Chapter Thirty-Two

Kat slowed the snowmobile to a stop twenty feet in front of the helicopter office. The sight of the familiar yellow crime scene tape sent all of her senses on high alert, but she doubted anyone was in the immediate vicinity at the moment. There were no cars, no tracks in the snow, and the place was dark inside.

She could see the helicopter still parked in its usual spot, and that was enough to propel her forward toward the office. She pulled her flashlight from her insulated suit as she approached the door, noticing immediately that the police seal that had been placed across it had already been broken. She picked the lock and went in, shining the light around the waiting area. Then she went to Sam’s office.

The bright halogen beam picked out the fading chalk outline of a body on the floor, and Kat frowned with disappointment. She’d liked the pilot, despite his incessant need to hit on her whenever they did business together. Sam had a certain charm, and he’d been an invaluable help in ferrying supplies to the bunker.

Otter did this, Kat concluded as she studied the large bloodstain on the floor where Sam had died. Otter was looking for me and figured I might be using a helicopter up here. Her anger resurfaced at the pilot’s needless death because of his association to her. She might have to reconsider her decision to let Otter live.

She rifled through the contents of the desk and scanned the office and waiting area, looking for the key to the helicopter, but came up empty. Next she searched the chopper. Still no key. She was frustrated she’d have to come up with a new plan to evacuate Jake. Airlifting her out of the bunker had seemed the perfect solution.

Kat returned to her snowmobile. It was still snowing. Her tracks from town had been nearly covered during her time inside the office. The wind had died down, however, so visibility was good. She’d take a more roundabout way back to the bunker. It would take longer, but there were vast open places along that route, and high vantage points that would enable her to tell if she was being followed.

She started up the machine and pulled out her GPS device for a quick reading. She roared off to the northwest at a fast clip.

She was watched through a pair of high-powered binoculars. But instead of following her this time, the second snowmobile started off in the opposite direction, back toward town.

It took Kat four hours to make the trip to town and back, much longer than she’d expected because of the extra stop at the airstrip and the long, circuitous return route she’d taken to avoid a tail. She had spent a full half hour at one point parked on a high ridge, snacking on cheese and crackers while she scanned with binoculars the open area she’d just traveled through. She waited there until she could no longer make out her snowmobile track. Only then did she resume her journey back to the bunker.

She left her snowmobile idling outside the main entrance while she opened the hidden door. She glanced at Frank and Otter. They were as far apart as they could be given the short chain between them, but they remained bound and subdued in the corner.

"Hi, boys," she called out, projecting her voice over the sound of the snowmobile’s rumbling. "Being good, are we? That’s nice."

She pulled the snowmobile into the generator room, inching it as close to the two rental machines as she could. It was still well out of reach of her captives. She shut off the engine and closed the outside door, then opened the one to the tunnel.

She carried the groceries into the kitchen, having to make a couple of trips. Once the snowmobile was unloaded, she paused before the two men.

"I’ll be back in a little while to take care of you," she said in a rather ominous tone that made both men wonder exactly what she meant.

Otter tried to sit up. He looked at Frank. "Still think she’s going to let you go?" he asked with a sneer. In the hours that Hunter had been gone, Otter had struggled against the handcuffs until his wrists were raw and had memorized every inch of the room they were in, still seeing no way to escape. His frustration was boiling over. He absolutely hated being confined again after all those years in prison. And he still felt ready to puke from the stink that seemed to pervade the entire room. Frank had been no help whatsoever. He’d hardly said a word the whole time, and he didn’t seem to be working at all to free himself. Just great. I get captured with a guy who looks like the Incredible Hulk, and he turns out to be a chickenshit.

But Frank surprised him. He leaned into Otter until their faces were nearly nose to nose. "I’d watch your tone, friend," Frank said unpleasantly, as if he’d read Otter’s mind. "Seeing as how I don’t think she would mind if I kicked your ass."

Otter looked away and scooted to the full length of the chain that connected them. Real smart, he berated himself. He considered how he could make amends with the guy who might be his only help out of here.

Kat looked in on Jake after she had put the groceries away and was pleased to find her sleeping soundly. She changed out of her coveralls but kept her gun with her, tucking it into the back of her jeans.

She e-mailed Kenny, asking whether he had any more news about the contract on her life. She also wanted him to find out what he could about the murder at the Tawa airstrip.

She outlined what she knew about Sam, the pilot, but omitted her suspicions of Otter’s involvement. She waited by the computer for a few minutes, but when no immediate answer arrived, she concluded Kenny must be away from his computer and logged off.

She spent a good hour cleaning up the mess in the pantry, salvaging what she could. By the time she was finished, she had decided to be merciful to Frank, if not to Otter, and let Otter change his clothes. It really was pretty inhuman, she decided, to force anyone to be subjected to that awful aroma in a confined space. She’d scrubbed the floor of the pantry repeatedly, but she could still smell it in the living room even with the door closed.

She took the insulated coveralls that Jake had been wearing, along with thick socks and a set of sweats, out to the generator room. She tossed them on the floor beside Otter.

As she reached down to unlock his handcuffs, Kat put her mouth near his ear. "I don’t have to remind you not to try anything stupid, now do I?" she crooned, as she turned the key and freed his wrists. She stepped away from him and casually reached for her Glock, holding it loosely in her right hand as she watched him rub his sore wrists.

Otter said nothing. He expected her to kill him, so he couldn’t understand what the change of clothes was for.

She gestured to the sweats with her gun. "Frank’s been a good boy. He shouldn’t have to pay for your clumsiness," Kat said. "Change clothes."

While Otter was happy to get out of his stinking suit, he didn’t like taking orders from Hunter, and he didn’t particularly relish having to strip in front of her at gunpoint. But he complied, peeling off his insulated outerwear and the layer beneath it until he was left standing in his ratty briefs. He reached for the clothes on the floor, but her voice stopped him.

"Everything goes. Everything stinks."

Reluctantly, Otter removed his damp underwear, trying unsuccessfully to cover himself with one hand. It was bitter cold in the room. He glanced down, then at her.

She had a smirk on her face.

Otter fought against his rising anger, focusing on getting out of his Jockeys and into the clean clothes. Once that was accomplished, he looked at her again. She motioned with the gun for him to turn around, and he did, putting his back to her and offering his wrists behind him to be handcuffed again.

As she locked the cuffs, she noticed the raw abrasions that were evidence of Otter’s struggles to free himself. She chained him to Frank and checked Frank’s handcuffs closely. He hadn’t tried to escape. She leaned over and whispered into Frank’s ear. "Nice to see you’re being smart. You’ll be pleased with your reward," she promised.

Kat opened the exterior door and carried Otter’s stinky clothes outside, disposing of them a short distance away under a large downed tree where they couldn’t be seen. By the time she returned to the generator room and closed the panel again, the small room had been sufficiently aired out, but the temperature inside had fallen dramatically.

She returned to the tunnel and gathered up the coats that she had wrapped around Jake. She set them on the floor beside Otter so he would have some insulation against the cold concrete.

He eyed her suspiciously but took advantage of her apparent kindness, rolling onto the coats.

After he did, Kat leaned over him and looked directly into his eyes. "I’ve been meaning to ask you, Otter," she said, studying his face. "You didn’t make a little stop at the helicopter office in town, did you?" She knew immediately from his expression that he’d done precisely that.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30