Runaway. Part 24

They lay perfectly still as the sound of a single person picking his way toward them grew louder. Jan slowly drew her gun from her jacket pocket. Catherine already had hers in her hand. When it seemed that there was only a tree or two between them and the man, he turned away. They heard his steps recede to the north. They lay quietly for another few minutes before sitting up.

"f.u.c.k," Jan said.

"Who do you think it was?" Catherine asked.

"It's either someone from the welcoming committee at the ranch, or . . ."

"Or what? You think it's someone from your father's camp, don't you?"

Jan looked Catherine in the eye. "I had a feeling we were somewhere close to it, and now I have more reason to think we are. And I know one way to find out."

Jan headed east again, softly now, with her eyes straight ahead.

"Clue me in here," Catherine said. "I don't like an operation where I don't have the facts."

Jan looked back at her. "There used to be an electrified fence around the whole perimeter of the Colonel's property. Unless he finally gave up on maintaining it, we should be able to see it. I don't know if Maddy would see it though. If she ran into it, it would give her a pretty good shock."

"Does it signal anywhere when it's activated? I mean, would your father know if someone hit the fence?"

"Not when I was here. Maybe he's gotten more sophisticated since then, but I doubt it."

They crossed a creek and crept forward another fifty yards before Jan spotted it, the wires of the fence a greenish color and so thin that they'd be easy to miss. They stood and stared at it.

"This is what you had to get past when you ran away. When you were sixteen?"

"Yes."

"It's unbelievable. It's mad, really."

"I think Maddy's in there. We have to go in," Jan said. She said it urgently, as if she thought Catherine needed convincing.

"Of course we do. Let's find a place to climb and get over the fence."

Within minutes they had climbed up and over the fence, and Jan was back in her own heart of darkness. She knew the way now. It was all as familiar as her hand, as any home would be.

Maddy looked straight ahead as a little girl addressed her solemnly.

"Did you do something bad?" the girl asked.

"No, I didn't."

"Because people only have to stand there like that when they do something bad."

The girl seemed confused, but no more so than Maddy was. A woman came up and shooed the girl away, looking at Maddy and Kristi with disdain before walking away from them. Maddy could see others from the corner of her eye, but she could barely turn her head to get a look at them. When Kristi and Maddy both angled their heads toward each other they could just see the other's face. Kristi's was white, as if she'd seen a ghost. Maddy felt like hers must be bright red. She'd never been so mad in her life.

Their heads and hands had been stuck into an old-fashioned set of stocks, planted in the center of the camp so they'd be scorned and mocked by the residents, just like in Puritan days. Behind them was the colonel's cabin. To their right was the larger building that seemed to be some kind of community house. The women and children congregated there, making occasional forays to stand in front of the stocks and stare at them. A few little boys threw rocks at them, but one of the mothers put a stop to that. Maddy heard her say they "were not that kind of people," whatever that meant. They were not like any people Maddy had ever heard of.

Straight ahead were the shacks, and she a.s.sumed that's where people slept. There didn't seem to be any men about, and if they were, they were in with the colonel deciding their fate.

"What the f.u.c.k are we going to do?" Kristi said.

"I don't know. I don't think these are the guys who know Drecker. I don't know what they want from us."

A tall, gangly boy came up to them, holding a long stick. He poked Maddy in the thigh with it.

"Be quiet," he said. "There's no talking when you're in the punishment."

Maddy had a feeling these stocks got dragged out here with some regularity. "What happens to people from the outside who end up in these things?"

He looked surprised that she had asked him a question. "I don't know. We've never had someone from outside here."

"I don't understand. What kind of place is this?"

The boy poked her again. "No questions," he said, poking her once more. He seemed to want to stay and continue poking, but a woman's voice called him and he ran away, dropping the stick as he went.

They stood locked in place for what seemed hours, but may have been minutes. Maddy's feet barely touched the ground, and the strain on her calves was painful. Kristi's knee hurt and she kept shifting her weight around. They both were sweating, though the air was cool. Eventually, they heard boots approaching from behind and the colonel telling the women and children to get into the cookhouse and stay there. Maddy's anger started to dissolve into fear.

"I don't want to f.u.c.king die," Kristi said.

Maddy didn't either. She watched as the colonel and two of his men gathered in front of them, and the thought that she was about to die lay over her like a shroud. The colonel looked much older in the brighter light. His wrinkles were cavernously deep, his jaw sunken by too many missing teeth. But still, he held his body straight, and had about him the air of someone who was used to being obeyed. His men were behind him, two steps back on either side. He looked squarely at them and spoke in a clear voice.

"We have conducted a tribunal to determine the charges against you and the sentences to be imposed."

"A tribunal?" Maddy said. "Is that like a kangaroo court?"

The colonel raised his hand as his men stepped toward Maddy. They held back.

"Unless you'd like your gag replaced, you will listen silently as I pa.s.s sentence. You'll have your opportunity to speak."

A radio crackled and one of the men stepped a few feet away to respond.

"Colonel, B squad is reporting in. They've spread out and covered the property. They've found nothing. Should I have them come in?"

The colonel looked directly at Maddy and Kristi as he spoke. "They stay out there until I tell them to come in. These two are not acting alone."

"Yes, sir."

The colonel took a step closer to the stocks.

"You've been found guilty of trespa.s.sing and are being charged with espionage," he said. His voice was cadenced as if he were reading from a grand jury indictment. "You'll be punished for the first. In regard to the second, we will find out who you're working with. Now, your punishment for trespa.s.sing is twenty-four hours in those stocks. You may end this punishment at any time by telling us who sent you here. If you don't offer this information within the twenty-four hours, a second tribunal will be held to determine your guilt on the espionage charge."

Maddy's neck ached from holding her head up to look at the colonel. But she didn't want to hang her head in front of him. She looked over at Kristi and saw she'd given up that battle. Her head was hanging, and Maddy thought she was crying. She turned back to the colonel.

"I'm not sure where you got the idea that you have this kind of authority over me, but I'm a citizen of a country that has laws. And procedures. Call the police if you think I've done something wrong. This is crazy."

The colonel held her gaze as he spoke. "Lieutenant, give her an adjustment."

The lieutenant named Martin marched quickly up to Maddy. She thought she saw the other men wince. Without hesitation, Martin slugged her across the face. Kristi screamed. Maddy's body slumped as she tried to keep from throwing up. She fought hard to come up through the pain that seemed to drown all five of her senses. When she saw the blood dripping from her nose and mouth, pooling in the dirt beneath her, she started crying too.

Jan estimated they had entered the land about midway between the two perimeter guard posts and were now fifty yards or so from the center of the camp. She led the way as quietly as she could. She could barely hear Catherine moving behind her. She turned to her to make sure she was still there, to remind herself that she wasn't alone. Seeing her there felt almost as surreal as being back in these woods. How had this woman come so fully into her life so quickly? And how the h.e.l.l did she end up back in the place she risked her life to escape?

Just as she started to speak, Catherine put her finger to her lips and pointed to the north, easing slowly to the ground and pulling Jan down with her.

"Man at nine o'clock, armed."

Jan looked over and saw a young man about twenty yards away, sitting with his back to a tree and tossing acorns. There were a lot of trees and undergrowth between them. Jan was surprised that Catherine had spotted him. Jan knew the risk was too great to try to ambush him. He'd hear them before they got close enough to jump him and any gunfire would be heard in the camp. They couldn't move forward for the same reason. They'd have to wait him out and hope he didn't move their way and spot them.

Jan made a hand gesture that she thought indicated they should stay put. Her PI work had never required this kind of teamwork, this kind of stealth maneuvering. She thought of Catherine in the Middle East, outfoxing opponents more daunting than these and it made her feel both more and less confidant. Catherine, no doubt, knew all kinds of hand signals.

A radio crackled in the silence and they saw the man stand up quickly as he grabbed his radio to respond. The message was unintelligible, but as soon as the transmission ended the guard headed east and was soon out of sight.

"I hope that doesn't mean they've found Maddy," Catherine whispered.

"That was my thought. If they've called everyone back into camp, that will give us a clear pa.s.sage there. Let's wait a few minutes in case any more pa.s.s this way."

They lay on their bellies, face-to-face, for another five minutes. Jan kept looking at her watch, and each time she glanced back, Catherine was searching her face.

"What?" Jan said. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She found it annoying.

"I can't believe you're so calm," she said. "What if you actually see your father?"

"I think it's certain I will. We will. I don't think this camp would still be here if the old man was dead."

"Actually, we're not certain the camp is still there, are we?"

"That guard tells me it is. Normal people don't have armed guards patrolling their property in the middle of nowhere. Not even here in Idaho."

"I'm here for you. Just remember that."

Jan looked at her watch again. "We should go."

Now individual trees seemed recognizable to Jan, huge fallen trunks that she remembered running and jumping over as a kid, sometimes hiding in. She spotted a tree that had been a favorite for reading her stolen magazines, its ma.s.sive low-slung branch perfect for nestling in. It looked exactly the same, as if time had indeed stopped here.

They saw one more guard, a man so heavy footed that they heard him stomping through the woods in plenty of time to make themselves invisible. When he was out of sight they covered the final thirty yards and came up behind the camp's armory.

"This is an armory?" Catherine whispered.

Jan pointed to the cabin next to it. "That's the Colonel's cabin."

They stepped around the armory, keeping low, trying to get a look at the clearing. Jan was the first to see the stocks in the middle of the large circle. She recognized Maddy locked into one side of it with another girl in the other side. Three men stood facing them and Jan knew instantly that the man in front was her father. Not stooped with age, though he was in his eighties. Not dead, either. She felt Catherine's hand wrap around her forearm, rea.s.suring her, questioning her.

Jan scanned the rest of the clearing. She could see that the door to the cookhouse was closed and she guessed the Colonel had sent the women and children inside, the way he always did when he was going to do something nasty to someone. Jan had been in the cookhouse plenty of times when she heard someone scream outside. Never for long, never too agonizingly. Just loud and anguished enough to make the little kids cry and the women pull them to their skirts. Then they'd all be let out again and everyone acted like nothing had happened. Jan didn't believe that the two strangers in the stocks were going to be met with the same leniency from the Colonel. She had to get them out of there.

Catherine slipped away from Jan and went to the door of the armory just as one of the men behind the Colonel strode up to Maddy and punched her square in the face. As Kristi screamed, Jan ran straight into the clearing, put her shoulder down and tackled the man who had hit Maddy. They sprawled onto the hard dirt. As Jan scrambled to her feet she saw the rifles aimed at her, ready to shoot.

The man on the ground was up on his feet and grabbed Jan from behind, locking her in a half nelson, pointing her head at the Colonel, who raised his hand to keep his men from shooting. He slowly walked toward Jan and stopped a couple of paces in front of her to study her face.

"Release her," he said to Martin.

Martin let go of her and backed a couple paces behind her. Jan looked at the two girls and saw that Maddy was bleeding onto the ground. Kristi looked okay, but scared to death. Then she slowly looked back at the Colonel.

He was staring at her and she knew he saw who she was. His face was still as marble, but she could see it in his eyes, the way they wandered around her face, disbelieving even as he registered the truth.

"Long time no see," Jan said. Martin came around from behind her and looked at her closely.

"Jesus, it's Grace. It's your daughter, Colonel."

"I know who it is. Resume your position."

Jan looked at the man and recognized Trevor Martin, her erstwhile suitor and all-around brown nose. She looked back at the Colonel without acknowledging him.

"Colonel, I can see that not much has changed around here, except that you look about a hundred years older. Where've all your men gone? Have they run away like I did?"

The Colonel spat on the ground at her feet. His reaction was the last one she expected. It hurt, as if she had some kind of expectation that her father was going to welcome her with open arms, the long-lost daughter who shot him on her way out of his life. She hated him. At the moment, she hated herself for caring that he despised her in turn.

"I knew these girls weren't here on their own, but I admit the thought didn't even occur to me that it was you trying to invade our land."

"I see the paranoia is about the same as ever. Your notion of other people's interest in you and your land has always been grandiose. I think that's the right word for it."

"You should have killed me when you had a chance, daughter. Because you are about to regret that you didn't."

Jan looked at the two girls again. Maddy kept her head hanging, still dripping blood. Kristi stared at them.

She turned back to the Colonel. "I'm asking you, for your own sake, to let these girls go. I'll stay and you can deal with me as you will. But there are people looking for these girls, and those people will be on your land before you know it. They'll be a lot more prepared than I am to overwhelm your tiny army. If you let the girls go, they won't have any reason to track them here."

The Colonel turned to the men behind him and motioned for them to lower their rifles. They stood at the ready. A little boy burst from the cookhouse and raced across the clearing. A young woman ran out after him.

"Martin, get those two back in there and tell them to control those kids. If I see one more of them there's going to be h.e.l.l to pay."

Martin ran off and herded the two back to the cookhouse. Everyone remained quiet except the boy, who complained the whole way. Martin returned to stand behind Jan, his rifle at his side.

"You'll stay here whether the girls are let go or not, and I'd just as soon keep them around. They're serving their sentence, and I believe we have now gotten a little more information regarding the espionage charge against them."

"Espionage charge?" Jan could feel herself losing it, losing the battle to speak rationally to an irrational man. "You are f.u.c.king crazy. Do you know that?" She looked at the men behind the Colonel. "Do you know he's crazy? Or you, Trevor? I knew he was mean. That's why I ran away. That's why I didn't give a s.h.i.t when I shot him. I didn't care whether I killed him or not, and until today I didn't know which way it had gone. And you know what? I'm sorry that my aim was a little off."

She looked straight at the Colonel, took a step toward him. "You're a mean, crazy, hateful son of a b.i.t.c.h."

Jan spat at his feet. The Colonel looked at her with coal black eyes.

"Lieutenant, take her into custody."

Martin moved forward, but before he'd taken a full step, Jan had her pistol out of her pocket and aimed at the Colonel's head.

"Stand back, or the Colonel's a dead man," Jan said. She looked at the men behind the Colonel. They looked startled, their guns still at their sides. "If any of you make a move, I'm putting a bullet in his head, and I won't miss this time."