Blood Money (6 page)

“What, didn’t they feed you back there?”

“I refused to eat their damn food,” Jessica
said between swallows. She twisted the cap off the water, drank
half the bottle, then held it out to Kelton.

“No thanks,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

Jessica wolfed down the rest of her food and
drained the water, then shoved the wrapper into the empty bottle
and handed it back to Kelton. He stuffed it into the daypack and
they started moving again.

“I assume you know where we’re going?”
Jessica said.

“I marked my path on the way in.”

“Is that why you look through that scope
every once in a while?”

Kelton nodded. “I splashed a tree with
reflective paint every hundred yards or so. We’re just following
the breadcrumbs out.”

“And where are we heading, exactly?”

“Towards a Piper Cub.”

“What’s that?”

“A little plane,” Kelton said.

“You mean we’re going to fly out of
here?”

Kelton opened his mouth to utter a smart-ass
comment, but caught himself and just answered with a quick,
“Yes.”

“When are we going to be at this plane?”
Jessica said. “I haven’t slept in two days, and I’m not sure how
much farther I can go on foot.”

“We’re about halfway there,” Kelton said.
“Another ten minutes or so, if we—”

He froze in his tracks, straightened up
abruptly, cocked his head.

“What is it?” Jessica said.

“A chopper,” Kelton said.

Jessica looked up into the night sky before
realizing her folly and bringing her gaze back to Kelton. “Where is
it?”

“Still a ways off,” Kelton said. “And coming
in from the other direction. Probably heading toward the house to
drop off a team to follow our tracks.”

“Will they be able to?”

“Eventually,” Kelton said. “But they won’t
have time to catch up with us. We’ve got too big of a head start
and not much further to go.”

“So we should be safe?”

“For now. But I’m sure there’s more choppers
on the way. It’s just a matter of time until we have one over our
heads. And they’ll be equipped with infrared, among other things.
If they end up within a few hundred yards of us while we’re still
out in the open, we’ll be in big trouble.”

“So what do we do?”

“Not be out in the open when they show
up.”

“And how are we going to manage that?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kelton said. “I’ve
got it taken care of. You just focus on conserving your energy and
trying to keep up.”

They heard the chopper less than two minutes
later.

Kelton looked up and saw it heading directly
towards them. It was still a ways out but moving quickly. Kelton
figured they had about 45 seconds before the chopper would be close
enough to identify them. Just enough time to get where they needed
to go.

“We’re screwed,” Jessica said.

“Not yet. But we have to move fast. Come
on.”

He took off in a dead sprint, weaving around
the light brush that littered the ground. There was no tree cover
in this part of the valley, but that didn’t matter at this point.
They had another important ally close by.

Jessica struggled to keep up, her breath
loud and ragged in the early morning air.

The sound of the chopper filled the air,
growing louder with every passing second. Fifteen seconds left,
twenty tops.

Breathing heavily himself now, Kelton
recognized the shaggy, shoulder-high line of brush ten yards away
and plowed through it. The branches grabbed his shoulders, bounced
his head around, and scratched at his face, but he pushed forward,
hoping that Jessica still had the strength to negotiate it too.

Then he broke through.

In front of him was an eight-foot drop into
a wide creek bed full of gently-flowing water. The sound of the
chopper roared in his ears, filling his entire universe with its
rhythmic thumping. For the moment, they were still outside of its
range. But they didn’t have much time left. Ten seconds, maybe.

Kelton looked back just as Jessica made it
through the brush. Her face was scratched up a little, but
otherwise she seemed okay. She caught up with him a moment
later.

“What now?” she said, her voice barely
audible above the din of the chopper.

“Jump,” Kelton said.

“What?” Jessica said. “Why the hell would
we—”

“Just shut up and do it,” Kelton said. He
turned and jumped.

Kelton knew that the creek was fairly
shallow in this part of the valley, but he was still surprised when
his feet hit the bottom immediately after his head went under the
water.

Jessica landed in the water next to him. He
was prepared for the warmth of the water, but knew she’d be
surprised, so he reached out and grabbed her while they were still
beneath the surface. He pushed up slowly, trying to keep both of
them under control as they surfaced.

They came up a second later. The transition
from the relative silence of underwater to the thunderous roar of
the helicopter was a shock, but Kelton was expecting it, and had
covered his ears before breaking the surface, dulling the
sound.

Jessica quickly followed suit, covering her
own ears immediately after surfacing.

Kelton caught her eyes and motioned at her
to calm down. “Keep your head down,” he mouthed. “And stay
still.”

She nodded and did as she was told.

The sound of the chopper grew impossibly
loud before finally moving on without so much as a pause. A
spotlight fixed to the belly of the craft shone on the water a
couple hundred feet downstream for a moment, then disappeared. The
sounds of the rotors grew more and more distant, and after a full
minute that seemed to stretch on for an hour, the helicopter could
no longer be heard.

“A hot springs, huh?” Jessica said.

“Yeah, this valley is littered with them.
This is the main one, though. Called Hot Creek.”

“You’re a pretty clever guy, I must
admit.”

“Not really,” Kelton said. “Just
well-prepared.”

Jessica cast her gaze towards the sky.
“Well, that was easy.”

“Relatively, yes.”

“I mean, if you would have told me what you
were doing, it would have been even easier, but still . . .”

“If I would have told you we were going to
jump into a hot springs to hide from an infrared sensor, you
would’ve thought I was crazy.”

“Probably,” Jessica said, “But I still would
have given it a shot. It’s not like we had any other options.”

“Point taken,” Kelton said. “Next time I’ll
let you know what’s going on.”

Jessica held his gaze for a moment. “Why
don’t I think you’re telling the truth?”

Kelton answered with a wry smile but no
words.

She laughed under her breath. “All right, so
now that the chopper is out of the way, what’s next?”

“We’re basically home free,” Kelton said.
“We’ll just climb out and continue along the other side of the
bank, staying close to the water. If we hear another helicopter,
we’ll hop back in.”

He waded across the water and started to
climb out the other side of Hot Creek. Jessica was right behind
him.

“How much farther to this Piper?”

“Two minutes. Tops.”

“How’d you get a plane out here anyway?”

“I flew it.”

Jessica shot him a glance. “You’re a real
smartass, you know that.”

“Just wait,” Kelton said. “I haven’t even
gotten started yet.”

“Great,” Jessica said, drawing the word out
in apparent consternation. But her face told a different story.

Fighting a smile, Kelton said, “I rented the
Piper from the Bishop Airport on the way up here. There’s a tiny
landing strip a little further west. This valley is littered with
them.”

“And where do we go from here?”

“We’ll take the Piper back to Bishop—which
should be outside of whatever perimeter is set up—then drive south
towards San Diego.”

“But what about the people looking for us?”
Jessica said. “They have to be expecting something like this. Won’t
they have radar trained on the area or something?”

“Probably,” Kelton said. “But the Piper is a
tiny single-engine propeller airplane. With the lights off and
flying low to the ground, it’s virtually invisible. Both to radar
and the naked eye.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to fly it like that?
Especially when it’s still dark?”

Kelton shrugged. “A little. But we won’t be
flying for long. Thirty minutes, tops. I’ll just follow Highway 395
south to Bishop. By the time they figure out we left by plane,
we’ll already be on the ground. And by the time they figure out
where we landed, we’ll be long gone.”

“Sounds like quite a plan,” Jessica said.
“You think it’ll actually work?”

“Of course,” Kelton said. “I don’t make
plans to fail.”

They arrived at the plane a few minutes
later. Kelton opened the cockpit, pulled out a small canvas bag and
tossed it at Jessica’s feet.

“What’s in here?” she said.

“A sweatshirt, sweatpants, and a pair of
socks,” Kelton said. He started pulling loose branches off the
Piper that had provided camouflage for the small plane. “They’re
probably a bit big, but at least they’re dry.”

“You sure are prepared for everything,
aren’t you?”

“Not quite everything,” Kelton said. “I
didn’t know the size of your feet, so I didn’t bring you new
shoes.”

Jessica started laughing. “I guess I can
forgive you, all things considered.”

She began changing her clothes in full view
of Kelton, just as she had done back in the room at the safe house.
And, just as before, Kelton was having trouble taking his eyes off
her. It was obvious she knew exactly what she was doing, the real
question was; what was she trying to accomplish?

Kelton found himself lamenting the fact that
he probably wouldn’t be around her long enough to find out.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The short flight went as smoothly as Kelton
had anticipated. They followed Interstate 395 straight out of the
valley, passing over the top of at least one roadblock on their way
out, and landed in Bishop less than 30 minutes after they had taken
to the air.

Now they were in Kelton’s car, heading south
on a different stretch of the same road they’d flown over less than
an hour before. The sun was just starting to come up, providing a
golden view of the rolling countryside worthy of an oil
painting.

Jessica was sitting with her feet on the
seat and her hands folded in her lap. She was staring straight at
Kelton, and had been doing so for as long as they’d been driving, a
little more than ten minutes.

So far, Kelton had avoided her Medusa-like
gaze, choosing to keep his eyes on the road ahead.

Eventually, she said, “So, are you going to
let me know what the hell is going on here?”

“Sure,” Kelton replied. “But first we need
to set some ground rules.”

“Let me guess. No chewing gum or passing
notes in class. Oh, and no smoking in the bathroom.”

“Very funny.”

“You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not
going to do anything stupid. I know I’m better off with you than on
my own right now, okay? I’m not going to run off or anything.”

“I’m inclined to believe you,” Kelton said.
“But still, we need to be perfectly clear on where we stand.”

“Well then, say what you gotta say.”

“We’ll keep it simple,” Kelton said. “If you
do anything to draw attention to yourself in any way while we’re
together, I’ll give you a shot of Valium to help you sleep off the
rest of the drive. Then when we get back to my place I’ll gag you
and tie you to the bed.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow and flashed him a
wicked smile. “Drugged up, gagged and tied to the bed, huh? That
sounds like a reward, not a punishment.”

Kelton could feel his face starting to
flush.

Jessica started laughing. “Ooh, the tough
guy has a weakness after all.”

“Screw you,” Kelton said.

“Sounds like you want to,” she said. “But
you can just ask for it. No need to drug me and tie me up. You are
pretty cute, in a Neanderthal sort of way. I might just give it up
to you if you asked nicely.”

Kelton opened his mouth but closed it before
he uttered another stupid comment.

“Don’t try and deny it,” Jessica said. “I
saw the way you were looking at me earlier, when I was changing my
clothes.”

“It’s not like I had any choice,” Kelton
said, “What with you being so modest both times, changing right in
front of me.”

“So you’re telling me you couldn’t have
looked the other direction?”

“I would have if you asked me to.”

“A gentleman would have looked away without
being asked.”

“Yeah, well nobody’s ever accused me of
being a gentleman,” Kelton said.

“Why am I not surprised?”

Kelton’s anger flashed. “Are you always this
ungrateful? I mean, did I, or did I not just pull you out of a
federal safe house?”

Jessica dropped her eyes for a moment. “I
guess I have been pretty rude,” she said. She looked back up at
Kelton. “But you have to understand, I’m someone who’s used to
being in control of every situation; total, complete control. And
the last 24 hours, I’ve had my car run off the road, been accosted
by men with guns, treated like a common criminal and asked
rapid-fire questions by cocky assholes who don’t even know what the
hell they’re talking about, all while locked up in a house in the
middle of nowhere.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled audibly.
“I guess I just needed to pretend like I have at least some
semblance of control over the situation.”

“I hear you,” Kelton said. “I really do. My
only goal was to lay things out, right up front, so we don’t have
any misunderstandings down the line. I want this to go as smoothly
as possible. You do understand that right?”