Every Second

50

Somewhere in New York State

The explosion stopped the SUV and it was sagging on the right side.

Dan exhaled.

I’m still alive.

Looking down at his vest, he was relieved to see the little red light still blinking away. Then he heard the front doors open, his captors getting out to talk.

The rear opened.

The tarp was dragged off of him and he was yanked from the back by Percy while Vic held him at gunpoint. Squinting in the waning light Dan noticed that both men had removed their coveralls and were wearing military camouflage pants and dark T-shirts. He examined the surroundings. They were high in the hills, isolated amid vast forests. He drank in the cool, sweet air and tensed, like a condemned man.

This is it. Keep your hands clasped. Focus. Be ready.

The red light on his vest continued ticking down…

As Vic shoved Dan around the side of the vehicle, Dan saw that the front passenger tire had been shredded by jagged rocks.

Not an explosion, then, we just blew a tire.

Percy began removing the jack, wrench and spare, dropping them on the ground to change it.

He’d set his gun next to the tools.

Vic reached into the SUV for the bag with the money, hefting it over his shoulder. “Get up to the cabin after you fix that and we’ll get started,” he said to Percy.

Get started?

“Move!” Vic pointed with his gun and Dan began walking uphill ahead of him.

As they navigated the trail, Dan’s pulse quickened as he took stock of his situation. Vic had the bag and his gun, making his balance a small challenge on the winding path. Dan could free his hands at will and he had the utility knife.

He may never get this chance again.

He began slipping the knife from under his sleeve, getting a solid grip on it. As he extended the blade, they came to a van parked on the road and his heart flooded with hope.

Lori and Billy!

Vic urged him on until they reached a pathway that twisted atop a narrow ridge and Dan saw a cabin a few dozen yards ahead.

Color flashed in the trees to the left and Dan saw a small outhouse-and two people on a path that wound near his trail. His heart soared.

Lori!

Cutty appeared relieved when he’d spotted two people near them on the adjacent trail.

He lowered his rifle and loosened his grip. The loud discharge they’d heard couldn’t have been a threat.

“Brother!” Cutty called.

He pointed with his gun for Lori to lead him to the others on the ridge. Moving through the branches, her heart nearly burst when she saw her husband.

She rushed toward Dan, but Vic and Cutty moved their guns like a gate before her. Contact was forbidden.

“Lori, are you all right?” Dan asked. “Is Billy-”

“We’re okay. He’s in the cabin-”

“Shut up!” Vic ordered.

“Peace be upon you, my brother,” Cutty said. “By God’s grace, we’ve succeeded!”

Vic slapped the money bag and grinned.

“Peace be upon you. Yes, my brother, by God’s grace we’ve been victorious.” Vic laughed.

As their captors continued boasting, Dan and Lori stared at each other with such desperation, tears filled their eyes. Lori saw the intense, adrenaline-fueled emotion in Dan that she felt herself. Then, with a subtle nod, Dan showed Lori the knife’s tip and she knew that this was their life-and-death moment.

“…a quarter million for the operation,” Vic said, slapping the bag again. “Now we carry on as planned with our message and warning to the-”

The peel, rip and snap of the tape and plastic cuffs sounded as Dan jerked his wrists free and blitzed Vic, knocking him to the ground sending his rifle clattering down the hillside as he slashed at him with the knife.

Drawing on her police training, Lori dropped, hurtling her body full force into Cutty’s knees, sending him to the ground before he had a chance to react. His rifle bumped down the ridge side with Vic’s. She sprang to her feet and kicked wildly at Cutty’s face, gut and groin.

Dan continued struggling on the ground with Vic, but his knife had slipped from his hand and tumbled down the rocky hill with the other weapons.

Lori picked up a baseball-sized rock with her bound hands and smashed it on Cutty’s head. As he lay dazed on the ground she made her way to Dan as he continued fighting Vic.

“No!” Dan yelled. “Go get Billy! Hurry-I’ll be right behind you!”

Alarmed by shouting along the road, Percy dropped his tools, grabbed his gun, left the SUV and flew toward the voices.

At the cabin, Jerricko seized his weapon, tore out the front door and down the trail.

Neither one saw the woman.

Lori had rushed into the forest, taking the outhouse path toward the cabin’s rear. In the seconds she ran, she contended with her desperation to return to Dan and to run ahead for Billy, knowing their captors could set off their bombs at any time.

She blazed through the back door of the cabin, relieved to find Billy alone and unharmed. The handcuff keys were on the table, next to Jerricko’s laptop. She snatched them, Billy standing, his eyes saucers of fear at hearing the shouting.

“Mom?” Billy’s voice broke as she frantically worked the key to unlock the cuff and free him. “What’s going on? Is Dad out there?”

In the instant she’d freed her son the blasts of automatic gunfire pierced the air outside. Lori looked out the window in time to see Dan rushing up the path, Jerricko and Percy behind, cutting him down with bullets and sending him toppling over the side of the ridge.

Dan! No! Oh God! No! They’ve killed him!

Shock paralyzed her with disbelief. Dan was gone. His killers took stances at the edge of the cliff and continued pouring bursts of gunfire downward to where Dan had fallen.

Numbed, horrified, Lori was rooted where she stood, wanting to cry out-bastards!-to the men who’d just murdered her husband.

Suddenly Percy whirled, fired. Bullets tore through the cabin.

Lori crouched, pulling Billy down beside her shielding him with her body.

She saw Jerricko’s backpack with food and water. She seized his laptop and, fumbling with her bound hands, shoved it in the bag and took it.

“Hurry!”

She rushed out the back with Billy and they crashed into the forest, running for their lives as bullets flicked through the trees.