Gone: An Emma Caldridge Novella: Part Two of Three (4 page)

Leon fired three more rounds, and this time the men in the yard fired back, almost in unison. Emma winced at the noise and smelled the scent of gunpowder. She heard the girl on the other side sobbing. Skittering her foot along the wall, she looked for another place to gain some purchase so she could rise over the top. She jammed the rubber edge of the running shoe into another grout line and this time relied on her arms to haul herself higher. When her head came even with the wall’s edge, she switched hands, using her left to grab at the camera’s slender pole and removing the pistol with her right.

Now comes the hard part, she thought. Once she cleared the wall she’d be a target. The last thing she needed was to act like a jack-in-the-box and get her head blown off in the process, but she could imagine no other way around it. She needed to get over the wall if she was going to help the girl.

“Go,” she said out loud, pushed with her legs, rose to the top of the wall and flopped onto her stomach on its flat surface. She found herself parallel to the front edge of the garage and breathed a sigh of relief. The stables cut into her sight line to the men in the yard, and the garage kept her from the two who hid on the other side. The girl pressed against the wall below her. Emma swung a leg over, then another, and leaped down onto the grass.

“Give me your hands and I’ll untie you,” Emma said. The girl turned her back, and she worked at the heavy rope, undoing the knots. Leon released a volley of shots and the response was closer this time.

“They’re at the stables,” the girl said.

Emma finished untying her. “Get that robe off and let’s move,” she said.

The girl ripped the robe over her head. Underneath it she wore a sheer white cotton nightgown that ended above her knees. She had the thin, knobby-kneed legs of a little girl.

“There’s a big crack in the wall at the back of the garage,” the girl said. “It’s too small to squeeze through but we can climb over.”

Emma waved her gun in that direction. “I’ll follow,” she said. “But stop at the corner of the garage and let me go ahead to clear the way.”

The girl ran toward the wall while Emma jogged backwards, keeping her gun up. Leon hadn’t shot in a while, and she was concerned that he’d run out of bullets. She had twelve more in her pistol. She’d conserve them if she could.

At the corner of the garage Emma moved ahead of the girl, but saw nothing that would indicate that the two on the opposite side of the structure were doubling back around. She shoved the gun back in the holster and made a cradle with her palms, lacing her fingers together.

“Step in. When you get over, run to the trail that goes through the Needle Tunnel.”

The girl put her bare foot in Emma’s hands and Emma catapulted her upward. The girl grabbed at the edge of the wall and scrambled over with the agility of someone who’d done it before. Emma heard a noise to her right and saw the tip of a gun as one of the original two men inched his way out. She yanked her own weapon out of the holster and fired. The gun tip disappeared from sight. It was past time to run away.

Emma shoved her toe into the wall, grabbed at the grout, and pushed upward. This attempt wasn’t as smooth as the last. Her weight shifted and she began to tip backwards. She hopped onto the grass and tried again, slid upward and heard her gun scrape against the cold stone. Putting her hands on the top of the wall, then her forearms, then her chest, she finally swung a leg over. She lay flat for a second before rolling off on the other side.

She was free.

The ground began a soft incline and she ran at an angle upward. The rocky, hard terrain lacked trees, or perhaps Shaw removed any that would have blocked his view of anyone approaching the compound, but either way Emma felt exposed and vulnerable. The nearest coverage was a tower of rocks hundreds of yards away. She ran toward it, the gun in her hand, swerving often to keep from being an easy, static target. Her heart began its usual fast beat rhythm common to the start of a run, but she knew it would smooth out quickly. It was as if her heart reacted in a flurry of excitement and then figured out that nothing new was happening and so settled down to work. She kept moving, the only sounds her breathing and the crunch of stones. This time, though, she was happy to hear nothing else.

She made the rock tower, dodged behind it and kept moving upward. The path where she’d left Leon was far to her left, and she adjusted to make a slow bend in that direction. The continued lack of sound behind her gave her hope that she would have some time to regroup before Shaw’s men started hunting her. She stepped onto the path over a hundred yards higher than she’d left it and saw Leon sitting on a buckskin Quarter Horse. He held Lily’s reins in his left hand and the girl rode behind him with her arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

“Get on and let’s get out of here,” Leon said. “Thanks for bringing Lily here,” Emma said.

Leon grunted. Emma swung into the saddle and turned Lily’s head higher up the hill.

“Where you going?” Leon said. “It’s the wrong direction. My place is downhill.”

Emma shook her head. “I’m not looking to implicate you in my search,” she said. “Once I find Ryan, I’m gone. You have to live here.”

Leon jerked a thumb toward the girl on his horse.

“This is Carrie. She’s Brink’s sister. He doesn’t know that she was taken.”

Ann’s note, Emma thought.

“He may have been tipped off this morning,” she said, and told Leon about the note. “So all the more reason not to head that way. First place they’ll check. My cabin is about two miles up, and if they take a car they’ll have to off-road it to reach it. That’s assuming they even know it exists. I doubt they’ve heard about it at all. It’s owned by a friend of mine who does extreme skiing.”

Without waiting for a response, Emma turned Lily uphill and kicked her into a fast trot. The path wound up, and she kept the horse moving ahead. The moon that was anathema to her earlier was now her friend, because it illuminated the trail enough to allow Lily to spot the biggest of the rocks strewn around. Still, the horse tripped and stumbled. Emma kept pressing her faster despite the risks, only slowing when she entered the narrow stone tunnel. She wound the rest of the way upward, and an hour later emerged through the arch to finally get a view of the cabin and hauled on Lily’s reins.

The front door hung open. Leon came up even with her, and she motioned for him to remain quiet.

“You see that?” she said.

Leon nodded and removed his shotgun from the scabbard.

“You should know I’m out of ammo. My spares are back at my campsite.” Leon whispered this depressing news to Emma.

“How far?” she said.

“Five miles wrong direction.”

The cabin interior remained dark, but Emma had the impression of a hint of movement. Someone was in there. Either she had surprised him as he was leaving the cabin or he’d just stepped inside when she appeared.

“Someone’s in there, can you see the movement?” Emma asked.

“I don’t see anything,” Leon said.

“I did,” the girl said. “They’re inside to the right.” It was the first time Carrie had spoken during the entire ride.

“Helps to have young eyes,” Leon said.

“Carrie, how many did you see?” Emma asked.

“One.”

“Me too. I hope we’re right.”

“It’s the mountain man,” Carrie said. Her voice held a mixture of fear and excitement.

“Leon, you know who that might be?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“You think it’s a Shaw follower? I don’t care to meet crazy so soon after leaving it,” Emma said.

“Not likely. Tarnell’s been trying to catch him for weeks. If it was an acolyte, I expect they’d leave him alone.”

“Well, it’s doing us no good sitting here and speculating. I’m hungry, tired, and I need to plan. I’m going to flush him out.” Emma dismounted and handed Leon her reins.

“Don’t startle him too much. You’ll get yourself shot.”

“From what Brink told me,” she said, “he’s not been violent.” She checked her gun.

“First time for everything,” Leon said.

“And on that encouraging note, I’m off,” Emma said. Leon’s soft exhalation might have been a laugh, and Emma herself smiled despite the seriousness of the situation.

She inched toward the far side of the cabin, doing her best to avoid making noise. While the porch ran the length of the front, a railing restricted access to it, with the exception of a wide area before the gaping door. Emma stepped up to the deck and scissored one and then the other leg over it.

She’d deliberately approached the side with the hanging door so she could use it as cover. A few more steps got her to the door panel, and she peered around it to stare into the living room. It was empty. She inched her way around the door, lowered herself and scuttled to the other side. She could see nothing moving from that angle either. Taking a deep breath and staying hunched over, she quickly moved to the back of the couch and lowered into a crouch.

A sound of a scratch, barely noticeable and then gone, told Emma that the intruder was against the breakfast counter. She carefully moved to the end table at the side of the couch and reached up to flick the switch on the lamp.

Peeking over the back of the couch, she saw the intruder facing her. It was a young woman, with intense, serious eyes and long dark brown hair. She wore green cargo pants, a safari-colored fishing vest with several pockets, and stood in a shooter’s stance, gripping a sleek new rifle that was aimed at her.

“You don’t shoot and I won’t either,” Emma said as she rose with her own gun trained on the young woman. They both stood there for a moment, the only sound in the room that of harsh breathing. Emma was pretty sure that she was the one who sounded frightened, but could only hope that she had scared the woman as well.

“Who are you?” the woman said.

“Emma Caldridge. I’m not from around here. I just rented the cabin from my friend. Who are you?”

“Samantha Yoder. I didn’t mean any harm. I’m just hungry.”

“Prove it,” Emma said. “Lower the weapon.”

Yoder paused.

“I mean it, Ms. Yoder,” Emma said.

She lowered the weapon.

Emma kept her own weapon aimed at the woman as she sidled back to the cabin’s entrance. “It’s okay, come on in,” she called out the door. To Yoder, she said, “Drop the weapon and shove it across the floor.”

Yoder slowly lowered the gun, placed the gun on the hardwood floor and slid it toward Emma. It hit the area rug and stopped.

“Are you the one they’re calling the mountain man?” Emma asked.

Yoder nodded. “I’ve been hiding up here for a few months now.”

Leon and Carrie stepped into the room. Leon squinted at Yoder. “That you, Sam?” he said. “I heard you were in Vegas.”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “What would I be doing there?”

Leon grinned. “Folks said you were dancing. The kind of dancing that requires a pole, if you know what I mean.”

Yoder looked annoyed. “They would say that.” Her face cleared and she smiled at Carrie. “That you, Caribou?”

Carrie burst into tears and catapulted herself at Sam.

Emma lowered her gun, reached around Leon and closed the door.

“Sam grew up in Sunrise,” Leon said. “Left over a year ago, or so we thought. She was Brink’s girlfriend before he was cast off. Disappeared when she was ordered to be Shaw’s third wife.”

“Fourth,” Sam corrected him. She had an arm around Carrie’s shoulders.

Emma checked the cabin’s yard before holstering her gun.

“I’m sorry for your trouble, Sam,” she said. “And you’re welcome to eat anything you’d like.” She looked at Leon, told him, “I’m going to make a call to the FBI on a satellite phone that I brought, get some more ammunition and head back out.” Then she said to Carrie, “Will you tell them what they were going to do?”

Leon stepped in front of the girl.

“First, where are you heading to?” he asked. “They’re going to send a posse out after you.” He looked at Sam. “They were dragging Carrie to a cleansing. Ms. Caldridge here stopped them, but you know they’ll be coming for her.”

Sam nodded. “You’d best get out of town while you can,” she said to Emma.

Emma shook her head. “Not without Ryan. They’re holding my friend hostage and I don’t leave until he does. You all should stay here until the FBI comes. With Carrie’s testimony, they’ll be able to arrest the men at Shaw’s compound.”

Sam shook her head. “She can’t testify.”

That brought Emma up short. “What do you mean, can’t?”

“They’ll cast her out and take her sister in her place.”

“She’s only eleven,” Carrie said.

“The FBI will protect her,” Emma said.

Leon sighed. “Not likely. We’ve had lots of agents coming here, with their badges and threats of indictment, and after a week of questions they just leave. No one ever hears from them again. I suspect Shaw either pays them off or the governor calls them off. Lots of sympathizers with the cause at the capital.”

“That won’t work this time,” Emma said, “because I saw what happened and I won’t rest until they get to the bottom of it.”

The others looked at her with skepticism in their eyes, and in truth, she couldn’t blame them. If in the past they’d been disappointed in the power of the government to protect them, there was no reason now for them to think that she could do any differently.

“For now just lay low here,” Emma said. “I’ll let the FBI know your position. I’m headed back out.”

“To where?” Leon repeated.

“To the compound. They have Ryan and I’m getting him out.”

Sam and Leon both gaped at her. “You’re going
back
to the compound?” Leon said.

“Yes, I am,” Emma replied.

“Why don’t you wait for the FBI?” Sam said. “If what you say is true and they’ll come.”

Emma shook her head. “That will take too much time. Tarnell knows I’m here to get Ryan. If they call him, he’ll tell them about me and they’ll relocate Ryan. I need to hit them now, before they put it together and realize that I was the one who saved Carrie.”

“You’re really brave,” Carrie said.

“Not brave, crazy,” Leon said.