Cora wipes the sweat from her forehead as she blends in with the trees surrounding a huge property. She was glad there was a forest on the edge of the property the tracks and spirits lead her too. There was too much land cleared between the forest and where the main house was built. She’ll have to wait till it gets dark before she could move any further on the property. She spotted several hidden cameras watching the property.

Her sensitive ears pick up the sounds of someone coming towards her location. She looks for a tall tree and starts climbing up it. She climbs up as high as she can and blend in with the limb she is on. She watches as two men wearing camouflage clothing and carrying what looked like AR15’s stop right below her.

They look around the area she just vacated. It was a good thing she was trained by some of the hunters on the reservation. They taught her how to blend in with her environment and not leave any trace. The ancient Native Americans use to be extremely good at it. Nowadays it was becoming a lost art.

“I swear if this is another wild goose hunt. I’m going to punch, Levie.” Aaron looks at his partner.

“We can’t be too careful, Aaron. There’s a lot riding on this heist. Think about your cut from it.”

“I am thinking about my cut. It’s too bad that bitch ruined that EMP device. It would make the heist easier.”

“True, it would have. However, we can still go along with the original plan.”

The two men continued to look around for a few more minutes, before walking off. Cora watches them, to see if there was a particular path or route they took. However, it didn’t look like there was one. Also, how did someone know she was here? She stays up in the tree and watches the place.

Late in the evening, she spots one of the helicopters they were looking for, landing. She pulls her binoculars out to get a closer look at it. It wasn’t the Apache that had been taken. It looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember what type of helicopter it was.

She watches as the pilot exists from the helicopter. When he removes his helmet, she reaches for her camera as quickly as she can and snaps a few pictures of him. She noticed that he had a unique hairstyle where the sides of his head were shaved almost bald and a short mohawk in the middle of his head.

She watches as the co-pilot gets out of the helicopter. The other person was shorter than the pilot and was female. When the person removes their helmet, they had a messy pixie cut strawberry blonde hair. The ends of the hair cut were frosted. She looked to be European or Russian.

“I wonder who you are and who your pilot friend is?” Cora puts her camera away.

She climbs down out of the tree she was in and look up at the sky. It was a cloudy night, so the clouds were hiding the moon. Her eyes start glowing which allows her to see into the darkness like her namesake. She knew where the cameras were that were watching the property.

She darts across the yard as quickly as she could, while avoiding the cameras. She keeps low to the ground, so if someone does catch her on the camera, she would look like an animal crossing the yard. She makes it to the main house and locates an opening that would allow her to crawl under the house.

She was glad that she was small and slender as she crawls under the house and tries to locate where everyone was inside the house. She hears muffled voices from near the center of the house. She crawls over towards that location and makes a small hole in the insulation. She pulls out a stethoscope she has started carrying. Even with her enhanced hearing, she still couldn’t make out what they were saying. She places the stethoscope against the wood and listens to the conversation.

“So, is everything set for tomorrow?”

“Yes, the transport will be on route 87 tomorrow. My informant down at the Marshal office confirmed the time and route they will be taken.”

“How many escorts?”

“Four escorts with sixteen fully armed guards to protect the transport.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. We have everything we need to handle them.”

“Don’t get cocky. These are highly trained Marshals guarding that transport. Some of the meanest and nasty ones around. So, you better be on your game tomorrow.” Alex Peresviet looks at the men at the table. He was getting paid good money to support them.

Cora wonders why they were going after transport. What was so special about transport and why so many Marshals were guarding it. She listens for a little while longer and after a while, she here’s them moving around.

Cora wishes she had some sort of tracking device to put on the helicopter. That way Katey or someone from Aero Flight can stop them. She
starts crawling back out from under the house and just as she exists. All the lights around the place come on.

“SHIT!” Cora looks around and noticed she was surrounded by at least six people with guns.

“What do we have here? A person dressed in a costume?”

Cora looks at the person talking to her. She was aware of where the other people were that surrounded her. She slowly takes a deep breath and gets ready to react.

“Now, why don’t you drop to your knees, with your hands behind your back.” A smirk appears on the guy's face.

Cora doesn’t say anything as her eyes flash red. She sweeps her hands outward and four obsidian knives fly from each hand. They hit the targets she was aiming for. She moves quickly as a bullet strikes right where she was standing.

A guy near Cora tries to shoot her, but she knocks his legs out from under him. A guy grabs her from behind in a bear hug and squeezes her. He tightens his grip on her and starts trying to crush her rib cage.

Cora tries flipping the guy squeezing her, but she couldn’t enough leverage to flip him. She couldn’t get either her hands to her belt to pull her knife. Her head snaps back as a fist hit her jaw.

A low growl escapes from her mouth, as she flips her legs up and kicks the guy coming towards her with a knife. She kicks him in the chest and pushes backward. The guy who was squeezing her falls backward, releasing his grip on her.

“Shoot her!” Another guy starts shooting at Cora.

She slips one of her knives into her hand and throws it at the person with the gun. The knife hits the guy squarely in the chest. She backs up and notices more guys were coming out armed with guns.

“Exit, stage left.” Cora starts running towards the woods.

Bullets start flying by her as the shooters miss her. One bullet hits her in her right leg. The bullet didn’t penetrate her suit but stung like hell.
She ducks into the woods with the guys still firing at her. She runs close to the trees, using them to protect her. She manages to get far enough ahead of them and jump up into a nearby tree.

The men run right beneath her as she stands on the top tree branch. She watches and waits as they continue to search for her. As she is waiting, she hears the helicopter starting up and take to the air.

Instead of heading towards her, it heads in a different direction. She notices it didn’t have any of its running lights on at all. The next few hours, she keeps to the tree and when they finally head back towards the house. She drops down and takes one of the guys out. Whatever he has on him, she removes from his body. She ties him up and gags his mouth.

“Now, you be a good boy and stay silent.” Cora covers the man up and conceals him.

She saw it done in the movie Robin Hood when the Sheriff’s men were knocked unconscious and concealed. She figures she could do it with tree branches and such. By the time they find the missing person, she will be long gone.

Cora heads back to the main road and kept walking until the sun comes up. She stops every so often to take a sip of water from the waterskin she remembered to bring with her. Once she gets close to a gas station or convenience store. She removes her mask and tucks it back into the pouch on her belt.

She calls Aero Flight “this is Private Investigator Cora Black. I need transport back to the base.”

“What is your location, Miss. Black?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. Lock onto my cellphone GPS.” Cora didn’t go inside the store to get her location.

A few seconds go by “we have your location, Miss. Black. A helicopter is on the way to you.”

“Thank you.” Cora heads inside the store and purchases a sandwich and water while she waits.