Maddie flew down the highway going 20 miles over the speed limit in her "borrowed" sedan, and forced herself to think about all the positives in the situation.
Logan was gone, but she was pretty sure he wasn't dead.
He was sentimental enough not to take her necklace off unless it was physically removed from his body, so there was a good chance the location she was tracking was accurate. Far more accurate than wherever he had likely dumped his panic button.
And if all else failed, Zach and the cavalry wouldn't be far behind.
Maddie repeated these data points in her head like a mantra as she followed four car lengths behind an equally nondescript vehicle she was pretty sure was carrying Logan, using every counter-surveillance technique she knew.
They were heading south and west, into the mountains of Virginia. Maddie had been here before on vacation once, years ago, to hike a portion of the Appalachian trail with her father. She wasn't familiar with the area enough to have an advantage. But she knew enough to know the terrain changed into steep mountainous cliffs quickly, and there were plenty of places to hide.
It was a good choice, if you were looking to hide someone within three hours of the white house. And without some kind of tracking information, you would be very, very difficult to find.
Maddie quietly thanked herself for being paranoid. Then she chastised herself for not being paranoid enough.
The car pulled off onto an exit somewhere between Lexington and Roanoke, some 30 miles past the last sign for the Shenandoah National Park, and Maddie took the ramp going the opposite direction, turned around at the switchback, and followed. Maddie knew she would have to dramatically increase her following distance once the road grew mountainous, but with her GPS information, there would be no reason to keep such a close tail.
At least, that's what Maddie thought until she heard the helicopter.
As Maddie came around the bend in the road, she saw the car she'd been tailing pulled onto a lookout along the side of the road. A chopper whirred, and lifted off the ground a few hundred feet away.
Maddie smacked her hands against the steering wheel, hard, and muttered a curse under her breath. She slowed her own car, pulling it onto the shoulder.
"How does literally everyone have a goddamn helicopter!" she shouted to herself in exasperation.
But Maddie knew there wasn't more than a moment to spare for her frustrations. She stepped into the edge of the trees and watched the helicopter pull further away, attempting to calculate its flight path.
Maddie didn't have the benefit of a helicopter, so she did the next best thing she could think of. She pulled her phone from her pocket and sent an encrypted text message to Zach.
I'm watching a Gallagher Board member fly across the Shenandoah Valley in an unregistered helicopter. Tell me you have better news.
Zach's response was almost immediate.
We're in some pretty huge trouble, Manchester. If you don't find Logan and bring him back, I'm about to get thrown out of the CIA, you're about to be expelled, and we're both about to be charged as accessories to a kidnapping. Oh, and treason.
Maddie's blood ran cold, but she didn't let herself think about it. Instead she typed a hurried response.
I take it the President just found out. Guess I'll start hiking then. Maybe he can send a chopper.
Maddie's phone buzzed again, but she turned it to silent and slid it into her pocket. Logan was in danger, and she didn't have time to listen to the President's empty threats. At least, she hoped they were empty threats.
It was Maddie's job to protect Logan, and she was going to do just that, even if she had to do it all by herself.
The helicopter had disappeared from view, and Maddie's tracker showed that the location had stabilized. Maddie knew it would take her hours to catch up on foot, particularly given the harrowing terrain, and there was no time to waste. She examined the topography. She charted a course to Logan's location. And then she set off into the woods at a dead run, hoping she hadn't seriously lost stamina during the four months since she left Alaska.
At least it's warmer than Alaska, Maddie thought to herself as she ran. She wasn't able to run far before the terrain grew too steep, and she was forced to climb instead. If it hadn't been for the circumstances, she might have considered making her way up the mountain to be a really satisfying workout, but instead fear gripped her. Climbing this mountain was digging dangerously far into her energy reserves, and she wasn't sure she'd even have anything left to fight with once she reached Logan. With help significantly delayed, or possibly never coming, Maddie knew she might be entirely on her own. Again.
It was okay, she told herself. Maddie was used to being on her own. But she did desperately wish she'd taken her hatchet to the craft fair.
The climb took less time than Maddie expected, in the end. She did have to scale one sheer cliff face, but doing so had shaved nearly an hour and a half off her total hiking time, and that was worth the risk in her mind. Besides, if Maddie had one skill she excelled in besides hatchet-throwing, it was definitely cliff-scaling.
The signal from Logan's tracker grew closer and closer, and eventually, Maddie could see a small cabin nestled into the woods. It was clever, Maddie admitted. The heavy tree covering would make it impossible to find from the sky, and the location was so remote that no one would happen upon it by chance. There had to be a helicopter access point somewhere nearby, but Maddie suspected it was well hidden. Besides, you would have plenty of warning if someone were to show up uninvited by helicopter.
Maddie might have given plenty of warning already, and just not known it, she thought nervously. What were the chances a well-trained spy's safe house would be totally unprotected,
after all? Maddie had to admit that they weren't very good.
There was a very good chance Rosalie Sinclair already knew Maddie was here. There was an even better chance that Maddie's appearance was all part of her plan. Maddie honestly wasn't sure which thought scared her more.
Maddie glanced at her phone in a final, desperate hope that help was on the way. The only response was a not very reassuring message from Zach.
Do what you have to do. I won't let you be alone out there.
Maddie took a nervous breath. She trusted Zach, probably more than she should. If he said he'd find backup for her, he meant it. Right now, he was the only person who had almost as much to
lose as she did. Maddie felt terrible for dragging him into this mess in the first place. In one fell swoop, she had managed to get the President's son kidnapped, ruin the decorated career of a highly respected – some might even say legendary - government operative, and get herself charged with treason.
But Logan was in that cabin.
Maddie inched closer to the edge of the clearing, stepping over at least one laser tripwire as she neared the cabin. How many others had she already set off? She didn't even want to think about it at this point.
This was the place, that was for sure. Logan's dot had been stationary for a while, and though there was no sign of life, the property was far from abandoned. The clearing had been intentionally kept that way, creating a 200-foot open space between the edge of the trees and the cabin. A space that would be nearly impossible to cross without being spotted.
Maddie took a deep breath, and calmed her nerves. This was a suicide mission, and she knew it. If she was being honest with herself, she'd known it since the moment she'd hot-wired that car in the church parking lot. Maybe she'd even known it the minute she'd put the plan in motion.
Rosalie knew it too, Maddie was sure. Surely her life as she knew it would end the moment she was discovered. And when you kidnap the President's son, there's very little chance you won't eventually be discovered.
And just like that, Maddie realized how deeply she was in over her head. Because only one thing could motivate someone to knowingly implode their entire life the way Rosalie was surely imploding hers, and it wasn't money or power or even love. No, Maddie knew from that moment, that, without question, what Rosalie was truly after was vengeance.