The terrain surrounding Witch Mountain made it difficult enough to reach, and the security made it practically impossible to enter.
They had to climb over rocky crags and through a fast-moving stream while evading surveillance cameras and a high-voltage fence.
Much to Jack’s amazement, they made it all the way to a bluff overlooking the entrance—a giant archway carved right into a granite cliff. Military vehicles passed in and out through the heavily guarded entrance. It looked like there was no way the four of them could go through it.
“That’s depressing,” Alex said, looking over the situation. “Now what?”
Jack tried to think of something. “I was hoping chaos theory would deliver us a big tank or a battleship,” he said.“Okay, new plan. We abandon the old plan.”
Sara looked at him glumly. “You don’t have a plan, do you?”
“I thought you could read minds,” Jack said.
“I can,” Sara said with a shrug. “I was just hoping I was wrong.”
Alex pulled out one of the schematics from her backpack.“According to Harlan’s intel there are several service tunnels spreading outward. Might be worth looking for.”
Jack considered this for a moment. It was certainly better than trying to bust through the heavily guarded entrance. “That’s what we call Plan B,” he said. “Let’s go.”
But just as they started off, Sara began to wobble.
“Jack,” she called out to him.
He rushed forward to keep her from falling. Her eyes were rolling backward and her eyelids were fluttering.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, coming up beside Jack.
Jack grabbed hold of Sara, and when he did, she turned to the side, revealing the plastic tip of a dart sticking out of her neck.
Alarmed, Jack spun around.“Seth!” he called out. But it was too late.
Seth grabbed at his neck as he, too, started to stagger. Jack laid Sara down and rushed over to catch Seth before he fell.
Suddenly, twenty special operations soldiers emerged from the surrounding woods, as if by magic. Their camouflage had been perfect. Seconds earlier, they had blended in perfectly with the foliage. Burke led the team, a triumphant smile on his face. His mission had finally been accomplished.
“What did you do to them?” Alex demanded, her face ashen.
Burke gave her a disdainful look. “Consider yourself lucky. I could have you both shot on sight for trespassing and violation of U.S. government property.”
Several soldiers approached carrying stretchers to take Seth and Sara away. Jack lunged to protect them, but another soldier took him out with two quick blows from the butt of his rifle. He fell to the ground. Jack tried to get up, but he was quickly knocked down again.
“Mr. Bruno,” Burke said unsympathetically. “I have to believe that you’re smart enough to know you can’t win.”
Jack looked over and watched as Seth and Sara were carried away. Even though they weren’t fully conscious, their eyes pleaded with him to help.
There was nothing Jack could do but watch as the two were loaded into a Humvee.
“You have to listen to me,” Alex pleaded. “It’s absolutely vital that they get home!”
“They are home, Dr. Friedman,” Burke said smugly. “They’re now in my custody.”
“You can’t silence the truth,” she warned him. “The world has a right to know of their existence.”
“You’re going to be the one to blow the whistle?” Burke asked with a laugh. “A failed astrophysicist, fired by three universities for obsessing over UFOs, teams up with a lifelong ex-con in declaring that the government has captured two normal-looking kids and is holding them hostage inside a mountain that doesn’t exist? It’s so much easier to let you speak than to deal with all the paperwork involved with killing you,” Burke finished.
“Someone will believe us,” Jack said.
“From behind bars?” Burke asked. “Let me remind you, Mr. Bruno, as a convicted felon, you’re looking at twenty years just for standing on this mountain. Shall I go on?”
Jack turned to look at Alex, totally ashamed of what Burke had revealed—and what he was about to say.
“No,” Jack assured him.“I get the message.”
Burke eyed him for a moment, content that he had solved this problem for good. “Smart man,” he said.“We’ll give you a lift down. So much easier than walking up.”
Alex turned to give Jack a searching look. “Wait,” she pleaded. “That’s it. It’s over?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, watching as disappointment flooded Alex’s face.
They were quietly loaded into a Humvee and escorted back down the mountain with a driver and armed guard.
“Thankfully, Sara and Seth didn’t have to witness how quickly you gave up,” Alex fumed, her arms crossed in front of her. “They trusted you. I trusted you.”
Jack had done what he could. Hadn’t he told them he wasn’t up for the job? “Well, join the club of everyone else in my life I’ve disappointed,” he snapped.
The driver and guard shared a look as they listened in on the growing argument. The two in the back sounded like an old married couple.
“He’ll dissect them like frogs in a high school biology class,” she told him. “You know that.”
“Whatever,” Jack answered. “Not my problem.”
That was it. Alex reached over and slapped Jack across the face.
The guard turned around to look. As he did, Jack timed a perfect punch to the jaw, knocking him out cold.
Before the driver could figure out what was happening, Jack lunged toward the front seat and forced the man’s head into the window, shattering the glass in the process.
The driver lost consciousness, and the Humvee careened out of control. Jack quickly yanked the unconscious driver over the seat into the back, while Alex dived into the front and quickly grabbed the steering wheel. She managed to get control of the vehicle right before they would have slammed into a tree.
Once they came to a rest, Jack and Alex took deep breaths. Both driver and guard were out cold.
“When did you know?” Jack asked her, wondering how long it had taken her to figure out that he never intended to just give up.
“The minute they took your kids from you,” she said with a knowing smile.
“The slap,” he said as he rubbed his sore cheek. “Very realistic by the way.”
“I’m very detail-oriented,” Alex said with a laugh.