I lay down on the cold ground. I was exhausted but I was too hungry and too scared to sleep. And the longer I lay there awake, the more the thought of Boone as Weiss’s prisoner ate at me. I’d had no choice, I’d had to leave him. But by the time I reached the town raised the alarm about Weiss’s escape, Weiss would likely be long gone and Boone would be dead. How did it come to this? Hopkins—the real killer in Afghanistan—, Weiss, the two marshals...all the bad guys were going to get away. And Boone, the man who’d saved my life, would die still branded as a murderer and a disgrace to the military. This isn’t right!
My whole career—my whole life—I’d believed in what I was doing. I’d believed the legal system and the FBI was just the formal version of something bigger, something that was written right into our world. I’d believed in justice.
But Boone had been right: there was none.
My cheeks wet with tears, I slept.
48
Boone
For a few minutes, I thought I might have a chance. There were more of them but I was bigger and I attacked them like a grizzly defending his mate. I wasn’t going to let them chase after Kate.
I picked one guy up and hurled him into the others, scattering them like bowling pins. I got in a good punch to Marshal Hennessey’s side and a really satisfying right hook to Weiss’s face.
But then the mercenaries surrounded me and they were trained. One of them grappled me from behind and forced me to the ground and another pressed his gun to my head. I closed my eyes and waited for the shot. At least I’d delayed them enough to give Kate a head start.
“No!” snapped Weiss, knocking the gun barrel away from my temple. “We might need him. If we corner Lydecker, I want to have leverage.
The mercenary cursed under his breath and then muttered something disparaging to his buddy. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I didn’t understand the words but I recognized the language: Russian.
That changed everything. I’d presumed that Weiss had hired some local mercenaries to help him escape the country. There are plenty of former military guys who don’t give a shit who they work for. But these guys must be former Russian military, maybe even former Spetsnaz, Russian special forces. Russian Mafia bosses often used people like that for bodyguards. Had Weiss done a deal with the Russian mob?
Another Russian ran up, panting, and reported: they’d lost Kate in the forest. Weiss cursed but my heart soared: there was still hope for her. Then I noticed her pack, still sitting on the ground. Shit.
They kept me on my knees while the marshals cuffed my wrists. Immediately, I could feel the sleeping beast inside me uncoil. Sharing everything with Kate had helped but it hadn’t cured me. The march through the forest wasn’t so bad because at least I could feel the air moving against my skin. But when we reached the edge of the trees and they put me in the back of an SUV, it got bad. They chained my ankles, too, and that pushed me dangerously close to the edge. My chest grew tight. I was almost back inside the coffin.
Marshal Phillips climbed into the back seat next to me and sat listening to the short, quick breaths I was taking. “What the fuck’s the matter with you?”
Weiss was in the passenger seat. He turned and glared at me. “He’s crazy.” He leaned back and slapped me hard across the face. “That’s right, isn’t it, Boone? Christ knows how you persuaded Lydecker to bang you. Does she realize you’re a basket case?”
I said nothing, just glared back at him. The anger helped to hold back the fear, a little.
The Russian in the driver’s seat muttered something.
“What did you say?” snapped Weiss.
“I said: for a crazy guy, he give you good run-around,” the Russian said in broken English.
Weiss glowered at me. “Not anymore,” he said. And slapped me again, hard enough to snap my head to one side. He seemed to really like hitting people who couldn’t fight back. “That’s for setting back my plans,” he told me. “Head for the camp. We’ll track that bitch down tomorrow, when the drone’s refueled.”
The Russian shook his head. “We should go back to Nome. Get on boat. We’re days behind schedule already.”
Weiss whirled around and jabbed his finger in the mercenary’s face. “I am not having the government looking for me for the rest of my life! It has to look like I died in that crash and that won’t work if that little bitch tells the authorities I’m still breathing. You want more money? I’ll pay you fifty thousand, each, per day we’re here. But we are not leaving without her. Tomorrow, we’ll hunt her down with the drone.” He looked over his shoulder at me. “And you better believe: all the extra money this is costing me? I’m going to take it out of that cute little ass of hers.”
I growled low in my throat.
Weiss grinned. “Oh, you don’t like that?” He leaned back between the seats and spoke slowly, making sure I heard every word. “I’m going to have fun with Kate.” He touched his eye, which was already turning purple where I’d slugged him. “I might even make you watch.”
My stomach turned. Not just from what he was threatening but from what I could see in his eyes. This guy had had power all his life: power over people, brought by having millions and then billions of dollars. But now he’d discovered a new, addictive sort of power: the power that came from being the one holding a gun. He could kill...or do even worse, especially to Kate. Out here, there was no one to stop him. And he loved it.
My hands formed fists. I had to stop this maniac getting his hands on her, no matter what. But I was chained, useless...and I was slipping fast into the black depths of my memories.
Weiss pointed forward...and we drove off into the night.
I had to spend the whole journey focusing on the star-filled sky and the silhouettes of the mountains outside the windows: they were the only things that convinced my broken mind that I was in Alaska and not buried. By the time we arrived and they took off my ankle cuffs and hauled me out, I was so numb with fear, I stumbled and fell. Weiss thought that was hilarious.
I knelt there beside the 4x4 and took a deep lungful of mountain air. The thing inside me grudgingly retreated a little. Another few minutes and I would have been gone for good.
As they pulled me to my feet, I looked around. Their camp was well-organized: there were three tents, spare fuel for the 4x4s, even some food cooking on a campfire that made my stomach growl. It was just about dawn and I wondered where Kate was and what she was doing. Would she be able to find anything to eat? I hadn’t had a chance to teach her to hunt. My chest tightened as I thought of her out there alone. I could feel a cold ache on my front where she should be nestled up against me.
They pushed me down on a log next to Marshal Hennessey. He was rubbing his side where I’d punched him. “Think you busted a rib, you son of a bitch,” he muttered.
“Good,” I spat viciously. My injured arm was still throbbing from hitting him, but I’d gladly do it again. I reserved a special hatred for the two marshals. I didn’t expect much from mercenaries but for a man of the law to take a bribe...that was low.
He shook his head at me as if I didn’t understand, but he didn’t say anything more. Only when Weiss walked past, clutching a flask of what smelled like vodka, did he speak up. “You said I could see Megan when we got back.”
Who the hell was Megan?
“I said you could see her when we caught them,” said Weiss savagely.
“I can hear her!” said Hennessey, his voice pleading.
Weiss ignored him and walked off. I strained my ears. And now that I was listening for it, I could hear it, too. Weeping. Too high to be a man’s but not a woman’s, either.
My stomach twisted. A child’s.
I looked at Hennessey...and suddenly his role in all this twisted around a hundred and eighty degrees in my head. “They have your kid?”
He glared at me. As far as he knew I was still a wanted fugitive, his natural enemy. He’d probably read my file and knew what I’d supposedly done. But eventually,
he nodded towards one of the tents. “My grandkid.”
I could see it all unfold in my head. Weiss’s people had found out which two marshals were flying him from Nome to Fairbanks. Phillips, they’d simply bribed. But Hennessey must have had a reputation for being a straight arrow...so they’d had to use blackmail, instead.
“They grabbed her outside her school,” said Hennessey, never taking his eyes off the tent.
Shit. All this time, I’d hated him for helping a criminal escape. He’d had no choice. That’s why Phillips could order him around despite Hennessey being his superior.
We both sat there listening to the weeping. It was getting louder and louder, turning into full-on crying.
“For fuck’s sake,” I heard Weiss say. He stormed over to the tent and hauled back the flap. “SHUT UP!” he yelled.
A terrified pause...and then the crying resumed, louder than before. Next to me, Hennessey tensed. “Let me go see her!” he said. “I can calm her down!”
Weiss stalked over to us and then pointed at me. “If you’d done your job and kept control of this asshole on the plane, we wouldn’t be in this mess! You can see her when we’ve caught both of them, not before.” There was a cruel gleam in his eye and it made a deep, scalding rage boil in my chest. He wanted the kid to be quiet...but he didn’t want to give up even an inch of his leverage over Hennessey. And I could see what was going to happen now: Hennessey would snap and attack Weiss. Weiss would shoot him.
And then the kid would be expendable.
I suddenly knew what I had to do. I was still shaky, the cuffs on my wrists still keeping the memories dangerously close. But I forced the fear down inside me as hard as I could and—
“Let me go,” I grunted.
Hennessey and Weiss both stared at me.
Luckily, Hennessey reacted exactly the way I’d hoped. “No!” he said. “Jesus, he killed a family. Children!”
Weiss narrowed his eyes, trying to work out if I was playing him. But I just looked back at him steadily. “I can get her to be quiet,” I said.
Weiss looked at me, looked at Hennessey’s pale, terrified face and laughed. “Fuck it,” he said. “Go ahead. You got two minutes. Then I’ll go in there myself and give her something to cry about.”
He backed off a few paces, still wary of me. I slowly got to my feet and turned around to face Hennessey.
“You so much as touch her,” said Hennessey, panting with fear and anger, “And I’ll—”
“I’m just going to talk to her,” I told him in a low voice. “Would you rather Weiss go in there?”
He blinked at me, gaping, and went quiet.
I walked off towards the kid’s tent. I could feel Weiss’s eyes on my back and the Russians were keeping a careful eye on me, too. “Have fun!” Weiss called after me, just to needle Hennessey. The fact he’d send me, a supposed murderer, in there spoke volumes. I had no doubt that, if I couldn’t shut the kid up, he really would beat her into silence. Jesus. If this is a white-collar criminal, give me blue-collar ones anytime.
I reached the tent, then realized I had no way of pushing the canvas door aside with my hands cuffed behind my back. I had to go in blind, ducking down and pushing my way in head-first. So she saw me before I saw her: I heard a scared little intake of breath.
And then I managed to twist around, still bent almost double, and got my first look at her.
Megan looked to be about eight. A tiny little thing: she wouldn’t have come up any higher than my waist, even standing up. And right now she looked even smaller because she was crushed into one corner of the tent, a blanket tugged tight around her, looking up at me through long blonde curls. Her eyes were red from crying.
That’s when I realized I had no idea what to do. My plan hadn’t extended any further than stopping her and her grandfather being killed. How the hell do you stop a kid crying?
“There, there,” I mumbled, still looming over her.
She started crying even louder. Outside, I thought I heard Weiss laugh. Shit! I was the world’s worst person for this. I’d barely talked to another person in four years. I’d thought talking to Kate was hard, but a kid? A scared one?
But I had no choice. I had to figure this out, or Weiss would come in here and—my stomach knotted at the thought of him beating her.
Megan was still howling, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. I looked down at myself. I guess I do look pretty scary. I practically filled the tent, I had thick black stubble on my cheeks and wild hair. And I was sort of looming over her.
I sat down on my ass. That put my eyes almost at her height but the crying didn’t stop. And anytime now, Weiss would storm in and—
“I’m Boone,” I told her. “Or...Mason.” Saying that made me think of Kate. “Let me tell you about someone,” I said. “Her name is Kate. She cried too, when she first got here. Just wanted to go home. I guess that’s how you feel?”
Megan kept sobbing, but I got a nod.
“But she’s been really brave. She’s been kicking ass, these last few days. She even stood her ground when we ran into a bear.”
Megan’s tear-filled eyes widened. “A—A real one?” she choked out.
“A real one. Close as you are to me. Kate works for the FBI. You know who the FBI are?”
Another nod. The sobs had slowed down a little. I had no idea what I was doing, but it seemed like the more I kept her talking, the less she remembered to cry.
“She catches bad guys.” I lowered my voice. “Like those guys out there.”
Megan sniffed. Her sobbing had slowed some more but she was smart enough to see where this was going. “I’m not a g—grown up like Agent Kate,” she said, shaking her head.
“Agent Kate’s not all that much bigger than you,” I said. “She’s only a little thing, with this cute little ponytail that makes her all—” I broke off, because I couldn’t figure out a way to make that part kid-friendly.
“But they let her be in the FBI?” asked Megan.
I felt myself smile. “I don’t think they had a choice. She’s stubborn. But that’s a good thing. She doesn’t let the bad guys get away.” I was working up to so maybe you could be like Agent Kate and try to be brave—
“It sounds like you like her,” said Megan.
I blinked. I hadn’t expected that. But if it stopped her crying.... “Yeah,” I said with feeling. “I really do.”
Megan nodded, sniffed...and the tears stopped. I let out a long silent sigh of relief.
“Are you going to get married?” asked Megan.
I could feel my heart breaking. Kate was out there somewhere, lost and alone. And I was dead: either they’d catch her and kill us both or she’d slip away and I’d no longer be needed. But….
“Yeah,” I said, because it was in my heart and fuck reality. “Yeah. I’d really like that.”
I thought of Kate, looking amazing in a big white dress, walking down the aisle to meet me. Right now, I’d settle for just having her make it out of this alive, even if I don’t. Could she find her way to the town? Could she survive?
Kate, I thought. Where are you?
49
Kate
I woke, shifted my legs...and immediately cried out in pain.
I was curled up on my side in my little lean-to. It was dawn and the fire had long since died, the charred remains providing no warmth. The cold had soaked into my body right down to the bones. Every muscle had gone tight and stiff as tire rubber and every one screamed when I tried to uncurl.
It took a few minutes of cursing and rubbing circulation back into my legs before I could even stand and even then I was hunched and aching. I was exhausted, too: I’d slept but my dreams had been full of Weiss, grinning as he beat Boone...and then did worse to me. I remembered that comment about watching Boone and me having sex and my skin crawled.
I found north again and headed out. I was still half asleep, every step made me wince at the pain in my tight hamstrings, and I was so hungry my stomach w
as cramping. But there was nothing I could do about it, so I pushed on.
An hour later, I came to the edge of the forest. The ground had been steadily rising and I emerged at the edge of a cliff. Less than a week ago, the height would have made me want to throw up. Now, it still bothered me...but I could actually look at the view. And the view took my breath away.
I was gazing down into a valley with tall, snow-capped mountains on either side. A river wound its way lazily along the grassy valley floor and the morning sun was making the water gleam like liquid gold.
I saw what Boone saw. I felt what he felt. This was a beautiful place. Terrifying, huge...but beautiful. You just had to be stubborn enough to want to live there.
And right on the horizon, I could see smoke. Just a tiny wisp but, when I shaded my eyes from the sun and squinted, I could make out buildings. I wasn’t ready for how good that felt. The town looked tiny, much smaller than Nome. Just days ago, even Nome had seemed like the end of the world but now I got a deep, warm glow in that part of me that had been cold and dark ever since I left civilization. The town was a day’s walk away, maybe two. But maybe, if I could find food along the way, I could do it.
There was a rough trail that led down the edge of the cliff. I put one foot on it….
...and stopped.
It felt wrong.
That’s crazy. I’d had no choice. Boone had told me to go. What other choice was there? If I’d stayed and fought, they’d have killed me.
But I have a choice now. I turned and looked over my shoulder, towards the forest.
That’s ridiculous. What choice? What other choice is there? I was an FBI agent. My job was to get to the town, warn them that Weiss had escaped and get the FBI, the state police and everybody else searching for him. After being days in the wilderness, cut off from everything I understood, I was within sight of getting back to it.
But...it felt wrong.
Alaska Wild Page 20