Chapter 1

Layla

Layla hung off the cliffside, hundreds of feet above the alien landscape of the Nevada desert. She paused to check her GPS. She wondered why her boss had sent her this far off the course she had been set upon. Her rock hammer dug into the brutal side of the mountain. She had strapped herself against the cliff, exploring each centimeter to look for a vein. This was the third place she had been sent looking for a mineral thread, and it had begun to appear to be another miss.

Her dark sunglasses protected her from the harsh light. Light reflected off the swirling pastel colors resulting from the local erosion within the sharp red stone's crater. The landscape was breathtaking to her. She could take several photos while hanging off the cliff. The GoPro on her head was for work, allowing them to see all the footage of the dig sites she worked on. She had the area to herself, the last town she had stayed in was nearly thirty miles away, and no one else was rock hunting. The area belonged to the government, but she had special permission to hunt through the region. Her work with Titan Ki Technology was contracted with the military and government, allowing them into the unusual parts of the Nevada desert owned by them.

She continued to sweat faster than she could drink in the over one-hundred-degree weather. Her skin had been turned a dark golden tan over the summer dig through Nevada. Taking her bandana to wipe off the sweat, she adjusted the ropes to keep her steady while she took a quick drink of water from her canteen to keep her going.

The scream ripped through the air. Layla dropped the canteen with a jerk, looking up. The echoes of a woman's voice bounced off the rocky area, the body falling off the cliff above Layla. Grabbing her rope and stays, she pulled herself right onto the off-patterned stone, ignoring the possible intake of radioactive materials she could be breathing in. The canteen bounced off the ground a moment before the body joined it. Clinging to the wall, she heard someone else shouting from the top. Layla made a desperate grab for her satellite phone from Titan Ki Technology—for emergencies—and hit the speed dial for help. There was a first time for everything, this being the first call made on that phone. With how rarely she thought about it, it was just out of habit she was carrying it, and she was happily surprised she had it turned on. The call went out.

"Layla?" The woman's voice came through clearly and without the static of regular satellite phones, being out in the middle of nowhere. "What's wrong?"

Someone was just tossed off the cliff I am on. There are other people up there screaming," Layla sputtered quietly to avoid giving any indication to those above her that someone was hanging off the cliff below them.

"Stay calm if you can. Give me a minute." She paused at the statement. Layla held herself against the wall, gritting her teeth given that there was nothing she could do. She had to stay here, pretending to be calm.

The male voice started shouting again, followed by a new high-pitched screech. Layla shot another glance upward, seeing the edges of a man on the cliff heading back toward her. They would fall tragically by her, and there was nothing she could do. It wasn't like an action movie where she had a chance in hell of grabbing him midfall. The man started to make a howling noise of pain.

Another voice, cold as the day was hot, spoke clearly enough for her to hear. "Yes, little monster, I am not what you think. No government lackey here to worry about what you are. I am the exterminator of things like you." The shot rang off the stones around her, and it rained blood spatter as the next body zoomed past her to the ground, far too close to the other corpse and the canteen she had dropped when it all started. Tears leaked from her eyes—two lives lost below her and nothing from the phone line she held tight to. It was a useless lifeline. For now, she had to play it smart and avoid the other man. Ripping her gaze away from the bodies. She looked up to see the man leaning over the edge, looking down at her. He saw her and was pulling out a scope to get a better look at the witness to his crimes.

They stared with surprise and wonder at one another. The man broke away first, pulling his gun to attach the scope. Then, he watched her hanging against the cliff face. She cursed before the first bullet rang near her, missing but hurrying her along. She had spent years repelling and climbing, but this was the first time running for her life. Down was the only direction she might be able to go before he could get her. He, too, had gear and could follow her, but he didn't seem to from her angle.

Letting the hooks loose, Layla took a moment to check everything was fully attached, hanging the phone on her belt after a quick explanation that she had been found and the GoPro had been filming everything. She turned her body to start the frantic repel down the mountainside. Each bounce would make her a moving target before she reached the bottom, nearly a hundred-foot drop. Layla had to assume that a mark on the move was more challenging to hit than a stationary one. This was one of the things she hoped Hollywood had gotten right.

Several gunshots continued around her, none hitting her before she heard him curse. The bullets stopped, and she finished the last fifty feet, landing roughly, close to the bodies crumpled on the ground. Ripping off the lines, she would have to leave some of her gear attached. Layla looked up to see if she could see him, but he had left the edge of the mountain. She ducked under the overhang. Layla slowed her head movements to capture the scene around her on the camera. Once she was in range, it would upload to her work server, preserving her work and this crime.

She heard a voice on her phone and grabbed it to listen as two people spoke, trying to get a response from her. The woman who answered and Grant, her boss, were on the line.

"Layla? Please answer," Grant spoke. Thankfully he wasn't yelling but loud enough for her to hear him over the blood rushing through her ears.

"Grant," Layla started as both voices silenced against the background clicks from the phone system. "I'm here, and okay for now. There is a guy here that has killed two people and shot at me several times."

"We have your location. None of our people on the ground are close enough to help. We have a call the military and government, given the land you are currently on," Grant said before the woman who answered spoke up.

"Can you get to your vehicle, Ms. Black?"

"It is nearly ten miles away in fairly open terrain. I am currently using the mountain as cover," she replied. Switching her rock hammer to her dominant hand and propping the phone against her shoulder to hold it up, giving her a second free hand to help hold herself against the rock side. "I have it on video."

"That won't update until you get closer to a cellular tower," the woman spoke against several more clicking noises from keyboards.

"We are using our contacts to get help to you. It will have to be military. They are closer," Grant spoke. "We have them on another line to work out a deal. We will have them use the GPS attached to you for tracking."

"Understood."

"They don't know about you," the woman spoke, the understanding settling between them.

"I can manage."

"But if it is your life on the line, do what you must," Grant spoke, leaving it open for Layla to have some wiggle room. She wasn't one to go against the rules to keep them safe.

"Agreed. What do I do until help arrives?"

"It is being arranged with our contacts. Until then, keep out of sight, don't return to your car or places you have been to recently," Grant explained as other conversations continued behind him. "It looks like they are sending an agent to retrieve you safely."

While they figured out what to do about her situation. Layla shuffled the items in her backpack to get the spare water bottle and attach the phone with a small bungee cord to keep it close to her head. It allowed her to start ducking and slowly walking and crawling next to the mountain. She worked to stay out of the cliff's line of sight, as she had no idea if he had considerable firepower or the gear to get down quickly. It would be useful if he had to drive down the mountain. It might give her enough time to escape.

"What about the killer?" Layla asked. She was being tracked through the sand and mountain terrain by the network security. Still, the possibilities continued to run through her head.

"The satellite has not shifted completely into range yet, so no visual at this time." She understood. She was alone. No signal was going to stay active to keep tracking her. Neither her people nor the guy following her could track her. "Did you get footage of the two who were killed?"

"A passing glance. I can get another pass before I work on where to go." Turning low to the ground, she made her way back to the bodies, which were starting to smell in the heat. Glancing upward, she couldn't see anything on top of the mountain or cliffside, so she hurried to the corpses to take long scans over each of them. The girl was maybe in her mid-twenties, close to Layla's age, with the blessing of blonde hair—or a great hairdresser—and a suntan.

She had the worst of the damage, broken and battered before the fall finished her. The guy might have been older, but his face was ruined from the bullet, and it was hard to tell, given the damage he sustained from the fall. Locks of sandy hair were scattered around his thin, frail body. Returning to the edge of the mountain, she gave the information she had before they found a pathway for her to take away from the SUV and towns. She would continue to keep to the mountains and rocks if she could manage. Several abandoned mines were around, along with several day treks to the military town used for testing. Not a real village. One built to see how it withstood a nuke dozens of miles away.

She dragged out the old geological study to map out where they were sending her. Layla knew that help was coming, but no one could tell her when someone would or could get to her. All she had to do was not die before someone arrived and, until then, avoid an armed and dangerous killer. Layla left the call less sure than before, but her ability to handle a desert was one of the reasons she was so good at her job. She refreshed her coat of sunscreen and dust, working on blending into her background. Keeping to the shade and avoiding the cacti, she left the scene to disappear into the daytime heat.