Stretched out in midair, like a superhero, Jacob close lined the rider with his left arm.
Rider flipped over backwards.
His left arm propelled backward after contact, Jacob landed on his right side, grimaced, and barrel rolled several times.
The ATV swerved left and crashed into a tree.
After skidding across the dirt, then doing a reverse somersault, Rider ended up on his back. Looking up, yelling at the tree canopy, he grabbed his left arm and rocked back and forth, his foul language permeating the night air.
Jacob crawled out from under the shrub that had caught him.
Rider flopped onto his belly.
Jacob stood and went for his 357 Magnum, but is hand came up empty. He scanned the area at his feet but found no weapon.
Rider did a push-up and rose to both feet, his face contorting, as he clutched his left arm.
His attention drawn to his opponent, Jacob lowered his stance and felt a twinge of pain. He reached around behind him and arched his back while he stepped onto the matted earth that served as a driveway.
Circling each other, the two men squared off, pirouetting in concert until the distance between them ran parallel with the roadway.
Jacob flipped up his NVGs and regarded the man’s features. He flexed his left arm while rubbing his left shoulder. “You must be Hendricks.”
Hendricks held his smarting left arm by the elbow. “And you must be the Homeland Security guy.” He made a face while wiggling his fingers. “Sheriff Winston said your name was,” he paused, “St. Christopher?”
“Where’s the girl? Where’s Miranda?”
The older man studied his younger adversary. “You’re not just a ‘fed,’ are you? You’ve got skills...military skills.” He cocked his head and half closed one eye. “Navy Seal?” He shook his head. “No.” A smile traced his lips. “You’re Army, aren’t you? Ranger?”
Jacob slid the Short KA-BAR knife from its horizontal sheath at the small of his back.
Chuckling, Hendricks drew a full-size KA-BAR from inside his right boot and aimed the seven-inch blade at Jacob. “Oh, yeah. You and me...we’re the same, all right.”
His brow wrinkling, Jacob shook his head. “Not even close.”
The gray-haired man tapped his chest with the KA-BAR’s tip. “Ten years in the Army—five as a Ranger.”
Jacob gritted his teeth. I don’t give a rat’s— “Where’s the girl you kidnapped?”
“Uncle Sam trains me to kill,” Hendricks ambled to his right, “but then kicks me out of his club when I,” a beat, “enjoy my job a little too much...shall we say.”
Jacob circled right to keep his distance. “Dishonorable discharge?”
Hendricks’ eyes flared red.
Jacob spotted the anger and slowly nodded. “What was it for...raping little girls in the ‘Sand Box?’”
Feeling another rush of anger, Hendricks laughed to control his emotions. “I’ll make you a deal—Ranger to Ranger. If you beat me, I’ll tell you what I did with the girl. If I win, then,” his crooked smile returning, he held a shrug, “well, you won’t really care, will you?”
Jacob assumed a fighting position. “You don’t have to die tonight.”
Hendricks matched his foe’s stance, “But you do,” then charged while swinging his KA-BAR.
Slicing the air with his own knife, Jacob met the man’s attack.
Blades clinked twice.
Jacob sent his left fist into Hendricks’ face.
The man’s head rocked, and his body followed, as he staggered backward while holding his bloodied nose.
“Next time, I won’t lead with my fist.”
Hendricks chortled, wiped his hand on his pants, and came in for a second attack.
Parrying the strike and stepping right...
Hendricks’ momentum carried him forward.
Jacob pivoted left and sliced his blade across the back of his adversary’s left knee.
Howling, Hendricks grabbed his wound, hobbled away, and did a one-eighty to face his attacker.
“Like I said...you don’t have to die tonight.”
Now nursing a leg wound, his left arm not at a hundred percent, Hendricks saw his chances at victory fading. “Screw you.” He pushed aside the pain and rushed Jacob with everything he had, slashing his KA-BAR back and forth in front of him.
Jacob fended off two strikes and retreated.
An image of Chrissy Toberman, along with her words, popped into his brain. He’s going to rape her. I know. Because...
Hendricks advanced.
...he did the same things to me.
Jacob backpedaled and redirected the attacks before his mind queued up a mental picture of his missing daughter. He heard her voice. Daddy...he did the same things to... His muscles straining at the thoughts, he squeezed the knife handle. In the next heartbeat, his eyes narrowed, and his blood pressure skyrocketed. He clenched his teeth and saw the sexual predator through an imaginary haze of red.
Hendricks lunged forward and shoved out the knife like a sword.
His Short KA-BAR in his right hand, the clip point aimed skyward, Jacob deflected the strike to his left, did a clockwise three-sixty, while reversing his hold on the weapon, and then whipped his arm backward to drive the fighting knife into Hendrick’s chest.
The stabbed man gasped.
Jacob twisted his hand and gave an upward thrust.
Letting out another quick wheeze, his KA-BAR slipping from his grasp, the older man clutched his fatal injury.
Jacob laid his left hand on the man’s left shoulder and pushed while retracting the 5.25-inch blade.
The cult leader fell to his knees and looked up, a smile on his face, blood oozing from between his teeth.
Jacob loomed over him. “Where’s the girl?”
Dropping to his elbows, the already-dead man swallowed then coughed up a line of red. “I’m a man of my word, but...you’re too late. The girl’s already,” he coughed, “dead. I did to her what the little,” he cursed, “was going to...” he hacked.
A longer string of crimson spewed out of his mouth.
“...was going to do to me.” His eyelids drooping, his body going limp, “I gutted her on the Appalachian—” he toppled over and landed on his right side, his eyes staring straight ahead, never to blink again.
Two seconds later, Jacob glimpsed the red staining his knife’s blade then eyed a deceased Hendricks. What have I done? A sudden bout of nausea overtaking him, he dropped to one knee and hung his head. Forgive me, Lord. He made a fist. Don’t let Miranda suffer for my mistake. Please, show me where she is. Tell me where to find her.
∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞
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