Title: Investigative Reporting
Chapter 3:
Disclaimer: Come on, you know it.
Author's note: Chris, Buck and JD walk into a trap, Vin is captured, Ezra is shot, and Sam falls off a cliff. The rest I've said before. Have fun reading!
Review: please?
~~
So much for a vacation. A killer was gunning for the Seven and had captured their respective female compatriots. Upon hearing Chris's description of Darien Lucas, all four ATF agents rushed to tack up their horses. If they were lucky, they could make it to the cabin in two hours and start looking for Mary, Inez and Casey. All they needed was for Vin to return with Clyde, Buck's horse. Sam, bruised and fighting the fatigue associated with a concussion was lying down in the cab of Larabee's truck.
The last cinch had been tightened when the lanky sharpshooter returned on the sturdy gray gelding. Vin hopped off the gelding and quickly traded him for his usual mount, a black Quarter Horse named Peso. "I didn't see a thing cowboy. I figure that even if they had gotten lost, the horses would have had Casey and Mary back here by now. We headin on up to the cabin?"
Chris nodded tightly and swung up into his saddle. "Yep. If Lucas is still as deranged as I remember he'll have left a clue. He'll want to bait us, lure us in. If you all want to back out of this I'd understand. This thing is between me and Lucas."
"Maybe so pard, but we're involved now," Buck told him. "Lucas might want to taunt you, but he kidnapped our lovely lady friends. And like Sam said, there were six of them. He don't seem too interested in a fair fight. We're comin." The other ATF agents nodded in agreement. Chris smiled softly. He had never really expected less, but still wanted to make the offer known.
"All right then. Mount up." Sam had heard the conversation and levered herself out of the truck. Chris shook his head. "Oh no. You've done your part Sam. Go home. Take Ezra's car and get back to the city."
Sam shook her head. "There are three things wrong with that idea Chris. First of all," she stopped and motioned towards Ezra.
The southerner looked outraged. "No. There is absolutely no way I'm giving her the keys to my car."
"I don't need keys to take your car Ez." The realization of the statement quickly silenced him. "But that's neither here nor there. I'm not really in any condition to drive through mountain passes at the moment. I figure falling asleep at the wheel might prove, inconvenient. Secondly, Mary and the others are my friends too. And thirdly, is thirdly even a word, anyway I make it an even six on six. Besides, I owe that bastard a few punches. I'm coming."
Chris said nothing. He merely spurred Job into a trot up the trail. There was no point in arguing with Sam at times. This was one of those times. The others, Vin in front and Ezra to the rear hurried after him. Sam grinned and called to Tap. She mounted, somewhat less than nimbly and set out.
--
The three women were huddled together in the tiny, cold cell. Mary and Casey had been discovered in the woods an hour or so after they had fled the cabin. Four men, also on horseback had surrounded them an herded them at gunpoint back the way they had come. The troop had stopped briefly at the cabin to pick up the remaining men and Inez. The bartender had been rendered unconscious by a terrific blow to the side of her head, courtesy of the man sporting a now separated shoulder. Neither had seen Sam. Their assailants had first tried to hoist Inez onto Clyde, but failed when the gelding spooked and took off. Tap was careening madly about his side of the pen and so they had settled on Spot.
They marched all night without talking. The women ached from the long, hard hours in the saddle. The group traveled ever upward in the night. Mary paid attention to landmarks, hoping that they would be able to make a break for it later. It was only when they reached the camp that she had seen the leader, and the hauntingly familiar face made her shudder.
It was more than a decade since she had interviewed the man, who was both a drug dealer and a killer. And upon seeing the man's scarred face, the pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. Bartonelli's mysterious shipment and his almost instantaneous acceptance into the drug ring finally made sense. Bartonelli had sold out Lucas and his brother to the police, and when Darien was incarcerated he had inherited their supplies, their buyers, and even their business. She had to admit that the whole thing was rather ingenious, for a psychopath anyway.
Inez groaned softly and stirred. Casey and Mary were hovering over her almost instantly. "Where are we?" Inez queried groggily.
"I'm not sure. Some mountain stronghold Lucas set up."
Casey glanced over at her in surprise. "You know him?"
"Too well. He's a killer and an escaped convict. I did a story on him as my first real big undercover piece. He used to be a major player around these parts selling crack and meth. Then one of his associates sold him out to the Denver PD. His brother was killed in a raid and he was sent to prison for life." The blonde reporter's eyes went suddenly wide. "Oh God, Chris. Chris was the one who sent him to jail. He swore revenge."
Inez dragged herself into a sitting position. "Have you talked with him?" Mary nodded. "Is there any reasoning with him?"
"If Darien Lucas is the same man I interviewed ten years ago then no. I sat there with him in his cell and it was so..." she shuddered involuntarily. "Two police officers were there with me, but I gotta tell ya, I have never felt less protected in my life. The way he talked about the men he'd murdered was so...he relished it, every moment of it. The things he described, what he'd done, what he was planning to do to Chris, were so horrible. I was physically ill. I had to go home and wash. We're in real trouble here. I think Chris and the others are walking into a trap."
--
Six riders reached the cabin at around two that afternoon. The ground was cracked and sun baked. The breeze rustled through the leaves of the Aspens and the babble of a nearby creek could be heard. And despite all that the cabin appeared dark and desolate, quiet and eerie. Deep hoofprints littered the area around the cabin. "This was not," Sam stated succinctly, "how I left it."
Chris reined Job back beside her. "I'll bet that Lucas had someone wait until you left. Then he came back and trashed the place. Let's check inside before we start tracking the guy." The men and Sam hitched their mounts to the post and rail fence and ventured into the cabin.
The inside of the edifice lay in shambles. The girl's packs, once heavy and laden with food, clothes and bedding were shredded and their contents dumped onto the floor. The two windows were smashed and the beds overturned. The ATF agent sifted carefully through the rubble, looking for any semblance of a clue.
"hey Chris," Vin called, "come take a look at this." Larabee strode quickly to the closet door where Vin held a large manila envelope in his right hand and a gleaming hunting blade in his left. Chris merely eyed the knife before tearing into the package. He swore softly, throwing the contents onto a nearby tabletop.
Sam picked up one of the photos gingerly between her thumb and forefinger. It was a Polaroid of her lying unconscious on the floor. There were at least a dozen more, all of the Seven, Mary, Casey and Inez. Each glossy back-and-white had a red 'X' stamped over the face of the person in the picture.
"This is truly demented," Ezra commented. There were pictures of them all, with the possible exception of Samantha. She was only present in the background, never the focus of the shooter. Most of the stills were dated within the last month, although some were less recent.
One photo showed Mary and Chris dining at a café. Another portrayed Buck as he flirted in vain with Inez at the Saloon. Vin was shown playing with some of the kids in his neighborhood. There was even a picture of Ezra, stripped to the waist and wearing nothing but a white terry cloth towel beneath that. He was in the middle of his living room, his arms held in front of him at an awkward angle and an intense expression plastered across his face. There was enough detail in the photo to see that Ezra was perched on his toes.
A crimson flush rose up Ezra's neck. Chris looked at him, "What the hell were you doing?"
Ezra smoothed the front of his shirt. "If I remember correctly, and if we are to assume that the dating on this photograph is accurate, I was listening to the climax of a stellar orchestral piece. Bach I believe."
"You're a weird guy Ez." Sam grinned wickedly. Although the seriousness of the situation was not lost on her, Sam couldn't help but tease the southerner a little. She snatched the picture from Buck's hand. "I think I'll hold onto this for the time being. Maybe I'll blow it up and post it in the women's bathroom."
Ezra's eyes narrowed to slits. "You wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't I? It serves you right for writing, 'I am a contumacious reprobate' on the hood of my car in big block letters. Do you realize I have to get the damned thing repainted because they can't get off what you wrote?" JD raised an eyebrow at her. "Well why do you think it's been in the shop for a week? No, I think you deserve what you get."
"Give me that inflammatory representation of my person Hunter!" he growled. He swiped for it and missed. "I'm not kidding. That could be considered evidence you know."
"Hey!" Chris barked sharply. "Hate to interrupt you two but we need to focus. Lucas is makin this too easy. He even supplied us with a map." He unfurled the paper and lay it out for everyone to see. Two black circles marred the surface of the map. The first marked the cabin, the second the site where Mary and the others were being held. "How long?" He asked Vin.
Vin traced the path between the two points with his finger. "It's about a days ride. If we leave in the next hour and ride till dark, and start again once first light hits, we should be there by ten or eleven tomorrow morning."
"Let's move." Larabee headed for the door.
"Hold up a second there cowboy. Let's work out a plan before we go ridin out." At first Chris was surprised, then mildly embarrassed. He usually wasn't ready to run into a fight half cocked. He halted himself mid step and came back. Vin tapped the map with his forefinger. "The trail splits here. The Western fork heads down and loops around the ridge, eventually crossing the river a few miles downstream. Once you cross, you're only about a mile or so outside of where Lucas has marked on the map. It's trap."
"I'm counting on it Vin. Where does the Eastern fork lead?"
"See now the Eastern fork cuts across the river here. Then there is a little trail about halfway up the ridge you can travel, but its treacherous. Saves about an hour off the ride."
"Can you make the Eastern trail?" Chris asked pointedly.
"Sure. I've hiked it before. I'll end up behind the camp about an hour or so before ya'll get there."
Chris smiled. "Perfect. I'll take two and we'll ride around the ridge like Lucas expects. You and the others set up a perimeter on the North side of the camp. Then, when we ride in, we'll have both sides covered."
Vin nodded as he considered the proposition. "I'll take Ez and Sam. If he's been watching us as closely as I think he has, he'll be expectin you, Buck and JD considering that it's your girls he has up there. I'm hopin he won't be as ready for me or Ez. And you can bet he won't be expecting Sam either."
Samantha smiled wanly. "Little does he know I have a hard head."
"Truly astute Ms. Hunter. Your head is not made of flesh and bone at all, but rather I should think made of concrete and is therefore not affected by a mere pummeling."
Sam elbowed his side. "Shut up, wise ass."
"Ms. Hunter please. I am merely stating my perceptions of the facts. Informing me so crudely that you wish for me to cease in affronting my opinions is highly inappropriate."
Sam threw her hands into the air and stalked from the cabin. "Why do I even bother?"
The rest of the Seven followed at a slower pace. Vin fell into step beside Ezra. "You bug the hell out of her."
Ezra smiled conspiratorially. "I know. It's highly entertaining."
They filtered from the cabin, stuffing their saddlebags with all the supplies from the cabin that were salvageable. Sam strapped her sleeping bag on Tap's haunches, just behind the cantle of the saddle. They left as it neared three. Vin and Chris took the lead, following the hoofprints left by Lucas's man in the mud. Buck and JD rode just behind, leaving Sam and Ezra to take up the rear.
The six rode for hours in virtual silence. The rocky, rough terrain made for slow going. Twice they had to pull up and rest while stones were dug out of the shoes of some of the more tender footed horses. They traveled not on a marked trail at all, but rather gaps in the trees just large enough for the horses to squeeze through. To Vin's credit however, he lost the trail only once, and briefly at that, when the rider veered into a pine grove. Needles carpeted the earth and no hoof prints could be seen. Vin found them quickly as the pines opened up again.
By the time night fell everyone ached from the day in the saddle. The horses stood listlessly, their bodies caked with dried sweat and lather. Dirt encrusted everything from the horses, to the people right on down to the food. Fortunately they were all so hungry no one noticed, or just didn't care.
Chris was less than happy about stopping, but even in his current frantic state of mind, he realized that they could venture no further in the dark. He paced back and forth through the small clearing. Vin, the only person who seemed as fresh as he had in the morning, trudged off into the undergrowth to collect some firewood. Buck and JD pitched the three tents and Sam tended to the horses. And while they all worked, Ezra sat, leaning heavily against an ancient fir.
"What the hell are you doing Ezra?" Sam asked. She balanced a saddle precariously underneath one arm and held a large canteen in the other.
One of the southerner's eyes slit open. "I do not engage in menial labor Ms. Hunter." He seemed to feel that the discussion was finished and almost immediately drifted back into sleep.
Sam bristled. She was tired, saddle sore and bruised practically from head to toe. Her right knee held a persistent dull ache she attributed to one of Lucas' kicks. Ezra was no more tired than the rest of them. She was not in the mood to do Ezra's share of the work.
Sam set the saddle on the ground and strode over to where the undercover agent sat. "Ezra." No response. "Ezra," she repeated. Still there was no sign of life from the man. "Fine," she grumbled, "be that way." In a swift twist of her wrist she had uncorked the canteen and dumped it over his head.
Ezra leapt to his feet. The front of his shirt was drenched as well as his hair and shoulders. "What the devil?" he sputtered.
"Whoops. I guess I spilled the water for the horses." She shoved the canteen into the man's chest. "Now that you're up you can get it. There's a brook about a quarter mile that way. Thanks Ez." She left before he had a chance to argue.
Ezra pushed a lock of dark brown hair off his forehead and wiped the water away from his eyes with his palm. He looked to the right and left, but no one was paying him any mind. He sighed and started off in the direction Sam had indicated. "Insufferable witch."
Sam stalked away, hefting the saddle once again. "Lazy bastard."
And so it was there, in the dim light of the moon that the ATF agents spent the night. They all slept on and off, waking after less than an hour to some horrible thought, some imagined tortuous deed Lucas was performing. No one, not even Ezra needed to be wakened at first light, for they had never really slept at all.
--
"Here we are Cowboy." Vin put up his hand to signal a halt. The six riders took in the scene. The trail, for there was an actual trail now, split into two forks. Both headed down a hundred feet or so, but in opposite directions. To the right, the trail sloped gradually down to the bank of the river. The waters swirled ominously, splitting the rock in two and forming a deep gorge with high steep walls. The other trail sloped down more steeply and edged around canyon wall.
"All right then. We'll be seeing you all in a few hours then. Be careful Vin, Lucas isn't just a killer, he's smart, and that's the worst kind of all."
Vin leaned against the saddle horn and tipped his hat to his best friend. "No problem pard. We'll be watchin our backs. You just remember to do the same. Don't forget, he's expecting you."
With a final wave, Chris, JD, and Buck disappeared behind the massive stone wall. Vin waved his cohorts forward. They reached the bottom of the trail and spread out, riding three abreast on the river's edge. The tiny stones that lined the bank crunched underneath the hooves of the horses. The river gurgled by them, its surface unscathed by rapids. The water looking like rippling glass.
"We cross here," Vin stated succinctly. "Any farther up or down stream and you'll meet up with some pretty heady rapids. It gets deep enough in the middle for the horses to need to swim, but leave their heads alone and don't try to guide them. Sound good to you two?" Ezra and Sam nodded.
Vin urged peso into the water. The obedient black gelding stepped into the river with no sign of hesitation. Chaucer stopped at the water's edge and snorted. Ezra squeezed his sides gently. Chaucer responded by striking out angrily with a back leg. He tossed his head high in the air. Ezra leaned closer to his neck, murmuring softly into his ears and rubbing his silken neck. The gelding laid back his ears, but with a final, irritated swish of his tail, waded into the current.
Tap placed a single hoof into the water and stopped dead in his tracks. He seemed paralyzed for a moment or two before leaping back onto dry land. The rangy bay skittered lightly on his toes. "Come on bud, it's just a little water," Sam urged to no avail.
Tap became increasingly nervous as the other two horses crossed the river. Peso stood on the opposite bank, peering back at the bay curiously. Chaucer and Ezra were both occupied with the business of drying off. Tap trotted first one way, then the other, whickering anxiously to his friends. Sam let the horse stew a bit. Finally he stopped again, and Sam took the opportunity to deliver a soft kick.
The horse gathered himself, sinking slightly underneath Sam as his muscles tensed. Then the gelding leapt high into the air, landing with a great splash some ten feet out in the water. He swam across, his gaze never leaving Peso. As soon as he scrambled from the water, he attached himself to Peso's side, nickering and taking a great, relieved sigh.
"Where do we proceed to from the present location Mr. Tanner?"
Vin tilted his hat back on his head. He pointed to the sheer wall on their right. It was nearly one hundred feet high, with tall pine trees lining its edge. "Up there."
"Up where? I don't see anything."
"There's a tiny trail that runs along the edge of the cliff, some eighty feet up. It winds down the gorge with the river until just past the falls. From there we can make good time to Lucas's camp." The sharpshooter didn't wait for a response, but instead aimed Peso up the new trail. Ezra shrugged at Sam and mounted Chaucer.
--
"You must be shitting me." Sam muttered. The three friends stood on a small ledge some eighty feet above the river below. Sam was sure Vin was mistaken. They couldn't possibly be going on the path in front of her. The 'path' was little more than a ledge perhaps twenty-four inches wide in its entirety that hugged the side of the cliff face.
To the right was a smooth wall of sandstone, and to the left, a steep hill one would be hard pressed to walk down that ended in a sheer drop-off twenty feet below the path. Sam started to wheeze and turned sharply away from the edge. To her, the trail seemed barely wide enough for humans to walk on, let alone horses. She swiped at the beads of nervous sweat that started to drip down her forehead.
"I shit you not," Vin assured her.
"Why Ms. Hunter, do you suffer from acrophobia?" Ezra teased.
"So I got a little thing with heights. What's it to you Standish? I mean, other than another thing you can laugh about at my expense." Sam snapped. Ezra was taken aback. Usually Sam took his ribbings more in stride.
Vin eyed Sam. "You gonna be all right Sammy?"
She took a deep breath and forced her hands to stop shaking. "I'll deal. Can we just get started please?"
Vin nodded. Then he dismounted. "We walk from here on in till we get past the falls." He started over the ledge. Ezra and Chaucer followed.
Sam clung near Tap's shoulder. The trail was so narrow that there was no way to turn around, no place to go back. She would have a one way ticket to the other side. "Don't look down. Everything is fine as long as you don't look down."
They walked. They walked for half an hour and then they walked some more. They heard the roar of the falls before they saw them. Then, as the rounded the last hair pin curve in the trail they appeared. They were majestic, the water spilling out into the air and crashing into the pool below. A light mist hung near the base. Ezra and Vin appreciated the waterfall for what it was. Sam, on the other hand, appreciated it for what it meant; the end of the trail and the end of her vertigo.
Sam tugged gently on Tap's reigns. The thoroughbred refused to budge. His ears were pricked and turned like rotating antennas. He blew out air through his nostrils and danced in place. "Easy boy." She told him.
"What's wrong with him?" Vin called back to her.
"I'm not sure! He might be freaked by the noise. Easy." The horse charged forward, nearly running up onto Chaucer's heels before Sam could stop him.
"Mr. Tanner, I believe the horses are picking up on something we are not. Chaucer too seems rather disconcerted."
Sam and Vin both stared at the chestnut. He seemed, at least on the surface, to be his usual, calm self. 'That horse has a poker face as good as Ezra's,' Vin thought. Then he saw that the horse was not at ease at all, and that it was only Ezra's comforting hand on his shoulder that kept him from exploding.
And while Vin was observing Chaucer, Tap was becoming ever more anxious. He flung his head around, trying to break Sam's constraint. Chaucer took a few steps forward. Tap half reared and spurted. He hit Sam with his shoulder as he charged past her. Her left foot slipped off the edge of the trail. Her injured knee, the right one, could not sustain her weight on its own. It buckled, and Sam was suddenly aware of the fact that she was sliding down the hill.
She slid down the sandy, rocky slope, desperately clutching at the loose earth with her fingers. With every second she was sliding closer and closer to the edge, and a drop of more than sixty feet to the river below. Her fingers clawed the dirt, but there were no hand holds. The rocks scraped her palms and her face. Clods of dirt and debris skittered past her. Something tore at the knee of her jeans, tearing them to shreds.
Her feet were beginning to slip into the air when her hand found hold of something. Her plunge was halted with a jolt. Sam looked up. A small shrubbery was all that held her on the hill. Not wanting to wait for the weed to come loose, Sam used it to haul herself up onto a protruding piece of slate. She collapsed onto the stone, her sides heaving.
"Sam? Sam are you okay?" It was Vin, leaning over the trail to peer down at her.
She forced herself to sit upright, noticing for the first time the excruciating pain in her knee. She looked down. When her pants leg had been shredded, so apparently had her knee. She cursed. "Well I got some good new and some bad news."
A second head appeared next to Vin's. Ezra's. "Give us the bad news first."
"Well, the bad new is I just fell off a cliff."
Weak laughter floated down to her ears. "And the good news?"
"My kneecap is still where it should be." She squinted as the sun caught her eyes. There was definite laughter this time. "How bout tossing me a rope so I can get the hell out of here?"
"Hold on a second." Both men disappeared.
Sam waited, and waited. Something was wrong. "Hey guys! It takes you five minutes to grab a rope off a saddle? What's the hold up?"
She heard Tanner's Texas drawl respond, but didn't see the man. "Not right now Sam. Give us a minute."
"hey! What the hell is going on up there?" There was no response.
**
Vin and Ezra stood beside their respective mounts, their hands raised slightly above their heads. "You knew," Tanner accused softly.
Lucas shrugged, the aim of his gun never wavering. "I guessed. Mr. Larabee is not a foolish man. I never expected him to walk into a trap, especially such an obvious one. Although I have to admit, I thought there would be only two of you. I hadn't counted on her being here."
Ezra shrugged, "She's got a hard head." Lucas' icy glare was tuned on Ezra. Ezra didn't even flinch. The glare Lucas shot him was far less intimidating than the one Chris shot him on a regular basis.
"Nevertheless, it seems that I don't have any need to worry. I believe she'll remain there for quite a while."
"You can't just leave her there!" Vin cried.
"Yeah, you can't just leave me here!" Obviously Sam was taking part in the discussion, even though they couldn't see her. He smiled tightly.
"I can do whatever I damn well please. She stays and you two come."
"Obviously your mother never taught you any manners sir," Ezra chided. "if she had you would know to ask nicely." Vin rolled his eyes. Ezra really didn't know when to shut up.
Lucas' eyes narrowed. "You think you're funny?"
'It's a rhetorical question Ez. Don't answer,' Vin pleaded silently.
"Some people find my wit endearing, even charming."
"I think his wit sucks! Is that enough to warrant getting me out of here!?" Sam's voice called.
"You talk too much," Lucas growled.
Ezra cocked his head to the right. "I suppose I may seem mildly garrulous to a person of limited intellect, one whose vocabulary is probably limited to two syllables or less. Take heart, there a plenty of rudimentary learning programs in our states fine penitentiary."
"Shut up."
"Yeah Ezra, shut the hell up and save everyone a lot of headaches," Vin told him.
"Why Mr. Tanner are you actually going..."
"I said shut up."
"...to side with this pathetic example of a criminal?"
"Hey you!" Vin and Ezra stopped bickering when Lucas yelled. Vins' eyes widened. Ezra froze. The gun went off.
**
Sam cringed when she heard the shot. A shower of sediment rained down on her and her perch. She watched in horror as a figure slid down the hill. The familiar figure swathed in green slid past her and over the edge. She didn't even hear herself scream. The figure flew in the air momentarily, before slamming bodily into the water below, and disappearing in the whitewater. Sam's cry split the air, "Ezra!!!!"
End Chapter three
Like it? I will write more, but oh I have classes too. Darn.
Chapter 3:
Disclaimer: Come on, you know it.
Author's note: Chris, Buck and JD walk into a trap, Vin is captured, Ezra is shot, and Sam falls off a cliff. The rest I've said before. Have fun reading!
Review: please?
~~
So much for a vacation. A killer was gunning for the Seven and had captured their respective female compatriots. Upon hearing Chris's description of Darien Lucas, all four ATF agents rushed to tack up their horses. If they were lucky, they could make it to the cabin in two hours and start looking for Mary, Inez and Casey. All they needed was for Vin to return with Clyde, Buck's horse. Sam, bruised and fighting the fatigue associated with a concussion was lying down in the cab of Larabee's truck.
The last cinch had been tightened when the lanky sharpshooter returned on the sturdy gray gelding. Vin hopped off the gelding and quickly traded him for his usual mount, a black Quarter Horse named Peso. "I didn't see a thing cowboy. I figure that even if they had gotten lost, the horses would have had Casey and Mary back here by now. We headin on up to the cabin?"
Chris nodded tightly and swung up into his saddle. "Yep. If Lucas is still as deranged as I remember he'll have left a clue. He'll want to bait us, lure us in. If you all want to back out of this I'd understand. This thing is between me and Lucas."
"Maybe so pard, but we're involved now," Buck told him. "Lucas might want to taunt you, but he kidnapped our lovely lady friends. And like Sam said, there were six of them. He don't seem too interested in a fair fight. We're comin." The other ATF agents nodded in agreement. Chris smiled softly. He had never really expected less, but still wanted to make the offer known.
"All right then. Mount up." Sam had heard the conversation and levered herself out of the truck. Chris shook his head. "Oh no. You've done your part Sam. Go home. Take Ezra's car and get back to the city."
Sam shook her head. "There are three things wrong with that idea Chris. First of all," she stopped and motioned towards Ezra.
The southerner looked outraged. "No. There is absolutely no way I'm giving her the keys to my car."
"I don't need keys to take your car Ez." The realization of the statement quickly silenced him. "But that's neither here nor there. I'm not really in any condition to drive through mountain passes at the moment. I figure falling asleep at the wheel might prove, inconvenient. Secondly, Mary and the others are my friends too. And thirdly, is thirdly even a word, anyway I make it an even six on six. Besides, I owe that bastard a few punches. I'm coming."
Chris said nothing. He merely spurred Job into a trot up the trail. There was no point in arguing with Sam at times. This was one of those times. The others, Vin in front and Ezra to the rear hurried after him. Sam grinned and called to Tap. She mounted, somewhat less than nimbly and set out.
--
The three women were huddled together in the tiny, cold cell. Mary and Casey had been discovered in the woods an hour or so after they had fled the cabin. Four men, also on horseback had surrounded them an herded them at gunpoint back the way they had come. The troop had stopped briefly at the cabin to pick up the remaining men and Inez. The bartender had been rendered unconscious by a terrific blow to the side of her head, courtesy of the man sporting a now separated shoulder. Neither had seen Sam. Their assailants had first tried to hoist Inez onto Clyde, but failed when the gelding spooked and took off. Tap was careening madly about his side of the pen and so they had settled on Spot.
They marched all night without talking. The women ached from the long, hard hours in the saddle. The group traveled ever upward in the night. Mary paid attention to landmarks, hoping that they would be able to make a break for it later. It was only when they reached the camp that she had seen the leader, and the hauntingly familiar face made her shudder.
It was more than a decade since she had interviewed the man, who was both a drug dealer and a killer. And upon seeing the man's scarred face, the pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. Bartonelli's mysterious shipment and his almost instantaneous acceptance into the drug ring finally made sense. Bartonelli had sold out Lucas and his brother to the police, and when Darien was incarcerated he had inherited their supplies, their buyers, and even their business. She had to admit that the whole thing was rather ingenious, for a psychopath anyway.
Inez groaned softly and stirred. Casey and Mary were hovering over her almost instantly. "Where are we?" Inez queried groggily.
"I'm not sure. Some mountain stronghold Lucas set up."
Casey glanced over at her in surprise. "You know him?"
"Too well. He's a killer and an escaped convict. I did a story on him as my first real big undercover piece. He used to be a major player around these parts selling crack and meth. Then one of his associates sold him out to the Denver PD. His brother was killed in a raid and he was sent to prison for life." The blonde reporter's eyes went suddenly wide. "Oh God, Chris. Chris was the one who sent him to jail. He swore revenge."
Inez dragged herself into a sitting position. "Have you talked with him?" Mary nodded. "Is there any reasoning with him?"
"If Darien Lucas is the same man I interviewed ten years ago then no. I sat there with him in his cell and it was so..." she shuddered involuntarily. "Two police officers were there with me, but I gotta tell ya, I have never felt less protected in my life. The way he talked about the men he'd murdered was so...he relished it, every moment of it. The things he described, what he'd done, what he was planning to do to Chris, were so horrible. I was physically ill. I had to go home and wash. We're in real trouble here. I think Chris and the others are walking into a trap."
--
Six riders reached the cabin at around two that afternoon. The ground was cracked and sun baked. The breeze rustled through the leaves of the Aspens and the babble of a nearby creek could be heard. And despite all that the cabin appeared dark and desolate, quiet and eerie. Deep hoofprints littered the area around the cabin. "This was not," Sam stated succinctly, "how I left it."
Chris reined Job back beside her. "I'll bet that Lucas had someone wait until you left. Then he came back and trashed the place. Let's check inside before we start tracking the guy." The men and Sam hitched their mounts to the post and rail fence and ventured into the cabin.
The inside of the edifice lay in shambles. The girl's packs, once heavy and laden with food, clothes and bedding were shredded and their contents dumped onto the floor. The two windows were smashed and the beds overturned. The ATF agent sifted carefully through the rubble, looking for any semblance of a clue.
"hey Chris," Vin called, "come take a look at this." Larabee strode quickly to the closet door where Vin held a large manila envelope in his right hand and a gleaming hunting blade in his left. Chris merely eyed the knife before tearing into the package. He swore softly, throwing the contents onto a nearby tabletop.
Sam picked up one of the photos gingerly between her thumb and forefinger. It was a Polaroid of her lying unconscious on the floor. There were at least a dozen more, all of the Seven, Mary, Casey and Inez. Each glossy back-and-white had a red 'X' stamped over the face of the person in the picture.
"This is truly demented," Ezra commented. There were pictures of them all, with the possible exception of Samantha. She was only present in the background, never the focus of the shooter. Most of the stills were dated within the last month, although some were less recent.
One photo showed Mary and Chris dining at a café. Another portrayed Buck as he flirted in vain with Inez at the Saloon. Vin was shown playing with some of the kids in his neighborhood. There was even a picture of Ezra, stripped to the waist and wearing nothing but a white terry cloth towel beneath that. He was in the middle of his living room, his arms held in front of him at an awkward angle and an intense expression plastered across his face. There was enough detail in the photo to see that Ezra was perched on his toes.
A crimson flush rose up Ezra's neck. Chris looked at him, "What the hell were you doing?"
Ezra smoothed the front of his shirt. "If I remember correctly, and if we are to assume that the dating on this photograph is accurate, I was listening to the climax of a stellar orchestral piece. Bach I believe."
"You're a weird guy Ez." Sam grinned wickedly. Although the seriousness of the situation was not lost on her, Sam couldn't help but tease the southerner a little. She snatched the picture from Buck's hand. "I think I'll hold onto this for the time being. Maybe I'll blow it up and post it in the women's bathroom."
Ezra's eyes narrowed to slits. "You wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't I? It serves you right for writing, 'I am a contumacious reprobate' on the hood of my car in big block letters. Do you realize I have to get the damned thing repainted because they can't get off what you wrote?" JD raised an eyebrow at her. "Well why do you think it's been in the shop for a week? No, I think you deserve what you get."
"Give me that inflammatory representation of my person Hunter!" he growled. He swiped for it and missed. "I'm not kidding. That could be considered evidence you know."
"Hey!" Chris barked sharply. "Hate to interrupt you two but we need to focus. Lucas is makin this too easy. He even supplied us with a map." He unfurled the paper and lay it out for everyone to see. Two black circles marred the surface of the map. The first marked the cabin, the second the site where Mary and the others were being held. "How long?" He asked Vin.
Vin traced the path between the two points with his finger. "It's about a days ride. If we leave in the next hour and ride till dark, and start again once first light hits, we should be there by ten or eleven tomorrow morning."
"Let's move." Larabee headed for the door.
"Hold up a second there cowboy. Let's work out a plan before we go ridin out." At first Chris was surprised, then mildly embarrassed. He usually wasn't ready to run into a fight half cocked. He halted himself mid step and came back. Vin tapped the map with his forefinger. "The trail splits here. The Western fork heads down and loops around the ridge, eventually crossing the river a few miles downstream. Once you cross, you're only about a mile or so outside of where Lucas has marked on the map. It's trap."
"I'm counting on it Vin. Where does the Eastern fork lead?"
"See now the Eastern fork cuts across the river here. Then there is a little trail about halfway up the ridge you can travel, but its treacherous. Saves about an hour off the ride."
"Can you make the Eastern trail?" Chris asked pointedly.
"Sure. I've hiked it before. I'll end up behind the camp about an hour or so before ya'll get there."
Chris smiled. "Perfect. I'll take two and we'll ride around the ridge like Lucas expects. You and the others set up a perimeter on the North side of the camp. Then, when we ride in, we'll have both sides covered."
Vin nodded as he considered the proposition. "I'll take Ez and Sam. If he's been watching us as closely as I think he has, he'll be expectin you, Buck and JD considering that it's your girls he has up there. I'm hopin he won't be as ready for me or Ez. And you can bet he won't be expecting Sam either."
Samantha smiled wanly. "Little does he know I have a hard head."
"Truly astute Ms. Hunter. Your head is not made of flesh and bone at all, but rather I should think made of concrete and is therefore not affected by a mere pummeling."
Sam elbowed his side. "Shut up, wise ass."
"Ms. Hunter please. I am merely stating my perceptions of the facts. Informing me so crudely that you wish for me to cease in affronting my opinions is highly inappropriate."
Sam threw her hands into the air and stalked from the cabin. "Why do I even bother?"
The rest of the Seven followed at a slower pace. Vin fell into step beside Ezra. "You bug the hell out of her."
Ezra smiled conspiratorially. "I know. It's highly entertaining."
They filtered from the cabin, stuffing their saddlebags with all the supplies from the cabin that were salvageable. Sam strapped her sleeping bag on Tap's haunches, just behind the cantle of the saddle. They left as it neared three. Vin and Chris took the lead, following the hoofprints left by Lucas's man in the mud. Buck and JD rode just behind, leaving Sam and Ezra to take up the rear.
The six rode for hours in virtual silence. The rocky, rough terrain made for slow going. Twice they had to pull up and rest while stones were dug out of the shoes of some of the more tender footed horses. They traveled not on a marked trail at all, but rather gaps in the trees just large enough for the horses to squeeze through. To Vin's credit however, he lost the trail only once, and briefly at that, when the rider veered into a pine grove. Needles carpeted the earth and no hoof prints could be seen. Vin found them quickly as the pines opened up again.
By the time night fell everyone ached from the day in the saddle. The horses stood listlessly, their bodies caked with dried sweat and lather. Dirt encrusted everything from the horses, to the people right on down to the food. Fortunately they were all so hungry no one noticed, or just didn't care.
Chris was less than happy about stopping, but even in his current frantic state of mind, he realized that they could venture no further in the dark. He paced back and forth through the small clearing. Vin, the only person who seemed as fresh as he had in the morning, trudged off into the undergrowth to collect some firewood. Buck and JD pitched the three tents and Sam tended to the horses. And while they all worked, Ezra sat, leaning heavily against an ancient fir.
"What the hell are you doing Ezra?" Sam asked. She balanced a saddle precariously underneath one arm and held a large canteen in the other.
One of the southerner's eyes slit open. "I do not engage in menial labor Ms. Hunter." He seemed to feel that the discussion was finished and almost immediately drifted back into sleep.
Sam bristled. She was tired, saddle sore and bruised practically from head to toe. Her right knee held a persistent dull ache she attributed to one of Lucas' kicks. Ezra was no more tired than the rest of them. She was not in the mood to do Ezra's share of the work.
Sam set the saddle on the ground and strode over to where the undercover agent sat. "Ezra." No response. "Ezra," she repeated. Still there was no sign of life from the man. "Fine," she grumbled, "be that way." In a swift twist of her wrist she had uncorked the canteen and dumped it over his head.
Ezra leapt to his feet. The front of his shirt was drenched as well as his hair and shoulders. "What the devil?" he sputtered.
"Whoops. I guess I spilled the water for the horses." She shoved the canteen into the man's chest. "Now that you're up you can get it. There's a brook about a quarter mile that way. Thanks Ez." She left before he had a chance to argue.
Ezra pushed a lock of dark brown hair off his forehead and wiped the water away from his eyes with his palm. He looked to the right and left, but no one was paying him any mind. He sighed and started off in the direction Sam had indicated. "Insufferable witch."
Sam stalked away, hefting the saddle once again. "Lazy bastard."
And so it was there, in the dim light of the moon that the ATF agents spent the night. They all slept on and off, waking after less than an hour to some horrible thought, some imagined tortuous deed Lucas was performing. No one, not even Ezra needed to be wakened at first light, for they had never really slept at all.
--
"Here we are Cowboy." Vin put up his hand to signal a halt. The six riders took in the scene. The trail, for there was an actual trail now, split into two forks. Both headed down a hundred feet or so, but in opposite directions. To the right, the trail sloped gradually down to the bank of the river. The waters swirled ominously, splitting the rock in two and forming a deep gorge with high steep walls. The other trail sloped down more steeply and edged around canyon wall.
"All right then. We'll be seeing you all in a few hours then. Be careful Vin, Lucas isn't just a killer, he's smart, and that's the worst kind of all."
Vin leaned against the saddle horn and tipped his hat to his best friend. "No problem pard. We'll be watchin our backs. You just remember to do the same. Don't forget, he's expecting you."
With a final wave, Chris, JD, and Buck disappeared behind the massive stone wall. Vin waved his cohorts forward. They reached the bottom of the trail and spread out, riding three abreast on the river's edge. The tiny stones that lined the bank crunched underneath the hooves of the horses. The river gurgled by them, its surface unscathed by rapids. The water looking like rippling glass.
"We cross here," Vin stated succinctly. "Any farther up or down stream and you'll meet up with some pretty heady rapids. It gets deep enough in the middle for the horses to need to swim, but leave their heads alone and don't try to guide them. Sound good to you two?" Ezra and Sam nodded.
Vin urged peso into the water. The obedient black gelding stepped into the river with no sign of hesitation. Chaucer stopped at the water's edge and snorted. Ezra squeezed his sides gently. Chaucer responded by striking out angrily with a back leg. He tossed his head high in the air. Ezra leaned closer to his neck, murmuring softly into his ears and rubbing his silken neck. The gelding laid back his ears, but with a final, irritated swish of his tail, waded into the current.
Tap placed a single hoof into the water and stopped dead in his tracks. He seemed paralyzed for a moment or two before leaping back onto dry land. The rangy bay skittered lightly on his toes. "Come on bud, it's just a little water," Sam urged to no avail.
Tap became increasingly nervous as the other two horses crossed the river. Peso stood on the opposite bank, peering back at the bay curiously. Chaucer and Ezra were both occupied with the business of drying off. Tap trotted first one way, then the other, whickering anxiously to his friends. Sam let the horse stew a bit. Finally he stopped again, and Sam took the opportunity to deliver a soft kick.
The horse gathered himself, sinking slightly underneath Sam as his muscles tensed. Then the gelding leapt high into the air, landing with a great splash some ten feet out in the water. He swam across, his gaze never leaving Peso. As soon as he scrambled from the water, he attached himself to Peso's side, nickering and taking a great, relieved sigh.
"Where do we proceed to from the present location Mr. Tanner?"
Vin tilted his hat back on his head. He pointed to the sheer wall on their right. It was nearly one hundred feet high, with tall pine trees lining its edge. "Up there."
"Up where? I don't see anything."
"There's a tiny trail that runs along the edge of the cliff, some eighty feet up. It winds down the gorge with the river until just past the falls. From there we can make good time to Lucas's camp." The sharpshooter didn't wait for a response, but instead aimed Peso up the new trail. Ezra shrugged at Sam and mounted Chaucer.
--
"You must be shitting me." Sam muttered. The three friends stood on a small ledge some eighty feet above the river below. Sam was sure Vin was mistaken. They couldn't possibly be going on the path in front of her. The 'path' was little more than a ledge perhaps twenty-four inches wide in its entirety that hugged the side of the cliff face.
To the right was a smooth wall of sandstone, and to the left, a steep hill one would be hard pressed to walk down that ended in a sheer drop-off twenty feet below the path. Sam started to wheeze and turned sharply away from the edge. To her, the trail seemed barely wide enough for humans to walk on, let alone horses. She swiped at the beads of nervous sweat that started to drip down her forehead.
"I shit you not," Vin assured her.
"Why Ms. Hunter, do you suffer from acrophobia?" Ezra teased.
"So I got a little thing with heights. What's it to you Standish? I mean, other than another thing you can laugh about at my expense." Sam snapped. Ezra was taken aback. Usually Sam took his ribbings more in stride.
Vin eyed Sam. "You gonna be all right Sammy?"
She took a deep breath and forced her hands to stop shaking. "I'll deal. Can we just get started please?"
Vin nodded. Then he dismounted. "We walk from here on in till we get past the falls." He started over the ledge. Ezra and Chaucer followed.
Sam clung near Tap's shoulder. The trail was so narrow that there was no way to turn around, no place to go back. She would have a one way ticket to the other side. "Don't look down. Everything is fine as long as you don't look down."
They walked. They walked for half an hour and then they walked some more. They heard the roar of the falls before they saw them. Then, as the rounded the last hair pin curve in the trail they appeared. They were majestic, the water spilling out into the air and crashing into the pool below. A light mist hung near the base. Ezra and Vin appreciated the waterfall for what it was. Sam, on the other hand, appreciated it for what it meant; the end of the trail and the end of her vertigo.
Sam tugged gently on Tap's reigns. The thoroughbred refused to budge. His ears were pricked and turned like rotating antennas. He blew out air through his nostrils and danced in place. "Easy boy." She told him.
"What's wrong with him?" Vin called back to her.
"I'm not sure! He might be freaked by the noise. Easy." The horse charged forward, nearly running up onto Chaucer's heels before Sam could stop him.
"Mr. Tanner, I believe the horses are picking up on something we are not. Chaucer too seems rather disconcerted."
Sam and Vin both stared at the chestnut. He seemed, at least on the surface, to be his usual, calm self. 'That horse has a poker face as good as Ezra's,' Vin thought. Then he saw that the horse was not at ease at all, and that it was only Ezra's comforting hand on his shoulder that kept him from exploding.
And while Vin was observing Chaucer, Tap was becoming ever more anxious. He flung his head around, trying to break Sam's constraint. Chaucer took a few steps forward. Tap half reared and spurted. He hit Sam with his shoulder as he charged past her. Her left foot slipped off the edge of the trail. Her injured knee, the right one, could not sustain her weight on its own. It buckled, and Sam was suddenly aware of the fact that she was sliding down the hill.
She slid down the sandy, rocky slope, desperately clutching at the loose earth with her fingers. With every second she was sliding closer and closer to the edge, and a drop of more than sixty feet to the river below. Her fingers clawed the dirt, but there were no hand holds. The rocks scraped her palms and her face. Clods of dirt and debris skittered past her. Something tore at the knee of her jeans, tearing them to shreds.
Her feet were beginning to slip into the air when her hand found hold of something. Her plunge was halted with a jolt. Sam looked up. A small shrubbery was all that held her on the hill. Not wanting to wait for the weed to come loose, Sam used it to haul herself up onto a protruding piece of slate. She collapsed onto the stone, her sides heaving.
"Sam? Sam are you okay?" It was Vin, leaning over the trail to peer down at her.
She forced herself to sit upright, noticing for the first time the excruciating pain in her knee. She looked down. When her pants leg had been shredded, so apparently had her knee. She cursed. "Well I got some good new and some bad news."
A second head appeared next to Vin's. Ezra's. "Give us the bad news first."
"Well, the bad new is I just fell off a cliff."
Weak laughter floated down to her ears. "And the good news?"
"My kneecap is still where it should be." She squinted as the sun caught her eyes. There was definite laughter this time. "How bout tossing me a rope so I can get the hell out of here?"
"Hold on a second." Both men disappeared.
Sam waited, and waited. Something was wrong. "Hey guys! It takes you five minutes to grab a rope off a saddle? What's the hold up?"
She heard Tanner's Texas drawl respond, but didn't see the man. "Not right now Sam. Give us a minute."
"hey! What the hell is going on up there?" There was no response.
**
Vin and Ezra stood beside their respective mounts, their hands raised slightly above their heads. "You knew," Tanner accused softly.
Lucas shrugged, the aim of his gun never wavering. "I guessed. Mr. Larabee is not a foolish man. I never expected him to walk into a trap, especially such an obvious one. Although I have to admit, I thought there would be only two of you. I hadn't counted on her being here."
Ezra shrugged, "She's got a hard head." Lucas' icy glare was tuned on Ezra. Ezra didn't even flinch. The glare Lucas shot him was far less intimidating than the one Chris shot him on a regular basis.
"Nevertheless, it seems that I don't have any need to worry. I believe she'll remain there for quite a while."
"You can't just leave her there!" Vin cried.
"Yeah, you can't just leave me here!" Obviously Sam was taking part in the discussion, even though they couldn't see her. He smiled tightly.
"I can do whatever I damn well please. She stays and you two come."
"Obviously your mother never taught you any manners sir," Ezra chided. "if she had you would know to ask nicely." Vin rolled his eyes. Ezra really didn't know when to shut up.
Lucas' eyes narrowed. "You think you're funny?"
'It's a rhetorical question Ez. Don't answer,' Vin pleaded silently.
"Some people find my wit endearing, even charming."
"I think his wit sucks! Is that enough to warrant getting me out of here!?" Sam's voice called.
"You talk too much," Lucas growled.
Ezra cocked his head to the right. "I suppose I may seem mildly garrulous to a person of limited intellect, one whose vocabulary is probably limited to two syllables or less. Take heart, there a plenty of rudimentary learning programs in our states fine penitentiary."
"Shut up."
"Yeah Ezra, shut the hell up and save everyone a lot of headaches," Vin told him.
"Why Mr. Tanner are you actually going..."
"I said shut up."
"...to side with this pathetic example of a criminal?"
"Hey you!" Vin and Ezra stopped bickering when Lucas yelled. Vins' eyes widened. Ezra froze. The gun went off.
**
Sam cringed when she heard the shot. A shower of sediment rained down on her and her perch. She watched in horror as a figure slid down the hill. The familiar figure swathed in green slid past her and over the edge. She didn't even hear herself scream. The figure flew in the air momentarily, before slamming bodily into the water below, and disappearing in the whitewater. Sam's cry split the air, "Ezra!!!!"
End Chapter three
Like it? I will write more, but oh I have classes too. Darn.