Untraceable (4 page)

“What?” So there it was. Zach’s destination. “Why the ice field?”

“Because that’s my only ride out of this frozen world. I have four days to get there.”

“We’ll never make it,” Cade said. “That’s too far.”

“It’s only thirty miles. We’re that close. So we take shortcuts if we have to. Go over the mountains instead of around them. You can do it. You’re mountain climbers.” Zach grinned.

As if that would appease or charm them into agreeing. Isaiah wanted to punch him. They didn’t have all the gear they’d need for such a trek. Or the food or supplies. It was a death wish at best.

In this weather and terrain, they’d be fortunate to make five or six miles a day, tops, and that wasn’t counting the added burden of inexperienced climbers. Isaiah wanted to inform him there was no possible way, but he’d already done enough damage.

“Safest and fastest don’t go together,” he said.

The temperature dropped as the storm pushed arctic air deeper into the mountains. Isaiah sometimes wondered how it could get colder. They needed to keep moving or they’d get hypothermic right here. They needed to get the blood pumping. Sure, he wanted to take Zach down, but first and foremost, he was part of a search and rescue team, and he’d see this through. He’d get these people out and to safety, and then let the authorities deal with them. He didn’t want to hurt them.

Unless he had to. He would do whatever was necessary to protect Cade and Heidi. His heart staggered at the thought of harm coming to her.

Hands at his hips, he looked at the ground, waiting for Cade to say something. He didn’t want to get into it with him, but he’d needed to question Cade on his decision. He doubted any of them were thinking as clearly as they could under the circumstances.

“Isaiah’s right,” Cade said. “The north face will be tough going down. But it’s the quickest way to your destination, so you should be glad about that. You’ll have to stick very close to us, but I figure we have an hour, maybe two before we have to set up the tents to weather the storm.”

“No. We keep going,” Zach said.

“We won’t make it if we don’t stop. The storm will be a blizzard. A whiteout. Do you get that? We won’t be able to see where we’re going, even with night goggles and headlamps. We couldn’t even if we were in broad daylight. This terrain is deadly all by itself. Be realistic, man.”

Still looking at his boots sunk in the snow, Isaiah shook his head, mostly to himself. There was no good way out of here in the dark during a storm. But if he put himself in Zach’s head, maybe he could imagine why the guy was so desperate.

“I get it,” he said. “You want us to be gone by morning, so if the storm clears out, we’ll be untraceable.”

Zach nodded to Isaiah, respect in his eyes. Isaiah couldn’t say he returned the sentiment.

“So tell me.” He was going to do this thing. Ask the forbidden question that he knew Cade and Heidi wanted the answer to, too. But they were afraid to know the truth. The way Isaiah figured it, their lives were already forfeit. Might as well know the whole of it. “What or who are you running from? What did you do?”

The guy’s eyes narrowed.

“Come on, man. We’re risking our lives for you out here. Tell us what this is all about.”

“Isaiah, no. We don’t need to know what’s going on.” Cade glared at Isaiah, then directed his words to Zach and the others. “It’s none of our business. All we care about is getting you out of here and to safety, and we want to be left to make our own way. Let’s agree on that.”

Cade was right, and Isaiah had proven himself a bigger idiot than he thought possible.

Jason stepped up next to Zach, his headlamp blinding them.

“Armored-car robbery,” he said. “That’s what.”

Cade’s form deflated as he blew out a big breath. The look of pained disappointment he gave Isaiah hit him in the gut. He’d pushed things too far, he saw that now. Cade was right. They didn’t want to know what this was about. Isaiah had just sealed their fates.

“We escaped,” Jason continued. “Made it out. Nobody had a clue where to look. Then we hit a snag in Zach’s big plans when our plane crashed. You want to know how much money?”

Jason opened his mouth and sucked in a breath, but Zach punched him in the face.

Grabbing his nose, Jason howled and cursed Zach. “What’d you do that for?”

With a single look, Zach silenced him. Too bad that couldn’t have worked to begin with, before the punch to the face.

“Now if we’re done with the small talk, lead on.” Zach gestured ahead of him.

The wind picked up and the snow clouds slowly crept across the sky. Once the clouds blanketed the region and hid the moon, this clan would depend completely on the goggles and headlamps. And once the storm hit, their feeble lighting would be of little help.

Before he turned to lead the way, Cade gave Isaiah one long shake of his head. Isaiah hoped Cade could see the regret in his eyes, but he was sure it wouldn’t matter. This wasn’t the first time Cade had given him that disappointed look lately, but at least this time Isaiah knew the reason for it. Now wasn’t the time to try to figure out what had been bothering his friend, especially since he likely already knew the answer to that. He tried to shove the unwelcome thoughts out of the way.

They would have to work together as a team in a way they never had before. This would require all their energy and focus and trust.

Trust. Why had this particular search and rescue scenario hit them when the trust between the three of them was at an all-time low?

Let it go, man. You don’t have time to worry about that now.

Carrying the heavy packs and gear, everything they’d need to survive, the group trudged behind Cade as he led the way off the saddle, careful to stay out of the path of the avalanche that could spill from the cornice above at any moment.

Zach hiked next to Isaiah, pulling up the back, and pointing his gun at Isaiah for fun. “Don’t forget that I have guns. Will kill.”

“Well, Zach, I’m intimidated by you, sure,” Isaiah said. This guy felt big and strong with the weapons he didn’t handle all that well. “But facing off with nature in this part of the world scares me more. If you’re not scared yet, you will be.”

FOUR

H
eidi struggled to keep up with Cade. With his big strides, he covered the ground quickly, even in the snow-covered saddle. None of the SAR team members had removed their crampons yet, and they hadn’t tasked the climbers to wear them or snowshoes until required. The snow wasn’t loose enough that they sank into it here, but the terrain indicated that they were approaching a sharp drop.

That was only one problem they would eventually face. Added to that, they’d have to be sure this group knew how to use an ice ax for self-rescue, or a technical ice ax if required.
Argh.
Did they even have all the equipment they would need? She doubted it. Heidi’s breathing hitched. She wanted to pull her hair out. This wasn’t going to work.

Straight ahead, on the other side of the peak across from them, she could see the silhouette of Devil’s Paw, the highest point on the Juneau Icefield, which marked the border between southeast Alaska and British Columbia. And just below that, though she couldn’t see it, Michael’s Sword thrust upward from the ice field, like its namesake blade.

Even if Heidi couldn’t see much through the night vision goggles, she knew they were about to face their first taste of terror. Cade knew that, too, and likely feared how much worse it would be if they didn’t make good time and find a place to hunker down in their tents. All because they had to please the madman who’d called them in to rescue him.

Clouds crept forward, the edges reminding her of pointed fingers, creeping toward the moon. With the summit looming above them to the north, Heidi wished she had her camera to capture this amazing image. But even if she did, she couldn’t fathom stopping to enjoy her hobby.

Once the moon finally died a silent death behind the sword-clouds, Heidi would lose sight of Cade without her night vision goggles. Zach’s gang had been instructed to wait to use their headlamps until absolutely necessary to save the batteries.

Heidi felt as if she was in a space suit again, her clothing thick, her movements slow—only she’d never wanted to be an astronaut. Never wanted to go to the moon. This might be exactly how it felt to be there, except, of course, her steps would cause her to bounce instead of sink.

Snow swirled as the wind picked up. Oh, no. Were they walking right into the screaming wind tunnel again? Or worse, was the storm on them already? She thought her space suit might be running out of oxygen. Though her breaths came fast and hard, dragging in the frigid air, she still couldn’t get enough of it.

Oh, Lord. Not here. Not now.

Breathe in, breathe out.
Her lungs screamed. An iceberg of pressure weighed on her chest. And her head.

Heidi stopped and ripped off the helmet and goggles, grabbing her head. Would it explode?

Cade had always been there for her, but no—he trudged ahead as if he was the only one who mattered. Isaiah’s face filled her vision. He’d removed his goggles and helmet, revealing his thick brown hat-hair, the moonlight caressing enough of his face that she could see the undeniable concern in his eyes.

He gripped her upper arms. “Heidi, what’s wrong?”

“I—” she gasped for breath. “I—”

“Slowly.” Isaiah pressed his gloved hands to the sides of her head. “You have to breathe slowly.”

How did he know? Heidi focused on his gaze and the emotions she couldn’t read swirling there. She had the sense that he was barely holding back a torrent of them. She calmed a little, her breathing easing, but the reason for her panic hadn’t dissipated. Everyone stood around her, watching her as if she was some kind of mental case. What if Zach decided to kill her because of it?

“Are we really going to do this?” she asked. “Are we really going to hike down with inexperienced climbers in the dark and—”

“Shh.” He pressed a finger against her lip, and it was surprisingly warm. When had he removed his gloves? “This is a search and rescue mission just like any other. You’ve trained for this, you can do it.”

Zach pulled Isaiah away from Heidi. She hated him for it.
Isaiah, whatever happened to us?

Oh, no, here it comes. He’s going to kill me now.
She and Isaiah never even had their chance, or rather, a second chance.

“You know I like you, sweetheart, but if you’re not careful you might outlive your usefulness. Let’s get moving.”

Heidi saw Cade ahead of them watching her, but then he turned around and hiked forward at breakneck speed. Isaiah gave her a reassuring nod and tugged his helmet and goggles back on. She followed his example and hiked next to him, drawing strength and confidence from him. She had strength, too. She just had to dig down deep and find where it had hidden and pull it out.
This is a search and rescue mission just like any other.
She could do this. And as for anything else, like escaping? As long as Zach, Jason and Liam, and possibly Rhea, carried weapons, there wasn’t much else they could do except follow orders.

Wait and pray.

A new team would be sent to search for them at some point when they didn’t show up. But Heidi dreaded how long that would take. SAR volunteers were already stretched thin due to two ongoing rescue operations before Cade, Heidi and Isaiah had been delivered to the drop point near the summit.

How long before David began to worry? How long before they could even send a team to search for them? And if they did, she’d bet David and Adam would both be on that team. But the farther they trekked into the deep mountain wilderness, the less chance they had of being found, especially with a man like Zach, who would do everything within his power to keep their whereabouts hidden.

No. She couldn’t count on being rescued. They were on their own.

No one knew they’d sent the search and rescue team to face a killer. Or killers. No one knew they were headed to the ice field. Making it there in this weather? That was another story altogether.

Cade stopped and held up his hand, signaling for the rest of them to stop.

Heidi closed the distance to stand just behind him. She sucked in a breath. Rush Gulley, Cade’s initial suggestion, would have been so much easier than this jagged, angular descent into the lower ridge on this side of the mountain. She wouldn’t want to do this on a good day, much less a stormy night. What would Zach’s cronies say when they saw this, though their view would be limited?

“Looks like I’m up,” she said. She had more experience in multipitch technical climbing, though both Isaiah and Cade could hold their own.

“Wrong. I’ll go down first, make sure there’s no loose rocks or hazards. And I’ll untie them once they’re lowered to the bottom. That’s all we’re doing here, lowering them down.”

Heidi wanted to argue, but giving him a spiel about working as a team right now would be pure bad timing. Cade had always been the team leader, and that’s just the way it was, so she held her tongue.

He shook his head. “I don’t like this. Why did I listen to Isaiah?”

“He was right, that’s why.” She steadied her breathing, reining in the panic that threatened beneath the surface again. “We’re a team, Cade, so we have to start acting like one. Granted, this is the worst possible scenario, but we pass this test tonight, and we can’t face anything worse.”

Except maybe a bullet to the head.

There. She got in her spiel after all, and reassurance for the both of them, too.

“Whatever we do has to be quick, or we’re going to get caught in the jaws of something driving, cold and wet. I don’t like keeping these people, no matter their crime, out in the elements any longer than necessary.”

Isaiah stepped next to them. “Let’s get busy then. We can rig a seat harness for this, and anything else we face. No point in risking their lives by letting them attempt to climb.”

Even Zach looked a little daunted as he peered into what, for him, with only a headlamp, would be a bottomless abyss. “What’s the plan?”