Part Two

Steve was dead. And he'd stood there and let it happen. Danny felt dead himself; numb, empty - words didn't begin to cover it.

"Are we going to walk all night?" one of the men inquired. "Aren't we ever going to make camp?" The other walked ahead carrying a high-powered flashlight, the beam catching stark glimpses of tree trunks, rocks, the crooked trail winding through the hillside. Danny's boot caught on a tree root; he stumbled over a rivulet in the trail, but caught himself.

"Don't even think about it, asshole." The woman nudged the base of Danny's spine with the barrel of her rifle. He ignored her.

They were going to pay. He was going to stay alive that long. All three of them were going to pay - Danny wasn't sure how yet - for murdering Steve.

"Hey, he's carrying a map or something in his pocket," one man reported suddenly. He reached forward and grabbed the map out of Danny's back pocket. Their weary procession stopped. The woman plucked the map out of her henchman's hands, unfolding it and turning the flashlight on it.

She looked at Danny and then down at the map. "Well, well. What's this?" The woman pointed at the circled point on the map. Danny stared at her without speaking. She smiled. "This is where the plane went down." The circle of flashlight beam moved across the map to the second circled point. "So what's so important here?"

"Figure it out," Danny said.

"Oh, we will," the woman said. "We will." She nodded to the others, and prodded Danny with her rifle again.

ooOooOoo

At first studying the ground seemed hopeless, but after a time the moon rose above the trees and he began to discern the mess of footprints into separate tracks. They were using the trail back the path that Danny and Steve had taken that afternoon. Obviously they weren't worried about being followed - or even running into other hikers or park rangers.

Every so often Steve got a faraway glimpse of light through the trees - the stray beam of a flashlight. And once he heard the sharp clatter of rock on rock - miles ahead and outdistancing him fast. He didn't allow himself to think about anything but getting to Danny in time. If he stopped to consider his own situation… well, forgetting about his various aches and pains for a moment - which wasn't all that easy to do the longer the night wore on - he'd never felt quite this isolated or lost.

He wasn't sure how long he followed the others, but Steve was headed back toward a clearing he and Danny had crossed earlier that day when he saw motion in the darkness ahead.

ooOooOoo

"Where is Mo?" The woman said abruptly, looking around the clearing.

"He's gathering wood for a fire," the other man said.

"We're not building a bonfire, for God's sake." She walked out a little way, yelling for Mo. The silence that followed her call was eerie. "Mo!" shrieked the woman. Her voice seemed to echo off the distant mountains and come rolling back louder than before.

They listened intently. "Okay, keep an eye on him." She added as Danny moved to stand up, "No, you don't. Stay where you are, asshole."

"No!" The man said. "We need to stay together."

A tall shadow stepped out of the trees: the woman's flashlight gleamed off the rifle barrel pointed straight at him. "Together is good," Steve said.

For one very strange moment Danny thought he might faint. He could actually hear the blood surging in his head, drowning out coherent thought. The shock was enough to send him rocking back on his heels, staring in disbelief at the shadow that resolved itself into a tense and familiar outline.

"Where's Mo?" The woman asked evenly, gaze on the rifle Steve held. And aside from that pregnant pause before she spoke, she seemed to take Steve's return from the dead without batting an eyelash.

"Unavailable."

Steve's voice. Steve. Alive.

Steve said, "Danny?"

"Right here."

"Are you okay?"

"I am now."

The woman chuckled, and the sound was jarring. "You can't take both of us. Even if you did hit me at this distance and in this light, my henchman will blow a hole through your partner over there. There's no way you can take us both in time."

"You're right," Steve said. "But I guarantee I can - and will - take you." And they could all hear the easy confidence in his voice.

"Okay," the woman said. "So what do you think you have to bargain with?"

"Your life." Steve barely tilted his head in Danny's direction. "The only reason you're not already dead is I want him."

"You do seem sorta sweet on each other," she remarked. She barely twitched her fingers and Steve took two fast steps forward, his finger caressing the trigger but somehow he managed not to pull. "Okay, okay. Keep your hair on!" The woman said, holding very still. "So what's your plan, asshole? Him for me, is that the deal?"

"That's the deal."

Steve's outline was poised, ready. But despite his hard calm, Danny felt the tension, and he suddenly knew what Steve was afraid of. Mo must not be dead, and wherever he was, Steve was afraid he wasn't going to stay there long enough.

"Mexican standoff." The woman sounded amused.

Danny used his back against the tree trunk behind him to lever to his feet. He took a slow step away from the woman, aiming for the shadows of the trees. His hands were still tied behind his back, which meant he was going to have trouble running. But they needed to go because the minute Mo turned up, armed or unarmed, the balance tipped out of their favor.

Danny passed Steve, reaching the fingertips of the shadows. Steve took a slow, careful step backward, his bead on the woman never wavering.

"Boss-" her henchman moved, trying to keep Danny in his sight.

"It's okay," she said calmly. "They're not going far."

Danny reached the safety of the thicket, and a moment later Steve was beside him - and a moment after that the woman her henchman opened fire.

To be continued...