Chapter Eighteen. It was to Frank both a blessing and a curse that the hill he was climbing was heavily wooded

It was to Frank both a blessing and a curse that the hill he was climbing was heavily wooded. He could sneak up on whatever had made the noise by moving from tree to tree. That made him feel much less vulnerable. On the other hand, it made it hell to try to see anything or anyone. A thick cloud layer obscured whatever moonlight might have penetrated to the forest floor. There could be someone hidden behind any of the trees around him.

He tried to move as quietly as possible while spending as little time as he could in the open areas between trees. He paused behind every other tree, listening, as he neared the top of the rise. He heard no further sounds at all, except a very faint, far-off cry--a lone coyote. The plaintive sound went on sporadically for a couple of minutes, and then all was silent again. Frank wrongly thought wolf when he heard it, and he immediately wondered if a wolf would go after a man. He was really beginning to hate this assignment, million dollars or no million dollars.

His face and ears were freezing, and that was distracting him a bit. He’d never been so cold. He’d exposed his ears to the frigid air so he could hear better. He figured he must be close to the place he’d heard the noise coming from, but he was really only guessing. Frank stood as still and quiet as he could for a long while, listening, peering into the darkness. He started to wonder if he’d really heard something. The noise had sounded metallic, and he could see there was nothing around him except woods and snow.

He fished a candy bar out of his pocket. As he ate, he became more convinced that he must have just imagined he heard something. Who knows what kind of things are out here with me and what noises they make? he thought uneasily. He was no coward. He had confronted lots of dangerous situations in his line of work. Still, he liked knowing what he was up against.

He stayed there a long time despite his growing anxiety, because the alternative would be for him to return to the more exposed area of the rock wall and deal with the security panel again. He wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

Kat thought that enough time had probably elapsed for the intruder to have investigated the area and left, but still she waited beneath the closed hatch. That sixth sense of hers urged caution and she obeyed, even though various parts of her body complained about the long time she remained suspended on the ladder rungs. She tried to stretch out her muscles, stimulating the blood flow so she would be ready to face whoever was outside.

Too warm now, she unzipped the coveralls to let in the cool air and pulled up the balaclava so it no longer covered her face. She would wait a while longer, although her muscles twitched in anticipation of the confrontation ahead.

Jake couldn’t stand it any longer. If she didn’t move now, right now, she wasn’t sure she could prevent an accident. Certainly Kat would understand--she had been in such a hurry to respond to the alarm she hadn’t stopped to consider Jake might need to use the bathroom.

Jake moved her legs over one side of the bed. Trying very hard not to put any weight at all on her bad knee, she slid down to the floor. She hopped to the doorway, opened the door, and continued through the bathroom door to the commode, balancing better on one foot than she expected and getting to her destination just in time.

The relief was enormous. She washed her hands and headed to the bathroom door. Peering out, she glanced around the outer room and got her first real long look at the rest of Kat’s retreat. To her right were large built-in bookcases filled with books. She took in the leather couch and easy chair and the small kitchen opposite the bookshelves. It was a lovely room, but few knickknacks were apparent. The only real decorations were the pictures on the walls--more animal and bird photographs. Kat’s cello case sat against the wall to Jake’s left. Beyond that, and in front of her, was a large desk.

Jake’s eyes were drawn to the only movement in the room--a slight flicker that came from one of the monitors set into the wall behind the desk. Intrigued, Jake moved toward them, momentarily forgetting her promise to Kat. The monitors had an odd green tint to them; they weren’t televisions. Each held a static picture, and Jake realized they must be images from security cameras.

Standing in front of them, she could see that the first one showed a large rock wall and a bit of forest around it. The second camera was focused on a long, narrow corridor of some kind--she could see hats and coats hanging on pegs. The third monitor displayed a small clearing in the woods surrounded by a thick growth of trees. Jake’s eyes were drawn to movement in the last monitor.

One of the dark shadows in the monitor separated itself from the longer shadow that had concealed it. Jake stared, fascinated, as the shadow came into slightly better view of the camera. She could see now it was a person, though it was hard to be sure if it was male or female because the figure was clad in a one-piece suit. A snowmobile suit, she realized. She suspected it was a man because of the disproportionately large upper body.

The man appeared to be eating something. One hand kept going to his mouth. It looked like the he was waiting, hiding, pressed up against the tree like that. Where is Kat? Jake worried.

A flicker to her left brought her attention to the second monitor. There she is, Jake thought with relief. Kat was climbing down rungs at the edge of the screen and skipped the last couple to land gracefully on her feet in the corridor. Then she bounced up and down with nervous energy, stretching her arms and arching her back. Jake tried to look closer at Kat’s surroundings in the monitor. Where are you?

Jake pried her eyes away from the screen long enough to glance around the room she was in. There were two doors besides the ones to the bedroom and bathroom. One was on the other side of the room, next to the refrigerator. The other, probably the exit door because of the locks on it, was set into the wall between the desk and the kitchen. Are you on the other side of that door?

Jake suddenly remembered her promise, and she was a bit concerned that Kat would come through the door and find she had left the bedroom. But she was even more worried about Kat’s safety, given the figure that was evidently waiting outside in the woods. He set off the alarm, Jake realized. That certainly explained Kat’s sudden change in demeanor. She knows he’s out there.

She turned back to the monitors, waiting for something to happen, her sense of anxiety growing. Kat said we were a long way from civilization. Who is he and what does he want?

She watched, transfixed, as Kat calmly pulled a large handgun from the pocket of her white overalls and with practiced efficiency checked the clip. "Who are you really?" Jake whispered, wide-eyed.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30