BIRDIE

Meeting Death.

After bringing the guard in for questioning we assessed the information at play. A man, late 40's possibly early 50's had visited Dan in prison. Dressed as a businessman, that relished in pretentious importance. No name, no face, no information regarding their conversation. No fucking lead. Kate was able to recover Dan's encrypted bank account further. While it seemed that it had been inactive for the past two years, it was actually wiped of two years worth of transactions. He'd received multiple large sums of payment under another encrypted service that's not recognisable to our intelligence team. They're still working on that. The cameras from inside the prison are still under investigation; we've recovered a small portion of the footage from the morning of the escape. Nothing unusual, meaning another dead end for the time being. Price decided to  round us all up to take search of Bayoak woods. Our only lead so far.

"Reprimand the target by any means necessary, but authority has not been granted to kill. Under any circumstances, do not kill." Price's singular instruction echoes in my subconscious.

I haven't had the chance to process the fact that Dan is alive, let alone being on the run. So being on the hunt for him feels bizarre. I don't feel a particular way right now about Dan being alive other than confused. A sneaking suspicion nibbles at my core that he's innocent and not this belligerent threat that he's being made out to be. Dan always had a reason for doing whatever he did, I don't see this being any different. The fact that he could possibly be in Bayoak woodlands has put him further on my shit list. Bayoak is notoriously famous for being the woods of death. Whatever goes in, rarely comes out. Walking around here, alone, is daunting to say the least. There's at least 10 of us in here and I'm surprised I haven't bumped into a single one of them.

Pulling out my phone from under my tactical vest, I clock the time. Seven hours. Seven hours we've been out searching these woods. It's around 4am and the cold has started to bite at the marrow of my bones. The search is starting to feel pointless, I think I've passed the same tree 30 times. Stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I position my AK-47 in front of me, leading me through the moonlit woods. My eyes fix onto three smeared lines of crimson on a tree. Twigs and branches crunching and snapping beneath my feet as I advance towards the scene. My gloved finger presses into the substance and I wipe it onto my wrist. Blood. Fresh blood. Something or someone is out here with us. There's not enough light to follow a trail of blood, if there was one. My thermal and night vision goggles don't provide blood detection, unfortunately. The sound of a fox wailing in the distance has my head bolting around. For a second I thought it might've been him. 

My eyes are alert but my mind wanders deep in thought. Why would Dan use Birdie as a clue? He'd have to know that only I'd be able to understand that, it's too intimate to be understood from an outsider's perspective. Why is he dragging me into this? Does he think I possess some magical quality that can save him? I don't.

"Fancy seeing you here." A faint voice chuckles behind me.

"Hey." I turn around and smile at him.

"I feel like I'm going in circles out here." Matt chuckles, his head flying around the area.

"Tell me about it." I sigh.

"Stay safe out here, I'll catch you later." He says, patting my back and walking in another direction.

I prowl through an undistinguishable path ahead of me. The temperature has dropped into shallow minus numbers now. Morning frost has started to settle on the greenery around. A thick sheet of mist lingers above eye level. The sounds of critters and wildlife fade out under the thundering of my heart. Call it a woman's intuition if you like, but something feels ominous. Dangerous even.

My body stills in suspense, rolling my head from left to right, expecting some inevitable danger coming my way. The hairs on my neck start to spike, and my stomach starts to sink. My boots carry me leisurely behind a thick trunk as I pan my gaze around. Greeted with nothingness, my heart begins to surrender to a resting pace.