Standing Guard

by Valerie Hansen

  “I’ll need proof.”

  Thad had anticipated that reaction. Reed was no fool. If anything foiled him, it would be his monumental greed.

  “The computer, and me, in trade for the woman,” Thad shouted. “You’d better hurry and make up your mind. The cops are on my tail. They’ll be here soon.”

  Instead of complying, the businessman pressed a pistol against Lindy’s temple and smiled. “All right. We’ll hurry. Get over here before I end this standoff the messy way.”

  Thad wasn’t about to let him harm Lindy.

  He came forward.

  His best hope was that Reed would be unable to access the files on the boy’s game player and would delay taking any overt action until he had contacted his own expert.

  While there was life, there was a chance.

  And while there was prayer, there was hope.

  * * *

  Lindy could not believe anyone could be as brave as Thad Pearson. Not only had he come after her, he was offering to become a part of the situation that might very well lead to their demise. If she’d had any lingering doubts about his love, they were long gone.

  And her own tender feelings? Those were just as clear. She loved Thad so much, so fully, she would have walked barefoot across a bed of hot coals to save him, if need be.

  As he drew closer and their eyes met, she tried to read his thoughts, to tell if he was being truthful about Danny’s computer notebook. The notion was just far-fetched enough to be true yet crazy enough to possibly be nothing more than a figment of Thad’s imagination.

  The hardest thing for Lindy to accept was that he was there with her. She knew she shouldn’t be glad to see him. Part of her heart was rejoicing while another part wept. They could not die. Not now. Not when she had just admitted how much they belonged together.

  And poor Danny. He couldn’t lose them both. Please, God, protect us.

  Stepping behind Lindy, James Reed gestured with the gun. “Into the plane. Pearson first.”

  The pilot had already climbed aboard and was checking his instruments.

  When Thad passed Lindy she could tell how badly he felt that he hadn’t been able to get her freed so she managed a smile for his benefit and whispered, “Thank you for trying.”

  Reed gave her arm a shake. “Shut up. Now you. And don’t try anything stupid. We won’t be flying high enough to need cabin pressure so I won’t hesitate to shoot.”

  Lindy slid into a seat directly across the narrow aisle from Thad and fumbled to fasten her seat belt. The pilot was at the controls of the plane and Reed positioned himself to the rear, behind them all.

  Powerful engines coughed to life, one at a time, making it hard to hear normal conversational tones above their rumble.

  “Get started finding those numbers,” Reed shouted. He gestured with the barrel of his pistol.

  “I told you, I’m no expert,” Thad protested.

  “That’s not what your service record says.”

  Lindy chanced a peek at her seatmate and saw his jaw muscles clenching. Their nemesis had done his homework. Perhaps that was why he had believed Thad’s wild claim in the first place.

  Wondering how long Thad could stall and how soon Reed was going to lose patience and eliminate him, Lindy closed her eyes and began to pray silently while tears trickled down her cheeks.

  There were no flowery words to her prayer, just a heartfelt plea for deliverance.

  The hardest part was remaining hopeful in spite of what was happening all around her.

  Rolling down the runway and gaining speed, the Cessna was buffeted and shaken by the wind.

  As she felt the wheels of the plane finally break contact with the ground, her spirits sank like a stone in a bottomless well.

  * * *

  Thad began by powering up the unit and fiddling with the games as if he were actually searching the internal database. He knew Reed was watching him closely but he could also tell that the man was essentially clueless when it came to computers. That was good to know, although it probably also meant that his patience would soon wear thin.

  Rising above the treetops, the plane banked hard to the left, enabling Thad to see the town passing below. They were going west, at least at the moment, although their ultimate destination was anybody’s guess. This particular aircraft had a pretty decent range so they could be headed anywhere, especially if they stopped for gas to top off the wing tanks.

  Below, Thad spotted rows of cars with flashing red-and-blue lights speeding toward Pearson Products, undoubtedly pursuing him. Too bad they hadn’t been a little faster acting on the cryptic clues Lindy had left on the hospital mirror.

  Thad thought it would raise her spirits if he complimented her intelligence so he smiled over at her and said, “I’m glad you brushed your teeth this morning.”

  She perked up and sniffled. “Thanks.” Sobering, she swiped away sparse tears. “I almost wish I hadn’t.”

  “It was the smart thing to do,” Thad assured her.

  “Knock off the flirting,” Reed ordered. “How are you coming with those files?”

  “It’s slow. If he’s embedded anything in these programs, it’ll take a while to find the back door. Maybe even days. Weeks.”

  “You have exactly half an hour.” He was waving the gun wildly and appeared close to losing control of himself. “After that, I start shooting. I just haven’t decided which one of you to kill first.”

  Half an hour? The man had to be even crazier than he’d first thought.

  Thad peeked over at Lindy and saw her trying to smile back at him. If he managed to fake some banking or routing numbers, it might delay their deaths for a little while but that wasn’t good enough. He’d also have to disarm the gunman without drawing fire from the pilot or risking Lindy’s safety. It would be a lot easier to predict the outcome of their touchy situation if he didn’t have to look out for anyone besides himself.

  Fingers absently tapping the keyboard, Thad opened the program files and found the parental control security function. This little laptop had a surprising 160 GB hard drive and an Intel processor, proving that it was even more capable of hiding files than he’d imagined.

  He glanced over at Lindy. “Do you have any idea what password Ben might have used to lock Danny out?”

  “No. Sorry.”

  “Mother’s maiden name, a dog he once had? Anything like that?”

  Lindy shook her head. “Ben would have been a lot more likely to have used something technical. Maybe a series of numbers?”

  “It might take forever to figure that out,” Thad replied. “I’ll try a few random words first.”

  Success came on his third try. The password was “retirement.” Ironic, in a way, since Ben had been permanently retired from life, itself, by his involvement with criminals.

  Watching—leaning over the back of Thad’s seat and bracing himself by hanging on with his free hand—Reed shouted, “That’s it! You did it.”

  “I got into the parental controls,” Thad told him. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to be able to find anything else.”

  “You’d better.”

  The plane was being rocked so badly by this time it felt as if they were sitting on the ground in the middle of a massive earthquake. They’d climb a bit, then stutter or abruptly lose altitude as if all the lift had disappeared from beneath their wings.

  Thad could tell that their captor was having trouble staying in his own seat because
the gun was waving around and he was holding on with his free hand—meaning he hadn’t fastened his safety belt.

  “Why don’t you play it safe and buckle up?” Thad suggested. “I’ll let you know what else I find.”

  Reed’s laugh was cynical and harsh. “No way. I’m staying right here where I can watch you.”

  “Suit yourself. Feels to me like this weather is getting worse by the second.”

  The pilot agreed with a shout. “I can pull us out of some of this turbulence if I climb to a higher altitude, Mr. Reed.”

  “No! Stay under the radar the way I told you. How far are we from Lake Norfork?”

  “Five or ten minutes. We’ve got a terrible headwind.”

  Thad’s survival instincts were firing on all cylinders. Wanting to know when they were over the lake might mean that Reed had something specific in mind. No matter what it was, it couldn’t be good news for his prisoners.

  Paging down the list of files he had accessed, Thad wasn’t really looking for banking information. He was simply searching on autopilot while stalling for time and wondering if he dared make a grab for the moving gun barrel during the next big lurch of the plane.

  Something on the screen caught his eye. He froze with his index finger poised. Whoa! Could it be? Was his ruse actually going to pan out?

  Staring in disbelief, he suddenly realized that Ben Southerland had done exactly what Thad had been pretending he’d done. The secret files were on the child’s computer. And he had just located them.

  Now what? If he dared let on that he’d been successful, Reed would surely shoot him and probably get rid of Lindy, too, rather than leave witnesses behind.

  Glancing over at her, he saw that she was staring at the computer screen.

  Although the nod of his head was barely perceptible, Thad knew she had seen his signal. Her eyes widened. Her lips parted.

  “I need to use the restroom,” she said abruptly.

  Reed snorted. “This is a little plane, not a commercial flight, lady. We don’t have all the amenities on board. You’re out of luck.”

  “Then can I at least stretch my legs a bit?”

  “And get behind me? I don’t think so.” He called to the pilot. “Frank. Circle over the lake. I’m about to lose patience with our passengers and one of them is going to be getting off if he doesn’t start to make some progress soon.”

  Thad realized his time was running out. He began to grin as he held up the little device and pointed. “I’m there. Here’s your precious file.”

  It didn’t come as a surprise to Thad when the man got excited but he was taken aback when he leaned closer to get a better look.

  That was all the opening Thad needed.

  He closed his fist around the man’s wrist and yanked. When Reed’s head and shoulders lurched forward, Thad’s other fist connected with his chin.

  That blow threw the businessman off balance. Recoiling and falling backward, he squeezed off one wild shot before hitting his head and falling unconscious.

  Lindy had already ducked as low in her seat as the lap belt would allow. The bullet passed her, ricocheted off a cabinet in the cockpit and clipped the pilot in the temple.

  He didn’t shout or even moan. He simply slumped over the controls.

  The weight of his body against the yoke dropped the nose of the plane. Already flying low, they began to descend rapidly.

  Thad saw icy-cold Lake Norfork looming ahead. The wind had whipped the surface and created the kind of whitecaps usually reserved for the ocean. Those waves would make their landing even rougher, maybe even causing the plane to break up on impact!

  He shouted, “Brace yourself! Cover your head,” as he unfastened his lap belt and launched himself toward the unconscious pilot.

  Grabbing his shoulders, Thad shoved back his body and took hold of the yoke, hoping to muscle the plane out of its lethal dive.

  The aircraft shuddered, straining to survive. When they had started to descend, their air speed had risen.

  Thad saw the water coming. Fast. Unforgiving.

  They were going to ditch.

  There was nothing he could do to stop it.

  SEVENTEEN

  Lindy’s prayers were wordless. Constant. Frantic.

  She could feel the angle of the cabin floor beginning to change beneath her feet. G-forces pressed her back against her seat as the plane leveled out.

  Then, just as she started to raise her head to look, one wing dipped, caught in the rough water and made the aircraft spin on that axis. Moments later there was a terrific jolt when everything came to an abrupt halt.

  Lindy felt as if a giant hand had reached up and slammed her against the seat. The lap belt dug into her thighs. She hurt so badly she cried out.

  The noise and impact of the collision seemed to go on for countless minutes before the forward momentum ebbed.

  Surrounded by silence, Lindy sensed a different kind of pitching, as if they were being gently rocked.

  That has to be the movement of the waves, she reasoned, half conscious and wondering if she was the only one who realized they had crashed.

  She pushed herself upright and blinked, hardly able to take it all in. They were down, all right. The plane’s nose was partially submerged and water had begun to seep into the passenger compartment, although the wings seemed to be acting as temporary flotation devices.

  Her mind began to shriek, Get out!

  The belt holding her was so taut it was binding and stopping the quick-release from working. She clawed at it until the tips of her nails broke. Tears of frustration and terror further blurred her vision.

  When a masculine and very familiar voice said, “Take it easy. I’ll get that for you,” she nearly shrieked with joy in spite of everything.

  “Thad! Are you okay?”

  “Better than the other two guys.”

  “Are—are they dead?”

  “No. The pilot is wounded and Reed is out like a light but they’re both still breathing.”

  His brute strength forced the clasp of her seat belt to finally let loose and she sensed that he was lifting her, so she wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “Tell me you can swim. Please,” he said, sounding short of breath.

  “I can. Can you?”

  “Yeah. Don’t worry about me. Just swim free of the plane and head for the nearest shoreline.”

  “But...”

  “No arguments, Lindy. Not this time. If this thing sinks, it’s liable to create a suction that drags you down with it. The farther away you are, the safer you’ll be.”

  He had to kick the side door to get it to open and a gust of wind nearly tore it from its hinges.

  Placing her on her feet in the opening, he pointed to the shore. “It’s not that far. Get going.”

  “What about you? Aren’t you coming with me?”

  “I’ll be out soon. I want to see if I can help the pilot first.”

  “What about Reed? Where’s his gun?”

  “I have it,” Thad said, pointing to the dark metal grip sticking out of his belt. “He can’t hurt us anymore.”

  “I don’t want to leave you,” she insisted. “I—I...”

  Say it. Tell him you love him. Now. Before it’s too late.

  Lindy steeled herself against the possibility that this might be the very last time she and Thad spoke.

  Before she could follow her heart and confess that she sh
ared his feelings, he put the flat of his hand between her shoulder blades and gave her a mighty shove.

  Plummeting feetfirst into the icy, turbulent water stole Lindy’s breath away. She gasped, taking in more than air, and bobbed to the surface coughing and gagging. If anyone but Thad had pushed her like that, she’d have been furious.

  “Go. Swim!” he shouted at her with one hand cupped around his mouth and the other arm pressed against his side as if babying his ribs. “Do it now.”

  She was trembling all the way to the marrow of her bones, so cold she wondered if she was able to make the swim. She had to try. Thad had already risked his life for her sake more than once and was now trying to save others. She couldn’t disappoint him.

  What Lindy wanted most to do was tread water long enough to give him a piece of her mind. Only the knowledge that he was right about putting distance between herself and the sinking aircraft and the realization that she had her son’s future to consider made her kick off her shoes, turn and strike out for shore.

  Movement became instinctive as she fell into a rhythm. Kick. Stroke. Breathe.

  And silently weep for the loneliness she could already envision if Thad Pearson went down with that plane.

  * * *

  Thad gritted his teeth against the stabbing pain in his side and struggled to reach the pilot once again. A name he’d overheard popped into his head so he tried it. “Frank? Frank! Wake up. We need to get out of here.”

  The man stirred, then tensed as if he thought he was under attack.

  Thad dodged a weak, ineffectual punch and smiled. “I see you’re awake. Suppose you help me get your boss up and move him out onto the wing. I don’t think I can do it alone.”

  “What happened?” Frank was testing his temple. His fingers came away bloody.

  “Reed shot you.”

  “No way.”

  “Suit yourself,” Thad said. “If you want to sit there and argue with me, fine. I’m getting out of here before she sinks.”