Black Sun Descending (30 page)

Gwyther grabbed the radio control of the patrol vehicle and spoke into the handset. “Park ranger. Stop where you are. Put your hands in the air!”

The figure stopped. Gwyther adjusted the spotlight on the side of the vehicle and shone it on the person. It was a young woman, her hair in pigtails. She wore hiking boots, the laces undone, and a fleece coat but had on pink
PJ
bottoms.

“She's saying something,” said Silas. He rolled down his window to listen.

“They've got Tommy!” the young woman yelled. “They took Tommy and they have him out on the trail!”

Silas quickly looked at Gwyther. “What trail is that?”

“Angel's Window. It's a dead end and it's straight down, right into the canyon.”

HER NAME WAS
Cailey. Silas sat with the woman in the back of the patrol vehicle. He had found another blanket in the ranger's vehicle and had wrapped it around her shoulders. She was crying and Silas put his arm around her and talked to her in a comforting tone.

“Who
are
they?” she asked between sobs.

“Bad people, Cailey. Bad people.”

“But why are they doing this?”

“I don't know. Tell me what happened?”

She sniffed and straightened up, her face to the window. She pulled the blanket around herself. “We were camped here. We knew it was illegal, but Tommy wanted to watch the sunrise from Cape Royal. There's nobody here at this time of year. The road just opened. So it's really quiet. I think he was going to propose to me.” She started to cry again. “I wasn't supposed to know but I saw the ring in his backpack. We were just sleeping on the rocks out by the cape when these two fucking crazy people ran by. I guess we scared them because the woman started yelling at the man. He had a gun, and he grabbed Tommy right out of his sleeping bag. He wanted to know where the trail was. Tommy said, ‘What trail?' They said the trail down to the river. But there isn't one here. Only the North Kaibab Trail from the lodge and that's a long way from here. They got really angry. Then we saw your lights through the woods and they took Tommy and ran off back toward the other path, the one that goes out to Angel's Window. What's going to happen to him?”

“He's going to be fine. The rangers are here. The police and the
FBI
are coming. He's going to be fine.”

AT SUNRISE SILAS
was asleep in the passenger seat of the
SUV
. Cailey was asleep under the blanket behind him. He woke to a light tap on the window. He started, trying to remember where he was. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and saw Katie Rain. He quietly opened the door.

“What's happening?” he asked.

She looked past him at the sleeping girl. “I'll tell you. Follow me.”

There were two dozen law enforcement vehicles in the parking lot. White park ranger vehicles, black and white Coconino County Sheriff's Office patrol cars, and the black
GMC
Yukon vehicles Silas had learned to hate over the last four and a half years. There was a massive black armored vehicle parked nearby with the words
TACTICAL OPERATIONS
written in white on the side that Silas would later learn was the command center for a joint Coconino County–City of Flagstaff Tactical Operations Unit. The vehicle was nicknamed The Bear.

“Taylor is joint-incident commander for the Cape Royal team. Walt Kennedy from the City of Flagstaff police commands the joint tactical unit with the county so he's sharing command. They have jurisdiction over this part of Coconino but have asked for our help. We've got Coconino–Flagstaff
SWAT
team members on the ground at Cape Royal and Point Imperial. Our
SWAT
team from the Phoenix
FBI
office, along with the Crisis Negotiation Unit, just arrived and are setting up.” Katie spoke quietly and quickly. “Balin and Terry Aldershot are holed up on the Angel's Window overlook. We have eyes on them from the main approach and three places on the rim. They have the young man with them. They're hunkered down, but we can see all three. They are all alive.”

“What about Point Imperial?”

“Nielsen is there with field agents from Flag, along with the district ranger and a smaller team from the Coconino County Sheriff's Office. No hostages, and no cars in the parking lot except the Jeep, so we don't believe anybody from the public is in danger. James Zahn has gone down into the canyon. There's a rough trail there. We're letting him walk it out. We have a second
SWAT
team inbound from Salt Lake City. They should be here in the next hour. When they are assembled, we'll go in after him.”

“Hell of a place to have to wait it out. What about Hinkley and Love?”

“Ortiz is with a third team down on the Colorado.”

“Big day.”

“Yup. Are you alright?”

“I'll be fine. What about the girl?”

Katie pointed to a woman standing next to an adjacent patrol vehicle. “Dr. Pamela Frost. She's a counselor who does work with our Flagstaff office. She's watching for when the girl wakes up. She's in good hands. Come with me. The sun's almost up. It's showtime.”

They walked between the various patrol vehicles toward the rim. In the thicket of juniper and piñon pines Silas could see heavily armed men moving. Katie had her badge on a chain around her neck and led Silas along the path. They found Taylor with two other agents crouched down behind some cover overlooking the edge of the canyon. The morning light had started to infuse the stone with an otherworldly glow. Katie whispered something and Taylor turned around.

“So, Dr. Pearson, looks like you've managed to stay out of trouble,” he said quietly, his dark skin almost invisible in the early morning light.

“I caught you Jane Vaughn's killer.”

“Hasn't been caught yet, and we've got a pretty tricky situation right now.”

“We've got some movement, sir,” said one of the agents next to Taylor. He had binoculars trained on the promontory of stone.

Silas looked across the gulf of space between the canyon rim and the buttress of stone that extended into the Grand Canyon. Angel's Window was a narrow reef of rock that protruded from the rim in the vicinity of Cape Royal; below the promontory was a massive arch that allowed viewers from the rim to see right through, creating the “window.” It was surrounded on three sides by a precipitous drop five hundred feet straight down to talus and scree. It was just a few feet wide in places but had a trail that, with seemingly inadequate handrails, allowed those with no fear of heights to walk to the end of the jutting sandstone and experience the Grand Canyon in all its dizzying glory. That was where the agent's binoculars were trained now.

“All teams, ready,” a voice reported over Taylor's radio.

“Walt, this is Taylor,” said the
FBI
agent. He was addressing Deputy Chief Kennedy, who was stationed in The Bear, coordinating communications between the agents on the ground, the Hostage Rescue Team, and the Crisis Negotiation Unit. “How are you set?”

“Good, I've got eyes and ears on. All teams report in position.”

Silas wished he had his binoculars. His backpack had been left in the back of Ranger Gwyther's vehicle, but he suspected they had been damaged by falling rock in the mine shaft. The morning's quiet was broken by the sound of a helicopter overhead.

“We've got eyes on them from the bird,” said the agent next to Taylor. He held up a tablet computer for Taylor to see. Silas stole a glance over Taylor's shoulder and could see three people lying facedown at the end of the peninsula of stone. He couldn't make out who was who.

“Dr. Pearson,” said Taylor, turning around. “You have spent more time with Mr. and Mrs. Aldershot. Who would you say is in charge in this relationship?”

“No doubt—it's her. Terry Aldershot is in charge.”

“Thank you.” Dwight Taylor turned back to his team. He spoke into his radio. “All teams, Terry Aldershot is the principal target. The female is the principal.” Deputy Chief Kennedy confirmed the information. Unless something extraordinary happened, Silas realized that he'd likely just condemned Terry Aldershot to death.

The helicopter made a pass over Angel's Window, circled around to the north, and came back, low and slow. “She's got a gun to the boy's head,” Silas heard the agent watching the action say. “The husband doesn't appear to be armed.”

“He is,” Silas spoke over the sound of the helicopter. “He had a pistol when he was at the mine.”

“All teams, be advised, Balin Aldershot
is
armed.”

They watched in fascination the trio of prone bodies on Angel's Window as the dawn's light seemed to grow from within the night. Walt Kennedy spoke over the radio: “Kennedy to Team One, execute the original plan.”

“What are they doing?” asked Silas.

Nobody answered. Silas watched as a group of men clad in body armor began to move down the walkway from Cape Royal toward the promenade of Angel's Window. Over the distance Silas heard a megaphone bark, “Mrs. Aldershot, Mr. Aldershot, this is Coconino County Sheriff's Deputy Percy Evans. I'm here to negotiate. We'd like to talk with you about satisfying any demands you might have and you releasing your hostage. Can we bring you a radio with which we can communicate?” Silas watched a man standing in front of the
SWAT
team members, his left arm in the air, a two-way radio in his hand.

On the tablet the image of Terry Aldershot stirred. She seemed to be yelling at her husband, but Silas couldn't hear what she said; the distance was too great.

Balin Aldershot stood up and made his way back along the trail. Silas thought he looked petrified from the way he half walked, half crawled along the narrow promontory. The negotiator advanced, his hands in the air. He carried a throw bag dangling from his right hand. When the two men were twenty feet apart the negotiator gingerly tossed the bag to Aldershot. Balin caught the bag, then dropped to his knees and crawled back along the path. When he got to Terry he handed her the bag. There was a radio in it. The helicopter lifted up another five hundred feet in the air, its rotor noise becoming distant.

Silas heard Deputy Evans's voice on the radio. “Mrs. Aldershot, can you read me? This is Percy Evans. I'm with the sheriff's department. Can we bring you any breakfast?”

There was some squelch and then Terry Aldershot's voice came over loud and clear. “You can get your fucking helicopter and all these cops out of here. Leave a car. I want clear passage back to the airstrip, a plane, and a pilot who will fly us to Mexico.”

“Mrs. Aldershot, we can't do that right now. We can talk about getting you and your husband out of the country, but you've got to meet us halfway. Let Tom go and then we can all leave and you and Mr. Aldershot can have safe passage out of the country.”

“No. Fuck that. The kid is coming with us. We'll turn him over to the Mexicans. Now back the fuck off or this kid is going to take a swan dive.”

“She's a piece of work,” Silas heard Taylor say.

“You should see her in a council meeting,” said Silas.

“Let me discuss your demands with my incident commander and we'll get right back to you.”

“You've got ten minutes.”

In two minutes Silas watched as Taylor, Evans, and Kennedy huddled near The Bear discussing the situation.

“What do you think they're going to do?” Silas said. He and Katie Rain were sitting on a log in the woods, their view of sunrise over the canyon obscured by a few stunted junipers.

“I really can't say. I've never been part of a hostage negotiation before.
FBI
strategy is usually to defuse the situation and recover the hostage without killing the hostage-taker. The hostage team's motto is
servare vitas
.”

“To save lives,” said Silas.

“That's right, Professor. As long as we get Tommy, we'll take them down the road, or at the airfield. It's the transitions where the hostage-taker is usually vulnerable, like when they move from a building to a vehicle or from a car to a plane. They won't get very far.”

“If they die, I don't get to find out if they know where my wife is.”

“I know. Taylor's going to try to keep everybody alive. I know you two don't like each other much, but Dwight is good at what he does. I think he'll bring this home.”

Taylor returned to his observation post and Kennedy into the Tactical Operations Unit vehicle. Soon Evans could be heard on the radio. “Alright, Mrs. Aldershot, if you agree to let Tom go, we can provide you with a vehicle and a flight out of the country. My incident commander is making the arrangements right now.”

“You'll get the kid back, but not until after we're out of the country!”

“It doesn't work that way, Mrs. Aldershot. You've got to let Tommy go. You walk him back to the parking lot, and we'll have a vehicle there for you. When you get to the car, you hand Tom over to me. You and Mr. Aldershot can be on your way to the airstrip.”

“No goddamned way! I'll turn him over at the airstrip.”

“We can't let you get in the car with him. I'm sorry, Mrs. Aldershot.”

“This is going sideways,” Taylor spoke into his radio. “All teams, ready.”

Silas heard half a dozen voices report in that they were ready. He studied the trio on the tablet.

“Look what she's doing, Agent Taylor,” said Silas. Terry Aldershot was half standing now, alternatively raising and lowering the pistol to Tommy's head, as if the gun was heavy.

Taylor said, “I want a better look at that. Air Support One, can you drop in for a closer look?”

“On our way.” In a moment the helicopter had repositioned itself. The vibration felt as if it was shaking the stone on which they all stood.