Mortal Pursuit

47

“They got away.”

The echo of Cain’s shout rang like an anvil on the cellar walls.

Lilith’s fire extinguisher dropped from her hands. Gage made a soft, plaintive noise like the moan of a frightened child.

Cain barely noticed their reactions. His full attention was focused on the well. Rage simmered in him.

This operation had been planned for weeks. For months. Every smallest detail had been accounted for. Nothing had been left to chance. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, his passport to a better life, to a future not spent in a desert trailer or a prison cell.

And now it was jeopardized, all of it, by a rookie cop and a high school girl who didn’t have the good sense to lie down and die.

“You never know.” Tyler tried for a note of optimism. “They might’ve bought it anyhow. Shock wave could’ve triggered a cave-in.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s possible.”

“No, it’s not. And you know it. Those two whores are alive. God damn it, they’re alive!”

The anger boiled over. Cain spun and seized the nearest fragment of debris, a charred and twisted thing that might have been the leg of a table.

With a bellow of fury he heaved it into the shadows, then stood panting as he struggled to get hold of his emotions.

Screaming was bad. He remembered how Gage had screamed at the hostages, inadvertently confessing his immaturity and lack of discipline.

A leader had to remain poised, assured, unflappable-even now, when every thread of his careful planning threatened to unravel, when five million dollars was dissolving like smoke before his eyes.

“You should have iced that blue-eyed bitch in the living room when you had the chance,” Lilith said petulantly.

Cain nearly shot back an ugly answer, but no.

Discipline. Self-control.

“Damn straight,” he replied after a brief inner struggle. “I had her three feet away, dead in my sights, and I didn’t pull the trigger. Didn’t want to agitate the prisoners. I fucked up.”

His gaze traveled the room, meeting each face in turn. Tyler, Gage, Lilith-all with their masks off now, all watching him, surprised and impressed by his admission of failure.

“I fucked up,” he repeated for emphasis. “My fault. I underestimated her. I thought she was just a scared kid. A Mouseketeer.”

Tyler set down his fire extinguisher. “So what do we do Abort”

“Too late to abort. The Kent girl saw my face-and yours,” he added, his glance including both Tyler and Lilith. “And her and the cop heard our names over the radio. Robinson even heard me talking to Charles Kent. She knows everything.” He scanned the room and watched comprehension register on the row of faces. “We couldn’t quit now if we wanted to.”

“Okay.” Tyler sounded unsettled. “We go after them. Search the caves. Split up-“

Cain cut him off. “Impractical. A cave system is a maze.”

“Maybe they’ll get lost in it,” Gage said. “Just, you know, wander around till they drop.”

“Nice thought.” Cain smiled. “But Robinson seems to have a knack for survival. She’ll find an exit. Maybe already has.”

“Once they’re out,” Lilith asked, “where will they go”

Cain nodded. That was the right question.

Where would they go