Page 101 of Fire Peak

“Don’t touch that perilium,” he howled into the cave. “Or you’re dead!”

Then he swung the gun toward the four-wheeler. They were so close Charlie could see the dark hole where the bullet would come out. “Stop or I shoot!” he shouted.

Nick stopped the four-wheeler with a jerk. “We just want the kids, Chadwick. We don’t care about the perilium.”

His eyes went feral, like a trapped animal. “Chadwick is dead. I threw that pathetic bastard to the wolves. He got what he deserved. I am new man.” That Russian accent…that animal coat…those crazy eyes…he really had lost all grip on reality.

“Then why are you here? Why not stay in Russia?”

“I want what’s mine, what I found with my own two hands, crawling across these rocks month after month, winds howling like a wolf, ow-ow-owwwwww.”

He swung the gun toward the cave again, then back at them. If Hailey and Elias were in there, they were staying quiet. Charlie didn’t catch any smell of fire or fumes. Maybe Chadwick had stopped them in time.

Charlie thought about the composition notebook in the safe, the anguished musings of an idealistic young person.

“How can it be yours? I thought you didn’t believe in private property.” Charlie reached back for a quote from his notebooks. “Can wealth ever be considered moral? Can the concept of private property be rewound? If not, how to reconcile?”

“Idiotic drivel! That boy was a fool! I threw him to the wolves and the winter consumed his pathetic remains. I am a man. I’m Vasily and all this is mine?—”

Before he could finish, a figure bolted from the mouth of the cave, so fast it was a blur, and tackled Chadwick, who crashed onto the ground. Elias! The boy shouted into the cave, “It’s all right, Hailey!”

Nick leaped out of the four-wheeler and ran to Elias. Chadwick flung the boy off his body with a roar and crawled after him. Elias rolled away across the rock-strewn ground, shielding his head with his arms.

Just as Chadwick was about to aim his gun at Elias, Nick grabbed a rock off the ground and knocked him on the back of the head. Chadwick cried out, swung around to face Nick, then dropped to the ground, reeling, blood dripping from his head. Nick hit him one more time to knock him out, then pried the gun from his grip.

“Hailey?” Nick asked Elias urgently.

Elias pointed at the cave. “She’s still in there. I slipped and got stuck in the stream, so it took me longer than it was supposed to. She’s about a hundred yards down. She has a torch.”

“No!” Nick shouted as he dove into the entrance of the cave. “No fire! Hailey! I’m coming! No fire!”

Charlie turned the Polaris’ ignition key off and jumped down to help Elias. Blood was running down his shin, through a hole torn in the knee of his pants. She crouched next to him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He hung his head. “I knew about this place. I didn’t know it was so important.”

“How were you to know what was going on? You did great, you probably saved our lives. He was aiming right at us. Come on, let’s get you onto the four-wheeler. ”

She helped Elias limp to the Polaris, then used a bottle of water to rinse off the gash in his knee.

“Need a hand over here!” Nick shouted from inside the cave. Charlie handed Elias the bottle and rushed across the rocky scree to the entrance. Nick stumbled out of the darkness, carrying Hailey over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. A gas mask dangled from one of his hands. “I think she might have inhaled some of the perilium fumes,” he panted. “She was unconscious. The torch was out, there was no fire, but her gas mask came off. If she breathed even a little bit…”

“I got it. Put her down.”

When Hailey was flat on her back, with Nick’s jacket under her head, Charlie unbuttoned her flannel shirt, revealing a t-shirt with the word “savage” written in ornate script. Normally she wore it unbuttoned, but she must have been cold inside the cave.

“I looked this up after Solomon said the fumes could be toxic. She needs fresh air and loose clothing. Getting away from the source of the fumes is the most important thing.” She gently felt Hailey’s skull. “No lumps. No blood. That’s good.”

A glance at Nick had her wondering if she’d have to give him CPR instead of Hailey. He looked so worried he might combust.

And then, a flutter of Hailey’s eyelashes. A cough. Then a bigger one. She sat up, rolled over, and gagged into the bushes. “Yuck,” she said, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. “I don’t feel so good.”

“We need to get her to Ani,” Charlie told Nick in a low voice. “She’ll know what to do.”

Nick nodded and stroked his daughter’s hair. She smiled at him feebly and rested her head against his shoulder. “You came.”

“Uh huh. I’ve been chasing you all over this mountain.”

“I knew you would.” She coughed again.

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