A distant alarm blared and Charles whipped around to race to his control room. “There’s an intruder!”
Reid and Jane followed, though Reid didn’t think it was likely to be anything serious. Maybe a deer had wandered into the compound and brushed up against sensors. It could even have been Parker nosing around outside.
They followed Charles to the small control room, and he called up screen footage. The bank of computer monitors showed various parts of the land around the compound, and Reid saw nothing amiss until Charles went to the one on the far right and fiddled with the settings. The video displayed three men dressed in black with face masks, manipulating electronic equipment in their hands before they entered the bunker on the west side.
“Someone’s breached the bunker,” Charles said. “That’s impossible.”
The camera showed the men moving noiselessly through the interior. One man held a box of plastic explosives with wires, and another man carried the cylinder with the ominous black-and-yellow radiation symbol.
Jane gasped. “That’s the lead box with the nuclear material!”
Charles opened a safe and extracted an AK-47 as well as a pistol. “Call ATF and then get off the property. I don’t want you in harm’s way.”
Jane drew her gun. “I’m going with you.”
“Me too,” Reid said.
Charles shook his head. “You are responsible for Will. You can’t run the risk of leaving the boy on his own.”
Jane shook her head. “Dad, there are three of them! You can’t take them on alone. Reid can get Parker and leave the property.”
“I’m not leaving you.” How could she even think he would? She was strong and capable, but those guys meant business. Even now he kept glancing back at the screen to see what they were doing. Time was running out to stop them.
She put her hand on his arm. “Will has lived most of his life without me. If I die down there, he would still have you. What if that bomb detonates and all three of us die? Who would take care of Will? He’d never survive the trauma of losing us all. You have to go, Reid. You have to.”
He was shaking his head as she spoke even though he realized like a punch to his gut that she was right. Will meant everything to both of them. Sometimes you made sacrifices for your kids, and this was one of those times. Their boy was locked up and in trouble. No one would get him out if the three of them died today.
He swallowed past the knot in his throat. “I think we should all leave and let ATF handle this.”
Charles moved toward the door. “I’m not walking away from my property, but you and Jane should go. I don’t have time to argue. You two figure it out.”
Jane reached up and brushed a kiss across his cheek before following her dad. Reid had a contact at the ATF from a previous documentary, and he placed a call and told the agent everything he knew. Once he was certain help was on the way, he forced himself to move toward the front door, though his legs felt wooden and weak.
He wanted to grab a gun and join Jane and her dad. He loved her with every fiber of his being, and the danger down in that bunker was terrifying.
He could only pray and place her safety in God’s hands.
* * *
The air smelled musty and damp as Jane descended into the bunker. She paused at the metal door.
“Let me go first.” Charles brushed past her to unlock the door.
The metal door on the east side scraped open and lights in the bunker automatically went on. “I wish we had some idea where they are,” Jane said.
Her dad held up his phone to show her the video still running. “They’re in the food storage room.” He held a finger to his lips. “Quietly and quickly.”
The world had been worried about terrorists setting off a dirty bomb for years, but as far as she knew, no one had ever done it in the US. Its main effect was to cause fear, but it also would render her father’s property and much of the surrounding area unusable for years. If the blast didn’t kill them, they would likely get sick from the radiation. She didn’t want to leave Will and Reid, so they had to be smart about this.
She was so lost in thought she bumped into her dad and knocked him against a steel shelf. It clattered and several paint cans fell to the floor with an even louder racket. She grabbed her dad’s arm and drew him back into a side room.
A man’s alarmed voice echoed, and she heard footsteps. She shouted, “Police, drop your weapons!”
The man swore, and the slap of boots against concrete bounced off the walls. She darted past her dad into the main area and leaped over the fallen paint cans to give chase. Her dad’s heavy footsteps thundered after her, and she pointed toward the pantry for him to check for the bomb while she followed the escaping men. She could only pray they hadn’t had time to put the bomb together.
Light illuminated the darkness as the men flung open the door and raced outside with Jane in pursuit. They disappeared into the canopy of green forest, and she plunged into the bushes where she’d last seen them and paused to listen. The leaves and vegetation muffled their location, and she couldn’t tell where to head.
There. A sound came from her right, and she went that way. And promptly bumped into Reid.
She shouldn’t have been so glad to see him, but his presence always gave her more courage and stability. “Reid. You were supposed to be off the property.”
“I can’t find Parker. I’ve been calling for him, but he’s not coming. Did you find the bomb?”
“No, the men got away. I’m not sure if they have the bomb or left it behind.”
Her father emerged from the barn over the bunker. “No bomb. They took it with them, probably because they didn’t have time to set it. Which way did the men go?”
“I’m not sure,” Jane said. “They vanished into the woods that way.” She pointed to her right. “That area is covered with dead leaves, and I’m not the best tracker in the world. And Parker is missing. I’m going to look for him.”
Her dad nodded. “I’ll call ATF and have them organize a roadblock. Maybe we can still catch them.”
She watched him disappear into the barn before she took Reid’s arm. “Let’s find my dog.”
* * *
Reid studied the ground as he trailed Jane. “I see dog tracks along the creek this way.”
Jane turned and followed him along the gurgling brook that led deeper into the thick woods. It was cooler here with the leaves blocking out the brutal Alabama sun. They picked their way past rocks and shrubs, berry bushes, and tiny waterfalls.
“He can’t have gone this far, can he?”
“Those have to be his tracks. What can he be after? He never roams this far from you.”
“I know. I don’t get it.” She cupped her hands, but he grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t call him,” he whispered. “I hear voices. He’s a smart dog. What if he heard those men in masks? This direction is the road, and the fence was probably breached here. There’s that trail running from the road for ATVs too.”
She nodded. “Look, Parker’s tracks veer here. Right toward that ATV track.”
Once before someone had sat out here watching Will. The place was a fortress, but Charles’s land eventually ran out. That’s where the danger lay.
Twigs snapped under Reid’s feet, and tree branches caught at his clothing. His shoes kept sinking into the mud. The break in the trees ahead revealed a glimpse of the road and a white SUV sitting there.
Reid grabbed her hand and pulled her down behind a thick shrub. “I saw movement,” he whispered in her ear.
She crouched beside him and struggled to slow her raspy breathing. He did the same. His pulse pounding in his ears sounded loud enough to be heard clear to town, though he knew he was the only one hearing it.
He peered up around the edge of the shrubs and saw a quick swish of a red tail. Parker, he mouthed to Jane. The dog was following the men. Reid held his position and saw another man with his back to them. There was no mistaking the three men dressed in black he’d seen on the video.
“We need to follow them.”
“But how? We don’t have a vehicle. They’ll be gone by the time we can get my SUV.”
The drone. Her dad just had it out. “Text your dad to launch his drone. We’ll follow by air and see where the SUV goes.”
She nodded and pulled out her phone. Now he could only pray the men didn’t make a move until Charles got here.
They crept closer and peered at the SUV. The men took off their masks, but they were too far for him to recognize any of them. Jane snapped several pictures with her phone and ran some video as well as they watched the guys.
She gave a soft whistle as the engine started on the SUV, and Parker came running back to them. “Good dog,” she said quietly.
“Let’s circle back and get to the SUV,” he whispered in her ear. “Your dad has had enough time to get the drone launched. I’m sure he has it already trained on that SUV.”
She nodded, and they rushed as fast as they could back to the driveway.