Hunted (30 page)

“But—”

“We’re still going to Montana, just not flying. It’s a lot easier to track a plane than a car.”

She nodded, biting her lip.

He knew it had to be hard being this close to finding Jake and yet still be so far. He reached over, wrapping his fingers around her hand that gripped the seat edge. “We’re going to get him, Emma. I promise.”

She turned to look at him over her shoulder. Tears brimmed her eyes as she nodded.

He turned his attention back to the view outside the windshield, thankful he still had moonlight to illuminate the hills rising in the distance. Under normal circumstances, he would fly over ten thousand feet, clearing them without a problem, but if he hoped to evade radar detection he needed to fly no more than a thousand feet off the ground. With some of the hills in front of them rising two thousand feet, that could be a problem.

The clouds in the distance billowed, glowing with lightning bursts. Will estimated the storm to be about fifty miles away. When they turned they’d be flying toward it, but not into it. He might take chances, but he wasn’t stupid.

When they hit the Badlands ten minutes later, he sighed. “This is going to be like a fucking roller coaster ride,” he said, increasing the throttle.

“I hate roller coasters more than I hate flying.”

“Then your night’s about to totally suck.”

***

The first hill loomed ahead and Will pulled back on the yoke. The nose of the plane lifted, soaring over the top to the slope, only to dive down on the other side.

Her fingers grew numb from gripping the seat.

“One down, a few hundred to go,” he said as the plane dipped into a valley, skimming several hundred feet over the grassland.

“Are you fucking serious?”

“Maybe a few less.”

She caught her breath, preparing for the next hill but dismayed to see a forest of jagged monoliths projecting from the ground.

“Are we going to dive down into those?” she asked, her throat constricting in fear.

“No, we’ll try to skim the top of them. The problem will be if a peak sticks out higher than the others. I’m going to need you to help me keep watch.”

“Okay.”

They approached the next batch, an endless parade of pinnacles, and she thought of Jake. Had she come this close to finding him, only to crash into a fiery ball?

She looked over at Will. He wore the intense gaze she had seen when he was in a difficult situation, his fingers wrapped around the handles in front of him.

“I never asked if you were a good pilot.”

His mouth lifted into a small grin. “A little late to be asking that now.”

Her stomach dropped when she realized it was true.

“Relax, Princess. I’m an excellent pilot. I got us off the ground, didn’t I?”

“Seems like I had something to do with that too.”

“So you did.” He pulled back the yoke. “Hang on, this is about to get rougher.”

They rose again and her guts churned in anticipation. The plane leveled out, sailing over the peaks below. Emma scanned the horizon.

“There’s something ahead.”

Will rose in his seat to look over the panel. “Where?”

She pointed to her right. “There.”

“That’s at one o’clock. It’s like we’re a clock and the nose is pointed at twelve. If you see something, tell me where it is in relation to time on a clock.”

“Okay.”

The wind picked up and a gust hit the plane, rocking the aircraft. “This could get a little hairy. We’ve got a gusty crosswind, which means the plane’s going to get pitched sideways a bit.” The wind blew to demonstrate his statement. He gripped the yoke and adjusted a knob. “It wouldn’t be as big a problem if we were higher off the ground. Worst-case scenario, we turn into the wind and deal with rising and falling, not tilting sideways.”

“Why is that bad?”

“Because we’ll be flying straight into the Black Hills.”

She turned to her right. The dark forested mountains taunted her.

“We could always land, right?”

“Sure, but someone’s going to notice a plane landing and Kramer’s sure to be listening for unusual plane activity. We’re still close enough that we run the risk of being caught.

She pointed out the window. “Three o’clock.”

He swung the plane to put ample space between them and the ridge. Another valley appeared and Will angled the plane into the wind and dove.

“Are you sure we can’t fly higher?”

He didn’t answer. Looking at the gauges, then out the windshield, tension crinkled his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He sighed. “The storm to the west is worrying me. It’s approaching faster than I expected.”

She looked above to see dark gray clouds choking out the stars, rolling toward them.

“We can’t fly in clouds?”

“Without radar contact, no. We’d want a control tower to help us.” He raised an eyebrow. “Obviously, we don’t want that. Another option would be to try to climb and fly over the clouds but I have no idea where they top out. We run the risk of flying into something by flying blind like that. But right now, that’s not an issue. We’re flying below the clouds. What I’m more concerned with is thunderstorms. They can produce wind shears that could rip our wings off.”

“
What?
”

“I’m not flying into a thunderstorm. Not if I can help it.” He tapped a screen low on the instrument panel. “See this? It’s a storm scope. It’s radar for lightning strikes. Right now the lightning is about thirty miles west of us, so we’re still good. We want to avoid the lightning.”

“Oh, God...”

The patter of rain hit the windshield. “This just keeps getting better and better.” Will grumbled. “Hang on, more hills ahead.”

He lifted the nose and they rose. She looked out the window dismayed to see her visibility had diminished.

“I can’t see anything.”

“That’s the better and better part.”

The onslaught of rain flooded the windshield. The flashing lights on the wings lit the streams of water that hit the plane, filling Emma with a sense of dread. Water dripped into the cabin from the bullet holes in the roof. “Can’t we just land?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Emma, where are we going to land? On top of one of those hills? Keep a look out.”

The plane swung to the right, avoiding a tall ridge on Will’s side. She tried to focus on the darkness outside the window, but the flashing lights on the wing obscured her view, adding to the throbbing in the back of her head. She turned to look behind and swung back to the front. A large point rose up to the right of the plane, closer than she would have liked.

“Oh, God! One o’clock!” She shouted, pointing.

“Son of a bitch,” Will groaned as he saw the obstacle. The plane lifted and banked a hard left, turning the plane sideways. After he swung around it, he struggled with the yoke as he straightened it. “Try to let me know sooner.”

“I didn’t see it!” Emma’s breath came in short bursts of panic.

“Emma,” Will growled. “I need you. You can freak out later.”

“I’m trying.”

“Not hard enough.”

The plane banked again to the right and jolted with a gust of wind, throwing her in to the door. Her head banged into the window. She caught the sight of a peak directly in front of the sideways plane.

“Twelve o’clock!”

“Son of a fucking bitch.” The plane turned left and to the right again. A flattened peak passed by Emma’s window, slightly below the plane.

“I’m gonna have to climb,” Will said as the nose lifted and the pitch of the engine roared higher.

They flew for half a minute before the plane lowered slightly. Will released a measured breath. “I think we’re about done with this set.”

“There’s more?”

“I don’t know.”

She wasn’t sure how much more she could take. The plane dove. It was so sudden that it caught her by surprise and a gasp escaped before she could hold it back.

“It’s okay. Another valley.”

The way he said it implied what she already knew. “There’s more.”

“Yeah.”

When the plane lifted, she was prepared. The rain had increased, coming down in sheets but she used the flashing lights to aid her this time, pointing out numerous obstacles before they descended again.

“I think that might have been the last one.” Will sighed, relaxing in his seat. “I wish visibility was better, but according to the GPS we’re almost to the Nebraska border. This is where I planned to turn into Wyoming. We’re good here, pretty much grasslands with hills now, nothing like what we just went through.”

“And then where?”

“We’ll just keep going for now.”

***

When grasslands appeared on the horizon, Will let out a sigh of relief. He needed to start thinking about where they were going to land.

He pulled out his cell phone. He still hadn’t checked in with James.

“Who are you
calling?
” Emma asked in disbelief.

“James.”

She scowled and shifted her gaze out the window.

James answered on the first ring. “Where the fuck are you?”

“Somewhere over Wyoming.”

“
Excuse me?
”

“We borrowed a plane.”

“Borrowed?”

“It’s a relative term. Where are you?”

“Driving around aimlessly in South Dakota. Did you know they have a palace here made entirely of corn?”

“No kidding?”

“Where do you want to meet up?”

“We need to go to Montana.”

“Oh, hell no. I signed up for a week in South Dakota. I did my part. I got you information and I helped you break into the compound. Now I’m done.”

“Just one more job. Even you can’t say no to this one.”

James was silent for a moment. “What is it?”

Will heard the defeat in his voice and grinned. “We’re going to rescue a kid.”

Emma turned to him, her eyes hopeful.

“Oh, God… how did I know?” James groaned.

“How can you say no to saving a kid?”

“Fuck.”

Will knew he’d won. “Just start driving Interstate 90 and we’ll meet somewhere in Wyoming. I’ll call you when I know where somewhere is.”

“You’re going to owe me so much.”

“Tell me about it.”

Will stuffed his phone in his pocket, looking out the window again. The storm was moving northwest and they were moving west, just at its base. The rain had stopped for the moment, although he wasn’t sure how long the break would last. Emma seemed more relaxed, her hands merely resting on the edge of the seat rather than trying to claw the cushion out with her nails.

Will glanced down at the instrument panel and noticed the oil temperature gauge pointed to high. He tapped the plastic and the needle didn’t move.

“Emma, where’s that flashlight?”

She pulled it out of the backpack. “Here.”

“Keep an eye out and let me know if there’s anything ahead I need to worry about.” He turned sideways, shining the flashlight out the window and up to the wing overhead. “Shit.”

“Goddamn it, Will. One word I don’t want to hear while flying is
shit
.”

“We’ve got a gas tank leak. See?” The beam of light shone on a string of droplets trailing behind them.

“What does that mean?” He heard the panic in her voice.

“It means we’re running out of fuel.” The fuel gauges read half full. He tapped them and both fell to empty. He shook his head, swearing under his breath “But that’s not our biggest problem.”

“What could be worse than that?”

“I think there’s a hole in the oil tank. The oil temperature is high.”

“What does that mean?”

“That we’re going to have to land soon.”

***

“Are we going to crash?” They couldn’t die now. Not after everything they’d been through. What would happen to Jake?

“Not if I can help it.” Will said, pulling back on the yoke. The plane rose several hundred feet. He looked over the dash.

“What are you looking for?”

“Someplace to land before the engine seizes up and forces us to.”

“Why are we higher?”

“In case something happens and we need more time to find a place.”

“But won’t they see us?”

“I don’t think so, Emma,” he snapped, then ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Sorry. No, they shouldn’t see us since we’re still pretty low. But the higher we are, the more space there is between us and the ground, which is a good thing in this situation. The problem is, although the land here is relatively flat, there’s too many trees.”

He banked right, flying north toward the storm.

“Why are we flying this way? What about the storm?”

“Trust me. We’ll be on the ground before we reach the storm. I know there’s grassland up here, pretty remote, too. I used to camp here with my dad when I was a kid.”

The engine sputtered.

Emma gripped the seat and her heart pounded. “What can I do to help?”

“Look for a road or a field with no trees. We’re not going to last much longer.” Will lifted the plane higher. “Buying us more time,” he answered before she asked.

Off in the distance, she saw a field. “There!” She pointed.

Will leaned over in his seat to look out her window. “Yep, that’ll work.” He turned the aircraft in the direction of the grassland.

Within a few seconds the engine sputtered again, then stalled. “Here we go.” Will gripped the yoke.

Emma took several deep breaths, forcing her constricted airway to expand. They glided toward the field, but she wasn’t sure they would reach it. A huge patch of trees lay between them and their intended destination. “Will, in case we don’t…”

“We’re going to land this fucking plane. Got it?” he growled through gritted teeth, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Yes.”

Emma took off her headphones, the interior eerily quiet without the roar of the engine as the aircraft glided to the field.

The plane lowered and the branches beneath them barely cleared the bottom of the plane, the field agonizingly out of reach. The moonlight cast deep, menacing shadows in the trees, increasing her rising anxiety. Emma gripped the seat and held her breath. Will’s taut face told her all she needed to know.