I didn’t see the marshals or Weiss. And I didn’t see the 4x4s: maybe Weiss and the marshals were staying in the cars, taking the long way around to cut us off, and these guys had been sent to run us down on foot. I looked again. Already, they’d made up another fifty yards.
“Come on!” yelled Boone. He pulled me towards the far edge of the ridge. The drop on the other side came into view and—
It was horrifically steep, more like a cliff than a hill, and so high I felt my stomach churn. I could see a river, far below, just a snaking blue line no thicker than a vein on my wrist. I saw whole clumps of trees that could have grown on my thumbnail without filling all the space.
I threw myself back, breaking his grip and falling on my ass. My fear of heights slammed into me full force and locked me there, pinning me to the ground like I had a truck parked on me. “You’re crazy!” I panted as the world tilted and spun. “It’s too steep!” My heart was going so fast, so hard, that I thought I might actually be about to have a heart attack. “We can’t walk down that!”
“It’s steep, but we can make it if we do it right.” He held out his hand. “C’mon.”
Is he insane?! I shook my head and snatched my hand away. I knew they were coming, behind me, but animal fear had taken over. “I can’t,” I rasped. “I just can’t.”
He glanced over my shoulder, then sank to a crouch in front of me. One big, warm hand cupped my cheek. “Kate, I know you’re scared. But you can do this.”
I stared up at him, a hot glow spreading through my chest.
“I’ll be right there with you,” he said. And he held out his hand again.
I stared at his hand. I can’t.
But if I didn’t, I was going to get him killed.
Feeling as if I was going to throw up, I took his hand. He walked me to the very edge of the cli—don’t think of it as a cliff. It’s just a really, really steep, rocky hill.
“Don’t try to go slow,” Boone told me. “Run. We have to go fast enough that our feet stay under us. But don’t let it get away from you. You don’t want to slip and roll.”
I nodded. One trip, one stumble and we wouldn’t hit the ground again until we hit the bottom. I was sure I was going to throw up.
“I’m going to hold your hand the whole way, okay?” He squeezed my hand for reassurance.
I nodded silently. I didn’t trust myself to speak.
And together, we stepped over the edge.
Welcome to the single most terrifying three minutes of my life. It was like every nightmare I’d ever had about heights...only worse. It didn’t feel like running. It fell like falling. I plunged face-first towards that distant river and the trees below, my clothes and hair billowing out behind me. Somewhere beneath me, I was aware of my legs pumping madly, not just running but sprinting, trying to keep my feet under my body. The rocky slope was so steep, I could feel my heels lifting off the ground as I tipped forward, a hair’s breadth from going into a tumble that wouldn’t end until I was a broken, bloody mess at the bottom. And the only solution was to run suicidally faster and faster.
The wind whistled past my ears and slammed its way down my throat. I’d forgotten all about the men chasing us. All I had room for was the sight of the ground, so very far away. My normal strategy with heights was don’t look down but how can you not look when you’re running towards it?
My lungs strained and threatened to burst. My legs, already exhausted from the climb, screamed in agony. Several times, I thought I was dead: I’d catch my foot on a rock or tilt forward too much and there’d be a sickening lurch as my feet left the ground and I started to full-on fall. But there was always a huge, warm hand tight around mine to haul me back upright. And then, just as my legs started to fail, I felt it.
The ground was under my heels again.
At first, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But...yes! The slope was leveling out. It felt more like running, less like falling. And then, as it leveled out more, we could finally slow down. A jog, then a walk, then a blessed, blessed stop.
I slumped over, bent almost double, as Boone finally released my hand. It was some seconds before I could even lift myself enough to look behind us.
The slope rose so high behind us it blocked out the morning sun. I craned my head back and back to try to see the top. We came down that?! I was still terrified, my whole body shaking with adrenaline. But there was a tiny rush of pride, too.
Boone put his arm around my waist and pulled me close, wrapping me in his arms. “We did it,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Look.”
I followed his pointing finger. Right at the top of the cliff, silhouetted against the sky, the three men who’d been chasing us were just starting a careful, slow descent. It would be a while before they caught up with us. And by that point, we could be long gone.
Boone slowly released me and put his finger under my chin, tilting my head back to look up at him. “You got big brass balls, Lydecker.”
I flushed and weakly grinned. Then we were jogging towards the forest.
Thirty minutes later, we were deep inside. Boone slowed to a stop, then just stood and listened. I stood next to him, listening too, digging my fingernails into palms, desperate to know….
“Okay,” said Boone at last. “We lost them.”
I took off my pack, put my back against a tree and slowly sank to my ass. My legs were just one big mass of throbbing, aching tiredness. “I don’t think I can move again,” I mumbled. “Ever.”
Boone threw me an energy bar and a bottle of water from his pack. I glugged the water and wolfed down the bar. It had been hours since we’d woken. Then I let out a low groan and closed my eyes.
“What?” asked Boone.
“I just remembered the coffee you made.” I hadn’t had a chance to drink it before we left.
“You really like your coffee, huh?” He grinned. “You really are a New Yorker. You drink those big mocha caramel frappuccino things with whipped cream and stuff?”
I shuddered. I’m a purist, when it comes to coffee. “Americano. With just the right amount of mil—”
Crack.
I thought Boone had stepped on a dry branch. But he was falling, sprawling on his ass on the forest floor. It was only when I saw the blood soaking his shirt that I realized he’d been shot.
37
Boone
One second, I was kidding around with Kate. The next I was on my back in the dirt, trying to draw air while I shuddered from the pain.
My training saved me. I had my hand clamped to the wound and was scrambling to my feet before I’d even really registered what had happened. Kate was already running towards me but I shook my head, pointing to the trees, instead. “Run!”
We sprinted deeper into the forest but I wasn’t sure we were heading the right way. They’d snuck up on us. I’d thought we were safe because I couldn’t hear them crashing through the forest, searching. I hadn’t figured that they might be slowly creeping closer, like a hunter stalking a deer. I hadn’t figured on that because it was impossible….
Unless they knew exactly where we were.
I glanced across at Kate. She was staring at me, white-faced. “You’re shot!”
For the first time, I let myself think about the wound. Immediately, the pain got worse, spreading up my arm and lancing through my body. The bullet had hit about midway between my left shoulder and my elbow. I loosened my grip a little and blood ran down my forearm. Ran, not gushed. It hadn’t hit an artery, thank God. “I’ll live,” I grunted.
We splashed across a stream. I had barely any strength in the arm that had been hit and Kate had to help me haul myself up the far bank. “Goddammit,” I muttered.
“How did they find us?” panted Kate as we started to run again. She was keeping up but she was already getting tired. She’d barely had a break.
I shook my head, trying to figure it out. “They didn’t even have to search. They came right to us.” I looked around. I had that itchy feelin
g between my shoulder blades from being watched. It didn’t make any sense. There were thick trees all around us. It should be a piece of cake to lose them in this. And yet I could feel them closing in. How? How are they doing it?
The forest ended and we burst out into the open. Ahead was fairly flat, rocky terrain. There was a flicker of lightning and almost immediately a crash of thunder: the storm was almost right overhead. I looked up into slate-gray clouds….
And caught a glimpse of something white.
“Oh goddamn it!” I said with feeling as everything became clear. “Weiss, you son of a bitch.”
“What?” asked Kate from beside me, her voice strained. I pointed. “What is it? A plane?”
“A drone,” I said bitterly. “They’ve been watching us this whole time. Probably got a thermal camera on there.” I imagined how we must look. Even under the cover of the trees in the forest, we would have stood out as two bright, white hot spots. The drone operator, probably sitting in one of the 4x4s with a laptop, could lead the others to us no matter where we went. Now I thought about it, it made sense. Weiss had billions in the bank: of course he’d hire the best mercenaries he could to help with his escape, and of course they’d have all the toys.
We were in big trouble.
The first fat drop of rain hit my scalp, followed by another and another. Then it was crashing down all around us, the rocks running with it, becoming slick and treacherous. In seconds, it was heavy enough that we could only see ten feet in front of us. The light dimmed even more as the sun was blocked out. We ran on but soon, we couldn’t see the difference between the shadows and the cracks between rocks that would snap our ankles if we stepped in them.
Kate was doing her best but I could see she was flagging. It was tough going: as well as keeping up the punishing pace, every few minutes we’d have to climb down the side of a gully or haul ourselves up over some rocks. We were in waterproof clothes but that didn’t make it pleasant: the rain was so heavy it ran down our faces, getting in our eyes and making it difficult to breathe. And we were both exhausted already—we’d been going non-stop since we left the cabin. We jogged on for close to another hour and I watched her stride slowly breaking down, her steps getting smaller and smaller. I yelled encouragement, grabbed her with my good arm and pulled her on, but each person only has so much to give. Eventually, her legs buckled and she fell.
I caught her before she hit the rocks and pulled her to me. She was a dead weight in my arms, her legs unable to support her. “We have to keep going!” I yelled over the rain.
She shook her head. “It’s useless! Wherever we go, they’ll find us!”
I frowned, wanting to argue with her...but she was right. With the drone, they’d inevitably catch us. We couldn’t always take a straight line, because we sometimes had to double back to get around an obstacle. But, guided by the drone pilot, the men chasing us could go straight to us every time, eating away at our lead. I scowled. “Come on!” I said stubbornly. I didn’t care if she was right. I wasn’t going to let them get her.
But she looked up at me, utterly broken. “I can’t,” she said. “I’m not strong like you.” Water was pouring down her face but I could hear in her voice that she was crying.
One half of my heart just melted. The other tightened into white hot fury. I wanted to kill Weiss and his men for doing this to her, for turning her into prey to be hunted.
She had the hood of her waterproof jacket pulled up so all I could see of her was her pale, gorgeous face, shining with water. I pushed a strand of soaking hair back off her cheek. “You are strong. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. And you’re stubborn.” I shook my head. “Jesus, you’re stubborn! You came all the way to Alaska to get justice for those women. You made sure you got on that plane. You made it through all this. But right now, if you don’t run, Weiss is going to win. You want to let that happen?”
She sniffed. Shook her head. I saw a little of the fire I knew return to her eyes.
I took her cheeks between my hands, letting my warmth soak into her, and kissed her hard on the lips. She returned it: slowly at first, her breathing shaky, but with gradually growing strength. I broke the kiss...and she heaved herself upright, her legs wobbly but holding.
We set off again. We were still exhausted but Kate ran with grim determination, her jaw set. Another mile and the terrain started to slope gently down. Now we were in an area I recognized. I’d scouted this way a few times but there weren’t many animal trails so I’d abandoned it.
I heard boots again in the distance. Then a shot rang out and Kate and I both flinched. It went wide, splintering a rock next to us, but it showed they were in range.
We tried to move faster, Kate stumbling with fatigue and me wincing at the pain in my arm. But a half mile further on we heard another shot, this one from a different direction. They were starting to surround us.
We aren’t going to make it. However hard I tried to shut it out, I could feel the cold, hard reality closing in. We’d pushed ourselves to the limits but it just wasn’t enough. We were outnumbered and outmaneuvered.
I slowed to a stop and Kate stumbled to a halt beside me. “It’s no good,” I told her. “We can’t just keep running. Not with that drone up there.”
She kicked at a rock in frustration. Now she was the one determined to go on. “There’s got to be some way to beat it. What do you do in the military?”
“In the military, it’s our side who have them,” I said savagely. I’d benefitted from having a drone overhead plenty of times, in Afghanistan and Iraq. I’d never felt the deep, animal panic that comes with being the one being watched. No matter where we ran, there was nowhere to hide. I actually felt a pang of sympathy for the insurgents.
Kate was frowning. “We use helicopters, sometimes, on big busts to make sure none of the bad guys escape.” She thought for a second. “You know what they do to get away? Find a building. A big parking garage or a shopping mall. Somewhere they can go into and come out a different side.”
I stared at her, thinking hard. It was a pretty good plan...the only problem was, there wasn’t a building close by. The only place that couldn’t be seen from the air was—
I screwed my eyes shut. No. Jesus, no. Not there.
“What?” asked Kate. “Is there somewhere like that?”
I shook my head angrily. But I knew I couldn’t fight it for long. The idea was too good not to pursue.
“What?” Kate demanded. “You thought of somewhere! Where?”
I shook my head again, wracking my brains. There must be somewhere else. Anywhere else….
“Mason, where?”
I sighed in defeat. It was our only chance. “The caves.”
38
Boone
Less than ten minutes later, we were running down a gully. “Are you sure?” yelled Kate. “It looks like a dead end.”
“Trust me,” I said grimly. I’d never been in but I’d bought a map of the cave system and studied it. I’d figured that, if I did that, it was a good excuse for leaving this one part of my surroundings unexplored.
The gully narrowed until it was a squeeze for me, then until it was a squeeze for Kate. She had to turn sideways to fit. “Are you serious?” she asked.
“It opens up,” I said. I had to fight to keep my voice level. As I slid sideways through the crack, there was less than an inch between me and the rock in front of my face. I could feel my breathing starting to go, slipping out of control like a train running away down a hill. The back of my neck prickled into sweat. The world flickered in front of my eyes….
And then we were inside, in a room as big as my cabin.
“Wow,” said Kate. She gazed around at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling, at the natural pool of water in the center of the room.. “It’s beautiful,” she said quietly. She turned around to grin at me. “Do you think they saw us come in?” Then she frowned. “You okay?”
I was still standing there, trying to get my b
reathing under control, one hand braced against the damp rocks overhead. Why does the damn ceiling have to be so low? I thought irrationally. “I’m fine,” I said and looked down at my arm. “Went light-headed. Must have lost some blood.”
She ran over to look. Unlike me, she could run around in here and not worry about hitting her head. She pulled out her flashlight and shone it on my arm, then sucked in her breath.
It was the first time I felt like we could stop to look at it. And I was in no hurry to go deeper into the caves. I twisted my arm around so I could see what Kate had seen.
“It’s not that bad,” I muttered when I saw it.
“Not that bad?” She was staring at my blood-soaked shirt. At the ragged, blood-filled wound beneath it.
I twisted my arm the other way, cursing under my breath as that caused a fresh spike of pain. Kate groaned as she saw the even bigger hole on the other side. “No,” I said. “That’s good. Means the bullet went straight through.”
“Great,” she said, sounding unconvinced.
I took a first aid kit from my pack and cleaned the wound as best I could, then dressed it. Focusing on the wound calmed me a little and, for some reason, talking to Kate was helping control my fear, too. “No,” I said as I finished up.
“No?”
“No, I don’t think they saw us come in here.” I tested my arm: it hurt, but less than it had. “And the rock’s way too thick for them to see us on thermal. So until they come down the gully and find the entrance, they won’t know we’re in here. And by then, we can be coming out one of the other ways.”
“Great!” said Kate. She looked around. “So which way do we go?” She shone her flashlight at the far side of the room where a dark hole the size of a car door led downward. “Through there?”
And immediately, just looking at that black tightness, the fear came back. “Yeah,” I said. “Through there.”
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