Untraceable (19 page)

Isaiah glanced back one more time before unzipping the tent to crawl out.

Her eyelids fluttered and she gazed at him. His heart leaped with relief.

Since finding her passed out in the snow, he’d completely forgotten about what he’d shared with her moments before. The pain in her eyes as she looked at him now brought it rolling back and into him, the force nearly knocking him over. He had to harden his heart.

He turned his attention back to exiting the tent.

“Isaiah,” she whispered.

He froze, unsure that he wanted to face her. “Yeah.”

“We need to leave tonight. Now. Zach is going to kill us tomorrow.”

Had she forgotten about Isaiah’s confession? Didn’t she realize she would have died out there if he hadn’t found her in time? She wasn’t thinking clearly. The temperatures and the storm were more brutal than anything else they’d endured through this entire ordeal. She would die if they left this tent and hiked in the storm tonight. They both would.

“Better to bide our time and face off with Zach tomorrow. We wouldn’t survive this weather.” Isaiah left her to think on his words.

* * *

Heidi opened her eyes, unsure of what woke her. Tucked deep in the warm sleeping bag, she’d long ago shed her coat, but she couldn’t remember where she was.

Then it all rushed back.

Only the wind wasn’t howling. The storm had blown through.

The zipper again. Someone was coming inside the tent. The terror of Zach’s unwanted attention rushed back at her, too. She pushed out of the sleeping bag and got into the most defensive position she could, given the small space.

Isaiah crawled inside. “Good, you’re awake. We’re packing up. Have to make it onto the ice field today, to Zach’s coordinates. Just a little longer, Heidi.”

She shrugged into her coat and grabbed her boots, her head spinning as memories of last night—everything Isaiah had told her—flooded back.

“Are you okay?”

She flicked her gaze at him, then back to her boots. “Sure. I must have slept like a rock. What did I miss?”

This time, she let her gaze linger. Something in his reaction held a question.

“No, really. Did I miss something?”

“No.” He grinned.

Heidi shook off the effect it had on her. She needed time to think through all he’d told her. She’d wanted an answer. Wanted to know why he’d thrown away their friendship. Well, now she knew, and she fully understood why he’d distanced himself instead of telling her the truth. She would have done the same thing. Maybe.

She rolled up her bag. “Give me a sec.”

“Heidi.” He cleared his throat.

She didn’t want to look at him, but realization dawned and she risked a glance up, seeing the haggard expression he’d tried to hide with his grin. “I must have slept through the whole night. Isaiah, I’m so sorry. You must be exhausted.”

He nodded, a slight tuck of his chin. “A few more hours and this will be over. Knowing that will keep me going. But I’m more worried about you.”

“Don’t be.”

“Heidi, don’t you remember? You went out to dig and you never came back. I found you passed out, half-buried in the snow. Do you remember anything?”

Heidi finished with the sleeping bag and let her mind drift back to those last few moments of digging. She’d been praying, crying out to God, then finally given her burdens to Him. But she’d stopped moving, and maybe all the sweat she’d worked up from digging had dropped her body temperature even lower. It was all hazy now, but she’d been tired. So very tired.

“What’s going on in there?” Zach banged on the tent. “Let’s get moving.”

Heidi shared a look with Isaiah and in his eyes she saw he hoped as much as she did that they would live to finish this conversation.

They crawled out and packed the bags.

“We can leave all this,” Zach said. “Get a move on. I can’t afford to miss my plane this time. There’s a short window before another storm. Talked to my contact last night. Curse this blasted region of the world.”

Isaiah glanced up at the sky and Heidi followed his gaze. Did an odd mixture of expectation and dread roil in his gut, too? She could feel this ordeal winding down to its gritty ending. Searchers were out there, combing the mountains. David and Adam wouldn’t stop searching until they found their siblings, but even they couldn’t search in a storm.

And even if they looked over the ice field, they were talking fifteen hundred square miles. But surely they would be able to narrow that down to a few hundred, as if that would make a difference.

“Heidi and I’ll have the basics packed up in a few. We can’t afford to leave this in case things go wrong. It’s a matter of survival.”

Zach railed at them and Jason stepped into the fray. “They’re right. Just in case he doesn’t show up, we could die without the tents and supplies.”

Thank goodness Jason was able to reason with his disagreeable brother. After they packed the gear, they roped themselves up and spaced apart, just like yesterday, in order to be safe as they crossed snow bridges.

They hiked through a maze of visible crevasses, and sometimes had to backtrack, but in spring, despite the storms that insisted on blasting through, a lot of the snow had melted on parts of the glacier. And yet dangers remained hidden beneath the snow. She had to pay attention, stay alert, but her energy had been drained long ago. Like Isaiah, she told herself she could make it to the end, which would come up on them much too fast.

In the distance, she could see where the glacier spilled from the ice field, which was really just a huge valley of interconnected glaciers, and the higher mountain peaks broke through. She saw the summit of Devil’s Paw and Michael’s Sword, gleaming snow-free in the distance, much closer now than she’d seen from miles away several nights ago. The nunataks, or rocky parts of the peaks, faced off as if in an eternal battle.

Heidi felt as though she were in an eternal battle herself.

God, I don’t know what’s ahead of us, but I ask for Your help and guidance over the next few hours. And I ask for Your help again, in knowing what to think about Isaiah’s story. Help him to forgive himself, and help me to let it go. I’m not sure any of it even matters, considering we might both be dead in the next few hours.

A scripture drifted across her heart.

“...Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free...”

Lord, if ever captives needed setting free, that would be me and Isaiah.

Her thoughts went immediately to Cade and Rhea, though the two of them had never been far from her mind and heart.

Zach tugged on the rope, jerking Heidi forward and out of her thoughts. She’d been hiking too slowly for him.

In the distance, the sound of a small prop plane drew all gazes up. Heidi’s pulse ramped up. Was it searchers?

Or Zach’s personal rescuer?

Heidi got her answer. The plane circled lower and around them. She spotted Zach giving a thumbs-up. “Okay, people, let’s get this train moving.”

Again he tugged on the rope and Isaiah picked up the pace ahead of them, as well.

Her heart tripped over itself with dread. Zach only needed them to assist him over the dangerous parts of the glacier and then once on the ice field, when he had his plane waiting, he would shoot them both.

How could it end any other way?

Heidi was nearly breathless when they finally spotted the ski-plane landing in the distance. The guy obviously knew what he was doing. She was curious to know who the pilot was, but then again, that was just one more reason she and Isaiah had to die today, as far as Zach was concerned.

In front of her, Zach stopped, turned and made his way back to Heidi.

Oh, no. Here it comes. He’s going to kill me now. Oh, God, what do I do? Help me!

When Isaiah’s rope grew taut, he turned around.

Zach grabbed Heidi and pulled her close. Isaiah kept hiking toward them, rage burning behind his eyes. Heidi tried to free herself from Zach but he only tightened his grip.

And Isaiah kept hiking. He was almost on them.

Zach took a few steps back.

“This is where we part ways,” he said. “And I’m taking Heidi with me.”

“What?” Heidi’s pulse jumped. She tried to tear away from him.

He pulled her closer and reached for the gun in his pocket.

NINETEEN

I
saiah lunged at Zach.

No more waiting until the right moment. This was do-or-die.

Zach tugged his weapon out, fired off a shot and missed.

Isaiah was on him, fighting for control of the firearm. He’d warned Zach to spare his ammunition in order to save Cade and Rhea’s lives, but now Isaiah and Heidi had to face the bullets. He knocked the weapon away and it slid across the ice. Heidi ran for it but she was tied to Zach and the ropes were tangled.

Jason had a gun, too, but couldn’t shoot at Isaiah with Zach on him. Isaiah didn’t think Jason was a killer anyway. He pulled Isaiah away from Zach, and while he struggled to reach his weapon buried inside the coat beneath the layers of the rope and harness, Isaiah and Zach ran for the gun on the ice.

Isaiah pulled Zach back with the rope. He couldn’t let him reach it first. Zach turned his attention back to Isaiah and plowed into him. They went down hard against the snow-packed ice. Pain coursed through Isaiah’s face and head, magnified by the deep freeze beneath him. Jason appeared in his vision.

He couldn’t fight two of them off. But he couldn’t let Zach take Heidi with him, either. He’d die fighting.

She tried to pull Jason away from him, but Jason threw her back. It was a tangled mess since they were all tied together. Why hadn’t Zach just taken his money and gone to the plane? Heidi’s scream ripped through the air, and maybe even the ice under him. He could swear he felt it vibrate beneath him, accompanied by a deep rumble.

Oh, no!

Zach slammed his fist into Isaiah’s face and the blood poured from his nose. Zach’s face was bruised and bloodied, too. At least Isaiah had given as good as he’d gotten. To Jason, too. But then he noticed Heidi’s swollen lip. Isaiah tried to shove Zach away.

And then it was over.

Zach stood up, staggered a little and backed away. The iced shuddered and shifted. Was the glacier moving? Zach, Jason and Heidi struggled to remain standing. Isaiah saw now what a losing battle this had been from the beginning. Two guys against one.

Then the ground beneath Isaiah caved in.

The snow and ice gave way, revealing a hidden crevasse. That was the whole reason for the ropes. They weren’t in the correct formation and they would all go down if Zach didn’t react.

“Use your axes!” Heidi yelled.

Isaiah couldn’t get to his ice ax and, though he grappled with his gloves against the edge, he couldn’t gain traction and finally fell back, free-falling, pulling them all down with him.

Screams erupted from above as the ropes slid across the ice.

A yawning, dark abyss rose up toward the bluer ice of the crevasse as if to close its jaws around him, filling him with terror. But the rope grew taught, jerking Isaiah. Someone had been quick thinking enough to stop the spiral into the crevasse.

Above him, Zach clung to the edge. He’d managed to get his ice ax in time, and crawled out. Or maybe Heidi had been able to toss it to him. Regardless, he would make it out.

Isaiah worked to free himself from the pack on his back that would weigh him down. In his worst nightmares, he had never imagined he would be the one in the crevasse, waiting to be rescued by this group. They could pull him out. But he didn’t plan to wait on them.

Either way, getting out would take Isaiah time he didn’t have. He dangled in the crevasse by a rope connected to two men who wanted him dead. He dropped the one remaining pack off his back, decreasing his personal weight so he could climb out, but it dangled from the rope, attached by a carabiner. The other pack he’d been carrying, but had dropped in his scuffle with Zach and Jason, had already fallen into the chasm.

He eyed the blue ice beneath him. Beautiful. God’s splendor could be seen even here in the unlikeliest of places. He took it all in, wishing he could have been exposed to this amazing sight under much different circumstances. Terror grappled with a strange peace inside him. This could be it for him. This could be his death. The way his life ended. Not a bullet like he’d expected. But by a fall into these icy depths.

A few verses from Psalm 139 floated out of his heart and into his thoughts.
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”

If Isaiah fell, God would be there.

The rope budged, pulling him toward the edge. What? He couldn’t believe it. They were actually going to save him? Had to be Heidi with her persuasive power over Zach.
God, please don’t let her sacrifice herself for me.

He made it to a ledge of hanging ice. Heidi carefully inched toward him and handed him an ice ax. “Use this, while we pull you out.”

Isaiah took the tool and speared the ice with it.

Didn’t she realize that Zach wasn’t going to let him live? And Isaiah had used up his last chance to save them. Maybe this was the way it was supposed to end, and justice was being served. Isaiah was getting what he’d had coming to him all along for the part he’d played in Leslie’s death.

“You have to survive this, Heidi. Do whatever it takes. Do you hear me?”

Heidi’s tears dropped onto the snow. “No, you’re not going to die. I won’t let you. I can’t lose you, too!”

Isaiah couldn’t stand to hear her sobs, and he would keep fighting, keep trying, just for her. But he couldn’t see a way out of this. Still, he latched onto the ice with the ax to haul himself up, knowing that in the end, it wouldn’t matter. He should say what he had to say before it was too late.

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t get us out of this. I love you. I think I always have.”