She saw him all right. Only he wasn’t on the other side of the RV. He was lying, unconscious, directly below the front axle.
Beyond him, a pair of feet was wiggling under the carriage toward the back of the vehicle.
Ananke returned to the campfire side and looked under the RV again. The crawler had just reached the back bumper and was pulling himself from under the RV. There was plenty of starlight for her to see Ricky’s face.
What the hell is he doing?
There was no way to call out to him without alerting those they hadn’t taken care of yet.
She considered crawling after him, but as soon as he’d fully extracted himself, he stood up. A moment later, his feet disappeared upward.
Groaning, she hurried to the RV door. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rosario looking confused, but Ananke had no time to explain. Ricky was about to blow the whole operation.
She set her pistol on the ground, and then quietly opened the door and stepped onto the threshold. From there, she grabbed the roof and began pulling herself up.
When her gaze cleared the roofline, she checked the lookout first—he hadn’t moved—and then the back of the vehicle.
There was a second when she thought her fears were unfounded, that Ricky was not about to slither over the top. But a moment later, that was exactly what he did.
Not waiting to see if the lookout spotted Ricky, Ananke grabbed the man’s pant leg and leaned to the side as she yanked him off the roof. He tried to grab the edge as he passed over it, but missed.
Ricky looked at her in disbelief and whispered, “What did you—”
She shot up a finger. ““I’m trying very hard to find a reason not to put you on the ground with him. So don’t say another word.”
“But I—”
She glowered at him and he pulled an invisible zipper across his lips.
Ananke dropped to the ground, expecting to find the kidnapper lying there with the wind knocked out of him at most, with Rosario watching over him. But that wasn’t the case. On his way down, he had apparently landed on one of the camping chairs. One of the aluminum legs had broken free and speared his chest. He was lying on his back with the chair leg sticking out of him like a flagpole, blood rushing from the wound.
__________
BY ALL RIGHTS Dylan should have been dead.
He and Liesel had split up as they approached the water tank. He was supposed to go around the far side and let her know what he saw. In other words, get out of her way. That was fine by him.
Turned out he wasn’t the only one heading in that direction. He totally didn’t see the kidnapper until he was only a few feet behind the asshole. The guy wasn’t supposed to be out there. He was supposed to be over at the water tank with his buddy.
Dylan’s eyes widened.
Is the other guy around here, too?
He looked behind him, but the guy standing four feet in front of him was the only one there.
Still looking over his shoulder, Dylan took a tentative backward step, intending to disappear into the night, but he missed seeing the dried remains of the bush.
Crunch.
The kidnapper whirled around, his semiautomatic rifle swinging with him. Reflexively, Dylan charged and slammed into the guy’s torso. As they flopped onto the desert floor, the rifle slipped from the guy’s hands and bounced off the back of Dylan’s head.
A gray tunnel started closing down Dylan’s vision, but he forced it away.
The effort cost him any advantage he might have had, however, and when his vision cleared, he saw the muzzle of the semiautomatic pointing at his face. He rolled to his right, knowing that doing so probably wouldn’t keep him alive for more than a second or two, but he couldn’t just lie there and give up.
Thup.
His whole body tensed, as he was sure his skull was a microsecond away from being pierced by a bullet. When neither pain nor the appearance of pearly gates occurred, he had another thought.
That wasn’t a rifle shot.
He peeled his eyelids back.
The guy and his rifle were gone.
What the—
Dylan twisted around at the sound of footsteps coming from the other direction.
“Are you hurt?” Liesel asked, the suppressor end of her pistol still pointed at the fallen kidnapper.
Dylan patted himself down, wincing a little as he touched the back of his head. No blood. “I’m okay.”
“I think maybe we are even now.”
“What?” Then he remembered the C4. “Oh, right. I think we are.”
Liesel checked the downed kidnapper’s pulse, but it was obvious to Dylan the guy had taken his last breath. She lowered his gun and helped Dylan to his feet.
“The other guy?” Dylan asked.
Instead of answering him directly, she clicked on her mic. “Water tank, clear. Two down.”
__________
“RV CLEAR,” ANANKE said in response to Liesel. “Two down. That makes six. We’re missing one. You two make a sweep of the west side. We’ll do the east.”
“Copy,” Liesel replied.
Ananke looked at Ricky. “Go with Rosario, and don’t give her any trouble.”
After giving her a what-me? look, he jogged off after Rosario.
As soon as they were gone, Ananke looked down at the dying kidnapper. Given what he’d been a part of, she wanted to feel zero sympathy for him, but, man, no one should ever have to die like this.
She crouched down beside him and nodded at the RV. “Any more of your friends inside?”
His lips parted, but whatever he planned to say was superseded by a violent, wet cough. Apparently the fall had done more than break some limbs.
She moved over to the RV entrance, listened for a few seconds to the silence inside, and opened the door. No other kidnappers, but no hostages, either. Was this camp just a ruse? Were the children not out here at all?
She squatted next to the kidnapper. “Where are the kids?”
Blood dribbling out one side of his mouth, he coughed again.
“Come on, answer me.”
From the look in his eyes, she knew he had no intention of telling her anything.
“You’re going to die. There’s nothing anyone can do about that. Less painful or more, it’s your choice.” She pointed at the chair leg, her other fingers loose, making it look like she was going to grab it. “I’m really hoping you choose less.”
His eyes widened, and then his gaze flashed past her, as if focusing on something else. She turned. The only thing behind her was the outbuilding. The glance could have been meaningless, but Ananke didn’t think so.
“Thank you.” She stood up.
Only two things were in the direction he’d looked—the near empty shed and the open desert. Perhaps there was another structure out there Rosario hadn’t found on the map. But if so, why would the kidnappers set up camp here?
Her gaze drifted back to the shed. She hadn’t seen anything that indicated the kids were in there, but she’d also not taken that close of a look.
She walked inside and scanned the space again. This time, she noticed something lying next to the two lights. A pile of…rope?
Yes, but not loose rope. It was tied together to form a ladder. One end was anchored to metal loops embedded at the edge of the concrete mound she’d noted before.
She swung the light across the mound.
How about that.
Not a mound. A concrete ring. And on top of it, a hatch.
Dropping to her knees, she undid the hasp and threw open the hatch. “Is anyone down there?” she called.
She shined her light inside and saw several bodies lying on the floor.
My God, are we too late?
“Hello?” The voice was adult, female, coming from the left.
Ananke leaned into the hole and pointed her light toward the sound. A woman stood in the middle of what looked like an old bomb shelter. Her hair was disheveled, her face smeared w
ith dirt. Still, Ananke recognized her from the Administrator’s photographs as Erica Wright, one of the missing chaperones. The woman was squinting, a hand shading her eyes.
Ananke could hear the others stirring now, and in her beam could see scared faces turning toward her.
“We’re here to get you out,” she said. “Hang on.”
She stood up and touched her comm. “Status?”
“We have just finished the west,” Liesel said. “No one else here.”
“Rosario?”
No response for a few seconds, then, “We’re all clear here, too.”
Where had the seventh guy gone? If he was smart, he’d run for the highway once he knew the kidnapping had been blown. If not, well, there was a way to deal with that.
“Everyone back to the RV. I found the kids.”
__________
WHEN THE OTHERS returned, Ananke tasked Ricky and Rosario with finding something to cover the now dead lookout, and had Liesel keep watch for the missing kidnapper.
With Dylan holding the flashlight, Ananke lowered the ladder through the hole. As soon as it was in place, everyone below started crowding around it.
“One at a time,” she said.
Chris Jones, another chaperone, pushed everyone out of the way and grabbed the ladder.
“Children first,” Ananke told him.
“I’m already here. I’m first,” he said, climbing.
Not wanting to cause a scene, she let him continue.
“Thank God. Thank God,” he said as he set his feet on the ground.
“If you could step to the side, please,” Ananke said.
He didn’t seem to hear her.
“Mr. Jones!”
He jerked. “What?”
“To the side, please.”
“Oh, okay.” He moved out of the way.
One by one, the children came up, Ananke mentally checking them off her list as they reached the top. After five of the children had reached the surface, Ananke poked her head into the hole again. Wright was the only one left, standing at the bottom of the ladder, one hand on the rope, the other strapped across her midsection.
“Where’s Tessa Herrera?” Ananke asked.
“They took her,” Wright said.
“Who took her?”
“The kidnappers. One of them called her up.”
“By name?”
“Yes.”
Why would someone take Tessa Herrera? She wasn’t one of the kids from a wealthy family.
“How long ago?”
“Ten minutes. Maybe-maybe less.”
For the first time Ananke realized something was wrong with the woman. “Can you come up?”
“I don’t…think so.” The woman tilted her hand away from her belly for a moment. It was covered with blood.
Ananke scrambled down the ladder and then all but carried the woman up. “What happened?” she asked once they were out of the hole.
“He shot me when he took…when he took Tessa.”
“Do you know which one it was?”
The woman hesitated. “I’m not sure.”
“But you have an idea.”
Wright frowned. “It’s just…well, the voice sounded a little like our other chaperone. Andy Carter. But he-he was killed the day they took us.”
Ananke turned to Dylan. “See what you can do for her, and keep everyone calm and in here.”
“You got it.”
She hurried outside and waved for the other three of her team to join her. “Were any of the people you took out Andrew Carter?”
Liesel shook her head.
Ricky frowned. “When would I have seen him?”
Rosario didn’t need to respond because she’d been with Ananke.
“He’s our seventh guy. He took one of the kids and I think he’s making a run for it.”
“When Dylan and I were on our way here,” Liesel said, “we saw something moving into the desert. We weren’t sure what it was.”
“Where was this?” Ricky asked.
The moment Liesel pointed, Ricky started running in that direction.
“What are you doing?” Ananke asked.
He shouted, “I’m a hunter, remember?” but didn’t stop running.
“Call the Administrator,” Ananke said to Rosario. “Tell him we have the hostages and need him to arrange pickup. Also, we’ll need someone to get rid of the bodies.”
“Where are you going?” Rosario asked.
“To keep Ricky from doing something stupid again.”
She sprinted after the hunter.
41
CARTER KEPT TESSA hurrying through the desert for several minutes before he finally told her to stop.
He looked back the way they’d come, and the workshop that had hidden the old underground shelter seemed both a million miles away and still too close.
“Where are we going?” the girl asked.
He backhanded Tessa across the cheek. “I told you to shut up.”
It was a good question, though. At the moment they were going nowhere but away, Carter’s only goal to put as much space between himself and whoever was raiding the camp. But if they kept going in their current direction, all they’d find would be more desert, no matter which direction they went.
He looked back toward the workshop again. Everything seemed quiet. Maybe it had been a false alarm.
He took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to do. The alarm had been real. Someone was out there, likely the same person or people who’d gone after Danny. Carter couldn’t go back. But he and Tessa would also never survive in the wilderness on foot. If he wanted a chance at cashing in on the kid, he would have to find a faster way out.
Perhaps it was his fear and panic that had kept him from thinking of the idea until now. It didn’t matter, though. The important thing was, his mind had cleared enough for a solution to come to him.
If someone was indeed attacking the camp, they had approached quietly. So that had to mean they’d left their vehicle somewhere and walked the rest of the way in, right? It made sense to him.
The alarm had been set up to the north, on the long road leading to the house, so any vehicles would likely be in that direction.
“Come on, kid,” he said, jerking Tessa’s shirt.
__________
TESSA STUMBLED BEHIND Mr. Carter for a few steps before catching her balance again.
Her cheek stung from where he’d hit it, but she was too focused on paying attention to his every movement for it to bother her. At some point he would make a mistake. And when he did, Tessa would make him pay for his betrayal.
__________
CARTER LET OUT a quiet, triumphant laugh when he saw the pickup truck parked at the side of the road.
As soon as he was convinced no one had been left behind to guard the vehicle, he jogged over to it, pulling Tessa behind him.
The vehicle was dusty, but otherwise looked in fine shape. He tried the driver’s door and laughed again when it opened.
“In,” he said to the girl, pushing her toward the doorway.
“I don’t know how to drive,” she said.
“No one said anything about driving. Get in and climb over to the other seat.”
Tessa did as she was told.
“Now kneel down in the footwell and face me.”
“Where?” she asked, confused.
“The footwell!” He pointed at the area in front of the seat.
Once she was situated, he checked to see if the key was in the ignition. No such luck. But that was all right. He’d hotwired plenty of cars in his life.
He set his gun on the floor of the truck and shot Tessa a look. “Don’t try anything.”
She shook her head.
He set to work, snapping plastic out of his way and hunting for the appropriate wires. The problem was, it was too damn dark and he didn’t have a flashlight. The truck’s dome light didn’t seem to be working. He had to guess four times before he finally found the righ
t combination.
When the engine roared to life, he smiled and climbed inside. “Hold on, kid. This is going to be a little rough.”
__________
RICKY SKIDDED TO a stop in the open desert west of the outbuilding, giving Ananke the opportunity to catch up to him.
“They were here,” he whispered.
He played his flashlight across the ground ahead of them, lighting up several fresh shoe prints—one set adult sized, one child’s.
Ricky hunted for a moment and then said, “This way.” He took off running again, this time heading north.
This was the purest form of hunting, Ananke thought. Old school, following physical tracks in the earth. And she sensed Ricky was really enjoying it. As much as she wanted to remind him they were chasing a kidnapped girl and there shouldn’t be anything fun about that, she said nothing.
They must be heading to the highway, Ananke thought. Carter was probably hoping to hitch a ride from someone passing by. Or maybe, once he was in cell range, he was going to call someone who could pick up him and the girl.
Whatever the case, they needed to get there before he did, and the best way to do that would be by driving.
“Where’s your truck?” she shouted. “We can take that.”
“We’re headed straight at it.”
That did not make her happy. “Please tell me you have your keys.”
“I’ve got them.”
“And that you locked your doors.”
“Why would I lock my doors out here? Besides, he could just break the window and get in.”
“Yeah, but it would have slowed him down!”
Ricky increased his speed.
They reached the road to the house a minute later, and could see Carter and Tessa ahead. Then they heard the engine of Ricky’s truck start up.
Ananke saw the gray outline of the vehicle make a U-turn and take off away from them. Ricky sprinted after it, but Ananke knew their only chance was to cut it off on the main dirt road.
“This way!” she shouted as she veered into the desert.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Ricky’s flashlight bouncing after the truck for another few seconds, before he, too, turned toward the main road.
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