by Tanya Stowe
Carter was taking no chances. The man was determined to see Cal dead. This side trip wasn’t about business. It was vengeance.
Funny. Drina had accused him of acting out of vengeance. Maybe she was right. Maybe if he hadn’t been so determined to stop Carlisle and Carter, Drina would be safe and maybe, just maybe, he would have survived.
Now he was going to die.
The car hit a bump. Carter was speeding. A foolish action. Military police were notorious for their strict speed limits. Carter was sure to garner attention.
The thought jolted the fog in Cal’s pain-filled mind.
Garner attention. His extraction team would be on the alert for any unusual activity. If he could create something...
He lay with his head directly behind Carter. His legs—stretched across to the passenger side of the vehicle—were free. If he could twist enough, he might be able to kick at Carter and distract him.
He might also cause him to crash the vehicle.
What difference did it make? He was going to die anyway. Better to die fighting.
Lord, forgive me for getting offtrack. For losing focus on You and You alone. Please don’t let Drina die for my mistakes. Help me in my hour of need. Don’t let me fail again.
Taking a deep breath, he bent his knees, one slow, silent inch at a time. Then with one quick movement, he lunged and spun. One leg caught on the passenger seat. He used the momentum to push his other leg higher and rolled.
He connected with something. With his face buried on the seat, he couldn’t tell what. But Carter cursed. The car jerked and spun around, once...twice...again. Cal was flung sideways. His head hit the door and everything went black.
* * *
Drina lay on the floor. Cal’s words floated back to her. He poured out His life for us. He poured Himself into a cup of salvation. All we have to do is accept that cup.
“I do accept. I do,” she whispered.
Another cold, clear revelation pierced her as she lay on the filthy floor.
Two incredible, wonderful men—two amazing men of God—had loved her. She had been blessed. God had His hand in her life all along. He could—He would—show her the way now.
She sat up and wiped the tears from her cheeks with both hands.
There had to be some way out. What could she do?
Nothing. She was trapped, caught in Bill’s web. He had her work...
Her thoughts coalesced. Bill was after her work. Her equations. She would not—could not—let him have them. She would destroy her computer before she would let him make use of the sensitive and dangerous information it held.
Gripping the edge of the closest sink, she pulled herself up. Her legs shook and wobbled. She gave herself a moment to breathe, to recoup. Then with determination flowing through her limbs, she quietly opened the door.
One of Bill’s men stood in the door of the office where Bill waited for her return. “Boss, Smith wants to talk to you outside.”
Bill started out of the room. Drina ducked back inside the bathroom and pushed the door almost shut, careful to make no sound. Soon, Bill’s footsteps crossed the crackling old linoleum. She peeked out as the guard opened the front door and followed him outside. Drina caught a quick glance of Smith waiting for Bill before the door swung shut behind them.
Whatever Drina was going to do, she had to do it now, before Bill returned. She eased out of the bathroom and hurried down the hall, moving as quietly and quickly as possible.
Her backpack rested on the desk where she’d left it. She shoved it over one shoulder and hurried back down the hall. She made it to the back door without being caught and pushed on the handle.
Locked. Now what?
The bathroom windows. Hurrying back into the cold, smelly room, she crawled on top of the sinks and slid the window open as wide as it would go. The opening was narrow but still large enough for her to slide through.
Gripping the backpack, she used the hard computer to break through the old-style metal screen. She pierced a center hole, peeled back the metal edges and folded them as flat as she could over the sill. Then she dropped the backpack on the ground outside.
Thankful for the protection of her parka against the sharp edges, she slid through the narrow opening. She tried to swing her feet free so they would drop first but the window was high enough off the ground that she still toppled over backward and hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud.
She held her breath. Had anyone heard her ungraceful landing? When no guards came around the corner, she rose to her feet and ran straight back, using the building as a giant shield to stay out of their view for as long as possible.
The direct path behind the building led her up the hill to the platform of abandoned test stands. She’d almost reached the top when she heard a cry. Someone had finally spotted her!
Don’t stop and don’t look back.
Cal’s words flashed through her mind. Pumping her legs as fast as they would go, she ran across the large, weed-filled cement area. The test stands were poised on the edge of the hill maybe a quarter of a mile away. The ever-present Mojave wind whistled across the mile-wide platform, rattling the stands into a creaky response.
A block building with a large metal door stood at the base of the closest test stand. Drina ran for it. Behind her, shouts filled the air, and car engines ground to life.
She grasped the door handle of the block building and jerked, pulling with all her might.
Locked.
What now? Her gaze raked the area around the platform. The cliffs. She ran to the edge, hoping she could climb down and cross the dry lake bed that served as a landing strip for the base. Surely someone would see her crossing the wide, prohibited area and alert the authorities.
Years of testing rocket-engine propellant had changed the cliff. Heat and flames had roared down the side of the hill, melting the rock into one continuous, slick slide of at least four hundred feet. No way could Drina climb down without tumbling to the bottom.
Her gaze raked the platform for some sort of shelter, some other way to go. The only other escape route was up. A metal ladder attached to one leg of the nearby test stand was accessible. Puffing and panting, Drina ran across the pad, nearly tripping on tufts of weeds and grass sprouting out of the broken cement.
She couldn’t quite reach the bottom rung, but an empty metal box rested nearby. She shoved it under the ladder, climbed on top and grasped the bottom rung. She’d managed to get one ankle over the rung and pulled herself up to the next when the blue air force van came into view, barreling and bouncing over the hill.
Taking a deep breath, Drina reached for the next rung and climbed. Rung by rung, she hurried up the windy, rattling test stand.
A rusty rung screeched and spun in place. Drina almost lost her grip. Her feet slipped, banging her shins against the ladder.
Groaning against the pain, she struggled to regain her footing and clung to the ladder for one breathless moment. The wind gusted through, whipping her hair and stealing her breath. The entire test stand shook like an earthquake had hit.
Was the metal behemoth swaying? Would the whole rusty tower topple over the side with her added weight?
She clung to the ladder, wishing she could climb back down or at the very least, stay where she was, but the sound of approaching vehicles spurred her to move. Reaching for the next rung, she continued her upward journey. If she could get high enough, someone from the main base might see her. If nothing else, she’d drop her computer over the edge and destroy it. She might have to follow it down but one way or another, Bill was not going to get the information.
The stand was built on levels. Metal girders crossed from corner to corner and marked the first level. Drina reached the first girder and stepped to the side to catch her breath.
“Drina, don’t be a fool. Come down.”
Ignoring Bill, she reached for the ladder and continued to climb. The rung she grabbed spun and screeched. Rust fell loose in her hands, loosening her grip again. She slipped and almost fell. Someone screamed.
Latching onto the side of the ladder, Drina clung to it and looked down. Her mother stood beside Bill’s SUV, and her father was climbing out of the back seat.
“Drina, please!” her mother called out. “Stop this nonsense and come down. What do you think you’re doing?”
Her mother’s tone was the same condescending tenor she’d used to reprimand Drina when she was younger. That tone always had the power to make her feel foolish and silly.
But not this time.
“Mother, what are you doing here? Don’t you know...”
“I’ve told them how your kidnapper has influenced your thinking, Drina,” Bill called. Was it her imagination or did he sound like he was laughing beneath his words?
Her mother stepped forward. “Drina, I’m trying to understand what you’re doing. Whatever that man told you isn’t true. Please, dear. Please come down. Bill isn’t going to hurt you.”
Drina couldn’t remember a single time her mother had ever called her dear. It was a sign of her stressed state.
“Listen to your mother, Drina.” Her father’s voice, so calm, so logical. “I don’t know what that man did to you, but you’re not thinking clearly. Come down so we can sort through this.”
Not thinking clearly, Drina closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the railing. Of course they would believe she was the problem. Even now, while she was running for her life, her parents didn’t trust her judgment. All these years they’d had her convinced they were so perfect, so right, so...invincible.
As the wind whipped around her and chilled her to the bone, another thought hit her...froze her to the ladder and made her legs tremble until she wavered and almost lost her grip.
Was that why she was so hard on Cal, so disappointed in him? Did she think she’d met the perfect invincible partner to carry her through life? Someone who would meet and exceed her parents’ expectations where she had failed so many times?
The truth hit Drina hard, and she caught her breath in a gasp. It was true. She believed she’d found the perfect man.
What she’d really found was the man perfect for her. Cal was a good man, capable and incredible, but he was not a superman strong enough to stand up to her parents...parents who stood below her, clueless to the danger they were in because there was no way Bill would let them go free now.
She’d been wrong to put such faith in her parents—in any human. Cal was right. God was the only One strong enough, loving enough, to never fail her. She needed to put her faith in Him. He would guide her.
“Please, Lord, help me. Show me the way.” Her whispered words were torn away by the wind.
Somehow she found the strength to loosen her grip, to reach for the next rung on the ladder.
“Don’t think I won’t have my men shoot, Drina,” Bill shouted. “I will.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she looked down. One of Bill’s goons had pulled her mother away from her father and placed his gun against her temple.
“What are you doing? Let her go!” Her father took a step toward the man and Drina cried out.
Smoothly, without even pausing, the man aimed his gun at her father’s heart.
“Stop! Don’t shoot!” Drina slid the backpack off one shoulder then the other. Looping her elbow through the ladder, she leaned out as far as she dared and held the backpack out from the side of the test stand, directly over the slick rocks and steep drop-off.
“If you hurt them, Bill, I’ll drop it.”
“Drina, you know I don’t want to hurt them. Come down. I’m sure we can work this out. All I want is the computer.”
He sounded so calm, so reasonable. Like the man she had thought she knew. She wanted to believe him, wanted to give in to the familiar tones she’d trusted for so long. But he was also the cunning leader who had eluded Cal for years. The man who had ruthlessly ordered her death. If she listened to him, neither she nor her parents would survive.
She shook the backpack over the drop-off. “Let them go, Bill. Now!”
Bill paused, indecision in his stillness. He didn’t believe her, didn’t think the Drina he knew, the Drina driven by work, would let go of her life’s accomplishment.
He didn’t know the new Drina, the newborn child of God, ready and willing to do His bidding. She leaned out farther and allowed the backpack to slip down her arm to her fingertips, where it dangled precariously.
With an abrupt, frustrated movement, Bill gestured to his man. The goon lowered his gun and stepped away from her mother. Her father hurried forward and wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Mom, Dad, go!”
“Drina...” Her mother hesitated, reached for Drina, but her father wisely pulled her away. Drina watched them turn and walk toward the back of the SUV. When they were clear of the vehicle, her father grasped her mother’s hand and ran down the road. Drina watched them until Bill motioned his men up the ladder after her.
Now what?
Drina would never be able to fight those men off once they reached her level. They’d take her backpack and push her off the stand. She leaned into the ladder and closed her eyes.
Stifling a cry that sounded almost like a sob, she reached for the next rung and began to climb higher, stalling for time. Rung after rung, higher and higher. The wind tore at her parka and stung her eyes, making each step more difficult.
She didn’t know how high she could climb or how long she could evade them. She only knew she had to keep trying. Her muscles ached and her hands burned from abrasions caused by the rusty metal. She was growing tired and weak and the wind seemed determined to rip her off the stand.
Over the whistling wind, she heard more cars. Drina paused and looked down. A military police jeep sped over the crest of the hill and bounced down the road. Another jeep followed, trailed by multiple SUVs and vans.
Cal! He must have escaped from Carter and alerted the CIA. It had to be Cal coming to her rescue...again.
Drina cried out and waved so hard she almost lost her footing.
Below, Bill and his men also saw the approaching cars. The men dashed for their vehicle. The ones following her hurried back down the ladder, now desperate to reach the ground. The driver started the engine but Bill stood still. One of the men who had been climbing the test stand reached the ground and ran by his boss. Bill stopped the man long enough to grab the gun out of his holster.
Lifting it, he took careful aim at Drina.
“I’ve wasted too many years on you. You’re not going to win.”
Drina cringed. She clung to the ladder, expecting a bullet to pierce her body at any minute. Bill’s first shot whizzed over her head and pinged off the metal stand.
She looked down. He was aiming again. One of his men ran from the car and grabbed his arm.
“Boss...we gotta go. Leave her.”
Bill shoved the man away, but the man wrestled the gun down and pushed Bill toward the car. Even before the door closed, the vehicle screeched away, heading across the test stand pad at a high speed.
Drina sagged against the ladder. Drained and weak, she clung to it as one of the SUVs in the caravan pulled to a stop beneath her.
Wind whipped over her, rattling the stand with its eerie breath. Only then did Drina find the strength to start climbing down. Weeping happy tears of relief, she practically fell into the arms of the military policeman waiting at the base of the ladder. The stout soldier half carried, half dragged her toward the cars. He held her upright. Balancing on wobbly legs, she looked around.
“Cal? Where’s Cal?”
The man who exited the car whipped off his dark glasses. “That’s what we were hoping you could tell us, Ms. Gallagher.”
“Cal’s not with you? I was certain he escaped... Wait... Who are you?”
“Agent Harris, ma’am. I’m with the CIA.”
She clutched Harris’s jacket. “You... We have to find Cal. Carter will kill him.”
Harris motioned an agent behind them forward. “Can you give us a description of the vehicle?”
She closed her eyes, trying to remember details. “Carter knocked Cal out. Pushed him in the back seat of a black SUV and drove away. I’m almost a hundred percent certain it was Carter’s car, the one we left at the base gate. Carter must have been right behind us, waiting for Bill to take us away so he could retrieve his vehicle.”
She shook her head, frustrated with Bill’s duplicity and her own gullibility. “I should have known...should have listened to Cal.”
“Can you give us more info about the car?” Harris prompted.
“I don’t remember a license plate. I spent most of my time inside it, not out. But I do know the make and model.”
She told them, and another agent lifted a radio to repeat her description. She racked her brain trying to remember some identifying mark.
An image flowed behind her closed eyes. She saw the interior of the SUV as they hurtled down the mountainside, the electronic dash lit up with lights and the view out the window...
“Carter’s car had all kinds of electronic equipment, so much it needed two antennae. It had two antennae on the right side of the hood!”
Harris nodded. “We’ll find him. I promise.” He turned to his men. “I want eyes in the sky now, and alert the guards at all the gates. Those men are not leaving this base.”
One of the military police said, “Sir, we have housing not far away. Civilians and schools. We could have a chase-and-hostage situation.”
Nodding, Harris said, “Inform the commander. Put lookouts on all roads leading into the housing. My guess is Carlisle and Carter will head away from populated areas, deeper into the desert.” He stared into the distance for a long moment. “Someone get me that map of the base.”