Lost in Shadows (14 page)

“Did they find any evidence one way or the other?”

“No.” He sat back down.

“What do you think?”

“I think she’s a sick lady crying out for help and attention.”

Rose pursed her lips, thought about pursuing the matter, but let it go. She wasn’t quite certain where Rayburn fit into the big picture. Not yet, anyway. “Who’s got the security briefing on the State of the Union?”

Theresa looked up. “Same protocol as last year. No-fly zone widened, being patrolled by F-sixteens, all hazardous material shipments have been re-routed, ATF and FBI sweeping the building for explosives and bio-chemical agents before it opens, and all LEA’s are on full alert.”

“Billy, add in the orange flag we had on that Chechen who slipped away from the CIA last month.” A man’s face appeared to the side of the map. “Mohammed Zaki, his wife was one of the terrorists killed in the Moscow theater attack. He was in prison at the time, since escaped and was last seen in Marseilles.” She resumed her pacing. “There was a red flag from the UK about six, seven weeks ago.”

“The pharmaceutical thefts,” Billy supplied. “UNSUB hijacked a truck with almost a ton of high grade cocaine, opiates and stimulants. DEA tracked it to the Netherlands.”

“And lost it afterward.” Rose traced her finger across Europe from Amsterdam to Marseilles. Then she kept moving it across the Atlantic to the East Coast.

“You think a Chechen rebel smuggled drugs here?” EZ asked. “Why? To finance an operation?”

Hollywood interrupted him. “Opiates? What kind of opiates?” he asked. Rose almost smiled. Maybe there was hope for the California boy after all. “NCIS is investigating a theft of a large supply of Narcan from a warehouse at Bethesda last week.”

That got everyone’s attention. Theresa, the only member of the team without formal law enforcement or military training looked up. “What’s Narcan?” 

“The antidote to Fentanyl poisoning,” KC told her. “Fentanyl is the opiate the Russians used at the Moscow theater.”

Theresa blanched. “The gas that killed all the hostages?”

Billy rose to his feet and joined Rose, their strides matched for a few steps as he looked over the blossom of black that now smothered the map. He stopped, rocked back on his heels and gave her a small nod. “We’d best get moving. This is probably only the tip of the iceberg.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. The Preacher isn’t the crackpot everyone’s labeled him. He’s a puppet master, controlling the strings, hiding behind the curtain, waiting for the right time to put everything in motion.”

“When is that?” Chase asked. 

Rose tore her eyes away from Billy’s, surprised by the warmth that flooded over her by his approval of her theory, and turned back to her team. 

Chase was already half out of his seat, ready for action. KC furiously scribbled on a notepad, making a list, while Marion, EZ and Theresa were all tapping at their computers. Only Hollywood sat still, motionless, deep in thought.

Rose tapped DC on the map. “Tomorrow night during the State of the Union. That’s when they’re going to hit.”

“Already started running Zaki on a facial recognition program through every camera we have access to,” EZ said. Then he smiled. “And some we don’t.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Billy said. “For the next twenty-four hours we’re using everything we have to stop these bastards before innocent people get hurt. I mean everything.” 

That included breaking a host of federal and state laws not to mention several provisions of the Constitution, namely the Fourth Amendment. He looked around, his gaze taking in everyone on the team. “Anyone have any problems with that, speak now.”

Rose watched as the team brushed off his suggestion that upholding the law came before protecting their fellow countrymen. Everyone began to talk at once, ideas and questions overlapping but nothing getting lost in the maelstrom.

“Anyone know if there’s a way to detect this Fentanyl?” 

“Someone pull up the full plans for the Capitol Building.”

“There’s got to be a money trail.”

Billy put a hand on Rose’s back, ushered her outside as her people went to work. “How’d you do that?” 

She shrugged, leaned against the wall across from him, watching the team through the glass in the door. Their faces were animated, excited, as if the challenge of saving the world, or at least their small part of it, far outweighed the very real possibility that they might fail. 

Stifling a yawn, she looked up at Billy. “Magic.”

He shook his head, an insubordinate lock of hair leaving its perfect formation and falling into his eyes. Rose shoved her hands deep into the back pockets of her jeans to keep from reaching up and brushing it back. One of these days she was going to be too tired to resist and then—

“I couldn’t have done that,” Billy’s voice pulled her attention away from the lustful turn her thoughts were taking. “I don’t know anyone who could have taken a random set of events and see the meaning behind them. Nice work, boss.”

His words brought a flush to her face. Billy Price wasn’t one to lavish praise, and never lightly. 

Their working relationship was similar to sparring, as soon as one found an opening in the other’s defenses, they’d expose it. It kept them both sharp, Billy’s analytical mind balancing Rose’s more intuitive approach.

“Let’s just hope that we’re not too late.” 

CHAPTER 19

Lucky followed Vinnie, trudging through the snow and trying to remember when he had ever felt this cold before. His hand on the walking stick shook and despite the gloves Vinnie had given him, his fingers were numb. 

His vision collapsed to a narrow cone that encompassed the woman in front of him and the tracks she left behind. It was a combination of blood loss, the ebb tide of adrenalin after their exploits on the bridge, and early hypothermia. At least that’s what his brain told him, urging his body to keep moving. 

Knowing what was happening to his body was one thing. Caring about it was another. The idea of crawling into the snow like a soft blanket and going to sleep had an allure Lucky didn’t have the strength to fight against.

Vinnie disappeared from sight. He jerked upright, scanning the terrain. 

She had led them into a group of boulders. The roar of the waterfall drowned out all other sounds, filled his head. Before he could call out, she popped up from behind the rocks below him. 

“Take my hand,” she said. “Be careful, it’s a bit tricky.”

Lucky lowered himself to sit on the edge of the rock formation and looked down. Vinnie had cleared a path through the snow. 

A steep set of steps formed from jagged rocks led down the side of the cliff. Some of the “steps” didn’t seem more than a toe-hold, others were spaced so widely apart that it would take a leap of faith to make it from one to the other.

What did she think he was? A mountain goat?

“It’s not as hard as it looks,” she coaxed him. 

He raised an eyebrow as he looked past her, down, down to the gorge that waited hungrily below. One false step and Mrs. Cavanaugh’s baby boy was going to be treated to a flying lesson. 

Lucky remembered Whitney’s fall into the abyss and pulled back. 

Vinnie scrambled up after him. Lucky ignored her, lay in the snow, letting the flakes coat his eyelashes, watching the world through the rainbow they created when he blinked. It was so peaceful here, couldn’t they just stay where they were?

“Don’t give up on me now,” she said, tugging him to a sitting position. “It’s not far.”

It was a struggle, but Lucky forced his eyes open. “Yeah, but will there be room service and ESPN waiting for me when we get there?” 

“Would you settle for a warm fire and hot cocoa?” 

“Throw in some of those tiny marshmallows and you’ve got a deal.” His voice sounded funny, like he was drunk or something. Vinnie’s smile was forced.

“Deal. Let’s go. I’ll rope you to me like we did on the bridge.”

He held up his hand to stop her. Even in the haze engulfing his brain, he was aware of the danger to Vinnie that entailed. If Lucky slipped and fell, he would take them both with him. He’d risked her life too many times already.

“No rope.” Before she could protest, he rolled over onto his belly and slid down the side of the rock to the first ledge. He looked up once, saw Vinnie crouched on the rock above him, her face anxious.

“The next hold is down about two feet, a little more to your left.”

Lucky couldn’t see the path below him, so focused instead on her directions. He was about half way down the twenty-foot cliff when the trail she’d blazed turned sharply. His foot slipped from the narrow hold and he flailed helplessly, then catapulted off the ledge.

“Lucky!” Vinnie’s voice was the last thing he heard before everything went black.

CHAPTER 20

“Hey, c’mon, stay with me.” Vinnie’s voice drew him from the darkness. 

Why was she shouting? Lucky’s shoulder throbbed. Every breath was a knife stabbing into his lungs. He opened his eyes. His head pounded like someone had mistaken it for a bass drum. Even his eyelids hurt.

Then he focused on Vinnie. Suddenly things didn’t seem quite so bad. 

“What happened?” he mumbled. He looked around and realized that part of the roaring filling his brain was the sound of the waterfall. The ledge he lay on was directly beside it. 

“You took a short cut. Knocked yourself out for a few seconds. Any pain?” Vinnie checked him for any major injuries. She sat back on her heels, wiped his blood from her hands with snow and smiled. “I think you’ve earned your nickname. Looks like only a nasty scalp laceration and an assortment of bruises.”

“Where’s the fire you promised?” he asked, bracing himself up on one arm.

“Just through there.” She helped him to his feet and led him through a narrow opening that had been etched through the eons into the rock behind the waterfall. 

Water poured down on one side of the path. The solid rock on the other finally gave away to a large opening directly behind the main path of water. 

Lucky looked around. The cave was dry, more spacious than their lodgings last night, with a fire pit close to the rear wall. The air was crystalline, energizing, as if the water emanated a magic elixir.

Vinnie helped him to sit on one of several rocks. “Start getting undressed,” she instructed him as she removed her own wet outer gear. “You’re soaked, freezing.”

Then she vanished into the curtain of mist and water.

Lucky was glad she wasn’t there to watch his deadened fingers fumble with the layers of clothing that swathed him. Before he finished stripping more than the outer layer, she returned with an armful of firewood and quickly had a roaring blaze going. She disappeared again, bringing more wood that she stacked to one side, then turned her attention to Lucky.

“We’ve got to get you warm,” she said, finishing the job he’d begun. Soon he sat in only jeans and socks, his other clothes arranged around the fire to dry. 

Vinnie clucked her tongue in dismay as she observed the ruined bandage on his shoulder, now blood soaked and drooping after his exertions. 

Lucky was too tired to argue with her as she thrust a water bottle into his hand, instead he relinquished himself to her ministrations.

“Drink as much as you can.” She collected water in her pan and set it on the fire to heat, then unpacked her first aid supplies. “Let me do the scalp first, it’s still bleeding.”

Lucky leaned forward as she flushed the cut. The icy water stung like sharp needles shooting into his head, but her touch was gentle as she probed it. Then she began to tug at his hair, and he jerked away.

“What are you doing?” This was no time to be playing make-over.

“Hold still. It’s deep enough to need stitches. If I don’t close it, it’ll keep on bleeding and you need all the blood you have left.”

Again her fingers twisted and yanked on his hair. Then he realized what she was doing. “You’re tying it shut with my hair?”

“Using the stitches God gave you. Good thing you don’t like crew cuts. In a week or so, just cut through the knots and you’ll be good as new.”

He smiled. Prepared for everything, that was Vinnie. Lucky thing she was the one who found him last night after he crashed. 

He forced the thought aside. Luck had nothing to do with it, it was just random chance, probability and circumstance. 

There was no such thing as luck, no such thing as fate, destiny or God. He’d learned that the hard way last month during the longest night of his life.

Lucky allowed Vinnie to minister to him. She quickly re-dressed his shoulder, then fixed hot chocolate for him. Complete with mini-marshmallows and a protein bar. Better than room service, Lucky decided as he leaned back and allowed the heat from the fire and hot drink pour through him. 

Vinnie finally sat down, sipping at her own water bottle.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked, feeling ashamed. He remembered now that there had only been one packet of hot cocoa in their supplies. He tried to think, how many protein bars did they have left? 

“You impressed the hell out of me out there on that bridge,” Vinnie changed the subject. He split the rest of his protein bar in half, shoved it into her hand. She nodded her thanks and took a bite. “Should have told me you were afraid of heights.”

Lucky didn’t meet her gaze. This woman was too smart for his own good. “Wouldn’t have made a difference, we had to get to this side of the gorge one way or the other. And there wasn’t any other way.”

She laid a hand on his arm. “Still, there aren’t many men who would have been able to do what you did. Thank you.”

“For what?” he asked, suddenly irritated by her continued discussion of the topic. “Killing three men, almost getting you killed?” She pulled away, and he regretted his harsh words. “Vinnie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“No, you’re right. Facing death, your own or someone else’s, is never easy. Causing it,” her voice trailed off and she lowered her head, her hair creating a thick, impenetrable veil between them, “is the stuff of nightmares.”