She heard the gas pump click off and relaxed a fraction, knowing Aiden had finished filling the gas tank. Then as he was replacing the pump handle, Justin exploded from the convenience store. Chase hurried after him, carrying two bags of groceries.
“I want my cell phone, Coach.”
“Get in the van, Justin.”
“I’m not getting in the van until you give me the cell phone.”
“I need you to lower your voice and get in the van.”
“I saw what happened. When were you going to tell us? I saw it on the TV. I want my cell phone, and I want it now.”
Justin moved around the van, closer to Madison’s door.
“I tried to stop him, Coach.” Chase had caught up and was standing resolutely in front of Madison’s door. “We saw about the dam on the TV when we were checking out.”
Chase’s voice cracked when he mentioned the dam, but he held firm in front of Madison’s door as if protecting the cell phones in the glove compartment from Justin’s rampage.
“You’re on his side, Chase? Well I don’t care about whatever is going on here. I’m calling home.” Justin moved to the side door.
Madison had seen angry teens before, but Justin was more than mad. He was desperate, and he was scared. From where she sat inside the van, she could see his eyes were darting from place to place, looking for something to settle on.
“I have family there, Coach. Do you think you can stop me from calling my family? Now give me my phone.”
Justin again lunged for the door. Aiden grabbed his arms and pinned him against the side of the van.
“Justin, I need you to calm down.”
“Did you see what happened to those people? My brother lives there, Coach. Are you telling me to forget about my brother?”
Tears were streaming down Justin’s face now.
“I’m sorry about your brother, Justin. Maybe he’s all right. Maybe he’s not.” Aiden turned the boy around, though he still held his arms pinned down. “Look at me, Justin. Calling him won’t change the odds of his being alive, but calling him could kill every person in this van.”
Madison knew the moment realization hit Justin. He literally collapsed in Aiden’s arms. Aiden’s hold turned into a hug.
Chase stood watching, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, still holding the two bags of groceries. Madison noticed the clerk had come to the window and was watching the entire scene play out.
“It’s okay, big guy. Let’s walk.”
And then they were moving away from the van.
When Chase tapped on her window, Madison nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Sorry, Ms. Hart.”
Madison unlocked and opened the door. Chase moved into the van, stowing the groceries between the front seats. They both watched as Aiden and Justin stopped a few feet from the van, spoke for another minute. Justin wiped his eyes on his sleeves and stuck his hands in his pockets. And then they were walking back.
Justin moved into the back seat, sitting with his head between his hands. Chase placed an arm across his back.
When the tires of the van hit the blacktop, ten more Huskies rose out of various hiding places, and grub was passed out. No one mentioned Justin’s meltdown, and no questions were asked about the Virginia devastation. It sat there in their van though, more proof that their world had changed forever.
AS THEY NEARED THE checkpoint, Aiden reached over for Madison’s hand.
“I don’t know how this is going to play out. If they take me into custody, I want you to insist you won’t go anywhere or speak to anyone until the boys’ parents are contacted and you’re in the presence of a representative of the American Consulate.”
“Do you think that will happen?”
Madison’s hand went cold in his grasp. He rubbed her fingers, tried to fill her with the courage and strength she might need.
“I don’t know. It will depend if my commander has been compromised. If he hasn’t, then he’ll assume I had a good reason for going dark. If he has, well do what I said. You’ll be fine.”
“What about you?”
He heard the fear in her voice, recognized it was for him, and loved her even more for it.
“I’ll be all right, Madison. I’ll meet you back in Edgewood.”
“You promise?”
When he turned to look at her, he saw it there in her eyes. Their future, the possibility of all they could have. It occurred to him he had always been carrying a weight, since he’d been a teenage boy facing down a silvertip bear. Suddenly, he knew it was a weight worth carrying though, the weight of love was always worth what it cost to shoulder.
He wanted their future.
Wanted it more than he’d ever wanted anything.
More than he wanted the past back so he could change it, correct it.
And he knew wanting the future more than the past meant he’d finally turned a bend in the road.
Even though he was tired all the way through to his bones, his love for her and her love for him gave him a jolt of energy that penetrated to the core of his soul. He knew he’d make it through this. He’d make it for her and for the boys in the back. He’d make it for her and for him.
“Yeah, I promise.”
Then he was pulling up to the international border. He handed his identification papers to the agent, and the guard spoke the words he had known he would hear.
“Mr. Lewis, I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the vehicle and keep your hands in the air.”
Ω
Madison watched as they frisked Aiden, removed his weapon, and walked him over to the office between two agents.
“Wow. I didn’t know Coach carries a gun to golf meets,” Matt said.
“I don’t think he did last year,” Gabe said.
“I’ve never even seen a gun like that,” Santiago offered.
“I have,” Marcos said. “In the last James Bond movie.”
Chase tried to distract the boys by making everyone hold up their passports for the fourth time.
“When can we get out of the van?” Isaac asked.
“As soon as the guys with the guns say we can.” Chase proceeded to try and interest them in a game of golf trivia, something they did not fall for but pretended to be interested in for his sake.
Justin hadn’t said a word for the last five hours. Madison unbuckled and moved beside him.
“You okay?”
“No.” He continued staring out the window.
“I watched a little of the news this morning. I don’t think I know much more than you do though.”
“How is Coach involved in this?”
“I don’t know, Justin. I do know he’s a good man, and he’s trying to get us home.”
Justin nodded without much conviction.
When he finally turned to look at Madison, she wanted to reach out and wipe the lost look from his eyes. She wished she knew how.
“Why would anyone destroy entire towns?”
“I don’t know the answer to that. I know on September 11 a lot of us were in shock, trying to figure out how anyone could do such a thing.”
“But this is worse. Isn’t this worse?”
“Yeah. I guess it is.”
“We really are at war. Aren’t we?”
“Yeah, Justin. We are.”
“I’ve been hearing that since I was a boy. But I didn’t believe it. Every now and then someone would enlist, deploy overseas, but not very often. The battles were always fought somewhere else, so it never really felt like we were at war. Until now.”
Madison was trying to think of how to answer him, listening to the boys in the back. Chase was still attempting to distract the team. Matt and Melvin were rummaging through the snack bags. Gabe was telling Jack he’d seen a bear in the woods. Someone had to go to the bathroom.
A sudden silence fell over the van as Aiden came out of the building, followed by two guards. One of the guards was shouting, and Aiden had his hands raised o
ver his head.
When one of the border agents pulled his weapon and aimed it at Aiden, two other agents looked up from the vehicles they were processing.
The next few seconds were a blur. Someone hit an emergency button and gates came down across the border, ensuring no vehicles crossed. Every agent pulled his weapon, although most seemed confused as to where the threat was coming from.
Madison watched in horror as two more guards assumed combat position and aimed their weapons straight at Aiden.
AIDEN CONTINUED TO hold both hands in the air, but he didn’t back down or break eye contact with the man in charge.
“Tell your men to stand down, Agent Dobbs.”
“Face on the ground, hands behind your back.”
“Stand down,” Aiden repeated.
“Face on the ground!” Dobbs screamed.
Aiden could see the other agents waver. He’d been through this checkpoint a hundred times. They knew him by face as well as name. They’d obviously recognized him the minute he’d stepped out of the van, and at this point he was more coherent than their commanding officer.
Furthermore he was calm and in control.
Dobbs was not.
His uniform was rumpled, and he looked as if he had slept in it, or rather as if he hadn’t. From the duty board inside, Aiden had gathered he’d been in charge for over forty-eight hours. Dobbs was long overdue for a break. Relief was late, and Dobbs wasn’t the type to leave his post unmanned. So he’d pushed through.
Now he was running on too much caffeine and too little sleep. He kept blinking his eyes, darting his glance back and forth as if he might miss something.
The man did not instill confidence.
Aiden watched Dobbs’s finger twitch on the trigger of the assault rifle. Sweat trickled down his face and the middle of his back.
“I said on the ground, Lewis.”
“Tell your men to stand down. We’ll go inside and contact Martin. Let him make the call.”
“Get on the ground.”
“Call Martin, Dobbs. I’ll wait right here. Surely six of your men can handle me. I’m not even armed. You took my weapon, remember? Go call Martin.”
The two agents standing closest to Aiden remained at alert, but lowered their weapons almost imperceptibly. When they did, Aiden knew he had won. He lowered his hands, but kept them in the open and took a step back.
Dobbs’s face turned an even deeper shade of red. He strode to the command terminal and punched in the command to release the gates.
“Process these vehicles,” he snarled.
Turning to the agent closest to Aiden, he added, “I want you to escort Mr. Lewis back into my office. If he so much as coughs, you have my permission to shoot him.”
The agent exchanged a worried look with Aiden, but escorted him in as commanded.
Once they were inside, he looked to make sure Dobbs was still outside, then turned to Aiden.
“He’s been this way the last few hours. We think his wife is in Virginia. A couple of the men suggested he step down, but he flat out refused. Said he was going to catch the men who did this.”
Dobbs entered at that moment, slammed the door, and strode over to the phone.
“My orders are to hold you, contact central, and wait for someone to arrive and pick you up. My orders are not to contact Martin.” He picked up the phone and shoved it across the desk. “You want to contact him? Fine. It’s your freedom on the line, and sounds like you’re in plenty of trouble as it is.”
Aiden hit the speakerphone button and punched in Martin’s direct line.
“Martin here.”
“This is Lewis.”
There was a slight pause on the other end as Martin picked up the handset, taking the call off speaker.
“Aiden, where are you?”
“Sir, this is Lieutenant Commander Dobbs at the Glacier Border Crossing. We apprehended Lewis per your instructions and are holding him here. Agent Lewis insisted on contacting you directly.”
“Lewis, take us off speaker.”
Aiden picked up the handset, even though he knew, and Martin knew, that an operator was recording every word they said.
“Sir.”
“What are you doing?”
“What I have to, Sir.”
“Why did you go dark?”
“We’ve been compromised.”
“Explain.”
“I can’t do that, Sir.”
“I’m assuming our mole was one of the men I sent for you.”
There was silence over the line as Aiden waited for his boss to make the decision of whether to arrest him or trust him.
“That would be a good reason for not waiting in your hotel room like I ordered. I know you’re trying to take those boys home. Whatever else you’re dealing with, there’s some nasty weather headed your way. A norther pushing down should arrive in the next hour. Chances are they’ll close Going to the Sun Road, which won’t be a problem for you since you’re not going that way.”
Aiden coughed, and Martin paused in his update.
“What does that mean, Lewis?”
“I can’t say, Sir.”
“This is a secure line. Of course, you can say.”
“No. I can’t.”
“If you have some idea about crossing into the middle of Glacier, don’t. This weather system is bringing a record setting snowstorm. Stay on 89 and head straight home.”
Aiden remained silent.
“It’s that bad then?”
There was a pause as Martin was interrupted with updates from Virginia.
“I’m spread thin here. The casualty numbers in Virginia are higher than we predicted. I don’t know how this one got through. They had eleven planned—not ten. Aiden, I can’t send anyone to you, and if what you say is true I wouldn’t know who to send anyway. Give me twelve hours, and I will figure the identity of our mole. Until then watch your back and contact me when you’re in the clear.”
“Affirmative.”
“Put me back on speaker.”
Aiden punched the button and set the phone back on the cradle.
“Dobbs?”
“Sir?”
“You will allow Agent Lewis and anyone with him to pass. Also, if there are any supplies he needs you will provide those. Am I being clear?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Martin ended the connection, effectively cutting off any questions Dobbs might have.
Dobbs threw Aiden’s passport onto the desk, then addressed the guard still standing at the door.
“Show Lewis our supply locker. I have more important things to do than babysit every agent who decides to wander through my checkpoint. We’re at war for God’s sake.”
He stormed out of the office and was gone.
Aiden followed the guard to the supply locker, picked up supplies he prayed he wouldn’t need—snowshoes, backpacks, water, emergency medical kits, extra jackets, and additional ammunition. Ten minutes later he climbed back into the van.
After a quick restroom break for the rest of his group, they were on the road.
Unfortunately, Martin’s forecast was accurate. It was only twenty-three miles later, as he was turning off Highway 89 west onto Going to the Sun Road, that the snow started to fall in big fat, wet flakes.
Aiden drove as fast as he dared, but the wind had picked up considerably, pushing the van around the bends in the road. With one eye on the temperature gauge and one on the icing road, Aiden prayed they would make it to the Continental Divide alone and before the roads froze.
MADISON TRIED TO TAKE deep breaths as they neared Going to the Summit Gorge.
“She doesn’t look so good, Coach.” Chase pushed his cap back to take a better look. “Yeah. I’d say she’s going to hurl.”
“Cool,” Jack piped up.
“We can’t see,” Matt and Melvin proclaimed at the same time.
“When you’re a junior, you can sit up front and see the cool things like teachers hurling,” Daniel sai
d. “For now, you have to stay in the back and watch the snowstorm.”
“It’s boring,” Matt said.
“It all looks the same,” Melvin agreed.
“Except for the white car following us.” Matt turned in his seat to point at the car. “Every now and then he comes close enough that I can almost see the three men, but then he backs off again.”
Madison paled as the last bit of blood drained from her face. “What did he say?”
“I’ve been watching it for the last twenty minutes. They never close in more than a quarter mile.” Aiden reached over and patted her hand.
“Here they come again,” Matt shouted.
“Chase, would you make sure everyone’s buckled up for me? The roads are starting to ice.”
“Sure, Coach.”
As Chase made his way toward the back of the van, the white car came into view again, steadily closing the gap.
“Uh Coach, I don’t think they’re stopping this time.”
As Madison turned toward Chase, the car rammed them. It was probably a good thing she was looking toward Chase. If she’d been looking in the direction the curve they were pushed toward, she might have died of a heart attack right then.
Chase had been crouched in front of Melvin, checking his seat belt. The impact knocked him sideways into the window. Madison turned toward Aiden in time to see him turning the wheel in circles to the left, then back to the right. Neither seemed to have much effect on the direction of the van.
For a brief, insane moment it reminded Madison of ice skating.
Then the wheels of the van met pavement, and they skidded back across the median and into their lane. They careened around the corner, the white car momentarily out of sight, and everyone began talking at once.
“What was that?”
“What happened, Coach?”
“Did you see him hit us?”
“Chase, are you okay? I think you dented the window, man.”
“Everyone, quiet down.” Aiden kept his voice calm but commanding, his eyes on his rearview mirror. “Is anyone hurt?”
Twelve “No sirs” filled the van.
“Chase, how bad is your head?” Madison asked.
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