They walked toward the staff house with weapons in hand and backpacks on their backs. The cottage stood below the tree line. White clapboard, tin roof, muddy boots under the porch, two chairs facing the woods. No movement.
Louis stopped at the first step.
“Stay behind me,” he said.
Savannah gave him a look. “I can handle this.”
“I know. But this starts with talking.”
She nodded once. They climbed the porch steps together, and Louis knocked twice. Nothing. He knocked again, harder.
Wade’s voice came from inside. “Step off the porch.” Louis heard a small scrape of wood.
“Barlow is dead,” Louis said. “We need to talk.”
Something moved farther inside the cottage. A board creaked. Ruth said something too low to catch.
Then Wade said through the door, “Who killed him?”
Savannah stepped up beside Louis before he could stop her.
“I did.”
The shotgun clicked. Gladice’s hand moved to her pistol. Angelique put one hand lightly against Donya’s back and held her where she was. Willa looked once toward the side window and then back to the door.
Wade said from inside, “Then you best start walking before I decide you should join him.”
“We are here to make you an offer,” Louis said. “We can pay you.”
No one answered at first. Then Ruth spoke.
“Pay for what?”
“To get us out.”
The door did not open. Wade said, “Darnell brought you here. Darnell’s dead. That sounds like your problem, not ours.”
“Barlow sold us to the state,” Louis said. “That’s why he’s dead.”
The latch did not move. Something shifted behind the door.
Ruth said, “Say that again.”
“He called Montgomery before dawn,” Willa said from behind him. “He gave them our departure time, the road, and enough about a mountain holding point to make this place dangerous. He sold us. And he sold you too.”
No one inside answered at once.
Then Ruth said, “You have proof?”
Willa raised the burner phone. “I can show you.”
The curtain at the front window shifted by less than an inch. Louis did not look directly at it. He kept his eyes on the door.
“We need a way out of these mountains,” he said. “You help us. We can pay.”
“How much?” Ruth asked.
“Thirty thousand euros. Cash.” Louis looked at the door. “We have it.”
Wade laughed behind the door.
Ruth said, “Thirty thousand is a lot. But this ain’t a road service. You’re asking us to risk everything.”
“Fifty thousand,” Louis said. “And the cabin is yours after we leave.”
The lock turned. The door opened only a hand’s width at first. Wade stood in the gap with a shotgun held low across his body. Ruth stood farther back in the dim kitchen, holding a revolver at her side. Her eyes moved past Louis to the others. Her expression did not change.
“Show me the proof,” she said.
Willa opened the phone to the call history. She held it up. Ruth stared at it for a long moment, then nodded to Wade.
He lowered the shotgun slowly. “Come in.”
They filed inside, leaving the door open behind them.
“So,” Ruth said. “Darnell really did it.”
“He did,” Savannah said. Her voice was flat.
“The cabin is yours. The money is yours,” Louis said. “We just need a way out.”
Ruth’s face did not change.
“A house that brings Montgomery up the road isn’t much of a gift,” she said.
“They didn’t know the location yet,” Louis said. “Barlow didn’t give it. But they will find it if we are still here.”
Wade turned the shotgun barrel toward the floor. He looked older now, with tired eyes and a tight mouth. “Where you heading?”
“Somewhere the state isn’t expecting us,” Louis said.
Ruth crossed her arms. “You all look like trouble.”
Louis looked at her for a moment.
“Fifty thousand and the cabin,” he said. “That is a good offer.”
“It’s an offer that could get us killed.” Ruth glanced at the open door and the path beyond it. “We were good here. Quiet. No trouble.”
Savannah’s jaw tightened. Gladice shifted her weight.
Louis said, “Then let me make it clearer.”
Angelique glanced at him once, and Louis knew she understood.
Louis said, “We found Grace Holiness Church.”
Wade brought the shotgun up before Louis finished the sentence. Gladice drew her pistol at the same time. Savannah raised hers too, but Louis lifted his bandaged hand between them.
“Lower the guns,” he said.
Gladice did not. Wade held his shotgun steady. Ruth did not move. Donya pressed herself back against the wall.
“I said lower them.” Louis did not raise his voice.
Gladice hesitated, then lowered the weapon. Savannah followed a moment later. Wade lowered the shotgun slowly. His face was pale.
“Are you threatening us?” Ruth asked.
“Yes,” Louis said. “But I’d rather pay you.”
Angelique stepped forward beside him, careful not to move into the shotgun’s line. “If we wanted to turn you in, we would not have come to your door with money. We are trying to survive. You understand that.”
Ruth stared at her, then at Louis.
“I could kill you all right now,” Wade said. “And dump you in the woods.”
“We have more guns than you,” Savannah said. “And we’re not afraid to use them.”
“Enough,” Louis said. “We are running out of time. Here is the deal. We know you are associated with the snake-handling church. We don’t care. But that means you must have a network. You have ways in and out of the mountains that are not on maps. We need one of those ways. We will pay you well for it. Fifty thousand euros and the cabin. Clean and simple.”
Ruth studied his face for a long moment. Then she looked at the others, one by one.
“One hundred thousand,” she said.
Louis looked at her.
“I offered fifty and the cabin.”
“That was before you threatened us. And you have six people.” She crossed her arms. “The rest is for the people I have to call, the favors I have to spend, and the risk you bring to us. One hundred thousand. You can pay or you can get off my land.”
Gladice breathed out through her nose. Willa looked down once, the corner of her mouth moving. Angelique watched Louis.
Louis looked back at Ruth. “Fifty now. Fifty when we reach safety.”
Ruth shook her head. “Eighty now. Twenty later.”
“No.” Louis kept his voice quiet. “That is my offer. You get us to safety, you get the rest. If you betray us, you get nothing.”
Wade looked at Ruth. Ruth held still for a moment, then nodded.
“Fine,” she said. “Pay me now.”
Louis opened his backpack and dumped the bundles of euros onto the kitchen table. The bundles hit the table with a dull sound. Ruth came forward, picked up one bundle, and flipped through it quickly. She counted the rest by sight.
“Are we good?” Louis asked.
She put the money into a drawer and locked it. “I will call someone. You can discuss the rest with my husband.”
She left the room through a back door. Wade sat down slowly at the table, the shotgun resting across his lap.
“Is Darnell still in the cabin?” Wade asked.
“Yes,” Louis said. “We left the body tied up. We didn’t have time.”
“We need to bury him,” Wade said. “Can’t leave him for the birds.”
“We will help.” Louis looked at Savannah. “Will you?”
She nodded once and said nothing.
Wade rubbed his face with one hand. “Come on now. Let’s get it over with.”
They went back to the main house mostly in silence. Barlow’s body was still tied to the post in the basement. The folded canvas stretcher was still where they had left it. Louis, Gladice, Savannah, and Wade cut the restraints and lowered the body onto it. It took all four of them to carry him up the basement stairs. They moved slowly, one step at a time, then took him out through the side door into the yard.
Wade grabbed a shovel from the porch. He pointed toward a spot beneath a pine tree. “There.”
Savannah took the second shovel and went to work without a word.
“You’ve done this before,” Gladice said, watching her drive the blade into the earth.
Savannah glanced at her, then kept digging.
“People die all the time where I’m from,” she said. “You learn to dig fast.” Her shovel struck a rock and she cursed.
“Let me help,” Louis said.
“No. Stay put.” Savannah did not look up. “You ain’t made for this.”
“I can handle it.”
“You can’t. You’re gonna open that bite again, and we ain’t got time.” She drove the shovel in again. “Go inside and finish packing if you want to be useful.”
Louis nodded and went back inside. Gladice watched Savannah drive the shovel into the ground once more, then followed him. Willa was wiping blood from the floorboards with a damp towel. Donya sat on the couch with her hands folded in her lap. Angelique leaned close and murmured something to her, and Donya’s shoulders eased a little.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Louis said to Donya.
She looked up at him. “It’s not your fault.”
“I’m still sorry.”
“Thank you.” She took a breath. “Will it be like this all the time?”
“No,” Angelique said. “Not all the time.”
“Some of the time,” Gladice added. “Depending on the day.”
Donya looked from her to Louis. “I prayed for courage. I think Allah is testing us.”
“Then we will pass,” Louis said. He touched her arm. “I promise.”
Gladice started stacking food in a backpack. “Can we all agree that Barlow was an asshole?”
“He was a survivor who made the wrong choice,” Angelique said.
“He sold us out to the state,” Willa said, without looking up from the floor. “Wrong choice is an understatement.”
“But I took care of his wounds,” Donya said. “I talked to him. I cooked meals for him. Now he’s dead in the ground. It’s strange.”
“Sometimes people you help turn on you,” Angelique said. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help people.”
“Unless they’re trying to kill you,” Gladice said. “Then you should kill them first.”
Donya lowered her gaze to her hands. “I don’t know if I could ever do that.”
“You don’t have to,” Louis said. “We will protect you.”
She looked up and nodded once. Then she went to help pack the medical supplies.
Ruth returned as they finished stacking the bags by the door.
“There is a farm in eastern Kentucky,” she said. “It belongs to a family we trust. They can hide you for a while. The rest of the way is on you.”
“How do we get there?” Louis asked.
“Wade will drive you to their property. From there, you’re on your own.”
“Alright.” He nodded. “When do we leave?”
“Now.” She looked at the clock on the wall. “The sooner, the better.”
“I need to send a quick text first.”
“Do it fast.”
Louis looked at Willa. “Now.”
She had already opened the Athena phone. “Ready.”
He composed the message in his mind first, keeping it short and clear.
Plan compromised. Abort extraction. Proceeding overland. Will contact when safe. LC
He typed it in and sent. Then he gave the phone back to Willa.
“Good?”
“Good.”
Ruth motioned toward the door. “Go. My husband will drive you. Some of you have to ride in the back.”
“We don’t mind," Gladice said. “As long as you can get us out of here.”
“How about the van?” Louis asked.
“I’ll get rid of it,” Ruth said. “Don’t worry about it.”
Louis nodded. “Then we’re ready.”
He led the way out of the house. The others followed, their backpacks bumping against each other. Wade and Savannah were rinsing their hands with a hose. They looked up as they approached. Wade wiped his hands on his pants and went to the four-door pickup truck parked in front of the porch.
They loaded the last of the bags into the truck bed. Louis climbed into the open bed of the pickup and settled among the backpacks with his back against the cab. The metal floor was cold under him. Angelique climbed in after him, pulling herself over the tailgate with one hand and keeping the other on the strap of her pack. She sat beside him, close enough that her shoulder touched his, and wedged one boot against a crate.
Gladice took the front passenger seat. Donya hesitated, then joined Willa and Savannah in the rear seats. Wade started the engine. The truck rolled down the gravel path and onto the service road. Louis looked back at the cabin. The road bent into the trees, and the cabin disappeared behind them. Georgetown was gone, Barlow was buried, and the only road left ran west.
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