TRIAL BY FIRE (30 page)

Just then Jake Whitman, the hospital administrator, came
striding off the elevator. He nodded curtly in Ali’s direction. “I’m looking for an Agent Robson.”

“That would be me.”

“I’m the hospital administrator. It’s most unusual to have anything other than a medevac helicopter on our helipad. You need to get it out of there immediately. Come on,” he added, rattling a set of keys. “I’ll take you.”

He started away from them, then stopped when he realized neither Agent Robson nor Ali was following. “Well,” he said impatiently. “Are you two coming or not?”

As Ali stuck her computer in her briefcase, the wig, with a mind of its own, managed to tumble out on the floor.

Robson bent to pick it up. Before giving it back to her, he looked at the wig and then at Ali. “That’s who you are,” he said. “That’s why you look familiar.”

“Yes,” she agreed. Then, closing her briefcase and picking up her purse, she turned to Whitman. “We’re coming,” she told the hospital administrator. She knew full well that Robson wouldn’t go to the mat with her about any of this in front of Whitman. Cool macho dudes like Robson didn’t like being seen arguing with women in public.

Whitman set a brisk pace as they followed him back into the elevator. Access to the twelfth floor required use of a key. The doors opened on a corridor with a smoothly polished floor.

“This way,” he said.

The hallway ended in a pair of double doors. When Whitman pushed open one of the doors, Ali’s ears were assailed by the roar of a helicopter’s engines. Her hair blew up and out in the buffeting gale from the rotating blades.

Without pausing for permission, Ali walked past Whitman and climbed into the helicopter.

“Who the hell are you?” the pilot demanded. “I was told to pick up Agent Robson.”

“It turns out we’ve got a freeloader,” Robson said, climbing in behind her. “Fasten your damned belt,” he ordered her, “and keep your mouth shut. Open your computer, show me what you’ve got, and then stay out of my way.”

You really are an overbearing jerk,
Ali thought as the helicopter rose off the roof. She had worked with enough of those in her time, so she had some idea how to deal with him. Without being told and without asking permission, she clapped a set of earphones on her head, earphones with an attached microphone.

“Where to?” the pilot asked.

“I was told to head out to a road called the Beeline Highway. Northbound on that.”

Nodding, the pilot put the helicopter into the air. Once they gained altitude, they set off across the city, traveling on a diagonal, pounding past Camelback Mountain, heading northeast, covering the traffic-congested roadways with surprising speed. The sun was sinking in the west. The shadow cast by the helicopter was long and skinny.

Ali waited for a few moments, taking in the sights before she spoke. “I suppose I could keep quiet, unless you’d like to know the make and color of the vehicle we’re looking for.”

Robson crossed his arms and glared at her. “Tell me,” he said.

“A red Honda crossover,” she replied. “At least that’s the vehicle Sister Anselm was seen getting into outside her hotel. They might have switched into another vehicle by now and stuffed her into a trunk.”

“That would be my guess.” Robson’s agreement surprised her.

“As hot as it is,” Ali began. “How long can someone survive in an overheated car trunk?”

“Exactly,” Robson said. “If we don’t get to her soon, she’ll be dead no matter what.”

From the grim set of his mouth as he said it, Ali knew the man was totally focused on what was going on with Sister Anselm and whether it would be possible to save her.

A jerk, yes,
Ali thought as she opened her computer,
but a jerk who’s determined to do his job.

Ali was relieved to see that her AirCard still worked even though they were airborne. Once she accessed it, Sister Anselm’s map immediately appeared on the screen. There was also a new e-mail waiting in Ali’s in-box—another message from Sister Anselm, one that was more recent than the one Ali had seen back at the hospital.

When Ali opened that one she immediately noticed that the speedometer on the screen now read fifty miles per hour. “They’re slowing down,” she said.

“How do you know they’re slowing down?” Robson asked, leaning over to peer at the screen.

“Previously their average speed was sixty-three miles per hour. Now they’re down to fifty.”

“Maybe they’re looking for a place to turn off,” Robson said. “What’s out there?”

“Not much,” Ali returned. “A couple of Forest Service roads. That’s about it.”

“Can I see that thing?” the pilot asked.

Bypassing Agent Robson’s outstretched hand, Ali handed her open computer directly to the pilot. For a minute or so, he punched commands into the keyboard. Then, satisfied with
that, he punched another series of numbers into his onboard computer.

“I put in this set of coordinates,” he said, handing the computer back to Ali. “That’ll give us somewhere to start. If you get another one, let me know.”

Nodding, Ali kept quiet while the pilot relayed the information from his computer to people on the ground. That was what they needed, she realized. People on the ground and people in the air.

“How long to get there?” Robson asked.

“Forty-five total,” he said. “ETA is twenty minutes from now.”

“You can’t do it any faster than that?”

“If you want to disregard the laws of physics, that’s up to you,” the pilot told Robson, “but you and I will get along a hell of a lot better if you get used to the idea that it’s going to take as long as it takes.”

My sentiments exactly,
Ali thought.

She was coming back. She had thought it was over, but evidently it wasn’t, not quite. She was still here. Sort of. And Hal was here, too, standing next to her bed.

She needed to tell him what she remembered. If only she could speak. If only she could get rid of this damned machine that blocked her throat. Then she’d be able to tell him. Hal would know what to do. He always knew what to do.

“Win and Serenity are still outside,” he said. “I can let them back in if you’d like them here. If you want to see them. I think they’d like to see you.”

No,
she thought.
I saw the look of shock on Win’s face when
he saw what I look like now. And I heard Serenity. They may think they want to see me, but they don’t. I don’t want them to remember me this way. I want them to remember me the way I used to be. The way I was, not the way I am now.

Two blinks, then. Two blinks for no.

“I know there’s some bad blood between you and Serenity,” Hal said, “and between Serenity and me, too,” he added, “but don’t push them away. They’re both here. They’ve both been here all day. Let’s be kind. Let’s let them in again. Please.”

It was surprising to Mimi that Hal really didn’t understand. Not at all. She was trying to be kind to her children just then. She didn’t want them to have to suffer by seeing her this way. That was too hard on them, especially on Serenity, the one who thought she was so damned tough.

So Mimi blinked twice. Twice for no.

Hal sighed. “All right, Mimi girl,” he said. “We’ll do it your way. Is it time to push the button?”

Almost, but not quite. I could stay a little longer. I could stand it a little longer, if you’d just lean down and kiss me.

But he didn’t do that. Instead he punched the button, and she went sliding away. And she realized as she drifted away that she still hadn’t told him what she needed to say.

Because he hadn’t asked. Maybe he never would.

Another e-mail showed up in Ali’s in-box. Another e-mail from Sister Anselm. “They’re moving at three miles per hour,” she said, “and they’ve turned east.”

“Where?” Robson asked.

“Looks like Forest Road one forty-three,” Ali answered.

The pilot nodded in agreement.

“Look,” Robson said. “I’m not from here. Where does it go?”

“Nowhere,” the pilot answered. “Off into the Four Peaks Wilderness Area. There’s nothing out there but nothing.”

Ali stared at the pin on the computer with a feeling of dread. Whoever had Sister Anselm was taking her to a place where there would be no witnesses and no turning back. Even if Sister Anselm survived a ride imprisoned in an overheated trunk, she might not survive what came next. Ali’s computer offered their only hope of finding her.

On TV and in the movies, pursuits were always fast and exciting. This one seemed slow as mud. Ali looked at her watch for the third time in as many minutes and wondered if it was still running. The pilot had said they were twenty minutes or so out, but if the car they were after had already turned off the highway, whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon. Sooner than they could get there. Sooner than any of the ground units could get there.

Closing her eyes, Ali murmured a small prayer. “Please keep Sister Anselm safe. Please.”

Over the microphone she heard Robson talking to someone else. “Excellent,” he said. “According to what I’m hearing, that road has only one way in and one way out. Have them block it and lay down spike strips. Whatever happens, the guy isn’t going to get away.”

“What’s going on?” Ali asked.

“Units from the Gila County Sheriff’s Department are still on the way, but it turns out the Arizona Department of Public Safety had a vehicle in the area. That DPS unit is already at the intersection where the forest road comes back out to the highway. The officer has blocked the road with his vehicle and is laying down tire strips on either side of where he’s parked.
If the bad guy tries to make a run for it and go around him, it won’t work.”

Ali nodded. Setting a trap to catch the guy at the intersection sounded good as far as it went, but it wasn’t nearly good enough. If the guy’s vehicle was stopped on the way back out to the highway, that would most likely mean whatever was going to happen to Sister Anselm would have already happened.

Too little, too late,
Ali thought.

The e-mail alert sounded on Ali’s computer. Another new e-mail from Sister Anselm’s address had appeared in her mailbox. When she opened it, Ali’s heart fell. The speedometer read zero miles per hour.

“They’ve stopped,” she said. “The pin puts their latest position a couple of miles or so beyond the intersection.”

“Crap!” Robson muttered. He turned to the pilot. “You keep flying,” he said. “Can you tell me how to key in this last set of coordinates? If he dumps her there, that’s the only way we’re going to find her.”

Ali didn’t need to ask what would precede the dumping. Agent Robson knew, and so did she.

Robson held out his hand, and Ali passed the ATF agent her computer without a word of objection.

For the time being at least, Ali Reynolds and Gary Robson were both on the same side.

The helicopter sped swiftly over a harsh desert landscape—spines of rocky ridges spiked with saguaro and dotted with low-lying grayish-green shrubs. Ali stared out of the aircraft’s glass windshield at the seemingly empty desert, hoping for a glimpse of blacktop or even a sliver of dirt road—something with a moving vehicle on it that would let her know they were getting closer. Something that would give her hope that they weren’t already too late.

A radio transmission laced with static came through the earphones. Ali didn’t hear what was coming through the radio, but she did understand the string of obscenity-laced invective that spewed out of Gary Robson’s mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Ali asked.

“That was the DPS. A car moving westward started down the road toward the state patrolman who had his car parked along with the spike strips. When the driver saw that the road was blocked, he pulled a U-turn and raced back in the other direction.”

“As you already mentioned, there’s only one way in and one way out,” Ali said. “At least that’s how it looks on the map.”

“Let’s hope so. A Gila County deputy is due on the scene in another five minutes. He’ll probably get there at about the same time we do, or maybe a little before. The deputy is driving an SUV that’ll be better suited to that kind of road than an ordinary DPS patrol car. The deputy will go after the guy, and so will we.”