As the pilot followed his orders, Eddie and his men approached the bodies surrounded by the tracks they’d seen earlier and many other sets of tracks. Human tracks this time. The bodies were the lions, mountain lions, and by the looks of it there’d been one hell of a battle here. The cats had done their damage, but the guns had won. Although it struck Eddie the hole in the neck didn’t look like a bullet hole.
He knelt and examined it more closely. It had a thinner, knife-like slicing entry point, almost more like the wound from an arrow. He’d seen a hole like this once in the throat of one of his own men back in North Dakota. No question the wounds were one and the same. “Son of a camel humper,” he mumbled, nearly smiling. Lazzo gave him a questioning glance. “Laz, give me camera.”
Lazzo handed him the camera. “What is it?” he asked.
Eddie stared at the picture from the hotel again. The large black stick on the small person’s back wasn’t a stick at all. It was a bow. “Son of a mother camel humper,” he said loudly.
Then it all made sense. He knew exactly who he was following. He looked up the canyon. A trail of blood led away from the cats. A good amount of blood. Odds were the source wouldn’t last long.
He filled Lazzo in on what he’d realized and then walked to the truck to radio the helicopter. However, the pilot’s voice came over the radio first, and told Eddie he’d found signs of life up the canyon. As expected. He had traced some kind of trail to an overhang east of Bighorn Mountain, where his radar had detected three heat targets. Where were they going? Eddie scratched his head and looked at Lazzo. Three targets? Where were the other two? Had the lions killed them? More damn questions. He was curious.
Lazzo was quick to remind him that they had decided to let the Americans go for the winter. He was right. They had earned it, they both felt, saving both of their lives. While the Russian commander and several others he’d encountered here may not have abided by Eddie’s personal code—or any code for that matter—Eddie considered both himself and Lazzo to be men of honor. Where they came from, that meant something.
There didn’t seem to be a right answer—chase or let them go.
The other men looked like they were itching to get out of the snow. It was freezing, and they were wet—it was miserable. Eddie didn’t think they would object to calling off the hunt. But then, if this was indeed the Americans and they were just miles ahead and injured, they would be easy to overtake. Eddie ordered the helicopter to meet them at the base of the canyon road, find a place to land, and await their arrival. They’d be down shortly. Eddie and his men hopped on the snowplow trucks, riding them down to the helicopter. As the other men climbed into the helicopter, Eddie turned to Lazzo and said, “What you think, man?”
Lazzo shrugged. “Are you sure it is them?”
“Pretty much,” Eddie replied. “Has to be.”
“Doesn’t seem right, man,” Lazzo finally said, suggesting they let the Americans go.
Eddie nodded. Then the pilot yelled at him. “Major. It’s Russian commander.”
“Mother Russian,” Eddie muttered, taking the radio.
“Bring chopper here now,” the Russian said curtly.
“Sir,” Eddie replied, making his decision to go back on his word. “We have found the girl.”
There was a pause and then another abrupt reply. “It no matter. Vice president dead.”
What? WHAT?
SIXTY-TWO: “Calm Down”
“I don’t get it,” Blake said aloud beside Danny. The others were deeper under the ledge behind them. Danny didn’t respond. The helicopter had hovered directly over the ledge they were under for more than a minute. Then it disappeared back down the valley. They could still hear it, so they stayed hidden, and then fifteen minutes later it flew back over them, hovering again for another thirty seconds or so before continuing up the valley. “It absolutely had to have seen us,” Blake reasoned. “Either they have the world’s worst radar or—”
“They don’t need us anymore,” Danny said, and Blake stared at him.
“What?” he asked in surprise.
“I’m with you,” Danny replied. “I think they knew at least a few of us were here. I’m pretty sure they tracked us to the lions, and the helicopter followed the trail all the way up here. They knew we were people, and they knew we were here. I’m not sure who they thought we were, but I’m pretty sure they were coming for us.”
“So why leave?” Blake asked, taking it all in.
Danny looked back at Hayley, who was giving water to Cameron. Abbey was wrapped in a blanket but shivering like mad and staring back at Danny. “Think about it,” he redirected, turning back to look at Blake. “We saw the helicopter come in last night, right?” Blake nodded. “This morning it comes up the valley the way we came. It comes all the way up to us and doesn’t go any further. It goes back down the valley, comes back up and keeps going. There’s nowhere to land up ahead. They knew we were here, but for some reason they don’t need us anymore. For some reason, they don’t need the girl anymore.” Danny looked him in the eye. “Why do you think?”
Blake had an idea. The vice president had to have given up the information they were trying to get out of him…or he was dead.
Hayley came up to them. “Danny, Cam is awake. We need to try to keep him moving. He desperately needs to be taken care of.”
Danny nodded, moving instantly. “How’s Abbey?”
“She can keep going,” Hayley replied. “She’s a tough little girl,” she said a bit louder so Abbey could hear her. “She’s a little groggy from whatever drugs they had her on. It’s taken a long time for them to get out of her system.”
“Unbelievable,” Danny muttered.
Hayley went back to assist Cameron, and Danny turned to help her, but Blake grabbed his arm. “Do you think he’s dead?” Blake whispered.
Danny glanced at Abbey briefly before answering, but then turned calmly back to Blake. “I know he is.”
--------------------
Eddie demanded the chopper pilot ask how the vice president had died, but there was no reply. Angrily, he hopped into the front of the chopper, and ripped the radio from the pilot’s hand. He repeated the question but again received no reply. “Get in Lazzo.” Eddie yelled at him.
Lazzo hopped in the back. Eddie commanded the pilot to get them to the alpine base immediately. They lifted off and headed towards the summit of Trail Ridge Road. That the VP’s death had occurred while Eddie was here on assignment burned him to no end. He was going to be viewed as partially responsible by the other six commanders. If not exclusively so, were the crazy Russian to throw him under the bus. He had to get up there and find out what the hell had happened.
As the helicopter climbed through Black Canyon, Eddie watched the radar screen. Sure enough, as they reached the overhang the pilot had mentioned earlier, they could see three small red dots on the screen below the rocks. Eddie had the pilot hover above them for about twenty seconds as he watched one of the dots move further under the rock. He wanted them to know they’d been seen, and he was confident that message had been delivered. Then he twirled his finger and pointed upward towards the Alpine Visitor Center. “Let’s go,” he ordered the pilot. And they moved on again.
The helicopter landed at the alpine base a few minutes later, and Eddie leapt out, storming towards the front door. Lazzo caught up to him and stepped in front of him. Ordinarily, Lazzo would have attempted to tackle him because he could sense the fire in his brother’s body language. But that would have been blatant insubordination, and he probably would have been shot. Instead, he stepped in front of him, weaving back and forth to slow his brother down. “Eddie,” he said several times before his brother finally stopped.
“What?” Eddie replied angrily.
“Look. I get it. You mad. Fine. You must calm down,” Lazzo reasoned.
Eddie tried to push past him again, but Lazzo insisted, his hands still up by Eddie’s chest.
“Brother, listen to
me,” he pleaded.
“They’ll put this on me,” Eddie replied, pointing towards the men inside.
“Maybe,” Lazzo agreed. “But they won’t kill you. You were not there. You were not here.”
Eddie took a deep breath as the rest of the men came up behind him.
Lazzo gave him one last long look and whispered, “Please.”
Eddie nodded, and this time Lazzo didn’t try to stop him as he walked past.
Eddie entered through the front doors and asked for the Russian commander.
“He’s gone,” was the reply.
Of course he was. Eddie asked what happened, but no one there had been in the room when the vice president died. Eddie asked who had been there. It had been the Russian commander, the two torturers, and a guard with the keys to the vice president’s chains. Curious. “Why the guard? Just to take the dead body?” Eddie asked.
“No,” was the reply. “He went in before prisoner died. With pen and paper.”
Pen and paper? What? Why? Eddie asked if they’d taken away the vice president’s body. They had. He asked several more questions, but no one knew anything else.
Eddie couldn’t help but wonder if they’d managed to get what they’d wanted and killed the man, or if something else had happened altogether. He now had to get down to Denver and find out.
SIXTY-THREE: “The Cold Hard Truth”
Cameron died before they could get him back to the cave. I’m certain it was a terrible and emotional scene—far more than I can capably summarize—and yet I was reluctant to press them for more details. From what I understand, Danny tried to carry his best friend on his back and go faster, but Cameron kept telling him it was no use. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, make it. Danny refused to listen, but as they closed to within a mile of the cave Cameron put his head next to Danny’s and said, “I love you, man. Take care of my girl.” And then he stopped breathing.
Cameron’s body went limp and he began to fall. The sudden weight shift knocked Danny off balance, nearly pulling him down too. Danny managed to regain his balance and catch his best friend just above the ground. He knelt beside his best friend in the snow, pleading for him to wake up—to hang in there just a little longer—but it was no use. He tried, in vain, to bring him back with CPR. Finally Hayley had to pull him off. It took all her strength and a little of Blake’s. This was the first time she’d seen Danny cry since Sophie had died. He fought against Hayley and Blake to continue to try to save his best friend, but Hayley held him down, and finally he just sobbed.
This was going to go down as Danny’s worst day. Probably ever. No one knew him better than Cameron. No one, other than maybe Kate and Hayley, meant more to him than Cameron. The two of them had shared the highest and lowest moments of their lives together and had no secrets from each other. Danny even knew Cameron was going to propose to Jenna at Christmas. Millions of memories flashed through Danny’s head in a handful of seconds as he looked at his fallen friend. Danny yelled out in anger and despair, with a voice that no doubt echoed down the canyon and across the valley below them to the Endovalley camp. Hayley held him tightly, and Blake led Abbey away.
Despite his anguish, Danny knew they had to keep going. He knew Kate was waiting for him, and he knew Hayley was dying inside with him. This wasn’t his loss alone, but it felt like it was his fault. He’d walked them right into those lions. He couldn’t compare it to losing his mother, but he didn’t remember ever feeling worse. If we hadn’t needed Danny as much as we did, I don’t know what losing his best friend would have done to him. But at that moment, Cameron’s last words reminded Danny of Jenna. Cameron needed him to keep going. He needed them to make it back to the cave. I don’t know how a twenty-year-old gets to be more mature than a man nearly twice his age, but Danny handled it better than I had handled Sophie’s death…by a mile. I could only credit that to his mother’s strength. Sophie would have had that courage, too.
Danny picked up his best friend and somehow carried him down several steep cliffs and across the face of Bighorn Mountain on his own. He wouldn’t let anyone else carry Cameron. This was his burden. Hayley and Blake respected his wishes and stayed ahead of him with Abbey. Hayley constantly checked behind her to make sure Danny was still with them and to help out the few times he needed it, but no one said a word to him.
She knew he was going to blame himself for this. She figured he’d probably even be a little short with Reagan and Abbey. There was no way he could help it. Cam had risked his life to save Abbey, and it had cost him. It had cost Danny. It had cost all of us who loved Cameron. We lost a lot of strength, smiles, and security that day.
As they closed to within a hundred yards of the cave, I saw them. And they saw me. The first thing I noticed was the little girl with Hayley. Yes! They found her. I was about to call back down the tunnel when I noticed Danny was carrying someone. Even without using the binoculars I held, I could see who Danny was carrying, and my hands started shaking. I could tell by their faces it was bad, if not the absolute worst. My mind went to the same place theirs was at that moment. It went to Jenna. And I went inside to find her.
I led her up the tunnel towards the ledge as Dad lifted open the front door. Blake stepped through with Abbey, and Reagan swept her up. Tara gave Blake a big hug, and then Hayley entered. Mom and Kate were there with open arms to meet her. Jenna could hear people coming in and was trying to see past me, to move past me, asking why I wouldn’t let her go, but I held her back.
“Jenna,” I said, shaking my head. It registered an instant before Danny stepped through the entry with Cameron. She covered her mouth with both hands and let out a stifled scream. Everyone in the room froze and looked at Jenna, then back at Danny, who gently set Cameron on the floor, stood up, and walked towards Jenna.
“No no no no no no noooo,” she cried, collapsing on the floor.
Danny knelt beside her and pulled her against him. “I’m so sorry. Jenna, I’m—” I could see tears running down his face.
“How could you?” she wailed, and I saw Danny bite his lip.
“I’m sorry,” was all he could say.
Reagan was in a difficult place. She was hugging her little sister tightly to her and wanted more than anything to celebrate her return, but the mood in the room was anything but celebratory. It was clear Cameron had played a significant role in our lives. But then, I figured she had to be wondering what anyone knew about her dad…and she was probably afraid to ask. She didn’t yet know anyone other than Jenna well enough, and this was obviously not the time to ask her anything.
She knelt down beside her little sister and whispered to her. Tara took Emily over to introduce her to Abbey. Mom was trying to heat up some soup for Hayley, Abbey, and Blake. We knew Danny wouldn’t eat anything. He had walked up the tunnel to the back entrance with Kate and Jenna, no doubt trying to help Jenna any way possible.
I kept my eyes on Reagan and called Blake over. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and joined me at the tunnel entrance. “Blake. What happened down there?” I asked. I knew Danny wouldn’t be in the mood to talk.
He told me about everything that had happened at the hotel, about the Secret Service agents, the bunker, and the escape. Then he described the mountain lion attack. Cameron’s uniform had protected his body but not his throat. A major artery had obviously been nicked, because there had been no way to stop the blood flow completely and no way to get him here fast enough. It could have happened to anyone, but it didn’t.
I listened in disbelief. Of all the threats we each had worried about, mountain lions were probably not on anyone’s mind. You had to almost feel sorry for the dumb cats now. They’d made an enemy of a man who wasn’t going to forget what they’d done. Two dead ones barely scratched the surface of how many lions Danny probably wanted to take down.
I was about to ask what we knew about Reagan’s dad when Blake started telling me about the helicopter. He told me Danny was absolutely certain the soldiers had followed the
ir tracks up the valley to the ledge…that the people in the helicopter knew they were there and still let them go.
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” I argued. “They needed Abbey, didn’t they? Wasn’t that what this all was about?”
“Well…” Blake paused.
“What?” I asked.
“Maybe they didn’t need her anymore.”
I could see Blake actually believed that. “But the only way that would be true is if the vice president had already talked or if—” Then I paused.
“He were dead,” Blake finished for me.
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“Danny says he’s dead,” Blake said, nodding up the tunnel behind us.
“But how would he know that?” I asked, aware someone was walking up behind me.
I glanced back as Danny brushed past us in a direct line towards Reagan. “Because I gave him the pill,” he said.
SIXTY-FOUR: “Never Safe”
When the helicopter landed back in Denver, Eddie instantly sought out the guard with the keys who had been in the room with the vice president. He wasn’t hard to find. He was back at his regular post at the base prison. He and Lazzo convinced his superior—with a case of beer—to allow him an early lunch, even though it wasn’t yet 11 a.m. “Thirty minutes,” the officer said. “He’s not supposed to leave.”
“No problem,” Eddie replied.
They took the guard around the corner of the building and Eddie pulled his gun, placing it against the man’s temple. “What happened in that room?”
2020: Emergency Exit Page 29