by Matt Lincoln
“Alice is going to the house,” Diane reported in a breathless voice. It sounded like she was running. “Carl Donovan is with her, but he doesn’t have the new intel. We can’t get a hold of him.”
I pushed the Charger harder. “I’ll—” The phone beeped with another call, this from the loaner phone Alice had. “Hang on.” I switched lines. “Alice?”
“Ethan—”
Her voice vanished. A series of taps was followed by a dull thud. I heard Ken Liu’s voice, muffled yet dead calm.
“That’s unfortunate.”
There was other speech, but the voices receded, and I couldn’t make out the words.
“Robbie,” I whispered, “get Diane on the line. I’m not hanging up on this.”
He nodded, and I drove as hard as I could without wiping out. We were too far away as we heard people getting into a vehicle, and then I heard tires grip the hot asphalt as an engine passed near the phone.
We’d missed them by less than five minutes. Five damn minutes.
When we pulled in, the two department cars in the driveway were the only vehicles in sight. I parked next to them, and Holm and I got out with our weapons pulled. Up by the front door, someone was crumpled on the small porch. It was a big body with a shock of red hair. Carl Donovan. I forgot my leg pain for a moment and hustled over to him.
Donovan’s head was tilted at an angle that told me all I needed to know. Holm approached from the other side of the door. His face darkened when he saw the dead agent. I was torn between hope and fear that Alice would be in the house.
I crept to the open door and listened for signs of life. The interior of the house was silent. Holm and I held our guns at the ready and entered the foyer to Alice’s house. A thin trail of blood droplets, already turning brown, was accompanied by two sets of muddy footprints. I took a deep breath and rounded the corner into the living room.
The agent sent to meet Alice and Donovan lay broken in the middle of the room. A lake of blood surrounded him, and a small sledgehammer lay embedded in his face. I clenched my teeth and helped Holm search the house. There was no one in sight. I went over to the patio door and slid it open without a sound.
“Help…”
I spun and aimed in the direction of the raspy voice. One of the four bodyguards lay on his side with his back against a brick half-wall. He cradled his hands around a knife handle as he looked up with large, heavy-lidded eyes.
Holm checked the rest of the area, and I holstered my gun.
“Where are they?” I demanded. Behind me, Holm called for an ambulance.
He grunted. “Tommy did this.” Betrayal etched his features. “My cousin.”
“Where is he?” I asked in a softer tone. The guard’s face… I tried to remember his name… his face contorted. “Where are the Lius?”
“They took Mrs. Liu. I tried to stop them.” He coughed, and blood trickled from his mouth. I took a closer look at the knife. It was angled upward, toward his lungs. “Mr. Liu said he’s done with Mrs. and Miss.” His brows lowered, and he closed his eyes for a moment.
“Andy, do you know where they went?” Holm remembered the guard’s name, and the rest came back to me. Tommy Chen was his cousin. “Stay with us, man. We gotta know.”
“Everglades,” Andy whispered. “Burgoff’s Launch.”
Other agents burst out to the lanai as Andy passed out. Holm sprinted outside, and I hustled after him. Diane had come into the foyer and brought me to a halt.
“Stay,” she ordered. “You’re injured—”
“Sorry, boss, still can’t hear.” I ran to the car with gritted teeth. Holm waited on the driver’s side, and I tossed him the keys. “Don’t get used to it.”
“Don’t get hurt,” he tossed back as we took off.
Burgoff’s Launch was a little-known access to the back waterways, and it was just outside of the Everglades National Park boundaries. It was also where problems like Alice and Mei Liu had a bad habit of vanishing. The agents at our office were too familiar with some of those places in the Glades.
I made a few calls as Holm sped down the highway toward the launch. If Liu got Alice and Mei out there, it’d be damn near impossible to find them. Fortunately, we had resources of our own.
We found a black work van and a rusty pickup next to a weather-worn dock and launch. The truck had an equally rusted airboat trailer. A whomp-whomp sound in the distance told me our ride was almost there.
“Hard to believe a rich guy like Liu would risk going out in the Glades with a boat pulled by that,” Holm said as he looked up.
I followed his gaze and saw the helicopter approaching from the northeast. At about the same time, a National Park Service truck pulled up with their boat on a shiny trailer despite the location.
“We’re going in on the helo,” I hollered to the rangers. “Wait for our people before you go out there.”
The driver gave a thumbs up and began the process of lining the trailer up to launch their shallow-draft boat. Above us, the helo pilot searched for a clear area to land. I motioned them to hover above us. There was no time. The Lius were getting further away each second.
Holm climbed up on the landing skid and lent me an arm. Seconds later, we were out over the waterway. The launch put boats out into a wide area of open water, but it narrowed into a spiderweb of clear water trails that abutted sawgrass and mangroves. The two constants were water and alligators. Ken Liu wanted to clean house, and gator country was a great area to dispose of the bodies.
“There.”
The copilot pointed to a silver dot on a narrow waterway that had branched off the main throughway at least twice. He radioed to the park rangers who were making time down the main. They’d passed the branches and now made a wide turn back to where they’d get to the Lius.
The pilot drew closer, and the copilot handed us binoculars. My stomach flipped when I saw Tommy Chen holding Alice’s shoulder. She and her mother were both bound behind their backs and sat on the boat’s platform to either side of Chen’s seat. Liu had the captain’s chair and operated the boat as if it was nothing new to him.
He looked up at the helo and then said something to Chen. The brute shoved Mei toward one of the other guards, grabbed Alice by the elbow, and held a handgun to her head. With a sick grin, Ken Liu pointed at us.
“He’s threatening Alice,” I told everyone over the headset. “Fall back, now.”
The pilot did as ordered, and the airboat receded to a tiny dot, barely visible. Liu couldn’t think that we’d let him get away. There was no way in hell I’d let him. What I didn’t know was whether we’d get to Alice and Mei before it was too late.
CHAPTER 38
The park service boat slowed beneath where we hovered. Muñoz and Birn rode with the rangers and sported rifles. Something else rested on the deck. It was a drone.
“Drop us down there,” I ordered the pilot. “You did great, but we gotta go with that drone.”
“Copy that, sir.”
His copilot frowned. It wasn’t every day that they had to do pickups and drop-offs like what I demanded, but our situation didn’t happen every day. I figured they could take it up with Diane later.
Our pilot was brilliant. The rangers’ boat slowed to a near stop, and the pilot put the skid mere inches above the boat’s prow. I got down carefully to hide the growing pain in my calf. As soon as we were clear, the helicopter took off and was soon out of sight, if not hearing.
The boat drifted as we conferred with Birn and Muñoz.
“This thing runs a hell of a lot quieter than either of these boats,” Birn told us. That was an upgrade to older units we’d used. “It has a ten-mile range. Wherever they’re going, we’ll find them.”
“I want them now,” I barked. “Alice and Mei are still alive, but that won’t last long.”
“Ease up, Marston,” Muñoz snapped. “We get it, and we’re doing what we can.”
Her controls were on a device with a screen for the camera. It
had an impressive zoom lens that she also had rigged to the remote unit. She toggled the joystick and a couple of buttons, and the drone rose from the deck. I looked at the image and only saw water and sawgrass for several minutes, which were more minutes that I cared to spend.
“I got a visual,” Muñoz announced. “Go east.”
We sped across marshy water that grew more congested with the wicked sedge blades. When people talk about death by a thousand cuts, sawgrass was what I always pictured. That shit could tear up a guy if he wasn’t careful.
Muñoz put a hand up as we approached another waterway. It was hardly wider than a canoe trail and butted up against the edge of a cypress stand. A few alligators regarded us with baleful stares as the ranger eased up on the motor.
“Kill it,” Muñoz told her, and then she turned toward me. “They’re close. We can pole almost all the way over without being seen if we’re careful.”
In the absence of our boat’s motor, I heard the low whine of another airboat engine beyond sawgrass shoulder-height and above. I took a look at what Muñoz saw on the screen and frowned. We were closer than I’d expected, but there was open water between them and us.
“Let’s pole through to about here.” I pointed to a spot on the image, and Muñoz showed it to everyone else. “Guys, we’re gonna have to go in the water to get to that boat without being seen. Robbie, can you still hold your breath underwater?”
I was half-joking, but that didn’t seem to get across.
“I’m fine,” he said in a sharp tone. “Ethan, the gators are everywhere. You’re already hurting, buddy. Let us—”
“I’m going.”
Maybe I was stupid. Maybe I was in love. Maybe both. Either way, nobody was stopping me.
“Fine.” Muñoz handed the drone controls to the ranger who wasn’t driving the boat. “Take a rifle. They’re ready to use in the water.”
The rangers poled while the four of us dropped our phones and duty weapons. Birn opened a box of water-ready handguns, and we holstered those. There wasn’t much we could do about the gators, but the critters had probably fled from the boats already. They hated boats.
“We’re at the edge,” the lead ranger whispered. “Good luck.”
Voices floated over the water as an argument went back and forth on Liu’s boat. I heard Alice and her mother, but Ken Liu’s voice was barely audible. None of the words were decipherable, but they were good signs. I prayed that Liu didn’t have the cajones to kill his wife and daughter. Then again, I saw what Tommy Chen had done to his cousin.
Holm, Muñoz, Birn, and I slipped into murky shallows that went up to my chest. We faced the read of Liu’s airboat, which made it easier to get close without having to go completely underwater. The boat’s fan oscillated at low RPMs, but it was enough to skim the boat in a bit of a turn.
Mei’s voice rose above the motor and went to an impressive pitch in rapid-fire Cantonese. Ken Liu yelled for the first time since we’d stopped, but his voice dropped back down almost as quickly.
“Bàba, you don’t really want to do this, do you?”
The fear in Alice’s voice pushed me harder. I tried not to think about all the bacteria and algae that had to be soaking through the bandaging on my calf. Nurse Molly or some doctors could deal with that later.
“Alligator,” someone with a deep voice said. “Might be another one with it.”
“Be a man and do this yourself,” Mei screamed in English. “Throwing us to those monsters is the coward’s way.”
The rear of the boat swung to the side. We had to duck under to hide from Liu and his guards, but we were almost at the near side already. I shimmied beneath and to the far side with Holm at my side. Something brushed against my thigh, but I ignored it. I knew the risks when I got in the water.
Holm and I broke the surface slow and in unison. I bit back a curse as sawgrass scratched at my exposed neck and arms. The boat rocked as someone moved toward the front.
“Mr. Liu, I don’t feel so good about this,” one of the other guards piped up. “They’ll listen to you after this…”
“Tommy,” Liu barked.
A gunshot boomed, and the boat bounced. Marsh birds burst upward from their hiding places as someone shoved the guard’s body overboard to the other side. Muñoz and Birn must have ducked before being seen.
“On my count,” I whispered in Holm’s ear. Our boarding would be the signal for the other two to take the far side of the boat. “Three… two… one.”
Holm and I exploded out of the water. Chen stumbled backward but recovered in the same breath. Liu jumped and then cranked the hand controls to move the airboat. Birn, God love him, was still in the water. He clamped onto the prow and managed to dig in.
Chen threw himself at me, and I lowered my shoulder into his ribcage. He brought his fists down on my head and kicked at my injured leg. I kept my feet under me and hoped the others fared better.
“Ethan!”
Alice’s shriek was followed by a pair of splashes. Chen used the split-second distraction to shove his handgun under my chin, but someone crashed into me from behind. I fell to the side and whipped out my weapon.
“Freeze, asshole,” I shouted over the revving airboat motor.
Chen loomed and laughed. “That waterlogged piece of shit won’t fire.” He pulled a knife.
I squeezed off two rounds. One bullet hit his chest, and the other sank into his throat.
“Tommy!” Ken Liu screamed.
He cranked the boat controls forward, and I stumbled into someone else. We spun on each other. It was Muñoz, and she’d just taken down the other surviving guard. I didn’t see Holm or Birn. Alice and Mei were also gone. Muñoz and I held our aims on Liu.
“Get down from there,” I panted. My heart pounded harder and faster than was healthy, but the job wasn’t done. “Kill the motor and get the hell down.”
Liu cranked the controls again, and the boat spun. My leg gave out, but Muñoz wasn’t having it. She plugged the asshole in the arm.
Liu screamed like a child and launched himself at her. Muñoz got off another shot, but her aim was thrown wide as Liu tackled her first. The gun flew into the water.
Before he could do more, I scrambled to my knees and crawled the three feet over to reach his ugly face. When cold steel pressed into his cheek, he froze.
“One move,” I seethed. “Twitch so much as one muscle, and you are done.”
Liu didn’t twitch. Muñoz pushed him off and then saw to the boat’s controls, which was a good thing. My stomach was about to do some acrobatics. I focused on the other matter at hand.
“Birn, Holm,” I called out. “Check in.”
“We’ll be fine as soon as you get that POS stopped,” Birn bellowed.
The rangers’ boat pushed through to the canal as Muñoz got ours settled. I hobbled to my feet and cuffed Liu while Birn and Holm got Alice and Mei onto the rangers’ boat.
“Agent Marston.” The lead ranger waved at me from their boat.
“Yeah?”
“Your phone is going nuts.” She shook her head. “I’m amazed you have a signal out here, but there it is.”
It was as good an excuse as any to have them bump up against Liu’s boat so I could cross over to where Alice shook in her soaked clothes. Holm grabbed my forearm to keep me upright until I sat next to her.
“Did they hurt you?” I asked.
Her brows knitted, and her chin trembled. Here was a strong woman brought to a breaking point, and I wanted to kill Liu. He was lucky I’d holstered the gun. I put my arm around her shoulders, and she tucked in. The scorching sun bore through my drenched shirt, but I didn’t let her warmth go.
The ranger pressed my phone into my free hand.
“I think you need to answer that, sir,” she said with a nod toward Alice.
“Yeah?” I answered without looking at the caller ID.
“What the hell is going on, Ethan?” Diane exclaimed. “The helo pilot told us you bailed on
to a boat.”
“We got the hostages. They’re safe.”
Mei Liu stood with a blank stare in her husband’s direction. Green slime coated her salt-and-pepper hair below the neck. She had her hands clutched at her throat.
“Thank God,” Diane breathed. Something rustled in the background, and I heard Bonnie’s voice in a serious tone and a mild response from Clyde but couldn’t make out the words. “We’re at Zhu’s office.”
I straightened and then winced at the pain that sliced through my lower leg. “Why is forensics there?”
“It looks like Zhu hanged himself. He left a video message on a loop in his office about how he would never recover from the shame this incident brought upon his reputation.” She made a slight scoffing sound. “His other business dealings didn’t seem to bother him.”
“Damn.” I repeated the news for the others. Mei Liu turned to me with raised brows, and I nodded. “Diane, we have to go. The rangers are giving me the look for making them wait, and people need medical attention.”
“‘People’ meaning you?” Diane sounded tired, not that I blamed her. “I’ll make sure there’s an ambulance onshore.” I tried to protest, but she halted me. “You’re going in, Ethan. I’ll see you there.”
She ended the call, and I sank back against the low side of the boat with an inglorious grunt. Alice slipped out from under my arm as we got underway.
“Are you okay?” She looked me up and down, and her eyes widened. “How bad is it?”
I summoned a half-grin. “I’ve been worse.”
She matched the expression. “You’ve been better, too.”
“True that.”
She leaned in close and put her lips to my ear. “Am I allowed to kiss you now that the case is solved?”
Holm heard the last bit and rolled his eyes. The other two were on the old airboat a ways behind us, and I didn’t mind one bit.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I put my arm back around Alice’s shoulders and pulled her close.
CHAPTER 39
Five weeks later, I sat with Holm on his Lancer’s hood. My Mustang was in the next parking spot, and we were waiting for Alice and Mei Liu outside of an overpriced attorney’s office.
