STARKEY TOOK FULL command that morning. Unlike the other hikers on the AT, he kept his men deep in the woods, unseen by their fellow travelers or anyone else.
It wasn’t hard to do. In their past lives they’d spent days, sometimes weeks, being invisible to enemies who were out to find and kill them but frequently ended up getting killed themselves. One time it had been a team of four homicide detectives in Tampa, Florida.
Starkey demanded that they treat this like a real-life combat mission, in real-life war. Total silence was imperative. They used hand signals most of the time. If someone had to cough, he did so in his neck rag or in the crook of an arm. Their rucksacks had been packed tight by Sergeant Griffin so that nothing shook or rattled as they walked.
The three of them had slathered on bug juice, then laid on the cammo. They didn’t smoke a cigarette all day.
No mistakes.
Starkey figured that the kill would take place somewhere between Harpers Ferry and an area known as Loudoun Heights. Parts of the trail were densely forested there, an endless green tunnel that would be good for their purposes. The trees were mostly deciduous, leafy, no conifers. A lot of rhododendron and mountain laurel. They noticed everything.
They didn’t actually make camp that night, and were careful not to leave evidence that they had been in the woods at all.
Brownley Harris was sent on another scouting mission at seven-thirty that night, just before it got dark. When he returned, the sun was gone and darkness had fallen like a shroud over the AT. The woods had a kind of jungle feel, but it was only an illusion. A state road ran about half a mile from where they were standing.
Harris reported in to Starkey. “Target One is approximately two klicks ahead of us. Target Two is less than three. Everything’s still looking good for us. I’m pumped.”
“You’re always ready for a hunt and kill,” said Starkey. “But you’re right, everything’s working for us. Especially this friendly, trust-your-neighbor mind-set all these recreational hikers have.”
Starkey made the command decision. “We’ll move to a point midway between Targets One and Two. We’ll wait there. And remember, let’s not get sloppy. We’ve been too good for too long to blow it now.”