by Larry Crane
It was safe here, but he knew how close disaster lurked. One little mistake would be all it would take. He had to think of everything.
The girl scraped the ground of rocks and lay down with her head propped on her boots. Gradually, her eyelids drooped. She drifted off to sleep again.
Weariness seeped from Lou’s bones, but every time he felt his eyes starting to close, he fought hard against it. There were only another twelve hours or so to go before they made the linkup.
He could stay awake at least for that much longer. If it meant that he could think the process all the way through and maybe prevent one little error, it was worth it.
Lou got up from the ground and stretched his legs. Leaving the pack, he started up the draw carrying his carbine. Was anyone watching him, prowling with his gun, like the movies? Fuck it. Even if he did look like John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima, it was better than getting caught short. He trudged up to the head of the draw and climbed to a small rock outcrop.
Straight across from them rose the high, long ridge called Long Mountain, three hundred feet higher than Turkey. To the east and south rose the massive Bear Mountain, with the Palisades Parkway curving around its base.
Traffic on the road was heavy, but that was normal. He sat on the ground with the carbine across his knees. Far off to the north, a single helicopter glided over the mountains, crumpling to the horizon. It was possible they were conducting an air search; it could also be something completely different. For the moment, it looked as if they were safe, as long as they didn’t try to move out of the area on any of the roads.
Closer in, the Torne rose up higher than their mountain and dominated the area. How had that distinctive crag managed to poke up out of the mediocrity of the rest of the humps that dotted the forest? Had the glacier heaved up here like a fluttering hen dropping an egg, or had it just pushed rocks higher in this particular spot? Was it by design, or did it just happen?
Sydney was still sleeping. She had turned over on her side to face him. Her clothes were wrinkled and creased. In her sleep, her sweater had crept up, baring her midriff and navel. The outline of her low-cut panties showed against her hip. Her sweater was pulled tight across her chest. Goddam lech. She rolled onto her back again and opened her eyes.
“I fell asleep,” she said.
“Amazing.”
“Think the sun might have something to do with it?”
“We lucked out. It could’ve kept raining,” he pointed out.
“We’ve been lucky all along, haven’t we?”
“You call that luck?”
“Us getting away.”
“That was luck.”
“I never thought I’d get off that bridge,” she said.
“For a while there I thought you had run right into their hands. The light was in my eyes and you disappeared.”
“I did exactly as you said. I don’t think any of them saw me.”
“Lucky, both of us.”
“When you came sliding down the slope, I thought for sure you were one of them. I decided to take a chance and say something.”
“Tell me about Red,” he prompted.
“I was keeping my eye on the toll guard, scared to death the whole time. I thought for sure the guy was going to, like, rush me or something; I don’t think I could’ve pulled the trigger. Then I heard someone come running up to the truck, cussing a blue streak at everyone he saw. All of a sudden, he let go with his gun, shooting every which way, just spraying around. I don’t know if he was shooting at the cops, at the guy under the truck, or me. He pointed it right at me. I could feel bullets hitting the door of the truck in back of me. A couple of them went through my hair. I felt this burning on my arm. I just rolled up in a ball and, like, prayed. The guy under the truck turned around and shot. I guess the hostage just ran for it. I didn’t see him go.”
“I couldn’t figure that idiot, Red, from the first.”
“If it was up to him, I would’ve been banished back at the truck park. Now I wish I had.”
“I can see that they needed a maniac like him to supply the manpower for this thing. For a while, I thought I could deal with him. Then he went berserk; clocked me. If he’d been alive the next time I saw him, I would’ve rearranged his face.”
“He was a pretty big guy. I’d have picked him in the fight.”
“Thanks. I needed that. Maybe he would have finished the job on me. Moot point. How’s the arm?”
“It’s just a little tender. It’s all right. Do you think they’re serious about this being a nationwide thing? I mean, like, pulling off this stuff in a lot of different cities at the same time?”
“Who knows? Who cares?”
“If it’s true, it means that some pretty heavy people had to be mixed up in it, right? And like, if there are heavy people involved, they’re going to want to make sure no shit comes back on them now that it collapsed.”
“They have to be wishing we’re dead.”
“You said you didn’t want to know too much about how I got mixed up in this?” Sydney said, crossing her legs underneath her.
“I just didn’t want to tell you my connection.”
“I already know too much. It all seemed to happen, like, right out of the blue. I got this visit from Stanfield, and then I was in.”
“You just got a visit from Stanfield?”
“I owe this money. Lots of it. I was waiting for someone like him to come after me.”
“You owe money for what?”
“Come on.”
“What? Gambling?”
“Hey, I had a habit, big time, okay? Ecstasy cooked my goose at Williams. Then my roommate at Ramapo found out how bad off I was and apparently tipped Stanfield. He showed up with a pile of cash. At the time, it seemed like something from heaven. I was going to pay him back.”
“He just showed up with money?”
“Yeah. I don’t think Ashley knew anything about Bear Mountain Bridge, though. In fact, Stanfield told me not to mention anything about it to her.”
“Ashley?”
“Corcoran. Ashley Corcoran. My roommate. She’s okay.”
“So it was money.”
“I told him they could have it all back. I’d pay it back somehow. But he said all I had to do was, like, play this little game for a couple of hours and it would be all over. He said I could just forget about repaying it.”
“And all you had to do was become a terrorist.”
“Yeah. Here I am.”
* * *
Morning turned to afternoon. The sun continued to blaze down out of a cloudless sky. It was a perfect Indian Summer day. Lou climbed to the top of the knoll again to look and listen. There was nothing to endanger them that he could detect. The only sounds were the whir of traffic on the Parkway and the buzzing of the last bees of the year in the laurel. At around two o’clock, he lay down on a bare spot with his head propped on his boots, just to rest for a few minutes. Sydney was awake and moving around. It would be all right.
* * *
He woke up slowly and cleared his head… slowly. He found himself looking up into Sydney’s face. His head was in her lap. She was clean and fresh-smelling.
“Would you believe that you must’ve been having some sort of nightmare?” she said.
“How long have I been sleeping?”
“I don’t have the foggiest, but I think it’s getting close to supper time. At least my stomach is telling me it is. Do you hear anything down there?”
“It must be talking Greek,” he said. He raised himself up to a sitting position.
“The sun looks like it’s about ready to sneak behind the trees over there on the next mountain,” Sydney said, shielding her eyes.
“Yeah, and we’re going to freeze our butts up here for the next five hours until it’s time to make it over to Borrow Pit.”
“Do you want your socks? They’re completely dry.”
“Yeah, how about passing them over here? Hey, you look like you got c
leaned up while I was out. You didn’t go down by the lake, I hope.”
“Would you believe a stream down at the base of this hill?”
“Jesus! You’re crazy! Here I am, creeping and crawling like I expect to be attacked any minute, and you’re strolling around. You could’ve gotten us both...”
“But I didn’t.”
“You could have. You only get one chance.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s your skin, too.”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“Do as I tell you.”
“Okay.”
“All right, then.”
“Do you want to do that make-up sex thing?” she asked.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Are you crazy or just completely friggin’ nuts?”
“You don’t have to be so sarcastic,” Sydney said.
“Here on the rocks? With you?”
“Excuse me. It was just an impulse. Ill-timed, it seems.”
“Timing has nothing to do with it.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re feeling doomed.”
“And that was my last wish? Fuck you. I just go with my impulses.”
“I’m capable of a lot: lying, walking out, frittering away the most important things—but there’s a limit, even for me.
“And I’m where you draw the line.”
“You said it.”
“You’re not all that much yourself.”
“Should have been flattered, huh?”
“You said that.”
Lou stood, walked away briefly, and then came back. “It’s the principle.”
“And, like, I wouldn’t know anything about that. Right?”
“Well, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have put principle on your top ten list.”
“A lot you know.”
“Let’s just drop it. I’m simply saying....”
“I’m a slut.”
“I’m saying we’re miles apart when it comes to this.”
“If I’m a slut, you’re a hypocrite, and I’d rather be me.”
“Fine.”
“You probably had the impulse too, but you’re too tight-assed to put it to words.”
“Now who’s flattering herself?”
“It’s not a crime to say what’s on your mind. I believe in that! I’d rather be authentic than anything else.”
“Good for you.”
“Good for me.”
Silence descended again, and their tempers cooled.
* * *
Darkness crept in as the sun sank into the trees along the crest of Long Mountain. With the darkness came the chill. A breeze rolled across the ridge and down into their little canyon. Soon they rested beneath a cloudless sky filled with stars. Lou sat still: his back to a boulder, Sydney huddled beside him, and the M-2 propped close at hand, not to be lost in the night.
This was like many other nights he’d spent in the mountains north of Kontum: wind masking the rush of the stream below, the whispers of frightened men, and the little pain of fear in his chest. Was that the whistle and crunch of artillery shells impacting all around their perimeter?
They sat waiting for the time to move from the safety of this place to the unknown of another place.
“This is going to be hairy,” he said.
“You’re telling me.”
“Right now, we’re the only ones who know where we are and where we’re going. That gives us a big advantage over someone who has to cover the whole damned woods looking for us. So we’re safe for now. But with us moving to a certain spot at a certain time, surprise goes out the window.”
“And only certain people know where we’re going. Assholes.”
“We have options.”
“Like, we don’t meet them?”
“Maybe. Or we make the rendezvous, but we do it in a way that swings the advantage to us.”
“Oh shit. I’m scared. Let’s just walk out.”
“Walking out is worse.”
“We’d have just ourselves. We wouldn’t have to trust anybody.”
“Time is the critical thing. The longer they have to organize and mobilize, the worse it is for us; especially on foot. We have to get out of this area before they can get it completely sealed off.”
“I say walk.”
“We’re not walking out,” he said.
“Hey, it’s my life too.”
“Then, go on. Walk. I’m making the linkup.”
“You know I can’t. I’d be going in circles.”
“Then don’t walk.”
“Can’t I at least share in the decision making, commander, for chrissake?”
“You can’t make decisions on something you know nothing about, such as land navigation, escape, and evasion.”
“I know how treacherous those guys are. They don’t play by the rules.”
“Listen, it’s my judgment that neither one of us could just keep trekking through these hills indefinitely with no food or shelter. In a few more hours, as the cops tighten up their net, all alternatives to walking will be shut down. We may wind up walking, but that should be our last option.”
“Okay. Why didn’t you say that in the beginning?”
Sydney stayed huddled next to him, shuddering against the wind. The pickup was for midnight. The Joe DiMaggio password bit. Someone would show up in a U-Haul van. Stanfield? Nothing was specified about the approach. Good. If he could keep his eye on the whole area, see everything that happened from some cover, then he could call all the shots, dictate the conditions, and decide whether or not to expose their position. If everything wasn’t perfect (single vehicle, two passengers at most, both out of the van and carrying nothing in their hands), then he could pass on the pickup.
One more thing. He had to observe from an unpredictable place, a place they’d never anticipate.
“Hey,” he said suddenly. “Here it is.”
“Tell me,” she groaned.
“We go to the spot. Check it out. If we like the set up, we go with it. If we don’t, we don’t. It’s all we have.”
“I still say walk.”
“We’re going to play this linkup card.”
“And if we lose?”
Lou stood and pulled her to her feet.
“Come on. We’ve got some things to do.”
* * *
They held hands moving in the dark below the crest of Turkey Mountain. It was about a mile and a half, angling toward Mine Torne Road. Rhododendron and laurel branches—thick, in the low spots that separated a hundred knolls, in the saddles, and along the rounded tops of a thousand spurs—grabbed at their legs. At the northern end of the ridgeline, the mountain climbed to over 400 feet, and then dropped off steeply into the swampy ground beside Popolopen Creek and Mine Torne Road.
Lou swung to a southeasterly course at the end of the ridge. They walked out on a broad finger that pointed directly at the Torne rising above them. They would avoid a direct approach to the pit; they’d come from a direction Stanfield would never expect.
At a sharp curve in the road, they sprinted across Mine Torne Road together. If anyone was lying in wait for them, this is where they’d have the best chance of not being seen, of avoiding the sudden headlights of an oncoming car. Directly above them were the cliffs of the Torne.
They walked along the lower slopes of the crag, contouring, keeping themselves parallel to Mine Torne Road two hundred feet to their left and a hundred feet below. At a point along the Torne ridge, directly opposite Borrow Pit, Lou stopped. They both slumped to the ground.
A pair of headlights appeared at the curve at least a mile distant from them, growing in size and brightness as the vehicle came toward them on the straightaway, it’s tires whining on the macadam surface.
“Sydney, watch. Try to identify anything along the road, like another parked truck or car. This is a perfect spot to watch from.”
“He’s going to see us.”
“Not in the woods like this. Loo
king out, everything is clear on the road because of the headlights in contrast with the darkness of the woods. But looking in, down there on the road, the trees screen us.”