Max was as astonished as they were. The soldiers called out to the other team, who took off sprinting to their aid. Max scurried for a better look and ducked behind a large rock. Peering around the side of the boulder he saw the lead soldier trip and sprawl to the ground, the others stumbling over him. A low rumble began. The soldiers scrambled desperately to their feet as an avalanche of rocks began tumbling down the hillside directly at them. Barely on their feet in time, they fled for cover into the thick of the woods, but they got no further than a dozen yards before they too were dangling high above the ground.
Max stood up, dumbfounded. Then he began to laugh. He was tempted to hike back down and further humiliate the cursing soldiers. Instead, he pulled his black bandanna over his nose, gathered up some small stones, and lobbed them down at the swinging bundles.
“Who are you calling a dumbass?” he jeered good-humoredly. “Haven’t you boys got anything better to do than hang around here?”
Another warning bell in his head cut short his fun. He sensed trouble from above. He picked up his ruck and loped down the sloping hill and back under the cover of the forest canopy.
Daybreak found Max asleep in his bag thirty feet above the ground in the sturdy arms of a yellow pine. He had slept only three hours before the reveille of hundreds of singing birds wakened him. For nearly an hour he sat quietly in the warmth of his sleeping bag listening, watching, and wondering. A squirrel scampered down the trunk of the tree and pitter-pattered over his shoulder and onto his lap to pick up the crumbs of trail mix he was eating. He fed the furry rodent from his open palm.
Aware that he was in big trouble, Max’s contentment was short-lived. His trackers were close behind and in greater numbers than before. He saw more helicopters and parachutists. They were tightening the noose, and Max knew that at any moment he might find himself surrounded.
Max climbed down from the tree and continued his trek. He did not know where he was. The rumored hermit was nowhere to be found, but recalling the stories of Old Man Messerman, Max felt sure that the traps the soldiers had fallen into were the hermit’s handiwork, and so figured he must be getting close.
Max never considered giving up his search for Aidos. He was certain she was alive and in those woods somewhere. At times he thought he was being led to her. When he was unsure which direction to travel he used Aidos’ ring as a compass. He stopped, held it gently in his fist, and slowly pivoted until he felt the ring grow warm and tingle in his palm, and then hurried off in that direction.
He could not account for the phenomenon; but heck, he thought, it seemed to work so far. He was, after all, still free and on the move. Was it coming from within or without? Did his unconscious know something he didn’t? Did he possess some mental faculty for which such things were naturally adept, like dowsing, and that he was just beginning to tap into it? It was crazy and smacked of mysticism. But, he thought again, so what? Life is mystical. Was there anything, he mused, more abundant in the universe than mystery and the unknown?
By noon, Max had twice encountered his pursuers. In the first incident, he dropped on a soldier from a tree and smacked him with the butt of the soldier’s own rifle. He tied the man’s hands and feet together behind him and left him face down in the snow. He surprised a second soldier from behind a large boulder, tackling the man to the ground and putting him out with a single, solid punch to the face. He tied him up the same way. Neither man knew what hit him. By evening, Max had two more close calls but managed to slip away without confrontation.
Then his luck ran out.
Scrambling up what he thought was just another ridge turned out to be a cliff. A gorge yawned below, and at the bottom of the gorge flowed a frothing river. It was nearly dark, the wind whipped about him, and it had begun to rain.
Max ran desperately along the ridge looking for a route down. He saw none. He resorted to the ring. It told him to go over the cliff. Max scampered more along the ridge searching for a way down that looked at all negotiable, but the cliff was sheer along its entire length. The rain became a downpour and the wind kicked up into a tree-bending fury. A helicopter sped overhead and then banked. They had spotted him.
62
The Ayes Have It
Max scurried toward a spot where the ridge rose to a heavily wooded area that jutted to the edge of the cliff. He stopped and pulled out the ring. It pulsed in his hand and said—over the edge.
He removed his ruck and peered into the gorge and its dark churning waters. He listened to its death-inviting roar. Max backed up and thought there just had to be another way. He glanced to his left. There, only a few yards away, crouched on the limb of a tree and glaring at him, was the panther.
“What do you want?!” Max shouted over the noise of the rain and wind and the whacking blades of the copter. The panther looked Max in the eyes, and snarled. It too wanted Max to go over the cliff.
Max stepped to the edge of the precipice and gazed down into the abyss. He heard a gunshot followed by a loud, commanding voice. “Max Stormer, raise your hands and turn slowly around!”
Thunder boomed and sheets of rain gushed down. The helicopter pitched and swayed amid the rolling black clouds like a sailboat on a stormy sea. Max raised his hands and turned to face the voice.
He was completely surrounded. A dozen soldiers stood only twenty yards off—their rifles pointed at his heart and head. To see them through the heavy rain was like peering through a curtain of gauze.
“Nice day, isn’t it?” Max hollered. “Kind of makes you want to say it’s great to be alive!”
“Stay where you are and keep your hands up!”
The soldiers moved in cautiously, closing the gap. Rain poured down. Max tipped back his head and drank the sky. He was very thirsty. Behind the soldiers came a loud crack. They spun and saw a thick branch carried off by the hammering wind.
“It’s over, Stormer,” yelled the soldier at the head of the advance.
Max inched closer to the edge and peered down into the chasm to assess his chances one last time.
“Keep your hands up!”
The men halted ten yards off. The leader tossed a pair of handcuffs at Max’s feet. “Put ‘em on!” he ordered.
In the rain the figures across from him looked more like ghosts than men. Max stared down at the handcuffs, which had sunk into a puddle of mud.
“I said put ‘em on, now!”
Max bent down and picked up the cuffs. The helicopter struggled to keep a spotlight on what was happening below, but the beam had the effect of a strobe light.
The cuffs felt heavy. Too heavy. He knew what they meant, and where they would lead him. Max glanced again at the big cat. He thought it was observing him with interest.
“Come on, boy, before we have to do it for you!”
Max weighed the handcuffs. Then, with cavalier indifference, he pitched them in a high arc over his shoulder into the dark valley below.
“Dammit!” The soldiers flung down their rifles and rushed him. They halted, and then dove for cover. The struggling helicopter was in a plunge and headed right for them.
Max hit the ground. The copter passed narrowly above him, just missing the side of the cliff. The helicopter found its balance a moment before colliding with a grove of trees, and pulled up. After regaining altitude again, it banked and sped away.
Max scrambled to his feet and made a move to flee but a gunshot froze him in his tracks.
“Get him!”
Max saw the soldiers come rushing at him. “Aw, crap,” he said. He raised his arms in surrender and was hit broadside. Below his feet was nothing but air.
“Whoa! What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know…”
“Did anyone get a look?”
“Some kind of animal…”
“A wolf, maybe…”
“No, a big cat…”
“Holy crap.”
“Can you see anything down there?”
“A river.”
&nbs
p; “They just flew over the ledge. The kid never knew what hit him.”
“Man, what a way to go…”
“The copter had to make a landing. We’ll have to wait till morning to search for the body. No sense any of us getting killed.”
“It was his own damn fault.”
“Dumbass kid. What the hell was he thinking? He could have surrendered.”
“I guess we ought to call this in.”
“Any chance he’s still alive?”
“Nobody’s that lucky.”
“After a fall like that? You don’t want to be lucky…”
63
Virtutis Fortuna Comes
Itchy darkness. Inertia heavy as a lead blanket. A raspy, ghoulish wind. The smell of smoke.
The flames of Hell already?
He tried to speak, but his mouth was pasted shut, his lips ponderous as pillows stuffed with buckshot.
Figures…I who so loved to talk!
His eyelids, heavy as skillets, would not open…
What’s that? … A voice … There it is again. The voice of an angel. Cool, heaven after all. So now what? Yoo-hoo, anybody home? There it is again … Man, am I thirsty. Bringeth me succor somebody. My tongue cleaveth to the roof of my big mouth and tasteth of camel dung…
“Max…”
Huh?
“Max … Drink…”
With great effort he peeled open his eyes. Oh no! Not you too! I’m so sorry…
“Shh… Drink.”
The water moistened his lips and like a window coming unstuck, his mouth flew open—“Aidos!”
His head rested on her lap and her smiling eyes looked down upon him. She kissed him tenderly on the forehead, her hair brushing along the sides of his cheeks.
“Aidos…” he purred.
She put a canteen to his mouth. “Drink.”
Max drank greedily, the precious liquid bringing him to his senses. He said, “I thought I died and went to heaven.”
“What was it like there?” she asked with a smile.
“Itchy, and really dull.”
Aidos chuckled and nursed him with some more water. A few feet away he saw a glowing fire, and beyond the fire the first shades of morning framed by the gray brown mouth of a cave. He heard the sound of rushing water. Again he felt itchy and noticed for the first time that he was wrapped in a blanket. He reached inside to scratch. When he pulled his hand out, he was clutching a fistful of leaves, pine needles, and other assorted vegetation.
“Insulation,” she explained. “I pulled you out of the river. You nearly froze to death.”
Max groped again under the blanket. “I’m naked!”
Aidos smiled and bounced an eyebrow. “Your clothes are drying over there.” She pointed to a rock near the fire. “You were unconscious when I reached you. I had to give you mouth to mouth resuscitation.”
“Did I enjoy it?”
“Don’t you remember?” she rejoined, a coquettish twinkle in her eye.
Max shook his head regrettably.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“I don’t think anything’s broken.”
“Good.”
“But how? How could I have survived?”
“Virtutis fortuna comes,” she said. “Good luck is the companion of courage.”
Max bolted upright and turned to her, cupping her face between his hands and searching her bright gray eyes.
“Aidos!”
“Yes?”
“Oh…I don’t know. Where would I start? I missed you. I missed you a lot.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“Your father is sick. We came looking for you together and he became really ill. Pneumonia, maybe. I don’t know. Then your uncle’s helicopter crashed and he broke his arm and ankle and…”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“They’re okay now, but we must go back.”
“To Pinecrest?”
“Yes,” she said. “Right away.”
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s trouble and someone might get hurt.”
“Aidos, what’s going on? How do you know these things? And where the heck are we?”
“I’ll show you.”
Aidos rose and brought Max his clothes. He dressed as she waited for him at the mouth of the cave. He was astonished to find he had suffered no injuries at all and felt perfectly fine. Bewildered, but fine.
Max observed the girl as he dressed. Aidos looked even more beautiful than he remembered. She seemed impervious to the cold, and wore only a light-blue sweatshirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. Her legs were long, her bottom shapely; her shoulders were broad, her breasts, pert. There had always been a brilliance about her that delighted and awed him, but now Aidos seemed to radiate light.
He felt ashamed gawking at her as he was, but he couldn’t help it. She was enchanting, and he missed her and loved her, and was just too overwhelmed by all he had been through. Aidos was alive after all, and so was he. News got no better than that.
64
Ready or Not
“Is this where you’ve been hiding yourself?” Max asked.
They stood on a high bank that ran along the river. On the opposite side a sheer limestone wall rose a hundred feet to a thick forest of aspen trees.
“I have a few homes I visit,” she answered.
“You mean like the hermit’s?”
“Hermit?”
“We heard that there was a hermit living out here who might have seen you. That’s who I was looking for, hoping he might lead me to you.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
“But here you are.”
“Well, yeah, but no thanks to any hermit.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’d know if I met him, wouldn’t I?”
Aidos smiled wryly. “Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, how did you find me? These woods are quite vast.”
“I didn’t. You found me, remember? I was just trying to keep from getting caught.” Max reached into his sweatshirt and pulled out the ring. “I used this as my compass. Crazy, I know, but…” He undid the shoelace and slid the ring back onto Aidos’ finger. Holding her hand in his he felt suddenly awkward and timid. He looked up from her hand and met her discerning eyes taking him in. He felt he was giving her more than just a ring.
She lifted her hand to his face and stroked his cheek. “A lot has happened since I’ve been away, hasn’t it?”
“It’s been a hell of a time, Aidos. You wouldn’t believe—”
“I know about Ms. Winters and your mother,” she said. “I’m very sorry. I also know that you were thrown out of school and that there have been many men searching for you. I know about your sisters and my father and Ed. And I know that our friends are in trouble.”
“How can you know all that?”
Aidos casually twirled the ring on her finger and admired its glint in the sunlight. “Maybe you wouldn’t believe me.”
“I don’t know, Aidos. My life has become pretty weird. The word impossible doesn’t mean what it used to. What if I told you that I could, well, hang out with animals—like pals—maybe even talk to them?”
“I’d say, isn’t it wonderful?”
“Yeah? And if I said that the trees befriended me and the birds serenaded me? And every morning the dawn ran to greet me, and that I have eyes in the back of my head and can smell things a mile away? And that sometimes, when things are just so, and I’m quiet and still, I can step through some curtain in my mind and the world becomes—”
“Just what it is. Beautiful.”
“Yes!”
“Then you have met him,” she said.
“Who?”
“The hermit.” She nodded. “Him in you who knows more than you do.”
“Well,” he grinned, “we were never formally introduced.”
Aidos chuckled and began to descend toward
s the river. “We never are.”
“So tell me,” Max said, following her down, “that note you sent us. You said you weren’t ready yet, that you needed more time. Are you ready now? Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I’m ready.”
“Ready for what?” he asked.
“Anything that happens. Anything that doesn’t happen.”
“I know that feeling!”
Aidos smiled and took Max by the hand. She led him in a spry scramble to the edge of the rushing river and pointed to a large boulder in the middle of the rapids. She dropped his hand, and in a succession of graceful, stone-stepping bounds, she pranced out into the river. A final leap and she landed soundly on the large rock. The misty spray caught the morning sun and arced a rainbow around her. Aidos’ hair tossed in the wind, and though she was some twenty yards off, he could see her supreme elation.
She called and waved to him. “Come on, Max!”
Max put his thumbs in his armpits and made like a chicken. Aidos laughed and beckoned to him with a curling finger.
Max assessed the situation, backed up a few steps, and charged. Momentum was key, and gazelle-like he leaped hopscotch, rock to rock, until the final broad jump to Aidos’ outstretched hand, which saved him from overshooting the boulder.
“Exhilarating, isn’t it?” she said, her arms around his waist as she helped him steady himself on the slippery rock. Max was clutching her shoulders when their eyes met. Her hair blew around his head, wrapping him in a silky curtain that blocked out everything but her smiling face. “You look so serious,” she said.
Max didn’t answer. He grinned awkwardly and swallowed hard. His heart pounded.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’d like to kiss you, Max.” She raised her lips to his and kissed him. The river roared past, swirling about the rock as the wind showered them in a fine, cold mist. They turned and faced the onrushing water, Max behind her, his arms around her waist.
“It’s all so incredible,” he said.
Stormer’s Pass: Aidos Trilogy: Book 1 Page 33
