In Death's Shadow

by Stephen Davidson

  “Well?” Rendon said.

  “I’m thinking; give me a minute,” Harry said and looked in his rearview mirror for cars that might be following. He saw none that looked familiar. Rendon settled back in his seat, pulled his shoulder belt loose, and let it snap back tight. Evan attempted to roll up his window and cursed when nothing happened.

  “There’s been a change of plans,” Harry finally said, deciding his course of action as he spoke. At this point, the truth was best. “Ferenzi and his people decided to cut me out of their plans. The terrorists moved out this morning. They’ve gone to Stone Mountain Park. Ferenzi believes they have the drug stored there and that they’re going to get it and release it on the stree—”

  “What?” Rendon shouted. “Call the police, man. Stop right there.” He tugged at Harry’s elbow.

  “No.” Harry shrugged loose of the man’s grasp. “Ferenzi was clear that if the police are involved, there’s too much chance for a leak. The terrorists will change plans again, and the virus will get out. The way it is now, Ferenzi believes he’s got it handled. We know where they are and pretty much what they’re going to do.”

  “So how do we know he does? You’re talking about a lot of people dying. We can’t just let it go,” Rendon said, his voice still loud.

  A Dekalb police car drove past in the opposite direction. Harry looked down and slowed the car. He’d been speeding.

  “I’m not saying we should just let it go. But Ferenzi is a former agency man. He’s got people working for him. I believe he can handle it as well as anyone. The problem is Ferenzi is going to let Ree get killed, and I can’t let that happen. We can save her.”

  “That son of a bitch,” growled Evan from the backseat.

  Harry felt just a little of the tension in his shoulders relax. At least Evan was with him. Rendon was staring at Harry, his eyes open wide. Harry turned his gaze back to the road. He had to think quick. “What I propose to do…is…that we go and be there just like the original plan, stay in the background, and when we see the chance, we go in and get Ree out of there. We just don’t let Ferenzi know we’re there until the last moment, when he can’t do anything about it and the virus is already contained.”

  “Why didn’t Ferenzi want you to be there?” said the doctor, his voice still sounding agitated.

  “He was afraid that something would foul up and the terrorists would get free with the virus.” Harry closed his mouth and waited for the doctor’s reply. This was the issue. Would the doctor agree with Harry, and if he didn’t, what could Harry do? Could he just let the man go with the understanding he not tell anybody? If he did that, would the doctor call the police? That didn’t sound good.

  Harry looked down at the speedometer and slowed down again. Beside them, railroad tracks rolled forward and then disappeared under a bridge. No one spoke for a moment.

  “You mean you’re going to risk letting the virus loose on the population of Atlanta just to rescue this woman?” Rendon’s voice sounded tighter, near panic.

  Harry bit in on his lower lip. He had to say something the doctor would understand and say it right now. A light turned red in front of them. Harry slowed down and stopped. It was Mountain Industrial—a long light.

  Now was the time.

  “Doctor,” Harry said, “when you do triage, don’t you start with the ones you have a chance of saving?”

  “Yes,” said Rendon.

  “Well, that’s all I’m asking. We know Ree will die if we don’t help. We don’t know whether the virus will get loose—at least we don’t know for sure. Besides, I said we won’t take risks. If there’s nothing we can do without getting into the middle of it, well then, all right—we do nothing.”

  “So what is it you propose to do? I’m a doctor, not some sort of spy, and I work for a federal agency. I can’t be involved in any commando operations.”

  “That’s not what I’m asking, Doctor. If she’s hurt, we’ll need you to help. You can do that, can’t you?”

  Rendon nodded.

  Harry smiled back in his most reassuring fashion. “All we’re going to do is just go there, find where they’re keeping her, and hide ourselves in the woods nearby. We’ll wait until the action starts and see if we can sneak her out of there. Are you in, Evan?”

  “Yeah,” came a deep voice from the backseat. “You’re damn right I am. Nobody’s going to hurt Lee.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to have a gun on you, would you?” Harry asked.

  “Me?” the man said and patted his ankle. “It’s licensed. And I practice at a range once a week every week.”

  Harry nodded. A man as huge as a small shed armed with a gun was a definite advantage.

  “I’m still not sure this is a good idea,” said Rendon.

  The light turned green, and Harry drove across. He wanted to scream at Rendon. Instead, he calmed himself and took another deep breath. “What would you suggest then, Doctor? Are we just going to let her get killed?”

  “No.”

  “Then what?”

  Rendon shrugged and turned his face toward the front of the car. “I don’t know what.”

  “Well then, let’s try it my way. You said, ‘Think outside the box,’ right? Well there aren’t any boxes here.” Harry looked in the rearview mirror and saw Rendon frown and then nod.

  They crossed over the freeway connector and then had to stop at the first red light in Stone Mountain Village. To the right was a gas station with a food place.

  Harry had the strong urge to pull into the station and call the police. He didn’t. There was too much chance that doing so would end up getting Ree killed. He couldn’t stand that thought.

  He turned left at the light and went down the road to the park entrance. Five dollars later and with directions for the archery area, Harry was winding down one of the park roads. On each side were deep woods. He kept the speed low. The park police were notorious for giving out tickets, especially now with the games nearing.

  The road wound around another curve, and Harry had to swerve to miss a blue Pontiac that was parked half in the road. Harry cursed, stared at the car, and then slowed down. It was the car that had been parked in front of the warehouse where Ferenzi had been. They must be right on top of the trail to the shed. He pulled around the next two curves and then pulled his car up into a gravel service drive on the other side of the road. Evan got out. Rendon didn’t move.

  “You don’t have to come up there,” Harry said. “We can come back for you if we need you.”

  Rendon grimaced. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Then just follow Evan,” Harry said and indicated Evan. “Do what he does.”

  The doctor nodded.

  Harry started trotting back to where the Pontiac was parked. Evan and Rendon followed along behind. Rendon moved up to pace beside Harry.

  “Where are you going?” the doctor said.

  Harry slowed and turned toward Rendon. “That car we just passed was parked by the warehouse where I met Ferenzi. It must be his men. We’ll cut into the woods and try to get in behind them without being seen.” Harry’s heart pounded hard in his chest. He looked at Rendon and saw the man’s face drawn up with fear.

  Rendon nodded and slowed to walk beside the bouncer. Harry stopped for a moment by the Pontiac. From the tracks, it looked like it had been parked off the road and then backed up and left partly in the road. Shaking his head, he headed into the woods.

  The going was difficult. Fallen trees and brambles were everywhere. Cutting diagonally across to where Harry thought the Pontiac had been, they found a small game trail. Harry followed it cautiously. It could be the same path Ferenzi’s men had followed, yet it seemed too ill defined to have been a path that people took.

  At the loud crashing of passage behind him, Harry turned around and put a finger to his lips to signal the other two to tread qu
ietly. They slowed their pace.

  The bush around them became thicker. Evan sounded like a bull running through a thicket. Anxious, Harry turned around to signal quiet again. His own heart sounded loud enough to be heard from a distance.

  Above through the trees, the clouds formed a patchwork of dark gray, stitched with white. The branches of the trees loomed stark and bare. On the ground a few patches of bright green dotted the red hue of the soil. Harry brushed sweat from his forehead. He hoped they were not too late.

  The trail wound through more thickets. Branches stuck out into the pathway.

  They had to walk single file. Each held the sharp-ended branches back for the next. They wound around another bend, and the undergrowth opened out in front of them, and Harry was blinking from the brightness, looking at a grassy knoll.

  A rough wooden-plank storage shed stood around fifty yards away at the top of the knoll. A small, blond-haired man stood in front of the door to the shed. He turned and looked into the doorway.

  Harry darted back, trying to remain unseen, and ran into Rendon. Grasping at branches, they both fell into the bushes, thrashing. The doctor grunted as he landed on a low-growing bush and rolled forward into the clearing.

  There was a scream.

  Harry’s breath stopped in his chest. He scrambled up and turned to see Ree being dragged from the shed’s doorway by another blond man. Her hands were bound; her feet were free.

  She screamed again. Twisting, she tried to get at her captor but instead was shoved forward, stumbled, and fell to the ground in front of the men.

  She rolled and was up on her knees and running toward Harry. She tripped, fell, and was up again.

  Stunned for a moment by the sudden appearance of his lover, Harry stared, unmoving, as another man came through the doorway of the shed. He was heavyset and dark complexioned with short, dark, wavy hair. He grasped a long-barreled pistol in his hand. The man looked around and then pointed the weapon at Ree. Harry yelled out to warn her. She was too far to reach the cover in time.

  The gun jerked back, and a puff of dirt exploded several yards in front of Ree. Roaring his anger, Harry burst forward from the underbrush and raced toward the shed.

  The man aimed the pistol at Ree again.

  Twenty-Five

  In the sky, immense clouds formed monochrome variations torn open by flashes of blue. The sun for a moment brightened the brownish-yellow stretch of grass that formed an insurmountable barrier between Harry and Ree.

  The scene descended to elongated seconds in Harry’s mind. His legs churned; his feet dug into the ground, dirt flying. His breath came in hard gasps.

  She could not make it in time.

  But she raced toward him, plowing through the thicker grass at the top of the knoll, running at full tilt, her elbows spread out to her sides. All he could think of was to get to her.

  Behind her, taking his time, the dark-complected man spread his feet. Clasped with both hands, he moved the pistol, tracking Ree. Harry roared his anguish. Behind him there was a sharp crack. The gunman’s head jerked up, bright red blood spurting out of the soft, tan flesh. With a soft hiss, the man’s gun went off, firing its bullet harmlessly into the air.

  Harry stopped and turned to see Evan hidden behind a tree. Determination hardened the man’s face as he pointed his pistol toward the top of the hill.

  Another gun fired, and, blood pounding in his ears, Harry dove to the ground. Evan’s pistol roared. One of the two blond men in the clearing fell, clutching his chest.

  Ree took a running dive and hit the dirt twenty feet in front of Harry.

  Bellowing curses, Evan charged up the hill past the two. The second blonde turned to run and then stopped, twisted around, and fired his pistol.

  Evan pulled up and grunted. Face drawn with pain, he fired off a shot, missed, and then continued his charge toward the top of the hill. Harry stood and started running behind the large man. With a bullet hole in his chest, one of the blond men writhed on the ground in front of the shed. The dark-complected man lay still, blood pouring from his throat. A dark red stain formed on the ground beside him.

  The second blonde reached the cover of the woods on the other side of the shed, some fifty yards downhill. He turned again to fire. Harry slammed down to the ground. Evan kept running, his voice a continued loud roar. The blonde aimed and fired. The bullet thudded into the shed. Evan dropped to the ground and rolled.

  Flat to the grass, he aimed and fired again. The blonde screamed and grabbed at his shoulder. He turned as if to run again but instead jerked and fell into the bushes.

  Harry got up just as Ree launched into him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Relief rushed through him. “God, I love you,” he said, tightening his grip around her. She struggled against him, but he held her tight, thinking fear still clung to her.

  “Love you, too!” she yelled and succeeded in pushing herself away. “Untie me.” She turned and showed him her bound wrists.

  Fingers trembling, he began working on the tape, trying to pull it loose. He’d no sooner unwound the tape and dropped it to the ground than Rendon called to him, his voice sounding urgent. Harry looked up to the top of the knoll where the doctor was kneeling.

  Ree tugged at Harry’s hand. “We’ve got to get out of here, right now.”

  “Can’t!” Harry shouted at Ree and started to run toward Rendon, pulling her with him. Rendon needed help—that was clear. Near the shed, he was leaning over the man with the bullet in his chest. The doctor reached down and started stuffing cloth on top of the wound.

  “Quick,” Rendon ordered Harry, “cut off some strips from his pants. I’ve got to staunch the bleeding.”

  Harry bent down and started ripping cloth from the man’s trousers. Rendon gave Harry a frown, saw he was doing as asked, and went back to working on the wound.

  “Harry, we’ve got to get out of here!” Ree screamed, her voice hysterical. “This is a setup. There are other men out there. They’ll be here any minute now.”

  Harry stopped ripping cloth and was about to answer Ree when Rendon interrupted his train of thought.

  “Give me those strips,” the doctor commanded.

  Harry handed Rendon the cloth. Noticing it for the first time, he reached over and picked up a small metal box that lay on the ground beside the dead man. It had “Secure Data Storage” written on it and was locked. He played with it for a second. Ree tugged on him again, and he looked up to see her standing over him, her face drawn taut.

  “Yes, I know,” Harry said, responding to her last words. “Ferenzi and his people will be here soon. But, it’s OK.”

  “No!” Ree screamed at him.

  Harry shook his head. No time for this. He tried the box again. Locked. There was a bulge in the dead man’s pocket. Seeing it, Harry reached inside and pulled out a large bag full of white powder. “Rendon, this must be your drug.”

  Rendon took one look, gaped, and stopped what he was doing. “Jesus—drop it, Harry. You could get contaminated. We’ll deal with it later. Get back to the park office and get an ambulance here—now. This man is dying.”

  Harry dropped the bag as Evan staggered back up the hill.

  Evan looked pale. He dropped the pistol. “Never shot a person before. I—” He turned around and threw up.

  Ree tugged on Harry’s arm, almost ripping the shirt. “We’ve got to get all these people out of here. There is another group, and I don’t care what you think you know about them—but they’ll kill us all.”

  He studied her face. Her jaw was set in hard determination. She was serious. He turned to Rendon. “We’ve got to get out of here. Ree says there’s more of these people.”

  The doctor shook his head. “I can’t leave this man. He’ll die if I do.”

  “I don’t know who you are,” Ree said. “But you’ll be dead if we
don’t get out of here.”

  The doctor shook his head again and returned to his ministrations.

  Ree pulled at Harry with frantic determination. He stood and stared up at a grudging spot of blue in the gray sky. Then he thought about the blue car. Ferenzi’s men had driven it. That meant…A new blaze of adrenaline burned through his blood. Ferenzi’s men had been here all along. What did that mean? Why hadn’t they helped? “Evan, come on!” he yelled.

  Evan followed Harry and Ree as they ran down the hill.

  “Stop.” The voice came from the woods to the side of the path’s entrance to the clearing. At the same time, a row of bullets tore the ground into flying chunks right in front of Harry. He stopped, his heart frozen, clenched with fear.

  Ferenzi, with his two men, walked from the concealment of the bushes.

  Harry bit in on his lip. “We got it done for you,” he said. “One of them got away, but all the evidence is up there, including the drug. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Go back up the hill,” Ferenzi ordered and motioned in that direction with his gun.

  “No,” Harry said. “We’ve got to get some help for the man up there, or he’ll…” Harry stopped talking as blood started pounding in his ears again.

  Ferenzi’s eyes looked hard. The pistol was aimed at Harry’s chest.

  “Up the hill,” Ferenzi said.

  “The drug is there,” Harry said. “There’s a box with something in it, too. That’s everything you need. What do you want with us? Let us go.”

  Ferenzi lowered his gun and shot a bullet into the ground at Harry’s feet. Harry flinched back.

  “Up there or I’ll shoot all three of you here.”

  Harry turned around and started walking. Ree held his arm and walked at his side. In front of them, Evan trudged back up the hill. Blood ran down the sleeve of his shirt.

  They reached the top of the clearing and waited. Ferenzi stood several yards away, his face blank as if he were considering a problem. He was joined by his two men.