Cutting Edge

by Allison Brennan

“Negative,” he said. “SWAT is headed to Colfax Airport.”

  “But we may miss our window of time. You didn’t see that video! Maggie injected Quin with heparin and will cut her in less than an hour. I need this time.”

  “We have a little time, Nora.”

  “No we don’t!” She squeezed her eyes closed. “Hooper, the woman is on edge. I can’t trust her, and the more time we have the better. Please understand that. I need to get to Last Chance Road earlier than she thinks I can make it. We need every advantage we can get at this point.”

  “Let me talk to Hooper,” Sean said to her.

  She handed Sean the phone.

  “Hooper, tell Duke I’m not landing anywhere I’m not one hundred percent confident that I can get both in and out without trouble.” He listened, then read off the coordinates of the landing spot. “Yes, and enough for takeoff as well … Thanks, see you there.”

  He handed Nora back the phone. “Hooper cleared it.”

  “Your brother just worries about you, like I do Quin.”

  “It’s a little more than that.” He paused. “Our parents died in a small-plane crash.”

  Nora looked at Sean, her heart breaking. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “Duke didn’t like it when I started taking flying lessons from J.T., and I just made my hours to fly solo. But I assure you I know what I’m doing,” he added quickly.

  “I have complete confidence in you, Sean.”

  “It’s time, Quin.” Maggie took out her knife and cut Quin on one biceps.

  Quin bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her head felt fuzzy, and she wondered if Maggie had put something else in the heparin. Or maybe this was a side effect of the drug.

  She turned her head and watched as her blood seeped from the long, shallow cut. She was going to die.

  “I wish we could have really been sisters.” Maggie cut her other arm along the mark she’d made earlier.

  Quin wished she’d listened to Nora. She wished she hadn’t fought with her. She wished she could tell her she was sorry.

  Maggie cut the small mark on her right forearm to match the one that was still bandaged on her left. Maggie didn’t seem to notice or care about the bandage. She was focused intently on running the blade lightly along her skin, cutting the skin and barely slicing the layer of muscle underneath. Under any other circumstances, the cuts wouldn’t be fatal. But today, they would be.

  Maggie kissed her on the cheek. “I’m sorry.”

  She sounded sincere; then Quin saw the sick joy in her eyes as she cut along her chest.

  It was the most painful cut of all, and Quin cried.

  Maggie whispered in her ear. “Just a little advice—the more you move, the more you panic, the faster your heart pumps, and the faster you die. Maybe that is for the best—get it over quick. But it won’t be as much fun for me if Nora can’t watch, so I’d rather you calm down.” She kissed her again. “I’ll see you soon.” She grabbed a backpack and left.

  Quin willed her heart to slow down, she tried not to panic. But Maggie’s words had been meant to terrify her, to make her heart pump, and it took every ounce of strength to control her breathing. To control her thoughts. To keep her eyes closed and not watch the blood seeping out of the cuts on her arms.

  She felt the warm blood drip down her cold skin. It was pooling under her buttocks, dripping off her fingertips. Her head was heavy, and she just wanted to lie down. To lie down and sleep forever.

  Duke had turned off on Weimar Road when J.T called him with information about the cabin. “I sent you detailed maps. They’re fresh, you should be good.”

  “You found the cabin?”

  “Yes. You’re ten minutes away, plus or minus. You’ll have to park a quarter mile away, and there’s a chance she will hear you.”

  “Noted. I need a footpath from the cabin to Last Chance Road.”

  “Give me a couple minutes.”

  Hooper said, “What makes you think there’s a footpath?”

  Duke said, “I think she plans on taking Nora out as soon as she reaches the end of Last Chance Road. Think about it—if she planned on sending Nora from place to place, she wouldn’t tell her to meet this close to where she’s hiding. There’s no easy road, so there has to be some sort of trail.”

  “True,” Hooper said. “But it’s still a risk. She could hunker down in the cabin, draw out the time.”

  “So we go in smart. We were both Marines, we assess and act. On foot she can disappear. If she has any survival skills, which we have to assume she has, she can run parallel to us if she spots us, or simply get away. I’ll bet we don’t see her car. It’ll be well hidden.”

  Duke drove as fast as he dared on the winding mountain road. He smelled something and first thought his car was burning transmission fluid, but immediately realized that wasn’t it.

  “Hooper, do you smell that?”

  Hooper said, “Yes. A fireplace? We’re close.” He frowned. “No—it’s not.”

  “It sure as hell isn’t a fireplace. We have a forest fire on our hands.”

  “Damn weird coincidence. I’ll call it in.”

  “It’s no coincidence,” Duke said. “Tell your SWAT team to step on it and get their ass to the airstrip. Sean and Nora are five minutes out, and if that fire is anywhere near the road, they could be trapped.”

  Sean said, “Nora, look over there—to the west. That’s a fire. And there—there—I see three.”

  “Five,” she said, and frowned. “Five fires? They’re pretty small, but two are right next to the road.”

  “That woman is fucking crazy,” Sean said as he pulled back and prepared to land on the old abandoned airstrip.

  “Why would she set fires? It makes no sense—she’d be preventing me from—”

  “Hold on tight.” Mouth set grim, Sean fought to control the plane on the short, rocky runway. Nora held on as the tail swerved when they braked too fast. Sean eased up, then down again, and stopped with plenty of room to spare.

  “I hope I didn’t damage the plane too much,” Sean said.

  “You did great, Sean.” She got out of the plane and looked around. “Brian and his team aren’t here.”

  “Maybe that’s why she set the fires,” Sean said, taking off his headgear and walking around the plane for inspection. “To stop you from having backup.”

  “But the fire could have stopped me from making it as well.”

  Sean shook his head. “If you were on time, you would make it. Your backup might have as well, unless she set one closer to the highway.”

  “But it’s September—the forest is dry. This could set off a huge forest fire, thousands of acres. The waste—” Nora was distraught. She couldn’t help but feel partly responsible. “Or she set them to trap us all. She doesn’t care who dies as long as she gets what she wants.”

  No. She wasn’t responsible in any way for Maggie O’Dell and her behavior.

  She called Duke. “It’s Nora. Sean and I just landed. We saw five small fires close to Last Chance Road while we were descending. But they’re going to spread quickly.”

  “Hooper and I smell them. Is your backup there?”

  “No.”

  “Shit. Hold on.”

  Nora looked around the mountainside. The smoke was beginning to rise, she saw billows heading straight up. But a wind was beginning to kick up, and that would be the worst thing for the forest. And them.

  Duke got back on the phone. “SWAT couldn’t get through. There’s a fire on the road. Deliberately set bonfire. The fire department is on their way, but it’ll be at least thirty minutes before they can get it cleared.”

  “I have to go.”

  “Drag it out with her, if possible, Nora. Hooper and I are almost to the cabin.”

  “Okay.”

  “Nora, please—I can’t lose you or Sean.”

  “And I have no intention of getting either of us in trouble. But there’s no way in hell I’m leaving anyone alone on this
airstrip with that woman running around setting fires, and until I know that you have Quin, I have to head to the meeting place.”

  “I understand, but—just be careful.”

  “I promise.” She wanted to say more, but what else could she say? She hung up and motioned to Sean.

  “We’re on our own, Sean. But if she sees you, I don’t know what she’ll do.”

  “I’m pretty good in the mountains. I made myself a map—” He held it up. She couldn’t read it, but he didn’t seem to have that problem.

  “You’re a city boy.”

  “Looks can be deceiving,” he said with a wink, reminding her of his older brother. He tossed her a walkie-talkie. “You go, I’ll follow, and I won’t let you out of my sight—even if you can’t see me. And you can buzz me on the walkie-talkie any time.”

  “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-NINE

  The small roughly hewn redwood cabin with a wide porch along two sides rested in the center of a wide, flat knoll with a hundred feet of open space around all sides. Canyons dropped down on two sides, one so steep it might as well be a sheer drop. An idyllic setting under any other circumstances.

  But the fires to the north and west were growing, and they had no idea where Maggie O’Dell was, or whether Quin was dead or alive. Or if there was a booby trap.

  But they could find out quickly. Duke took the thermal imager out of the sheath in his belt and turned it on. A minute later it began to register heat signatures in the cabin.

  “There’re two people inside,” Hooper said.

  Duke shook his head. “No. Just one. Here.” He pointed to the long humanlike shape in an array of colors, from dark to light.

  “Move it a bit—see! There. It moved.”

  “Too small. It’s an animal.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. Small dog or cat.”

  In tacit agreement, Duke and Hooper ran low to the ground to the cabin from opposite sides. They made it without trouble, and listened, waiting for a ten count.

  There was no sound from inside the cabin. Duke concentrated, bringing up all his past military training, and listened. Nothing but breathing. Gasping.

  He double checked the thermal imager at closer range and identified one individual inside.

  At the count of ten, Duke went around to the front door. Hooper joined him. “It’s secure,” he said.

  Duke kicked open the door and went in low, while Hooper went in high.

  Quin Teagan was tied to a chair, her torso covered in blood. She wasn’t gasping, but breathing through her mouth, a low raspy sound. Her head lolled forward.

  Duke went to her while Hooper checked the bathroom and closet and cabinets.

  “Clear.” Hooper knelt next to the chair and helped Duke untie her from the chair. “The missing Butcher-Payne duck is in the bathroom.”

  It took Duke a minute to register that Hooper said duck. “We need sheets. Towels if there’s nothing else.”

  Hooper ran through the cabin, found sheets on a Hide-A-Bed. “This is it.”

  “They’ll have to do.” Duke eased Quin to the floor while Hooper cut the sheets with his pocketknife.

  They tied the strips of cotton tightly around all wounds. The cut on her chest was the worst, and Hooper applied firm pressure while Duke searched the cabin for any strong tape. All he found was duct tape, but it was going to have to suffice. They needed to keep firm pressure on the wound while moving her.

  “Nora,” Quin whispered. “Nora.”

  “She’s fine,” Duke said, hoping it was true.

  “Fire. Trap.”

  Duke cringed. He needed to get to Nora and Sean. But Quin would die if she didn’t get immediate medical attention.

  “Nora said there was a vial of something to counteract the effects,” Hooper said.

  “I don’t know that I’d trust anything O’Dell said,” Duke grumbled.

  Hooper looked around. Found two vials, one nearly empty and labeled heparin, one labeled with a name he didn’t recognize. He shoved them in his pocket. “I’m taking them just in case.”

  Duke was about to pick her up when Hooper said, “I’ll do it. Save your energy for the trek to Last Chance Road. You’re going to need it. Back me up to the car, then I’ll take her to town where the ambulance is waiting, and you continue to the other road. If O’Dell is setting the fires to create a trap of some sort, you’ve got to alert them and get them the hell out of there.”

  The end of Last Chance Road was a loop around a mountain peak more than four thousand feet in elevation. This part of the road was used only for forest patrol and fire prevention—it was so narrow a vehicle couldn’t turn around, so you literally had to drive around the peak, about a half-mile journey, in order to head back to town.

  Nora caught sight of Sean only two or three times during the fifteen-minute jog along Last Chance Road until she’d gone around the entire loop. He’d stayed in the middle, on the peak, flitting in and out from behind trees, as sure-footed as a mountain goat. The smoke was getting thick coming from the south, and to the north and west were both deep ravines that were impassable.

  She’d come from the east.

  She pulled out the walkie-talkie Sean had the foresight to bring with him. “The fire is coming from several points south of the loop, and the other two sides are deep canyons. We need to go back.”

  “Roger. I’ll follow your lead.”

  Nora looked around for any sign of Maggie. Where was she? She started back along the edge of the road, and every hair rose on her skin. She was being watched. Her phone vibrated. She glanced down.

  It was a text from Duke, and he’d sent it to both her and Sean.

  We have Quin and Hooper is taking her to town. She’s alive, but needs medical attention. I’m on my way to you. The fire is a trap. Get back to the plane ASAP.

  Quin was alive. Lorraine hadn’t lied about the cabin, and for the first time Nora felt a sliver of forgiveness. Her anger and resentment toward her mother faded a bit, now that she knew Quin was safe, that Lorraine had helped to save her.

  The heavy weight of fear, worry, and guilt lifted from Nora’s shoulders. Now she could focus on her suspect, Maggie O’Dell.

  Sean said in the walkie-talkie, “Move it, Nora.”

  She started walking, then running. The sense of being followed increased as the smoke blew in her direction. The wind was increasing, which was the worst thing for the fire other than the dry needles and brush lining the forest floor.

  A rock the size of a large fist fell from the hill and rolled in front of her, and she had to jump over it to avoid twisting her ankle. Another rock rolled down, and another; then one grazed her in the shoulder, this one smaller but with greater velocity. Damn, that hurt.

  She pulled out her gun, unable to see her predator.

  Sean asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Where are you? Sean, get down here. Someone’s up there!” It had to be Maggie.

  They were sitting ducks here on the road. Nora couldn’t see Maggie, but Maggie had sight of her enough to throw rocks.

  “I’m coming—I’m on the road behind you.”

  Another rock hit her in the shoulder, and she dropped her gun. She dove against the mountainside, grabbing her gun on the way.

  Sean rounded the corner, and rocks were flung at him. Maggie must have a slingshot, and was damn accurate with it. A good-size rock hit Sean in the side of the face, knocking him to his knees.

  Maggie could stone them to death if they couldn’t find cover.

  Nora shouted, “Maggie! Show yourself.”

  “You brought someone?” A voice came from above. Nora looked, but couldn’t see anyone. The air was getting thick. “It’s your fault that he’s going to die.”

  Another rock hit Sean as he rose, this one in his lower back. He fell back down.

  Nora aimed her gun toward where the rocks were coming from and fired. Once. Twice. Three times, then ran to S
ean as he struggled to rise from the road.

  “Come on, Sean, please,” she ordered.

  He stood, shook his head as if to clear it, and ran unsteadily with Nora back against the cliff. “This is the safest place,” she whispered. “Stay close to trees and—”

  A rock hit her on the top of her head and she fell to her knees, her vision gone. She tried to shake it off, but couldn’t move. Sean picked her up and sat her back against a redwood. “Nora—shit.” He touched her head and she winced. “You’re bleeding.”

  “You can sit there as long as you want,” Maggie’s voice called from above. “You’ll die from the fire if you hide, or I’ll pummel you to death if you move.”

  Nora whispered, “Fire tower. I’ll bet there’s a fire tower up there.”

  Sean tried calling Duke on his cell. “Damn, I’m not getting through. We’re going to have to make a run for it. If we can get just a bit more down the road, we’ll be out of her range.”

  “I can’t. Wait a minute.”

  “Okay.”

  Nora put her head in her hands and willed herself to stand, but she couldn’t. Sitting still she felt dizzy, but standing she’d pass out. She had to get over this.

  “You go,” she told Sean. “I’ll cover you.” Her hand was shaking as it held her Glock.

  “You’ll shoot yourself in the foot. I’m not leaving you. I’ll think of something.” He coughed. “If we wait ten minutes, she won’t be able to see us through the smoke.”

  “It’ll be too late. Do you hear it?”

  They listened to the fire crackling on the other side of the peak. “Small consolation that she’ll die in the blaze, too,” Nora said.

  “You’re not going to die. Duke would never forgive me.”

  “I could say the same about you,” Nora told Sean.

  “Then think.”

  Duke heard the gunshots and followed the footpath up the south side of the mountain. Fire was to the west of him moving north, and the wind kept the worst of the smoke away from him.

  And toward Sean and Nora.

  He picked up his pace, faster than he should be going on the steep path, but suddenly it flattened out on Last Chance Road and he saw the trail to the fire tower J.T. had told him about. He glanced at the digital map. The trail was a steep incline all the way up for more than a hundred yards, which meant he’d be seriously winded, with Maggie well prepared for his arrival.