She had to do it. A short ice landing on floats with enemy aircraft in hot pursuit. The close proximity of the mountains and trees turned this from a daring attempt into a stupid one.
Coming in at this angle, there was a single, ridiculously tight area in which she could land. To one side, a glacier overhung the lake, eating at it like a frozen set of sky-blue fangs. To the other lay a teardrop-shaped, pine-studded island, as treacherous as a cluster of metal spikes rising into the air. And straight ahead, the shore.
Maybe shore was the wrong word. What lay ahead was a wall of pure, solid granite.
She sucked in a deep, freezing cold breath and said a little prayer to her mom.
Then they shot out the fuel tank.
***
He took off, slipping and sliding in the direction of the lake, which was still a good fifteen minutes away. And then, because he was worked up but he wasn’t stupid, he took a detour toward the overlook. From there, if he liked what he saw, he could continue on his way, head into the deeper woods, or take the more treacherous path leading to the river. The one thing he’d understood from his conversation with Daisy was that he needed to get back to Schink’s Station. Now. No more deaths. Nobody else should die for this cause. He knew the people searching for him. They’d stop at nothing.
He leapt over one of the many tiny streams cutting through the area—frozen solid, though that would change any day now—and plunged into the last stretch of pine and spruce. There, he skidded to a stop, his boots leaving two deep, obvious furrows in a patch of snow.
“What the hell?” On instinct, he retreated into the shadows to watch.
Bo responded with a happy little yip.
Was that Old Amka’s Piper Cub? When Daisy’d said someone was coming, he’d pictured one of the tour company’s bush planes, not this rarely used antique.
It was coming in way too fast. Tail draggers like that needed to ease their way down, not force a landing. He squinted. And what the hell was she doing flying with floats when the water was still frozen?
That had better not be Old Amka or he’d…kill her, he’d been about to think, but he nipped that thought in the bud. No more killing, even in figures of speech. But, hell, everyone knew Amka wasn’t allowed to take the Cub out. She was half-blind, for God’s sake. What was she—
That was when the lowwhompof helicopter blades hit him, and he understood just how completely the shit had hit the fan. They were here.
Where was it coming from? He searched the visible slice of sky. Nothing.
Fueled by alarm and anger at himself for recklessly craving this kind of excitement just a few hours earlier, he turned and made his way over the mud- and snow-covered ground, no longer keeping to broken branches and rocks. Not leaving a trace didn’t seem nearly as important right now. What mattered was hurrying the hell up.
The engines grew louder, warring with the thump of his pulse in his ears. He broke into a flat-out run, his attention divided between the ground and occasional flashes of darkening blue.
There, between two lodgepole pines, a glimpse of empty sky, then a shot of the little plane, small and slow as a bumblebee, careening toward disaster. Seconds later, through the branches, a flash of the helicopter, massive and malevolent, closing in like a wasp or a bird of prey. Fast, strong, with a razor-edged precision.
He took in the scene: the Cub dipping toward the lake at breakneck speed, close enough for him to see that only the back seat was occupied—one person. The helicopter, swooping behind it, looked almost close enough to touch.
His eyes darted down to where the Cub was headed. Nothing but glacier and the mountain’s sheer face. A kamikaze flight unless it could land on the frozen surface before then, but that wouldn’t do either. The damn lake was on the cusp of breakup. It was a slushy, uneven mess. He’d risk walking across it, but he wouldn’t drive. And he certainly wouldn’t trust it to hold up the weight of a plane.
It plummeted. The chopper plunged. Beside him, Bo’s frantic barking added to the mayhem. In her short life, she’d only seen aircraft a handful of times and had certainly never witnessed anything like this. Frankly, he hadn’t either, and for a few harrowing seconds, he had no clue what to do.
When the helicopter swung to the side, he blinked in disbelief at what he was seeing. A person was hanging out the open door, holding…a weapon?
He raised his rifle, sighted through the scope. Too far, too fast. He’d never get a decent shot. His arms dropped. What was it Daisy had said exactly? She was coming for him? Who? Who the hell was in that plane? Was this suicide mission meant to save him or were there two groups after him this time? Either way, the pilot was one more person to add to the list of deaths since he’d first heard of the virus over a decade ago.
In the next split second, something cracked—a gunshot, splitting the air—the helicopter lifted and the plane angled dizzyingly to the side before dropping from view.
Whoever was flying was one hell of a pilot. Amka had been decent before her vision got bad, but this person was on a whole other level. They had nerves of steel and the reaction time of a mosquito.
Better hurry up and establish whether they were friend or foe. He released Bo’s fur and sprinted down the mountain.
***
The fuel leaking from the tank changed Leo’s plans drastically. Instead of the straight landing she’d planned—stopping right before the cliff face—she swung to the right, angling harder than the little plane liked, forcing it down, which was exactly what she shouldn’t do in an aircraft like this one.
And then—yes. Oh, hallelujah, yes!—the cliff opened up to reveal a frozen tributary, feeding into the lake. Narrow as the gate to hell, maybe forty feet wide, if she was lucky. On her left, the glacier-veined mountain shot straight up from the river. The tree-lined incline on the other side was gentler, but just as impassible.
“Not yet. Right, Dolores?” Leo muttered, angling herself straight into the tight opening. “Haven’t killed us yet.” The Cub barely fit inside, which meant the helo would never make it.
