Page 57 of Free Fall (The Quantico Files 3)

31

As Alex walked toward the Ghost Shack in the abandoned amusement park, the voice they’d heard on the burner phone echoed in her head. Magic Land Park in Ashville. Inside the Ghost Shack. Again, she has thirty minutes to get there and no more. If she brings any law enforcement with her, the women will die. And if she has a weapon or a wire, they will die.

She was uncomfortable knowing SWAT and HRT were nearby, but after looking at an aerial view of the park, they’d found a spot where they felt they could hide without being spotted. She hoped they were right, but that wasn’t her call.

Alex was ready to follow through with what they’d told her at the CP. It wasn’t much. Just make sure to keep her jacket and boots on, and if she felt uncomfortable at any point, immediately leave the building. If the UNSUB tried to accost her, she was to take him down and then alert SWAT. They would swarm the building and make an arrest. But Alex didn’t want things to go down that way. If they did, they might not be able to find the women in time.

She was also told that under no circumstances was she to leave the area with the UNSUB. But Alex had no intention of following those instructions. If he didn’t give her the location of the women he held captive, going with him was probably her only shot at freeing them.

She could feel the knife in her boot. It wasn’t very comfortable, but she was glad it was there. It was unusually warm for April, even at dusk, and she was sweating a little inside her jacket. But that didn’t matter. She needed the tracker that was in the hem.

The Scriptures she’d read the night before had chased away her fear, and this morning she’d thanked God for answering her prayers. It seemed odd to thank Him for something before He did it, but Pastor Shook explained that faith wasn’t believing what you could see but believing what you couldn’t see.

What was the Scripture in the book of Hebrews? She’d memorized it from her NKJV Bible. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For someone who relied on facts the way she did, it was a tough transition, but she was determined to become the person God wanted her to be. And if that meant destroying some of her preconceived ideas, so be it. Her previous beliefs certainly hadn’t helped her. She was tired of living in the past and angry that the man who’d tried to kill her in that cold, dirty warehouse was still victimizing her. She didn’t want him to be a part of her life anymore. She was determined to eradicate him from her mind.

Something Logan once said gave her strength as well. He’d referred to a Scripture that talked about how God gives His children beauty for ashes, that says He promises to take the bad experiences in our lives and replace them with something beautiful. “God will give us beauty for ashes, Alex,” Logan had said. “But we have to give Him the ashes. If we keep them, He can’t exchange them for beauty.” She wanted the beauty. In fact, she was determined to receive it.

ASAC Williams had forbidden any outside contact while they waited for the UNSUB to call, so Alex had spent the day wondering how Logan’s surgery had gone. The hours had ticked by while the burner phone stayed silent. A little after five, Williams handed her a note from Jeff that said Logan was fine. Although she’d wanted more details, she was thankful for at least that much. Hopefully, Jeff had kept Logan’s questions at bay once he was out of surgery. She’d wanted to make it to the hospital before he woke up so she could have explained things to him herself.

Everyone at the CP had been on edge as they waited, as if the entire team had been holding their breath. They’d almost given up when the burner phone finally rang at six.

Right now, however, she had to concentrate on the next few minutes. She thought about Tracy Mendenhall, the woman who now represented all the women this UNSUB had victimized. If she was still alive, Tracy was waiting for rescue, and Alex had no intention of letting her down.

She stopped in front of the dilapidated Ghost Shack and whispered a prayer, then reached into her pocket and took out her small flashlight. Suddenly, she felt a strange urge to look up toward the top of the ridge to her right. She glanced that way before she realized what she was doing. That wasn’t where SWAT and HRT waited, but if the UNSUB or someone he worked with was watching, they might think she was looking for backup.

She quickly refocused on the double entrance doors of the shack, hanging half off their hinges. She hesitated for a moment, but then that same peace from last night came over her. She could swear someone whispered, I’ll be with you. Was she just hearing what she wanted to hear? Or was this connected to the dream she’d had, the one with the angel? She was determined to listen to the voice of God rather than to her own mind.

She turned on the flashlight, stepped into the gap between the doors, then swung the beam of light around in the dark.

No one.

“Hello?” she called. “Is anyone here?”

No response. Then a phone, so loud it made her jump, rang not far from where she stood. She pointed the flashlight toward the sound and saw the phone lying on the seat of an old four-seater car that had once carried people through this ride. She walked over and picked it up, stepping carefully since the floor was littered with debris. Injuring herself would endanger the operation, something she couldn’t risk.

She answered and said, “Hello.”

“Walk toward the back of the building,” the same burner phone voice said. “You’ll see a large piece of plywood covering a hole in the floor. Go down into the hole and you’ll find a tunnel. Keep following it to the end. I’ll be waiting there.”

“You’re supposed to tell me where the women are,” she said. “That was the deal.”

“You’ll find them if you do what I say. If you don’t, no one will ever see them again. It’s your choice. You have ten seconds to decide.”

“Okay, okay.”

“Bring the phone with you. And leave your jacket where you’re standing.”

If she did as he said, the team wouldn’t be able to find her with the tracking device. She wondered if she could tear the hem of the jacket and put the tracker in her jeans pocket. But before she had a chance to try, she heard “Ten, nine, eight—”

“All right, all right. I’m taking off my jacket.” She shrugged out of it and dropped it onto the floor. She had to find the women. No matter what it took. “I’m putting the phone—” She heard it disconnect.

Okay.

She slid the phone into her pocket, then used the flashlight to locate the plywood. She reached down and pushed it out of the way. Sure enough, she stared down into a deep hole. Alex hated the dark, so she was extremely thankful for the flashlight. She noticed a rope ladder on one side.

She turned around and held the flashlight in her mouth while she stepped down the ladder as carefully as she could. She’d probably gone about ten feet when the ladder ended and she jumped to the ground under her. The tunnel was right there. It wasn’t very wide, though, and once she started through it, she began to feel claustrophobic. She fought against it by whispering the Scriptures she’d read the night before.

She had to stoop down some to keep moving, and she wondered just how far the tunnel stretched. Then a voice called out, “That’s far enough. Turn off your flashlight.”

---