by JJ Aughe
She released Jessie and turned toward the hallway. “Eddie has been busy removing bullets and watching over Sean almost since we arrived. So, I think I should get back in with Sean and let the poor man get some rest.”
Since her room had become the command center and she wanted to be near Sean, Melissa had decided to sleep in an overstuffed chair Eddie had moved into Sean’s room from the living room. As it happened, it was fortunate that Melissa was with Sean.
Sean awoke in terrific pain just before midnight. Eddie had prepared a liquid pain medication of herbs he said a Sioux Medicine Man he had met while on sabbatical from medical school back East had taught him to prepare. He instructed Melissa on what to do if Sean seemed in pain, so she immediately administered the medicine. Within a few minutes Sean’s pain had eased and he began asking questions. Melissa filled him in on all the details of their escape and the discovery of her grandfather’s surveillance equipment. Then she stood and moved to his side. Bending over him she slightly shook her head, smiled and kissed him long and hard. Breaking the kiss, she hovered just millimeters above his lips.
“For your information Sean O’Donald, you saved mine and Jessie’s lives in the escape tunnel when you pushed us to the floor. You had to know you would be hit, but you didn’t hesitate to try to save us. I knew I loved you before then. But, after that act of heroism I loved you even more!”
Drawing away to put some distance between them so she could watch his facial expressions, she continued. “Now we have talked here for twenty minutes and you haven’t said a word about what you feel for me. Well, now I am going to tell you something. I love you with all my being and I want to marry you! Oh, I know we only met this morning, well, maybe it is yesterday morning now, and the circumstances are not the best in life but I don’t care. You exemplify the best a man can be for a woman. You are so kind, thoughtful and so self-sacrificing! What more could any woman ever want? I have never even remotely felt this way about any other man, ever!”
“Now, Sean O’Donald,” she stated as she stepped further back and away from the bed. “I have bared my soul to you! What do you have to say about that?”
Sean let his eyes rove over her curvaceous, desirable body from head to toe as he tried to cover his shock with a quick smile. Given that he had never before felt this kind of attraction or connection for anyone he was at a total lost as how to verbalize what he felt. Aware that he needed to put what he felt for her in the right way, he reached out with his good arm for her hands. Melissa obliged by stepping closer, but when his hand found hers he felt how hard and cold they now were when moments before they had been soft, gentle and warm on his face. It was obvious. She was afraid he was going to tell her he didn’t have feelings for her. When he spoke, it was the plain truth.
“Melissa. Oh, Melissa. I fell in love with you at the hospital. I just didn’t know it. I realized it was true though when that guard had his gun on Bailey and you shot him. We were all defenseless, at his mercy and you knew you were the only thing standing between us and the terrorists. I knew then that you were my kind of woman. You wouldn’t mince words or take any guff from me or anyone else. Yet you are a giving, loving and gentle woman. Just exactly what I need and have searched for in every woman I have ever dated or had anything to do with.”
He was about to say, yes, he would marry her, but his mouth was suddenly covered by hers as she bent over him, kissing him with a furious passion.
Federal Way, Washington 9:25 Sunday morning.
Jamad looked up triumphantly from his laptop. “We have them, Almed! The pass codes have activated the GPSTs. I have pinpointed their location.”
Almed spun his chair to face his second in command, barking, “Where are they?”
Jamad turned the laptop so Almed could see the screen. “I have run the co-ordinates from the GPS chip to the real-time satellite feed. Here is where they have gone to ground. As you can see, it’s a remote cabin high in the mountains northeast of where we attacked the safe house. They have perched themselves high on the west side of the mountain with only one way in or out.”
“Good work, Jamad. I will send Dajhal to get the lay of the land. He has been in this region for years. He knows this area well enough to get in there and out without being seen. He will be able to get close enough to make sure they are actually there. I trust his judgment and ability, Jamad. He has fought in Afghanistan and knows how to weigh the circumstances and determine the best plan of action. We will give him the time he needs to accomplish that by waiting a few miles away for his report.”
“No mistakes this time, Jamad. You will personally make it understood by every man that, unless fired upon, no one is to fire his weapon unless I personally give the order.”
Chapter 12: Impressions In Snow
About one-forty-five Sunday afternoon, while monitoring the approaches to the cabin, the red alert light Bailey had installed on the control panel came on. Carol broke off her conversation with Melissa and immediately checked each of the monitors. She caught a glimpse of an odd movement high in the trees just off the access road a mile from the cabin. The movement of the limbs of the tree was unnatural. Since there was little or no breeze to cause the disturbance and she didn’t think an animal or bird was making it either she adjusted the zoom on that camera’s lens. She studied the area intently for some time before she made up her mind. No, she concluded. Whatever is there is something besides the wind, a bird or an animal. She immediately sent Melissa to rouse Bailey.
Bailey carefully and minutely studied the area where Carol had seen the movement. He was ready to say he couldn’t find anything suspicious but as he glanced away from the screen something in the snow below the trees caught his eye.
“There,” he exclaimed as he adjusted the zoom to full and centered the camera’s lens on a patch of snow between two tall fir trees. “What do you make of those depressions in the snow, Carol?”
Jessie came to stand next to Bailey as Carol perused the image on the screen. Jessie spoke before Carol could give her opinion. “That looks like ski tracks to me!”
“Just what I was thinking,” Carol agreed. Then, speaking the obvious, she said, “There is someone out there right now.” Then she qualified her statement. “I know those tracks weren’t there when I scanned that very area fifteen minutes ago.”
“It might be someone innocent of any spying but I’m going to find out who it is and what they are doing here.” Bailey glanced from one woman to the other, nodded and strode purposely from the room.
Within forty-five minutes Bailey returned. Though he didn’t expound on what took place out there in the snow covered forest he had a dark, forbidding countenance. Jessie saw spots of grease on his hands and noticed some spots around a tear in the upper left arm of his denim jacket that looked suspiciously like blood. Though she couldn’t see any cuts or scrapes on him anywhere, the spots made her wonder. Yet, if it were blood and it wasn’t his she didn’t want to know whose it was or how it got there, so she didn’t ask.
“We have to get out of here,” Bailey immediately announced.
Looking up at Bailey’s face Jessie read a desperation in his eyes that was foreign to what she knew of him. When he spoke again she knew from the rough sound of his voice that he had discovered something was terribly wrong while he was outside.
“Jessie. This is important. I need you to tell Melissa I need to speak with her. Then get Eddie to help you get Sean to the back door. After you get Sean to the laundry room send Eddie upstairs as soon as you can, okay? But you wait there by the back door with Sean for the rest of us. And no matter what you see or hear out there, Jessie, do not go outside!” His last words were spoken with emphasis and Jessie obeyed without comment.
“I killed him, Jessie! I killed him in cold blood!”
Bailey was in a state of remorse and Jessie wanted to comfort him. Bring him out of it in some way. But she didn’t know what to say. They had just left the cabin. Bailey, to give Carol more room to drive
and because he wanted to cover their back trail, and Jessie, because she wouldn’t leave his side, were in the bed of the truck. In the back seat Melissa and Eddie sat one on each side of Sean who was heroically trying to keep from screaming with pain from the bouncing of the truck.
Over the racket made by the truck as it slipped and slid along the trail Bailey answered a question from Jessie. “When I found him, Almed’s minion was talking on a cell phone with the phone on speaker. He was just finishing his report of our being here at the cabin. I overheard him saying to someone that he had disabled the truck and if Almed charged in within the hour there would be no way we could escape.
The guy asked how long before their men arrived and I heard Almed answer. I know it was him. I’d know that voice anywhere. He told the scout that he and his men were on the access road but over two miles from where they were to meet him. He ordered the man to keep in contact and to get close enough to the cabin to kill anyone who tried to leave. So, when he climbed down from that tree and started toward the cabin, I killed him.”
“I killed him in cold blood, Jessie! I didn’t give him a chance! I just . . .”
“NO,” Jessie ordered, deciding no matter what it took now was the time to stop his self-incrimination. “Don’t do this to yourself, Bailey. Not again. That man, whoever he was, would have killed any one of us if we had so much as stepped outside! So don’t be feeling like you have done anything wrong! And remember this. He wasn’t just our enemy. He was an enemy of the United States!”
Earlier, when Jessie had told him about the ski tracks in the snow Eddie immediately contacted his pilot and the helicopter was already on its way. Still, Bailey was worried that the chopper would not get there in time.
On their way to the cabin Saturday Melissa had told Bailey there was only one way in by road. But with the dangerous change in circumstances Melissa informed Bailey that there was actually another way out, if they dared take it. When he prompted her to go on she told him that they could take the pickup down the mountain on what her grandfather had always referred to as the ‘goat trail’. The trail, she said, was very steep, but, if the driver were very careful, a negotiable set of 4X4 ruts that, because of a landslide in Two-Thousand, ended a mile or so above the Green River.
Outside of knowing whether the truck would run long enough to make it there, the only trouble Bailey could see was that Melissa didn’t know if there were a place for the helicopter to land. If there wasn’t, then they would have to work their way down a very steep cliff, ford the river and find somewhere for the chopper to rescue them.
Eddie spoke up then. “I know that area, Bailey. I often fish that part of the river. It’s rugged terrain, but there is one place right at the bottom of the slide area where my pilot can land the chopper. And even if he can’t, the ship is fully equipped with rescue equipment, winch cable, two rescue baskets and all.”
The decision of whether to go that way or not was taken out of their hands as Carol came running down the stairs. “Four Hummers just came into sight at the top of the hill a mile and a half from here!”
The pickup had started alright but it wasn’t running very well at all. Jessie thought it sounded sort of like an old two cylinder Johnny Popper Harley-Davidson motorcycle her cousin Burney had bought at a flea market. Nevertheless, the truck was running and they were slipping and sliding down the two, very steep, snow covered ruts Melissa had called a goat trail.
Almed and a contingent of twenty men waited for five minutes at the juncture of the roads leading to the two cabins. Dajhal was expected to meet them there. When his man did not join them Almed knew something had happened to him. With a sense of urgency he ordered his men on toward the cabin. Equipped for an all out assault, the force reached the cabin within minutes after their quarry had taken flight.
Fresh tire tracks in the snow leading down the mountain told Almed the tale. His quarry had fled. Making sure, he ordered his men to surround the cabin, sent Jahad and two men inside to make a quick search of the interior. Minutes later Jamad reported there was no one inside.
Satisfied his quarry was in the vehicle fleeing down the mountain, Almed gazed at the tire tracks in the snow for a second, his lips turning up at the corners in a wicked smile. Both the topographical maps and satellite images Jahad had shown him indicated that even in a four-wheel drive the steepness of the terrain leading to the end of the ridge was near impossible to negotiate. The maps and the real-time satellite image both had shown that the ridge ended at a sudden, almost sheer one hundred foot drop into a river. His decision based on that knowledge, he only sent six well-armed men down the mountain to capture the prize. Just in case he was wrong though he held the rest of his men back, sending most of them to thoroughly search the cabin and surrounding grounds for Dajhal’s body.
Bailey intensely watched their back trail as the truck rounded a bend in the rutted trail. Suddenly the truck swerved sidewise and he heard a rifle report. Hearing the shot Jessie grabbed hold of the side of the bed and held on for dear life as the pickup swerved to the right. Sensing the pickup was going to roll over, Bailey yelled for Jessie to jump. As the pickup’s driver's side wheels left the snow packed ground Jessie obeyed. Seeing Jessie sail out of the bed of the truck, Bailey, the A-R Fifteen held firmly in both hands, sprang for the tailgate, just clearing it before the pickup began to slide down the embankment on its side.
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as Bailey sailed through the air. He watched helplessly as Jessie slammed into the base of a large boulder. Then he saw the pickup roll twice and come to rest on its wheels and the ominous approach of six of Almed’s men.
As he flew through the air his only thought was that he was the only hope for the love of his life and his friends. Hitting the snow covered ground on the flat of his back he quickly flipped onto his stomach and came to his feet, firing from the hip at the approaching enemy.
Almed’s six men gave out a whoop of success as they saw the vehicle roll and slide on its side down the embankment. Confident they had their quarry they sprinted toward the pickup, only to seek cover as Bailey fired and two of their number stumbled, sprawling in the snow on their stomachs, bloody, gaping holes in the backs of their coats.
Four assault rifles returned his fire as Bailey began to run in a zigzag pattern back up the embankment trying desperately to reach Jessie who hadn’t moved since hitting the boulder and rolling onto her back. Finally realizing he had to take cover to concentrate his fire on the four remaining attackers, he took refuge behind two large boulders.
An opening between the boulders allowed Bailey to see Jessie about forty feet or so up the incline lying behind the boulder she had struck. He could see she was safe enough for the time being, but he couldn’t tell whether she was alive or not.
Pinned down by a steady barrage of automatic rifle fire he eyed the expanse of open ground between him and the love of his life. It was almost certain death to leave the safety of the boulders but he had to chance it. He gathered his feet under himself to jump up and over the boulders to make a desperate charge up the incline. Before he could move he heard a volley of shots coming from behind him. Taking a quick look back he saw that, one at each end of the wrecked pickup, Carol and Melissa were giving him cover fire.
Without another thought Bailey squeezed off more rounds in the direction of the attackers. Hearing the last click on an empty chamber he began an all-out run for Jessie’s position. Halfway to Jessie he felt the tug as bullets ripped through his coat, shirt and pants but he didn’t waver. The love of his life was injured and he was determined to reach her. He took two more giant leaps, then, bullets ricocheting off rocks around him, rolled the last few feet and made it to Jessie.
Fearing the worst he first ejected the empty magazine, inserting a fresh one and jacking a cartridge into the chamber. He set the rifle against the boulder as he placed two fingers against the side of Jessie’s throat, checking for a pulse. He found a strong one and gave a sigh of relief.
She was only unconscious. A bullet ricocheted off the rock above his head and he instinctively covered Jessie with his own body while grabbing for his rifle.
Another bullet zinged off the boulder and whizzed away enabling Bailey to zero in on the shooter. Sending two evenly spaced shots into the brush where the attacker hid brought satisfying results as the shooter suddenly gave a startled grunt and rose to his feet. Bailey squeezed off another shot and the man flew backwards out of sight.
A sudden, eerie silence enveloped the hillside.
Puzzled, Bailey glanced toward the pickup, saw Carol point to herself, then toward Melissa and give him a thumbs-up gesture, then pointed up the incline with her index finger pointing up, then pointed two fingers down, letting him know that of the six terrorists there was only one left. To let her know he understood what she was telling him he returned a similar gesture. Then he heard Jessie softly moan.
A sharp rock poked rudely into Jessie’s lower back. Why am I lying on rocks? she groggily wondered. Her mind finally clearing, she remembered the truck swerving, the gunshot and her desperate leap from the truck, then seeing that she was going to collide with a large boulder she utilized her tumbling instructions to make her body into a ball so the impact would hurt less.
Bailey! Where is Bailey? In a panic she opened her eyes. Immediate pain shot through her head. Emitting a soft moan she instinctively closed them again. Placing both hands over her eyes she spread her fingers a little so she could see without her head throbbing.
