16: End of the Road

They'd struck down properties one, two, and three with no success. There were no hidden compartments or evidence that Yanire had even been to any of the locations besides the first. They suited up and settled in the field for the last location in silence. It was nighttime now, crickets chirping as they moved about the thick meadows dotted with wildflowers. The men had avoided one another's eyes as they loaded their guns and ensured their vests were secure. 

With each property that had been chalked off the list, the chance that Yanire was still alive or anywhere to be found started to dwindle. Now they were at the bottom of the barrel: an abandoned horse farm in some sleepy corner of Kansas. The fields hadn't been trimmed and there wasn't a horse to be seen for five miles overhead. It looked like nobody had set food on the property in years.