Once Britt pointed out these notable differences, she could see them through the darkness, but how she found them in the first place impressed Kirsten. It was hard to tell which way they were headed because they seemed to have been standing in all directions. “It’s got to be Rankstine’s men,” she said.
Britt and the others nodded, “They must’ve gotten him first,” Britt said.
“Either that or he took off running and is still hiding in the woods somewhere?” Max suggested.
“Maybe,” Britt said. “If so, he’ll come back tonight. If he’s not back by dawn, we’ll know he’s probably been taken by them.”
“Let’s go back to the house,” Kirsten said. “If there are any more guards, we can use the one we’ve got as a bargaining chip. If there aren’t any and Thomas is still out here, he’ll know it’s safe to come to the house if the lights are on, at least safe enough to investigate who’s there.”
The four made their way back to the farmhouse. Kirsten went inside to gather some lanterns and start a fire while Bo, Max and Britt went to the barn to wait for the spy to awaken.
Max opened the door to the barn. Britt entered first reaching down to grab hold of the man’s constraints and drag him outside. She halted when the man wasn’t laying where they’d left him. She looked up and peered into the darkness of the barn. At first, she couldn’t see very far.
“What’s up?” Max said peeking over her shoulder.
Britt turned, “We left him right here, right?” She pointed to the ground next to the door.
Max opened his mouth to respond but then lunged forward through the door when he saw the silhouette of someone advancing toward Britt with his hands holding something high above his head. Max plowed through the door, knocking Britt out of the way with his right arm and reaching up to stop the downward swing of the assailant with his left. Grabbing the assailant’s arms, still bound together, Max blocked the downward swing and tackled the man to the ground.
Britt was so surprised by the sudden action she stood in awe at the sudden commotion. Bo saw Max dive into the barn and instinctively followed him, pouncing on the man just after Max tackled him to the ground.
The guard’s hands were still bound together, but he’d managed to get them in front of his body. The cord binding his legs had been cut and he must have heard them approaching the barn door before hiding in the shadows. Max and Bo wrestled the man to the ground. They struggled to hold him still when Britt finally came to her senses and helped them.
Once again, they tied his legs together and moved his arms behind his body. This time they made sure the arm and leg restraints were bound tightly together so he couldn’t move his arms in front of his body. Max and Bo gripped his arms firmly behind his back, forcing him to obey their commands and sit still.
Kirsten came out to the barn to see what was taking them so long. Carrying a lit lantern, she discovered what events had transpired. A pipe lay on the ground near the door. The dirt of the barn floor was scuffed and their prisoner sat bloodied and dirty in a chair, lashed by the arms and feet. Max was holding the man still while Bo and Britt tied him to a chair they’d found in the corner of the barn.
“So this is what you’ve been up to?” Kirsten said.
“Our captive almost made a run for it,” Max said through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, he nearly knocked Britt out with that pipe there,” Bo said, tying the last knot to secure the man tightly to the chair.
“Now that he’s awake, we can question him,” Britt said running a hand over her thick, curly black hair.
Chapter 35
Barrier Breach
Kirsten watched as the spy sent by Rankstine squirmed violently against his restraints. This time the cords held him firmly in place, locking him down to the chair in the barn.
“You going to talk to us?” Max asked darkly while raising the man’s chin with his index finger.
The guard responded with muffled shouts, trying to speak through the rag stuffed in his mouth.
“What’s that? I can’t hear you?” Max said pulling the gag from the man’s jaws.
“Just wait until the governor hears about this. You’ll be hanged for kidnapping,” the man spat at Max.
Max raised his hand, balled it into a fist, and was about to bring it down on their prisoner’s face when Kirsten shouted, “Wait!”
Max half hopped forward to stop his momentum from carrying the punch all the way through. Everyone looked at Kirsten in confusion. They saw this man as an extension of Rankstine and wondered what reason she could possibly have to stop Max from striking him.
Shaking his head furiously, Max said, “What?!”
“Come here for a second. All of you,” she motioned her group to the barn door and stepped out into the cool night air.
Once they’d circled in closely, Kirsten looked at each of them individually as she spoke, “I don’t know how many people you’ve tried to beat into talking in the past, but from what I’ve heard, the men loyal to Merglan are trained to take a dagger to the gut before talking. We could beat at him all night and he probably wouldn’t tell us what we need to know.”
“What do you suggest we do then?” Max asked.
Kirsten held her breath for a moment waiting for anyone else to make a suggestion. When no one spoke up, she said, “I’m assuming he thinks like an average soldier.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” Bo asked.
“My father didn’t talk much about his time in the war, but he sometimes spoke about the people he trained and worked with. He mentioned they were trained to follow orders and remain focused on their mission objectives. This guy is probably concentrating on what not to tell us, as he was most likely trained to do in this kind of scenario. If we could distract him in some way we might be able to trick him into telling us what we need to know,” she said, now getting excited.
“How exactly are we going to do that?” Bo asked.
Pointing at Kirsten, Britt turned to Bo and said, “I think she’s onto something. All we need to do is make him think we know more than we do. He might slip up and correct us on something, giving us the information we need.”
“And I’d wager that you don’t have to be a genius to join up with Rankstine. He could be simpler than most soldiers, if he came from rural Westland,” Kirsten added.
“Okay, so what is it that we need to know more about?” Max said, getting on board with the plan.
“When Thomas and I were spying on Rankstine, we saw the orb. We don’t know exactly how it works, but maybe he does,” she said, pointing her thumb in the direction of the barn door beside her. “We also know that kurr are walking in through a secret door in the bubble shield, but we don’t know what he’s planning to do with them.”
“And if there’s a way to escape the bubble,” Bo chimed in enthusiastically.
