Torque (35 page)

Jenner stepped to his side and delivered a
hard kick to his torso, catching Fenn under the ribs and knocking
him on his back. Winded, with fire in his chest, Fenn could only
lie there while Jenner went though his jacket pockets until he
found the keys to the Challenger. Jenner raised the shotgun butt
for another blow.

“Stop it! Leave him alone.”

Jenner turned to see Rowan end the struggle
to get Kim’s hands cuffed. He turned back to Fenn and brought the
butt down anyway. He’d intended to smash his nose but Fenn turned
his head and the blow glanced off his cheek instead. Jenner kicked
him once more then clubbed the side of Fenn’s head with the
gunstock. The eyes rolled upwards but didn’t close. Teeth clenched,
Fenn made an effort to get up.

“Oh, fuck this,” Jenner said, and brought the
shotgun to his shoulder. He aligned the barrel sights with Fenn’s
eyes.

“Say goodbye, Fenn.”

“No!”

Kim managed to twist away from Rowan and
threw herself at his partner. Jenner shoved her to the ground.

“Get this bitch away from me.” He re-aimed at
Fenn’s face.

“Drop your weapon! Police.”

Everyone froze.

Jenner looked at Rowan who shrugged.

“Wasn’t me.”

“Put your guns on the ground and your hands
in the air.”

The voice had come from up the trail.
Straddling a mountain bike and holding a Glock firmly with both
hands was the Asian.

“Chico?” Jenner relaxed from his shooting
stance.

“Officer Joe Abes. RCMP; Windsor
Division.”

“No shit,” said Rowan. “Then you’ll know that
I’m on the force, too.”

“You were, Rowan. Your suspension is about to
become a dishonourable discharge. And they don’t like cops where
you’re going.”

“Then I ain’t going.” Rowan dropped into a
crouch and brought his gun to bear. Abes fired and caught him mid
chest. Kim gave a stifled cry and tried to roll off the trail.
Jenner’s instinct was also self-preservation and he turned on Abes
and unloaded both barrels.

Hindered by the bike, Abes was slow getting
to cover and took the blast in the hip. He spun to the ground.

Jenner ran to the ATV and chucked the disc
and Fenn’s keys in the attaché case. He snapped it shut and jumped
behind the wheel as Abes raised his arm for another shot.

“Better fucking start.”

It did. Jenner was shaking and fought to keep
his foot steady on the accelerator. It didn’t need much gas to go
downhill and the ATV picked up speed. There was a curve ahead,
another link in the switchback.

“Keep going you piece of crap.”

The engine sputtered then smoothed out. It
sputtered again, then died.

== == ==

Fenn was stirred from his stupor by the
sound of Kim sobbing. He felt like he’d sparred three rounds with a
heavyweight boxing champion. The left cheek was so swollen it
practically closed that eye, and the act of sitting up sent pain
lancing through his spine and ribs. Knees up to her chest, hands
cuffed behind her, Kim lay on her side in a pile of decomposing
leaves.

“It’s okay, Kim. He’s gone.” He brushed the
hair from her face and helped her to sit up. “You’re fine, and I’m
fine.”

He crawled over to where Rowan lay. A dark
red stain covered the man’s shirt. His eyes were open but there was
no movement, or pulse. There was also no sign of his gun. It must
have landed somewhere in the brush. Fenn checked the jacket pockets
and found a small key. He went back to Kim and released her from
the cuffs. She was trembling. He had to prevent her from going into
shock.

“Come on, Kim. The other guy needs help.”
Fenn got the blanket from the pack and started up the hill.

Abes was lying behind a tree, both hands
putting pressure on his wound. Fenn unrolled the fleece and had Kim
staunch the blood flow with a corner of it. He draped the rest over
the man’s legs.

“Geez, man. I don’t know what to say. I
clobber you then you come along and save our lives.”

The officer shook his head. “You weren’t to
know. I probably would have done the same thing.”

“Don’t bring yourself down to Fenn’s level,”
said Kim. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Backup is on its way. Take the radio from my
pocket.”

They heard Jenner restart the ATV.

“That machine doesn’t seem to run very well,”
said Abes.

“Pissy gas.”

Both men looked at Kim but she didn’t
elaborate.

Fenn got to his feet with a grimace and
buttoned his denim jacket. “If you two can hang on until the troops
arrive, I have unfinished business to deal with.”

Abes raised a hand. “I can't let you go.
Jenner is armed and dangerous.”

Fenn picked up a fist-sized rock. “Yeah.
Well. So am I. That bastard took something of mine—and I’m going to
get it back.”

CHAPTER
51

The slope between the two sections of trail
was littered with broken tree limbs, rotted stumps, and loose
stone. Fenn grabbed at saplings to steady himself as he slithered,
stumbled, and ran around the obstacles. His knees, inflamed from
abuse, began to burn with the impact of each hard step, and with
one eye almost closed missteps sent him tumbling to the ground.
Each fall sent spasms of pain through his neck and torso but the
sound of the ATV’s sputtering engine got him up and moving
again.

He zigzagged down the hill on what he gauged
was an intercepting course, the engine noise getting louder as he
leapt over logs and dodged around boulders. He was almost to the
lower trail when he saw the buggy through the trees to his right.
Branches whipping at his face, he ploughed through the brush and
out onto the path just as the ATV came past.

Jenner saw him and floored the gas. The
machine lurched ahead but Fenn caught the rear support of the roll
cage with his left hand. The shock to that shoulder was immense but
his grip held. Fenn had kept the rock and he threw it as the ATV
pulled him off his feet. It may have struck Jenner behind the ear
but he couldn’t be sure. There was no change in speed.

Still being dragged, Fenn got his right hand
above his left on the cage support and pulled. That got him closer.
He moved his left hand above his right and pulled again. His ribs
were in agony but now he was able to get one leg onto the back of
the ATV, and then the other.

Jenner glanced back and saw Fenn on the rear
corner. He steered wildly to shake him off. When that didn’t work
he tried running close to the trees. A couple of thick branches
almost did the trick but Fenn held on. Now they were coming up to
the warming hut, the river clearly visible at the bottom of the
shale-covered slope on their right.

Fenn worked himself into the back seat and
Jenner tried using the empty shotgun to knock him away. Fenn caught
it in the crook of the same arm he wrapped around Jenner’s neck.
Twisting to the right, Jenner pulled the steering wheel with him
and the ATV swerved off the trail.

It narrowly missed the hut and dropped into a
rut that ran down toward the river. Hitting slabs of shale, the
buggy bounced violently and nearly tipped over. The two combatants
lost their grip on the shotgun and it fell onto the beach. The ATV
ran out of land and Fenn barely had time to take a breath before
they were plunged into the swirling river.

The sudden cold was a shock to the system.
Even though it was Fenn’s second baptism of the day, the icy
temperature had a paralyzing effect that took precious seconds to
subside. The force of the river, swollen by recent rainfalls,
rolled the ATV and threatened to pin the men beneath it.

The strong current pushed it against a
submerged boulder, blocking Fenn’s immediate escape. He pushed off
the rock with his legs and once again used the roll cage bars to
pull himself up. The boulder was slippery and his legs went
sideways with the flow. Lungs ready to burst, he let some air out
to ease the strain and with supreme effort forced his shoulders
past the bar, and his head above the surface of the water.

He was able to stay like that for three
gasping breaths before the surging water swept him away, his cold
hands too numb to hold on to the bar. He swam a few strokes to
align himself on the surface then brought his feet up and kept them
ahead of him. Many a tipped canoeist has drowned from having a foot
catch between rocks and the water force them under.

Fenn was perhaps ten metres from shore. Not a
great distance, but with this current he knew he couldn’t make the
beach before the upcoming rapids. He opted to maintain his
foot-forward position, hoping to ride them out and find calmer
water before the cold made him incapable of moving. He looked
around for Jenner but couldn’t see him.

Swept on toward the rapids, a back curl of
waves where the water was forced over boulders came rushing at him.
The current swung him around the rock but then tumbled into a
sinkhole and took him with it. Submerged once again, the fluid roar
now had a chime-like quality to it. His hand hit the silt-covered
bottom. A rock banged his knee. The turbulence held him down and
pummeled the air from his lungs while the cold drained his
strength. All other pain became superseded by a terrific
headache.

Another object caught in the flow bumped into
him and he grabbed at it desperately before it had a chance to bob
away. Holding on to the object, he kicked off the bottom and broke
the surface. Coughing and sputtering, he managed to suck in a
lungful of oxygen before he was rolled onto his back. He held onto
his preserver and, with his face clear of the water, saw that it
was the attaché case.

Isn’t that swell, he thought. I could drown
clutching enough money to buy a ferry.

The current spun him around and movement on
the far bank caught his eye. At first he thought it was a black
bear, then he recognized Jenner, on all fours, crawling from the
water. The sight galvanized Fenn. If that out of shape dufus could
survive, then he sure as hell could.

Holding the bag under his chest he kicked and
swam with one arm toward the near shore. He made progress and
finally the water was shallow enough for him to stand without being
swept off his feet. Water ran down his legs as he stepped onto the
beach, the sodden wool kilt clinging to his thighs. In his weakened
state it felt like a lead blanket, and the bag that had seemed so
light and buoyant in the water pulled on his arm like a load of
bricks.

He dropped the bag and sat, then fell back,
on the narrow shore in exhaustion. He heard the beat of rotors come
up the valley and a giant shadow passed over him. Opening his good
eye he saw the helicopter flying toward the far bank where Jenner
had disappeared into the woods. Fenn forced himself to sit up.

“Don’t worry about me,” he yelled after the
chopper. “I’m okay. Really.”

CHAPTER
52

Fenn had left mere moments before Abes got a
response to his transmission and the police helicopter flashed
overhead. Ground support was only minutes away. Kim attended to the
officer as best as she could. His wound didn’t appear to be fatal,
the shot having dispersed enough to pepper him rather than create a
single traumatic entry point. She gave him the bottle of water and
he smiled at the irony of it.

The chopper circled once and then took up
station over the gorge. The beating rotors had drowned out the
sound of the ATV traversing the lower part of the trail but the
radio chatter soon made it plain that the vehicle and its occupants
had gone into the river. Tense moments followed as visual reports
of Jenner and Fenn being swept downstream could not verify their
survival. Finally, the announcement came that both men were out of
the water but on opposite shores.

Voices could also be heard in the woods.

“I can hear your support team coming down the
trail,” Kim said. “If you think it’s all right to leave you here, I
want to make sure Fenn is okay.”

Abes shook his head. “Sorry, Ma’am. This
whole operation has been to secure your safety. I can’t allow you
to head off into a possibly dangerous situation, again.”

Kim used the edge of the blanket to wipe
blood from her hand. “I appreciate what you’ve done. You guys are
heroes. But if one of your team needed assistance, you wouldn’t
wait for someone else to help. You’d get there as fast as you
could.”

“Of course, but we have people already on
scene.”

She got the other bottle of water from the
pack and placed it beside him. “Flying around in a helicopter
doesn’t count when my friend could be injured on the ground. So, if
you don’t mind, I’m going to borrow your bicycle.”

== == ==

Bailey was just getting into his distance
pace, breathing easily, everything in rhythm. Sutton was staying
with him but his technique was poor and he was starting to labour.
They’d received terse reports of a shootout in the woods and an
officer down; apparently the same fellow Bailey had found tending
to the injured suspect on the second floor of the house. Those
undercover guys were something else.

There was still a potential hostage
situation, and with two armed males to apprehend it remained an
active mission. Bailey was cresting a rise near the rim of a gorge
when the chopper reported action down at the river. He could hear
the helicopter hovering east of their position, just beyond a break
in the trees. He waited for Sutton to catch up.

“Gil, you stay with the trail. Officer Abes
should be right around that bend. The medic is on his way. I just
want to see if there’s a quicker way down to the river from that
ridge.”

Sutton acknowledged and jogged on. Bailey
left the path and headed to where open sky beyond the trees
indicated a drop off. He reached the edge of it and, down below,
could see the continuation of the trail. There was a small wooden
hut and beyond that the river. The water was muddy and moving
quickly past the strip of rocky beach. Near the middle, the flow
surged around the overturned ATV and the large submerged rock it
was up against.