by Patrick Lee
He took a step toward the man. By providence the floor directly at the threshold kept its silence. His next step-also quiet-put him where he needed to be. His left hand went to the Beretta's barrel, not touching it yet, but encircling it. His right he drew back, tensed. Travis waited. Whoever was out there could only be feet away. He considered opening fire through the wall. He could put a shot every six inches until the clip ran dry. But if he used every bullet and missed anyway-if the killer dropped too low or was farther down the hall than he sounded-then it would all be over.
Silence now. Ten seconds at least. It was worse than the creaking.
Then he felt the gun in his hand jerk impossibly downward, as if drawn by a supermagnet in the floor-but before he could even process the sensation, pain exploded below his ear, his vision flaring white. Then black. What had happened? Awareness came back slowly. He was lying on his chest, face to the floor, ankles bound together. His hands too, behind him-the bind felt like duct tape. Another loop surrounded his head, covering his eyes.
He was still in the room with Paige. Her breathing was worse; how much time had gone by?
Now he remembered the baffling movement of his gun, and the blow to his head from nowhere. Had it really happened that way, or was he remembering it wrong because he'd been knocked out?
A man spoke, the voice deep and without emotion. "Tell me where she hid it."
Travis considered the options, each so bleak he almost didn't care to choose. If he said he didn't know, and if the guy believed him, he'd turn his attention on Paige instead. Could she even be woken at this point? Maybe, with enough pain. This guy would have no qualms about administering it. On the other hand, if Travis said he knew where the thing was buried, the guy might decide Paige was of no use and kill her immediately. Really, almost every outcome he could imagine ended with both of them dead inside of an hour.
Except one-the worst one, and probably the most likely. Without a doubt, this guy had the means to contact the team in the valley. They could be here with the helicopter in twenty minutes, grab him and Paige and be far away before help arrived.
When would help arrive? How long had he been unconscious? If he could stall for time, maybe it would only be a little longer. He and Paige wouldn't survive, of course-the guy would kill them before fleeing, no question of that-but at least they'd only be dead. The lesser evil by a wide margin. Holding up the show by even ten minutes might make that possible.
"It was fun killing your friends," Travis said.
The man didn't respond.
"The little guy with the cattle prod, especially," he continued. "Then again, technically, I didn't kill him. He managed to survive. Briefly. Should've seen what happened to him then."
"I hear it was fitting," the voice said.
"No, it would have been fitting if he could have smoldered alive for three days."
"Where's the Whisper hidden? Did she bury it? She couldn't have carried it far without heavy containment, which she didn't have."
"We played catch with it for a while, then we got bored, decided to head back to town. It's probably just lying wherever we left it."
The floor strained. When the man spoke again, he was closer. "Sarcasm doesn't come naturally to a man in your predicament. It sounds like a contrivance to me, which means it has a purpose-and for now, that tells me all I need to know."
Then he lifted something-it was heavy and plastic, from the sound it made against the wall-and left the room. He was only a few steps into the hall when Travis heard the digital tones of a phone number being punched into a keypad. "He knows where it is," Karl said. "And he has the key in his pocket. For now I've left it there, to keep him confident."
Karl was standing outside the front of the restaurant, far from the hiker's hearing range. He explained his plan into the phone. When he finished, the man on the other end of the call remained silent, considering it.
The breeze had picked up since earlier, coursing down from the north through the gap where the highway transited the range. The sun, also farther north, shone blood red along the gravel ribbon.
"If your idea doesn't work," the man on the phone said, "then what you're suggesting will be a terrible sacrifice." His voice sounded hollow over the satellite connection.
"If it does work, it's worth it," Karl said. "Regardless, it's the only way to get what you want now."
More silence. Karl knew to let it play out. As he waited, he turned and stared off to the south. The hiker had guessed correctly about one thing: Tangent would send help by way of the Air Force, probably a C-17 Globemaster coming out of Elmendorf with its ass on fire, a couple Special Tactics teams ready to bail off the ramp. Elmendorf was in Anchorage, four hundred miles south, give or take. If the C-17 had lifted off within ten minutes of the call-a near certainty-it would be here within the hour. But because the hiker had told Tangent about the helicopter, Karl knew there was something else coming from Elmendorf, moving a hell of a lot faster than a cargo jet. Maybe three times as fast.
The man on the line finally spoke. "All right. Do it. When do you want the helicopter?"
Karl did the math. Even accounting for some unpredictability, the timing should be good enough.
"Go ahead and call them now," Karl said. "Tell them to take off right away."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Alone with the sound of Paige trying to hold on, Travis found his mind returning to the attack that had knocked him unconscious. He didn't think he was misremembering it now. The details were clear. The gun in his hand had suddenly pulled itself down-but not just down. Down and forward. There'd even been a twist in the motion.
As if a human hand had grabbed it.
Then, half a second later had come the blow to the side of his head, from someone who must have been standing out of sight behind him.
But how? Travis had been in this small room from the moment the big guy in the John Deere hat had led him to it. There'd been nobody here. There was no closet to hide in, and the window had been closed. How had the attacker gotten behind him, unless he'd been hiding under the bed?
Even in that case, Travis knew there was some deeper flaw in the picture. Something more fundamental. But for the longest moment he couldn't put his finger on it.
Then he remembered.
The sunlight-coming from the northwest, almost straight into the room through the window. While he'd stood there with the gun leveled at the doorway, his own shadow had been projected on the wall just inside the room, hard and sharp as a picture on a movie screen. Anyone behind him-anyone within five feet of him in any direction-would have been shown there as well. He could not possibly have missed it.
So what the hell had happened here?
In his mind he saw Paige in the clearing again, holding the Whisper, telling him humans hadn't created it. Saying it like it was the most normal thing in the world. The most normal thing in her world, anyway.
What else was normal in Paige's world? What capabilities did her enemies have? What the fuck were they up against here?
A sound broke the moment. The last sound he wanted to hear. Rotors. This was it, then. Two minutes from now, he and Paige would be dragged from the building, onto the aircraft, and then they'd be winding through the valleys at low level, probably on nobody's radar. Maybe these people would have drugs and instruments to keep Paige alive for a while, and wake her up for a new marathon of agony.
Unless he killed her first.
There might just be time. If he contorted his body the right way, he thought he could get himself seated upright against the wall, and be standing without much trouble. His ankles were bound, but he could reach the bed in a couple jumps. Then just smother her with his shoulder. As weak as her breathing was, it would be simple.
He could make those moves. Could he make that choice? Jesus, could he do that to her? Logic, hard and clear, told him he'd regret it sorely if he didn't.
The necessary time was slipping away now, the rotors coming in loud, like a clock tic
king off the seconds at hyper speed.
With the indecision came hatred, more bitter than he'd felt in years. Hatred of these fucking people for pushing him to the edge of this decision.
And then the chopper exploded.
A concussion wave shook the building, and in the wake of its bass came the most beautiful silence Travis had ever heard. Five seconds later a fighter screamed overhead, its own shockwave rattling the window. He heard the engines whine through some kind of power adjustment, and then the roar, instead of fading into the distance, seemed to even out. The jet was circling.
Obviously it couldn't save them from the man who was already here. Any second his footsteps would come pounding down the hall from wherever he'd gone; a quick detour to murder them before fleeing. But the worst possibility had been cancelled out. Travis had that to be thankful for while he waited to die.
Half a minute passed. No footsteps. He felt hope sliding back in, whether or not he trusted it yet.
Then instead of footsteps he heard voices, people shouting. Coldfoot's remaining residents, probably fewer than ten, had emerged from their homes and were calling one another outside to see the spectacle. He heard a woman call Molly's name, approaching the lodge, and then she screamed, and a moment later other voices rose around her, and the front door of the building swung in.
Travis yelled for them.
They came to him cautiously; it was a minute or more before they'd entered the room, sat him up and removed his blindfold and bindings.
Through the window, framed like a portrait, the steep ridge across the highway was strewn with the burning remains of the helicopter.
"Who did this?" the old man who'd released him asked. "Where'd they go?"
"I don't know," Travis said. "Any of the victims up front have guns on them?"
The man nodded, his curiosity deepening. "Molly and Lloyd both," he said. He glanced at Paige and then returned his eyes to Travis. "You gonna tell me what's happening here?"
"The military's coming," Travis said. "Maybe they can tell us both. Just get the guns and tell everyone to keep their eyes open until help arrives."
The man accepted that and left the room.
Looking at his own shadow on the wall, solitary as it'd been before, Travis wondered if that last advice even mattered.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Forty minutes later a cargo jet rumbled in out of the south and, from three thousand feet up, offloaded two dozen paratroopers. Travis went to the window-he was unwilling to leave Paige alone in the room-and watched them circle down in tight columns, landing within fifty yards of the building. They were dressed in black, their uniforms bulked out with body armor, their weapons slung on their shoulders as they touched down. By the time the last of them landed, the first had already taken positions around the lodge.
Four of them stood out. One, maybe ten years older than the rest, pointed and gave orders, his sharpness and efficiency apparent even from beyond hearing range.
The last three needed no orders. They were surgeons. They made straight for the building, waved in by the locals, and Travis called them to the room as soon as they entered. They carried packs and duffels loaded with all the equipment a modern ER would have, plugging in two power strips to create enough outlets for the monitors, lights, and other machinery they arranged around the bed. Travis got out of their way and watched them take command of the situation. The specifics of their technical speech went by him, but the meaning came through clearly. They could save her.
Moments later the commander came in the front door of the lodge, carrying a satellite phone like the one Ellen Garner had tried to repair. He was speaking to someone on it already, and as his eyes found Travis in the hall, he said, "I'm here with him now."
He strode to Travis, but instead of handing him the phone, he paused, listening to the caller. "Of course," he said. He looked past Travis into the room. "Dr. Carro, status."
The oldest of the surgeons, Carro, answered without looking up from his work. "She's stable."
The commander relayed the message into the phone, then said, "Yes, sir," and handed the unit to Travis. As he did, for just a moment his eyes held the same curiosity as the old man who'd unbound Travis earlier. Then he walked away down the hall.
"Hello," Travis said.
The reply came from the man he'd spoken to when he'd called Tangent earlier.
"We have a more secure connection now," the man said, "but we're still going to be careful about what you say on your end. Those first responders are military; they're not cleared for what we'll be talking about."
"Okay."
"First, thank you for intervening on behalf of Miss Campbell. We owe you a great deal. The following questions, I'll ask you to answer with a simple yes or no. Did you see an object the size of a cue ball, dark blue-"
"Yes."
"Is it in the possession of the people who were holding Miss Campbell?"
"Not exactly," Travis said.
"Did she hide it somewhere?"
"Yes. I can tell you where-"
"No," the man said. "Don't do that. Just confirm for me whether it's hidden near the encampment where you rescued her."
"Yes," Travis said.
"All right. The F-15 pilot verified that there's nobody left at that site. The hostiles must've all been aboard the chopper when it was hit. So here's how this is going to work. We have two Black Hawks coming to you, a little over an hour away. The pilots and crew aren't military; they're our people, and they're cleared for this. One of the choppers will evacuate Miss Campbell. The other will take you to the camp in the valley, where you'll show our people the Whisper's location. They'll have the means to contain it for transport. Once it's secured, you'll receive further instruction from them."
"Okay," Travis said.
"Do you have any questions?"
Travis was on the point of describing the strange attack in Room Three, but found himself unable to frame it in any way that made sense. He hadn't even done that in his own thoughts yet.
"None," Travis said.
The man thanked him again and hung up. Fuck.
It was all Karl could do to keep the curse to himself. The easy version of the plan had nearly worked.
From the open door of the fourth room off the hall, ten feet from where the hiker had stood with the satellite phone, Karl had watched the conversation.
He'd been in this room since just before the helicopter's demise, after using the sound of its rotors to mask his return down the creaking hallway. The room had proven a fine place from which to listen to the hiker's phone call, though Karl had been prepared to follow him elsewhere if necessary.
It really should have worked.
With the chopper down in flames, and the fighter pilot's word that the valley was clear of hostiles, Karl had been certain Tangent would ask the hiker where the damn thing was hidden. He'd even started to tell them, before they'd stopped him.
That knowledge would have ended the game. Karl would have easily taken the key back from the hiker-probably by way of a silent kill in the hallway while the doctors were preoccupied-and left the building. He'd stowed his own satellite phone in the drain trench beside the highway, three hundred yards south. A quick jog, and he could have sent his superiors the location of the hidden Whisper more than an hour ahead of Tangent's arrival at the site.
It would have been more than enough time. His people had already dispatched another chopper from their own staging point; it was screaming along the Brooks Range at this moment, below radar, toward the valley where the 747 lay in ruins and the Whisper lay hidden. The F-15 had long since turned for home, having spent its fuel inefficiently in the mad scream to reach Coldfoot.
One spoken sentence, and every tumbler would have clicked into place.
Fuck.
Karl waited for the hiker to wander back to the open doorway of the makeshift emergency room. The noise from equipment and voices inside provided ample sound cover. Karl moved past the man, down the
hall and out the front door.
By the time he reached his phone, the lodge and the soldiers around it were distant specks, inaudible over the wind. He dialed and waited.
"Tell the chopper to land five miles west of the site and wait there," he said when it was answered. "It's going to be complicated."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
By the time the Black Hawks arrived, the wind out of the north had hardened. Travis put his back to it and watched them come in, their shadows rippling over the landscape far behind them. They were still a mile out when Dr. Carro came to the door of the lodge and waved him back inside.
"She's asking for you," Carro said.
He followed Carro back to the room and found Paige with her eyes open, though unable to focus. He took her hand, and she dragged her gaze to meet his, like a child pulling a heavy weight. He wondered if this was all she wanted: just to see a face she knew, if only barely. Then she spoke, her voice so weak Travis had to lean close.
"If you have to wake it up," she said, "then do it. It's worth it, if there's no other choice. But let go of it as fast as you can."
The doctors traded looks, and Carro said, "Confusion is normal for someone under this much sedation. She'll be fine after-"
"I know I'm on ten milligrams per minute of propofol," Paige whispered. "Please shut up and let me speak."
Carro shut up.
Paige fixed her eyes more firmly on Travis and said, "I know Tangent is coming. I know everything seems safe. But we never assume. We can't afford to. If things go bad… if you have to use the Whisper… press the key against it to wake it up."
She faded for a few seconds, then drew a deep breath and said, "Just let go of it as soon as you can. If you wait too long, it won't let you."