by Dale Mayer
“There is another solution,” she said to the gunman.
“Yeah,” he mocked. “And what’s that?”
“I’ll go with you, and my dad won’t say anything to anyone because he’ll know I’m with you.”
“But he won’t know cause he’s out cold and he might just say something anyway,” the gunman snapped. “Nice try though.”
“Then as he doesn’t know anything and he’s injured and unconscious, leave him alone. He’s already been through so much I doubt his body will handle much more.” That truth hurt.
Where the hell was Hawk? If this asshole managed to escape with her as a captive, Hawk would never find her. And her father would die. He’d come close a few months ago. He was already weak. He might not survive this second trauma.
She glanced around the storehouse. Her father had promised he’d reduce stock and clean this place out. Instead it looked like he’d stockpiled more. He was a bit of an “end of the world junkie.” Something else she’d tried to get him to see reason over, but he was who he was, and if he wanted to keep a ten year supply of canned food, who was she to argue?
She shifted her position so she was sitting on the ground. If the gunman stole all this food and supplies, he could hole up for years.
A sobering thought. She squeezed her father’s hand again, trying to impart a sense of security, reassurance to him. But this time there was no answering response.
Her phone was still in her pocket. The gunman had either forgotten or didn’t care. That last part scared the hell out of her.
“Why aren’t you running away and hiding?” she asked cautiously. “That’s what I’d do if my stash had been found.”
“Why? They don’t know it’s me. Have no idea whose stash it is. Besides, I’m not leaving it all behind. And neither is it my only stash. The finished weapons are in a different location. And today is delivery day.” The gun prodded her back. “I need that payout. No way in hell I’m losing that.”
She closed her eyes. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Ah, I see you fully understand the situation you’re in now.” He laughed. “A bullet for both of you would be much easier, wouldn’t it? Well, I don’t feel like making things easier on you. You and your pretty little world, you have no idea what’s going on under the surface. You walk on people every day but think it’s your right. Well, maybe it is. Just like I’ve been doing my thing in the caves below, thinking it’s my right.”
“It’s not your right to hurt people. To make bombs to blow places up.”
“What do you know with your fancy house and job and lifestyle? You’ve never fought for something worthwhile. Something major that is happening on a global scale.” Now something fervent, almost fanatical filled his voice.
She watched him and wondered. “Is this a terrorist plot?”
“This is so much more than that.” He laughed. “You wouldn’t understand. You have everything, but have nothing important. No faith. No cause. No beliefs.”
She mentally listed off the known terrorist groups. Not that the names mattered. They were so much the same. And all of them scared the crap out of her.
So did he.
“On your feet,” he said in a hard voice. “It’s time.”
She hated to ask but forced the words out. “Time for what?”
She heard a heavy truck approach. Too heavy for the Jeep.
“Time to go.”
He turned the gun on her father and she stepped in the way. “I’ll go with you if you spare his life.”
“You’re coming anyway,” he said in surprise. “So you have nothing to bargain with.”
“I’ll come willing. You won’t have a fight out of me to worry about.”
He studied her father’s limp body then her then shrugged. “Whatever, but if you do, you get a bullet.”
What was she doing? Please let Hawk get here fast.
*
Hawk was on the main road when his phone rang. He pulled it out, clipped it to his dash and hit the speaker button. “I’m here,” he growled. “What’s new?”
“Maybe I should be asking you that,” Swede said. “I’m about a half hour out. Do you have an update?”
“I do.” In a terse voice he gave it to him. “I’m on the way to Gordon’s place now. According to what Eva heard through Mia’s phone, Gordon is injured and unconscious and Mia is trying to save him from a bullet. The gunman has Gordon’s home cache as well now.”
“Damn. Not good. That’s a lot of weapons. What kind? Who are they for?”
“Mason is on it,” Hawk said. “The thing is we’re on the spot, and Mia is in trouble. I’m heading there now. I have to help.”
“It’s also going to be hours before anyone else is mobilized to this location.”
Hawk snorted. “It’s going to be hours before they get the intel they need in order to mobilize anything. What if this guy is so destructive right now because he has something going down? He said today is delivery day. He’s not going to let anything get in his way.”
“It already has,” Swede said. “We need background on Gerry.”
“Yeah, we do. I deliberately didn’t even bring my laptop with me. And so far I haven’t exactly had a half hour to search my phone for information.”
“Na. Cooper is on it now. When you told me it was Gerry not Gordon I got him started. Gerry is a whole different issue. I don’t like to think he came bringing trouble with him.”
“He did.” Hawk realized he hadn’t filled him in on that part Gordon had shared. He quickly added in the rest of the information.
“Then we got bigger trouble than we first thought. We need the team and our gear.”
“It’s unofficial.”
“Screw that. It’s family.”
Hawk pulled out into the passing lane and sped up to get past the panel truck ahead. It was trundling along at a slow pace like it had nothing to worry about. But it would be easy to hide weapons in it too. Now he was going to be looking at every vehicle like it was a terrorist bomb. Shit.
The turnoff was just up ahead, he went to brake then realized that the big truck behind him was slowing too. Damn it. He hit the gas and blew past the turnoff. The truck slowed more and turned onto Gordon’s driveway. The house was in the back, set far under the grove of huge evergreen trees making for great camouflage. Also it was completely hidden from the road. He slowed, told Swede what was happening and pulled a U-turn on the road.
“I’m fifteen minutes away.”
“Better make that five. She’s not going to have much more than that.”
He pulled the Jeep onto the driveway, going deep into the trees as far out of sight as he could. He shut off the engine and slipped out into the woods and started toward the house. There were no sounds. The house was silent. Everyone was in the back with the truck. He crept through the trees to the back of the house and realized there were indications of loading and unloading there. He eyed the front. He could sneak inside and see what was going on, but it would be harder to get out fast enough if things blew up.
And they were going to.
It was just how and what side the bodies would fall that concerned him.
Therefore…he crept to the far side of the house. One man stood on the side, a cigarette in his hand, a cell-phone to his ear, talking. “Yeah, we’re going to load up in a few minutes. The remaining cache is about twenty minutes from here. An hour or so to load, then we should be on our way in just over two hours.” He nodded. “Will do.”
And he hung up. He turned to the others. “Let’s lock and load. I said we’d be leaving town in two hours.”
“And what about the girl and her father.”
“Shoot them.”
Chapter 6
Mia’s heart stopped at his words. Since the arrival of the truck, the game had changed. There’d be no getting out of this mess now. She dove to the side of the shed but couldn’t cover her father’s body. Damn it. What could she do? Where was Hawk?
“I thi
nk we should take her with us. A hostage is always good. It stops the cops from storming us when they are worried about innocent lives.” The snicker in his voice said a lot.
She took a deep breath and listened.
“Once they realize what we’ve got planned, they will throw their best at us anyway.”
“Let them.” The man with a snicker turned ugly. “Better yet, let’s invite them over.”
“Well, as they are likely to be there when we arrive.”
“There’s no law enforcement close by. None that count anywhere. Just the sheriff.”
“Like he’d care. I think he could be bought off for a few hundred bucks?”
Mia listened to them argue. She had no idea who the authorities would send but given the location and type of problem she’d bet the military won. It’s not like the neighboring towns had access to big city manpower.
Her vote was SEALs – as in Hawk. But not even he could handle this group on his own. Not with all the firepower these men had collected. She’d been arguing with her father since forever about his gun business. She didn’t care if he did have a license. It still wasn’t a smart business to have. But he was a big believer in the weapons being innocent and the people being guilty. He figured that a killer was going to kill no matter what the weapon. She turned back into the conversation.
“You’re an idiot. With no law enforcement they’ll bring in the military for that cache. So military it is. And not the SEALs, they are just a bunch of overrated assholes who think their shit don’t stink like the rest of us.”
“Why not the SEALs? Hell, we should rate enough for them,” the speaker was irate at the slight.
“Not gonna happen.” The other man’s laugh turned ugly. “At least not until we start killing the American people. They’ll notice us then. Besides, they’re more water based, you know that.”
She watched as the one skinny man shrugged, glanced her way, then added, “It would still be nice to have a warm body to snuggle up to tonight.”
“Gross. I don’t agree with rape, you know that.”
As much as she loved hearing that, she struggled with the concept of a terrorist happy to blow up the American people in mass killings but didn’t agree with rape.
“I can make her willing,” the first man protested.
Mia felt her head flip flop from one to the other. Just the thought of what he’d do to make her willing…
“Like that’s going to happen, Stan.” The other man snorted. “No. She’s just going to cause problems.”
“Now, I have to shoot her, you said my name,” Stan complained. “You know we weren’t going to do that?”
“Do what? Talk to each other.” The first gunman who’d forced her into the back turned to her and said, “He’s Stan, the driver is George and I’m Dave.” Then he turned back to the others. “Don’t be stupid. We can’t leave anyone alive. Whether they know our names or not. She’s seen our faces, remember?”
With a disgusted look at the two men, he motioned to the stacks of boxes. “Load up. We have to grab the order and take it to the rendezvous.” When they didn’t move, he snapped, “Now.”
The two men galvanized into action.
Mia sat huddled against the wall. She wished she could see them clearly enough to memorize their faces, like she’d committed their names to memory. They knew where she was, and it wasn’t like she had a way to escape, but damn it, she wanted one. There was too much firepower here to fight off on her own. She glanced around. There were a few cracks in the shed where daylight snuck in, but they were between the metal strips. Her father had been lamenting the need to fix the storehouse for years, but it was backed against the cliff so even if she could get out, she couldn’t get anywhere.
A small scratching sound came from directly behind, then something poked her. She twisted to see a hand come through the back wall. A large male hand. She grabbed it and squeezed. He squeezed back then tried to pull back but she couldn’t let him. She didn’t want to be alone. But he couldn’t help her if she didn’t let him go.
Biting her lip, she let go.
“Faster, we’re wasting time, move it.”
The men jumped to it, loading up crates and boxes faster. Her heart pounded as she heard noises behind her. Could the men hear? But they were making so much noise themselves as they loaded up she could only hope they couldn’t. And she had no idea how she could get out behind the damn shed if Hawk did get that hole open enough. She had no doubt that was who was here. It had to be Hawk. No one else would be foolish enough. Heart pounding, she silently urged him on. She kept twisting to see his progress behind her then to the men’s progress in front of her. When she got a hard jab to her back, she spun and saw a corner of the metal sheeting lifted barley high enough for her head to go through. She wasn’t going to get out there.
“Now,” came the hoarse whisper.
Shaking her head but already trying to get through, she realized he was standing over top and lifting the edge of the sheeting up barely enough for her to wiggle under. Her shoulders were a tight squeeze, and with the rocks right there, she had no space to move. Who’d have thought her morning squirming through cave tunnels would hold her in good stead. She managed a little further then strong arms grabbed her under her arms and yanked her free. She scrambled to her feet and whispered, “My father.”
*
Damn. Hawk peeked under the sheet metal flap. He wasn’t going to be able to save Gordon. But he had to try. They had seconds before the men would be coming for Mia. But Gordon was his friend. If there was anything he could do… Hawk quickly shoved Mia to the side and crawled in. Gordon’s arm was only a couple of feet away, but he wasn’t a small man. Hawk grabbed the arm and tugged the big man toward him. It was slow going, but he was gaining traction. Finally, he could grab under the back arm pit and he struggled backwards. Not being able to stand up, he couldn’t get any leverage to pull.
Up ahead he could hear the men were laughing and joking. “Okay, that’s the last box. Now the girl and get out of here.”
“Wait, these damn boxes are going to shift. We can’t have that. Come on. We have to spread them out. We’ll need to repack when the bombs are loaded.”
Hawk froze. Bombs?
He gathered his strength and dragged Gordon the last bit to the hole that was too damn small.
Mia jumped forward and pulled the metal sheeting back.
“I told you to run,” he whispered.
“Not without you and my father.”
He shook his head and dragged Gordon through the damn hole. “We’re killing him, moving him like this.”
“He has a chance this way. He has no chance against a bullet.”
He couldn’t argue that. Finally like a dam suddenly coming unstuck, Gordon slid through. Hawk grabbed his lax body and threw him over his shoulder. Mia bolted ahead of him toward the front.
“Psst,” Hawk whispered and ran up the hill behind the shed. The men would be less likely to chase them if it was hard work. He checked to make sure Mia was following. She was now running behind him. He motioned for her to go ahead.
“We need to go up about five hundred yards then down to the road and come around. My Jeep is hidden in the trees.”
Relief blasted across her face and she moved off in the direction he pointed.
Chapter 7
She couldn’t help the panic firing her feet forward. The men were on their heels, they had to have noticed she’d escaped and it wasn’t like their path was hidden. She knew they’d scuffed up the ground dragging her father out of there.
She peered through the trees. How far was five hundred yards? Had she passed that part? Surely he’d have said something. For the tenth time in half that many seconds she turned to glance at Hawk’s progress. And marveled. He was running light on his feet, her father across his shoulders. He easily kept pace with her even as he studied the woods around them. He was looking for the best place to go down.
Good, she was ready to
get off this ridge. She didn’t like heights. She’d leave that part to him.
She moved forward as fast as she could and as quietly as she could. She’d bolted initially then figured she should stop sounding like an elephant on the rampage as she moved through the trees. If they followed, then they followed, but let it not be because she couldn’t stay light enough on her feet.
“Turn up ahead at the fallen tree.”
She didn’t turn back. She stared at the largest deadfall tree she’d ever seen.
Turning toward it, she felt her feet shoot out from under her. She managed to muffle her shriek but couldn’t stay upright. She fell on her butt and did a fast downward slide.
At least she got to sit down. At the bottom she picked herself up and hid behind a tree. Then took a moment to clean off her clothes.
“Ready?” Hawk was already at her side, showing no signs of having fallen or needing a rest. He’d made it down that cliff without any visible stress. She, on the other hand, looked like she’d been pulled through the mud.
He waited until she straightened then said, with exaggerated calm, “If you’re ready.”
She admired his calm attitude and cool control. Whereas she was ready to scream and rampage at this point. She moved ahead of him and led the way. They shouldn’t be far from the main road. If they could get onto that…they could get help.
But he said he had a Jeep. If that was available, they could get the hell away from here and contact the authorities. And her dad could get to the hospital. Not that he’d like her decision. He hated the damn places. She couldn’t really blame him. God help the nurses when he woke up.
She came to a stop. Where was the Jeep? She spun round to glare at Hawk. But he pointed in the same direction as they’d been travelling. She kept up the brutal pace. Her body was saying it needed rest. And water. She’d used up one bottle of water spelunking and had left the rest in her truck. Too bad. She could really use some. This was hot work.
Looking back at him, still carrying her father, he walked on the forest floor, but he appeared to do so soundlessly. She understood the silence part but not the depth of his silence. It was fascinating. How could he walk on the dry underbrush and not make a sound?