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Alex crawled deeper into the area under the big cedars, glad he had never trimmed them as he had occasionlly considered. The lower branches were on the ground, and in the summer nothing could be seen even by someone standing a few feet away. The ground was covered with a layer of the tiny needles. He was glad it was dry. Where's Cassandra? Close, but I can't see her. She can't speak, how can she let me know? "Cass," he called softly, "if you can hear me make your way over here." He waited. She had to be close. He waited. Eyes adjusted to the low light, he looked around. The trunks of the trees were only a foot or so thick. He looked left and right, waited. Like to be closer to the outside, but then they might see us. Eventually they'll get the idea we got away from the house, start beating the bushes out here. They might hide for quite a while, but eventually they'd be found. A nearby branch from the neighboring tree moved. Cassandra crawled from under it. There you are. Now where are we? The trees covered a small area near the edge of the cliff, but an area about a hundred yards wide had been cleared there. The house was about that far from the trees. They might cross the clear space and climb down. His commlink buzzed. He looked at the screen. Finally. Scotty. He keyed the mike. "Hey man, you got our twenty?" "Hang on," Scott replied. Alex turned the speaker volume down. Looked over at Cassandra. She was close enough to hear the conversation. And so might anyone near the trees. "Gotcha." Scott said. "You under those trees?" "Yeah. How's it look from up there?" "Lemme zoom in." "OK," Scott said after a couple of minutes, "they're milling around the house, must be a hundred. Or more. Looks like they may be about to break in, start a search. They don't know you're not in there?" "Apparently not. What's the area between here and the house look like." "Most of the vehicles are parked in front, along the drive. They're still moving some of them, parking them and getting out, going to join the others in front. There's a cordon about a hundred feet out, maybe a little more." "Is the drive clear?" "Affirmative." "All the way to the edge of the cliff?" "Affirmative." "What are our chances of getting to one of the cars?" "Hang on, lemme see." "You OK?" Alex asked Cassandra. She gave him an OK sign. "Hang loose," he said. "We're gonna have to improvise. Again." Smile. Never shows any fear. Trusts me, and I keep gettin' us in jams. But her fear nerve had gone dead before she met me. "OK," Scott said, "they're all surrounding the house. I don't see any near you. There are several at the gate." "What are our chances of getting to one of those cars?" "Wait a sec... "If you stay low you might get to them, if no one happens to look your way at a bad time. The nearest ones are a couple hundred feet from the trees." "No danger of them seeing your eye?" "Nah, it's pretty high. But they may have some of their own up, probably do in fact." "How about the end of the drive, where it ends at the edge of the cliff?" "No one there. What are you thinking?" "Something you won't like." "Got a feeling I aready don't," Scott said. "Hang on for a few minutes. Carol is trying to raise someone at the Freehold. It'll take a while for them to figure out you're not in the house." "You know it's a kill order. They even see us, the only way we leave here is in bags." "I know. Give me a few minutes." "We're about to make a move. Catch you in about ten." "Wait, Alex. Give me...." Alex killed the connection. He'd been on too long already, and they might already have a fix on him. "Ready?" he asked Cassandra. She nodded. Together they crawled to the edge of their cover and surveyed the area. As Scott had said, it was about two hundred feet to the nearest police cars. He knew the keys would be in them. "If we can get a car," he said, "and get back to where the drive circles around in front of the house, we've got over a quarter mile to the edge of the cliff. The cliff hangs out far enough that if you go straight down you'll just hit the edge of the water. It gets deep quickly as you go out. Sound good?" She nodded. Okey-dokey. Let's do it. Cassandra adjusted her rig, the twin Beretta 96A1s snug against her sides, the double magazine carriers on the belt. Hope there's no shooting, but if there is we'll take a few of them with us. He checked his own identical rig. Scanned the area. No one around the cars. They moved out, bent slightly to stay hidden behind the vehicles. As they reached the nearest one Alex opened the door and got in, Cassandra got in on the other side. Alex turned the key, looked at the instrument panel. Three quarters fuel. No problem there. He'd have to do a fast study once they were moving. If the drive was clear it would be a simple matter of driving around the loop and once going straight, towards the cliff's edge, firewall the throttle and hang on. "Buckle up," he said. "And keep your head down. If all they see is a man in a cop car they might not pay attention. And lose your weapons, you can't swim with them." He unfastened his own rig and shrugged it off, laying one of the Berettas on the seat where he could reach it if necessary. He lowered the windows. They probably wouldn't be able to open the doors with the car floating, better to climb out before it flooded. He started the engine and drove off the grass onto the driveway. It was clear all the way to the house and to the cliff. The drive circled an area about a hundred feet in diameter. He could be going twenty to thirty miles per hour, and had had another quarter mile to accelerate. A couple of cops looked at him as he entered the circular section, but none indicated alarm. He completed the circle and accelerated down the straight section. He looked in the mirror and saw a few people moving. Too late now suckers. He looked at the speedometer. Eighty and climbing fast. He glanced over at Cassandra. Calm as always. Don't let me kill her. The barrier of cables and posts was flimsy. He had connected individual lengths of cable to the posts, each was only about twenty feet long. All he had was miss the posts. There was no perceptible resistance when the car hit the cable. They they were in the air, over two hundred feet above the water. He hoped the fall wasn't far enough for the car to completely vertical. It didn't. They hit hard, but not enough to shake them up much. Quick, unbuckle and climb out. Cassandra was free and climbing out. Alex exited and waited, kicking away from the car and treading water as the it sank. They faced against across ten yards of water. "Away from the car!" Alex called. He didn't know if the vortex could pull them under, but didn't want to find out. Cassandra backstroked away and Alex did the same. They watched the car go under. "That way," he said, pointing over her shoulder. "Get ashore and into the woods there. Hope the commlink isn't dead." It was over a hundred yards to the shore, and Alex was glad to be out of the water. They crossed the narrow strip of sand and entered the trees. Alex took out the commlink and opened the case. It should work even after being immersed for a while, but Alex didn't breathe easy until it was powered on and showed good signal strength. He tapped Scott's channel. "Where'd you go man?" Scott asked. "We're out, alive but wet. There's about to be the mother of all manhunts down here." "Damn, what'd you do? Nevermind. I think I know. Let me get a squad in there, we've got some guys close. Stay on the line, you're not out of the woods yet." Alex looked at the trees. "That's for sure." He looked at Cassandra. She smiled, gave him a thumbs up. Kid's easily impressed. |
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