Escape (Chronicles of Hart) (10 page)

“Hart won’t make a move if he’s alone
,” Chung agreed hoping that their profiler was right about him, they were taking a big risk here.

The three men positioned themselves around Grace. Ethan and Chung took flank, each maintaining a point of contact at Grace’s elbow while King stood in the front. Grace stayed close behind his back, knowing that they were avoiding something on the other side of the door.

King kicked the door outwards. It flew off of its hinges as the last of the rotting wood gave way. They raced through the opening, straight towards Hart, who stood waiting with leaves whirling around his stiff figure.

Grace looked up into Hart’s eyes with shock, “Father?”

HART

Grace went stiff as her eyes met her fathers. She had not seen him since her last escape attempt four years ago. The agents brushed her past him with little more than one last snide remark from the stoic criminal;

“No one escapes, my dear Gracie
,” he smirked as they slid past into the vast forest. Trekking through the thick brush, Chung faced backwards staying a few paces behind. He anticipated retaliation from Hart. King was deep in a whispered conversation on his Bluetooth. Grace could hear his voice strain with frustration. He clicked at his ear a moment later and wheeled around to face Ethan. “You could have told us Hart was her father,” he scowled at Ethan “you almost cost us our lives.” he looked wildly to Grace taking her in with a curiosity that was normally reserved for animals at the zoo. “We are getting out of here,” he noted, quietly as Chung caught up. They continued silently through the trees for a few moments longer before the trees began thinning out and they came out at a small clearing. A black car sat tucked under a sparse netted covering. It remained hidden from sight until King had pulled back on the ropes, dispersing a thin layer of autumn foliage across the ground as he shook the mesh off of the vehicle.

Chung took point, standing with Grace and Ethan while King inspected their car for signs of ambush.  King made several laps of the car before allowing Grace and Ethan into the back seats. Grace crawled in, grateful for the soft seats and the blanket that King tossed over his shoulder to her. With a click, King turned the car on, cranking the heat to warm Grace and Ethan after their underground adventure.

Grace lifted her head. The air smelled familiar, her eyes grew large with shock as she recognized the scent. Covering her mouth to the putrid stench of chloroform blasting in through the vents with the blanket, she climbed forward. She tugged at Chung’s jacket, pulling a radio and phone from his pocket as he collapsed forward onto the dashboard.  Reaching over Kings firm grip on the steering wheel, she clicked the keys out of the ignition allowing the vents to grow still. It was already too late, she was woozy. Stuffing the items into her shirt, Grace wrapped the blanket tightly around herself to keep them in place. She slowly rolled the manual window down just a crack to air the car out. Using the last of her energy she lay onto the back seat, fighting to stay conscious while looking just as unconscious as everyone else in the car. She would have to play possum.

The dizziness had lifted within a few moments and although no one else was stirring Grace could hear a voice. It sounded far away and was growing closer. It was like listening to one side of a conversation. As it grew close enough to be outside her door, she realized it was Hart. With a click she could feel the breeze tumbling in through the now open door. She continued to feint unconsciousness, clutching at the phone and the radio under the blanket.

“Grace my dear,” her father whispered through the door, slyly, “time to come home.”

She cringed at the thought of going back to the tower, or more likely the next secret hideaway he had in line for her. Still, she remained quiet. She felt a tug as her father pulled her from the car and slung her over his shoulder. He began walking from the car, stopping after a dozen paces where he set her to the ground. She could hear the leaves crunching back towards the car. Then he was pouring something with a sloshing down the back of the car. She could hear it dripping back onto the wet leaves. She opened her eyes enough to peek over. He was pouring from a red gas can, filling every inch of the car with gasoline. Grace knew her father and his obsession with fire. He used it to clean up almost every crime scene he created. She let out a gasp as she put it all together. She quickly realized that the noise had blown her cover. She hopped to her feet and scampered off farther into the woods, hoping to distract her father long enough to save Ethan from the tremendous blaze that was intended to kill him and his companions. She could hear her father giving chase into the woods, making it clear that she was more important captured than they were dead, at least for now. Grace ducked and ran through brambles and bushes. The thick carpet of leaves on the forest floor gave her traction on her bare wet feet. The air was so fresh and rejuvenating; at times she lost herself in the enjoyment of the forest and forgot the chase. Grace continued running faster. Pulling the cell phone from her shirt she fumbled with it while darting though the trees. Grace had never had a cell phone. Her father had let her use his a couple of times when she was a kid. Things had changed greatly since then. It took her three hills to figure out how to unlock the screen. Then when it began asking for a password, a frustrated Grace gave up. Tucking it back into her shirt she grabbed out the radio, clicking it on, it was much easier for her to figure out.

“KING!” she yelled into the receiver. Running faster she changed course, knowing her father would hear her. She had looped back around to the cabin now. Hiding with her back against the building in a shrubbery, she could see if her father was approaching now. She would wait it out until King and his partner got back to her. They should be waking by now. She prayed that Hart hadn’t returned to the car to set it on fire just yet. He probably assumed they had woken anyway and was settling for a second round of his psychotic death match sometime in the near future, he would need to catch Grace first.  Grace could hear a car horn through the woods. She breathed in relief, knowing they were safe for now.

***

King woke up with his face plastered against the wheel. He shifted as the grogginess washed away, landing his cheek right against the horn. He jumped at the noise while he blinked away his tiredness. He looked in confusion to Chung, who sat beside him searching his coat like something vital was missing.

“What happened?” Ethan yawned from the backseat, barely registering where he was in the haze. With a sudden jump he began looking frantically around, “where is Grace?” he gasped, pulling on King’s collar in a panic, turning the agent to see the empty spot in the back seat where Grace had once been.

King shook Ethan lose of his shirt and turned to the back to check for the girl. The seat was empty and the blanket he had tossed to her was also gone. The car hadn’t moved it was still parked in the woods near the cabin. King stepped out of the car stumbling as his head cleared.

“Hart... Hart was here
.” he frowned, looking the car over. He leaned forward sniffing at the car interior. Ethan exited the car with Chung on the other side, looking at each other and then to King as though he was losing it. “The car is covered in gasoline, Get back,” King finally spoke in a firm voice as he backed away from the car. He was unsure of how the explosion was going to be triggered, only that the car was set to go up in flames any moment. Chung and Ethan followed him away from the car and towards the cabin that they had come from. “The SWAT team parked on the other side, we’ll take their van,” he mumbled to a confused Ethan. “Hart killed them before you and Grace got out of the tunnel.”

Ethan stared through the immense forest. He felt like a lead weight had lowered itself into his stomach. The chloroform was still wearing off and he was foggy as to what was actually happening. He stumbled on tree roots, staggering after King and Chung as though he was drunk. He fell; a tree caught him at the last moment before he hit the ground.  He blinked heavily, looking forward to the others. He was spinning in his head as he fumbled though the trees at a faster pace than he thought he could ever muster. King stopped short watching in an agitated manner as his partner tore at his coat pockets in search of something.

“You’re missing what?” King spun shakily to Chung, “your phone...” A strange look passed over King’s tired face. For a moment he looked like an evil professor.

“Yeah, I can’t find it. It was on me when we got in the car, this pocket here
.” Chung pointed to his chest pocket, “Gone, and it was new,” he sulked imitating a phone vanishing into thin air. He continued to search his pocket for a moment longer.

“Well let’s call it, get tech to trace the call.” King seemed enthusiastic. Reaching into his pocket and producing his own phone, he fumbled with the screen as he held it to his ear.  He dialed, looking back to the car half expecting Chung’s phone to be a trigger. It began to ring.

***

Grace could hear noises rustling in the brush ahead of her. She shrunk further into the shrubbery, making herself invisible. Pulling out the phone again, she fumbled past the lock screen into the password screen again.
Where are the buttons?
She thought with frustration. Turning the thing over again and again, the screen had gone dark. Grace was just about to give up on it when it began vibrating in her hand, the screen lit up on its own. It read “King” and showed a picture of one of Ethan’s friends from the cabin. She fumbled to unlock the phone, putting it against her ear. She tentatively spoke “Hello?”

“Grace,” the voice on the other end was King. He sounded far away and slightly dazed.

“Yes it’s me. I’m behind the cabin,” Grace whispered into the phone, holding it away from her ear so she could listen to the forest for Hart. He could be anywhere near her hiding spot, waiting her out.

She kept the phone away from her ear, listening as a rustling grew closer. She peeked cautiously past her shrubbery and caught the tail of a rabbit hopping ahead into a bush. Relieved, she brought the phone back to her ear. The call had been terminated. Grace fumbled, tucking it back into her shirt. She sat back against the side of the cabin. The rough wood tickled at her neck, crumbling from years of decay. She felt the wall with her hand; it was soft like sand, tingling as it fell apart under her touch. As she watched, she could see birds fluttering from tree to tree. The forest was so alive. She watched with wonder as a chipmunk skittered up a tree to her right with a mouth full of food. She looked curiously at the moss creeping up the trees around her. It was all on the same side, like the compass direction affected its growth. It had been so long since she had sat in a forest and back then she surely didn’t appreciate the delicate intricacy of nature surrounding her. Flies buzzed by, loud as they passed her head. She could see insects trailing down the brush of the shrubbery she hid in. When she was younger the bugs might have frightened her. Now she was glad to see them, glad that not everything in the world had changed while she was gone. Grace was hoping that King had heard her and was on his way. She would give him thirty minutes, then she was getting out of here on her own. She began to count to herself in a hushed whisper, “One...two...three...”

Her eyes were growing heavy. The adrenaline that had seeped through her during her escape was slipping away. Grace was having trouble focusing on the numbers, instead she found herself mutely watching the trees swaying calmly in the gentle autumn breeze. The sight was hypnotizing, gently rocking her to sleep. She could feel her back sliding down the wood of the cabin as she drifted to sleep, fighting less and less to keep her eyes open. She fell asleep listening to the crinkling leaves falling in the breeze.

GUARDED

King had tucked his phone back into the breast pocket of his black suit. He turned to face Chung and Ethan as though they had missed the short conversation in the otherwise quiet forest, “She’s at the cabin,” he whispered, looking through the forest for signs of movement, aware that Hart was still lurking somewhere in its vastness.

Ethan looked back at the empty forest, unsure from which way they had come, let alone where the cabin might be hidden. He was lost in the colourful greens and earthly oranges and browns that surrounded him. If King and Chung were to slip behind a tree he feared he would be lost forever. He completed his turn. Facing back towards King, who was pulling his phone back out,

“Glad we marked that place in the GPS,” he mumbled to Chung as he fiddled with the touch screen in his dirty hands. King looked up, holding the phone flat against his open palm. He pointed to Ethan, looking past him into the thick trees. “That way,” he mumbled, looking back down to his hand as he stepped forward.