Page 94 of Fire Peak

Was April trying to meditate through this crisis? Charlie had to find her and shake some sense into her.

“Thanks, Eddie.” She turned to go, then saw he still wasn’t moving, not until he’d finished his marinade. “Listen, I can’t explain right now, but this whole place needs to be empty in half an hour. Tell them there’s a surprise inspection or something. Please…”

She couldn’t wait around any longer, she had to get to April.

She’d talked the kidnappers into giving her one more chance to convince April to give them what they wanted. They had hostages now; that changed things.

It was all up to April now—she could save the lodge and two teens, and stop this whole nightmare. If only Charlie could find her.

Her phone pinged. She was starting to wish there was no service here. She hated that these people could reach her whenever they wanted. If she could stand still for a minute, she’d be able to pinpoint their location, but ever since that first contact, they’d kept her on the move. Her thigh was a throbbing mass of fire by now, but she just blocked it out and kept going.

Is it done?

Even though they hadn’t mentioned evacuating the lodge, why else would they want the sprinklers disabled, if they weren’t planning to start a fire? That was why she’d rushed to get Big Eddie going before she did as they asked.

Almost. Two minutes.

What if they didn’t even have Hailey and Elias? What if Nick had rescued them by now? But she couldn’t count on that.

She swung into April’s office and went to the control box for the fire mitigation system. It required a key and a passcode, both of which she knew.

She opened the box and scanned the digital readout. Maybe there was a way she could fool the system. But what would be the point? If the sprinklers went off after all, and they had Hailey in their control, they might take out their rage on her.

She turned the key to the off position. Do your thing, Big Eddie. Get those people out.

Done, she texted. If they set a fire now, she’d officially be an accessory to the crime. Sure, she was under duress. So maybe she’d get a lighter sentence. Or maybe not, if anyone figured out what she’d been up to the last ten years.

Her phone dinged. Another photo of Hailey and Elias. That was the deal. They had to keep sending photos for every move they demanded of her.

April now

Give me five minutes to find her

Four

You shouldn’t have shot an arrow into my thigh if you wanted me to hurry. She texted that as she hobbled from the office.

No answer from Vasily and the Chechens, which she took as an admission of guilt. She was ninety percent sure the texts were coming from them. Sometimes their phrasing seemed a little off, just enough to make her suspect they weren’t native English speakers.

She hurried down the wide polished planks of the corridor, banging on every door as she passed. “Chemical leak! Everyone has to evacuate!”

None of the doors opened, which pleased her. The lodge only had sixteen guest suites, and she was pretty sure they were all empty now. As she hurried through the restaurant, she spotted only one guest still lingering on the terrace.

“Hey you!” she yelled at him. “Get the hell out!”

He didn’t look her way, and she realized with a chill that he was one of them. A young man, dressed in black high-tech gear, duffel bag sat at his feet, clearly just waiting for an order.

They were going to burn down Fire Peak Lodge.

Unless they got whatever it was they wanted from April.

For a second she debated engaging with the Chechen guy face to face, maybe throwing his duffel bag over the edge of the terrace. But she would be no match for him even without an injury.

So she limped onwards, out of the lodge and into the bright sunshine. An angelic blue sky arced overhead. The distant drone of a single prop plane mingled with the closer sound of guests chattering at the edge of the lawn, where it gave way to alder bushes and willows.

Way to go, Big Eddie.

She hobbled toward the tiny gazebo where April meditated. No one else was allowed inside, and Charlie had never even been close to it before. But it was beautiful, a combination of Alaskan hand-hewn construction and woodwork from Bali. As she came close, she caught the muffled sound of a gong.

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