by Mary Wine
“Beth, honey. I’m sorry about this.”
Confusion crossed her face moments before she jerked and tried to escape from the pain. He pressed her down, earning a growl from her. “Breathe, honey, just breathe,” Jacobs encouraged her.
“I’d…sooner hit you,” she forced out. “That stung. Stop holding me down.”
He sat back and eyed her. “I’m sorry, honey, but I need you to tell me where Grace is.”
“Um…” She looked behind her and back at the river. “Upstream.” She nodded. “I followed the current after Grace pushed me into it.
“They are going to…Mirror Lake. The client is going to…pick up Grace, where they can…um, drop down from high…something…they called her merchandise.”
She was nodding off but he had enough information.
“Sleep, Beth.” A warm hand slowly stroked the side of her face. Her eyes fluttered shut and he stood. But she grabbed his ankle and he looked back to see her eyes open again.
“Grace said…said I had to….Turvel.”
He dropped to his knee beside her again.
“Beth, what about Turvel?” She had closed her eyes. Jacobs gritted his teeth before slapping her cheek. “Beth. Come on. Talk to me.”
“I saw him,” Beth whispered. She opened her eyes to look at Jacobs. “He was there the day before Grace came. He was talking to Fredricks and I saw him. He told Fredricks to shoot me the second he had Grace. But I think Fredricks was afraid Grace would become too much trouble if he didn’t have me along to threaten her with.” She smiled with relief. “Grace was still a bother. Half the men split off because she kept looking at them like she’s some kind of witch. I bet she’s a pure bitch now.”
“When did those men leave?” Jacobs tried to keep his voice even. Beth was slipping away into shock, but he needed the information now.
“Yesterday…I think…maybe…what day is it?”
Jacobs stood up the second Beth’s eyes closed. He let the anger show on his face then. It had been a battle to keep it from Beth. He cast a look at Major Lorance. The man was deadly furious as well. Jacobs pulled his phone out and placed a call to General Slynn. He had his proof now. He also needed the general’s help in protecting Beth. She was their only witness. He had to go after Grace.
The general was far from pleased. “That asshole sold one of my top psychics?”
“Yes, sir, and I have a witness.”
“A witness worth a damn?” Slynn demanded.
“A general’s daughter.”
There was a crusty chuckle on the other end of the line. “Good. Get back on the trail. I’ll have a handpicked team there inside an hour to take custody of the witness. Slynn out.
Jacobs closed the phone line and looked Beth over for a moment. The field medic had wrapped her in a thermal sleeping bag. She looked like she was encased in a black cocoon, but it would get her body temperature up to a normal level. He needed to move out. Fredricks had a lead on them, and he couldn’t waste another hour. The problem was whom to leave Beth with. If Colonel Turvel had anyone planted in the unit it would be very easy for them to eliminate her tonight before she talked to the general. There was still the question sitting in the back of his mind about just who had shot Grace.
“Allow me,” Major Lorance said. “I’ll make sure she makes it to the base.”
Jacobs watched as the man issued orders into his head microphone. Lorance’s people might be a better bet. It was unlikely that Colonel Turvel had thought to monitor that unit as well.
Four people approached them and waited for their commanding officer’s orders. Lorance was brief. Jacobs assessed the men before he nodded his approval. The last person was a female. Taking a closer look, he recognized the unit’s psychic. She was maybe five foot six with light green eyes.
“Can she track Grace?”
“No, not unless she’s dead.”
The woman in question settled herself on the ground next to Beth. The other men took up posts around the area. “But she can spot dishonesty in a nun and she’d be more than happy to see Turvel face a firing squad.”
“I’ll volunteer for the detail,” she remarked. “Susan was a friend of mine. That ass drove her to suicide.”
She pulled a high-powered rifle over her shoulder and cradled it with her finger over the trigger.
Convinced that Beth was as secure as possible, Jacobs turned and moved his unit out. He just hoped that with Beth out of danger, Grace had been able to slow Fredricks down enough to give him the chance to catch up with them.
Chapter Eleven
“They are heading to Mirror Lake.” Brice spoke softly to the three other men with him. They were the best trackers this area had to offer.
“The granite bowl it sits in must be what they are hoping will shield them from radar detection.” Grant eyed him seriously. “There’s pitiful little cover up there.”
“Also pitifully few people to see what they are up to.” Brice looked back at the men with him.
“Do you get the idea these black-ops guys think we’re just a pair of hick sheriffs?” Grant asked in a deceptively smooth tone.
“Yeah, it crossed my mind.”
One of the bloodhounds began to bark. The deputy holding him looked at Brice. “He’s got a trail, Sheriff.”
“Good. Let’s box this bunch in. Make sure your chest gear is on because we’re dealing with well-trained scum.”
There were a dozen yes, sirs offered up from his men but Brice was already beginning the climb that would take him over the ridge. Mirror Lake was on the other side and so was Grace.
Brice was beginning to anticipate being able to wrap his fingers around the throat of the man that had Grace. Now that Beth was out of the picture, Brice felt his primitive instincts kick in with full force. The primal glow was burning slowly in his gut. Brice wanted blood. In a wholly basic manner, he had the feeling that he was going to get it.
Just hold on, Grace, I’m coming.
Fredricks was losing his grip.
She wouldn’t put it past the man to kill her before taking his own life. If it came down to the wire, she knew that Fredricks would never surrender. There was no reason to anyway, he’d only end up facing a firing squad.
She had been able to slow their progress considerably now that Beth wasn’t here to be used against her. Grace flexed her jaw and winced with pain. She had received more than one blow to her face.
Fredicks had tried to use the threat of gunshot against her, but Grace called that bluff. He wasn’t going to shoot her. There was too much risk that she might bleed to death. Terrorists didn’t pay for dead psychics. He had hit her several times with his pistol, but had stopped doing it when the weapon misfired and the bullet cut a deep groove into Grace’s shoulder. He’d resorted to his fists after that. It hadn’t deterred her.
The shoulder wound was useful. Grace was counting on Brice to bring in Allen and his bloodhound, Rudy. The dog would be able to pick up the scent of blood. Even just a little bit. So she flexed her shoulder muscles to keep the wound open, rubbing it against any tree or rock that she could in an effort to leave a trail.
Grace snapped her attention back to the present. Fredricks walked behind the tree to release the rope. She wasn’t given an opportunity to escape. The rope was looped back around her neck and pulled tight. Fredricks was smart, Grace would give him that. He made sure that the rope was secure but could not strangle her. If Grace could have gotten it to cut off her oxygen, she would have done so just to slow them down further. Being led like an animal might not be very dignified, but this was a struggle for survival, and Grace would fight as dirty as she knew how.
With her hands still bound by the handcuffs, the leash was effective to a point. Grace’s neck was raw from the rope cutting into the flesh, but she continued her struggle. By forcing Fredricks to pull her along, she had cut their speed by more than half. Grace just hoped it was enough. She could dig her heels in, but the pain from the noose became unbearable a
t a point and she would stumble forward. It was a fight that she continued to wage.
Brice stooped down to get a closer look at the blood that was smeared against a rough-looking granite rock. Rudy pitched back on his hind legs and let out a whine. He shook his face and pulled Allen forward.
“He’s got her now, Sheriff.” Allen jumped forward with his dog as Rudy applied his nose to the trail.
Brice nodded, gritting his teeth against the surge of emotion seeing her blood set loose inside him. He wasn’t worth shit if he couldn’t keep his feelings on a leash. It was Grace, but he had to apply himself to the case in a logical manner. They would make Mirror Lake by sundown. He just hoped that it wasn’t too late. He needed Jacobs to back him up. He pulled out his phone and dialed the man.
“We’ve got a blood trail heading to Mirror Lake.”
“I’m on my way.”
Jacobs snapped his phone shut. The blood trail that Brice had was both good and bad news. If they got to Mirror Lake and Grace was gone, then they might as well go home. The kind of people who could afford to buy someone like Grace would be untraceable once they got her into the air.
And Grace knew that too. It was very possible that she would make a last stand that would result in her death.
Mirror Lake sat at an elevation of almost ten thousand feet. The crumbling granite cliffs that made up the slope that allowed the lake to form rose up one hundred feet from the surface of the lake on all sides. There was only one way to descend into the lake.
From the east side there was a steep but useable trail that ran down to the water’s edge. Reaching the crest of the trail was almost a straight-up climb among granite rocks that ranged in size from pebbles to boulders. It was a climb that only the strong could make. It required that the person scale the larger rocks while being very sure of their footing among the smaller pebbles that could easily undermine a person’s footing.
Grace could have made the climb in an hour without a pack on. It was an almost two-hundred-foot climb in high elevation. Grace made it last an entire day. By the time they got her to the top of that embankment, she had almost reached her limit.
Her gaze fell on the stark beauty of the lake. It was currently marred by the presence of three helicopters that sat on the smooth surface of the water. They weren’t as modern as her unit used, but Grace recognized the models all the same. They were combat aircraft, heavily armed and very good at avoiding radar. The three craft sat bobbing in the smooth water like a bunch of crocodiles just waiting for prey to swim too close.
“Well now. Say hello to your new unit, bitch,” Fredricks sneered in her ear. “I’m going to enjoy spending every last dollar I’m getting for you. It’s just an added bonus knowing your life is going to suck.”
There was a great deal of cover around the lake, provided by the large boulders that made up the valley. Two black-clad men came forward as they noticed them standing at the top of the ridge. The men motioned them down, but Fredricks hung back and pulled his phone out of his pocket first. He waited.
One of the men below pulled something from his hip. Fredricks’s phone buzzed. A few brief code words were exchanged before the phone was closed and replaced into the front of his shirt pocket. He turned a self-satisfied smile to Grace.
“Time to meet your future.” One hand gripped her upper arm and pushed her forward to begin the descent into the valley.
“Wait!” That had come from one of the five remaining men. His eyes were scanning the crafts that bobbed on the surface of the lake. “I’m staying here. I’ve finished the job. I’m not walking into a death trap. Once they have her they could turn those guns on us from the air and cut us to ribbons.”
“They just transferred the money. They wouldn’t have done that if they intended to kill us,” Fredricks insisted.
“Good, you can transfer our share right here and now.”
Fredricks tried to stare the man down, but the sun was starting to set and he wanted to get this finished before it was dark. If Grace managed to get free in the dark it would be very difficult to recover her in this area. He pulled the phone back out and did as the man requested.
Grace looked all the men over. She was pleased to discover that every last one of them was sporting a bruise or some other mark from her. She herself must be a sight, but she had kept six men at a child’s pace for an entire day. She had also freed Beth. Grace sincerely hoped her friend made it to safety and remembered what to tell Jacobs. If Grace didn’t come out of this alive, she could at least console herself with the thought that Jacobs and Beth could be together.
The time had come. It was do or die. Hairpins could come in handy. With one secured in her palm, she slipped the end into the lock on her cuffs. Her eyes scanned the trail. She would let Fredricks get her a quarter of the way down it. She needed the distance from the five men that had just turned and started back down the trail they had spent the day climbing. At the same time, she didn’t want to get too close to the men down by the water’s edge.
Her chances were slim, which was better than none.
The light was fading, and that meant her best chance for escape was quickly approaching. Grace hung back, making Fredricks once again drag her down the slope. She wanted him off-balance. The footing was uncertain, and her greatest fear was that she would lose her own balance and go tumbling down the trail. That could have deadly results. It was exactly the fate Grace was planning for Fredricks.
“You know something, I don’t believe I’ve ever told you just what a pathetic excuse for an officer I think you are.”
Fredricks stopped for a moment and his eyes narrowed in anger. Grace watched as he renewed his grip on the rope leash and leaned back to put all of his weight into the next pull. His muscles tightened and Grace struck. She whipped her hands around, gripping the rope while jumping into a front kick. Her attack connected solidly, sending his body down the trail.
Fredricks got off a shot at her and the bullet only hit the dirt because he was aiming low. Pressing her back to a large boulder, Grace watched in horror as several of the recently paid-off soldiers crested the top of the rise to add their weapons to the hunt. Gunfire filled the air, but Grace didn’t wait to discover who was shooting at her. Forcing her body forward, she sought cover from the men on the rise.
Fredricks took advantage of the backup and launched himself at her. They wrestled for a moment, and then the ground seemed to slide out from underneath their struggling bodies. Grace had made it too far off the trail. The force of impact tossed them onto the unstable granite slope that slid into the lake below. Covered by coarse eroded pebbles, it grated the exposed surface of both Fredricks’s and Grace’s skin as they tumbled down the side of the canyon.
Fredricks hooked his hands onto her arms and held with brutal strength as they slid down the rock face. The momentum of their trip increased as the rock face became steeper. The friction caused by their slide tore and scraped at their clothing exposing the skin underneath. Despite her own distress, Grace could hear the sound of gunfire erupting from every corner of the valley. She briefly wondered at its cause before she was launched into the freezing depth of Mirror Lake.
The water had to be just above the freezing point. It sucked the breath from her lungs. The water was completely mind numbing. They both broke the surface, gasping for breath. Grace felt herself being brutally shoved under again. She struggled with Fredricks, but he was strong and panic was lending him more strength.
If she blacked out she was as good as dead. In desperation, she used the only weapon she had—her psychic abilities. Grace had never used them as a weapon, but she refused to let her life go without every effort. She halted her body’s struggle and hooked her hands onto the bare flesh of his arms. Forcing herself to focus with the last of her conscious thought, Grace tried to pull a vision from Fredricks’s mind.
Fredricks’s body convulsed with pain. He jackknifed up and away from her. The force of it pulled her above the surface of the lake, allowi
ng her burning lungs to gasp for air. Her numb fingers lost their grasp as Fredricks’s momentum put several feet between them.
Brice and Grant topped the rise just as the first round of gunfire erupted.
“Sheriff’s department! Freeze!”
Brice’s command sent panic through the unit of men. Two turned to face the threat and Brice fired before they got those high-powered rifles aimed at him. Grant backed him up. The other men dove for cover as more shots rang out.
The three men just below the ridge were shooting at anything that moved. Brice and Grant had slowly cut around them to try and get a clear shot. Someone beat them to it. A short silence was followed by the sound of automatic gunfire. The identity of the shooters was revealed by the clear! that was shouted afterward.
“Nice of Jacobs to be on time,” Grant muttered.
The all clear was short lived. Weapons fire echoed up the valley from multiple locations. The Rangers dove for cover even as they returned fire. Brice found cover just in time to watch as Grace and Fredricks slid into the water. At this elevation the lake was just above freezing and hypothermia would set in fast.
The fight continued as they picked off the occupants of the helicopters. One of the pilots was still aboard one of the crafts and the machine swiftly lifted off the surface of the lake. The pilot of the craft held no loyalty to the men that frantically waved at it from the ground. It lifted straight out of the valley and into the night. Because they’d exposed themselves in their attempt to contact the helicopter it was simple for the sheriff’s personnel to secure those foolish enough to leave their cover. Some surrendered, the Rangers shot the rest.
Between the Rangers and his deputies, a second clear! was called. This time it was a good one. Brice traversed the trail that led to the shoreline of the lake in record time. Fredricks’s body was floating on the surface of the lake. Jacobs had the man covered, but he wasn’t responding to any commands. Lights came on and lit up the area.