by H. L. Wegley
Jennifer started the car. She drove out of the parking lot, turning towards the center of town. Instead of driving to the police station, she parked on the street across from the sporting goods store. “Lee, wait here. I’ll be right back.”
“What are you up to?”
“Trying to keep us alive,” she replied as she slid out. She went straight to the counter inside.
“Can I help you?” the clerk asked.
“Do you have ammo for a Smith & Wesson .38?”
“Sure. But I only have the standard shells. No hollow points or—”
“Standard shells will be fine.”
“Is everything OK? You look like you need some help.”
“I’m all out of ammo. Forgot to buy some after my last trip to the firing range.”
“Well, here you go. Only one box?”
“That’ll do, and thanks again.” She handed him a twenty.
The shopkeeper cocked his head. “You look familiar. Have I seen you here before?”
“I made several trips out here this past summer.” She hoped he didn’t remember the news coverage from last March. Out here, anyone, even this man, might be the enemy.
“Maybe that’s it. Well, you take care out there. This is a nasty storm. Highway 101 is blocked both north and south of town from downed trees. The National Weather Service says to stay home unless you live in an area that floods.”
“Thanks for the info.”
Jennifer went out the door and hopped into the SUV. She tossed Lee the box of ammunition. “We’re not going to run out of ammo this time. Highway 101 is blocked in both directions. We didn’t get to town any too soon. Peterson’s going to be later than he thought.”
While Lee pushed cartridges into her Smith & Wesson, she drove northbound through town.
When she crossed the Calawah River Bridge, heading out of town, Lee gave her a frown and a glance.
“What happened to going to the police station? You need to tell me what you’re thinking.”
“We have to check out the trail I told you about.” She hoped for his cooperation. “There’s a building or some kind of shelter along that trail. The girls may be there now while Trader waits for the wind to die down.”
“Right now Trader’s probably walking down Highway 101 looking for a ride or a couple of new tires. Besides that, he’s blocked by trees.”
“Don’t underestimate a man who would risk so much to sell girls into slavery. He’s clever and ruthless.”
Lee was quiet for a moment. “A CB radio. Do you recall anything like an antenna on their SUV?”
“Yes. There was some kind of antenna on it. It stuck straight up from the center of the back and it whipped around in the wind.”
“That sounds like a radio antenna. I was too busy looking for the shooter to notice. But if Trader could contact his partners by radio, maybe whoever drives that van could…Jenn, he could have wheels again. He could still be preparing to exchange the girls when the weather breaks.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. All the more reason for us to head towards Rialto Beach.”
“Don’t even think about setting foot on the beach during this kind of storm. It’s sure death—thirty-foot waves full of that driftwood we walk on in the summer.”
“I didn’t mean actually going onto the beach. We can hide my car in Mora Campground and walk to the Dickey River Bridge. It’s only two or three hundred yards below the campground. If they’re using my trail, there’ll be a vehicle in the parking area, or at least, some very recent tracks. They couldn’t have moved the girls more recently than an hour ago, even if they have a radio to call for help.”
“Suppose there is a vehicle parked there. What then?” He was obviously looking for a way to dissuade her.
“If there’s a vehicle there, we have only one choice. We sneak down the trail and find where they’re hiding the girls. Then we make sure they can’t complete the exchange before Peterson gets here.”
“That’s crazy. That whole area is on a ridge above the beach. With these winds, trees could be crashing down like bowling pins along that entire ridgeline. Besides, Petersen won’t be able to find us, and it will be dark in an hour or less with these heavy clouds.”
“But I told Peterson where I thought the holding spot was located.” She paused. “OK, look. If we can locate the girls quickly, we can drive to the Quillayute Airport. It’s only five or six miles away. There has to be a landline phone at the weather station or at the lodge just down the road from it. We can call Peterson with the updated information about the girls’ location.”
“We can also get ourselves and the girls killed by going in and being detected. Trader knows about us now. What you’re proposing is more dangerous than checking mill sites. Besides, he might kill the girls and run if he thinks his operation has been compromised.”
“If we can’t rescue the girls…if I can’t rescue them, I couldn’t live with myself.”
“You can’t think that way. It’s not true.” His hand reached for her.
“Yes it is.” She brushed the tears from her eyes. “I’ve been reading about what happens to these girls. Most are sold into sexual slavery. Some girls are sold to men in Saudi Arabia—men who want a twelve- or thirteen-year-old wife to add to their collection, or should I say, harem. Then there are those rich princes. They pick a girl and fly them out of the country in their private jets. They keep the girls in their palace compounds, which the local authorities won’t enter, and the girls are never seen again.”
“Jennifer, listen to me. With these winds we can’t stroll through a forest of old-growth timber. If we get killed or even injured, we can’t help anybody.”
“They’re going to take the girls down the trail to the holding location. If the girls can be taken down the trail, we can go, too. We have to.”
Lee wiped a tear from her cheek. “I must be insane to let you talk me into this. OK, here’s the deal.”
She had won the concession she needed.
He was right about the possible cost. But if they were doing what was good and right, would God really exact such a cost from them?
What book was Lee reading aloud to her when she made him stop that day? Fox’s Book of Martyrs. People did die. Sometimes because they did what was right.
“We’ll go as far as the parking area to see if the van or any other vehicles are there,” Lee said. “If we don’t see any vehicles, we can check for tracks.”
“We have three scenarios to plan for. What we do if we see—”
“No, Jenn.” Lee’s shoulders and voice dropped in resignation. “We have only one scenario. We just go down the trail and try to find the holding location. Regardless, we’ll assume someone’s there.”
“So if we find the holding spot, we wait there?”
“Yes. We wait there. And if we don’t find it, we hurry back to Forks, do a core dump of everything we know for the Forks police, and then wait for the FBI to show up.”
She took Lee’s hand. “I love you, Lee Brandt. I would do almost anything for you, but I can’t abandon these girls. Please understand.”
“I would do anything for you, too, Jenn. Even something as insane as what I’m about to do.”
She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it.
He looked upward through the top of the windshield. “Lord, I’m an idiot. If that’s a sin, please forgive me.”
Jennifer said nothing and kept driving, her mind working overtime on scenarios.
How could she park near Mora Road, but keep her car hidden? After turning into Mora Campground, she followed a camping loop that circled less than thirty yards from the road. She left the car near the back of a long, narrow, campsite.
Nobody could see the SUV unless they walked into this spot. But tonight, no sane person would be out. What did that say about her? She shoved the questions about insanity from her mind.
Her engagement ring. What if…?
I’ll leave my ring here for safekeeping
.
The small elastic pocket on the driver’s seat would hide it well. Her gun and cell phone were tucked in her pocket, and her raincoat was zipped up. “Lee, are you ready?”
“As ready as I can be. We’re going down the road to the parking area first, right?”
“Yes, but we need to make sure no one sees us on the road. We’ll hide if anyone or any vehicle approaches.”
They stepped out of the SUV into the light rain. The wind howled through the treetops, treetops which were bent sharply to the northeast and pulsating wildly with the passage of each series of turbulent wind gusts.
Lee gently wrapped her in his arms. “I love you, Jenn, and—”
“I love you too, Lee.” She returned his embrace. “There’s no other person I would want with me on an evening like this.”
Lee lifted her chin, looked down into her intense brown eyes. He kissed her. “Let’s be really careful. We stand to lose so much if—”
““Hush.” Jennifer put her hand on his lips. “We have so much to gain. We can’t afford failure tonight. Some young girls need us.”
A piercing crack high above was followed by a loud crash somewhere nearby. Pieces of trees were breaking off and smashing onto the brush below.
She pressed tightly against Lee. “I’m going to need your strength tonight. The wind is more intimidating than I thought.”
“It’s not just intimidating. It’s extremely dangerous. Clubs and spears can rain down on us. Whole trees can be halfway down before we see them falling. I’ll watch the trees as much as I can. You watch for people. Now, tell me again what we do if we see any vehicles in the parking area.”
“If no one is around, we skirt the parking area, staying close to cover, while we check it out. Then we cross the bridge and get on the trail. When we find the fork that branches to the north, we head down it and look for the holding location.”
The drone of the wind suddenly intensified into a shriek.
Lee’s head jerked upward. After a few seconds, he placed his mouth close to her ear. “OK, what if there are people in the parking area?”
“We hide and wait for a chance to follow them.”
“Last question. What if the people are armed and they’re guarding the parking area?”
“We…let’s pray that doesn’t happen.”
“You’re right about the praying part. But if it does happen, we’ve got to slip out of there quietly and get help.”
“Only after we wait long enough to determine they really are guarding the place. Now, are we ready to go?” Jennifer stepped into the bushes at the back of the campsite and worked her way to the edge of Mora Road. Lord, please don’t allow me to be a fool.
There were no vehicles in sight. She prayed there would be no vehicles on the roadway for their entire two-hundred-yard walk down it.
A short distance from the parking area, they moved into the brush on the right side of the road.
The howling wind forced her to speak directly into Lee’s ear. “It’s about fifty yards to the parking area. Let’s stay on the edge of the bushes while we move in.”
Two minutes later Jennifer pushed her head through a bush to survey the parking lot. She gasped.
“What is it?”
“The gray van is there.”
“Is anyone around?”
“No. They must have already taken the girls down the trail. Let’s check out the van before we go.”
Though the windows were darkly tinted, a short look through the side window of the van confirmed that the girls were not inside.
A loud crack felt like it pierced her body. She jumped. A series of crashing noises ended in a ground-shaking thump. A large tree had fallen while the ear-splitting noises had drawn their complete attention. As Lee warned her, walking through old-growth timber on this night could be deadly.
A white SUV sped around a nearby curve on the road and whipped into the parking area.
The tree had distracted her. Before she could react, they had been spotted.
The SUV braked to a stop and doors flew open.
“Run, Jenn! There are two men with guns!”
14
Lee charged into the bushes. The branches Jennifer pushed aside whipped him as he followed her.
Both of them stumbled as they ran recklessly through the tangle of vegetation, trying to put distance and trees between them and the gunmen.
No shots yet. That was encouraging.
Fifty yards in, Jennifer shoved her .38 at him. “Take it. Cover us from behind. I’m going to circle around to get back to the bridge so we can cross over and get on the trail. There are places along the trail to hide until we can go back for help.”
He took the gun and followed as Jennifer crept through the forest. Crashing noises in the brush sounded close behind them. It was difficult to judge distances with the droning wind.
Jennifer stopped. “They’re deep into the thickest brush, not moving fast, but they have us cut off from my car. There are a lot of ponds and marshes in here that we can’t cross and don’t want to fall into. Then there’s the river. It’s too dangerous to ford. We need to double back to the parking area.”
He followed her lead. From her research out here, she knew this area better than he did.
It took Jennifer a couple of minutes to circle back to the road. She stepped onto it, scanned it in both directions, and then motioned for him to follow.
They sprinted safely across the bridge, but when they approached the trail head, a man emerged from the brush a hundred yards up the road.
His rifle belched a staccato burst of shots, shredding the bushes on their right.
Jennifer plunged through the foliage. The trail was hardly distinguishable. More like a deer path. The dense foliage along it forced them to slow to a jog.
Trader could sprint down the road unimpeded and close the gap.
When they reached the far end of a straight stretch of trail, another burst of automatic weapon fire pruned the bushes on their right.
Jennifer yanked him around a sharp bend in the trail. Two large trees shielded them from a second spray of bullets. “Hurry, Lee. We’ve got to keep our lead for about fifty yards more. We’ll jump off the trail near the fork.”
Despite their situation, he smiled at Jennifer’s shrewdness.
Trader would have to guess which fork they took.
After her maneuver, either guess would be wrong.
Jennifer took his hand and pulled him off from the trail into a dense area of forest. She was tough, smart, and he was growing comfortable following her lead.
“There’s a lot of moss on the rotting timber here. Don’t kick any of it loose. Make it hard for them to track us.”
She was using his words about the limestone rocks from last March. “Where have I heard those instructions before?”
A brief smile flickered across her face, and she squeezed his hand.
If only tonight could turn out as well as the events of March.
Jennifer turned and headed directly towards the ridge.
The knot in his stomach tightened. The strongest winds on the entire peninsula would likely occur where the southwest winds accelerated over the ridge above the Hole-in-the-Wall.
He dropped the .38 into his deepest coat pocket and scanned the forest canopy for anything falling.
The wind volume cranked up several decibels, sounding like a crowd of demons rooting for the devil.
Jennifer cupped her hand over her mouth and his ear. “They’re going to pass by us on the trail in a few moments. When they’re beyond us, we should get on the trail. We can move faster there. We’ll make a run for the car.”
“That’s a good plan if they pass us. But what if they’re no-shows?”
“In that case, we stay hidden for a while. If we don’t see them, we walk hidden in the trees, parallel to the trail, and work our way back.”
“OK. But we’ve got to watch the trees. They’re being shredded by the turbulence. How many
goons do you suppose we’re up against?”
“Three, or four. Two were in the white SUV, and at least one drove the van to the parking area by the river, probably with the girls in the back. If they didn’t incapacitate the girls, there may have been two in the van.”
“Three, or four. My thoughts exactly. If we can get to your car and drive back to Forks, maybe the police can help us before the FBI arrives—anything to keep Trader from moving the girls again, or—”
Crashing sounds pierced his ears. They came from somewhere southwest of their position.
Jennifer clung to him. “It’s getting stronger, isn’t it? I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Yeah, the wind is stronger. The next two or three hours will be the worst.” He put his mouth near her ear. “Do you know how far we are from the beach?”
“The top of the ridge above Hole-in-the-Wall is two or three hundred yards southwest of us.”
“These southwesterly winds are accelerating over the ridgeline above the beach. If they get any stronger, entire walls of trees could start falling—wall, after wall, after—”
Jennifer clamped her hand over his mouth. “Stop. I get it.”
Two more loud cracks sounded, followed by crashing noises, each punctuated by a ground-shaking thump.
“As each row of trees comes down, it will expose the next row, a row that’s never been exposed to strong winds. Like a domino effect.”
Her hand clamped over his mouth again. “You already told me that.”
He pulled her hand aside. “We need to move away from the ridgeline, and we need to do it now.”
“Back towards the trail?”
“We don’t have a choice.”
A staccato of loud cracks rose above the droning wind. It sounded like the first domino had fallen.
He grabbed Jennifer’s hand and pulled. “Run!”
They sprinted towards the trail.
“Lee, behind us!”
When he glanced back, two large trees fell towards them.
He jerked Jennifer, diving for cover. Lee curled his body around her.
The outer bows of a tree slapped the side of his head. Though covered by a hood, his cheek and ear throbbed from the slashing blow.
