Page 26 of So Insane

CHAPTER ELEVEN

They had to be at least fifteen miles from the ledge by now.

Faith looked behind and saw only mountains and forest. To her left, far below, she could see the US 95 veering west toward Washington. To her right was a nearly vertical slope of over five hundred feet. The mountain itself—she had no idea which one it was, since Grass Mountain was at least four hours behind them—rose for what looked like another four thousand feet, ending in a steel-gray cap of granite that in a month or so would be covered with snow.

Maybe sooner than that. Today was noticeably cooler than yesterday, and she found herself wishing she had stopped by the car for her jacket before following Turk.

Of more pressing concern was the fact that today was rapidly becoming tonight. The sun hovered just above the western horizon, and the shadows had lengthened considerably over the past hour. They had maybe thirty minutes left before the sun set and maybe twenty minutes after that before darkness covered everything.

Her phone buzzed. Kinzel. He had called each hour on the hour for progress updates. Faith didn’t have much to tell him this time.

“Hey, marshal,” she said, “Nothing new. No sign since the scrap of cloth a few hours back.”

Over the first six hours or so of searching, their suspect had left pretty clear signs of his journey. In addition to the candy bar wrapper, they had found a water bottle, an empty bag of chips, and a scrap of cloth snagged on a tree branch that looked like it belonged to a t-shirt.

He sighed. “Do you think you overshot him?”

“No. He couldn’t have gone anywhere but the path.”

“You’re absolutely certain of this?”

Faith looked around at the steep slope to her right and the sheer drop to her left. There was more plant life here than on Grass Mountain, but none of the warped and gnarled bristlecone pines or short, stunted grasses looked like they would be of much help to a climber.

“Unless he turned into Spiderman while we were sleeping,” she said, “I’m sure.”

He sighed and said, “Well, thank you for persevering. We’ll call it a night for now. We’ll have to send a helicopter to come get you.”

Another memory of Staff Sergeant Decker came to her. Why was she suddenly thinking about him for the first time in years?

This particular memory was of a meeting with the platoon leader. Faith had her own squad by then, and she and Decker were standing around a map while Lieutenant Faust explained their plan to sneak behind the Taliban patrol and take them out by surprise.

“Why don’t we just blow the mountain up?” Decker suggested, half-jokingly. “Can’t escape if you’re blown into a million pieces.”

Sometimes, Faith wished that she could just blow things up.

Just then, Turk barked. He started springing down the footpath. “I’ll call you back” Faith said.

She hung up, and the two agents hurried after Turk. They didn't have long to go this time. Turk made it maybe fifty yards further before he had to stop.

The footpath ended abruptly next to a jagged rocky slope that extended for over sixty feet straight up. Boulders jutted from the slope, and a small rock slide decorated the base of the footpath.

“You have to be kidding me,” Michael said, collapsing against the wall and allowing himself to slide downward to the ground. He put his wrists on his knees and rested his forehead against them.

The sun was halfway underneath the horizon now. Faith sighed and called Kinzel. While the phone rang, Turk barked insistently and stared upwards.

“If he went that way, Turk,” Faith said, “then he’s gone. We’ll have to go airborne.

Kinzel answered, and Faith said, “Hey, marshal. I hate to have to do this, but…”

Her voice trailed off when she finally saw what Turk was looking at. At the top of the ledge, snagged on a bristlecone pine, was another strip of cloth of the same color and type as the first scrap.

“Agent Bold?” Kinzel said over the phone. “Are you there?”

“Hold that thought,” she said.

She hung up and walked to Turk. “Good boy,” she said, rubbing him behind his ears. “Good boy. Stay here with Michael now, okay?”

Michael’s head snapped up at that. “What?”

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