Chapter 2: The Birds Know

The wind was coming out of the north-northeast at seven miles per hour, with a slight swirl near the ridge that told her a thermal column was rising off the rocks. Temperature: eighty-one degrees. Humidity: low. The mirage off the plain rippled left to right, which meant the true wind on the far side of the valley was pulling stronger than the wind on this side. She noted all of it. She noted the shadow patterns. She noted three birds that lifted suddenly off the ridge—which could have meant nothing, or could have meant someone was walking up there. She noted that last one twice.

By the time the sun was halfway down the sky, Kirsti had built a complete picture of her supposedly quiet corner of the world. And her complete picture was telling her something that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

She found Sergeant Davies in the mess tent with Davis and Rodriguez, playing cards.

“Sergeant. May I speak with you?”

“Duncan.” He didn’t look up. “Problem with the princess suite?”

“Sergeant, there’s movement on the northeast face of the Molar. I’ve watched the same ridge for three hours. Birds are lifting in the wrong pattern. There’s a dust disturbance on the reverse slope that doesn’t match the wind. I believe the ridge is being scouted.”

Davies looked up slowly—the way a man looks up when he has decided to be patient with a child.

“By who, Duncan?”

“I don’t know. But if there’s someone on that ridge, they have a perfect sight line into Sectors Two and Three. If they bring up a crew-served weapon, they can enfilade our entire eastern defense.”

“Duncan.” He set his cards face-down on the table. “The Molar is inside our drone patrol envelope. If there was anything up there, we’d know. We’d have thermal on it, ground radar on it—we’d have a Ranger team on it before sundown. There is a system. A system with officers and drones and sensors and years of experience. And the system says the Molar is clear.”