Go! - Hold On! Season 2

by Peter Darley

  “Drake-Faraday. I told you that.” He pulled out a hip flask and handed it to her. “Johnny Walker Blue. The top of the line. Take it.”

  She took the bottle and drank deeply, the sharp burn of the spirit causing her to squint. “God, that’s strong stuff.”

  “You need it,” he said.

  “You’re right, but I still hate you.”

  “Sue me.”

  “I don’t really.”

  “I know.”

  Tyler pulled on the collective lever and flew them into the night.

  As the helicopter cut through the air, Belinda looked out of the window and saw they were already over the snowy mountains. “You said Brandon was shot?”

  “He needs you.”

  The response came as a non-answer, and it was abrupt. “He needs you.”

  He needs me. He needs me, repeated in her mind. Being needed—the same characteristic that drove Brandon. That drove them both.

  The helicopter landed on the north plateau, two miles from the cabin, and the rotor blades slowed gradually.

  “I picked up your snow boots from the cabin.” Tyler took the boots off the back seat and handed them to her.

  Belinda’s eyes widened with excitement. She remembered the day Brandon bought them in Aspen for her. The fact that she was about to wear them again, at the cabin itself, thrilled her heart.

  Tyler handed her a shawl, gloves, and a Russian-style, fur-lined hat with an insulated facial guard. “Put these on too. It’s minus ten out there.”

  “All right, take it easy.” She couldn’t understand why he’d suddenly become so stern.

  As if in response to her thoughts he took a deep breath. “It’s been a long day.”

  She looked at him and smiled empathically. “I know. I’m sorry, Tyler. I do understand. I know what this can do to you.”

  “You got that right. The cabin is just beyond the ridge.”

  Belinda grasped his wrist, and tears came to her eyes. I’ve waited for two years for this moment.

  Tyler placed his arm around her shoulders. “Hey, hey. It’s all right. Everything’s gonna be OK. I’ll get you to him and everything will be fine. Let’s just get down there.”

  Belinda grasped the snow boots and gazed at them for a moment. As she put them on, she focused on her feet falling into them, persistently questioning if it was really happening. Was she actually returning to utopia?

  “Are you ready?” he said.

  “As ready as I’m ever gonna be.”

  “Good. This is it. Let’s get going.”

  Tyler grabbed the backpack, opened the side door, and stepped out. Belinda took her suitcase and followed.

  They walked with difficulty through the thick snow, and further heavy snow was beginning to fall.

  “How far is it to the cabin, Tyler?” she shouted over the cutting wind.

  “About two miles.”

  “Two miles?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I thought you said it was just over the ridge. Why couldn’t you have landed a little closer?”

  “Because there is nowhere closer. You can’t land a helicopter on a snow slope. This is a two-mile-high snow slope. That’s the ridge.”

  “Well, why didn’t you land by the cabin?”

  “Because the only flat spots around there are where the cabin is, and the space where those trees are behind it. You need flat, clear space for a helicopter. Those rotor blades aren’t gonna forgive any obstacles. The cabin is in the worst possible place for landing a chopper.”

  “You still haven’t told me how you know about the cabin,” she said. “It’s a secret place Brandon got himself sent to Leavenworth for.”

  “I’m not happy about it, believe me. We had no choice but to come back here. I’ve just seen what happens to those who might know too much. Being chased through the streets by agents isn’t my idea of a party.”

  The snowfall descended ferociously.

  “Did you say two miles?” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  And then it became a blizzard. The snow beat against Belinda’s face, cutting into her to the extent that she couldn’t go any farther. “Tyler, I can’t move.”

  “Neither can I. Jesus H. Christ!”

  The snow whipped at them mercilessly. Belinda held her hands out as the onslaught continued. “Tyler!” The force of the storm forced her back, causing her to twist and turn blindly. “Tyler!” she cried again, but she couldn’t hear anything over the deafening sound of the wind.

  She staggered back and felt herself sinking. In an instant, she knew she’d stepped into a snowdrift. Her lips quivered as she became submerged. The snow continued to fall in on her, smothering and suffocating her, and virtually burying her alive.

  Four

  The Lucky One

  “Belinda, where are you?” Tyler braced the palms of his hands in the snow and pushed himself up. Before standing fully, he grasped the suitcase.

  “Tyler,” he faintly heard her cry.

  Realizing she’d hit a snowdrift, he scurried around in the deluge with desperate speed. “Hang in there. I’ll get you out.”

  The snowfall thickened as his fists pummeled desperately into the snow. “Oh, hell. Where are you?” He punched again in an attempt to prevent ice from forming, all the time knowing he might accidentally injure her. Using his hands as shovels, he burrowed snow away from the area. The snowfall grew heavier, whipping at his face painfully. As fast as he cleared the snow away, it was filled in again.

  Panic gripped him the longer time went by without finding her. Not only would it be a tragic and horrific way for Belinda to die—freezing and suffocating, buried alive—but what would it do to his brother? Brandon was severely injured and desperately needed medical attention. How would he survive learning Belinda had died when they were to be imminently reunited?

  He widened the area of his search, moving six feet to his right, but there was nothing under the snow. It made no sense. She’d been standing right next to him.

  Two yards to his left, a shower of snowflakes burst up out of the ground. Tyler barely heard it, but placed his forearm across his brow and looked across. He could scarcely make out two gloved hands protruding through the snow. “Oh, thank God. Just try to stay calm. I’m coming.”

  He burrowed through the fresh, relatively-soft snow, shoveled it away as fast as he could, and cleared her face. Together, they managed to pull both arms free. Tyler reached under Belinda’s armpits as she strained to pull herself free. With them working together, she gradually came out of the drift.

  Belinda coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of snow in the process. The storm continued to beat against her with merciless persistence.

  Tyler angled his face down toward her to avoid the snow. “Belinda, you’ve got to turn over. Keep your face away from the blizzard.”

  Once her eyes, nose, and mouth were out of the direct line of the onslaught, he placed his arm across her shoulders and held her tightly. “Now, hang on to me.”

  “W-what is h-happening?” she said through chattering teeth.

  “Some kinda freak snowstorm. Never seen anything like it.”

  She held him with her free arm, and they moved through the storm.

  Tyler struggled to see through the snow but worked out the direction of the blizzard was west-to-east. With his arm around Belinda, he led her on with the flow of the storm behind them.

  Within five minutes, he thought he could make out something approximately twenty-five feet away. Maybe it’s a tree? “Keep your head down and move straight ahead.”

  “Where are we going?”

  He pointed ahead. “Over there. Come on.”

  “With e-everything t-that’s happened t-trying to get here,” she said, “it’s like the gods are t-trying to keep B-Brandon and me apart.”

  “Seems that way, but I don’t buy it.”

  They plowed farther through the forces of the elements. When they had reached approximately
one hundred yards from where they’d started, he could see it wasn’t a tree they were heading toward. It was a cluster of them.

  “This is it,” Tyler said joyously. “Our asses are saved.”

  They quickly arrived at the trees. The wind-driven snow continued to soak them, forcing them to keep their eyes forward.

  Tyler led Belinda into the aspen trees and settled in front of one that was the farthest into the cluster. The trees behind it acted as an additional break against the storm. Finally, they sat and huddled close to one another with their backs braced against the tree.

  “W-we made it,” Belinda said in a thankful tone. Her teeth continued to chatter incessantly.

  “Yeah, we sure did. You gave me one hell of a scare back there.”

  “I gave myself one hell of a scare b-back there, too. Felt f-for sure that I was dead.”

  “Well, you’re not, but we’re not out of it yet. We’ve got to sit it out ‘til it slows down.”

  “S-so, what’s your story, Tyler? Help m-me take m-my mind off it.”

  “A long one,” he said. “I almost met you once before, you know.”

  “How so?”

  “I was at the trial.”

  She looked at him surprised. “You were at the t-trial? I n-never saw you.”

  “Well, I was at the back with my dad behind all the off-duty soldiers in the courtroom. He has connections to Fort Bragg, which is how we could get to the trial. You were really upset.”

  “Why didn’t you s-say something?”

  “Wrong time. Wrong place. I wanted Brandon to be free so badly. I’d searched for him since I was twelve years old.”

  “Since you were twelve?”

  “Yeah. I was the lucky one. Found out at twelve I was adopted. I had it all. My dad’s one of the wealthiest guys in Texas. He’s the founder and CEO of the Faraday Corporation. Best schools. Best friends. But there was always something missing. Finding my birth family became an obsession. Dad was real supportive. I finally found Brandon just as he was being taken to freaking Leavenworth.”

  “So what happened? How did you get involved with his escape?”

  “Visited him regularly while he was there. We hit it off real quick. After about a year, he hinted to me what he was up to, and when he was gonna do it, so I got myself prepared. It took a long time, but he broke out of that place all by himself.”

  She looked at him questioningly. “B-but you said he was shot.”

  “He took a bullet on the run, not far from the grounds. I picked him up, got him to one of the airfields my dad commissions in Kansas, and we flew here.”

  “And after that you came for me?”

  “Yeah. Alex was already on the way to Denver. We’d planned all of this.”

  “So, who is Alex?”

  “One of my closest friends. He works in my dad’s marketing department. We recruited him out of Los Angeles. He’s a really great guy. Me and him are pretty tight.” Tyler chuckled mischievously. “My dad would freak out if he knew what the two of us were up to.”

  “That’s s-so amazing, Tyler. I had no idea. Brandon d-didn’t want me anywhere near Leavenworth.”

  Tyler laughed. “Proud jerk. With Brandon, you don’t give the guy a chance to say no. I just showed up there unannounced.”

  Belinda gave a strained smile. “Guess I should’ve been m-more assertive with him.”

  After another powerful gust of snow-filled wind, the blizzard began to abate.

  “Hey, you feel that?” Tyler said. “It’s stopping.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let’s give it a few more minutes, and then we’ll get the hell out of here. This has gotta be the c-coldest I’ve ever been in my whole damn life. You must be even colder after being under the snow for so long.”

  “I’m f-frozen solid,” she said.

  Gradually, the snowfall slowed to a scattering of random snowflakes blowing in the wind. They finally stood with snow falling off them, and walked back in the direction they’d come from. Taking a right turn, they exited the trees.

  “The ridge is just a few yards ahead,” Tyler said.

  “OK.”

  They quickly reached the edge at the top of a steep snow slope. The gradient was fierce, but manageable.

  “Now, take it steady getting down there,” Tyler said. “It can be a real son of a bitch,” “Getting Brandon down here while he was injured was no walk in the park, I can tell you.”

  Cautiously, she began her descent, her suitcase in one hand, and her other tightly gripping Tyler.

  “Two years ago,” she said, “Brandon and I came back from Los Angeles to find Treadwell sitting in the living room in the cabin.”

  “Yeah, he told me about that.”

  “It was the c-creepiest moment of my life. After Treadwell shot himself, Brandon placed the body in a sack and p-pulled it all the way up this ridge. I realize now how harrowing it must have b-been for him.”

  “Yeah, Brandon’s a tough guy, no doubt about it.”

  Very carefully, she placed one foot before the other, careful not to slip.

  “You’re doing fine,” Tyler said.

  “Thanks. What kind of b-business is your father in, Tyler?”

  “He manufactures helicopters. He has clients all over the world. The US Army, Air Force, numerous police forces around the US and Europe, global corporations, rich playboys, you name it.”

  “Wow. That explains your helicopter and sports car.”

  “Like I said, I got lucky.”

  Belinda slipped and her suitcase fell from her grip.

  Tyler braced his feet into the snow at a sideways angle and held her hand to prevent her from rolling down to the bottom. “Easy, easy. I’ve got you. Just hold—”

  “Don’t say it!” she barked.

  “Say what?”

  “It.”

  He shook his head, confused, but held onto her hand so she could pull herself back up.

  Once she was on her feet, they looked down and saw her suitcase as a speck a few hundred yards down the slope.

  “You OK?” Tyler said.

  “Yeah, I guess,” she replied, a little shaken.

  “All right, concentrate, and let’s get to the cabin in one piece. We’ll pick up the suitcase when we get to it.”

  Very carefully, they continued their descent.

  Five

  Behind the Door

  Arriving at the bottom of the ridge, Tyler and Belinda came to a small snow hill, no higher than six feet. Belinda braced herself for what she would see on the other side. It wasn’t a steep climb, just enough to obscure her view. Suitcase in hand, she climbed the few footsteps up and over the hill.

  Finally, after two years, there it was. Her mind flooded with memories as she gazed at the cabin just a few yards ahead of her. To her left was the short path that led to the clearing with the snow-coated forest behind them. Her dream had come true at long last.

  The Turbo Swan was still parked outside in the spot they’d left it before they’d headed out to North Carolina, two years earlier—the journey that had led to Brandon’s arrest. Their separation, and Brandon’s incarceration in Leavenworth, had all happened due to that damn machine being parked outside the cabin.

  “Well, here we are,” Tyler said cheerfully.

  She looked up and noticed there was no smoke coming from the chimney.

  “Now, why in the hell hasn’t he got the log fire going,” Tyler said. “The guy must be freezing his nuts off in there.”

  Belinda silently concurred. Brandon used to have the fire burning almost every waking hour. “I do hope he’s all right.”

  “Let’s get inside.”

  They walked up to the front porch. Tyler took out the key and opened the door.

  Belinda remained a step back for a moment, apprehensive about what she was going to find behind the door.

  Tyler stepped inside first. “Brandon? I’ve got a surprise for you, bro.”

  No reply came.


  He turned to Belinda. “Come on. He’s got to be in here somewhere. Let me find the light.”

  Slowly, she moved closer and then stepped inside. Tyler found the light switch and flicked it on.

  Before them was a man huddled in the corner of the room, wrapped in a blanket. His hair was damp and his eyes were sunken. His skin appeared ashen and coated with perspiration. A makeshift bandage around his shoulder showed blood soaking through it. Shivering violently, he loosely held a three-quarters-consumed bottle of gin.

  Horrified, Belinda looked upon the face of a virtual stranger. “Brandon?”

  He looked up with a glazed expression. “Mom?”

  ***

  Agent Andrew Wilmot stepped into Deborah Beaumont’s office at Langley with the hint of a swagger. “You’re working late. How is he?”

  “Very annoyed.”

  He nodded, somewhat complacently. “What are your plans for dinner?”

  With her spectacles resting on the end of her nose, her piercing, contemptuous hazel eyes would have cut through the resolve of most men. But not Wilmot. Deborah was an attractive woman of thirty-seven, and the loyal secretary of Strategic Detection of Terrorism Director Elias Wolfe. Her manner had always been cold, overly-proper, hopelessly humorless, and apparently, asexual. Just the type Wilmot loved to conquer.

  “That’s a shame,” he said. “I was thinking of taking you to KFC.”

  Shaking her head, she sneered.

  He moved on to the adjacent office and knocked.

  “Come in, Agent Wilmot.”

  He finally cringed, knowing what this was about. There was the possibility of inconveniences on the horizon as a result. Such concern was not something he’d ever show to Deborah.

  Wolfe turned with a stern, clearly-displeased expression, as Wilmot entered. “I just received the report of all communications during the incident with Belinda Reese earlier.”

  “Yes sir?”

  Wolfe moved closer to him. “I trusted you, Andrew. You’re an exceptional operative, which is why you were promoted to my second-in-command. But what the hell were you thinking?”

  “I don’t follow you, sir.”