The Seven commanders had been assured by the Endovalley commander that the vice president’s youngest daughter was being held prisoner, which had been true at the time. But then a man—who turned out to be the VP himself—had snuck into the camp and rescued her. He had been shot multiple times but managed to escape by stealing one of their jeeps.
He had taken his daughter somewhere in the valley and hidden her there before leading soldiers on an extensive chase and eventually turning himself in. Troops had retraced the route of the pursuit, searching everywhere for her, but to no avail. The base commander had hoped to recapture the girl before Eddie and his men arrived to take the vice president, but they’d failed there too.
That was too much failure for the Russian commander. He ordered the Endovalley base commander to be replaced in the morning and assigned that task to one of his own lieutenants. Eddie knew the Endovalley commander was likely going to be dead soon. You didn’t fail The Seven commanders like that and survive. Now, as they stood outside the room where the VP was being tortured, even Eddie was cringing at the American’s screams. How long could this American hold out?
Major Eddie had also been able to put together the basics of why the Russian had left Denver. While he seemed intent on masquerading as some kind of “hero to the cause” by being the one to personally break through to the vice president, Eddie could see there was definitely more involved. It clearly seemed the Russian didn’t trust, or care for, his fellow commanders. He had ambitions with this mission that had something to do with Hawaii, that much was true, but Eddie suspected his ulterior motive wasn’t solely in disarming the last protected state. The Russian had something personal to gain from Hawaii’s fall.
Perhaps it went hand in hand with Russia’s desire to have sole possession of Alaska. It would make sense from a strategic standpoint if you were planning on a bigger power move down the road. If indeed the two situations were related, then there were definitely some behind-the-scenes games going on among The Seven commanders. And if they weren’t all on the same page, Eddie knew from personal experience where divided leaders took their countries—to civil war.
FIFTY-SIX: “Underfoot”
Haunted as the hotel was supposed to be, the man in the hallway was no ghost. And he was walking their way. The agents had been so preoccupied they hadn’t even noticed, and the door above them was still open. Had the man heard anything? Danny shot up the ladder, quietly closed the closet door, spread the uniforms out, and slid the floor panel shut with a click, just as the man entered the room above them. There was another man in the hallway now. He too was walking their way.
The cameras made it seem like there were lights on, even though it was pitch dark. The man above them had stopped and seemed to be listening for any sound. The second man stood in the doorway now, and two more soldiers entered the hallway frame. Man, those uniforms were hideous. The camera audio was off, given the extreme silence of the rest of the building, but Danny was concerned about the hum of the generator. If they shut the generator off there would be no sound, but they would lose the cameras, lighting, and the heater, and the little girl would probably wake up. And who knew, the silence might then become too loud.
On the other hand, if they didn’t shut it off, there was a chance the vibration could be felt through the floor. Danny was kicking himself for not having thought about that when he was upstairs closing the door. Had he felt a vibration? Had there been any hum or sound? He couldn’t remember. Or was it…? Shit. The heat escaping through the open panel. The jeeps had to have been driving by and picked up the heat signal. But that was from their jeep. They knew there was something in the building, but they couldn’t take the THIRST system out of the truck to check it out. That’s why they didn’t know exactly where to go. They probably had picked up a sound when they entered the building and followed it to this room. There might not be a way out of this one.
Danny turned to Adams, who was looking around the room to make sure no one was moving and motioning for them to sit down on the floor. “Adams,” Danny whispered. “Which of you is best with the girl?”
“Deere. Definitely,” Adams replied.
Danny pointed at Deere and indicated he needed to go make sure she stayed quiet. Deere nodded. The men above them definitely had heard something. They weren’t moving. They were opening the locker doors one by one and pointing their guns in each one, as if they were expecting someone to jump out. This was a terrible sign. Danny couldn’t believe how careless they’d been. Noise had to carry like crazy down here. Pair that with the heat, and they’d been a dead giveaway. How had they not at least closed the door above them? Frickin’ stupid! The lack of other functioning monitors also limited their available intel. From the bunker they had no idea how many men might be elsewhere in the building, or outside in the parking lot.
“Danny,” Adams whispered, as the men neared the C. S. Lewis locker. “This is our responsibility. The girl is yours now. These guys know we’re here. In a minute they’re going to open that locker and find that wall. They’re going to blow it open, and we’re going to have to shoot our way out, if we even get that chance. Our only legitimate hope is if we can somehow get them away from you long enough for you to get Abbey out.”
Danny didn’t necessarily agree yet, but he was nodding. He knew if the men in the room above them did find the secret door they’d be calling in the troops, and fast. He also knew soldiers had been out looking for the VP’s daughter since her father had rescued her. Since there was no other resistance remaining in the valley, if there was a gunfight here the enemy would know this was where the girl had been, and if she wasn’t here, they’d know she was still out there somewhere.
The troops wouldn’t be leaving the valley then. In fact, there’d probably be more sent in. If the VP was indeed an ex-Special Ops Marine, he wasn’t going to be giving up anything to these guys unless they had something he couldn’t bear to lose. By risking his life to try to save his daughter he’d already shown there was one thing. They hadn’t found Reagan, and probably figured she’d died in the cold. But they had to know Abbey was still alive, and when they couldn’t get him to talk through torture, they’d come back looking for her. Abbey was soon going to become the only leverage the enemy would need against the vice president to conquer the last American state.
Danny knew the vice president could do something about that. He could stall and mislead the troops all he wanted, but that would keep them here in the valley. That would keep them searching for Abbey. The only sure way to save his daughter was for the VP to kill himself. But what if he physically couldn’t? That possibility deserved consideration.
It seemed Adams was right. They could either wait for the men upstairs to find their hideaway, which was bound to happen any minute, or they could jump the men upstairs and hopefully create enough of an advantage and diversion for Danny, Cameron, Hayley, and Blake to get away with the girl. Danny glanced at his watch: 3:28. He waved everyone over except Deere, who was still sitting beside a sleeping Abbey. “All right guys,” he whispered. “Here’s the plan.”
FIFTY-SEVEN: “Hunting Lions Don’t Roar”
There were three men in the room above them, and the fourth was in the hallway outside the room. The soldier who moved aside the clothes in the C. S. Lewis locker didn’t live a second longer. Danny shot him in the head. As that man dropped, Danny squeezed off another shot and took out the soldier right behind him. The third man yelled and stepped into the room with his gun up. Danny took him down with another headshot. The fourth man in the hallway was on the radio as soon as the third man yelled. He pulled a grenade and threw it in the room, but Danny ducked back down the ladder before it exploded.
After the grenade went off, the Secret Service agents took over. Adams took the lead, and a couple gunshots later he’d taken out the fourth guy. All four agents were moving quickly down the hallway towards the main entry when they were met with more yelling from the stairwell. They took up defensive position
s by the main stairwell as Danny, Cameron, Blake, and Hayley—carrying Abbey—climbed from the bunker and moved the opposite way down the hall, towards where they’d come in.
They stayed by that stairwell as Danny watched the gunfight behind them through his scope. One of the agents had gone down, and stayed down, from another grenade. The other three disappeared around the corner and remained engaged out of sight. Now was the time to go.
Cameron climbed up the narrow gap they’d dropped through earlier and watched as four soldiers, about a hundred yards from the main entrance, crouched behind a jeep in the parking lot, firing at the hotel entrance where the Secret Service agents were returning fire. Cameron raised his rifle and picked off two of the men. He managed to take out the knee of one of the men on the other side of the jeep, but then he lost sight of him.
He called down for Hayley to bring Abbey up, which she did right away. A minute later the agents fanned out into the parking lot and took out the two men on the side of the jeep Cameron couldn’t see. Unfortunately, another agent went down in that exchange. As two more jeeps pulled into view, the last two agents jumped into the jeep still running in the parking lot. They raced out onto the street, pursued immediately and closely by the other two jeeps.
This was the only break they’d have. Cameron jumped up out of the hole and headed for Devil’s Gulch Road and the Black Canyon beyond it. Hayley was right behind him with Abbey, and Blake and Danny brought up the rear. They had no sooner climbed the hill behind the hotel when there was an explosion in the direction the agents had led the jeeps. At the same time, two more jeeps pulled into the hotel parking lot below them.
As Danny directed the others to go on ahead, he watched the jeeps in the parking lot pull up to the bodies. Four soldiers stepped out. One of them checked the soldiers’ bodies. Another shot the Secret Service agent again. The other two raced into the hotel. This place was going to be a hot spot soon. They needed to get to Black Canyon Creek immediately.
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Major Eddie and Lazzo were having coffee on the visitor center’s deck overlooking the valley, when they noticed soldiers running through toward the stairs. They followed suit and ran into the radio room, where the Russian commander was yelling. Eddie tapped the interpreter, who told him there was a gunfight in progress down at a hotel in Estes Park. The men down there were convinced they had found the vice president’s daughter. They listened as a voice spoke through the radio, describing what was taking place.
Collectively they began to sort out the confusion. Qi Jia soldiers had noticed a heat source coming from a downtown hotel and had investigated. In the process, they’d been fired upon and lost several men. Two non-Qi Jia men had emerged from the building and stolen one of their military vehicles. Two more army jeeps were in hot pursuit. They were pretty sure the girl was in the jeep.
The Russian commander turned and pointed at Eddie. “You go down. Now!” Eddie was more than happy to get out of there and away from the Russian, and he was always up for a gunfight—although, by the sounds of it, the others were pretty outnumbered. “Let’s go!” He poked Lazzo and rounded up his men. He checked his watch. 3:42 a.m.
They climbed into the chopper and were airborne within minutes, dropping quickly towards the parking lot of the Stanley Hotel. Descending through the dark and snow, deep into the valley, they circled the landing site, observing men running around two army jeeps, others entering the building, and a large explosion off in the distance. Major Eddie was hoping to find survivors—at least one. He had some questions of his own. And this time he wouldn’t wait to ask them.
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Danny and the others made it to the cemetery next to Devil’s Gulch Road and Black Canyon Creek as the hovering lights of a helicopter descended on the Stanley Hotel. As hard as it was, Danny knew they had to slow down and walk now, or they risked drawing attention. Danny and Cameron had their “ghost suits” on beneath their white Soviet uniforms, so they weren’t worried about being detected. But it would be impossible for the advanced thermal tracking system of the helicopter to not pick up the other three. They had no choice but to again somehow pass as animals, which would be far easier by the creek. If they could make their walking pattern more scattered and deer or elk-like, they could possibly get away.
Fortunately, Black Canyon Creek was of good size and had maintained enough warmth to not be completely frozen over. The snow was less deep near the water, and they walked alongside the creek all the way up to Black Canyon Creek Road. Then they followed it west towards their cave, and Bighorn Mountain.
They had gone three miles when Danny suddenly felt like they were being watched. His skin crawled, and he told everyone to freeze. He looked frantically around through his scope but saw nothing and heard nothing. Still, he had no doubt something was there. Abbey was whimpering, and Hayley was doing her best to keep her quiet. That’s when the mountain lions attacked.
FIFTY-EIGHT: “Fast Food”
Adult mountain lions are solitary creatures. They don’t hunt in pairs. Ever.
It’s amazing how many things we think we know turn out to be wrong. If only that would work to our benefit once in a while. It sure didn’t here.
Mountain lions are ferocious predators, and few humans would stand a chance against one mountain lion, much less a coordinated attack. But even mountain lions make mistakes. The easy target would have been Abbey ordinarily, but Blake was carrying her, so he must have appeared to be larger than the rest of us. Perhaps he even looked like a bear. Regardless, they miscalculated and left him and Abbey alone. Instead they took on the two Marines.
One took Cameron down before Danny saw the lions and could warn anyone, and the other took Danny down before he could get his gun on it. Danny’s raised gun saved him though, along with the Kevlar suit under his white Soviet one. The lion bit into his gun, while slashing at his chest, as Danny lay on his back, holding his weapon above his face. Danny was able to keep the thrashing animal at bay just long enough for his sister to put an arrow through its neck.
Cameron wasn’t as fortunate. The Kevlar lining protected his chest, but the lion’s razor sharp claws slashed Cameron across the face and neck. Additionally, in trying to defend himself, Cameron’s hand was crushed inside the lion’s steel jaws. Danny helped him out as soon as Hayley freed him from his own attacker. Rolling the lion off himself, Danny rose up on one knee, adjusted his scope, and put a quick two bullets through the other lion’s skull.
The beast collapsed on Cameron in a silent heap. Cameron lay motionless as Hayley and Blake scrambled to help him. To her credit, Abbey didn’t scream once. She might have been too scared. Danny surveyed the surrounding area to make sure there were no more threats. Of all the predators they were trying to avoid, mountain lions had never crossed their minds tonight. Now his senses were on high alert for anything.
Blake took the scarf off Abbey and wrapped it tightly around Cameron’s neck—who was barely conscious—hoping the blood would clot and seal the wound. The cold would help. The left side of Cameron’s face was a shredded mess, and he could barely move his hand, but they packed snow inside a blanket, tied it around his arm, and secured that arm to his chest.
Danny pulled out two morphine shots from the first aid kit in his backpack and injected one of them into Cameron. The other he handed to Blake, who had given Abbey to Hayley again and was now going to help Cameron keep walking. “Only give it to him if he asks for it, or if someone finds us, to help him keep quiet. Got it?”
Blake understood. Cameron was in intense pain, but the morphine kicked in quickly, and his hand was already growing numb from the snow. Giving him the other shot probably would have made him feel better, but he wouldn’t have been able to move, and they were having enough trouble carrying a seventy-pound girl through the six feet of snow. No way they could have carried Cameron too. The first shot of morphine weakened his legs enough as it was, and he had to heavily lean on Blake to keep moving. This was rea
lly going to slow them down, and they had almost six more miles to go. A glance at his watch told Danny it was already 4:50 a.m. It was going to be daylight well before they returned. If they made it back at all.
FIFTY-NINE: “Too Many Questions”
Major Eddie was frustrated. Hopping out of the helicopter, he approached a group of men standing around an American body. Not only was the man not alive, but he had been shot in the head at point blank range. Why? What fool had been unable to defend himself against a fallen man with no weapon? That stupidity had wasted a significant intelligence opportunity.
Then he heard the radio call from the jeeps that had pursued the other Americans. They had cornered the other jeep on a dead-end road and exploded it with a rocket launcher. They claimed they were sure the girl was not in the jeep, but by blowing it up they had not only killed the two people who might know where she still was—if indeed she hadn’t been in the jeep—but made any evidence the Americans might have had on them worthless as well.
A fourth and final American body was found in the lower level of the hotel. He’d thrown himself on a grenade and was not going to be answering any questions either. An honorable death, no doubt, but a worthless one to the major. He needed a living being to get answers. Apparently he wasn’t going to get any.
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