Mattie couldn’t take her eyes off the man called Cutter as he lay on the ground a few feet away. A crimson stain the size of a saucer bloomed on his shirt. She hadn’t wanted to go back with him, but she certainly hadn’t wanted to see him shot down like an animal.
She stood frozen, her heart pounding wildly as the four men verged on the pilot. The leader of the group was a thin man of average height. His coal-black hair was swept back from a high forehead. Eyes the color of midnight swept from the man on the ground, to Mattie.
“I see you are a man of your word,” he said to the pilot.
“Signed, sealed and delivered,” the pilot replied.
The man’s black eyes swept down the front of her. “You are not what I expected.”
“I don’t know anything,” she blurted.
Sick amusement danced in his eyes. “What you know remains to be seen, doesn’t it?”
She jolted when he raised his hand and brushed her jaw with his knuckle. “It makes no difference to me if you are a woman or a man. One way or another, you will tell me everything you know about the final phase of EDNA or I will hurt you in ways you could never imagine.”
She believed him. And suddenly she was very sorry the man who’d come to take her back was lying on the ground, dying.
The terrorist motioned toward the fallen agent. “What happened?”
“He made a move.” The pilot shrugged. “I had to take him out.”
“I told you I wanted him alive. Sean Cutter and I have unfinished business.”
“He didn’t give me a choice.”
The other man’s expression darkened, but he said nothing.
The pilot glanced toward dark clouds roiling on the horizon. “Look, there’s a storm moving in. Pay me that last half of the money and I’ll drop you and your associates wherever you need to go. But we’ve got to move now or else risk getting stranded on this godforsaken mountain.”
For the first time Mattie realized that in the last few minutes the wind had picked up. Snow mixed with sleet was swirling around the treetops. A thin layer already covered the ground.
She knew these men were going to kill her. The ringleader had all but promised to torture her for information about EDNA. Once they got what they wanted from her, she would be expendable. A chill that had nothing to do with the cold snaked through her at the thought of the horrors she faced in the coming hours….
“Get in the chopper,” the ringleader said to his men.
“I can take you as far as Canada,” the pilot said as they started toward the hatch.
“Excellent,” the terrorist said. “Let’s go.”
As the pilot stepped into the craft, the terrorist raised his handgun and fired a single shot. Blood spattered the yellow fuselage. The pilot pitched forward and landed on the ground with a thud.
“That’s for killing Sean Cutter,” the terrorist muttered.
Horror and disbelief pummeled her like fists. Another man dead. All because these men wanted the plans for the final phase of EDNA….
She wondered how long she would hold up under torture. She wondered how terrible it would be. And in that instant she decided there was no way she could let them take her alive.
“Fire!”
Mattie glanced toward the chopper to see black smoke billowing from its fuselage. Surprised shouts erupted all around her. The men scrambled from the craft. “Grab the extinguisher!” one of them shouted.
“Watch the woman!”
“The fire is coming from the engine! Quickly, put it out!”
Run!
The flight instinct kicked in with a vengeance. Refusing to think of repercussions, she spun away from the chopper and literally ran for her life.
She darted across the clearing to the forest, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground. She scrambled over the trunk of a fallen tree, through brush that tore at her slacks. She knew they would catch her; there was no way she could elude four men with guns. But terror and adrenaline were driving her, not logic.
Shouts erupted as she fled. She heard her pursuers behind her, following her, breaking through brush. Praying for a miracle, she glanced over her shoulder toward the place where the man called Cutter had fallen.
But he was gone.
Chapter Three
Cutter was no stranger to pain. While the Kevlar vest had saved his life, it hadn’t prevented the bullet from doing a number on his ribs. The vial of fake blood had helped fool them into believing he was mortally wounded, giving him the chance to start the engine fire as a diversion. But with no weapon, no radio, and four well-armed killers to deal with, staying alive would surely prove to be a tad more difficult.
But it was Mattie Logan who was foremost in his mind as he hurried down the deer trail in search of her. He could hear the men shouting in the distance and knew it would be only a matter of time before they caught up with her. Within minutes of capturing her they would load her onto the chopper and cross the border into Canada. He had no intention of letting that happen.