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  He crouched and moved to the entry door in the floor of the lookout. “You ready, Jules?”

  She grabbed two unopened water bottles and scooted beside him.

  “Good thinking.”

  She handed him the water.

  Before he could react, Julia wrapped her arms around him in a fierce embrace. “Promise me …” Her voice broke. “… that you’ll come back … alive.”

  “I …” He couldn’t make that promise, not with certainty.

  Julia looked up, reading his eyes again. “Then tell me the truth. What do you think your odds are of getting back here, taking down the chopper, and taking the men out that are coming after us? The truth, Steve.” Her intense brown eyes penetrated to the depths of his heart. He couldn’t lie to Julia.

  “About 50-50.” Either he would succeed or fail. What more could he tell her?

  “But you said you’d come back. You promised me. How, Steve?”

  “What will you be doing while I’m gone?”

  “Praying. Praying harder than I’ve ever prayed in my life.”

  “Then there’s your answer. Now, let’s go.”

  When Steve’s feet hit the ground under the lookout, he reached up, lifted Julia off the ladder, and set her on the ground.

  “Steve, your phone is blinking.”

  He pulled it from its pocket. Steve unlocked it and displayed the text message.

  “Is it from Jeff?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, what does it say?”

  “They had to stop and hide. I-5 is being closely monitored by the military. He has no clue when they will get to Happy Camp.”

  Chapter 17

  Eli Vance’s cane thumped on the floor of Hannan’s private study. When his head appeared, the old man’s face held the nearest thing to panic Hannan had ever seen.

  “What’s it now, Eli?”

  Vance had been treading on Harrison Brown’s turf for the past two weeks. Should Hannan replace Brown? No. It would be easier to let Brown think he was doing his job but let Eli do it for him.

  Eli took a seat by the windows and Hannan swiveled in his office chair to face him.

  “Abe, the Russians are testing your resolve.”

  “What are the Russians up to now?”

  “Their nuclear subs are operating near our undersea data cables. You do realize what happens if they destroy one or more of those cables, don’t you?” Eli’s mustache twitched as it always did when the old man got nervous about something.

  “Yes, we couldn’t communicate with our friends in Europe, our wonderful allies who have forbid us from attending NATO meetings until further notice.”

  Eli coughed and shook his head. “We’d lose the ability to do electronic bank transactions and such. It would be disastrous.”

  “Okay, you threaten Russia with severe retaliation if they do anything.”

  “If they do anything?” Vance’s bug-eyed stare clearly called Hannan a fool. “If they were to take down the right satellite, too, you would have no way to threaten them. Abe, you need to take care of some external national security threats, or the internal threats won’t even matter.”

  “Now that you’ve warned me, you can go, Eli.” Internal threats, external threats. Without the government hitting on all eight cylinders, things were spinning out of control. If he could just get the nation back under his control, he could then focus on foreign relations.

  After Eli left, Hannan’s thoughts turned to internal threats and to Deke, who was long overdue in reporting the results of his attack on Daniels and company.

  What we have here is a failure to communicate.

  And Deke would suffer the consequences. After all, he had been at the target area for at least three hours. How long did it take a thermobaric rocket or two to destroy a house and kill its inhabitants? Four or five seconds?

  Hannan hit Deke's secure sat phone number on his call list and waited.

  Two rings … three rings … four rings.

  They got Blanchard, but no way could this ragtag bunch take out Deke after he ambushed Daniels and company.

  A voice came through the phone. “Deke here.”

  It was not a confident sounding voice. At least the captain was alive, but depending on his news, that could change. “This is your Commander-in-Chief. Did you capture anyone or are they all dead?”

  “Mr. President, sir … we don't know, yet?”

  “What?” Hannan squeezed the arm rest on his office chair until it broke off in his hand.

  “Sir, we're still sifting through the burnt rubble looking for body parts.”

  “What have you found?”

  “Well, nothing yet, sir. There's a lot of rubble.”

  And as soon as Hannan no longer needed Deke, that's what his military career would become … a lot of rubble. “Tell me this, Captain Deke, did anyone get away?”

  Silence.

  “Deke?”

  “A man carrying a woman entered the forest to the east. Half of my men are tracking them down, while the other half looks for bodies.”

  “I told you that, unless you could capture Bancroft, to take them all out. Total destruction. Now tell me, how did two of them get away?”

  “But, sir, they—”

  “Who shot first, Deke? You or them?”

  “They did, sir. They killed one of my men, then we launched the rockets. Two at the house and one at the runners.”

  Not good. Somehow Daniels’ band knew they were coming, despite the use of the secret stealth chopper. They were waiting for Deke and his men. “Who shot at you and where did they shoot from?”

  “A man on the roof, Mr. President. We think it was the Israeli.”

  Great. “Mr. Levy. He's Sayeret Matkal. You won't find him in the rubble.” Hannan paused. “You need to understand this, Deke. I degraded my security to send you to Oregon. This was a winner-take-all mission with risk involved. You’re not going to find any bodies in the rubble. All seven got away. And you'd better find them or …” Hannan stopped. He was running out of threats. If Deke ran or went rogue, Hannan had no one he could rely on to capture or kill Deke. “Just get them, Deke, especially Daniels. You do that and there's a big promotion waiting for you.”

  Chapter 18

  With Julia hidden in a crevice on the south side of the huge monolith crowning Bolan peak, Steve ran down the mountain at top speed, trying to control his body. He had taken up too much time hiding Julia and then convincing her to stay hidden.

  Now, he plotted his footsteps six or seven in advance, letting his trained reflexes guide his feet to the spots his vision had recorded while he scanned further ahead.

  His route down the mountain took Steve around the shoulder of the peak, and nearly 400 yards from the route up the mountain used by his quarry. He might still have enough time to pull this off if he didn't stumble, start a rockslide, or anything else that would attract attention.

  Julia's eyes still haunted him as they begged him not to go. Then, failing that, they begged him to promise that he would make sure Hannan's men would never touch her.

  That got to him. After picturing her eyes, he struggled to concentrate on his dangerous descent. If he injured himself, his promises to Julia would all be broken.

  Steve leaped a downed fir tree, landing on a patch of bare dirt. Good. He was below the rocky area near the mountain top. The dirt would provide better footing and reduce the noise from his footsteps.

  Four hundred yards below him, the top of the tall snag appeared slightly to Steve's left. At this landmark, he planned to cut left and intersect the men's trail, hopefully behind them.

  He slowed, taking greater care to silence his steps.

  In another two minutes, the sounds of several men moving up the mountain came from below him, to his left.

  He cut toward them using vegetation for cover.

  They muttered, discussing something.

  Steve crept closer and peered through fir bows.

  One of the
men pulled binoculars from his face and pointed up at the lookout. An argument ensued. Maybe about what to do regarding the head staring at them from the lookout window.

  While the men continued their argument, their focus was on one another and the peak.

  Steve used the time and a small stand of trees to move behind the six men, who were only a quarter-mile below the cliff. He had to strike before they reached the cliff.

  He crept slowly toward them, stopping when he reached the edge of the trees.

  While Steve watched, the argument between the Hannanis ended with five heads nodding in unison.

  The sixth head held a pouting face.

  As the other five continued up the mountainside, the loser lagged behind. He also carried an RPG launcher across his back, and a quiver with two arrows in it, arrows with fat thermobaric warheads.

  Using the stealthy movements Steve had learned for stalking human prey, he moved from trees to rocks, using whatever cover the mountain afforded. He continued dogging the laggard, hoping the other five wouldn’t look back. Fear that they might turn around kept Steve from going as fast as he would've liked. Nevertheless, he quickly closed ground between him and the man carrying the RPG launcher.

  The group of five was no more than 300 yards below the cliff face.

  Steve had only two or three minutes left. If he let the time expire and the chopper showed up, he and Julia would both die.

  Though the situation was not ideal, he would have to make his move now. Timing it so his prey was near a large boulder, Steve charged.

  The man tensed and stopped as Steve approached in bounding strides. The soldier swiveled toward Steve and tried to raise his rifle. He was a fraction of a second too late.

  Steve took the man down rolling him behind the boulder and ended this man's participation in the battle, permanently.

  Only two of the men carried launchers. The odds were 50-50 that this man had tried to kill Julia. Killing was never something one wanted to do, but Steve found it hard to feel badly about taking this man's life.

  Steve quickly slipped the launcher and rockets from the soldier then pulled his shirt off. Steve slipped the man’s shirt on, hoping this would slow recognition that he was the enemy.

  Two hundred yards ahead, the other five approached the base of the cliff.

  Steve was out of time. He sprinted straight up the mountain toward the cluster of five men in the distance.

  He slowed as one man glanced his way, then accelerated when the man's attention turned to the rock face in front of them.

  When approaching the base of this cliff, it appeared that the only way to reach the lookout on top was to climb up the cliff. A notch on the cliff face provided a fairly easy climb to the top. But the five men seemed reluctant to expose themselves on a cliff face where they would have no cover.

  Steve closed within a hundred yards, keeping a small fir tree between him and the group of five.

  They appeared to be discussing how to climb this cliff to reach the lookout. By this time, they must know that the head peering at them was not a real live human being.

  Though the timing was not quite right for him to attack, Steve had to take them out now and return to Julia.

  Steve loaded the launcher with a rocket and prepared to fire.

  One of the five pointed his direction and barked out a command.

  The other four swiveled toward him.

  Steve launched the rocket.

  It ignited with a whoosh and a flash and pushed Steve's shoulder backward.

  One man raised his gun.

  Steve ducked, covering his face before the blinding flash could sear his eyes.

  He replayed the rocket launch in his mind. The rocket had headed for a spot a few yards to the left of the men. Close enough. It would either kill or injure them all, taking them out of the fight.

  Steve scanned his targets.

  Five men down. No one moving. Now to rescue Julia.

  He loaded the last rocket into the launcher and began his sprint up the mountain, around the cliff to the place near the lookout where he had hidden Julia.

  With only a hundred yards to go, Steve slowed. Looking across the flat top of Bolan peak, the lookout lay to his left. The crevice in the rock, where he’d hidden Julia, lay to his right.

  With a whoosh and a muffled roar, a helicopter leaped up over the peak in front of Steve.

  He had no time to hide.

  The strange looking chopper rotated a side door toward him and an M240 with a man on the other end swung his way.

  No gunfire. What was happening? Was the shirt he wore causing them to hesitate.

  He scanned the scene in front of him.

  A figure in denim shorts appeared on top of a large rock in plain view of the chopper. Julia.

  Now she waved her arms at the killing machine.

  She had drawn the pilot’s attention and the chopper pilot rotated the side door, filled with an M240, toward her.

  Steve’s violent heartbeats threatened to rip open his chest as he prepared the rocket for firing.

  While the people on the chopper may not have known who Steve was, they recognized Julia as their enemy.

  She just stood there waving her arms.

  The M240’s staccato cracking kicked up a deadly line of dirt and rocks that exploded into the air.

  The line of destruction from large caliber bullets that would tear a human body to shreds moved across the ground straight at her.

  Steve yanked the launcher onto his shoulder and prayed as he fired the rocket.

  Julia's body toppled off the rock to the ground behind it.

  The rocket penetrated the Stealth Hawk. A huge ball of fire filled the sky followed by the concussion of the powerful explosion.

  The helicopter dropped to the top of the cliff. It exploded again, then tumbled down the cliff face, sending a trail of fire downward to the bottom of the cliff and into the trees beyond.

  Now a roaring wild fire had been ignited.

  How many of Deke’s men had been on the chopper? There was no way to know.

  Steve turned away from the fire and sprinted toward the spot where Julia had fallen. When he reached her, she had risen to her knees.

  She stretched her arms toward him.

  His eyes scanned every inch of her body looking for blood or any other signs of injury.

  There were none. He released the breath he’d been holding.

  She met his gaze, body shaking, and a weak smile on her lips. “You came back for me.”

  She wasn't hurt, only frightened. But she had violated her word to stay hidden. To save his life, this woman had walked into what was almost certain death.

  That thought stopped his words, strong words that his emotions wanted to assault her with, a tongue-lashing she would never forget.

  Their gazes locked.

  A mixture of fear, uncertainty, and something far more tender in her eyes washed away his anger, completely.

  Now she was in his arms clinging to him as if she would never let go. Her body shook.

  “Julia … I told you—”

  “Steve … I broke my word, but don't be mad, please.”

  Arms around her, Steve looked down into her eyes. “If you ever—”

  “I won't. I promise. But this time, I didn't have a choice.”

  Didn’t have a choice? He didn’t have time to dwell on her meaning. “We need to get off this mountain, now. I hit five of the men with a rocket. They went down, but I don't know if they're all out of the fight.”

  “What about the other man?”

  “He's out of the fight, permanently.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  Steve ditched the launcher and the empty rocket quiver, then shucked the shirt he’d slipped on.

  “Where are the bottles of water you took?”

  “Behind me in the crevice where I hid.” She whirled, stepped down into the crack in the rock, and returned with the water.

  Steve shov
ed the water into his small pack and locked his hand around Julia's wrist.

  She locked her hand around his wrist.

  He pointed down the mountain. “We’ve got to run as far and as fast as possible. But we’ve got two choices. You make the call.”

  “Me? Steve, you’re the expert—”

  “It’s your body we’ll be taxing to the limits. We can go sixteen miles across mountainous terrain to Happy Camp, or twenty-four miles by dirt road, a mostly downhill marathon.”

  “I’ve never run a marathon. I’m a sprinter. We run like crazy for a hundred meters and stop.”

  “And we haven’t eaten since yesterday. So we go sixteen miles through mountains?”

  “No, Steve. I want to try the marathon. At least we’ll have a road to run on.”

  “You sure, Jules?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay … we go down the mountain first, perpendicular to the Happy Camp road, leaving them bogus a trail in case anyone tries to follow. After a while, we stop leaving a trail.”

  Julia gave him a weak smile. “Lead the way.”

  Steve turned to the southwest. “Remember to drag a foot every once in a while and kick a few rocks loose, until I say stop.”

  “Got it.”

  He tugged her arm and they were off, running down the mountain.

  Eight minutes later, about a mile below the lookout, a large rock outcropping appeared ahead. Steve slowed to a walk as they moved out onto the rocks, then he pulled Julia to a stop.

  “Now we walk softly, leave no tracks, and we head toward Grayback Road. Ready for a walk?”

  “Can I have some water first?” She looked a bit winded, but still seemed strong and game.

  He pulled her water bottle from his pack. “Only two swallows.”

  After eight minutes of walking, they approached Grayback Road. “Before we expose ourselves on the road, I need to check for Deke and company.” Steve scanned the mountainside above and checked the sky for any low-flying aircraft. Nothing. They were clear to go.

  He studied Julia sitting on a tree stump, resting. She had one shoe off and was checking her heel.

  “Do you have a blister?”

  She looked up. “No, just a little sore spot.”