Rachel had a hand on the woman’s back, urging her across the room. As they neared, Ash stood. Instantly, the woman took a quick step back.
“It’s all right, Chloe,” Rachel said. “We’ve already talked about this. He’s not one of them.”
One of what?Ash wanted to ask, but he held it in, not wanting to scare the woman again.
Finally, Chloe gave Rachel a nod.
“Good,” Rachel said in a calm voice. “Chloe, this is…” She stopped and looked at Ash. “What do you want to be called? Adam? Cooper?”
“Ash, if it’s all right by you,” he said.
She smirked. “Your call.” To Chloe, she said, “His name is Adam Cooper, but he apparently goes by Ash. Ash, this is Chloe White.”
“Hello,” he said, trying to keep his voice gentle.
Chloe cringed a bit, but didn’t retreat. “Hi.” There was a momentary lull, then she said, “You’renotone of them, are you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Chloe motioned at Rachel and Matt. “They say you’re in the Army.”
“Yes…well, I don’t know now. Maybe.”
“Some of them are in the Army. Not a lot, but some.”
Ash looked her in the eyes. “I’ve only been in the Army. Nothing else.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.”
She nodded to herself several times. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I just…I don’t want to…go back, you know?”
“Go back where?” Ash asked.
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to think about it. Please don’t make me think about it.”
“Come on, Chloe,” Rachel said quickly. “There are a few things we need to take care of before you leave.”
Chloe allowed herself to be led back to the door. Once there, she turned to Ash and said, “Nice to meet you. I’m sorry. I’m not…I’m not always like this.”
As soon as she and Rachel were gone, Ash looked at Matt. “What was that all about?”
“She’ll be going with you.”
“Her? Why?”
“She’s your guide.”
Ash stared at him. “Did you not just see her?”
“She’s the only one familiar with the facility your children are in.”
Ash glanced back at the door. “This girl can really help me?”
“Yes. She can.” Matt paused. “You need to understand that these people did something to her while she was with them. She used to be strong, uncompromising, but they broke her before we could get to her. Piece by piece she’s putting it back together, but it’s slow. Most of her life…well, let’s just say that it’s like she’s starting out again. Sometimes she slips. Maybe we shouldn’t have told her you were in the Army, but it was better it came out now than later. She’ll be okay.”
“If she’s taking me to where these people are, isn’t there a danger she’ll slip again?”
Matt hesitated. “Perhaps. But you were a surprise to her, an unknown. She already knows what to expect where you’re both going.”
“Are any of the rest of you coming?”
“I wish we could. This…outbreak has stretched our resources. We’re already working with a skeleton crew here. If any of us leaves, it’ll make it all that more difficult to support the rest of our organization, and many are in just as much danger as you will be.”
Ash couldn’t help but frown. “I’m having a hard time understanding just what your purpose is.”
“Do you want to know? Because we’ll tell you if you do. It’s pretty heavy stuff, though.” He paused, thoughtful for a moment. “Your children are your goal right now. Anything we tell you will only distract from that. It’s your choice.”
Several silent seconds went by.
Matt was right. Until Josie and Brandon were with him, Ash didn’t need anything else clouding up his mind.
“Tell me about where they’re keeping my kids.”
27
The desert was tricky, even more so in the moonless night with their headlamps off. But Paul, with Lisa sitting behind him, and Nick didn’t have much of a choice. The only thing they could do was keep their speed down, and hope they didn’t hit any of the random holes and ruts too hard.
At midnight, they found a small canyon and stopped. About fifty feet in was a rock overhang, so they decided to use it as shelter and get a few hours of sleep.
Because none of them thought to set an alarm on their cell phone, those few hours turned into almost seven. By the time Paul opened his eyes, the sky was blue, and the warmth of the early spring day had already pushed back the cold of the night.
“Ah, crap!” he yelled, then nudged Lisa, who was sharing his sleeping bag with him. “Hey, baby, we got to get up.”
She groaned, but didn’t open her eyes.
“Come on, Lisa. It’s already late.”
“Just a little longer,” she said, her voice low and raspy.
He gave her a kiss. “One minute. That’s it.”
“You’re so generous.”
He crawled out of the bag without unzipping it, then scrambled over to where Nick was sleeping and shook his shoulder.
“Time to get up.”
Nick tried to turn away from him.
“Come on, Nick. We overslept.”
His brother opened one eye halfway. “It’s morning already?”
“We should have been gone four hours ago,” Paul told him.
Nick grunted and rolled onto his back.
Now that Paul knew the other two were basically up, he went over to his backpack, took out one of the sandwiches his mom had made, then all but inhaled it. Since their water was limited, he was careful to drink only a few ounces.
Nick and Lisa were both sitting up now, neither looking particularly eager to get going.
“Come on,” Paul said. “We’ve got to move!”
“All right, all right,” Nick said. “I’m up.”
He unzipped his sleeping bag and rolled out.
“Me, too,” Lisa said.
“I don’t want to stop for a while,” Paul told them, “so eat something. I’m going to go see if I can get above the rim and figure out where we are.”
Nick gave him a halfhearted wave of acknowledgment, then held out a hand to help Lisa out of her bag.
Paul scanned the canyon. Near the back he saw that part of the wall had crumbled down, creating a difficult but not impossible ramp to the top. He jogged over and carefully climbed up the slope.
He was just nearing the top when a rhythmic noise began, echoing through the canyon. He looked around, trying to spot the source, but though it kept getting louder and louder, he couldn’t see anything that might be causing it.
Nick stepped out from under the overhang, looked up at Paul, then lifted his shoulders and held out his hands, silently asking what was making the noise. Paul, having no answer, repeated the gesture back.
He was about ten feet from the top of the ramp, and thought maybe he could see whatever it was from up there. But the moment he started to climb again, two helicopters streaked low across the sky just beyond the edge of the canyon. As soon as they passed the open end, they turned and descended to the ground.
There was no question in Paul’s mind why they were here.
“Hide!” he yelled down at Lisa and Nick.
There was no way they could hear him above the whirl of the helicopters, but they’d obviously had the same thought. They began running through the canyon toward the crumbled ramp.
Paul looked quickly around, then slipped into a crack between two large clumps of dirt, keeping his head elevated just enough so he could see over the top.
Six men piled out of the helicopters, three from each, and began running into the canyon. Paul wasn’t sure what was scarier: their rifles, or the full bio-protective suits they were wearing.
He looked down the ramp for Lisa and his brother, but it was too uneven, so while he could hear them scrambling on the slope, he couldn’t see them.
Two of the armed men stopped near the bikes by the overhang, while the other four continued toward the back of the canyon.