Cold Snap

by Allison Brennan

  She replied to all. The message wouldn’t go through until there was a signal, but it would keep trying.

  Sean has been taken captive, no confirmation on location. Minor child Tommy Sanders in one of the trailers. Minor child Micah Sanders with me. Operating meth lab on south side of encampment. Ranger at camp. They’re shutting down fast. One female suspect dead. Confirm four male and one female suspects, two hostages.

  She looked at the time. Twenty-five minutes before SWAT arrived, and that was assuming they knew exactly where they were and could come in quietly. Sound carried in the valley, and if Ann’s crew knew they were trapped, Tommy and Sean became more vulnerable. SWAT wouldn’t want a gun battle because of the meth lab.

  “What’s wrong?” Micah asked.

  “It’s okay. SWAT is on their way.”

  “Your forehead is all squishy. You’re worried.”

  Smart kid. “They won’t be here for nearly thirty minutes. We need to get Tommy to safety so he isn’t a hostage. This is where I really need you to listen to me. We’re going to your trailer. If Tommy’s there, I want you to take him to the boulders where I made my phone call. Stay hidden in the rocks no matter what you see or hear. Got it? I need to know you and Tommy are safe so I can focus on finding Sean.”

  Micah nodded. “Okay.”

  “I will come back for you when it’s safe.”

  “What if … what if something happens?”

  “Stay at the rocks. The FBI will find you there.”

  He hugged her spontaneously. “Be careful, Lucy.”

  Lucy led Micah back down the path toward the camp. They stayed as low to the ground as possible, but the closer to the camp they got the less tree coverage they had.

  She lay flat on the damp ground and surveyed the area. Micah lay next to her.

  The ranger and the two men who had taken Sean were rushing around, shouting, and looking worried. As she watched, one of them was loading boxes into one of the trucks while the other two had guns out and were searching the immediate area.

  He got away.

  That was the most plausible explanation for why they were acting so worried. Unless there were more people involved and they knew the FBI and DEA were on their way through another source.

  She didn’t have time to contemplate the situation, but Sean was always resourceful.

  There was no sign of the woman, Cynthia, who Micah had said was probably watching Tommy in the trailer. She also didn’t see Jeff anywhere. He must have been driving the ATV.

  She whispered, “We’re going to be exposed for several yards. Stick close to the cliff—there’s enough foliage there to partly cover us. But we’re heading for your trailer, okay?” Fortunately, the door was on the side away from where the men were loading the trucks.

  Micah nodded.

  “Stay right behind me. When I slip into the trailer, stay outside the door. If anything happens to me, hide. I’m going to send Tommy out. Take him to the boulders, just like I said.”

  Again, he nodded.

  She waited until two of the men were inside the lab, then she and Micah scrambled down the trail, where they were the most exposed. At the base she lay down behind some scraggly bushes. Micah followed suit. No one had seen them.

  Staying as low as possible, she ran behind a new growth of sassafras that framed the edge of the clearing. The ground was rocky and she nearly twisted her ankle. But she didn’t want to slow down—it was now or never. She had to rescue Tommy before SWAT arrived, otherwise he would be a hostage.

  Lucy pointed to a space near the trailer for Micah to hide. She then took a deep breath and opened the trailer door.

  She didn’t know what to expect, or whether Cynthia had a weapon. Lucy’s gun was easily accessible in her waistband, but she didn’t want to draw it with a child in the room, not unless it was absolutely necessary.

  Tommy was sitting at a table, coloring. A voice from the bedroom in the back of the trailer called out, “Paul, is that you?”

  Lucy put her finger to her lips and Tommy frowned. She approached slowly and whispered, “Micah is outside the door.”

  Tommy’s eyes widened. “Really?” he said loudly.

  “Shh.” Lucy winced.

  Cynthia said, “Paul, do we really have to leave tonight? I’m not ready.”

  Lucy held out her hand for Tommy, who willingly took it. She led him to the door and opened it.

  “Who the fuck are you?” a voice behind her said.

  “Go,” Lucy said to Micah who jumped out of the bushes when he saw his brother.

  “Tommy! Get back here!”

  Cynthia took three long strides down the middle of the trailer toward Lucy. Lucy tried to follow Tommy out, but Cynthia grabbed her hair.

  “Run,” Lucy ordered the boys.

  “Tommy!” Cynthia shouted, pulling Lucy back into the trailer. She tried to climb over Lucy to chase after the boys, but Lucy tripped her and the woman fell forward. She grabbed at the counter to right herself, and Lucy slammed her palm on Cynthia’s hand.

  Lucy didn’t want to get caught, but Cynthia screamed at the top of her lungs. The woman reached back and tried to scratch Lucy, but Lucy grabbed her arm and pushed it high up behind her back. “Shut up,” Lucy said through clenched teeth.

  Cynthia screamed again and Lucy heard shouts from outside. Lucy jumped up and bolted from the trailer as fast as she could …

  … right into the arms of the forest ranger.

  “Hold it, little lady.”

  “Let me go,” Lucy said.

  He glared at her. “Who are you?”

  “FBI Agent Lucy Kincaid.”

  He laughed heartily. “Right. FBI. All by yourself. You’re the girlfriend of that PI. You should have stayed in the woods; he’s long gone.”

  What did he mean by that?

  He searched her and found the gun in her waistband. He stared at the gun, obviously recognizing it. “Where did you get this?” he demanded.

  She didn’t respond.

  Cynthia scampered out of the trailer. Her nose was bleeding.

  “You bitch!” She lunged for Lucy.

  The ranger tried to fend her off, but Cynthia was wild-eyed and grabbing at Lucy.

  The ranger’s grip on Lucy’s arms slipped, and Lucy took the opportunity to knee him in the groin and slam the side of her hand on his wrist. He dropped the gun, but Lucy didn’t have time to pick it up.

  She whirled around and ducked to avoid being hit in the face by Cynthia. She punched her in the gut and kicked her legs out from under her.

  Then she ran. The ranger had pulled out his own gun and fired at her, but she’d already turned around the corner of the trailer.

  Unfortunately, there was no place to hide. She had to take advantage of the dark, but to get out of here she’d have to run through the light cast from the trucks and meth lab, or go back the way she’d come.

  Neither was a viable option.

  She turned between the other two trailers and rolled under the one on the end. Then she froze and hoped they didn’t figure out where she was hiding.

  * * *

  Sean heard a woman screaming from the boys’ trailer and saw Micah and a smaller boy scrambling up the cliff. Lucy wasn’t with them. It took all his self-control not to jump from the roof of the trailer and run toward the screams. He heard voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying, then he saw a woman run behind the trailers.

  Lucy. There wasn’t a lot of light on the far side of the camp, but Sean could tell by her shape and the way she ran. She slid under the third trailer and didn’t come out.

  Carl the ranger ran after her, but passed her hiding space.

  “Where’d she go?” he screamed to Jim and Paul, who were coming out of the lab with more boxes.

  “What?” Jim said.

  “The girl Ann said she tied up in the woods. She obviously did a shitty job of it. Search these trailers. Shoot on sight.”

  Both trucks were idling, and Sean
knew he could easily steal one if he could get to it—only problem was, he had no weapon. He needed a distraction.

  He considered going back into the meth lab and grabbing the butane to start a fire, but he’d have to do it far from the lab. And the risk of burning down the whole forest after their dry summer was far too risky. He could maybe make a smoke bomb, something that would just divert their attention for a minute. But getting into the trailer was going to be next to impossible.

  “She’s not in the trailer,” Paul shouted to Carl.

  “Did you search both? Idiot.”

  The sound of the ATV returning from the woods distracted everyone. Sean had to take the risk. He slid down the back of the meth lab and ran to the closest truck.

  Jim was loading a box into the back. Sean got the drop on him, covered his mouth with one hand, and pressed firmly into a nerve on his neck with the other. He was unconscious without much of a struggle. Sean was surprised himself that the pressure point on the back of the neck worked—his brother Kane had taught him the maneuver years ago but Sean hadn’t even attempted to use it in practice because of the potential deadly side effects. As Kane had said, “It’s a non-lethal attack, but it can still kill your target.”

  Sean let Jim’s body slide to the ground and determined that he was still breathing. Sean then slid into the driver’s seat and closed the doors. He drove the truck over to the third trailer, then rolled down the window and said, “Lucy! It’s me! Get in!”

  Lucy rolled out from under the trailer and jumped into the back of the cab behind Sean. Boxes of drugs nearly filled the back of the cab and she climbed over the center console and into the passenger seat.

  Carl and Paul had seen them and were now running after the truck. Carl started firing.

  Sean drove fast, dirt and rocks thrown up behind him.

  “We have to get the boys—they’re at the rocks where I made my call,” Lucy said.

  “They’ll wait there, right?”

  “I told them to. But what if they blow the lab? They’re too close—”

  “We’ll get them. Look what I found in the lab.” He tossed his tablet in the backseat with Lucy. “Wish I’d found my gun there, too.”

  “The ranger got mine.”

  “We’ll be okay.” Sean glanced behind them. “They’re following.”

  “Good,” Lucy said.

  “Good?”

  “FBI SWAT should be here any minute.”

  “What’s any minute mean?”

  “Noah sent me a message that they’d be here by eight fifteen.” She pulled out the cell phone. The face was smashed, but she could still use it. “Sorry about your phone—I think it broke when I was fighting with Cynthia. There’s a signal; I’m going to try and reach Noah.”

  Sean glanced in the rearview mirror. “I couldn’t care less about my phone, Luce.” The other truck was gaining, which meant they either knew what they were doing, or were reckless, or both.

  Sean stepped on the gas. The rough terrain made maneuvering at this speed difficult.

  Lucy was talking loudly on the phone. “We’re cutting out—they’re chasing us. We’re in a black truck.… Black.… I don’t know.…” She leaned forward and looked at the dashboard. “Chevy. They’re pursuing in either another black Chevy or a forest ranger truck, a Bronco.”

  “How long?” Sean asked. He had his high beams on but he had no idea where he was going. He couldn’t see a road—he was following what he assumed was the worn path that they’d used to get in and out for supplies.

  Lucy said, “They’re staging—Noah’s patching me through to the team leader.”

  “We don’t have time.”

  A bullet shattered the window behind Lucy.

  “Sean! Something’s burning in the back of the truck.”

  Sean had seen that.

  “We have to dump this and take our chances. I don’t know what could explode. Get ready to jump, Lucy.”

  Sean had one hand on his door, and with the other, he made a sharp right turn with the wheel while braking.

  “Now!”

  They both jumped out and rolled away from the truck. The truck pursuing them slammed on the brakes, but the crash of metal on metal made Sean clench his jaw.

  Where was Lucy? He’d jumped first. She had to have made it out. He’d seen her door open.

  The fire in the truck bed was growing. Sean had no idea what was back there, could be suitcases of clothes or could be something more dangerous. The drugs were in the cab, and when those burned there would be toxic smoke.

  “Lucy!”

  He couldn’t hear if there was anyone pursuing them.

  “Over here!” Lucy was scrambling toward him. “We have to get out of here.”

  “When will the feds arrive?”

  “They’ll be staging somewhere nearby.”

  “Staging?” Sean understood the necessity of planning, but this was a damn emergency.

  “Sean—I’m worried about the boys. Is there any way we can circle around and find them?”

  “We have to get out of here before the truck explodes.”

  “But—”

  Sean grabbed her by the shoulders. “I looked at the map while I was on the roof. We can get to them from another angle. Trust me. We can’t go back the way we came.”

  Lucy shook her head. Of course Sean was right—and Micah promised to stay hidden in the boulders. She hoped he listened to her. She hoped no one had followed them up the cliff trail. “I’ll follow you,” she said.

  Sean grabbed her hand and they ran fast, away from the burning trucks. She didn’t see anyone pursuing them but they could have disappeared into the night. The fire was building, casting a bright, orange light around them. At first she didn’t see anyone, then she spotted a lone male running back toward the camp.

  “Sean,” she said, “someone is heading back to the camp.”

  “Good, they’re not following. We’re going to—”

  “FBI! Put your hands behind your head, get down on your knees. Do it!”

  Lucy complied immediately as three SWAT team shooters came out of the darkness and spread out in front of her. Sean hesitated.

  “Sean!” she shouted.

  He dropped to his knees.

  She said, “I’m Lucy Kincaid, new agent at Quantico. I’m the one who called this in to my training officer, Noah Armstrong.”

  While one cop had his gun on them, the other two came over and handcuffed both Sean and Lucy. Lucy knew it was standard protocol, but it still terrified her. She hated being restrained, a deep fear, borne out of being held captive seven years ago. In a drill at Quantico they had to get out of a variety of restraints and she was good at it, but she always had to battle the beginnings of a panic attack first. She was grateful she wasn’t in full panic mode now—she’d learned to control it only through hundreds of hours practicing.

  Sean was angry but fortunately complied.

  “Two young boys are in jeopardy,” Lucy said. “I need to get to them.”

  She was thoroughly searched and her hint of panic turned to anger. She had no ID on her; it had been in her backpack. No proof of who she was. There was precious little time.

  An explosion not far from them rocked the ground. The pickup trucks.

  Sean said, “The trucks were full of crystal meth.”

  The leader spoke into his radio as the three of them put on breathing masks. They’d been prepared, so someone had informed them of the hazard.

  “Up,” the other two said, and helped Lucy and Sean stand.

  “I need you to take these cuffs off me,” Lucy said. “The boys are in danger. If they blow the lab, the boys won’t be able to get away from the smoke.”

  “You can talk to the agent in charge.”

  “DEA Agent Alex Johnson, correct?” Lucy said, remembering the name Noah had sent her. “My training agent is Noah Armstrong out of the D.C. office. He sent me a message that he was on his way and that Agent Alex Johnson was in charge o
f this op.”

  The team didn’t say anything, and Lucy wasn’t surprised.

  Out of the dark, six SWAT team members with masks passed them, heading toward the camp. Another group of three came and escorted Lucy and Sean to a tactical van and a Hummer with a tac team loading. They had a full contingency of SWAT—both FBI and DEA.

  Alex Johnson, a six-foot-tall black man who looked like he was solid muscle, had the air of a man used to being in charge. “Team Delta is getting in place. Team Alpha, on Delta’s command move in.”

  A HazMat truck was parked and a team in HazMat suits was getting ready.

  “Sir,” the team leader who had captured Lucy and Sean said as he approached Johnson.

  After Johnson finished giving orders, he came over. He looked at his phone and then at Lucy. “It’s her. Release them. Report?”

  “Micah and Tommy Sanders are hiding up on the cliff in a grouping of rocks southwest of the camp. We need to get to them quickly,” Lucy said.

  “Map,” Johnson ordered one of his men.

  “I know how to get there,” Sean said.

  Sean didn’t sound like himself. He glared at the SWAT team that had handcuffed them. “We’ll take over from here,” Johnson said.

  “Time is not on our side,” Sean said. “If they blow their lab, the boys are in immediate danger.”

  “Please,” Lucy said, “you need to trust us.”

  “This isn’t about trust, this is a tactical operation.” Johnson was listening to something. He said to Lucy, “Do you have confirmation that the boys are at the rocks?”

  “I told them to go there.”

  “That’s not good enough.”

  He said into his com, “Whereabouts of two children unknown.”

  “I know where they are!” Lucy said.

  Johnson turned his back on them and Lucy was livid. Micah trusted her to get them out, and he would do what she’d told him. The only reason they would not be there is if they’d been captured.

  “Rogan, show me the layout,” Johnson said. He had a satellite map of the valley. The Nelsons had done a good job finding a location that had enough tree cover to make it difficult for air surveillance, but the map was recent and showed two trailers plus the meth lab. Sean pointed to the lab. “That’s where they cooked meth—they just shut down production; the equipment and raw materials are still inside.” He pointed. “This is about fifty yards, from the lab to the trailers. There are three, not two.” He pointed to an empty space. “That’s where the Sanders kids stayed. This trail”—he traced it—“is not as steep as it looks in the picture; it’s how we came down the cliff. There’s also more foliage—what is this, two months old?”