“What if you try…”
Sam stopped midsentence.
Ben launched himself toward the poplar tree. His right hand connected on the fork of the tree where a straggling offshoot took his weight for a split second, before snapping.
Ben swore and a moment later he was free falling toward the ground — landing on top of a pair of juvenile conifer trees.
Sam raced over to meet him. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, fine. We should be dead,” Ben complained, as he opened his eyes, patted himself down, confirming that he was mostly uninjured, and stood up. “They just shot us out of the sky!”
“Hey, you don’t look hurt,” Sam pointed out. “Let’s get going.”
Ben glanced at the thick forest. “Where?”
“West. It won’t take more than a couple days for the investigation team to reach here. Then it won’t take long, a day or two at best, before they realize the wreckage is distinctly missing any bodies.”
“And when that happens, they’re going to double up on their search effort,” replied Ben.
“Which means, we have two days to get as far away from here as possible.”
Behind them, the blaze of the wrecked helicopter finally overcame the nearby trees, which now started to crackle as the flames engulfed them on its eager attempt to race to the crest of the nearby mountain.
Sam yelled, “Run!”
Chapter Eighteen
Ben’s head snapped round, his eyes darting toward the ominous glow that threatened to engulf them. The thick forest was in the process of becoming a cinder box, burning out of control. Ideally, they needed to get below the fire, but already it was spreading laterally along the steep slope. It was too late; they needed to reach the crest before the fire overwhelmed them.
Sam was already off running up hill at full speed.
Ben didn’t need any further encouragement. He climbed the steep hill at a pace that would have made his old football coach proud.
The helicopter had been shot down more than two thirds of the way to the top of the ridgeline. The dense Shenandoah Forest thinned toward the crest, making it easier to scramble their way through, rather than fighting their way through the dense undergrowth of the lower sections of the mountain.
Behind him the inferno raged.
Its fire burned greedily through the highly flammable foliage of the conifer trees, ripping through the new rosebuds of the poplar trees, and dancing between the undergrowth of the chestnut trees. The heated air raced upward, sending a torrent of fiery wind their way.
Ben breathed the hot air through his throbbing lungs, the muscles of his legs burned and his chest pounded.
He caught up with Sam and quickly outpaced him.
The ridgeline was now within sight, less than a hundred feet above them. The gradient increased to seventy-five and then eighty degrees and he found himself clinging to the straggling trees for support as he dug the balls of his feet deep into the soft soil and climbed.
In the dark, the final twenty feet to the summit looked like an ominous wall of darkness, an impossible silhouette to overcome. He couldn’t see how they were going to summit the last twenty or so feet, which appeared to be more like an open rockface, but it didn’t matter. The fire was lapping at their toes and would overcome them any minute. There was no option of turning back now; they would just have to find a way to reach the top.
A shallow stream ran from the nearby peak forming the base of a small waterfall with the runoff of the last of the melting snow from winter. The misting water now bombarded the wildfire, clashing with it head on, instantly turning to steam with a sibilant hiss.
The ground above him became difficult to visualize.
Blood pounded in the back of his head and Death teased at his heels, but still Ben ran onward, placing one hand in front of the other as he scrambled up the near vertical slope.
His hand reached the vertical granite outcrop.
He tried to grip it and climb, but the misting waterfall made the stone wet and slippery. No matter which way he positioned his hands, he couldn’t quite get enough perch to climb.
Ben swore. “We’re trapped!”
“Keep moving to your right!” Sam replied. “There’s a cave!”
Ben couldn’t see it, but he kept moving anyway. It wasn’t like he had another choice. He was wedged between an unassailable vertical cliff and a raging fire.
Keeping his left hand on the rocky wall, he kept moving to the right, until he disappeared into a fissure in the rock.
The flame lit up the entire rockface like a spotlight, leaving an empty void where the rock opened into a deep crevasse.
His eyes frantically searched his surroundings for another way out, but came up short. They were now trapped.
Sam shouted, “Into the cave!”
“I don’t think I can fit…”
“You don’t have a choice!”
Ben squeezed into the narrow fissure, feeling with his hands and feet as he shuffled deeper. With his head turned to the side, he maneuvered his body blindly inside.
“Quick!” Sam shouted, following him in.
Ben felt the searing heat of the fire front run to greet them. He held his breath, as though that might protect his lungs, closed his eyes, and took another step deeper.
But his feet didn’t find their footings.
Instead, they found nothing but an empty void.
Ben screamed…
As he slipped, free falling, deep into the rocky abyss.
Chapter Nineteen
The Secretary of Defense stormed along the hallway toward the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A junior aide tried to stop her. “I’m sorry, Madam Secretary, General Painter is in a meeting.”
“Let me see him — now!” Her words were barked out with the authority of her position.
“I’m sorry, ma’am…”
She ignored the military aide and opened the door. “Who the hell authorized your F16s to shoot down a helicopter carrying Sam Reilly?”
The President stood up. “That would be me.”
She felt deflated. “For God’s sake, why, Mr. President?”
“We have DNA confirmation that Ben’s parents were John and Jenny Gellie.”
The Secretary of Defense pursed her lips, feeling the crushing weight of what she now realized was about to come next. “And?”
“The very same ones who were involved in the Bolshoi Zayatsky incident…”
She paused, remaining silent.
“Did you hear what I said, Madam Secretary?”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
His blue eyes smiled triumphantly. “Madam Secretary?”
“Are you certain it’s him?”
“We have his DNA. It’s a match.” The President raised an eyebrow slightly. “Now what do you say?”
The Secretary expelled a deep breath. “Thank God you killed them before he got away.”
“I’m glad we’re in agreement.”
She said, “I want people there now to retrieve the body.”
“They’re on their way, but…” his eyes turned downward.
“What?”
“The crash caused a forest fire. I’m afraid the entire place is ablaze. We might need to wait a day or two until the fire passes before our team can reach the helicopter.”
“Just make sure someone’s there the second that fire stops burning… I want DNA proof the bastard’s dead!”
Chapter Twenty
Sam reached for Ben’s outstretched hand.
Their fingers locked on each other’s forearms. A gust of wind blew a series of red hot embers into the rocky fissure. Sam swore as a few sparks embedded onto his back. He shifted his footing to dip down and brace for the incoming barrage of heat. His left foot slipped. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to unbalance him.