Page 99 of Fire Peak

“Maybe it isn’t, but God, if anything happens to her…” He jerked the four-wheeler to a stop just before they hit a large branch that had fallen across the trail.

“Sorry, my GPS doesn’t see wind damage,” Charlie said. He jumped out to drag the branch out of the way, while she grabbed the opportunity to open up her laptop. “I’m about to lose service, but there’s a bigger trail a little to the east. It probably gets more traffic. It’s about a hundred yards away.”

“We’ll try that.” With the trail cleared, he headed back to the four-wheeler.

As he swung into the driver’s seat, she said, with a kind of intensity he’d never heard from her, “You know I never thought about being a parent. I never let myself. But now…I’d do anything to keep Hailey safe. Elias too.” She ended on a laugh. “Maybe I’m not just a heartless outlaw.”

Matching her intensity, he turned her to face him. “Charlie, heartless is the last thing you were, or are, or ever will be.”

Her eyes went wide, and he kissed her fiercely. But briefly.

Then they roared back down the trail. As they bounced over ruts and rocks, alder branches whipped across the Polaris’ frame, sometimes smacking him in the face.

The wild ride reminded him of the day he’d first chased Charlie into town. Now he had her right next to him. Right where he wanted her, for as long as she wanted to be there.

“I hate caves,” Hailey hissed to Elias, who was one step ahead of her, holding her hand. She hated them more than anything, except maybe whiny love ballads. “We had a field trip to some caves once and I stayed in the bus the whole time. Not the sourdough pancake kind of bus either.”

“Why are you talking so much? Are you scared?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m telling you!” Sometimes Elias took a while to put two and two together. “Can anyone a hundred percent guarantee that the roof isn’t going to cave in?”

“It hasn’t for millions of years. Why would it now?”

She clung to that logic as they crept along the underground stream. It was so wet under here. How were they supposed to set a fire? And why them? If Solomon wanted to burn up all the perilium or whatever, he should have the balls to do it himself.

He’d given gas masks and fire-starters to both her and Elias. The fire-starters were basically giant metal torches loaded with something super-flammable. They were supposed to light them and toss them deep into a side cavern about a hundred yards from the entrance to the cave. That was where the vein of perilium would be visible.

“Someone’s gotta keep guard out here,” Solomon had told them. “Too many people got their fingers in this pot. I don’t trust no one. You light those torches, toss ‘em in, and run like hell back here. Don’t breathe those fumes. Put your mask on first. But wait for my go-ahead. I’m gonna yell ‘go’ when it’s time.”

That plan sounded absurdly sketchy to Hailey. For one thing, “go” sounded a lot like “no.” It was just asking for miscommunication. Also…

“How toxic is it?” she asked Elias nervously. “I don’t want to grow any extra fingers or anything. Okay, maybe a middle finger.”

“You sound like Charlie when you talk like that.”

“Yeah, I’m channeling my inner badass. Elias, what if we just don’t do it?”

“He has a gun. He said he’d shoot us.”

“But we have fiery torches. And there’s two of us.” She slipped on a slimy rock but he caught her before she fell.

“Then we’d have to hide out in this cave longer.”

“Never mind,” she said quickly. Already her breathing felt tight, even before she put the gas mask on. She had to fight the urge to run back to the entrance of the cave. Fast as she could. No matter how many rocks she slipped on.

Ugh, now the stream was getting wider, and there was no way to avoid stepping in the water. Her cool thrift-store motorcycle boots were going to be ruined. Not a big deal. Focus.

Dad. Please help us. I should have listened to you and stayed inside the cabin … No, scratch that. She’d gone to help Elias and she couldn’t regret that. What if poor Elias was going through this whole nightmare alone?

That gave her an idea. “Elias,” she hissed. “Maybe we should split up.”

“Why?” He blinked at her, his eyes like moons in the dim cave.

“He thinks we’re both in here doing what he wants. But if one of us goes back to the entrance, that person can surprise him by throwing a torch at him. Then that person could get the gun away from him…” Her voice trailed off as she realized that it would have to be Elias. He was the only one big enough to fight Solomon. Which would leave her alone in here. But what if it was their only chance? She screwed up her courage. This was just another Alaska adventure. One more incredible story to tell her friends. She could do it.

“Please,” she murmured, just as Solomon yelled at them again for their five minute check-in. “I’ll be fine in here. If you don’t get the gun away from him, I’ll start the fire and run out of here.”

He nodded and squeezed her hand.

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