Mindhunters 4 - Deadly Intent (48 page)

“Yes.” He and the agent answered simultaneously.

“Everybody make sure you take a whisper mic headset. We don’t want anyone jumping the gun out there.”

Men were already turning away to get their needed equipment and to find snowmobiles. Someone approached the sheriff. When Kell noticed who it was, his heart sank. For a moment, just a moment, he’d forgotten she was here.

“Sheriff, I believe you forgot to give me a duty.”

The man stared at Macy. The heat thrown off from the propane had melted the ice on his facial hair, and now it dripped down his red jowls. “Not everyone is going in there, Ms. Reid. I’m not. The SAR team isn’t. Neither are some of my . . .”

“But the rest of
my
team is. What did Raiker and Whitman tell you about
my
duties?”

Preske was getting irritated. “I’m in charge on scene. I say you’re best suited for calming the girl once they get her out.”

“Ooh.” Kell winced. “Hope he’s wearing a cup.”

“He’s right,” muttered Travis. “I don’t want to be worrying about where Macy is when we’re inside.”

“You’re on your own with that one.” He shouldered through the men and reached Macy’s side as she began to speak again. “I’ll have you know, my law enforcement experience can match or exceed that of . . .”

Firmly, he grasped her arm and tugged, nearly pulling her off balance. “C’mon, Macy. You can ride with me.” And then he didn’t release her, despite her desperate tugging, until they were next to their ride.

“Did you hear him?” She was still fuming, and this time when she tried to free herself, he let her go. “Insufferable. I can’t believe there’s still that much bias in law enforcement.”

“Then you haven’t had as much experience in its ranks as you claim. Get on.” He knew better than to point out that her accent had been front and center when she was slicing and dicing the man. He’d half expected to hear a “my good man” come out of her mouth as she was speaking.

“You could have helped.” Her arms were folded over her chest, her stance suspicious. “If you’d said something about Raiker wanting me involved, he might have listened.”

“So I should have come to your rescue, but that wouldn’t have been biased,” he countered. “Can’t have it both ways, Mace. Now get on.”

She approached him rapidly. But she wasn’t headed for the snowmobile. Because he’d seen her in action before, he covered up reflexively.

But when she drew closer, all she did was push up his face guard and the mask beneath.

“What are you doing?”

Moving her head, her light shone over his face. “I knew it. You
agree
with him.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to prevaricate. But in the midst of the gravity of the situation they were about to embark on, he chose the truth. “Up here?” He tapped the side of his helmet. “No. I’ve worked with you, remember? But here?” This time he thumped his chest. “Yeah, here I’m relieved that you’re not going to be heading into a smoke-filled room with a hired killer inside and a mass of trigger-happy men swarming around. So sue me. But that doesn’t make me a chauvinist. It just makes me stupid.”

And damned if he didn’t feel like it, with the glow of her damn light in his face, revealing more, much more, than he’d ever meant to. He pulled down his face mask and lowered the helmet shield.

“Why did you say that?”

He ground his teeth at the bewilderment lacing her words. “Hell if I know. I guess I’m just not as good at distance as you are.” Nearby, snowmobiles were starting up and heading off. He turned on the ignition of his. If she didn’t get on, he was tempted to ride off and leave her.

But she did settle herself in back of him, after first slipping out of her snowshoes. He handed his back to her, and she took them silently. And for the first few miles at least, bucking and battling through the hellacious wind and blinding snow seemed almost a reprieve.

The sleds were run on low speed and then abandoned a couple miles from the shelter to avoid having the sound of their engines carry. The team walked into the thickening woods in sets of four, with line loosely wrapped around their waists, connecting them by several feet’s length to the person in back of them. They’d shed the line once everyone was ready to get in place. Another team would follow in a few minutes to form an outer perimeter encircling the cabin.

It still burned Macy that she’d be part of that outer perimeter.

She wasn’t averse to being the one dealing with Ellie when she was brought safely from the cabin. And she knew she would be good at dealing with the traumatized child. But that didn’t make it any more palatable than when her boarding school roommate had tried to convince her she should make both their beds because she was good at it.

The whisper mic headset she wore beneath her white tactical helmet sounded. “Primary entry team position.”

“Misha, check.”

“Cody, check.”

“Secondary entry team position.”

One after another, the men sounded off, indicating readiness. Macy could feel her muscles grow tense. Her palms in the bulky gloves dampened, despite the cold. She held a heavy down blanket to wrap the girl in and was standing behind a thick fir, twenty yards from where Kell was stationed. He was another twenty yards from the front of the house. When the first and second wave of men rushed forward, she’d move up to take the place he vacated. And they’d know exactly where to run with the girl to hand her off. Macy in turn would turn and take the girl much farther into the trees, beyond them, to safety.

The men had all checked in. There was silence on the radio. Time dragged to an abrupt halt. And every single scenario that could go wrong began to play in her head.

Kell had never seen the girl alive through the window.

He hadn’t seen her face.

Hadn’t seen her move.

Ellie Mulder might be dead even as they waited out here. She might have been killed the moment she made that video.

Her instincts were heightened to a painful level. Raising the night vision binoculars she’d swiped from one of the men on the way up, she peered at the quiet cabin and tried to convince herself that they were in time. That everything would be fine.

That the child wouldn’t be killed in the crossfire.

She let out a long stream of breath, forced the negative thoughts from her mind. It was the waiting. Long and painful. The wind howled around them, the gusts carrying a heavy slant of snow that made it difficult to see more than a yard in front of her without help from the binoculars.

The only sound was the constant whistling of the wind. Then the radio sounded. “Breach, breach!”

Macy brought the glasses up again, saw the men running toward the door with the battering ram. At the same time they went through, she heard the flash bang grenades detonate, two in quick succession. The entry team was through the door now. Kell and Travis after them.

Macy ran up to the spot Kell had been in a moment before. The secondary team was swarming the shelter, and from her radio came a jumble of noise.

“Put it down put it down put it down!”

Shots. Four in quick succession.

“Knife!”

“Where’s the girl? Got the girl?”

“Put your hands behind your head. Now!”

Everything was a blur. More men were entering the house. Some were running out.

One of them was Kell. The body in his arms was coughing.

Macy dropped the glasses to bounce against her chest and sprang forward, wrapping the blanket around the child so she was covered like a mummy. Then she shoved up her guard and face mask. She didn’t want to scare the girl even further.

Carefully Kell deposited Ellie in her outstretched arms. “Got her?”

“I’ve got her.” The weight didn’t seem enough for an eleven-year-old girl. Macy brought the child closer to her chest. And still the girl continued to cough. The flash bangs would have filled the interior with smoke.

She turned and began hurrying toward the trees as fast as the snowshoes would allow.

“Prisoner secured. Prisoner secured.” Calls and commands were still coming through her headset. “Structure clear.”

Blocking out the calls and commands coming through the headset, she murmured to the girl the whole way. “Ellie, you’re safe. We’re going to take you home now. Your parents are waiting for you at home.”

Macy thought she saw the girl’s eyelids flutter. “I understood your message,” she whispered to her as they moved rapidly away from the commotion behind them. “You’re the bravest girl I know. Much braver than I was. To escape from him and then send those clues. I wish I’d had half your guts at your age.”

Ellie’s eyes opened wide then and stared at Macy unflinchingly. Her voice was choked. “I wasn’t brave, I was scared.”

She gave the girl a quick hug. “It wouldn’t be brave if you weren’t scared.” Macy took a quick glance behind her. But the shanty was hidden by the dense trees. Straightening, she continued to head to the edge where they thinned. She could dimly hear the sound of the sleds as the rest of the team approached over the chatter on the radio. Macy staggered up to the first headlight she saw, grateful when the person on it jumped off to run into the trees toward the the rest of the team. She set the girl down on the seat and turned to lean against it and take a breath.

Then recoiled as an earsplitting
boom
shook the area. A huge fireball burst skyward. She draped herself over the girl protectively, her eyes riveted on the scene behind her. The flames surged upward, dancing and swaying in the heavy gusts of wind.

“What was that?”

Macy barely heard the girl. “Bomb?” It had to be. He’d had the cabin wired? Had he somehow detonated it after the team had staged the rescue? Or had the breach set off a trigger he’d had ready for just such an occasion?

“Man down. Where’s SAR?”

“All personnel check in!”

“Prisoner secured? Matthews, what’s your location?”

Man down
. The words had her organs freezing. Kell. Where was Kell? Fingers scrambling for the glasses, she held them up to her eyes. She could see a few figures running. Tree-tops already torched from the flames, burning merrily in the wind. But the trees were too thick for her to make out much.

“Need a medic here!”

“Need a location check on Matthews.”

A vise was squeezing her heart. Her body was poised, ready to head back toward the inferno to check on Kell herself. Then the girl on the snowmobile moved.

And Macy was abruptly reminded of her primary duty. “Scooch up. You’ll have to side saddle.” She couldn’t afford to unwrap the girl. She’d be hypothermic before she got her back to the base. So they’d ride slowly to be sure she didn’t fall off. Macy got on behind her and goosed the motor. They started to move.

In the meantime, she strained to hear more details from the radio.

“Matthew’s down. Need a medic!”

“Get me a visual on Crosby.”

“Prisoner security, check in!”

She threw another look at the sky. The wind was spreading the fire quickly. Then she turned her focus to the semicircle of snowmobiles they’d left with headlights on in the distance as a beacon to find their way.

From the sounds of the radio chatter, there was more than one man down. And her heart was doing a fast gallop as she worried about Kell’s safety. The wind snapped and blew the snow at a slant in front of her, making it hard to see more than a few yards away at a time, even with the light on her helmet and the headlight on the sled. Some distance later, when a figure stumbled out of the woods she immediately slowed.

“Help!”

Assuming it was one of the team, she stopped and started to get off the sled to offer assistance. Belatedly, the details she’d heard earlier on the radio clicked into place.

Prisoner secured? Matthews, what’s your location?

Need a location check on Matthews.

Matthew’s down. Need a medic!

Prisoner security, check in!

Comprehension slammed into her. This man wasn’t wearing a white suit. Or a flak vest emblazoned with Summit County Sheriff.

And he was aiming a gun right at them.

“Get down!” Macy lunged to knock the girl off the sled as she drew her weapon. The man’s figure was hazed by the blowing snow. There, then gone and there again. It was like aiming for a ghost. She stood. Sited. Squeezed off three shots in quick succession. And then was spun completely around when one hit her in the shoulder. Another in the chest.

She fought to haul in a breath. Dimly she realized she was on her back. The radio was just a jumble of noise now. Cold. She was surrounded by it. The snow was in her face. On her lips. Rolling clouds of smoke lightened the dark sky overhead. And when she tried to move, agony rolled through her like a gleeful gnawing beast.

She didn’t know how long she lay there before she heard the girl’s voice in her ear. “You killed him but it’s all right.” The words danced through her head, through her mind as she struggled to fight the waves of unconsciousness that threatened to haul her under.

“He was already dead anyway.”

Chapter 18