Page 105 of Trapped

A diversion.

“What the hell,” Luntz shouted and jumped back, heading for the safety of the car. But Montgomery had closed the door when he got out. As they fought to open it, Cash scrambled to his feet and leaped forward, grabbing for the box.

The tune almost robbed him of thought. But he had only one goal—making it go away.

Montgomery flailed at him with one hand, grasping the box tightly with the other.

Cash snatched at it, the music making his movements jerky. It felt like hours were dragging by. Probably it was only seconds.

Finally, he wrenched the box from the doctor’s grasp and dashed it to the ground, then stamped on it with his boot—crushing the thin metal sides.

The music stopped, and the blessed relief of it was like the sound of angels’ wings beating around him.

In the next moment, a curtain of choking smoke billowed out of the woods, enveloping all of them.

The men around Cash began to cough. But Cash was immune because of the injection Lily had given him earlier.

He knew he had won. But he needed the personal satisfaction of socking Montgomery on the jaw, watching the man gasp in pain as he went down.

The colonel had gotten the car door open. Cash yanked his hand away and whirled him around.

“Damn you,” Luntz shouted between coughing fits. “Damn you. It was a perfect plan to bring the money and the treasure back to the U.S. And you spoiled it.”

More men poured onto the road, agents from Decorah Security. But there were others with them. Operatives from the special Defense Department unit that had asked them to find out what kind of illegal operation Luntz was running in Afghanistan.

They were the ones who hustled the colonel, Dr. Montgomery, and their men into secure vehicles that pulled up behind the Land Rovers.

Sophia came running out of the woods, and he knew she must also be protected from the smoke. Still he gasped when he saw her.

“I told you to stay away from this,” he choked out.

“And I wasn’t going to leave you here alone.”

He looked from her to the receding vehicles.

“It’s really over,” she said, punching out the words.

He swung back toward her, his face registering disbelief.

“It’s over,” she said again. “Believe it.”

“Did you hear—the part about their planting a trigger in our minds before we left?”

“Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t think of anything like that.”

“Who would?” He considered that for a moment, then laughed. “I guess they thought they were so clever—giving us a command to forget. Then the mission blew up in our faces. And they got me back. But they’d made it so I couldn’t remember.”

“Which was why they had to set up the whole bunker scenario to try and pry the information out of you.” She took his arm and led him away from the smoke to a shelter that the Decorah Security men had commandeered. Part of a Defense Department installation that had been built in the area years ago, it was underground, dug into the forest floor and invisible unless you bumped into one of the ventilator shafts.

Frank Decorah had studied the area. And that was why he had suggested the meeting place. And Cash had knocked down all of the colonel’s other proposals, insisting that he had to meet on this road—by the sign that announced which side of the road was Virginia and which West Virginia.

Sophia switched on the light, then closed the door behind them before turning to face Cash.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“That music! Oh God, that music. You were talking about music when you woke up from Jonah’s . . .mind meld. I should have paid attention to you.”

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