Page 100 of Mountain Security

One of her hands was warm, where Alex held on to it. The other one, though half-hidden by the sleeve of Alex’s coat, was freezing. She was so cold.

She’d never been this cold before.

She was also out of breath and exhausted.

But she had to keep going.

Suddenly, Alex stopped, his head cocked sideways. And then she heard it, too.

A car, coming up the mountain.

Then she saw the headlights.

“Help!” Yvette shouted. “Help!”

Beside her, Alex stiffened. “Wait, Yvette.“

The car slowed, then stopped. The headlights stayed on, and for a long instant, nothing happened. Then the door opened.

Yvette pulled against him, but Alex’s hand was tight against her wrist, and he wasn’t letting go.

“Alex, what—“

A tall man emerged from the vehicle. His figure was bathed by the light from inside the car.

It was Aristide Gaultier.

Her first thought was relief.

He’ll help us.

Once he sees what his father’s doing, he’ll—

Then she noticed the gun in his hands.

Yvette felt herself pushed behind Alex.

“Don’t even think of running,” Aristide said lazily. “I’m a better shot than my dad. He’ll be here in a minute, by the way. Let’s just relax and wait for him.”

“You’re … you’re in on this as well?”

And then she realized how stupid she’d been. Of course, he was in on it. His father probably didn’t know enough about computers to organize the theft, but Aristide did.

“You took those files,” Alex said levelly.

“I did. We had the official report, but I needed to know what the committee really thought about the project, in order to fix it.”

“And you took the other projects to distract us.”

“It worked, right? You’ve been going around in circles.”

Alex stepped away from her, sideways and closer to Aristide.

“Don’t even think about it. I will shoot you and leave you to bleed to death. And raise your hands.”

Alex did as he was told.

“I don’t understand,” Yvette said. “Why didn’t you simply ask us to see the file?”

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