by Val Welch
They crouched down in their seats as Troy made the final turn. He floored the jeep and they bounced over the last of the rutted road and into the river crossing. “Hold on, we’re going for it,” he yelled, driving the jeep headlong into the swiftly moving water.
“Damn, the water is a lot higher,” Joaquin yelled.
The jeep’s tires struggled to grab onto the slippery, rock covered riverbed beneath the rushing water. “Get ready to bail out and swim for it if we start drifting,” Troy yelled, fighting with the steering wheel. Twice, the current jerked the wheel out of his hands and twice he and Joaquin wrestled it back and managed to hold the jeep on course. They passed through the very center of the river and almost flipped when a huge wave crashed into the side of the jeep. It partially flooded the interior and helped weigh the jeep down onto the slick rocks below. Troy didn’t even realize he’d been holding his breath until the front tires made contact with the riverbank and he gasped a deep breath.
“That was intense,” he yelled. He put the jeep into low gear and churned through the mud as he coaxed the jeep up the steep embankment to the boulder strewn trail above them.
“Oh shit, who’s that?” Joaquin asked, pointing to a poncho covered man standing in their headlights with a rifle trained on them.
Troy slowed the jeep. Another armed man stepped from the forest and approached the driver’s side door.
Gabe jerked the door open and stuck his head inside the cab. “You guys going somewhere?”
“Yeah, the hell out of here. Get in,” Troy yelled over the sound of the rain pelting the roof of the jeep.
“Where’s Shelby?” Gabe yelled, his face, inches from Troy’s.
“Damn Gabe, she beat us up, locked us in the mine and took off yesterday. We’ve got to get out of here. A whole lot of shit is about to rain down on us.”
Gabe motioned to the other man who was still holding a rifle on Joaquin.
He ran toward them. “Where’s Shelby?” he screamed, burying the muzzle of his rifle deep into Troy’s gut.
Gabe pulled him off. “She got away from them yesterday. She’s probably back at Doc’s high and dry and doing tequila shots.”
The man reluctantly pulled the rifle back. “She fucking better be.”
Troy put his palms up. “Okay, we’ve got to move out. They’re going to be here any minute.” He pointed over his shoulder at the compound and the line of headlights creeping along the cliff trail.
Gabe looked at the other man. “Feel like shooting fish in a barrel?”
“Yeah.” He gestured toward Joaquin and Troy. “They’re coming too.”
Gabe nodded. “You two are under arrest for kidnapping a federal agent.” He grabbed the keys from the jeep and motioned them back toward the river bank.
* * * * *
Carson scrambled up the rain soaked embankment and stepped behind a chest high group of boulders. As the first vehicle rounded the final turn in the trail, he pulled up his rifle, looked through the scope at the dimly lit interior of the SUV and shot the driver. The SUV swerved over the edge of the trail and crashed onto the rocks below. The second vehicle skidded to a stop as Gabe opened fire on it. The driver stepped out, returning fire and Carson shot him. The passengers spilled out, firing erratically as they ran down the slippery trail toward the river. Carson picked them off, just feet from their stalled vehicle. Chaos broke loose on the trail as men spilled from the third and fourth vehicles and scrambled for cover. The last vehicle in the convoy tried reversing up the trail, missed the curve, and went over the side into the churning river below.
Carson continued to methodically pick off those men who were still returning fire, as Gabe, Joaquin and Troy watched.
“He’s a fucking killing machine. Who is he?” Troy Abbott asked.
“Shelby’s partner, Carson,” Gabe told him.
“Ah, that’s Carson,” Troy said
Carson listened to their conversation, and looked through his scope at two men standing in the middle of the trail, hands held high in the air. His finger was on the trigger when Gabe gently pushed his rifle up. “Hey, Pilgrim, let’s let them surrender.”
Carson lowered the rifle, spun around and confronted Troy and Joaquin. “How did Shelby get out?”
“We think she used an old trail over the mountain. She beat us up and locked us in the mine before she left,” Joaquin admitted.
“When did she leave?”
“Yesterday evening.”
Gabe looked at Carson and then Joaquin. “She’s been up on the mountain alone for the last twenty-four hours?”
Joaquin lowered his head. Even Carson didn’t see it coming, because he never made the conscious decision to do it. He watched as his arms swung his rifle up to Joaquin’s head and his finger pulled the trigger.
Thirty-Seven
At dusk, Shelby finally located the fire ring from the morning. It was now covered with a fine dusting of snow. She paused long enough to make sure there was no food or water in the abandoned camp site and then moved on.
At least she was off the mountain and onto the two-hundred-mile-long escarpment known as the Mogollon Rim. She knew it was only a matter of time before she found the Rim Road which ran along the entire length of the Mogollon Rim. Sometimes the road ran right next to the edge of the rim, others it meandered off several miles into the forest. It was usually well traveled by elk hunters this time of year and finding a hunting camp was now her plan. She knew falling asleep on the boulder had been a grave error.
She had tried the cell phone two more times without success. She was now convinced the storm had disrupted cell service in the area and she would have to wait out the storm before trying it again.
In the back of her mind, she suspected she was no longer making rational decisions. Exhaustion plagued her every step and the urge to lie down in the snow for just a moment was constantly present. So far, she had resisted it, but she was worried reality was slowly slipping away.
For the last hour, the baby had been talking to her. At first, he’d just cried despondently and she’d tried to comfort him. Gradually, he told her how scared he was that they were going to die. She kept walking as she reassured him and told him how happy their life together would be and how much she, Daddy and Grandpa would love him. She told him of all the lonely years she had been waiting for him.
Their discussion went on for hours as she trudged forward, moving through the forest, over fallen logs, around boulders and finally up an incline which constantly shifted under her weight. Her feet slid out from under her many times, before she collapsed into the snow exhausted. He refused to allow the sleep she so desperately craved and urged her on, forcing her onto her hands and knees and forward up the incline. The clouds parted as she finally crested the summit and pushed herself onto solid ground where she found a vaguely familiar structure. He told her to hold onto it and wait, he would see her soon. She cried when he left her alone in the cold, white world she couldn’t comprehend. And when the light finally came, she accepted her fate and the calmness that washed over her as she finally closed her eyes and let go.
Thirty-Eight
The click of the firing pin on the empty chamber was deafening. No one moved for several long seconds as Carson’s finger continued to spasm on the trigger.
Slowly, Gabe pushed the rifle up. “Stand down, pilgrim.”
Carson took a deep breath, handed the rifle to Gabe, turned and walked away.
Joaquin sank to his knees and made the sign of the cross. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty …”
Gabe followed Carson. He found him standing at the edge of the river looking at the cloud shrouded summit above them.
“She’s up there, all alone,” Carson said, his voice filled with the misery that Gabe felt as well.
“I know. Come on, we need to get ready. We’re going after her at first light.”
“We have to get up there now. They have radio equipment. We can call for choppers,” Carson said.
> Gabe followed his gaze to the antennas. “All right. Let’s get the jeep.”
“No fucking way. I’m not going back into that river,” Troy screamed as Gabe herded them toward the jeep with his rifle.
Gabe stopped and calmly pointed at Carson. “If you don’t drive the jeep across the river, I’ll let him kill you.”
Carson coldly stared at the two men.
Troy looked at Joaquin who silently opened the door of the jeep and waited for the inevitable outcome of the discussion.
Five minutes later, they were perched on the edge of the embankment waiting for a large tree to float pass them. “I think the water is actually dropping. This storm is passing through really fast,” Joaquin said to the eerily silent jeep.
Troy took a deep breath and gunned the jeep down the embankment and back into the water. The four hundred plus pounds Gabe and Carson added to the weight of the jeep helped keep the tires on the rocks and they moved through the water without the buoyancy of the last trip Gabe had watched them make. Water seeped into the jeep and splashed over the headlights giving the entire trip a surreal feeling. The jeep emerged from the water and stopped on the trail, where several more men had joined the group waiting there with their hands in the air.
They left the jeep and Gabe took charge of the situation. He threw a package of nylon restrains to Troy. “All right, you two restrain them.”
He handed Carson’s rifle and reloaded clip back to him and nodded at the prisoners. Carson nodded back, his eyes narrowing as he pointed the rifle at the group.
They waited as Troy and Joaquin restrained the prisoners’ hands and then the group moved up the cliff trail.
Troy prodded one of the prisoners in the back. “Who’s left up there?”
The man turned around and shrugged. “Hey man, I don’t know. The whole thing came down so fast …”
As they passed the bodies littering the cliff trail, Gabe paused to check for signs of life. The dozen men they passed were all dead, most with single gunshots to the head. He looked at Carson who was grimly holding his rifle on the remaining prisoners and wondered what the hell was going on here. There was obviously a lot more to Carson Billings than he’d assumed.
The compound was silent and apparently abandoned as they walked through it to the radio hut.
“Is there someplace we can hold them?” Gabe asked Troy.
“There was, until we busted out of it.”
He handed him another package of nylon restrains and pointed toward a tall ponderosa pine in front of the radio hut. “Okay, sit them under that tree and loop them all together with these.”
Once they were secure. Gabe took over guard duty and Carson entered the hut.
Gabe walked around the group of men sitting on the ground and asked Joaquin. “Which one is Dante?”
“Gabe, Nick Malone is Dante and he’s not here.”
“Yeah. The yellow bastard probably went over the mountain trail too,” Troy said.
Gabe shook his head. “Nick Malone can’t be Dante, he’s dead.”
“No, he’s very alive, believe me,” Joaquin argued.
Gabe tried to appear calm as he digested this new information. But, inside he was filled with a level of rage and pure hate he’d never experienced before. He’d always placed Eden’s downward spiral firmly at the feet of her no good father. And now, learning that that son of a bitch was still alive and responsible for all the grief the EFA had caused his family and community. And Shelby, oh God, Shelby too.
Joaquin and Troy were watching him close as he tried to get a handle on what they’d just told him. “I’ll be damned. Nick Malone is Dante? So he faked his death?”
“Yeah,” Joaquin said. “He and Eden have been pulling the strings for as long as we’ve been involved.”
“Eden too?” Gabe asked.
Troy nodded. “Gabe, they really did recruit us. Eden lied to you about that. She’s been in the thick of everything. Hell, she tore her face up on the razor wire during the power plant bombing.”
The pieces finally started falling into place for Gabe. He looked at Troy and asked, “Where’s the trail over the mountain?”
Troy pointed across the compound. “Back behind the bunkhouse, but don’t worry, he’s dead if he went up there.”
“No, that’s always been the escape hatch,” a voice from the darkness at the edge of the radio hut said.
“Show yourself,” Gabe called, swinging the rifle toward the edge of the hut.
“I’m unarmed and hurt,” the man said, stepping forward into the light, palms up. He’d obviously been beaten. His face was covered in blood and both his eyes were swollen slits.
Troy went to help him. “Damn, Russ, I thought you were a goner.”
Gabe held his rifle on the newcomer. “Who’s he?”
Joaquin put a warning hand on Gabe’s shoulder and shook his head. “It’s Russ. He helped Shelby get away,”
Gabe gestured at him with the rifle. “What do you mean? It’s always been the escape hatch?”
“There’s a vehicle stashed up there. Dante got a call during the last satellite window from someone who gave him your coordinates and told him Shelby had just called in. Then he and his hired goons bugged out over the mountain.”
* * * * *
Carson listened to the conversation taking place outside the hut door while surveying the array of communications equipment lying before him. He powered up one of three laptop computers and began scanning e-mails. There was a portable satellite phone lying on the table, he flipped it on and dialed Doc’s number.
Surprisingly the call went through and Doc answered. “Hello, this is Doctor Ryan.”
“Hi Doc, it’s Carson. Is Shelby there?”
“Oh God no. Carson, we were praying she was with you,” Doc said, breaking down and sobbing.
The sound of Doc’s sobs momentarily stunned Carson and he again fought to maintain the hard won unemotional mindset he knew he needed in order to save Shelby. He forced himself back into mission mode and calmly answered Doc. “No, I’m at the EFA compound. She escaped from here twenty-four hours ago and went up Cibecue Peak. We need to get some choppers in the air.”
“Here’s Morgan,” Doc said.
“Carson, she called in around noon from the mountain. We sent choppers out, but they had to turn back when the storm moved in sooner than expected. We haven’t heard from her since then.”
Carson gripped the phone and reported. “It’s snowing up on the mountain. We have to get a chopper out now.”
“Carson, this storm is moving fast, we’ll have choppers there at first light.”
“That’s not fucking soon enough and you know it,” he screamed into the phone as he stepped outside the zone and lost it.
“Carson, Carson, calm down and let me talk to Navarro now,” Morgan demanded.
Carson set the phone down and screamed for Gabe.
Gabe stuck his head in the door. Carson pointed at the phone, took the rifle from Gabe and went outside to guard the prisoners.
* * * * *
Gabe picked up the phone. “Hello.”
“Navarro, listen. Carson is losing it. Keep an eye on him. What’s the situation there?”
Keep an eye on him? He just killed a dozen men, Gabe thought. He took a deep breath and forced himself to reply. “We’re in the EFA compound, have several prisoners, a dozen other EFA members were killed in the process of us taking control. We haven’t done a sweep to see if there are any remaining suspects here.”
“All right. Do not let Special Agent Carson go up that mountain. I don’t care what it takes.”
“Don’t worry, he’s not going anywhere,” Gabe said, glancing out the door at Carson.
“Good, we’ll have choppers in there at first light. Just try to keep a lid on it until we get there.”
Gabe ended the call and walked out of the room.
* * * * *
Gabe knew each step on the narrow ice and snow covered trail was an a
ct of insanity. But, he kept going, working to suppress the incessant urge to throw caution to the wind and rush headlong after her. The wind was no longer buffeting his back, and further to the west he saw stars. The storm would pass soon, leaving the reality of severe freezing before the morning. The last section of the trail had been a sheet of ice bordered by a sheer drop of hundreds of feet on one side. He breathed easier now that it was behind him.
He heard the unmistakable sound of cracking ice and felt the ground shift beneath him. He spun around and saw a shadow rapidly approaching on the trail and watched in shock as the shadow jumped over the last five feet of the trail and landed at his feet. “Come on, Pilgrim, move out; we’ve got to go get my girl.”
Gabe laughed. “Damn, Carson, I thought we had an understanding. You were going to stay behind with the prisoners until relief showed up.”
“You didn’t really believe that did you?”
“Yeah, I did. I thought you were a man of your word.”
“I am. I promised Doc I would take care of Shelby and I that’s what I’m doing. I just needed you out of the way while I had a very serious conversation with a few of those fellows.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say after you left, some of them got highly motivated to spill their guts about the escape hatch. There’s a turn off just ahead that will save us several miles of misery.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Why do you think I was hauling ass to catch up? We turn off before the drainage from the mountain. Backtrack over the top of the mine and then it’s a couple of miles to the rim where they had the four-by-four stashed.”
“So there’s no hope of catching up with Dante?”
“No, but we know where he’s going. The missiles are in a warehouse in Tucson and we have agents in route there.”
“More info from the fellows?”
“Yeah.”
“Where do we start looking for Shelby?”