by Greg Cox
“Please, I can’t keep this up,” he gasped. Part of him almost wanted to reach the end of the hike, even if that meant his own volcanic demise. “How much higher are we going?”
“As high as we can get.” Gorinsky peered up at the rugged immensity of Rainier, which now practically blotted out the sky. No matter how long they hiked, the mountain’s snow-topped crown still seemed to tower above them in the distance. “I don’t know what sort of range your ability has, but I want to get you as close to the top as possible, just to be sure.”
Cooper prayed that the killer wasn’t crazy enough to think they could actually make it to the summit. They weren’t remotely equipped to tackle any serious mountaineering, especially this early in the spring. Freak storms, blizzards, and avalanches killed off climbers all the time, and Cooper had never scaled a mountain in his life. He’s going to get us both killed, he thought, which might not be such a bad thing. Given a choice, he’d rather be buried alive in an avalanche than set off a volcano that killed thousands.
“Huh,” Gorinsky grunted as they rounded a turn. “Take a look at that.”
Directly in their path, a narrow suspension bridge spanned a deep ravine. Creeping up to the edge of the precipice, Cooper saw foaming rapids at least one hundred feet below. The skinny bridge was only a few feet wide, barely enough for one hiker to squeeze through at a time, but looked over two hundred feet in length. A rusty sign was posted at the entrance to the bridge: ONE PERSON ON THE BRIDGE AT A TIME. DO NOT BOUNCE OR SHAKE BRIDGE.
“You first,” Gorinsky ordered.
Cooper gulped and stepped out onto the bridge, which swayed alarmingly beneath his tread. He grabbed on to the guide ropes for dear life. His wet sneakers squished against the wooden floorboards as he hoped that the crude bridge was better maintained than the rest of the trail. A howling wind keened in his ears. He could hear the coursing river crash against heavy boulders far beneath him. Don’t look down, he told himself, but the perverse temptation was impossible to resist. Peeking down between bouncing wooden slats, he experienced a sudden attack of dizziness and abruptly looked away. Who would have guessed, he thought sourly, that the notorious D. B. Cooper was afraid of heights?
Too bad he hadn’t thought to ask for a parachute.
He briefly considered throwing himself off the bridge, ending his ordeal once and for all, but a stubborn urge to live won out over his better judgment. He wasn’t ready to die just yet, no matter what Gorinsky had in mind. Does that make me a hero or a coward?
After what felt like forever, he reached the opposite end of the bridge and gratefully stepped onto solid rock once more. “All right,” Gorinsky shouted at him from across the ravine. “Step away from the bridge and keep your back to me. You even think about messing with the bridge while I’m on it, and I’ll empty this entire gun into your miserable hide. You got that?”
“I understand.”
Cooper waited helplessly while the bridge rattled beneath his captor’s boots. Gorinsky made it across the span faster than Cooper had, barely giving the hijacker time to wonder about whether he had just missed his best chance to give Gorinsky the slip.
But where was he supposed to go? Looking ahead, he saw that they had arrived at the end of the trail: a rocky saddle between two distant peaks. The site offered a spectacular view of the misty woodlands and vast glacial valleys below, as well as the immense upper reaches of the mountain soaring above them, but Cooper was in no position to appreciate the scenery. Any chance of escaping Gorinsky seemed to have dropped away like the forbidding cliffs before them. There was no place to run, nowhere to go but down.
He was trapped.
Gorinsky surveyed the mountainside and reached a similar conclusion. “Looks like this is as high as we get.” He smirked in anticipation. “Hope you’ve still got one last good eruption in you, ’cause it’s showtime.”
He stepped back and nodded at Cooper.
“Bring on the fireworks.”
NINETEEN
“WELL,” DIANA ASKED, “have you spotted them yet?”
The mountain rescue helicopter swooped above the northwest face of Mount Rainier. Simone Tanaka, both her wrists and ankles shackled, sat up front with the pilot to permit her a better view of the endless white slopes below. Gazing out her own window in the rear of the copter, Diana understood why Maia had foreseen that Simone should accompany them in the pursuit of Cooper and Gorinsky. Literally hundreds of square miles of wilderness were spread out beneath them; even with an entire team of agents and rangers swarming the scene, there was no guarantee that they would be able to locate the two men in time. A pair of high-powered binoculars rested in Diana’s lap, but Simone’s enhanced vision was still their best shot at tracking the fugitives down. Let’s just hope those eyes of hers live up to the hype.
“I’m looking, I’m looking!” the young woman snapped. The medics at The 4400 Center had cleared her for this expedition, but Simone’s nerves seemed stretched to the breaking point. She raised her voice to be heard over the whir of the rotors. “Believe me, I want to find those two as much as anybody.”
That’s probably true, Diana conceded. She figured their proximity to the mountain guaranteed Simone’s cooperation. None of them wanted to be this close to Rainier with Cooper still unaccounted for. “What about the bridge?” she pressed. “Maia mentioned a swinging bridge.”
“You know how many freaking wooden bridges there are down there?” Sarcasm colored Simone’s voice. “I don’t suppose that spooky kid of yours told you anything more specific? The name of a trail or waterfall maybe?”
“Doesn’t work that way,” Diana said coldly. Insulting her daughter was not the way to get on her good side. She instructed the pilot to make another pass; coming from Seattle, the fugitives would probably have entered the parklands from the southwest. “Keeping looking,” she ordered Simone. “The more help you give us, the lighter your sentence is likely to be.”
The way Diana saw it, they already had the young woman linked to Gorinsky, the jailbreak, and possibly even espionage charges for spying on NTAC. A closer look at her file had revealed a history of radical politics dating back to the early 1970s, and, after last night’s events, NTAC would be going over her more recent activities with a fine-tooth comb. Diana wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Simone and Aziz were both involved with Nova Group to some degree. She was in big trouble.
Assuming we survive the next few hours.
“You think I don’t know that?” Simone whined. She leaned forward in her seat, scanning the sprawling meadows, forests, and glaciers below. Handcuffs rattled around her slender wrists. “I’m doing the best I can!”
But would that be enough? The missing men had been on the loose for hours now. They’d had plenty of time to make it to Rainier if that was indeed what Gorinsky had in mind. State troopers had reported finding an abandoned car right outside the park, but nobody had yet confirmed that it was the same vehicle the fugitives had stolen from the parking lot at The 4400 Center. What if, at this very moment, the two men were headed for Oregon or Canada instead? Maia’s prophecy was the only real “evidence” pointing them toward Rainier. Diana couldn’t help hoping that maybe, just maybe, her daughter was wrong for once.
But she knew better than that.
“No luck yet?” Alana asked. Tom’s girlfriend sat beside Diana in the back. She had come along on this mission without any argument. Diana appreciated her cooperation; tracking down dangerous fugitives was hardly part of the schoolteacher’s job description. It said a lot about Alana that she’d been willing to drop everything and join them on this manhunt, despite the significant risks involved. Both women were wearing snow gear hastily requisitioned from Alana’s closets. Fortunately, they were about the same size; Alana’s clothes were a little baggy on Diana, but that had been the least of her worries. Just as long as they kept her warm . . .
“ ’Fraid not,” Diana admitted. She settled back into her seat in order to converse with Alana
without shouting. The cockpit tilted vertiginously as the copter banked sharply to the left. Diana instinctively grabbed her armrest.
Alana peered out her own window at the magnificent vista below. “I only wish I knew why I was here. Do you think it has something to do with my ability?”
The raven-haired, exotically beautiful teacher possessed the unique ability to create artificial realities that were practically indistinguishable from the real thing. Diana had personally experienced Alana’s gift only a few weeks ago, when Maia had been kidnapped by a covert operative from the future. Alana had helped Diana cope with her daughter’s disappearance by taking her into an imaginary reality, partially constructed from Diana’s own memories, in which she and Maia were still together. That virtual realm had felt so convincing, so real, that Diana had almost let herself disappear into the illusion forever. Only the safe recovery of the real Maia had ultimately lured her out of the phantom existence Alana had conjured up for her.
“I assume so,” she replied. “But don’t know how.”
“Perhaps we can figure it out,” Alana suggested. “What do we know about these men, Gorinsky and DeMeers?”
Diana wondered how much Tom had already told her about the case. They had a solid relationship—she doubted that there were any secrets between them—but maybe Tom had been too busy to keep Alana up-to-date on his work. They had been chasing “D. B. Cooper” for nearly a week now and Diana was definitely feeling the strain. To think this all started with a field trip to Mount Rainier . . . !
“Here’s what we know so far,” she began, giving Alana a concise rundown on what they had already learned about both men. “Hard to say who’s the most dangerous. Cooper’s ability poses the greatest threat, but I don’t get a sense that he actually wants to hurt anybody. Gorinsky, on the other hand, has already attacked several people. He’s mentally unhinged, not to mention legally dead.”
Alana nodded. “I can’t help feeling sorry for him, though. There’s something tragic about his story. Thomas spoke of this at Gorinsky’s funeral, how the poor man never got to live a long, full life like his brother.” A pensive look came over her face. “You know, Diana, recently I’ve been helping the children at the Center deal with the trauma of their abduction by using my ability to fill in the years they missed while they were away. It’s a kind of therapy, that sometimes yields various positive results. Perhaps—”
Before she could complete her thought, Simone shouted excitedly. “There they are! I see them!” The cuffs on her wrists forced her to point with both hands. “Down there, to the right!”
Diana had to take her word for it. Even with binoculars, all she could see from this height were miles of trackless wilderness and glaciers. The pilot looked to her for guidance. “Take us down,” she instructed him. Finding a safe place to land was going to be a challenge, but there was no way around it. “Get us as close as you can!”
Cooper made one last try to get Gorinsky to see reason.
“Listen to me!” he pleaded. “It’s not late. We don’t have to do this.” The edge of the lofty ridge dropped off sharply behind him. Jagged spurs of granite jutted from the packed snow and ice like the fins on a dinosaur’s back. Rainier itself was like a slumbering dragon, just waiting to wake up and spew fire from its gullet. “Think of all the people at risk. We’re talking mass murder here!”
Gorinsky was unmoved. “Guess the future should have thought of that before they messed with me. This is on them, not us. We’re the goddamn victims here!” He waved the stolen gun at Cooper. “What are you waiting for? Do it!”
“It doesn’t work that way! I can’t control it. I don’t know how.” Cooper tried to stay calm, to keep his pulse and breathing steady, but how was he supposed to do that when a deranged gunman was thrusting a pistol in his face on top of a sleeping volcano? Just try to keep cool under those conditions! It was harder than jumping out of an airplane.
Gorinsky scowled. “Your ability worked pretty good before, when I came after you in the Market and Underground.” His free hand reached out for Cooper. Static electricity crackled around his beefy fingers. A whiff of ozone polluted the pure mountain air. “Maybe you just need the right motivation.”
“No! Keep away from me!” Panicking, Cooper instinctively stepped backward, only to feel weathered stone give way beneath his foot. He toppled over the edge, about to plummet to his death, but Gorinsky grabbed his arm and yanked him back onto the ridge. Cooper barely had time to wonder whether he should be relieved or dismayed when a painful electric shock jolted his system. His jaws clamped together, barely missing his tongue, as he spasmed precariously atop the icy saddle. An agonized cry escaped his clenched teeth. Static crackled in his ears.
“How you like that, buddy?” Gorinsky gloated. His high-voltage fingers dug into Cooper’s arm, refusing to let go. “That enough to get your juices flowing?”
The current halted abruptly, giving Cooper a moment to catch his breath. Shaking, he dropped to his knees in the snow. Gorinsky’s fingers closed tightly on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” the killer said. “I’m not planning to fry you. I just want to make you hurt—like this!”
A fresh shock electrified Cooper’s entire body. His heart beat erratically. Plump veins surfaced on the backs of his hands. Violent convulsions shook his debilitated frame . . . and the mountain began to tremble in sympathy. The ridge shuddered beneath his feet, almost throwing him off. A cascade of snow tumbled over the edge. A low rumble, immeasurably deep, rose from Rainier’s volcanic interior.
The inhibitor! Cooper realized even through his torment. It’s not working anymore!
“That’s more like it!” Gorinsky whooped jubilantly, even as he teetered atop the shaking ridge. He sent another burst of electricity blasting through Cooper. “Keep it up!”
The tremors slowly increased in intensity. Avalanches roared down the sides of the nearby peaks, burying the trails below. Cataracts of ice water gushed down crumbling cliffs.
Oh my God! Cooper thought. I can’t stop it. It’s really happening!
“That’s enough, Gorinsky!” A woman’s voice cut through the deep bass rumble of the mountain. “Get your hands off him!”
Cooper looked in desperation toward the source of the voice.
Gun in hand, Agent Skouris stepped off the bridge.
“Diana? What’s happening? Talk to me!”
Frustrated, Tom shook his cell phone, as though that would get rid of the static interfering with his call to Diana. Reception between here and Rainier was spotty at best. Diana had alerted him when Simone had first zeroed in on Gorinsky and Cooper, but since then he’d only picked up snatches of her voice between the static. In theory, she and Alana were closing in on the fugitives—and that was all he knew. They could be confronting Gorinsky right now!
“Something wrong, sir?” a paramedic asked him, looking up from Phil’s insensate body. The EMTs had originally objected to Tom riding along in the back of the ambulance, but his badge had silenced their protests. As a division of Homeland Security, NTAC carried a lot of weight these days. Now Tom sat alongside Phil as the stricken retiree occupied a stretcher a few inches away. An oxygen mask covered the old man’s face. Diagnostic equipment monitored his vital signs. Unable to revive Phil, the paramedics had briskly loaded him into the ambulance, which was currently racing through Puyallup toward the nearest hospital. Flashing lights and a blaring siren cleared the early morning traffic out of their way.
“No. Yes. I don’t know,” Tom groused unhappily. Alana and Diana might be in danger at this very moment, and he had no idea what he should be doing. The last thing he wanted to do was risk killing Phil by breaking his psychic connection to his brother, but that left both his partner and his lover on their own against the murderous doppelganger. I should be on that mountain with Diana, he thought. Not Alana. “Just keep taking care of Phil.”
The speeding ambulance hit a loose manhole. The sudden clang made his heart skip a beat,
and he realized that he had been unconsciously bracing himself for a thunderous explosion from Rainier, just like the one that had rattled his bedroom windows when St. Helens blew twenty-six years ago. But if Rainier blew this morning, it would do a lot more than shake things up hundreds of miles away. Puyallup was right in the path of any potential lahars.
“C’mon, Diana!” He pressed the cell phone up against his ear. “What’s going on up there?”
The worst part was, even if he got through to Diana, it might already be too late to do anything. Tom had heard recordings of the last transmission made by the geologist monitoring St. Helens right before it erupted. The doomed scientist had barely managed to shout a terse warning—“Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!”—before an explosion greater than that of even the most powerful of atomic bombs cut off his voice forever.
Please, he prayed fervently. Don’t let me get a message like that from Diana.
* * *
Crossing the narrow suspension bridge would have been frightening at the best of times. Doing so during an earthquake struck Alana as the height of insanity. How in the world had she ever let Diana talk her into this?
Because the lives of everyone we love are at stake.
The wooden floorboards bounced beneath her feet. The entire bridge swung back and forth like a carnival ride. Throwing caution to the wind, Alana scampered across the bridge as fast as she could, holding her breath until at last she set foot on the other side. Diana was already there, her gun drawn on a stocky red-haired young man. Like Alana, she wore an NTAC flak vest over her down parka. “That’s enough, Gorinsky!” she hollered. “Get your hands off him!”
