Never Far Away

by Michael Koryta

  “Kid?” he said.

  Matt stopped, his head just above the bottom of the doorframe. Looked back up at him.

  “Tell the spook in the rocks to come out, too. He might not want to listen, but you’re going to need to tell him.”

  Matt didn’t know how to respond to that. Didn’t even know what it meant. He nodded, though.

  Bleak paid out a little more rope, hand over hand, giving Matt enough slack to climb down.

  Down he went. It wasn’t far, but the sight of the water frightened him, and his legs were shaking so badly each step felt like one more than he’d been capable of.

  He made it, though. Held on to the strut, the metal cold in his palms, then got himself turned around to look up the river. That was where he’d seen Hailey and Nick in the instant before the first bullet hit the plane.

  They were still there. Or Hailey was, at least. For a moment, Matt thought that Nick was gone. Then he realized how carefully Hailey was standing in front of him, screening every inch of her little brother’s body with her own, facing down the monsters so he didn’t have to. It made Matt think of the chalk drawings on the wall in her basement.

  She’s braver than me, he thought, and right then Bleak said, “Kid, talk.”

  Matt shouted through dry lips. “Hailey, all he wants is your aunt! He says he won’t…he won’t…”

  He couldn’t keep going. Not looking at her and seeing the way she stood like a human shield in front of her brother. She was going to make Bleak go through her to get to Nick. That’s how Matt should feel—one last stand was better than none. He knew that Bleak would kill him no matter what he’d promised. If Matt was going to die, why lie?

  “He’s going to hurt everyone!” he shouted. “He’s going to kill every—”

  The jerk on the rope would have sent him into the river if he hadn’t been holding so tightly to the metal strut. Instead it just drew the rope tighter around his neck.

  Bleak said, “Just say her name. You tell Nina that Bleak is here. You say that, and you live.”

  The river ran beneath Matt and made him dizzy. If he lost his grip on the strut, he would fall fast, and drown. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on to the strut. His knees were flexing, calf muscles loosening. The motion of the water was the worst; it made him so dizzy. He looked up, searched for Bleak but couldn’t find him.

  “I hate you,” Matt told the darkness inside the plane.

  “I know,” the darkness answered. “Now say her name.”

  Matt turned away from the darkness, taking care to keep his head high so the water below didn’t disorient him. He balanced on the gently rocking float and faced forward, toward Hailey and into the wind. He could still smell the smoke but down here, closer to the water, the blood was gone. Rinsed clean.

  He took a deep breath, and then he screamed.

  “NINA! BLEAK IS HERE!”

  The force of the scream actually bent him forward, and the plane rocked again, and for an instant he thought he was going over. Then he straightened and clutched the strut with all the strength he had, and balance was restored.

  “That was good, kid,” the darkness told him with a soft chuckle.

  Matt didn’t answer. He was waiting for the gunshots to begin.

  “Let me go get the kids!” The shout came from Matt’s left, and again he nearly lost his balance as he twisted to look. No one was in sight.

  “Who is that?” Matt said, but of course Bleak didn’t answer. All Matt knew was that it wasn’t Randall. This voice was new.

  “I’ll get in that boat and get the kids out of here,” the voice from the rocks shouted. “And the dog.” A pause, and then, as if it were an afterthought, “The pilot I don’t care about. Settle that however you like. Let me get the kids and the dog out of here and then you can finish your job.”

  Suddenly a shout came from upriver, a woman’s voice, but not Hailey’s. “Who are you?”

  It was Leah Trenton, Matt realized. He couldn’t see her, couldn’t see anything but dark trees and large rocks and a funnel of swift water topped with white foam that looked like the lace tablecloth his mother put out at Thanksgiving. For a moment, everything was quiet, and then the man in the rocks answered her.

  “I’m Doc Lambkin’s phone call!”

  Wind and water. No voices. Soft whines from the dog on the bank, soft cries from Nick out on the sandbar, tucked behind his sister. Nothing at all from the darkness inside the plane.

  Then, sudden as a rifle shot: “Let him take my kids, Bleak! Let him take them, and I’ll come down!”

  Bleak didn’t answer right away. Matt wasn’t surprised by this. He’d been the man’s hostage for long enough to understand that the man thought things over when he could—and even when it seemed he couldn’t.

  The man in the rocks spoke softer, as if hoping not to be heard by Leah. “There’s another plane, Bleak,” he said. “North of Roman Island. The pilot is in the cargo hold. You want to fly out, you can fly out with him. Let me take the kids, and then I’ll bring her to you.”

  “Sounds too good to be true, brother.”

  “I’ll do it. She’ll do it, too. She knows those kids are going to die otherwise.” His voice rose, as if he wanted to be heard by all parties again. “I’m not going up there if she’s still shooting, so regardless of your opinion, I need to see her rifle come over the rocks.”

  The low chuckle came again from Bleak. “Who are you, man?” It was the most emotion Matt had ever heard from him, a blend of authentic amusement and curiosity.

  No answer from the rocks.

  “All right!” Leah Trenton shouted. “I will give up the gun. Just let him move them out of sight! You want me! You know that. You’ve always wanted me!”

  The plane creaked and the river whispered. Bleak thought about it. Then he spoke to Matt in a soft voice. “You tell her it’s a deal, kid. And then you tell her that you’ll be the first to die if she’s lying.”

  Matt shouted what he’d been told. His mind barely registered the words. He shouted that he would die if she lied. The rope rasped over his throat with each word.

  “Rifle coming over!” Leah Trenton screamed.

  Behind Matt, a rustle of motion rocked the plane as Bleak moved inside, probably getting in a position to watch.

  A rifle arced into the air above one of the largest boulders. It rose high, ten feet at least, and then came down in a sparkling tumble, smacked off the boulder, and went into the water.

  Almost as if on cue, a man appeared on the far side of the boulders, walking upriver, backpedaling, a shotgun in his hands pointed at the plane.

  He didn’t shoot.

  Bleak didn’t either.

  The man reached the gray boat on the gravel bank. He put the gun into the boat and then pushed the boat off the shore and into the water and started the outboard motor. He was exposed now but Bleak wouldn’t have a shot unless he ventured out onto the floats like Randall had, and Randall was dead. Bleak would have to wait to see what happened or he’d have to come out and fight fair, in the open.

  Matt thought that the man in the rocks had understood that the whole time.

  49

  Leah slid across the rock face like a free-climber, using hand- and toeholds to stay pressed tight against it while she went left to right to the point where she had a view of the Zodiac as the outboard fired up. A slender man of average height was at the tiller.

  I’m Doc Lambkin’s phone call. Leah’s Hail Mary to an old friend on an island three thousand miles away had somehow produced help.

  She watched as he banked the Zodiac on the sandbar. He got low then, looked back at the plane, and spoke to the kids quietly out of the side of his mouth. Hailey shifted away from her sheltering position in front of Nick, but she refused to release his hand. They climbed into the boat quickly, flattened themselves against the bottom.

  Leah felt a pressure in her chest, watching. The stranger was giving all the right instructions. He’d ne
gotiated well with Bleak, he had promised the right things, and he was playing the firing angles perfectly, understanding exactly where he was vulnerable and where he was not. He would get the children to safety, and then…

  Then they would figure out the rest.

  Ed was on the far bank, and she still had no idea how badly he was wounded, but he’d made it into deeper cover, crawling back into the pines. Tessa had followed him. Leah could hear the occasional mournful whine from within the brush. Everyone was moving to safety now.

  Everyone except Matt Bouchard, another child, another innocent.

  As the Zodiac motored upriver, she free-climbed back across the rock face. Reached her pack, unzipped it, and withdrew the snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 revolver that was inside. Her backup. Six opportunities to hit from close range. The short-barreled gun wasn’t meant for distance, but she was good with it, and in the pocket of her fleece, it would be barely visible. If she got a chance, she could bring Bleak down.

  She would bring him down.

  She pocketed the Smith & Wesson and dropped down to the far side of the rock, where she could watch the Zodiac approach. Her rescuer guided it through the white water skillfully.

  Matt Bouchard was the real problem, and thus Bleak’s source of confidence. They couldn’t leave him. Other than the hostage, Bleak held no advantage. That was good news for the hostage, but Leah wasn’t sure how to save him. She hoped Doc Lambkin’s recruit had some ideas.

  The Zodiac splashed through a rapid, the stern kicked high, and the prop whined as it caught nothing but air. The man in the black cap guided the Zodiac up through the churning water expertly, reading the current with the eye of someone who knew rivers, and finally brought it in behind the rock where Leah waited. He already had a line in hand. Tossed it to her. A perfect toss, one she caught easily, and then he cut the motor and let her pull them in close before tying them off by looping the line around an outcropping of granite and securing it with a quick hitch.

  Leah scooted down the rock and held out her hands to her son.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

  Nick was crying. “We shouldn’t have left. We ran away and we shouldn’t have.”

  He took her hand and she guided him out of the boat and onto one of the low shelves of rock and held his trembling body against hers, made soothing sounds. How much had he weighed the last time she’d held him like this? Twenty-five pounds? She closed her eyes, breathed in his scent, then opened them and looked at Hailey. Hailey was crawling out of the Zodiac and onto the rock. She was staring at Leah. Scared, but there was something else in her eyes.

  “My mom?” she whispered. “Our mom. Is that true?”

  Leah nodded, gazing at her daughter over the top of Nick’s head. “Yes. I left because I thought it would protect you. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I loved you—love you—so much. So much. I know you’ll never understand that, but I promise your safety was the only thing I ever—”

  “Enough family bonding,” the man in the boat said.

  When she finally looked at Lambkin’s recruit, she was shocked. It was the college-age neighbor who’d come down to tell her about the HOA, the one who’d said Carson and she’d heard Corson.

  He smiled, seeing the memory written on her face. “The pond wasn’t the liability after all,” he said. “But I was close, right? Pond, river, whatever. At any rate, Dax Blackwell here, and it’s a pleasure and all of that. Now let’s move.”

  “Doc called you,” she said, stunned by what she should’ve seen on that first visit. He’d looked familiar because he was familiar. A generation behind maybe, but…

  “There were two men—” she began, and before she could even begin to explain the men who’d engineered her fake death, he interrupted her.

  “My father and my uncle, yes. Small world when it comes to hired guns, isn’t it? But we don’t really have time to reminisce. That guy back there on the plane, the one with the kid tied up by his throat? He doesn’t strike me as particularly patient.”

  Leah nodded. He was right. They had to deal with the threat.

  She kissed the top of Nick’s head, tasting the river in his hair, and slid aside. Put her hand on Hailey’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “I’ll fix it,” she told Hailey.

  Before Hailey could answer, Dax Blackwell said, “Get into the boat, please.”

  She saw he’d picked up his shotgun. She nodded and reached into her pocket and withdrew the Smith & Wesson.

  “I’ve got this. I’m good with it too. How do you think we can do it? We need him to let Matt—the kid—go first. Maybe if we flank him. You’ve got better range, but I can—”

  “You can get into the boat and go out to the plane,” Dax Blackwell said in a neutral tone. Leah realized the muzzle of his shotgun had swung her way. “That was the arrangement.”

  She cocked her head, stared at him. Said, “You think I’ll need to get close and take the shot?”

  “No,” he answered, and for a moment she was relieved. Then he said, “In fact, I want you to drop that gun in the water. Right now.”

  The gun in her hand was pointed down at the rock, and he had the shotgun leveled at her chest.

  “Right now,” he said again.

  “But you…you came to help.”

  “That’s right.” Still as calm as if they were discussing the weather. “Things have shifted, though. I work for Hailey now.”

  Leah looked from him to Hailey. Her daughter was crying silent tears. She looked at Leah with shame and desperation.

  “I didn’t mean that,” she said, sobbing. “I said the wrong thing.” She whirled to face Dax Blackwell and shouted, “I didn’t mean that!”

  Dax stayed focused on Leah. Moved his finger to the shotgun’s trigger. “Your corpse will be enough to satisfy him, and it’ll be easier on me. Make the choice.”

  Leah remembered what Doc had said about the man who might help her. That it might not be anyone in a white hat.

  The face might be boyish, but the eyes held no lies. He meant what he said.

  She opened her fingers, and the weight of the revolver was gone. The gun bounced down the rock and into the water and sank.

  “Get in the boat,” he said.

  “No!” Hailey cried. “I didn’t mean it, and I want to take it back. Don’t hurt her! Don’t!”

  “I gave you the choice, Hailey. We agreed that she had lied to you, abandoned you, and put you in harm. You made a choice based on that.”

  Hailey was down on her knees now, still sobbing. “I take it back! I didn’t think you’d really—”

  “That’s not how it works, I’m afraid,” Dax Blackwell said with what seemed like genuine sorrow. “We talked about teaching moments, Hailey. This one, while painful, will be lasting. That’s important. The lessons that linger are the ones that hurt the most. You made your choice and charted your course. I’m just here to see it through.”

  “No! I didn’t mean it.” She spun to face Leah, spit the words in her direction, desperate. “I didn’t really mean it!”

  “I know you didn’t,” Leah said softly. “Hon? I know you didn’t.” The wind rose and blew cool air over her face and she looked at her daughter and at her son and then said, “But he’s right.”

  No one spoke. Everyone seemed surprised. Everyone except for Dax Blackwell, who looked pleased. He gave her an approving nod, and she wanted the gun back in her hand then, wanted to put a bullet into his brain. But still…

  “He’s right,” she repeated. “I can’t stop the threats. I thought that I could. But I need to let you go now. They won’t follow you. I promise that.” She looked at Nick, saw his eyes widen with horror. She touched his arm. “They won’t. And you can go home. Back to your real home. You’ll be safe. I’m so sorry. I am so—”

  “So over the time limit,” Dax Blackwell interrupted. “Let’s get moving.”

  “Don’t!” Hailey shouted at him again, and he sighed.

 
“I’m doing your work, child! A little gratitude is apparently too much to ask for, but at least accept the—”

  “Shut up!” Leah shouted as she moved down the rock toward the boat. “Don’t poison her with that. I’ll go with you, but do not poison my daughter with that! It was not her choice. I brought them here. Brought all of you here.”

  She looked at Hailey when she said the last part, and for a moment time seemed to stop. They locked eyes, and Leah realized what she had just said aloud for the first time.

  My daughter.

  Leah climbed into the boat. “Do not blame my daughter for my mistakes,” she said. Then, looking at Nick: “Do not make my son hear any of this. The choices were mine. Always.” She was struggling now. There was so much she wanted to tell them. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I love you so much, I have always loved you so much, and I am so sorry.”

  Dax Blackwell started the outboard and then leaned forward and cut the line holding them to the rock. The boat pulled away as Hailey screamed for him to stop it, screamed for them to stay, screamed that she hadn’t meant it.

  “Children,” he said, “are not easy. Am I right?”

  Leah didn’t respond. She shouted to Hailey, “Bring that backpack to Ed! Bring it to him, give him the first-aid kit, and he will help. Hailey, listen to me, baby!”

  The current caught the boat then, and the rocks whipped past, and her children were out of sight once more.

  My daughter.

  My son.

  “I love you,” Leah shouted as Dax opened up the throttle and let the boat gain speed. “I love you!”

  Part Five

  Cold Stars

  50

  Dax was glad that Leah wasn’t the begging or pleading kind. It appeared that she understood her burden. She didn’t so much as turn to look at him as he brought the Zodiac around and eyed the plane.

  The wind was picking up and it had pushed the plane back into the weeds and shallow water, then spun it. The spin was good for Dax and bad for Bleak. He wouldn’t have a clear shot until they were almost up to the plane. Dax was curious how long Bleak would give him to deliver Leah Trenton without shooting but not so curious that he wished to die. The boy was still out there on the float, grasping the strut at if he were stuck at the top of a frozen Ferris wheel.