Runaway Witness

by Maggie K. Black

  How could he let her go without a fight? How could he just accept that they were going different directions without telling her that he wanted to have a real relationship with her, even if he had no idea how or where that could possibly happen?

  I can’t lose her again, Lord. And I can’t hide behind secret identities anymore either. It’s time to be real. I have to be brave enough to live a life where I’m not disappearing into cover stories and pretending to be someone I’m not. I need to stop pushing people away and be the real authentic me, with Iris by my side.

  He reached across the table toward her. “Iris—”

  The power cut out, plunging the diner into darkness. Voices shouted. Thick, arid smoke filled the air.

  “Everybody down!” One voice rose above them all. “This is a robbery!”

  There, filling the doorway, his snarling mask illuminated in the eerie glow of a flashlight beam, was the green-masked Jackal.

  * * *

  A second smoke bomb exploded and heavy smoke filled Iris’s lungs. Voices shouted and cursed in the darkness, mingling with the sound of some kind of siren. How had the Jackal found her? Was he still after her even though Oscar Underwood was dead? But why else had he stepped out of the shadows for a masked robbery?

  For a moment she sat frozen with panic, feeling too lost in the chaos to move or even scream. Then a strong arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders and pulled her down underneath the table.

  “Listen to me, Iris,” Mack said. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll get us out of here.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense!” Her words flew out in a rush. “Why is a Jackal here? How did he find me? Why is he robbing the diner?”

  “I don’t know,” Mack said. “We’ll find out. We’ll figure all of this out. But right now what matters most is getting out of here in one piece.”

  Faint gray starlight seeped weakly through the huge diner windows. Already her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness.

  The Jackal was waving a semiautomatic weapon and a flashlight while he yelled at people to toss their wallets and cell phones toward the door. He warned them all not to try anything funny.

  So far not a single shot had been fired. But the air seethed and surged with tension, like a powder keg about to erupt. She’d seen this kind of uneasy calm before, when one person would threaten violence in a bar, party or wherever else she’d rushed to help get someone out after they’d called her for help.

  It wouldn’t last long. Someone would rush the door. Either the Jackal or someone else would fire. One way or another, a brawl would break out, shots would be fired, and the dark and smoke would only add to the chaos. People would get hurt and maybe even die.

  Mack reached up, grabbed his coffee and downed it in one gulp. Then he dropped back down to her side. “Okay, time to go. Follow me. We’ll take the back door.”

  He placed his hand on her shoulder, sheltering her with his body. They made their way along the very edge of the room, sticking close to the wall, staying low and using tables as cover. Between the darkness, thick smoke and Mack’s protective cover, she could barely see anything that was happening. Just flashes of light and the snarl of the green-masked Jackal appearing and disappearing in the darkness as he made his threats.

  Mack urged her on, leading her from the shelter of one overturned table to the next, stopping and starting, darting through gaps in the chaos. The entrance to the back hallway loomed ahead, a gaping hole offering escape and freedom.

  Mack stopped and dropped low behind the waitress station.

  “We’re almost there,” he said. “We’ll make it out of this and keep running. Then we’ll regroup and find a way to contact my team. It’s all going to be okay.”

  She braced herself to sprint.

  Then she felt a sting in the back of her leg, like a bee or a wasp, only sharper, more painful than any sting she’d ever felt before. She cried out and fell forward onto her hands and knees. She looked back but there was no one there. Then she ran her hand over her calf and felt the smooth cylinder and feathered tip of a Jackal’s tranquilizer dart. She grabbed Mack’s arm.

  “I’ve been shot in the leg!” She gasped a sob. “With a tranquilizer dart.”

  “Where did it come from?” Mack whispered urgently.

  “I don’t know! Behind us somewhere!”

  A prayer for God’s help ripped from his lips. His eyes scanned the room and her gaze followed. She didn’t see any other Jackals, except the green-masked one still barking orders. But there had to be more than one in this place and she was still their target.

  Unconsciousness lapped at the edges of her mind, like gentle waves threatening to pull her under. Her heart pounded frantically. Panic filled her lungs. She pushed herself to her feet quickly, only to stumble back.

  “Iris!” Mack’s arm wrapped around her protectively. “Focus. You’re going to stay awake, and I’ll get you out of here. I promise.”

  The sound of motors rose high above the chaos around her. It was a helicopter. Rescue was coming.

  “Thank You, God,” Mack prayed. His arm tightened around her “That’ll be our ride. We’ve just got to get you out of here, through that door, to my team and we’ll be home free.”

  But before he finished saying the words, a cold burst of air swept in. She looked up to see the red-masked Jackal standing in the door to the hall between her and freedom.

  Her knees crumpled, and it was only Mack’s strength that kept her from falling. Help us, Lord!

  They were trapped. The green-masked Jackal was behind them, the red-masked one stood in front of them, and somewhere in the chaos lurked a third who’d hit her with the dart.

  “Can you still run?” Mack’s voice was urgent in her ear.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”

  For now.

  “Okay,” he said. “All we have to do is get you past him, out the back exit and to the helicopter. I don’t want to open fire, because the last thing I want is to encourage other people to start shooting off their guns. So here’s the plan, I’m going to charge the Jackal by the door and bring him to the ground. When I do that, I want you to run past me, out the back door. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. I’ll be right behind you. Trust me. We’ve got this.”

  “And you’ll be right behind me?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” He leaned toward her and pressed his forehead against hers. “I promise.”

  She inhaled deeply and breathed him in. “As long as we’re together, I’m good.”

  “Me, too,” he said.

  Their lips met, and somehow for one fleeting moment, despite the fear and the chaos, she found herself believing that somehow everything was going to be all right. Mack darted out from behind the waitress station with his head low and shoulders squared. He charged, throwing himself at the red-masked Jackal. The Jackal fired, but it was too late. Mack bodychecked him hard, catching him in the center of his body and throwing him back against the ground.

  “Now!” Mack shouted.

  Iris gritted her teeth, pushed herself up and forced herself to run, pelting through the darkness. The tranquilizer poison turned her adrenaline to sludge in her veins. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mack down on the diner floor fighting against the Jackal. Then she dived down the hallway, leaving the chaos behind her and feeling her feet drag with every step.

  Pale, gray early morning light filled the doorway ahead of her. A large black helicopter was landing ahead of her in the snow. Mack’s team was here. She was going to make it. They were both going to make it.

  A second dart pierced the skin at the back of her neck. She screamed and stumbled forward, falling to her hands and knees. Two. She’d been struck with two tranquilizer darts. Help. Me. Lord! Her body hit the hall floor. Fresh poison swept over her. She pressed herself up to her feet. Mack! She had to tell Mack
! She spun back and dizziness engulfed her. Her legs collapsed beneath her. She fell back to the floor.

  Then she felt a hand grab her arm.

  “Come on.” The voice was female, reassuring and familiar. “We’ve got to go.”

  Was that Mack’s colleague Jess?

  Then she felt another hand. This one was bigger and stronger, sliding up her arms and pulling her to her feet. Then came another voice, deep and familiar. “I’ve got her.”

  Was that Liam?

  “Come on, Missy,” he said. “Just a few more steps.”

  They were pulling her, propelling her down the hallway and out into the early light. She turned and looked at her rescuers. But her eyelids felt so heavy that even away from the smoke and darkness she could barely see the faces that swam before her eyes.

  “We’ve got her,” said the woman holding her arm.

  No, it wasn’t Jess. This woman was much younger and taller with dyed red hair, with huge eyes in her thin face.

  Iris blinked. “I know you...”

  It was one of the street youth who’d warned Iris about the Jackals. The nickname she’d usually gone by was Sadie, but Iris had never found out her real name. Iris just knew that she’d once managed to escape and get to Iris for help after being sedated by the Jackals, and had then gone missing and had never been found.

  “Come on,” said the man holding Iris, “we’ve got to get her in the copter.”

  Iris glanced to her left. The man had a dark, buzzed haircut and a square build. She recognized him, too. He’d gone by Bowser or Big Guy and was yet another of the people whom the Jackals had kidnapped. Two of the very same kids who’d gone missing and that she’d worried about were here, and they were rescuing her?

  Iris’s head swam. This couldn’t be real. She had to be hallucinating.

  “I’ve been looking for you...” she murmured through heavy lips.

  The rumbling around her grew louder. She looked up at the helicopter, looming ahead of her like a huge prehistoric insect. A couple of other figures, barely more than blurs to her now, were sprinting toward the helicopter from around the front of the building. They leaped into the helicopter ahead of her.

  “Mack... I can’t go without Mack...”

  But the helicopter was growing closer. Then another pair of hands pulled her inside while another pushed her from behind.

  “Iris! Hang on, I’m coming!”

  Mack’s voice drifted toward her from somewhere in the distance, shouting to her, calling to her, telling her he was coming, asking her to wait. But the poison’s grip on her mind was too thick. The hands shoving her onto the seat were too strong.

  “Iris!” Mack shouted.

  “Wait...” she tried to shout. “I need Mack...”

  She felt the helicopter rise, taking her away and leaving Mack behind.

  The seat jolted beneath her, tossing her sideways. Her head smacked against something hard. Unconsciousness swept over her again and this time it pulled her under.

  TWELVE

  Iris was gone. She’d been kidnapped.

  Mack stood in the snow, staring up into the sky, feeling as if a piece of his heart had been ripped from his chest.

  When he’d finally subdued the red-masked Jackal, depriving him of his weapon and handcuffing him to a railing, Mack had barely paused before pelting down the hallway after Iris. But it was too late. The helicopter door had already been closing in front of him.

  Now, he stood outside and alone on the snowy ground and watched, grief filling his body, as the helicopter rose above him, taking Iris farther and farther into the sky.

  The phone rang. Relief hit Mack so hard he nearly fell to his knees.

  He answered. “Seth!”

  The hacker breathed a prayer of thanksgiving. “I heard about the robbery. Tell me you’ve made it out of the diner and that you’re both still alive.”

  “Yes, but Iris has been abducted!” Mack practically shouted into the phone.

  “How?” Panic filled the hacker’s voice.

  “A helicopter!” Mack said. One that even now was disappearing above the tree line into the early morning sky. “The wrong helicopter!”

  He gasped as the full magnitude of what he was about to tell Seth hit him. Shock filled his core.

  Come on, man, focus! He was still a cop at heart, who’d just escaped a mass robbery and a potential hostage situation. He had a job to do. Crisis triage was all that mattered now.

  He glanced back at the diner. The door he’d burst through had swung closed behind him. Judging by the chaos of disembodied voices, several of the people the green-masked Jackal had been holding hostage had managed to slip out the front of the building, but for now he was alone behind the diner. He prayed that everyone still inside was safe, then he stepped behind a dumpster to stay hidden from anyone who made it out the back.

  “Contact the RCMP and report Iris James’s disappearance as an active abduction and kidnapping situation,” he said. “The helicopter is black, luxury model, no logo or distinctive markings. My guess is it’s someone’s personal craft.”

  Mack could hear Seth typing even as he rambled off the technical specifications and potential models as best he could.

  “On it,” Seth said. “Report sent.”

  “Tell me there are cops en route to the Emerald Diner,” Mack said. “We have an armed robbery situation with at least two still active hostiles. Plus a third I disarmed and managed to handcuff to a railing. Don’t have a description other than five foot eleven, male, about a hundred and thirty pounds. It was too dark for a positive identification.”

  Seth took in a long breath. The clatter of the keys kept flying down the phone. “Done,” Seth said. “Several people already called the diner robbery in. I just placed an additional call and gave them additional information and to be on the look for a handcuffed Jackal. Anonymous of course.”

  “Thank you,” Mack said. And thank You, God.

  The tiny speck of the helicopter that had abducted Iris had disappeared over the horizon, taking the last flicker of hope in Mack’s chest with it.

  “What happened?” Seth said.

  “We got to the diner,” Mack said. “Someone cut the power, the place went dark and smoke bombs went off. The green-masked Jackal blocked the front entrance with a semiautomatic and a flashlight, claiming it was an armed robbery. Iris got hit with a tranquilizer dart. I subdued the red-masked Jackal and handcuffed him. Someone dragged Iris into a helicopter.”

  And now she was gone, and he had no way to follow.

  “I’m so sorry.” Pain pushed through Seth’s voice. “I wish I’d managed to connect to your phone faster. I feel like I let you down.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Mack said. “I don’t. Where are Liam and Jess?”

  “I don’t know,” Seth said. “That’s the other thing I’ve been dealing with. Liam and Jess hit a major snag. There was some unusual aerial activity in the area so they had to drop in the woods. Then they suddenly went dark. I’ve been trying to find them, but they’re completely gone.”

  Mack groaned. “I’ll ask you again—are you absolutely sure Oscar Underwood is dead?”

  “Liam got a friend on the inside to make a positive corpse identification,” Seth said. “Irrefutable. Whoever abducted Iris and whoever the Jackals are working for now, it’s not him.”

  The blare of sirens filled the air. Mack counted the noise of at least half a dozen cars and two ambulances blending together. There was the screech of tires, the babble of voices and the barking of orders. Somewhere in front of the diner, the authorities had arrived and were taking charge of the situation.

  “Small comfort, I know,” Seth said. “But I’ve managed to hack into the diner’s security camera feed. Between the smoke bombs and the darkness, it’s an absolute nightmare. But I should have footage
of Iris’s abduction soon.”

  “The cavalry has arrived,” Mack said. He squared his shoulders and stepped out into the snow. “I’m going to go turn myself in.”

  “Uh, no!” Seth said. “That would be a very bad idea. Liam and Jess are missing in action. And have you forgotten that you’ve been wrongfully accused of murder? The police are going to arrest you, slap you in handcuffs and toss you in jail.”

  “I know,” Mack said. There was a sour taste in the back of his throat as he thought about every single thing giving himself up to police could mean. “But they’ll hopefully also hear what I have to say about Iris and launch a major search for her. So, I have to do it. For Iris. If there’s even a possibility that the RCMP can find her, I have to help.”

  “How much help are you going to be to her if you walk into a trap?” Seth asked.

  “You think I don’t know how much danger I’m in?” Mack said. “Nothing makes sense right now. I’ve got unanswered questions piling up around me and everything I thought I knew about what’s going on is unraveling. But I can’t be arrogant enough to think I’m the only cop out there who can help her. The one thing I know for absolute certain is that Iris is the best thing to ever happen to my life and that I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe.”

  He strode out into the wide-open space behind the diner and looked up at the sky. Red and blue lights flickered in the sky above him.

  He’d spent his entire life hiding behind a mask. He’d been comfortable there and he’d felt safe there. But Iris had pulled all that away, just as easily as she’d removed the itchy prosthetics from his face just a few hours ago, leaving his heart open wide. And as much as he didn’t want to be the public spectacle of a millionaire’s son and a cop arrested for murder, as much as he dreaded being locked away with the very criminals he’d spent his life taking down, and as much as he didn’t much look forward to all the different ways it would mean he’d have to fight for his life from here on in, there was one possibility he hated even more.