To Run With the Swift

by Gerald N. Lund

  Somewhere near nine o’clock, Doc abruptly stood up and motioned for us to do the same. We did so, stamping our feet and hugging ourselves tightly to stop the shivering. Grunting more than talking, Doc herded us into the fishing boat, telling Grandpère that he would be driving and to stay no more than ten feet behind him. Then he got on the Jet Ski and pulled out in front of us. By that time, I had decided that he wasn’t just going to leave us stranded on the beach. Too much chance that we might walk out. Now I was pretty sure I knew where we were going.

  Ten minutes later, we watched Doc drive away into the darkness, towing the fishing boat behind him, leaving the three of us on the same sandbar where Grandpère and I had found refuge before. We stood close together for warmth as the lights of the Jet Ski disappeared and the sound of its engine died away. In moments, the silence was as profound and complete as the darkness.

  “Here,” Rick said. I felt his jacket slip over my shoulders. It was warm and it felt wonderful, but I immediately tried to give it back. “No, Rick. It’s going to get really cold tonight.”

  He caught my hands and pulled them away. Then he zipped it up for me. “Where I grew up,” he said gruffly, “we raised real men, not hothouse plants.”

  I gave Rick a shove as Grandpère sniggered. “Gimme a break, Ramirez. You are so full of yourself.” He just laughed.

  Grandpère joined us. “Let’s sit back to back, use our body heat to keep us warm until they come.”

  Turning around, I stared at the dim shape of his face. “Until who comes?”

  “Well, Clay, of course. Who do you think? I sent him a text message about an hour ago.”

  “What? How did you send him a message? And when?”

  He laughed. “The ‘how’ is easy.” He reached in his pocket and pulled something out. A moment later a light came on, bathing our faces in a soft glow. I saw that he was holding the same cell phone Rick and I had found on his “body” in the food locker.

  My jaw dropped. “Where did you get that?”

  He seemed puzzled by the question. “Where did you last see it?”

  “I found it on your wax duplicate. But Gisela had me searched and took it away from me.”

  “Well, that would explain why I found it in her desk drawer. And I thought she was just being thoughtful.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said. I was astonished once again. “But they searched all of us thoroughly.”

  “Of course they did,” he replied. He nudged us both. “As far as the ‘when,’ I did it when Doc stood up and took that cigarette break about an hour ago. I was beginning to think he’d given up smoking. I had hoped to call Clay early enough to tell him Gisela and Niklas were coming out, but I’m afraid we missed that window. Come on. Sit down. I’ll try to catch you two up on what’s going on.”

  “I would like that very much,” I said, a bit exasperated. Playing this game of coy with me was one of his endearing traits, but tonight I wasn’t in much of a mood for it.

  As we sat down together, he said, “First, let me let Clay know where we are.” He punched a button, and a moment later I heard the phone on the other end begin to ring. Clay answered immediately. I could tell it was his voice, though I couldn’t hear much of what he was saying. “Yes, yes,” Grandpère said. “All three of us are fine. Where are you?”

  I leaned in closer, but I still got only the mumble of his voice. Grandpère nodded. “Good. So you’re probably about twenty minutes from our location. It’s slow going driving on the lake at night. Especially a night as dark as this.” Pause. “No, we’re not on the beach. They dumped us off on that sandbar at the mouth of Slick Rock Canyon.” Pause. “Yes, the same one. When I hear your engine, I’ll turn on the flashlight app on my phone.”

  More talk from the other side of the conversation. “Yeah, no surprise. They had a three- or four-hour head start on us. What? Oh, of course. Hold on.” He turned and handed the phone to me. “Someone wants to talk to you.”

  I snatched it from his grasp and thrust it up against my ear. “Clay, is that really you?”

  “No, Carruthers,” said a voice I knew and loved better than any other. “It’s Mom. We’re coming.”

  And that did it. I dropped my head and began to cry.

  “All right,” Grandpère said, “I’m sure you have a few questions, so, since we have some time, let’s see if we can’t clear a few things up.”

  “A few,” I yelped. “How about a couple of hundred!” We were still seated on the sandbar and getting colder rapidly.

  I looked at Rick, who motioned for me to begin. “All right. Tell me about driving the van into the river. How did you do that without killing yourself? They said it went right through the guardrail.”

  “It did; I didn’t.”

  “But you said ...”

  “Let’s go back to the parking lot at the cemetery. Once Louis told us what was happening, I was pretty sure that Gisela and Niklas were behind it, and I knew that we were in grave danger. So, as you two were getting into the van, I asked Louis if we could count on his help. He said yes. You probably didn’t notice, but he and his security team followed us into Caen.

  “Once we got there, the feelings of danger greatly intensified. I knew that I was their primary target and that the best thing I could do to keep you two safe was to disappear. So as we came back into the city, following along the river, I noticed a curve where the road was right next to the guardrail and there was a ten- or fifteen-foot drop to the river. With the slick roads, I thought that might be my answer. But I was also wise enough to know that I’m too old for grand heroics, so while you two were packing, I called Louis, and we worked out a plan. One of his security guards is a former special forces operative with the French army. So I slipped out of the hotel, making sure that I was seen by the hotel staff, and met this man at the van. He put on my overcoat and got in. He waited until he saw one of Niklas’s men come busting out of the hotel, then took off, with this guy in hot pursuit.”

  “So he’s the one who drove the van into the river,” I said, marveling.

  “Yeah, and a good thing, too. Louis said it was a pretty rough go even for an expert. Bitter cold water. Swift current. Guys watching from the bank.” He laughed softly. “That was Louis’s way of reminding me how old I am.”

  “So how did you know we were in Switzerland?” Rick asked.

  “Louis was waiting for me in the back of the hotel parking lot. We watched until Niklas came out with you two on stretchers. Their story was that two American teenagers had overdosed on drugs and were headed for the hospital. We followed, of course, and saw they went to the airport and boarded a private plane.

  “After the kidnapping of his granddaughter, Louis hired one of the top private security teams in Europe. It costs him almost two hundred thousand Euros per year, but they are very good at what they do. So, while it took them most of that night to track where the plane went, we learned it flew in to a private airport in Paris. There they changed to a different plane and flew to Zurich. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anyone to the airport in time to see where they went from there. So we were stumped for a while.”

  “Then I called Clay,” I said, starting finally to fit the pieces together.

  “Yes. We were so happy to hear from you, we were all doing a little dance.”

  “But it was another dead end, right?” Rick asked. “It really wasn’t the Schloss von Dietz like they had led us to believe.”

  “That’s right. We checked out the castle, but it was deserted except for a couple of servants. Then someone turned the phone on again, and we were able to track its location.”

  I looked at Rick. “When Gisela was seeing who I had called.”

  “Working together, Clay and Interpol and Louis’s men put the house under close surveillance. I decided that I would slip into the castle and see if I could learn what the situation was.” He grinn
ed at us in the darkness. “I was the sacrificial lamb. We figured if I was caught, I could convince them that I had come alone to save my family and not give away the team outside.

  “I went through a basement window and into a storage room. We assumed that there were CCTV cameras throughout, and while I was mulling over how to get around them, the alarm went off and everybody started running around to find who did it.”

  “It was Cody,” Rick said.

  “Is that what happened? All I knew was that now I had my opportunity to start looking around for all of you.” He sighed. “That’s when I found myself and all my family ‘dead’ in a food locker—a bit of a shock, I must admit. But since I was one of those bodies, I knew that something strange was up. A closer examination showed that they were all wax figures.”

  “So you put your phone on your duplicate?”

  “Yes. By then I could hear them yelling about trying to find you and Rick, so I figured that maybe you two had pulled off the old invisibility trick again. Hoping that you were free and would come upon the food locker sooner or later, I left my phone so you would know I was alive. Actually, I was hiding in the kitchen when you went by, Danni. After you left again, I went back in the locker to get my phone, but it was gone.”

  “I took it. I thought we could use it. Not very smart. I should have known Gisela would search us as soon as we were caught.”

  “Wow!” Rick said. “I wish we had known you were there. That would have been a real boost to us both.”

  “It sounds to me like you two didn’t need much of a boost. From what I could hear outside the library, you were holding your own in there.” Then, with a sudden huskiness in his voice, he turned to me. “You have fully redeemed yourself, ma chérie. Above and beyond what was required.”

  “But not expected,” I teased, my own voice a little strained.

  “Never. After all, you come from a line of great and courageous women. And I’ve also heard that your grandfather on your mother’s side is quite a remarkable man.”

  We laughed. Oh, Grandpère. How good you are for the soul.

  We fell silent for moment, enjoying the sweetness. Then Rick said, “One last question.”

  “Shoot.”

  “I want to know about the phone. When you came into the library, I saw Doc search you. How is it that they never found it?”

  “By then Niklas was down, and pandemonium reigned. Doc was distracted. Not that he would have found it if he had been thorough. I hid it in my front jacket pocket.”

  I leaned back, laughing softly. “Oh, Grandpère. I feel for your poor mother.”

  “Strange you would say that,” he drawled. “That’s what my father used to say too.”

  We lapsed into silence, each of us sorting through all that had happened. Two minutes later, Grandpère’s phone buzzed. He turned it on. “Yes?”

  He must have hit the speaker button, because Clay’s voice boomed out. “We passed channel marker eighty-two a couple of minutes ago. We have you as being close to marker eighty-one, so we’re almost there. Give us a light.”

  “Will do,” Grandpère said.

  Then, even as he touched the screen on his phone and a bright light pierced the darkness, I cocked my head. It was still distant, but I was sure it wasn’t just my imagination. Sound bounces off the water and echoes through these deep gorges in remarkable ways. “I can hear them,” I called. “They’re coming.”

  PART ELEVEN

  Justice and Mercy

  CHAPTER 41

  As it turned out, it was not one boat, but two: a rental Clay had acquired and one of the Lake Powell ranger boats from Bullfrog. The ranger boat had some really powerful searchlights and could make better time. Clay, who had three other agents with him, also knew that once he picked up the three of us, we’d be too much for one boat.

  What a reunion it turned out to be. As three of the agents transferred to the ranger’s boat, Dad gave me a hand up. I thought he was going to crush my ribs when he hugged me. I tried to do the same when I hugged him back.

  I then nearly knocked Mom overboard as I threw myself into her waiting arms. And Cody nearly knocked us both down as he barreled into us. Dad helped Grandpère up, then Rick. Then, as best we could, we squeezed together for a smothering group hug. At first, we tried not to cry, but then we thought, “What the heck,” and just let it rip.

  Clay hung back, grinning widely. After a moment, I broke loose and went to shake hands with him. That’s when I saw the man in the seat behind the wheel. He had a crew cut and wore Dockers, a sports shirt under a bomber jacket, and some kind of tennis shoes. “Danni,” Clay said, “meet Agent Brett Mergenthaller.”

  “Hello, Danni. It’s a pleasure to finally meet ‘The Legend,’ as Clay calls you.”

  Clay shot him a dirty look and quickly went on. “And this is Grandpère and Rick.”

  Brett extended a hand. “Equally famous, I’m sure.”

  Mom touched Grandpère’s arm. “Dad, Clay also brought a special surprise along.” She took his hand and moved past him into the main part of the boat. That’s when we saw a dark shadow at the very back of the boat stand to face us.

  Grandpère stopped dead. “Louis?” he cried.

  Louis Girard took two steps forward, and they fell into each other’s arms.

  I guess I was staring, probably with my jaw hanging open, because when he saw me over Grandpère’s shoulder, he smiled broadly. “Bonsoir, Mademoiselle Danni.”

  I did a little curtsey. “And bonsoir to you, Monsieur Girard. To see you here makes it a very good evening indeed.”

  Clay watched for a moment, then broke in. “Well, there is much to catch up on, but I’m sure that you are anxious to find a bed as soon as possible.” He called over to the other boat. “You lead and set the pace. We’ll follow.” Then to us, “Let’s get you into life jackets, and then we have some blankets and hot chocolate.”

  In fact, Brett had already taken his seat and was backing the boat away from the sandbar as the other boat moved away from us. In a moment we fell in behind them, heading back out into the channel.

  “There’s also a pan of cinnamon rolls next to the jug of chocolate,” Clay called over the noise of the engine that was rapidly increasing in power. “Those are thanks to Helen.” Turning to Louis, he added, “My wife.”

  We moved slowly. The headlamps of the ranger boat, though powerful, couldn’t penetrate very far into the thick darkness, and the last thing any of us wanted was to stray out of the channel and hit a submerged rock or a sandbar. The air was cold, and getting colder, but we were all in pretty good spirits as we chattered back and forth. I snuggled up to Rick, deliberately shivering. It worked. He put his arm around me and pulled me in close.

  Seeing that, Dad leaned in closer to us so we could hear him over the sound of the motor. “All right, you two. We want to hear the whole story. Cody told us his part in it, which is quite remarkable. Now we want to hear the rest of it.”

  “Wait,” Clay called. “I want to hear this too.”

  “So do I,” Louis called.

  “And me,” Grandpère said.

  Clay went on. “It’s going to be at least eleven before we see a bed. So I—”

  “Eleven!” Cody wailed. “Do we have to go all the way back to Hanksville tonight?”

  “No, Cody,” Clay said. “I had the office reserve rooms for all of us at Ticaboo Lodge.”

  Grandpère turned to Louis. “That’s just ten minutes north of the marina.”

  “Besides,” Clay added, “no one is going inside your Hanksville house until my team gets all that stuff out of there.”

  “All what stuff?” I asked.

  “The explosive and the fire accelerants.”

  “What?” I felt a little jolt twist my stomach; then I remembered Gisela’s letter in the phony pouch. “How did you find o
ut about that?” I said.

  “We found the letter on the desk in the library.” He pulled a face. “It wasn’t an empty threat. I think they would have heard the explosion as far away as Green River. Anyway, there’s a good restaurant at the lodge. We’ll have breakfast together, then spend a couple of hours debriefing you, and hopefully your house will be all tidied up by then.”

  He turned to Rick. “We called your father, Rick. We told him it would be late by the time we got you to Ticaboo, but he’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

  “Thank you.”

  “It seems like years since we were there,” I said, snuggling in tighter against him.

  Rick nodded, then leaned forward. “Speaking of Gisela and Niklas, were you able to get to Bullfrog to catch them?”

  Clay shook his head. “We just got back from Europe yesterday morning. I was down with the team in Hanksville when Grandpère first called.” He turned to me. “We had left your family and Louis at a motel in Green River while we checked out the house. I was almost back to Green River when Jean-Henri called. Knowing that it would only take the houseboat about an hour to get back to the marina, I knew there was no way I could get there in time. But fortunately, we had a couple of agents already down here.”

  Clay reached across the center aisle of the boat and laid a hand on Brett Mergenthaller’s shoulder. “I called the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and asked if they had any cars down around Bullfrog. They did not, but they had one about forty-five minutes out. Then I called this young man. Brett, let me drive while you explain how it was that you just happened to be down here at Lake Powell when we needed you.”

  They switched places quickly and Brett sat down in the seat beside Clay, turning to face us. “Well,” he began, “this was a very lucky break for us. Yesterday, we got a report from the monitoring center in Salt Lake that there was something unusual going on at the dive site.”