Mauser adjusted his strategy. He would go after Lee and the girl, which meant getting to the cabin. Easley cloaked his approach with a steady barrage of gunfire. Bullets went flying and the stench of gunpowder soured the crisp night air. Easley would have ammo issues at some point soon, so Mauser scrambled with purpose through a dense copse of brush, then hurdled a fallen tree with ease, before pushing through a thicket of prickly pines.
Emerging from the woods on his belly, Mauser crawled across the dirt road like a soldier going under razor wire. Two targets were off to his right, but he could not get off a good shot without stepping into open space. He’d let Easley handle them for now. After taking care of business, he could think about a sneak attack from behind.
Mauser slithered to the cabin on his stomach. The building concealed him from those two shooters. He peered into a first-floor window, surprised to see a hospital bed in the center of a large room, along with an assortment of modern lab equipment. Craning his neck to get a better look, he saw something that put a smile on his face. Somebody had left the cabin’s rear door wide open.
It was like a compass needle showing him where to go.
* * *
KAREN CROUCHED beside Josh, using Lee’s bullet-riddled Honda for cover. She focused on the task at hand—eliminate the threat in front of them. To do so, she blocked out all distractions, meaning Lee, Susie, and Valerie. It took great effort and tremendous concentration not to let her brain become overwhelmed.
Popping up from behind the car, Karen sent a fresh burst of AK-47 gunfire at the last flash she saw. Teeth clenched, her jaw set tight, Karen felt her muscles relax after absorbing the intense recoil. A reply flash came a second later, followed by the whizzing sound of more bullets. Bangs and bullets, but only one flash now, Karen observed.
A thought pulsed in the back of her mind. There had been two shooters. Had she or Josh gotten off a lucky shot? It was doubtful, meaning the second gunman could be anywhere—dead, injured, even readying a surprise attack.
Karen knew what to do. They had to change positions. Their opponents gained advantage every second she and Josh remained in one spot. Sitting ducks were seldom the lucky ones. The best option was to move laterally toward the threat to change their position relative to the shooter.
They could seek shelter in the woods, she thought. Make the shooter waste ammo attacking them through cover. Either way, this engagement had to end quickly. The longer it went on, the more likely it was she and Josh would end up injured or dead.
She scanned the trees to their right, guessing they were twenty yards away, far enough from the cabin to be cloaked in darkness.
Moonlight illuminated Josh’s face. He appeared calm, practiced at this, it seemed, as though he had slipped into a familiar second skin. It also seemed he had the same idea. Using hand signals, Josh pointed first to his face—Look at me—and next to the trees she’d been eyeing. That’s where I’m going, he was telling her. Fingers counted up one … two … three …
When the count hit three, Josh sprang up and ran for those trees.
Karen stood the moment Josh broke into his sprint. She fired a fusillade at the shooter, her focus splintering between her target and her son. She sank back down when the return fire came.
Seconds later, a burst of gunfire erupted from the trees. Josh was providing cover. Hunched over, Karen zigzagged toward the tree line, careful to avoid ditches and loose rocks. Bullets slapped at the ground near her feet seconds before she took shelter among the pines. She worried her labored breathing might give her away.
Josh pointed to a tall tree with low branches. “Are you a good shot, Mom?” he asked in a whisper.
“I am,” Karen whispered back.
“Good. Because I know what we’ve got to do.”
* * *
LEE GRIPPED Susie’s hand tightly as they made their way down the path to the lake. She squeezed back hard enough to make his knuckles ache, but the chain remained unbroken. An exposed root hidden in the dark caught Lee’s foot and when he stumbled, all stumbled, but nobody let go. The frantic dash continued at a reckless pace, all three panting like galloping horses. Tree branches clawed at Lee from the dark, leaving painful scratches across his face and arms.
To his back, a rumble of gunshots rolled off into the distance. It took effort not to lose focus. Josh was back there, so was Karen, and despite his tremendous faith in their abilities, fear consumed him.
Without warning, Lee’s right knee, the more bothersome of the two, buckled beneath him. Stumbling again, Lee managed to grab a tree branch and keep from falling. His overstressed lungs took in sips of air. Branches canopying overhead blocked most of the moonlight, but occasional glimpses lit the path like lanterns on a runway. They were getting closer to the lake. Good. There were cabins along the shoreline where they could take refuge. He could make a phone call from there, try to summon help.
The shooting stopped and Lee felt panic rise up in him. Had Josh been shot? Karen? His thoughts shifted when he heard a chilling sound not far behind them. It was the crack of a fallen branch breaking underfoot. His chest tightened with a fresh band of terror.
Someone else was on the path.
Cloud cover cast everything in an impenetrable darkness. Another rolling boom sounded, this one much closer. Whoever was back there seemed to be gaining ground, shooting blindly in the dark, or maybe not blindly at all. The trees offered some cover and Lee was wondering if they should take shelter there, when he felt a sudden, very strong tug on his arm. The force of the pull sent him backwards. Reflexively he pushed off the ground to get the chain moving in the right direction. They had to hurry.
He could hear footsteps.
As Lee leaned his body forward, another strong tug pulled him back again with such force he let go of Susie’s hand. He heard Susie make a muffled, anguished sound. Valerie cried out as well, but hers seemed to be a cry of panic. Moonlight returned, revealing Susie, down on the ground, her arms twitching incredibly fast. They moved up, down, and sideways in variable patterns. Lee bent to pick her up, but the twitching made it impossible to take hold of her. He tried again, managing this time to hoist her off the ground, but she skittered like a live fish in his arms and soon slipped from his grasp.
Back on the ground, Susie grunted and moaned. It was like nothing he had ever seen. She had not lost consciousness, another indicator this was a seizure unlike any other.
“I can’t stop it—I can’t stop!” she cried out frantically.
Valerie sank to her knees and made shushing sounds, hoping to keep Susie quiet, but her arms jolted and jerked as though she were continuously awakening from a nightmare. Lee bent down to try and pick her up again when a lone figure, broad in the shoulders, materialized on the path behind them.
He stepped into a wide swath of sudden moonlight. Even without his mustache, Lee would have recognized the repairman anywhere. The pistol in his hand was more like a miniaturized machine gun, an old-looking weapon.
He aimed the gun at Lee, but hesitated as his gaze turned to Susie still twitching on the ground. He seemed baffled by her, maybe even intrigued, and for the briefest of moments, he was distracted.
Lee saw murder in the man’s eyes and his mind went blank as his fear fell away. A single notion drove him: act or die. Springing forward like he was back on the high school football team, Lee stretched his arms out wide, his body leaning, fully airborne, almost horizontal to the ground. The repairman swiveled, aimed his pistol at Lee’s streaking frame, and fired.
* * *
JOSH POINTED to the nearby tree with low branches.
“I’m going to draw him out,” he said.
Karen’s ears may have been ringing, but she had heard him.
“No,” she said sternly. I’m still the parent here. “Whatever we do, we do it together.”
“Whatever you do, Mom, don’t miss,” he said.
Before she could get in another word, Josh was gone, on the move, headed for that tree.
Gunshots rang out, following the sound of Josh’s fast-falling footsteps. Without breaking stride, Josh swung himself up onto a sturdy tree branch. The gunman targeted the same tree, bark splintering where his bullets struck.
Karen lost sight of Josh in the branches as he ascended. The rustling leaves became her son’s heartbeat. She understood now. Josh was drawing the gunman’s attention away from Karen and onto himself. He was bait. Chum in the water. Karen held a breath. What’s next? she wondered. Whatever you do … don’t miss. What could he be thinking?
Flashes exploded from the dark, still targeting that tree.
Raising her rifle, Karen aimed at the last flash of light she saw … and she waited. Something told her she would know when to shoot. From the corner of her eye, Karen watched the tree where Josh was hiding. The branch he was on had to be at least ten feet off of the ground. It swayed from her son’s weight. More shots came from across the road. A moment later, Josh tumbled from the tree, landing with a thud in a tangled heap on the rocky ground, unmoving. Karen’s thoughts went black.
He’s been shot—he’s dead—Josh!
She tried to scream, but no words came out. A noise from across the road drew her attention: not gunshots, but footsteps. She watched Josh, hawklike, praying he would move. Shock and panic eclipsed every thought, but still she had the wherewithal to realize something of possible importance. Josh had landed in the middle of a fairly deep culvert. Her father had dug the ditch years ago to keep rain runoff from flooding the road. From her vantage point, Karen could see Josh lying down there, still as the dead, but the shooter could not. He was drawing him out!
A second later, the gunman emerged from the shadows, seeking his target. Karen sighted him right away—dark clothes, long flowing hair, a thick beard. The instant his head caught the moonlight, she fired. Blood, like black raindrops, sprayed out from a bullet hole placed in the center of his forehead. The shooter’s knees buckled as he fell forward. With no brain function telling him to brace for impact, he landed face-first on the dirt road, arms at his sides.
Off to her right Karen heard another sound—it was Josh whistling for her attention. Her heart leapt when she saw him push to his knees. She rushed to him, her hand covering her mouth, overcome with exquisite relief. She dove into the culvert and wrapped her arms around her son.
Mischief glinted in Josh’s eyes. “Nice shooting, Ma.”
* * *
MAUSER HAD his rifle slung over his shoulder and his namesake C96 pistol in his hand. He had wanted the Mauser gun to do the killing, but Lee gave him no chance to aim, so he fired blindly. He might have hit pay dirt, or maybe not. The big man did not seem to slow. He fired again, but a second later it was Mauser on the ground with Lee on top of him. Blood dripped into Mauser’s face and mouth. Oh yeah, he had hit something all right. A blow to the side of Mauser’s head seemed to come from out of nowhere. He felt a tooth loosen, his jaw suddenly on fire.
Mauser aimed to take another shot, but Lee had smartly pinned his hand to the ground. He bucked and kicked to get free; the strength of Lee’s grip surprised him. With his free hand, Mauser clutched Lee’s throat and squeezed. Lee rolled onto his back, wheezing and gasping for air. Mauser rolled with him. On top now, Mauser squeezed harder, digging his fingers into the sides of Lee’s neck. He tried to reposition his gun, but Lee pushed back with surprising counterforce.
Mauser felt the pulse beating in Lee’s veins start to weaken. Soon all his strength would be gone. He increased the pressure, choking the life from Lee. He would have kept going, but several weak blows struck the back of his head. It was the woman, whoever she was, attacking him from the side. Mauser let go his grip on Lee’s throat to uncork a vicious, rising left hook that caught the woman square in the jaw. She fell backward and might have struck her head on a rock or root, because her body went limp when she hit the ground.
Using his left hand again, Mauser punched Lee in the side of his head—once, twice, three times, hard blows, all of them. Lee finally let go of Mauser’s wrist to clutch his injured throat, gasping for air. Mauser scrambled to his feet and aimed his gun at Lee. The twitching girl had gone still, but she was moaning, moving slowly. The other woman was breathing, but still unconscious.
This was the end for all three.
Take the bull out first, Mauser decided, before getting the cow and calf.
* * *
LEE HAD been too weak to shield his head from the blows, his arms too heavy to move. The pain from the gunshot wound to his shoulder pulsed angrily. His throat felt on fire. A bitter taste filled his mouth. Blood thrummed in his ears, his chest. Death now. The repairman took aim with his strange-looking gun. No choice but to die—and then Susie and Valerie—all three would soon be gone.
An odd feeling washed over him. Was it peace? It was an unfamiliar calmness, whatever it was. His clinical mind understood he was in shock. Hormones flooded his bloodstream. Cortisol and adrenaline pumped from the adrenal glands spiked his heart rate and quickened his pulse. An infusion of glucose should have given Lee the energy to run, to evade, but to where? The repairman was practically hovering over him. There was no place to go. By the sound of it, Karen and Josh were engaged in a battle of their own. Nobody was coming to the rescue.
Lee’s instincts took over, and his body went perfectly still. It was what all animals did when faced with death, when there was no place to run, no means of fighting back. They froze and hoped the threat would simply go away. But the repairman was not going anywhere.
The face of his son—of Paul—of Karen—those came to him. It won’t hurt, Lee promised himself. He was just so sorry he had failed everyone.
“Why?” Lee managed to squeak out the word. “Why?”
The repairman steadied his aim at the same instant a tall shadowy figure loomed up behind him. The shadow’s arm came forward with speed as if throwing a ball. There was a horrible cracking sound, bone breaking, and the repairman crumpled to the ground clutching his head, howling like a wounded animal. In an instant, Lee became unfrozen and he pounced for the gun the repairman had dropped. Incredibly, the repairman had managed to scramble to his feet, and was coming at Lee with rage in his eyes, blood streaming down his face. Spinning on his back, Lee picked up the gun, pulled the trigger, and fired three shots at close range, all of them into the repairman’s chest. This time, when the repairman went down, he stayed down.
Lee stood shakily, ignoring the intense pain in his shoulder and the steady ache in his throat. His eyes searched all directions for the shadowy figure who had saved them all, but he was gone.
He searched again.
“Please. Come out. Please.” Lee’s voice was barely a rasp. “We won’t hurt you.”
Rustling in the trees drew Lee’s attention. There was movement in the brush nearby. Lee dropped the gun to the ground. “We won’t hurt you,” he said again as a figure emerged from the shadows and stepped into the moonlight.
Lee’s eyes went wide. His mouth fell open.
It was Cam.