Carole slid out of Starlight’s saddle and walked over to where Polaris stood, favoring his right forefoot, confirming Frieda’s assertion that he’d been lamed.
Stevie looked at the woods where Frieda had disappeared and explained to Karya what was going on.
“The highway’s right down there, maybe a half a mile. I’m sure she’s got a trailer and a truck waiting. She’ll get away all right, but she won’t get away with this.”
“She won’t get away, either,” Karya corrected Stevie.
Once again she clicked on her walkie-talkie and spoke into it. She looked puzzled, glancing expectantly up at the sky.
When she was done talking, she told the girls that her agents swore they had the kidnapper surrounded.
“Kidnapper?” Lisa asked. “Frieda’s a horsenapper.”
“Well, they don’t know that,” said Karya. “But anyway, they assure me that nobody is escaping their—what’s the word?—dragnet?”
“That’s the word,” said Stevie.
FRIEDA WAS GONE, but Polaris was safe. Their dash up the treacherous hill had paid off, as had Stevie’s good memory of the paths, which had enabled them to surround Polaris and Frieda. Maybe Frieda had gotten away—just for now, if Karya’s agents were doing their job—but the girls had Polaris.
Carole patted Polaris’s neck reassuringly. The other girls joined her.
Polaris stood nearly motionless except for his chest, which heaved while he caught his breath from the exhausting chase up the mountain.
Carole picked up his reins and held him near the bit while she patted him. “It’s okay, boy. We’re here and we’re going to look after you.”
“We won’t let anything else happen to you,” said Stevie.
“We shouldn’t have let this happen, either,” said Lisa.
“We didn’t let it happen,” said Stevie.
“Of course we did,” Lisa said. “In fact, we practically gave Frieda instructions on how to do it!”
“What do you mean?” Stevie asked.
“Don’t you remember what she said? How she couldn’t have done it without us? Well, we told her all about the trails, especially this one that leads out to the highway.”
“I guess I did that,” said Stevie.
“And then I told her she’d be able to steal the Regnery family silver today because everybody was going to be so busy looking after Karya.”
“How were you to know that a nice lady like that was going to try to do something so evil?” Karya asked.
Carole looked over at her friends and provided the answer none of them had really wanted to think about. “Maybe just because a grown woman wanted to spend so much time with three girls? Shouldn’t that have tipped us off instead of making us feel like we were these super teachers?”
“Maybe,” Karya conceded.
Carole shook her head, annoyed at herself as much as her friends. But they weren’t the ones who mattered now. The important thing was to see what needed to be done for Polaris.
Carole ran her hand down the horse’s left foreleg. She’d learned long ago that when she expected trouble on one leg, she should check the other one first so that she’d have something to compare with. Polaris seemed to know what was coming. He didn’t move. He didn’t flinch.
Carole began again, this time sliding her hand down his right foreleg. Again the well-trained horse didn’t move. Carole closed her eyes, imagining the left leg as she felt the right one. She sighed with relief. They felt exactly the same. There was no sign of swelling or heat. The only thing she noticed was that both of Polaris’s legs were sweaty, as were the girls’ own horses.
She picked up his right hoof and took a look.
“There it is,” she said. The four heads clustered over the hoof. A stone was tightly lodged between the metal shoe and the frog of Polaris’s foot.
“No wonder he’s favoring it,” Stevie said. “That’s got to hurt.”
“Not for long,” said Lisa.
She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a hoof pick.
“You’re always prepared for something like this?” Karya asked, surprised.
“Only when I’m traveling in the woods with the daughter of the president of a country I’d never heard of until two weeks ago!” Lisa said, laughing.
She handed the hoof pick over to Stevie, the acknowledged champion at dislodging stones.
Stevie looked at Karya. “Would you like to try?”
“No, you’re much better at it than I am—plus, nobody ever gives me a chance to do it myself,” Karya reminded them.
“Okay, here goes,” said Stevie.
She held Polaris’s foot securely between her knees and began working around the stone.
“It’s always a good idea to get all the soft stuff out first,” she said, as if this were a routine Pony Club demonstration. “That way you can be sure of what’s easy and what’s not.”
Once the dirt was out, Stevie handed the hoof pick back to Lisa, then prodded very gently under the shoe with her finger to be sure she knew just where and how the stone was stuck. That way she could tell how much leverage she’d need and what angle would work to loosen it. It wasn’t science; it was instinct, and it was something she really couldn’t explain any better than that to anyone else.
When she was certain she knew what to do, she took the hoof pick in her hand again, thanked Polaris for being such a cooperative patient, and gave one swift and sure twist of the tool that brought a large round stone flying out of the horse’s hoof.
“Ta-da!” Lisa announced, grinning.
Stevie didn’t smile yet. She checked to make sure she’d gotten the whole stone and that there wasn’t another one in there. Then she lowered the horse’s hoof to the ground, never taking her eye off his leg. She stepped back and watched.
The girls held their breath. They needn’t have bothered. As soon as he had all four feet on the ground, Polaris lowered his head, took three smooth steps forward, and began sniffing at the grass in the meadow. He took a small mouthful, ripped it off, and began munching. A few seconds later he looked curiously at the cluster of young riders who seemed to be staring at him, then took three more steps and another mouthful.
“I think he’s okay!” Carole said.
Stevie picked up the stone she’d dislodged. It was smooth and round, and that was nothing but good news. A pointy stone could cause no end of trouble. A round stone might cause a bruise but was much less likely than a pointed one to damage the soft flesh.
Stevie gave Polaris another well-deserved pat and then took his bridle to lead him forward so that Carole could observe his walk with her keen eyes. No trouble. Stevie began jogging. Polaris trotted obediently. No problem.
“He’s okay!” Carole pronounced.
“Will he be able to compete on Saturday?” Lisa asked.
“I think so, but only a vet can say for sure,” Carole said. “And we’ll have Judy check him out as soon as we get back.”
“Hmmm. Get back,” said Stevie. “I have the funniest feeling that getting back is going to be a mixed blessing.”
“You mean, like, Max is going to be glad Polaris is okay and really angry that we took a different trail with our VIP guest whom the State Department of the United States of America asked us to look after?” said Lisa.
“Something like that,” Stevie agreed.
“We can tell him we took a different trail to rescue Polaris,” Karya suggested. “He’ll never know that we didn’t start following the horse until we were long gone off the right trail.”
Lisa, Stevie, and Carole all looked at their “VIP guest.” Nobody spoke for a moment.
“I knew we were going to like her,” Lisa said.
“It’s because she’s just like us,” said Stevie.
“It’s amazing what a gulf of difference can be bridged by a common love of horses,” said Carole.
She offered her hand for a high five, and the president’s daughter responded reflexively. Lisa a
nd Stevie joined in.
“High twenty!” Stevie declared.
“Now, let’s get back,” Lisa suggested reasonably.
Carole took Polaris’s bridle and used it to lead him. She and her friends remounted and began what they knew was going to be a slow journey back down the hillside. Going up had been hard; going down was going to be harder.
They took the gentler slope, the one Stevie and Karya had followed up, even though it was a little longer. The horses seemed grateful for their consideration. Still, a good stretch of this trail, like the other one, consisted of slippery switchbacks, all of which were more treacherous going downward than they had been going upward.
As they rode, almost too tired to talk, Karya switched on her walkie-talkie again.
“What are they saying?” Lisa asked, noticing the puzzled look on Karya’s face.
“Something about circling the kidnapper and having her in their sights from the helicopter,” said Karya. “But I don’t understand at all.”
“No, it doesn’t make sense,” Stevie agreed. “Frieda went down the hill—and that’s to the west, where there’s a highway. You can even see the highway from parts of that meadow, but there’s no helicopter there.”
“She must have decided the highway wasn’t a safe escape route,” Lisa said. “She probably went around the hillside and tried to cut through the valley. The woods there come almost to the middle of the town—”
“Actually, really near the strip mall where TD’s is,” Stevie said. “Speaking of which, there’s another tradition I think we may have to introduce you to—”
“Wait a minute—they’re saying something else.…” Karya put the walkie-talkie to her ear. The hilly countryside seemed to be interfering with transmission, and she wanted to be sure she heard clearly.
The girls all looked expectantly at her, waiting for the puzzled look on her face to clear up. It didn’t. Eventually, though, she turned off the transmitter and clipped it back onto her belt.
“What’s up?” Stevie asked. “What’s going on?”
“They’re circling around someone and are nearly ready to capture the person.”
“Well, isn’t that what we told them to do?” Stevie asked.
“No, this is someone on horseback,” said Karya. “It doesn’t make any sense that that woman, Frieda, would be on horseback.”
“Oh, maybe she—no,” said Stevie, shaking her head, too. “You’re right. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You mean, they’re capturing someone and it isn’t Frieda?” Carole asked.
“Sure looks that way,” said Lisa.
Carole gulped, glad for a moment that the trail was steep right there and she had to move forward carefully, giving Starlight and Polaris all the guidance she could from Starlight’s saddle. Fortunately, that was the final twist and the last steep section of the hill trail. Carole rode forward and paused, waiting for her friends to complete their downward journeys and join her.
The pause gave her a minute to think, and she didn’t like what she was thinking. She and her friends had been laughing at the men in black, some dressed in foolish and inappropriate costumes. The girls had made a game of eluding their protective shield, giggling at how badly they rode. But maybe it wasn’t so funny after all. Maybe something that involved a dozen bodyguards, a couple of helicopters, special costumes, special horses, thousands of dollars’ worth of electronic equipment, and a special request from the State Department—maybe an operation like that was serious. Maybe they shouldn’t have been making fun of it. Maybe there was danger.
Danger? In the woods around Pine Hollow? Terrorists? Kidnappers? How could that be? How was it possible that their beloved woods, their beloved hills and trails, could be harboring someone who intended evil—an even greater evil than hurting a horse? Was there someone in their woods who intended to hurt their new friend? Kidnap her, hold her for ransom, threaten her and her family?
The very idea horrified Carole, making her feel angry and invaded, and the fact that she and her friends had made a joke of the security men embarrassed her.
She kept these thoughts to herself until the other three riders caught up with her and they reached the clearing by the creek. The girls automatically turned into it and automatically dismounted, leading their horses to the fresh, cool water for a well-deserved drink.
Carole shared her thoughts then, and it turned out that Lisa and Stevie had been thinking the same things.
“We’re going to have trouble fibbing to Max, or anyone, about trying to get away from the security guys when it turns out that there really is someone here in the woods who is trying to hurt you.”
Lisa reached out and took Karya’s hand. “Isn’t it scary for you?” she asked.
“Of course it is,” Karya said. “But it’s always a little bit scary. I think I’ve gotten used to it, and then something like this happens and it reminds me that I can’t get used to it. But I also know that I have a life to live, and my life is more important to me than anyone else. My goal is always to do the things I can do without putting myself or my family at any foolish risk. I knew if we got away from the security men it wouldn’t matter, because they’d be able to tell pretty much where we were by the tracking device in the walkie-talkie.”
“You mean they never didn’t know where we were?” Stevie asked.
“They always knew approximately where we were, as long as I had the thing turned on.”
“So then why didn’t they come capture Frieda when we asked?” said Lisa.
“I think because they were tracking someone else,” Karya said. “And that does frighten me a little bit. I’ve always thought I would be safer here in the United States than in many other places.”
“I think we’d better get back,” said Carole. “And I think you’d better leave that thing turned on.”
“I suppose,” said Karya, clicking on the walkie-talkie.
The girls remounted their horses and began the last leg of their journey, each unsure what they would find when they returned.
THEY WERE BARELY out of the clearing by the creek, approaching the point where the trail circled around the last hill before Pine Hollow, before they could tell that something important was definitely going on.
At first they could hear it only faintly, but when they rounded the hill, the sound became loud and then almost unbearable as a helicopter swept through the sky, back and forth over the open area where they often liked to canter their horses on their way to the creek.
Carole could feel herself tense up. She paused, waiting to make sure the other riders were close together on the trail. Starlight danced, startled by the loud sounds overhead. Polaris, true to his fine training and nerves of steel, simply did exactly what Carole told him as she tugged gently on his reins.
“Let’s stay close together,” Lisa said, echoing Carole’s thoughts.
“I think they’re right ahead of us,” Karya said. She was listening both to the insistent thumping of the helicopter’s blades and the static-filled conversations among the security men.
“Should we stay hidden?” Stevie asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Karya. “I think they should see that we’re safe.”
That made sense. Moving slowly and cautiously, Carole, Starlight, and Polaris proceeded toward the hullabaloo around the curve of the hill.
Pretty soon they could all hear voices—some calling out in Arabic, some speaking English.
“Don’t move!”
“You are completely surrounded.”
“You will not escape!” cried out one man in a very threatening tone.
The helicopter neared the ground, its noise now almost nearly intolerable. Carole could see it. She could also see some men dropping down out of it on lengths of rope that extended to the ground. The men were dressed in black coveralls, armed with automatic weapons, wearing helmets with heavy, rigid masks that she guessed must be bulletproof.
Carole proceeded even more slowly, th
e other riders clustering close behind.
She could see that the object of everyone’s attention was in the middle of the field, but it was not yet visible to the young riders behind the trees on the pathway. It was terrifying and fascinating at once. Carole continued to move forward. She had to know the face of the terrorist, the kidnapper, the evil person who was threatening her new friend’s well-being.
Carole could see the circle of men in the field—the security agents whom they had seen before, as well as the men who had dropped down from the helicopter—tightening. Once spaced ten feet apart, the men were now only five feet apart, closing in on their prey.
The helicopter pulled up and away. Once again the riders could hear the voices of the security men delivering orders to their prisoner.
“There is no escape for you!” shouted one man as each moved unrelentingly to the center of the field.
And then Carole heard a familiar voice in a familiar tone uttering a familiar phrase.
“Do you know who my father is?”
Carole, Lisa, and Stevie all looked at one another. There was only one person in the world who would utter such a ridiculous question when surrounded by two dozen counterterrorists.
“What’s she doing here?” Lisa asked, stunned.
Without further ado, the riders urged their horses forward, into the open field. There, standing beside her horse, Danny, surrounded by an entire platoon of security guards, held at gunpoint by two men in ninja black who’d just dropped down out of a helicopter, was none other than Veronica diAngelo.
IT TOOK A WHILE to persuade the men to put their guns down, and it didn’t help that Veronica refused to raise her arms. She just kept sputtering that these men hadn’t heard the last of her. For their part, they kept insisting that she was going to spend the rest of her life in a desert prison. There was, in fact, a major communication gap.
It wasn’t easy to explain Veronica to Karya. As everybody who knew Veronica said, she defied explanation. Veronica bristled furiously when Stevie used words like snob and spoiled rich girl.
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