Saturday
I screamed in terror. “No! Get it off! Take it off! Someone!” I started to shake uncontrollably. “Not my baby. Not this.”
“Steady, Ellie. Keep it together,” LeJeune’s voice said in my ears. But all I wanted to do to was throw myself in Luke’s arms. This wasn’t part of the plan. He’d make it go away, wouldn’t he?
I yelled into the mic. “How can I? He’s going to blow her off the planet. LeJeune, do something. Shoot the motherfucker. Right now!”
“Calling his cell.”
I whipped around. After a few minutes, he shook his head and pocketed his cell. “Like I thought…He’s using a burner.”
“Fuck. What are we going to do?” I cried. I wrapped my arms around my chest. It was the only way to keep myself from sinking to the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut. This was the stuff of crazy Islamic jihadists or ISIS. The sort of desperate action you’d expect from brainwashed individuals with nothing left to lose. This didn’t happen in America’s heartland. This had to be a surreal nightmare that would disappear when I opened my eyes.
Except it wasn’t. And it didn’t.
I squinted, trying to see how Rachel was handling it. She was too far away and it was too dark to make out much, but her body language said it all. Rigid. Uncompromising. Arms and legs moving stiffly, like a marionette. She had to be terrified.
“Listen to me, Ellie,” LeJeune said. “Remember I told you to expect the unexpected? This is it.”
I glanced toward the woods, half-expecting to see the FBI snipers taking aim.
LeJeune read my thoughts. “We can’t take them down. What if they hit Rachel instead? Plus, it would start a firefight, and no one, including you or your daughter, would walk away.”
My voice cracked. “What are we going to do?” I was sobbing.
“You’re going to have to deal with it.” Nick’s voice was laced with tension.
“I’m going to ask them to put it on me instead.” And with that I started walking forward briskly, waving my arms.
LeJeune talked into my ear, and his orders made me realize our two-way communications were being overheard by the rest of his team. “Take your marks, Officers, but don’t shoot. Got that?”
I heard a chorus of “Got its” and “Ten-fours” in response.
“You can do this, cher. We got your back.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath. And then another. I tried to shove my fear to the back of my brain. My mission was to get Rachel. Give him the goddammed drive. I started forward again. As I did, the man who could be Stokes got back in the lead van.
“He’s back in the van,” Luke said.
“Directing traffic,” LeJeune said.
“I’m going to kill that asshole,” Luke said.
“Calm down, Luke,” LeJeune said. “Ellie, you okay?”
I wasn’t, but I nodded. One of Stokes’ men and Rachel were waiting at the opposite end of the airstrip.
LeJeune shouted, “Bring her halfway.”
An arctic breeze suddenly flared, and I wanted to wrap my wool muffler around my neck. But I figured any unexpected movement on my part might backfire and start a firefight. I shoved my hands into my pockets.
The man led Rachel toward the middle of the airstrip. As she got closer, I could see a glazed, frozen look on her face. She resembled a manikin in a department store, her casual manner on the phone the night before long gone. As we came within one hundred yards of each other, the goon drew something out of his side. A pistol.
“Do you see that, Nick?” I breathed.
LeJeune shouted out again. “I thought there would be no weapons.”
“Boss changed his mind,” the goon said.
“Take the vest off the girl.”
I swear I saw a smile appear on the man’s face as he shook his head. “Boss says take it or leave it.”
LeJeune whispered in my ear. “Balls of steel, cher. We’re almost there.”
“Yeah, and then he’ll pull the cord, and she’ll be blown to bits,” I whispered back.
“Have faith. By the way, Luke says he loves you.”
I halted. That Luke would tell LeJeune to say that, and that LeJeune actually told me, made a difference. I suddenly felt more centered. Less alone. More than a dozen people, including the man I loved most in the world, were looking out for us. Maybe it would work. Still, I vowed to never again watch any movies or shows about terrorism.
I approached the man and Rachel steadily but with caution. Rachel was dead quiet but kept walking stiffly, as if she knew any wrong move would end in disaster. Then she stopped.
My heart banged in my chest. What now?
She leaned toward the man and asked something. I couldn’t hear what it was.
He nodded and pointed forward. She started walking again. My mouth went as dry as a desert. I wanted to scream, “Stop. Just stop.” I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
It seemed like forever, but eventually we were only about fifty feet apart.
The man stopped. So did Rachel. I did too. The man looked familiar. I realized he was one of the men who’d been camped out at my neighbors’, the Schomers’. In the pickup. It seemed so long ago. As if it was another life.
Now the goon raised his pistol and aimed it at my chest. Time stopped. I gagged. “Any wrong move, I shoot. And that’s the signal for the boss to activate the vest.”
I managed a weak nod.
“Give me the drive.”
“Let Rachel go first.”
“It doesn’t work like that. You first, Ms. Foreman.” I could have sworn he was smirking under his breath.
“Why?” I couldn’t help it.
There was silence for a moment, and I knew that, like LeJeune’s voice in my ear, Stokes was talking to his man. “We planned the meet-up here. Let you talk to your daughter on the phone. Both good-faith gestures. Your turn.”
I looked back at Luke and LeJeune, wondering if I should make the move. Then I realized the goon was right beside Rachel. He didn’t want the vest to blow up any more than I did.
I stepped forward slowly. “It’s in my pocket. I need to put my hand in and get it out.”
He nodded. Oh, how I wished I had my father’s Colt in there instead of the drive. I would shoot the bastard, no questions asked. Instead, I slipped my hand in and brought out the two-inch piece of plastic that was now the only thing standing between my daughter’s life and her death. I wanted to fling it at him, grab Rachel’s hand, and fly back to the hangar. But I couldn’t. I stepped forward. He held out his hand; I gave him the drive.
That was it.
I wasn’t expecting a thank-you, or any gratitude, but I didn’t expect what he did next. He holstered his weapon, whirled around, and sprinted back to the van, leaving Rachel and me in the middle of the strip.
“Oh, baby!” I went toward her with outstretched arms.
“Don’t, Mom. Don’t move a muscle. Do you hear me? Stokes is going to push the remote.”
I froze and stood stock-still. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
Rachel stared at me, her eyes wide with panic.
I heard running steps behind me. “Don’t move, Ellie.” LeJeune.
“Rachel, you too.” It was Luke. “Don’t turn around. We have to get that thing off.”
“Hurry!” I shouted. “His guy is almost back at the van!” His other men were piling into the vehicles. One of the engines started up.
Luke went to Rachel and shone a flashlight at the vest. Then he looked up at her. “Where’s the clasp? How did he fasten it on you?”
“There’s a hook at the top and bottom. On the inside.”
“Good girl,” Luke said. “Now just stand still. I’ll do the rest. It’ll all be over soon.” He handed the light to LeJeune, who aimed it at the vest.
I followed Stokes’ men with my eyes. “Oh shit. The last man is climbing in the van. You’ve got to get it off. He’ll explode it any second!”
The wind was picking up. I shivered. I needed my little girl. She needed me. We were only a few feet apart, but it could have been miles.
Luke managed to unhook the clasp at the top of the vest. “Almost there. Hang on, everyone.” He went to work on the bottom. As he was looking for the hook, the second van roared to life.
“Luke, hurry! Please! It’s now or never!”
Luke found the clasp, unhooked it, and carefully took the vest off Rachel. She ran into my arms.
“Get rid of it!” LeJeune yelled.
Luke wound up as if he was going to serve a volleyball, took three running steps and heaved it toward the side of the airstrip away from the woods.
“Okay, everyone. Run!”
The four of us sprinted like professional runners. We were almost back to the hangar when the vest exploded. The force of the blast threw us to the ground. I crawled over to Rachel, covered her body with my own, and watched a giant orange fireball rise into the night sky.