02 Avalanche Pass (34 page)

“Stay safe, Jesse,” Dent told him. He could almost hear the crooked grin on the deputy sheriff’s face in the reply.

“Exactly how d’you suggest I do that, Agent Colby?” asked Jesse. Then he broke the connection.

T
he strain was beginning to get to Tina Bowden. Another mealtime had gone by without her having an opportunity to speak to Jesse. He’d been in the storeroom while she and Ralph had prepared dinner for the hostages and their captives, but once again, she’d had no excuse to go in there to speak to him.

As she left, carrying the heavy pot loaded with beef stew, she’d glanced back at the coffee mugs on the sink—the signal that he’d been waiting in the storeroom and wanted to make contact. As ever, she’d turned them right side up to let him know that she’d seen the signal.

The meals in the gym had settled into a routine by now. She set the stew pot up on a folding table that one of Kormann’s men had brought in from the nearby conference room and the captives filed past, their bowls ready, while she served them. The guards, and Kormann and his Italian-looking companion, were served their separate meals by Ralph. Tonight, they were having veal chasseur, with a Neapolitan sauce and the inevitable French fries. Not for them the food for the common horde. It had occurred to Tina that this separate menu regime offered an opportunity. If she could only get her hands on some really virulent, totally tasteless poison, she could probably wipe out the entire force of guards—if she could convince Ralph to let her put poison in their meals.

And if she could persuade the guard to turn his back while she did so. And if there were some really virulent, unnoticeable poison available in the first place.

Good plan, too many ifs, she decided.

She started collecting the used dishes. Ralph had been delayed when he served Kormann. As ever, Kormann had chosen to give him a hard time over the French fries and the chef was still finishing his own meal. Tina was finished eating so she began clearing up—at least it gave her something to do and an excuse to move around the big room. Being near the exit to the gym office, she went to collect the dishes from Kormann, Pallisani and the three guards on duty there. She walked into the office as Pallisani and Kormann were in the middle of a conversation. They both looked up at her and then Pallisani, ignoring her, said, “Why move them? What’s the point?”

She saw the fleeting expression of anger on Kormann’s face, directed at Pallisani, and realized that the Italian had said something that she wasn’t supposed to hear.

She tried to appear nonchalant and disinterested as she reached for the plates on the desk. The fact that Kormann had said nothing in reply to his subordinate’s question strengthened her feeling that she had overheard something significant.

The silence in the room was becoming untenable. She looked at Kormann, forcing herself to look bored and ill-tempered, anything to prevent her eagerness to hear more being apparent.

“You finished?” she said, in as sullen a tone as she could muster. Kormann nodded curtly at her and she took the plates, managing to clash them together clumsily as she piled them. As ever, she saw the French fries on Kormann’s plate were untouched. Then she turned and walked out of the room, back into the main section of the gym.

As she left, Kormann turned his anger on Pallisani. His voice was low but it cut like a whip and he lashed the other man with it.

“We’ll move them because I say we’ll move them. Got that quite clear?” he demanded. Pallisani nodded with ill grace. Kormann continued. “Because it will keep them off balance and because if they have been planning anything, if any of them have any idea of trying to pull some kind of stunt, we’ll take them by surprise.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. I get it,” the Italian said in a surly tone. Instantly, Kormann’s temper went to white heat and he leaned across the desk, his eyes boring into Pallisani’s.

“But Gino, you dumb fucking wop, we will not throw them off balance or take them by surprise if you blurt out the fact that we’re going to move them in front of that girl. When she is in this room, you keep your fucking mouth shut. Understood?”

Pallisani’s mouth set in a thin line. His resentment was plain to see but Kormann knew that he couldn’t let this small challenge go unnoticed.

“Understood?” he repeated and finally Pallisani had to meet his gaze and nod briefly.

“Yeah. Okay.”

Kormann held his eyes for few seconds, then allowed a more conciliatory tone to come into his voice.

“Besides, if we put them in the Atrium restaurant, the threat to them is heightened.”

Even Pallisani should understand that, he thought. The Atrium restaurant was two stories high, with floor to ceiling glass on the wall facing the main mountain—the mountain where they had laid charges to bring down an avalanche. It wasn’t as easy an area to secure as the gym but Kormann didn’t plan to keep them there long. He’d planned all along to move them there in the last few hours, to make sure that there was no chance of survival in the avalanche.

What Pallisani didn’t realize, of course, was how close to the end they were. He still thought the deadline was Sunday. He had no idea that he’d be in the Atrium restaurant with the hostages when Kormann brought a couple of million tons of snow, ice, rock and trees crashing through those big picture windows.

A
s she piled the dishes on the trestle table, Tina Bowden was frowning to herself. They’re moving us. She thought. Why are they moving us?

The two men had been talking about moving something or somebody. The fact that Kormann had shown that brief flash of anger that it had been mentioned in front of her was a strong indication that they planned to move the hostages. Of course, they could have been discussing the guards on the roof or the Stinger missiles,
or any of a dozen other details. But why shut up in front of her if that were the case? Why move us, she wondered? And where to?

Maybe Jesse would have some idea, she thought. She hoped she’d be able to make contact the following morning. A worm of doubt was eating at her as she realized that any move could jeopardize the plan she’d formed with Pell. A different location would mean a different set of circumstances. Here, she was confident that they could secure the heavy glass doors and hold the guards at bay—at least in the short term. They’d have her pistol, and the weapons they could take from the three guards, each of whom carried a sidearm in addition to the stubby Ingram machine carbines. That was a total of seven weapons. But her plan depended on the fact that there was only one entrance to the gym, and one that was easily defended. That was the reason Kormann had held them here in the first place, she reasoned.

But the advantages that the gym held for the guards would also apply to the hostages, as long as she could take out the three patrolling in the room. If they moved somewhere else Kormann might change the guard detail as well. She could be faced with half a dozen men patrolling and she knew if that happened, she’d be helpless. She might take out two men, with Pell handling the other. But any more than that and it was all over.

She shook her head hopelessly. She needed to know more. Once again, she found herself hoping that she’d get a chance to speak to Jesse the next morning. Friday, he’d said, was the day they might try something. And now that was only a day away.

J
esse heard the outer door open and shut and saw the line of light go on under the bottom of the storeroom door. Almost immediately, the fluorescent lights in the storeroom came to life as well, triggered by the same switch. As the light flooded the room, he twisted the Maglite to off and slipped it into his pocket.

He’d been here since five in the morning, using the time to get something to eat other than the potato chips and chocolate bars that he’d been taking from minibars in the rooms. Not that the choice was too appetizing here, he thought moodily. He didn’t dare risk cooking, or even heating any food, so his selection was limited to cheese, crackers and a large pressed ham that he’d found in one of the fridges.

He heard footsteps and voices in the outer room, then distinctly heard Tina call, “We’re out of coffee.”

He grinned slightly at that. One of the first things he’d done when he entered the kitchen, over two hours previously, had been to find the packs of coffee ready for the drip filter machine and take them all back into the storeroom.

In the kitchen, Ralph looked up with a frown as he heard Tina’s statement.

“We can’t be,” he said in an annoyed tone. “I put three packs there yesterday.”

Cursing him silently, realizing what had happened, Tina tried to look casual as she shrugged at him. “That was at lunch,” she said. “I used them last night, remember?”

The guard had glanced up at the exchange. He was disinterested for the moment but that could change at any time. Ralph was moving to where the drip filter coffeemaker stood, looking increasingly annoyed. Disagree with a chef in a kitchen, no matter what the circumstances, Tina thought, and he’d start feeling put upon.

“It wasn’t lunch,” he said. “It was last night. Remember?”

Tina found herself reviewing her former plan. If she had a non-detectable, virulent poison, she’d put it in Ralph’s meal along with the guards’, she thought. She shrugged at him as he stared at the empty bench.

“Well if you did, where are they?” she asked, with undefeatable logic and he had no answer to that. The bench was bare. He went to speak but the guard, thoroughly pissed by now, interrupted.

“For Christ’s sake, who cares? Just stop whining and get some fucking coffee on, okay?”

It had been a good move on Jesse’s part, she thought. The one thing that the guard didn’t want delayed was his coffee. She gave Ralph an “I told you so” look and shoved past him toward the storeroom door.

“Get me some extra eggs and butter while you’re there,” he said. She might have known that once he had lost one argument, he would try to reassert his authority in another area. Again, the guard contradicted him.

“Fuck that. Get the coffee going first. Then get the other shit,” he ordered and Tina shrugged, trying to look annoyed. Inwardly, she felt a quick surge of satisfaction. She now had two reasons to go to the storeroom, on two different occasions.

She shoved the spring-loaded door open and went into the storeroom. Jesse was waiting for her by the cold cabinet, the three coffee packs already in his hand. She took them and, feeling ridiculously pleased to see him, stepped forward and hugged him briefly.

“Can’t stay long,” she said, “but I’ll be back in a minute. I think they’re planning to move us.”

She saw the quick frown of concentration on his face as she said it.

“Any idea where to?” he asked, and she shook her head. She was backing toward the door and he followed her for a few paces. Incongruously, she noticed that he had cracker crumbs on his shirt.

“No idea. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said.

She emerged into the kitchen and heard the grunt of pained satisfaction from the guard.

“About fucking time. Now let’s get that coffee.”

It occurred to her to tell him that if he’d bothered to fill the coffeemaker with water while she’d been gone things would move a little quicker. But there was nothing to gain by antagonizing the man so she kept the thought to herself and got the coffee brewing.

He snatched the pot off the hot plate as soon as there was a cupful in it and poured it into a mug. The stream of brewing coffee fell, hissing and spitting, onto the hotplate. Quickly, she placed another pot under it and managed to wipe most of the spill with a sponge. The rest bubbled and burned off.

Ralph was glaring at her from his position at the big multiple cooktops.

“Eggs and butter,” he demanded. “And get some white wine vinegar while you’re at it.” Kormann had demanded eggs Benedict this morning. The hostages would have more stew. She pretended to look annoyed at him.

“Okay, okay. Keep your shirt on. I’m going,” she said. She knew there was no risk he’d go to fetch the items himself. He was reestablishing his territory.

As she entered the storeroom, Jesse already had the eggs, butter and vinegar ready for her.

“You can’t let them move you,” he said immediately. “Odds are, they’re planning to put you in a more exposed position.”

“That’s what I figured,” she replied. “Besides, God knows what the situation is going to be if they move us. They might increase the guards. They might put us in a spot out in the open.”

Jesse hesitated. Then he seemed to come to a decision. “Colby figures they can be in here in ten to twenty minutes,” he said. “I guess it’s going to come down to this: if they look like they’re moving you, we’re going to have to trigger things ourselves.”

She glanced at the door. She’d been in here too long already but they needed more time to discuss all this. She pointed to the back of the room.

“Get under cover,” she said. Then, as he hesitated, she shoved him gently in the direction she wanted. “Go. I need to buy more time here.”

Understanding, he moved to the back of the storeroom, squeezing himself into the narrow space between the refrigerator cabinet and the end wall. She could just see him, but she knew he was there. She decided the cover was good enough. She opened the pack of eggs and let them drop onto the floor, at the same time letting out a shriek. Then she dropped to her hands and knees and let the container of vinegar and the butter roll across the floor as well.

“Shit!” she yelled at the top of her voice. A few seconds later, the door flew open and the guard came in, in a half crouch, his Ingram ready. He relaxed as he saw her on her hands and knees, surrounded by the sticky ruin of a dozen eggs.