Exit Strategy, page 27
part #1 of EXIT Inc. Series
SABRINA STOOD ON the zip line platform, wearing the vest Ace had been holding in the cavern. She was also harnessed and attached to a pulley hanging from the cable. She would have looked like a typical tourist except for the duct tape around her hands and over her mouth. She wasn’t sure if Ace had gagged her to keep her from screaming for help or just to keep her from cursing at him anymore. She certainly hadn’t left him with any doubts about how much she despised him for what he was doing, and what he’d done to Ramsey. But there was no way she’d even think of screaming.
Because she didn’t want to draw Mason or the others into Ace’s trap.
While Ace stood on the railing a few feet away, taking one of his “little surprises” out of his backpack and tucking it under the eaves, he didn’t have to worry about Sabrina trying to get away. The vest ensured that. She was afraid to even move.
A trickle of sweat ran down the side of her face. She’d have liked to pretend it was just from the humidity and summer heat. She wanted to be strong, to face what Ace had in store for her with dignity and poise. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that inside, she was terrified of what was to come.
Please let me die quickly. And please, please don’t let Mason find me until it’s too late. Keep him away. Keep him safe.
Ace jumped off the railing onto the platform and eased her closer to the edge, careful only to touch her shoulders and not the vest he’d put on her. She was tempted to throw herself against him and end it all right now. At least that way he would die too. But he must have read her intent because he quickly stepped back, out of her reach, his eyes narrowing in warning.
Instead of getting behind her, to push her down the zip line, he got in front of her and hooked another pulley to the cable—a pulley that looked very different from hers. Next went a spacer bar onto the cable between the two pulleys; obviously to make sure she wouldn’t run into him on the line. He was certainly careful about his own safety. She glared her anger at him, but it was wasted. He was too intent on his work.
Finally, he attached his harness to the pulley and pulled a strap with carabiners on each end out of his pocket. He connected one end to his harness and one to hers, attaching the two of them together at the waist, just beneath the edge of her vest. She couldn’t figure out why he was doing that, or why he was going out on the cable with her. Wouldn’t it have been easier just to send her down the zip line by herself to the other platform? She certainly wouldn’t have been able to escape, not all trussed up and taped up like she was.
“Ready for some fun?” He laughed and eased off the platform, one gloved hand on the pulley above him and the other on the cable.
The tension in the strap connecting them pulled her off the platform after him, and they immediately started down the cable. But instead of the fast descent she’d expected, this descent was much slower, more controlled. The squeak of his pulley had her looking up, finally understanding why it looked so different. It had a hand braking system. And as soon as they reached the middle of the line, he stopped them both.
She sucked in a breath as she swayed and looked down at the vest he’d put on her, then down farther at the sharp boulders at least thirty feet below, and the water rushing around them, plunging over the largest waterfall she’d ever seen up close.
She was going to die.
There was no way around that. She just prayed that it happened quickly, and that it didn’t hurt too much.
“Careful, little Hightower. You’re shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. If you shake too hard, well . . .” He leaned in close. “Boom.”
She jerked away from his hot breath and got a little thrill of enjoyment from the startled, worried look on his face at her sudden movement. He turned a light red, whether from embarrassment at his reaction, or anger, she didn’t know. But he was suddenly all business, through playing around. Using a pair of needle-nose pliers he’d taken out of his pocket, he went to work on her pulley.
Her stomach lurched. Was he going to make her drop to the rocks below?
“You know,” he said, in a conversational tone, “what you’re wearing was supposed to be for my friend Buchanan. But he’s a slippery SOB and I never could get to him. Once I thought about it, this will work even better. You’re the perfect bait to lure all of them into my trap. I really couldn’t have planned it better.” He laughed, like they were sharing jokes at a dinner party.
Sabrina called him every foul name she could remember her brother ever saying, including words she’d never used before. Too bad the duct tape kept him from hearing any of them.
With a quick twist and a jerk, he let go of her pulley and removed the spacer bar from the cable. Instead of sliding forward with gravity toward the other zip line tower, she stayed right where she was. The sides of the pulley had been smashed against the cable, locking it in place.
“And this, sadly, is where we must part.” He shoved the pliers in his pocket and disconnected the strap between the two of them, leaving it to dangle from her waist. “I wish I could stay to watch the fireworks. It should be very exciting.” He laughed again and released the hand brake on his pulley, quickly sliding down the cable away from her to the other platform.
Sabrina hung like a cocoon from a branch, suspended over the rocks and the water rushing below. On the far platform, Ace unhooked himself from the cable and tossed the pulley and his harness into the river. After taking off his backpack, he unzipped it and slipped another of his little surprises under the eaves on the second tower just like he had the first one. He was nothing if not thorough. A few minutes later he was on the ground, emptying the storage room at the bottom of the tower, tossing all the harnesses and pulleys into the river.
When he pulled his gun out of his holster and raised it over his head, Sabrina breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. He must have changed his mind about using her as bait. He was going to kill her now. Her torture was about to be over. And Mason would be safe.
The gunshot rang out, echoing against the rocky sides of the riverbank.
Her eyes flew open. She was still alive. He hadn’t shot her. Then what had he shot?
Then she heard it—shouts in the distance, the sounds of people running through the woods on the other side of the river, following the sound of the gunshot.
No. No, no, no!
Ace saluted her with his gun before taking off into the trees.
For the first time since Ace had dragged her out of the cavern, tears slid down her cheeks.
Please, Mason. Don’t come for me. I can’t bear it if you die because of me.
But a few minutes later, in spite of her prayers, a group of men burst from the trees beside the zip line platform where she’d been just minutes ago. And in the middle of the group, leading the charge, was Mason.
She shook her head back and forth, trying to warn him not to help her. But to her horror, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.
“Hold on, Sabrina. I’m coming for you.”
MASON WAS ALMOST to the ladder to the zip line tower when someone slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. He roared with rage and jumped to his feet, gun in hand. But it wasn’t Ace or any of Stryker’s thugs who’d attacked him. It was Buchanan.
“What are you doing?” Mason demanded as he holstered his gun and headed toward the tower again.
Buchanan shoved him away and blocked the ladder. “Saving you from being stupid. What are you going to do, blindly climb down that cable without assessing the situation?”
Mason was about to shove him out of the way when Pierce and Logan flanked him, like three giants blocking his way.
“If I have to shoot the three of you, I will. Sabrina has to be terrified out there. Her parents plunged to their deaths right in front of her on a zip line. She’s tied up and she’s helpless.”
“She’s helpless for a reason,” Buchanan argued. “She’s bait. If you can’t see that, it’s because your feelings for her are clouding your judgment.”
“My feelings are none of your business and my judgment is just fine. Move,” he growled.
“Wait. We can all agree that Ace is the one who put her out there on that line. What do you think he’ll do if you climb out there? He’s probably on the other side of the river ready to shoot you. Or me. Or any number of us. If we don’t take a minute to plan, some of us may die, including Sabrina.”
Mason forced himself to back down and rein in his temper. Buchanan was right. He wasn’t thinking clearly. If he didn’t use his training, Sabrina would pay the price. “All right. A plan. I’ll need zip line equipment—a pulley, a harness, gloves. They’ll be in a storage room under the tower.”
“I’ve got this.” Pierce hurried to the tower.
“Logan, we need to make sure Ace can’t ambush us. I remember we passed a bend in the river a bit upstream. The rapids were only ones and twos there. You should be able to wade across and circle back. Look for Ace and make your way to the other tower.”
Pierce rejoined them, holding a pair of gloves in each hand, his face mirroring his disgust. “This is all he left—gloves and helmets. He must have taken the other harnesses and pulleys with him, or thrown them into the river.”
Mason took the gloves, shoving one pair down the front of his vest for Sabrina just in case. He eyed Buchanan, who was still blocking the ladder. “I’m fresh out of any other plans besides crawling down the cable and getting her pulley working. Unless you can magically produce another harness and pulley for me.”
“You might need rope.”
“I might. Got some in your pocket?” Without waiting for a reply to his sarcasm he shoved Buchanan, hard. He stumbled a few feet, giving Mason the opening he needed. He hurried up the ladder to the platform.
Buchanan cursed him from below, then called up, “Hold it.”
Mason looked over the railing. “You’re not stopping me this time.”
“Just let me check on Logan first.” He pulled out his phone and made a call.
Mason looked out the opening of the platform, pulling his gloves on, anxious to get to Sabrina. She was too far away for him to see the fear that must be on her face. She kept staring in his direction, shaking her head. Leave it to kindhearted Sabrina to be worried about his safety when she was the one dangling from a zip line with nothing but sharp boulders directly below and a big-ass waterfall that probably had her terrified after her previous experiences with this river.
Buchanan held up his hand. “Just one more minute.” He listened to the phone for what seemed like an eternity, then replied and hung up the call. “Okay, Logan’s already across and he picked up a trail. It has to be Ace, heading back toward the access road, probably has his car parked there. Logan’s in pursuit. If he doesn’t catch him, at least he can follow his trail to make sure he doesn’t double back and try to shoot you while you’re on the cable.”
Mason nodded and was about to climb out when Pierce called up to him. “I remember a footbridge not far from here when I was chasing some of Stryker’s men earlier. The handrail is just rope looped through poles. I’ll cut a good length of it in case you need it.”
“Sounds good,” Mason said. “But I’m not hanging around here waiting for it.” He tugged his gloves into place, grasped the overhead cable, and pulled his legs up, locking them at the ankles on top of the zip line.
He pulled himself hand over hand toward Sabrina. He went slower than he preferred because he didn’t want to bounce the cable with her suspended from it. But the closer he got to her, the more concerned she looked. She didn’t stop shaking her head either, continuing to silently warn him away.
When he reached her and saw her harness, relief swept through him. The straps looked solid, new. She might be terrified at being suspended above the rocks and water, but she wasn’t in danger of falling. All he needed to do was get her pulley working and use gravity to get her to the tower on the downhill side.
Keeping his ankles locked over the cable and one gloved hand holding on, he used his teeth to pull off the glove on his right hand. He stuffed it under the top of his Kevlar vest then grabbed the edge of the duct tape on Sabrina’s mouth.
“Sorry, sweetheart. This is going to hurt.” He tore the tape off as fast as he could, bracing himself for her cry of pain.
“Don’t touch me, Mason,” she said in a rush instead of crying out. “Don’t touch me. Ace strapped—”
“I see them.” His blood ran cold as he leaned down farther and took a good look at her vest. “My God. Don’t move,” he whispered. “There must be eight grenades taped to the inside of your vest.” He studied it more closely. “The pins are all tied together with a spider web of fishing line. One wrong tug and they all blow.”
She swallowed hard as he confirmed what she’d already suspected. “The pulley is broken too. He used pliers on it.”
Mason pulled himself up and examined the pulley. The soft metal guides had been crushed around the wheel assembly onto the cable. There was no way she’d be able to slide down the zip line using that equipment.
“Sabrina, what exactly did Ace do when he brought you to the platform? Don’t leave anything out.”
As he listened to her, he looked back at the tower. Buchanan stood in the platform opening, watching them. When Sabrina finished telling him everything Ace had done, Mason pulled out Ramsey’s phone and pressed the speed dial for Buchanan.
“Ace spent a few minutes up under the eaves just past the platform opening,” he told Buchanan when he answered. “He strapped grenades all over Sabrina, so be careful when you look up there.”
“Got it. Give me a second.” He set the phone down and climbed out onto the railing to look up at the eaves. Even without the phone, Mason could hear Buchanan’s cursing as he climbed back down to the platform. He grabbed the phone and stared down the cable at the two of them. “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that there aren’t any hand grenades up there.”
“The bad news?”
“Our friend left us a bomb.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Day Five—10:30 a.m.
Sabrina clung to the strap on her harness that suspended her from the pulley. Mason had cut and removed the duct tape around her wrists so she had freedom of movement, but of course she couldn’t move, not with little bombs strapped all over the inside of her vest, and another, bigger bomb strapped to the zip line platform that held up the cable she and Mason were hanging from.
Devlin was currently working on the bomb on the tower, trying to figure out how to disable it without setting it off. His first hope had been to simply remove it and toss it over the waterfall. But Ace had thought of that. He’d used some kind of heavy duty adhesive to bond it to the wood. It wasn’t going anywhere.
Mason had carefully cut two grenades from under her vest so far and was currently working on a third. With each one that he removed, he pulled the pin and threw the grenade over the waterfall. The sound of the rushing water muffled the explosions but didn’t lessen her worry that he’d pull the pin on the next one too late and would blow himself up, not to mention her.
She looked past him to where Devlin was working on the bomb. A shadow suddenly appeared at the top of the ladder. A man with a gun ran onto the platform toward the edge, toward Devlin. Devlin clawed for his gun but Sabrina was already grabbing Mason’s Glock from his holster. She fired off two quick rounds. The gunman screamed, his gun falling from his bloody hand as he fell off the platform onto the rocks below. The sudden silence had her looking up into Mason’s wide-eyed stare, his mouth half open.
“Told you I was a good shot,” she said.
“I never doubted it.” He slowly lifted his hand to show her the grenade he was holding. “Luckily I got the pin with this one right before you grabbed my gun.”
“Oh my God.” She could feel her face go cold.
Mason pulled the pin and tossed the grenade down the river. Sabrina flinched from the explosion and handed him the gun so he could put it back in his holster.
“I’ll, ah, try not to move suddenly again,” she said.
He very carefully pulled her closer and gave her a soft kiss. “You did great. You saved Buchanan’s life. I’m sure he’ll thank you later when he’s not trying to dismantle a bomb.”
He shuddered from the close call but immediately went back to work, trying to free the next grenade. Sabrina couldn’t quite believe he was risking his life like this for her. But the whole thing just seemed hopeless.
“Please, Mason. Just leave me here. It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you. Stop asking.”
His gruff voice didn’t disguise the underlying concern. It warmed her heart to realize he cared as much about her as she did him, but she’d much rather that he didn’t—because maybe then he wouldn’t be putting his life on the line for her—literally. He was hanging upside down, his knees hooked over the cable above him in a precarious position that had her holding her breath every time the air stirred around them.
If it had been a windy day he’d have fallen long before now. Seemingly unconcerned with his dangerous position, however, he continued working on gently easing the edge of her vest back to get to the next grenade without pulling any pins out. A moment later, he had the grenade free and lobbed it away from them.
It boomed from below the waterfall.
“Mason,” Devlin called out, just as Pierce climbed to the top of the platform, holding a length of rope in his hands. “I got the cover off the bomb and I can see the next layer of wires. It’s on a timer. If we can trust it, you’ve got fifteen minutes to free Sabrina and get out of here before it all blows. So hurry up.”
“Working on it,” Mason grumbled beneath his breath.
