people in my life not being what they claim to be.”
Joey scampered down the slope and began checking the area around the pine boughs. “There are no tracks here.”
“What? How is that possible?”
He pointed. “You can see the impression her body weight made on the bed of pine boughs. That’s where I left her. But look at the ground. There’s nothing much here to read. Even for someone like me.”
“Is it possible she just got up and walked away?”
“Not without leaving some type of sign. I’d be able to read it, especially since I’ve grown pretty familiar with her track type. There’s nothing here. It’s like she just up and vanished.”
Annja looked around. The approach to the knoll was fairly well sheltered. Would the gunmen have been able to spot the fire and mount a kidnapping so quickly? And if they had, shouldn’t there be some type of track for Joey to find?
“This doesn’t make sense. She’s got to be around here,” Annja said.
Joey shook his head. “Impossible. She’d need to have a stride like King Kong in order to walk away without me having anything to follow. No way. She’s not here—she somehow got snatched by someone skillful enough to erase their tracks like they weren’t even there. And that’s some major skill. I don’t know anyone but my grandfather who could pull it off.”
“And yet someone clearly has.”
“Yep.”
Annja frowned. “My real concern right now is that Jenny might be in some serious trouble. She might be close to death again, being away from the fire.”
Joey nodded. “Well, whoever grabbed her, they at least had the good sense to take the tea I made for her. It’s gone, too.”
Overhead, the storm clouds finally broke apart and drifted away, illuminating the area with moonlight. Annja was amazed at how much better she could see the surrounding area now. It was almost, but not quite, like being out in the daylight.
“Well, that will help,” Joey said.
“How long did it take you to get her settled before you came to see me?”
“About twenty minutes to get her squared away, and