THREE

•   •   •

The trail joined the service road, which was also dirt but wider and with a less treacherous grade. But because the road was wider, the pine canopy did not cover it as well and rain fell freely, obscuring the view out of the windshield and washing across large portions of the road.

Jed held the steering wheel tightly, responding and reacting to the subtle slopes in the road and the not-so-subtle divots and potholes that were forming. He pressed the speed as fast as he could while still maintaining control over the vehicle. At times, he thought he’d lose it, that the truck would spin out or fishtail in the soggy dirt and veer off the road and into the forest. But every time he was able to recover and correct the Silverado’s direction.

His heart beat hard behind his sternum, like an anxious visitor knocking relentlessly on a closed door. He could feel his pulse all the way to his fingertips. His mind turned over and over, seeking answers, running through options, weighing possibilities. Questions abounded and tormented him by remaining unanswerable. All-out panic loomed just below the surface like a menacing shark, circling him, threatening. If he gave into it, he would totally lose his mind and in turn lose Lilly. He couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t allow it to happen. He had to stay focused, remain calm.

And he had to get answers.

Finally the service road merged with the paved road that followed Hayden Creek all the way out of the forest and back to Highway 95.

Karen reached over and patted Jed’s leg. “You’re doing great, honey.”

Concern etched deep lines in her brow and tightened her jaw. Fear had blanched her flesh. Fatigue and exhaustion had hollowed her cheeks and deepened her eyes. And why shouldn’t it? After all she’d been through.

“Am I? I don’t feel like it.” Again, Jed scolded himself for not being able to protect her and Lilly. He’d let down his guard; he had no idea they’d find him so quickly.

“You can’t blame yourself for this.”

But he did. Of course he did.

They drove in silence for the next twenty minutes, Jed pushing the Silverado faster and faster. Rain, now unhampered, pelted the windshield and blurred the roadway. The sky was as flat as slate and slung low, obscuring the peaks of the distant Selkirks.

When they arrived at the Mobil, Jed stopped the truck along the side of the convenience store. There was one other car, a sedan, parked in front of the store, and an elderly man filling a Honda SUV at one of the pumps.

“Stay in here,” Jed said to Karen. “Keep the doors locked. If anyone comes out of that store or anyone else pulls up, stay down. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

Jed opened the truck’s door and moved to get out but was stopped by Karen’s hand on his arm. She didn’t say anything, but the look on her face, the wideness of her eyes, the curve of her mouth, the slackness in her jaw, all said one thing: Be careful . . . Come back to me.

Jed patted her hand and smiled. “This won’t take long.”

As Jed approached the front door of the store, he could see the register through the glass. A woman was there checking out, handing the clerk a small wad of bills. Jed waited until she finished and lifted her bags from the counter. As she exited, he pushed through the door and met the clerk’s eyes. The man’s face went taut and the color drained from it as if someone had turned a knob and emptied it of blood. He took a step back, shifted his eyes to the door that led to the stockroom, then back to Jed. Immediately Jed read his intentions and changed course. The clerk made a dash for the door, but Jed was too quick and cut him off midway. He grabbed the clerk by the back of the neck with one hand and the wrist with the other. Twisting the man’s arm behind his back, Jed drove him forward, through the door, and into the stockroom, where he shoved him face-first against a stack of boxes.

The clerk grunted and cursed. “It’s not me, man.”

“Let him go, Patrick.” The voice came from behind Jed. He froze, his hands still gripping the clerk.

“Let him go. We need to talk.”

Jed turned slowly, then released his hold on the clerk, who stepped away and pressed himself against the wall. Five men stared at Jed, four with weapons raised. One was the bearded man Jed had seen earlier, the box label reader. Lilly stood beside the one man who had not produced a weapon. She appeared unharmed and was not restrained in any way.

“Get him out of here,” the unarmed man said, motioning toward the clerk. A lean guy with a five o’clock shadow grabbed the clerk by the arm and escorted him back to the store.

Jed’s mind raced through options, formulating plans as quickly as any computer. He had a number of countermoves to draw on, but with Lilly there, any would be too dangerous. If he were alone, he’d have a fighting chance, but the risk was too high.

“Please,” the man said. “Place your weapon on the floor.”

Jed knew he had to keep Lilly out of harm’s way, so he complied and slid his handgun across the floor. The man, middle-aged, medium build and height, dark hair with some gray around the temples, smiled and eyed Jed with narrowed eyes. “I apologize for the dramatics, but it was necessary to get your attention.”

Jed looked at Lilly, then at the man. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m Andrew Murphy.” He flashed Jed his badge. “Central Intelligence Agency.”

So the CIA was now involved? But how did they find him?

“And?”

“And we need your help.”

“So you bust into my home and abduct my daughter?”

Murphy lost his smile. “Nobody busted into anything, and abduct is a bit of a stretch. Let’s say we appropriated her. To get your attention.”

“Well, you have it.” He glanced at the three still leveling their weapons at him. He didn’t know what Murphy had planned, didn’t know if he really was with the CIA. He still needed to play things safe.

“Good. Then mission accomplished. Almost.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Your help.”

“My help. With what?”

“Bringing down the Centralia Project.”

Centralia. The word alone flooded Jed’s mind with disturbing memories. Brainwashing. Torture. Manipulation. Lies. So many lies. Nichols, the man behind it all. Jed thought he’d lost Karen and Lilly for good because of the Centralia Project. Every part of it was immoral and criminal in so many ways. Evil. And the men and women at the helm were nothing short of devils.

“What do you have to do with Centralia?”

“We’re the CIA; it’s our job to know about such ghost agencies and dismantle them. No government can survive with rogues operating off camera, accountable to no one, developing and executing their own agendas. Can you imagine the damage that would be done, both domestically and internationally, if the work of Centralia leaked into the public arena?”

It would be scandalous; that much he knew. He was counting on it. But the ripple effects —those could prove devastating.

“We’ve known about the project for some time,” Murphy said, “but getting hard evidence to do any real damage has been . . . difficult. We need your thumb drive. The information on it is invaluable.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You have no one else to trust, do you?”

He didn’t.

“And you’re not safe on that mountain,” Murphy said. “If we found you, what’s to say anyone else couldn’t if they looked hard enough and knew the right resources to tap?”

Jed thought of what Karen had told him about her own fears and Lilly’s nightmares. They weren’t safe; he knew that more than ever now. As long as the Centralia Project was still operational, his family would always live in fear, would always feel the need to watch over their shoulder.

“We have our own reasons for wanting to dismantle the project, and you have yours. Look how easily we snatched your daughter from your home.”

He was right. Jed knew he was. He hated to admit it, but Murphy spoke the truth. It had taken nothing for them to abduct Lilly. And they could have just as easily killed all three of them.

Lilly stood beside Murphy, arms at her sides, and watched with wide eyes. Jed thought he saw a shadow of fear pass over her face. She knew it too. They were vulnerable.

Murphy motioned for the other three men to lower their weapons. “We mean you no harm, Patrick. We mean your family no harm. We simply need your help.”

Jed said nothing. He needed time to process this information. He’d been lied to so many times and his mind had been tinkered with in so many sickening ways he no longer trusted his own judgment. He wanted to think he could finally play a role in destroying the Centralia Project once and for all and eliminate that threat to his family, but was he willing to take the risk of trusting Murphy? Trusting anyone?

Murphy tilted his head to the side. “I can see you’re struggling with this. Let me make it a little clearer for you. We could have torn your cabin apart looking for the thumb drive. We could have harmed your wife or daughter here. We could have taken Lilly and left. Just left. You would never see her again. We could have held her for ransom. We could have taken both of them and tortured the location of the thumb drive out of them. You know we could have. So why didn’t we?”

He stared at Jed, but Jed gave no answer.

“Because that’s not how we operate. That’s how Centralia operates, and you know that to be true. You’ve seen it and lived it. We need your help and we’re asking nicely.”

“But you did take my daughter.”

“To get your attention.” He placed his hand on Lilly’s head. Lilly did not pull away but instead remained stock-still, eyeing Jed as if waiting for her dad to make a move and rescue her. “As you can see, she’s fine. Some things have to be shown to be believed. How would you have received us if we had knocked politely on your cabin door and told you that you and your family were in danger in that location? What would you have said had we merely requested you hand over the thumb drive?”

“I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Exactly. We might have even come off that mountain in body bags.”

“Possibly.”

Murphy patted Lilly’s back. “Honey, you can go to your dad now.”

Lilly crossed the distance between them, but the tears didn’t puddle in her eyes until she was near enough for Jed to reach out and touch. He pulled her close and hugged her. She clung to him with both arms wrapped around his waist. Jed placed a protective arm across her shoulders.

“But if you need more reason to believe us . . . Do you want to know how we found your location?”

“I’m listening.”

“Roger Abernathy.”

The name paralyzed Jed. He’d assumed all this time that Abernathy was dead, that he and Lawrence Habit had given their lives to buy time for Jed and Karen and Lilly to escape an attack from the hit men of Centralia. “Abernathy is alive?”

“He is. And he agreed with our mission enough to reveal your location. Even he realized you weren’t as secure as he’d hoped you would be. Surely you must see it now.”

He did see it . . . if it was true. He still wasn’t convinced this Andrew Murphy was telling him the truth. He couldn’t be sure of anything. “I need to talk to him.”

“Abernathy?”

“Abernathy. I want to see him.”

Murphy paused, bit his lip, eyed Jed like a cowboy in the Old West staring down an opposing gunman. Finally he glanced at Lilly, then said, “Okay. That can be arranged.”

Jed needed someone he could trust and he truly felt he could trust Abernathy. “Where? When?”

Murphy studied his watch for a handful of seconds. “Tomorrow morning. 0800. The Daniels and Fisher Tower in Denver.”

“Denver.”

Murphy shrugged. “It’s where Abernathy is now residing. He found himself a nice little apartment near Washington Park.”

Jed thought about that. Denver was a good fifteen hours away. They’d have to travel through the night. “Deal.”

Murphy smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “Great. And bring that thumb drive.”

Jed turned to leave with Lilly but was stopped by Murphy’s voice.

“Oh, and, Patrick? Be careful.” He rested his eyes on Lilly for a brief moment. “You’re not as invincible as you think you are.”