Loe raamatut: «Mountain Hostage»

ONE

Zoe Pratt lost her footing on the icy trail and gasped. Stabbing her hiking stick into the snow for balance, she peered over the steep drop below into the vast, white blur of nothingness. A shudder ran down her spine.

Maybe a winter hike hadn’t been the best idea.

“Shannon, slow down!” Zoe called, recentering herself to keep up with her friend.

“I can’t,” Shannon said. “Wait till you see the view from Prairie’s Peak!”

“Do we have to risk our lives getting there?”

“You know I’d never let anything happen to you.”

Zoe adjusted her red scarf to cover her mouth and nose. It was cold in the Cascade Mountains, and Zoe wasn’t an experienced hiker. She’d come to the charming town of Mt. Stevens, Washington, to hang out with Shannon, her childhood best friend. Zoe thought they’d spend time relaxing, catching up on their lives, maybe even laughing a little. She eyed the steep drop to her right. Nothing to laugh about there. One wrong step and—

“Pick it up, pokey!” Shannon teased.

Zoe glanced at the gray sky. Light snow began to fall. “You sure it’s safe out here?”

“What, you’re not afraid of a grizzly, are ya?”

“A grizzly as in a bear?”

“They’re probably more afraid of you than you are of them.” Shannon continued her enthusiastic pace and Zoe struggled to keep up.

Shannon had always been the one to challenge Zoe out of her funk when things seemed desperate. Well, things weren’t exactly desperate, but Zoe did need a break, both from her challenging job as a social worker for adolescents and teens, and from her dismal personal life. She still couldn’t believe how badly she’d misjudged things with her ex-boyfriend, Tim.

Shove it aside, Zoe. This was supposed to be a rejuvenating getaway, not a depressing one.

Zoe inhaled the fresh mountain air and let it clear her lungs, her thoughts. She felt grounded and at peace in the mountains. She could see why Shannon loved it so much and why she thought it the perfect place to bring Zoe.

She caught up to her friend, who hesitated at a small outlook, gazing out across the Cascade mountain range.

Shannon eyed Zoe’s jacket. “You warm enough?”

“Sure, I’m okay.”

“Yeah, you should’ve worn my spare, matching jacket.”

“And look like a pumpkin?” Zoe eyed Shannon up and down.

Shannon smiled, then redirected her attention to the horizon.

Zoe noticed a tower in the distance. “What’s that?”

“Portage Fire Lookout. It’s ridiculously easy to get to from the Frontage trailhead. You can really see the vastness of God’s beauty from that spot.” She glanced at Zoe. “It helps to get perspective on things.”

Zoe smiled. “This is exactly what I needed to get my mind off my love life.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Are you having problems with Randy?”

“Who knows.”

Zoe had noticed a photo of Randy and Shannon tucked in a kitchen drawer as if it had been recently put away, out of sight. The couple looked happy, both with wide grins, although Randy’s was partially hidden by a full beard.

“Shannon?” Zoe prompted.

“He’s been acting weird lately and I haven’t heard from him since he left a few days ago to visit family in Denver.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No.” She touched Zoe’s shoulder. “We’re not going to let guy trouble spoil our fun. Come on.”

“How much farther?” Zoe asked.

“Depends how slow you hike.” Shannon winked. “Race ya?”

“Ah, come on, Shan. What are you trying to do, prove how out of shape I am?”

“You’ll thank me later when you sleep like a baby.” Shannon picked up her pace. “I packed snickerdoodles for our snack. That should motivate you.”

“With red and green sprinkles?”

“Of course!”

Before Zoe could open her mouth to demand a snickerdoodle for sustenance, Shan had reached a sharp turn up ahead and was out of sight.

It made sense that Shan could outhike Zoe, considering Shan’s job at the Mt. Stevens Resort was mostly physical, whereas Zoe’s job required hours of sitting and listening.

A woman’s scream echoed across the mountain.

“Shannon!” Zoe called.

Adrenaline coursing through her body, she rushed to get to her friend. She must have twisted an ankle or injured herself somehow. “Shannon, answer me!”

Nearly losing her footing, she took a deep breath. Slow me down, Lord. Keep me safe. If Zoe injured herself as well, she’d be no help to Shannon.

As Zoe reached the turn, Shannon darted around the corner and slammed into her. “Run, Zoe, run!” She pushed her for encouragement.

A bear, it had to be a bear, right? There was no way they could outrun a bear. Zoe had seen her share of National Geographic specials on wildlife. Would he try to eat them or—

“Stop!” a male voice said.

That didn’t sound a like a bear.

“Don’t stop, Zoe!” Shannon said.

Zoe focused on bending her knees to give her balance as she scrambled down the trail. Her pepper spray, why had she left it back at the house? Because you didn’t expect to need it out here, she told herself. She thought hikers were nice sorts of people, nature lovers, tree huggers and—Shannon slammed into Zoe from behind. Zoe slid and prayed. Please, Lord, not now, I’m not ready to end my work on earth!

With a thunk, she hit a boulder meant to guard hikers at the outlook from the steep drop below. She glanced up...

In time to see a man the size of a pro wrestler grab Shannon from behind.

“No! Let go of me!” Shannon cried, trying to pull away from him.

The guy, wearing a brown snow jacket and maroon ski mask, started dragging her away.

“Zoe, run!”

Instead, Zoe scrambled to her feet and went after them. Pay attention, Zoe. Pay attention to every detail. They were going to survive this assault and she would have to testify against this creep.

She grabbed Shannon’s arm and swung at the guy with her hiking stick. With a frustrated grunt, he threw Shannon aside and yanked on Zoe’s stick, pulling her within inches of his face.

Those eyes. She’d never forget his practically black eyes, glaring at her from behind the knit mask.

“This is not your fight,” he said in a low, threatening voice.

“She’s my best friend!” Zoe struggled to pull free.

“Then you’ll die with her.”

“Leave her alone!” Shannon charged and hit the guy shoulder to midsection. A linebacker couldn’t defend himself against her velocity, a skill Shan had learned from her two football-playing brothers.

The attacker loosened his grip and Zoe wrenched free from his hold.

“Run, Zoe!”

The man grabbed Shannon again, and she struggled against him. He started to hoist her over his shoulder, but she managed to rip off his ski mask.

His long, angular face, flushed bright red with anger, etched itself in Zoe’s brain. He was in his midthirties with a scar above his left eye.

“Let me go!” Shannon cried.

Zoe charged, more out of instinct than intellect, and in one swift motion, the giant backhanded her.

Zoe’s head snapped to the side and she stumbled back over the edge...

...into the white abyss below.

The text came in at 1:21 p.m.

Search-and-rescue volunteer Jack Monroe subtly flashed the alert on his phone to his second-in-command, Heather Bond, and excused himself from the business meeting with Brighton International. This was why he’d hired Heather: to manage his IT security business so he’d have the flexibility to leave Seattle and join a search when necessary. Depending on the mission he could be gone for days, taking up temporary residence close to the action.

At 3:02 p.m., Jack pulled up at the command center in the Cascade Mountains with Romeo, his border collie–Bernese mix, and was given instructions by the command chief.

By 3:15 p.m., Jack and Romeo had joined a team and were hiking up Mt. Stevens. Their assignment: find a fallen and suspected injured hiker, called in by a pair of hikers who had heard a woman scream and seen someone in a royal blue jacket fall down the mountainside. They weren’t sure where she’d landed.

Fresh snow covered the trails and the wind was picking up.

“Amateur hikers should never go out in this kind of weather,” Beatrice Spears said under her breath. Bea’s Lab mix, Cooper, continued his search for scent.

“It was supposed to be mild in the mountains today,” Leslie Vonn said. Her dog hadn’t been qualified yet, but it was good to have the extra person to offer praise when the dogs found the lost hiker.

When. Because if was not an option in Jack’s mind.

“Did you hear about the hiker who disappeared at Crystal Mountain last weekend?” Bea asked.

“Got buried in an avalanche?” Leslie recalled.

“The dogs found her in less than twenty minutes. Fast.”

Jack listened. He wasn’t much for small talk, didn’t know how to execute it effectively or, for that matter, what the purpose was. Another reason he’d hired Heather.

“I think Cooper’s got something,” Bea said.

The three humans watched Cooper zigzag up ahead. Something sparked in Jack’s chest, a familiar pang whenever one of the dogs caught scent and went into a hyperfocused state.

Maybe this would be an easy rescue, unlike...

Hope dissolved into frustration as the memory surfaced. He shoved it aside. There was no added value in remembering his failure.

Romeo raced ahead of Cooper and stopped, nose in the air, tail up, intently focused. The team caught up to Romeo on the snow-covered trail, where the dog stood over a red scarf. Jack praised him for the find, then Romeo sat, awaiting further instruction.

“Think it belongs to the victim?” Bea said.

“It’s possible.” Leslie reported their finding to Command. “Let’s continue up the trail.”

“If the victim was seen falling from the Prairie’s Peak area, how would her scarf end up here?” Bea said.

“Maybe it’s not hers,” Leslie said.

“Or she was coming down the trail when she fell,” Jack finally said.

The women glanced at him, as if they’d forgotten he was there. Jack liked it that way, dissolving into the background, watching, listening, so he could better understand people.

Another twenty-one minutes passed as they continued their ascent. The snow had let up a bit. Jack naturally hiked ahead of the women due to his tall stature and long gait.

They had gone silent, probably not wanting to interrupt the dogs’ focus, especially now that they knew they were on the right track. Another reason Jack liked being part of this group was the singular concentration required by the work. The ability to multitask mystified him as much as small talk. When he directed his attention to something, it became his sole focus.

Like today’s mission.

“It’ll be dark soon,” Leslie said.

Her words hung in the cold air between them. Although the team was skilled at making camp overnight, the woman who’d fallen and was potentially injured would be ill-prepared for the drop in temperature.

Romeo started a zigzag pattern, then abruptly stopped. His ears pricked.

Jack took a deep breath. Suspected what was coming.

Romeo took off into a full sprint, and Jack followed, frigid air filling his lungs. It was senseless to tell Romeo to slow down. Once the dog caught scent, nothing would stop him. It made him an excellent search-and-rescue dog, but sometimes his enthusiasm made Jack nervous. He feared the hardworking dog might lose his footing and slide off the edge.

Jack pushed harder to catch up to Romeo. The dog was trained to return to Jack’s side and pull on his toggle if he found something. Back and forth, back and forth, until Romeo united his handler with the missing hiker. Instead of exhibiting his trained indication, Romeo frantically paced at the edge of the trail up ahead. Jack interpreted this as him being in scent, but unable to make physical contact with the subject. Cooper ran up to Romeo and exhibited similar behavior.

Jack approached the dogs and glanced at what sparked their excitement.

A person in a royal blue jacket lay on a plateau.

“Good boy, good.” Jack played a quick game of tug-of-war with Romeo as his reward as he radioed Command. “I think we found her, over.”

“Status?”

He peered over the edge, sensing Bea and Leslie come up on either side of him. “Miss?” Jack called down to the prone hiker. “We’re with Mt. Stevens Search and Rescue!”

Silence.

“Unresponsive, over,” he said into his radio.

“Location?”

Jack opened his tracker app, took a screenshot and texted it to Command.

“We’ll send a medical team,” the command chief responded.

“Roger, out.”

The search-and-rescue K9 team hovered on the trail in stoic silence.

“You think she’s alive?” Bea asked.

Leslie glanced up at the mountain. “Depends on how far she fell. If she hit anything...” she hesitated “...critical.”

More silence.

“I’m thinking this is a recovery, not a rescue,” Bea said.

“Miss? Miss, can you hear me?” Jack shouted, not liking the direction of the conversation.

Romeo barked as if he was also trying to get her attention.

Jack hated this, hated feeling...out of control of a situation.

Romeo must have felt the same way, because his barking grew more insistent as if he were saying, Open your eyes already!

“Romeo, stop,” Jack commanded. The dog quieted and flopped down beside him.

Jack glanced at the horizon, realizing they had less than ninety minutes before they lost natural light. Rescuing the woman in the dark would present its own set of challenges.

“Wait, I think she’s moving,” Leslie said.

He snapped his gaze to the plateau. The victim started to get up.

Jack whipped out his binoculars. Peered below. He had to try to get a read on her expression even though that wasn’t his particular strength.

A bruise formed across her right cheek and blood seeped from her lip. Her eyes rounded with fear as if she suddenly realized she was in a vulnerable, dangerous spot.

“Don’t move!” he called. “I’m with Mt. Stevens Search and Rescue!”

She acted as if she didn’t hear him, as if she were disoriented beyond rational thought, which meant she could accidentally fall even farther...

To her death.

“Medics are on the way!” he tried.

Ignoring him, she dropped to her knees and glanced over the edge of the plateau. What on earth was she doing? It seemed like she was trying to figure out how to climb down. A decision that was both unrealistic and potentially deadly.

Then again, she could be dazed from a concussion and not know what she was doing.

“I’m going down,” Jack said.

“Wait, shouldn’t you—”

“He’s right,” Leslie interrupted Bea’s protest. “Who knows what she’ll do? Besides, Jack’s done this before.”

He had done it before, although not with favorable results.

Pulling rope off his pack, he anchored it to a nearby tree root jutting out from the mountain. Romeo shot him a look, like, Don’t go without me.

“Stay,” Jack said, in case the dog got any crazy ideas. He shouldered his pack, gripped the rope with gloved hands and let himself drift so he’d land gently on the plateau, about a hundred feet down.

He wouldn’t be too late this time, wouldn’t let any harm come to the woman in the blue ski jacket.

A few moments later he landed on the small ledge. Her back was to him and she acted as if she hadn’t heard his landing. “Miss?”

Startled, she turned quickly, her eyes wide with fear. “Don’t touch me!” She stepped back, precariously close to the edge.

He instinctively reached out to grab her arm.

“No, don’t—” She stumbled backward over the edge of the cliff.