Cole and Janice were about five feet from the top when the gunfire echoed down to them

Cole and Janice were about five feet from the top when the gunfire echoed down to them. They both froze for half a second, and then Janice couldn't believe the incredible speed that Cole suddenly moved at. He'd been going slowly to keep from hurting his knee further, but now, he was just a blur throwing himself over the top. Janice stepped up the pace as fast as she could, but he was gone before she could reach the top. How the hell did they know about this place?

Heather and Jon had landed in the snow a few feet from the opening to the face. This really sucked. She thought Mr. Abram's chemistry final sucked? This whole day surpassed that by a very, very wide margin. Now Jonathan was in trouble too! She tensed, waiting for the next volley of gunfire that wasn't going to miss.

Someone grabbed her and a second later she was back in the cave, sprawled on the floor with Jonathan beside her. Cole was glaring at her, standing over them. Oh, great, now he was mad at her.

"I just wanted some air!" she tried to protest.

"Do not move until I give permission!" he growled furiously at her, trying to calm his racing heart. He had only seen her face down in the snow after hearing the gunfire, and for a moment thought she was dead. Before he could really think, his mind registered the lack of blood, and he had thrown her and someone new in the cave. Now who was this?

His eye's locked onto Jon's and in less than three seconds he knew everything he needed to know about the kid. Wasn't the enemy. Was doing search and rescue to find Heather. Interested in her. Hmmm…Cole was going to have to watch that. Scared out of his mind. No clue what was going on. Wanted to communicate with base. Snowmobile outside. Scared of him…that was good. Wanted to help Heather…protect her. Not so good. He was going to get hurt trying to do that.

Janice flipped herself over the ledge, breathing hard. Heather was there, safe, Cole was looking furious, and…what was Jonathan Hamilton doing here? She had a feeling she was going to be sending out resumes when this was all over. In the meantime, she unslung her rifle.

"Situation?" she asked Cole abruptly. His eyes fell on her coldly.

"They were waiting for us," he said, his tone colder than the wind. "Men below, men above, the perfect ambush," he stated, the accusation plain.

Anger fired in her eyes. After everything, he was accusing her of setting them up? "You want to accuse me of something, soldier, than say it," she snapped back at him. She was sick of this, and sick of him. She was the one in trouble for his niece. She could have gotten a good night's sleep and his precious Heather would have been halfway to some lab by now. The mercenaries obviously had an expert tracker, and the two of them, on foot, would have either frozen in the snowstorm or been caught within a very short time.

"Down!" Heather suddenly yelled harshly, her commanding tone something only Cole recognized. He'd heard it before from another mouth a long time ago. Both his and Janice's bodies responded to the command, dropping to the ground before their minds could question the order. A split second later, two high-pitched cracks reached their ears, the bullets from the sniper's rifle already burying themselves in the rocks right behind where Cole and Janice had been standing.

Cole's bag was within arm's reach of Heather. She reached in and grabbed exactly what she wanted. She whipped the gun out, her telescopic vision acting as the perfect riflescope, and fired three times, seeing the sniper reel backwards as the bullets made contact. He fell into the snow and lay still. Using enhanced vision dulled colors, but the amount of red against the white snow was enough to let her know the sniper was very dead.

There was dead silence for a second. Heather looked over at the two adults, shock and horror at what she had just done on her face, and something else as well, something almost primal. Cole understood, and Janice did as well. "I don't care who did what," Heather said firmly. "I want to go home," she said slowly.

Cole and Janice were still flat on the ground. They both knew it was only a matter of a few minutes until the mercenaries repositioned themselves and would be able to take shots into the cave again. There weren't going to be any more lucky misses. Cole silently blessed Zack for teaching Heather how to shoot, despite Alicia's objections.

Cole had caught enough from Jon to know he had a snowmobile and skis. With luck, the mercenaries hadn't destroyed it. Distraction was needed. Janice had the right stuff for it. "The kid's got a ride. You still have the J-092?" he asked her. Her eyes lit up. She knew what he was talking about. It was right up her alley.

"With contact blasts of course," she replied. The contact blasts were nasty little things. They looked a little like a round band-aid. You slapped them on a ball of explosive, and throw. Three seconds later, there was a nice explosion that would take out everything in a five foot radius. They were designed to do pinpoint damage.

Janice had put the explosives in Cole's bag before they had left the cavern. She moved fast to it, keeping low, while Cole went to Heather. Cole was slightly impressed with Jon. He was terrified, but his mind wasn't in a panic, and he was keeping his mouth shut. He looked at them both, wanting their undivided attention. He didn't like the best plan available, but it was the only way out.

"How far is it to the lodge on your ride?" he asked Jon.

"Uh…a couple of hours, sir," he replied, not sure what the best thing to say was. Who was this guy anyways? Maybe it would have been better for him to stay home that weekend.

Cole addressed Heather. "We'll divert. You're going with him. Go fast, stay low, and don't stop for anyone no matter what they say or who you think they are. Your parents are there by now so you'll be safe."

"Uncle Cole, what about you?" she asked.

"You don't worry about me," he replied. "I've been in tighter places." He had. His last trip to Italy before Manticore dissolved had been very tight, but this was a close second.

He looked back at Jon. "Can you do it?"

Jon nodded firmly, his young-male pride evoked. "Yes, sir," he said. This was her uncle. Was that good? God, she had just shot someone. Yeah, he was trying to shoot them, but she totally wasted the guy. Rich girls rarely knew how to blow someone away like that. Ms. Miller was acting all Army all of a sudden. Uncle was downright scary. And Heather…Heather was getting cooler by the minute. Nobody in the history of the world could have ever had a girlfriend like she could be.

Janice moved up to them, and handed Cole three small balls of clay. "You better know the drill," she said quickly. "Slap, throw, run like hell."

Heather saw Jon gaping at Ms. Miller. She knew how he was feeling. The day before she had been a rather uninteresting teacher. "Think about that the next time the guys start screwing around in gym," she whispered. His mouth tightened and she knew he was trying to keep from laughing. This whole thing was just too much.

"Heather and I do the first tosses," Cole said, the plan formulating as he went along. "Janice, rifle coverage, Jon, get Heather the hell out of here."

Jon's eyes widened. How did he know his name? Everyone called him Jonathan. He called himself Jon. Before he could question how Cole knew the name he called himself only in his head, they were all getting up, moving into position. He was going to have to ask Heather about that later.

Cole and Janice were on one side of the entrance, Heather and Jon at the other. Cole and Heather could see easily the layout and how the mercenaries were arranging themselves. Heather had a feeling they were in a holding pattern until their ringleader showed up. They were just there to keep the Manticore-ling pinned until she could negotiate. Everyone else lives if Heather would just give up quietly. If all else failed…no, don't think like that. Think success.

Cole glanced over at Janice by his side. "We grab their rides and lead them away from the kids," he whispered to her. She nodded. And he keeps me away from his niece, she thought bitterly. He makes sure I don't know where she is, and he can keep an eye on me. It was too late to back out now.

Cole held up his hand and started a countdown. Three…two…one…GO! Heather and Cole moved together, slapping the contacts on the explosives and throwing them into the mercenaries with absolute precision. The first explosions kicked up snow in a white haze, bodies flying in the sudden pandemonium. The foursome moved out fast, Janice spraying bullets into anything that was moving, and Jon leading Heather to his snowmobile. It was parked a little further out than the mercenaries' radius, and he was determined to get to it, the only sane thing that was around here anymore.

Cole knew right off that he wasn't moving fast enough. Pain was already arcing through his knee and up his leg, but he was just going to have to ignore it for now. He tossed another bomb into a nest of assailants, the explosion, throwing them like dolls. He thought there were maybe a dozen left. Too many. Janice had stopped shooting. No ammo. Time to do it the hard way.

Heather had Jon's hand and they were running hard for the snowmobile. She knew they wouldn't take any shots at her. She was the valuable one. She was too close to Jonathan for them to try and shoot him. Three men came after her, one grabbing Jonathan, yanking him away from her and throwing him to the ground. Free from him, she could switch to top speed, leaping over two of the men and doing a spinning kick as she came down, striking one in the head, and knocking him into the other one. Her movements were a blur as she struck several more times until they were both bloody.

The third had a tazer. He brought it up, and Jon jumped him from behind, his well-muscled arms locking around the guy's neck. The guy was way to big for Jon to fight fairly, and considering the situation; Marquis of Queensbury rules went right out the window. He squeezed tight, cutting off the airflow, and then kicked him hard in the kidneys. Jon had been hit there once and it was almost as bad as getting racked. The guy would have groaned, but he couldn't breathe. He dropped the tazer, and started struggling with the arms around his throat.

Suddenly Heather was there, having disposed of the other two. Jon added, "Where did you learn to fight like that" to his list of questions that he was going to be asking Heather when this was over. In two hard kicks, the guy was unconscious, and they were running again. They got to the snowmobile, luck was with them, it hadn't been tampered with. Heather had a second to look over her shoulder. Uncle Cole and Ms. Miller hadn't made it to the mercenaries' snowmobiles yet. She couldn't leave them! She went to get off of the snowmobile, but two shots rang out. She ducked for a second, and Jonathan was already tearing off into the woods.

"We can't go yet!" she yelled at him. "Uncle Cole is still…" more shots cut her off. The whine of snowmobiles was behind them as some of the mercenaries started giving chase. If they turned around, they were going to have to go back into the line of fire. She was going to have to take care of herself, and let Uncle Cole take care of himself. She wanted to go back and make sure, but something inside said that doing so would be suicide. Uncle Cole was trained to survive. She was going to have to make sure Jonathan survived.