The Vanishing Gary Brown (booksvooks TXT) 📖

man onto to his back, searched him for a weapon.

“Reisa… Reisa Stone. I’ve been shot.”

“Where?” Mark said.

“My leg.”

Blood oozed from a hole in the man’s pant leg. Mark ripped open his jeans. Reisa cried out as Mark turned him on his side, checked the back of his leg, found the exit wound.

“You’re lucky,” Mark said as he gently placed Reisa’s leg on the ground. “It’s a through and through. The bullet came straight out after it went in. You’re going to be all right. As soon as I can get you medical attention, I will.”

Reisa tried to pull himself to his feet. “Got to… get to… the cabin.” he said.

Mark held him down. “You’re not going anywhere in this condition,” he said. “Lie still and stay calm. I’ll be back soon. You’ll get all the help you need in a few minutes.”

Stone grabbed Oyama’s leg as he tried to leave. “My friend’s wife and daughter… they’re in there.” He pointed to the cabin.

Mark looked up toward the crest of the hill.

The tiny house had become a funeral pyre.

“Oh, Jesus, no!” Mark said. “Martin! Claire!”

Mark raced up the hill. Fingers of fire climbed the shallow pitch of the cabin’s roof and clutched at the night sky.

From inside, Mark heard their screams.

70

THE WINDOWS IN the small cabin hissed, crackled, then blew out. Fed by a sudden rush of air, flames whistled and sucked the oxygen out of the tiny room as it filled with smoke. Claire, Amanda and Virgil sat huddled together at the back of the room. Sky covered Blessing’s nose and mouth and tried to shield her daughter from the noxious assault of burning wood and roof tar. The little girl coughed and choked on the acrid fumes.

“It’s no use,” Earl yelled. He cried out as he pulled his scalded palm away from the doorknob. “Fire’s roasted the handle to the frame! The damn thing’s fused together!”

“If we don’t think of something fast, we’re all going to die,” Martin yelled above the roar of the fire. “This place won’t last much longer!”

From outside the cabin came a voice. “Martin! Claire! Can you hear me?”

“Mark?” Martin yelled. “Yes, we can hear you! We can’t get out.” Martin looked at Claire and Amanda. Virgil had succumbed to the smoke. He lay on the ground, unconscious. “We’re trapped, and we have civilian’s down.”

Mark yelled above the raging flames. “Can you get to the back of the cabin?”

“Yes,” Martin cried. The roof moaned, then sighed.

A fiery timber fell into the middle of the room, knocked Earl Bentley to the ground. The old man scrambled to his feet, shook it off. “If your friends have got a plan to get us out of here,” he said, “now would be a damn good time to use it!”

An unknown voice called out. “Get as far away from the door as you can! Call out when you’re clear! Ready?”

“Ready!” Martin yelled.

“Cover your heads!” Pike yelled. “When you hear the blast, run like hell!”

The commander lobbed a concussion grenade at the base of the cabin door. Planks of ember-laden wood exploded and left a hole where the door once stood. Inside the room, a second fire-ravaged ceiling beam fell.

“Clear!” Pike yelled. He ran into the inferno. “Everyone out, now!” He grabbed Virgil’s hand, draped it over his shoulder, then dragged the wounded man up onto his shoulders in a firefighter’s carry position. “I’ve got him,” he yelled. “Now go!”

Martin helped Amanda and Claire out of the burning building and into the welcoming arms of Karen, Dan, and Cynthia. Earl Bentley attended to Sky and Blessing.

Pike laid Virgil gently on the ground.

Vigil coughed. He spoke in a hoarse whisper. “Sky… Blessing… where is my family?”

“Easy,” Pike said. “Try not to talk. Take a few deep breaths. Everyone got out alive. They’re safe.”

Pike’s team leader joined him, knelt beside the two men, shook his head. “Team two has been tracking Fallon. He’s alone and on foot. They can’t get a clear shot. The fire made using night-vision impossible. Our glasses are useless.”

“There’s only one place he could go,” Virgil whispered. “One place you’d never think to look for him.”

“Where’s that?” Martin said.

Virgil pointed. “Off the main trail, along the side of the mountain. There’s a cave.”

“How do we find it?”

“Look for The Twins.”

“The Twins?”

“Two granite pillars, each about four feet high and a foot wide. They stick up out of the ground a few feet in front of the entrance. Find the Twins and you find the cave.”

“That has to be where he’s headed,” Martin said to Pike. To Virgil, he said, “Take it easy. Don’t worry. We’ll find your family.”

“Be careful,” Virgil said. “The ledge in front of the entrance is narrow. One wrong step and--”

“I’ll be fine,” Martin said. “You just rest.” Martin stood. He turned to Mark. “I’m going after him.”

“The hell you are!” Mark replied. “Pike’s men will track him down.”

“Not a chance. Fallon’s mine. The son of a bitch murdered my wife and kidnapped my daughter!”

“I can’t let you go after him, Martin.”

Too late, Oyama’s words fell behind Martin as he jumped to his feet and ran down the trail. “You don’t have a choice, Mark!”

Mark yelled to Dan Raines. “Follow him! Don’t let him out of your sight! Not for a goddamn second!”

71

THE VAN IN the laneway… Melanie, crying on the kitchen floor… Mysterious chanting, then the coming of darkness… ‘Mellie! Where are you?… Oh God, no! Melanie!’… The voice on the end of the line: “I’m deeply sorry, Mr. Belgrade. The identification is positive. The dental records are indeed those of your wife, Anne.”

The spectral images and disembodied voices in Martin’s mind fueled him as he raced along the mountain path, dodging overhanging branches and avoiding bone-snapping rocks. In the distance, a pair of stone pillars jutted out from the ground like ancient tribal markers.

The Twins.

Sound emanated from the treeline above.

Running.

Twigs and branches cracked underfoot, then silence.

Martin crept past the stone slabs and navigated the narrow ledge. When he had reached the