“No … we can’t.”
“I repeat. Turn the plane around and land. I have orders to shoot.”
“No!” She shook her head. “Listen to me.”
“Better do as he says.”
The chopper rose and got above her. “He’s going to force us down!”
“Please, listen. I’m Jennie McGrady. You have to let us go.”
Jennie screamed as the feet of the helicopter tapped the top of the plane. “All right. I’m going. But my dad will hear about this!”
Jennie turned the plane around and headed back to the runway. She set up for a straight-in landing, eased back the throttle, and hoped she could keep the plane level.
“I knew it wouldn’t work.” Eric slumped in his seat. “Just shut up. They can’t just let us fly out. They don’t know me. For all they know, I might be transporting drugs. If only Dad were here.”
“Well, that’s just great.” He pointed at the gunman near the hangar. “We’ve got them coming at us from both sides now. Either way, we’re dead.”
“What happened to your faith, Eric? We’re not finished yet.”
Eric stared intently out the window on his side. “Cowards.”
“What?”
“Never mind.” He covered his head. “You’re coming in too fast!”
The wheels hit the ground with a thud. “Eric!” Jennie screamed. “Help me with the brakes. Stomp them hard—with even pressure or we’ll roll.” They skidded to a stop. The plane’s momentum pitched them forward, ramming the nose into the tarmac.
Jennie’s seat belt grabbed her and held her in place. “I thought you knew how to fly,” Eric gasped.
“Jennie! Is that you?” a familiar voice came over the radio.
“Dad! Yes, it’s me.”
“What’s going on, princess?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I don’t know what you’re doing in that plane, but do not leave. Take cover.”
“I have J. B. and Gram and some other people in the plane. I was trying to get away.”
“I’m aware of that now. The pilot was under strict orders not to let anyone leave.”
“We can’t stay here, Dad. They’re going to blow the place up.”
“Who?”
“The drug dealers. The sheriff is one of them.”
“We have a ground troop coming in right now.”
“No, Dad, you have to call them off. Stan and his men set charges. I don’t know when they’re set to go off. Your men will be killed.”
“Jennie”—Eric took hold of her arm—”I have a feeling it’s going to be soon. While you were busy landing, I saw Stan and his men heading for the stables.”
“They’re getting away, Dad. We have to go.”
“Jennie!” He had a warning in his voice that made her hesitate, but only for a second.
“You have your cell phone?” Jennie asked. “Yes, but—”
“I’ll call you. The men in charge of this whole thing are heading for the stables on the other side of the compound from where you are.”
“Your dad’s right, Jennie,” Eric said. “You stay here. I’ll go after them myself. I have a score to settle.”
“Eric, wait!”
“We’ll take care of them. Can you fly out?” Jennie’s dad asked.
“No.” She started to open the door and realized her side of the plane was facing the warehouse and the guns. “I’m going, Dad. We have to stop Stan and the others before they get too far away. Once they get out of range, they’ll set off the charges.”
“We’re coming in, Jennie. Just stay put.” Dad’s words filled the empty cockpit as Jennie slid out of the plane on Eric’s side and tore out into the darkness after him.
23
“Jennie, where are you?” Dad sounded furious with her, but she’d had no choice.
She put the cell phone close to her mouth so she could speak softly. “In the stables. But there’s no sign of them.”
“This is nuts. Get out of there.”
“Trust me, Dad, this is much safer than on the airstrip.”
“I don’t see them.” Eric came back to her after checking the stalls.
“Hold on, Dad.” She turned to Eric. “Are you sure you saw them come out here?”
“Where else would they have gone? The horses are still here.”
Jennie heard a grinding. “What’s that?” She ran outside. “I don’t believe it … Eric!” Jennie called to him, but he was already standing beside her, mouth open. Half the mountain seemed to open. “Looks like something out of a James Bond movie.”
“What’s going on, Jennie?” Dad barked.
“We found them. They’re going inside the mountain.”
“What?”
“It looks like they’ve built this huge command center inside the mountain. There’s a helicopter inside and a bunch of electronic equipment. Stan and another guy are getting into the helicopter.”
“Hurry. The doors are closing.” Eric took off.
Jennie raced after him, but they were seconds too late. Just as the huge double doors slid shut, Jennie heard the chopper start. “Dad, they’re getting away.” The chopper wings beat out a staccato pattern and rose up out of the top of the mountain.
“We’ll take it from here.” Within seconds the government had its chopper over the scene. It forced the helicopter down.
Jennie turned to go when the side door opened again. Donovan jogged out and stopped when he saw them. “Stan’s getting away,” he panted. “He betrayed us. He’s been using us …”
“You’re saying you didn’t know about it?” Eric asked. “Of course not. I’d never allow anything like that, and he knew it.”
Maybe he was innocent, Jennie considered. “Why are you out here? You were running away with Stan.”
“The sheriff—I was trying to talk to the sheriff, but he hit me. He’s one of them. I didn’t know about the drugs, I swear.”
“You’re lying.” Eric advanced on him.
“It’s true,” Donovan gasped and began running. At first Jennie thought he was heading back inside the compound, but instead he ducked into the stable. A horse whinnied, and he came racing back out on one of the geldings.
Eric ran into the barn and returned moments later on Sable’s back.
Jennie tore out soon after on Faith. “Jennie, are you still there?”
“Can’t talk now, Dad. Donovan is getting away on horseback.”
“Which direction?”
“I don’t know.” She glanced back. Agents were storming the fortress inside the mountain. She could barely see the forms of Eric and Donovan racing over the desert. Jennie told her dad where they were heading and stuffed the cell phone into her pocket. Leaning forward, she urged her mount to race toward the two men. The DEA helicopter rose again and appeared to be searching for them. Its light hit Donovan and Eric and kept them in its beam.
Donovan’s horse was fast, but Sable overtook him. Eric came alongside and grabbed Donovan around the waist. Both men toppled onto the ground. It took Jennie only seconds to catch up with them. Donovan lay on his back, whimpering. Eric straddled him, fist in the air, ready to strike. “You knew. You took my parents and were going to kill them.”
“No … Eric. I didn’t. I swear.”
Jennie dismounted. “It’s over, Donovan.” He whimpered like a whipped pup.
“I’m going to kill the creep with my bare hands.” Eric jammed a fist into his face.
“Eric, no.”
Eric pulled out J. B.’s gun.
“No, please, don’t kill me,” Donovan pleaded.
“Why should I listen to you? It was all a farce. Nothing here was real. I believed you.” Eric was crying now, tears spilling freely. “I thought I was getting into something real and spiri
tual. But it was all a hoax.”
“Not all of it.” Jennie put a hand on his shoulder. “God is real. So is His love. So is faith and prayer.”
Eric sat hunched over Donovan, who still lay on the cold ground.
“Please.” Donovan whined. “I didn’t hurt anyone. I never did. Stan killed the agents. He wanted to kill them all. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“You expect us to believe you?”
“I’m innocent.”
“You’re pathetic.” Eric got to his feet and handed Jennie the gun. “You watch him. I can’t stand to look at him.” Shoulders sagging, he walked a short distance to the horses and gathered up the reins.
Jason McGrady arrived with several uniformed men, who took over. Jennie handed over the gun. “It’s J. B.’s. I took it when he was captured. Figured it might come in handy.” She watched an agent lead Donovan away, and then, glancing toward the compound, she added, “The charges. Stan and the sheriff were going to blow the place up.”
“They didn’t get a chance,” one of the men said. “Thanks to you we have the detonator, and our people are defusing the explosive devices as we speak.”
“The residents are being evacuated just in case.” Dad’s voice came from behind her.
Jennie sighed and leaned against him as his arm curled around her shoulders. “Am I in trouble? I know you said I should wait in the plane, but I couldn’t.”
He shook his head. “I’d have done the same thing, princess. I’m just grateful you’re safe. Come on, let’s go. You have a lot of explaining to do.”
24
“I’m glad you came with us.” Jennie picked up a handful of powdery snow and tossed it at Eric. They’d been cross-country skiing for about an hour. The sun made diamonds on the snow. In the distance Mount Bachelor stood proud and haughty. Tomorrow they’d be on it, flying down the ski slopes and taking hot cocoa breaks in the lodge.
“I appreciate the invitation.” Eric tossed a little snow back but kept skiing.
J. B. and Gram had extended their time at the mountain resort for another week. After the ordeal they’d been through, they needed it. Gram and the others had been taken to a real hospital and treated. The drugs they’d been given wore off with no side effects. By the following day they were all discharged. Eric’s parents and brother had gone home. With help from friends and neighbors, their things had been moved back into the house. Rebuilding of the barn and shop had already begun.
Things were almost back to normal again. The criminals had been caught and would be facing charges of drug trafficking. The compound had been a perfect drop-off and pickup point, especially with Donovan controlling his followers with small doses of his special blend of peace drugs every day.
“Things are kind of unsettled with my folks,” Eric said. “They’re glad to have me home again, but I’m not sure I want to be there. And I think they blame me for the fire.”
“That’s not fair … If you hadn’t been there, they would have lost more than they did. And you didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“I didn’t start it. But if I hadn’t joined the Colony, none if it would have happened.”
“You can’t know that. Your brother and father found Stan and his men while they were moving the plane wreckage. You had nothing to do with that. If you hadn’t been a member of the Colony, the drug operation would still have been going on. I’m glad you joined. I think God had you just at the right place at the right time. Gram and I needed you to be there.”
Eric grinned, and Jennie’s heart melted. “I needed you too,” he said.
Embarrassed by the admiration in his eyes, Jennie straightened and turned around in the direction they’d come. “We’d better get back.”
“Speaking of going back, I wonder …” Eric paused.
“What?”
He pressed his lips together. “I’ve been thinking about going back to Desert Colony for a while. At least until school starts next fall.”
“I thought they were closing the place down.”
“Lois and Dory and some of the others want to keep it going. There’s a lot of work to do—like tearing down the outside walls Donovan built. They want to get it back to the way it was before he came in.”
“Do you think they can?”
“With help. My dad and brother are going to volunteer. So are some of the neighbors. At first I didn’t want anything to do with them. But now I see that most of the people there are dedicated Christians. The community had a good reputation once, and it can again.”
“They’re getting rid of the juice, aren’t they?” Jennie wrinkled her nose.
Eric laughed. “There was nothing wrong with the original juice. You know that. Donovan managed to doctor every batch.”
“Speaking of doctors, what happened to Paul and the nurses? They must have known about Donovan’s secret ingredient.”
“Actually, they didn’t. Donovan was coming in to pray for the patients several times a day. Only, his prayers included a tranquilizer.”
“It’s hard to believe Paul didn’t know. He’s a doctor.”
“Maybe he was like me and the others. We knew something wasn’t right but didn’t want to believe it.”
“How’s Marilee doing? Did she know about James being involved in the drug smuggling?”
“No. James and about a dozen other young guys got recruited to work in the warehouse. Stan gave them a cut of the take, which in some cases turned out to be a lot of money. I imagine if I’d been there longer, they’d have tried to recruit me too.”
“Poor Marilee.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about her. Knowing Marilee, she’s already forgiven him and is ready to move on.”
“Is she one of the reasons you want to go back?”
“No, why?”
“I think she likes you.”
He leaned back and gave her a wary look. “You trying to set us up?”
“No. I just wondered.”
“Marilee isn’t my type, so you don’t have to worry.”
“I’m not worried.”
“You looked worried to me.”
She gave him a playful jab in the stomach and took off.
She raced him to the cabin and won.
Gram and J. B. were deep in conversation when they went inside. “What I don’t understand is why it took you so long to find us.” Gram was lying on the couch in front of the fireplace, using J. B.’s lap for a pillow.
Jennie and Eric came in quietly and sat on the floor in front of a chair, her back leaning against Eric’s legs. Gram had dozed a lot over the last few days and still hadn’t figured out everything that had happened. Jennie was having some trouble with it herself.
J. B. smoothed Gram’s short gray hair back from her forehead. “The odds were against us finding you at all, luv. When you didn’t show up, we called the airport and learned that you had changed your flight plan and were headed for Sun Valley.”
“Sun Valley!” Gram glanced at her husband. “And you believed it?”
“Now, Helen, you have been known to change your plans rather abruptly.” J. B. winked at Jennie. “It didn’t help that the sheriff had a part in the drug operation.”
“Which meant he hadn’t tried to find you at all.” Jennie wrapped a long tendril of hair around her finger. That was the part of the whole deal Jennie found hardest to swallow. The sheriff and Stan were the major performers in the drug-smuggling business. They, not Donovan, controlled everything. Donovan knew, but he just pretended not to. He was getting rich and had control of his people. It didn’t matter much where the money came from.
Eric got to his feet and paced back and forth in front of the fire. “I can’t believe I was so gullible. I believed Donovan’s lies about the vigilantes. I even let him convince me my mom and dad and brother were against m
e.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I should have known better. I grew up out there. Some of the guys might have been rednecks, but they’d never have turned on a neighbor.”
“Donovan was a very convincing man,” J. B. reassured him. “And a dangerous one.” He sighed and leaned over to kiss Gram. “I’m just glad it’s over and we all got out of there in one piece.”
Gram smiled up at him. “If it wasn’t for Jennie and Eric, we may not have survived at all.”
Jennie got to her feet and went to stand beside Eric.
Slipping her arm around his waist, she added, “It was all supposed to happen like it did. And it happened for a reason. The plane crashed and—”
“Are you saying God made it crash?” Eric asked.
“No. I don’t think God makes bad things happen. But He used the crash for good. We survived, went for help, and met you. None of us knew what was going on. Only God had the big picture.”
“Well said, Jennie.” Gram beamed at her.
“You have a cool granddaughter, Mrs. Bradley.” Eric’s gaze caught Jennie’s and held. Suddenly she wasn’t the least bit worried about Marilee.
“Hey, want to help me make dinner?” she asked.
“Sure.” He settled an arm around her shoulder and gave her a teasing grin. “Got any tofu?”
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