Chapter 3 - The Debt No One Can Repay
The map on the diner wall had been there since I was twelve.
My father used to trace roads across it with a grease pencil whenever winter storms shut down the highway.
Most of the roads no longer appeared on modern GPS systems.
That was exactly why I wanted them.
I pulled the map from the wall and spread it across the counter.
Gage leaned beside me, one hand pressed against his bandaged side.
Curtis stood opposite us.
“You should be lying down,” I told Gage.
“You’ve mentioned that.”
“And you’ve ignored me every time.”
“It’s a bad habit.”
“Getting stabbed?”
“Ignoring orders.”
Curtis gave me a tired look.
“Unfortunately, that part is true.”
I pointed to the northern ridge.
“If Victor has your sister somewhere nearby, he probably didn’t bring her through the highway checkpoint.”
Curtis studied the map.
“What else is there?”
“Old logging roads.”
“Passable?”
“Not with normal cars.”
Gage looked toward the SUVs outside.
“And ours?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe isn’t good enough.”
“It’s the best you’re getting.”
I traced another line.
“This road goes behind the abandoned Mercer sawmill. Nobody uses it anymore except hunters.”
Curtis leaned closer.
“How do you know Victor is at the sawmill?”
“I don’t.”
Gage glanced at me.
“Then why there?”
“Because if I wanted to hold someone without being seen, that’s where I’d go.”
Curtis stared at me.
“You’ve thought about kidnapping people before?”
“No. I grew up here.”
“That answer somehow made it worse.”
I ignored him.
“There’s one more thing.”
I pointed at a narrow trail south of the mill.
“This used to be a fire-service route. It comes out behind the property.”
Gage nodded.
“Good.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“No?”
“You’re not going.”
His expression hardened.
“My sister is there.”
“You’re barely conscious.”
“I’m standing.”
“You’re leaning on my counter.”
“I’m still standing.”
I looked at Curtis.
“Tell him.”
Curtis hesitated.
Wrong decision.
Gage noticed.
“Go ahead,” he said.
Curtis sighed.
“You should stay.”
Gage looked offended.
“Interesting.”
“You asked.”
“I absolutely did not.”
“You looked at me.”
“That wasn’t permission to betray me.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Then the satellite phone rang.
Curtis answered immediately.
“Holland.”
A man's voice came through.
“We reached the lower mountain.”
Curtis straightened.
“How many?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Road?”
“Blocked.”
“Clear it.”
“Already working.”
Gage held out his hand.
Curtis gave him the phone.
“This is Sartori.”
The voice changed instantly.
“Boss.”
“Send twelve men toward Mercer sawmill. Quietly. Nobody fires unless my sister is located.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Eight come here.”
“What about the remaining three?”
“Secure the south road.”
Gage ended the call.
I stared at him.
“You knew where she was?”
“No.”
“Then why send them there?”
“Because you think she’s there.”
“You trust me?”
“No.”
I raised an eyebrow.
He added, “But I trust people who act before they calculate what they can gain.”
I looked away.
That landed harder than I wanted it to.
Before I could answer, my mother called from the kitchen.
“Delaney.”
I turned.
She was sitting at the preparation table with a blanket over her shoulders.
“You need to see this.”
On the table was Derek’s phone.
The traitor stared at it from where he sat tied to a chair.
“I told you not to touch that,” Curtis said.
My mother looked unimpressed.
“I raised three children and survived your generation discovering smartphones. I can handle a phone.”
“Mom, what did you find?”
“Messages.”
Derek suddenly shifted.
Curtis noticed.
“Sit still.”
My mother turned the screen toward us.
There were dozens of encrypted messages.
Most looked meaningless.
One did not.
MERCER. 2:30. GIRL TRANSFER.
Curtis checked the clock.
2:08.
I looked at Gage.
“The sawmill.”
His entire face changed.
No humor.
No exhaustion.
Just calculation.
“Curtis.”
“Already moving.”
Curtis pulled out his radio.
“Teams converge on Mercer. Hostage confirmed probable.”
Derek laughed.
Everyone looked at him.
“You’re already too late.”
Gage slowly turned.
“What did you say?”
Derek swallowed, but kept smiling.
“Victor knew Holland would check the sawmill.”
Gage walked toward him.
I grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
“He knows something.”
“Then ask him.”
Gage’s eyes stayed on Derek.
“What happens at two-thirty?”
Derek said nothing.
Curtis stepped forward.
Gage stopped him with one hand.
“No.”
Then he crouched in front of Derek.
His voice became frighteningly calm.
“Who is being transferred?”
Derek smiled.
“Your sister.”
“Where?”
“Ask Victor.”
Gage leaned closer.
“You stabbed me.”
Derek’s smile faded.
“You were supposed to die before we reached town.”
“Why didn’t you finish it?”
“I thought I had.”
Gage nodded slowly.
“Then your first mistake was underestimating me.”
He looked toward me.
“Your second was underestimating her.”
Derek glanced at me.
I said nothing.
Gage stood.
“Curtis, take him.”
“Where?”
“With us.”
Derek’s face changed.
“What?”
“You’re going to show us where Victor takes her.”
“I don’t know.”
Gage looked back.
“Then you’d better remember.”
Curtis dragged Derek toward the door.
I stepped after them.
Gage blocked me.
“No.”
“What?”
“You stay.”
“Absolutely not.”
He stared at me.
“Delaney.”
“You don't know those back roads.”
“We have a map.”
“You have men from Chicago trying to navigate a mountain during a whiteout.”
His jaw tightened.
“I am not bringing a civilian into this.”
“A civilian is the reason you’re still breathing.”
Silence.
Curtis stopped at the door, clearly deciding not to participate.
I grabbed my father’s old truck keys from beneath the register.
“I drive.”
Gage shook his head.
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Your sister may have twenty minutes.”
His expression changed.
“You can argue with me or save her.”
That ended it.
Five minutes later, we were inside my father’s battered four-wheel-drive pickup.
I drove.
Curtis sat beside me.
Gage sat in the rear with another guard and Derek.
Snow hammered the windshield.
Curtis looked at the dashboard.
“This thing is older than I am.”
“Show some respect.”
“I am.”
“No, you’re insulting Earl.”
He looked at me.
“Earl?”
“My father named the truck.”
“Why?”
“Because Earl refused to die.”
From the back seat, Gage said quietly, “I like Earl.”
“Earl doesn’t care.”
We turned onto an unmarked road.
The truck bounced violently.
Gage grunted.
I glanced at him in the mirror.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good. Means you’re alive.”
After ten minutes, headlights disappeared behind the trees.
I slowed.
“From here, no lights.”
Curtis frowned.
“We’ll drive blind.”
“You want Victor seeing us?”
He turned them off.
Darkness swallowed everything.
I drove by memory.
Left near the split pine.
Downhill past the frozen creek.
Across the old cattle bridge.
Curtis looked at me.
“You seriously remember this?”
“My dad taught me.”
Gage’s voice came from behind us.
“He sounds like a smart man.”
“He was.”
Then Derek suddenly shouted.
“Stop!”
I slammed the brakes.
Everyone reached for weapons.
“What?” Curtis demanded.
Derek stared through the windshield.
“The bridge.”
“What bridge?”
“The Mercer crossing.”
His face had gone pale.
“It’s wired.”
Nobody spoke.
Curtis turned toward him.
“With explosives?”
Derek nodded.
“If your men approach from the main road, Victor blows it.”
Gage pulled out the satellite phone.
“Call them.”
Curtis did.
No answer.
He tried again.
“Come on.”
Static.
Then a distant flash lit the sky.
A second later, the mountain shook.
The sound of an explosion rolled through the valley.
Gage stared toward the glow.
His face went completely still.
“Was that the bridge?” I whispered.
Curtis lowered the phone.
“Yes.”
Gage closed his eyes.
For one terrifying second, I thought he was going to collapse.
Instead he looked at Derek.
“My sister.”
Derek whispered, “Victor never planned to trade her.”
I felt my stomach turn.
Gage opened the truck door.
I grabbed him.
“Where are you going?”
“To the mill.”
“You’ll walk straight into an ambush.”
“Then give me another option.”
I looked toward the trees.
There was one.
A terrible one.
“My father showed me an old mining tunnel when I was a kid.”
Curtis stared.
“Where?”
“Under the ridge.”
“Does it reach the mill?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“It was twenty-five years ago.”
Gage stepped back toward the truck.
“Take us there.”
Curtis shook his head.
“Boss, if the tunnel collapsed—”
Gage looked at him.
“My sister is on the other side.”
That ended the argument.
We drove into the forest.
I thought we were heading toward a rescue.
I didn’t realize Victor had planned for that too.
The tunnel entrance was almost completely buried.
We found it beneath fallen branches and four feet of snow.
Curtis stared at the black opening.
“This is insane.”
I grabbed a flashlight.
“Stay here, then.”
“I wasn’t talking about you.”
“You were looking at me.”
“That’s becoming dangerous around you.”
Gage stepped toward the tunnel.
His knees almost buckled.
I caught him.
He looked down at my hand.
“I’m fine.”
“You are the worst liar I’ve met tonight, and Derek is sitting ten feet away.”
A faint smile appeared.
Then he became serious.
“If something happens inside…”
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You were going to tell me to run.”
He stared at me.
“Yes.”
“I already ignored an entire town telling me to lock you outside.”
“Fair point.”
We entered the tunnel.
Curtis went first.
I followed.
Gage behind me.
Two guards brought Derek.
The passage smelled like frozen earth and rusted metal.
Water dripped somewhere in the darkness.
Ten minutes later, we heard voices.
Curtis raised a fist.
Everyone stopped.
A light appeared ahead.
Then a man spoke.
“Move her.”
A woman shouted.
“Get your hands off me!”
Gage went completely still.
His sister.
He pushed past me.
Curtis caught him.
“Wait.”
Gage’s eyes burned.
“That’s Elena.”
“I know.”
We crept closer.
Through a broken timber wall, we could see the rear of the sawmill.
Three armed men stood beside a van.
A young woman struggled between two of them.
A fourth man held a pistol.
Then another figure stepped from the building.
Tall.
Gray coat.
Silver hair.
Victor.
Gage whispered, “Give me your gun.”
Curtis handed him one.
I caught Gage’s wrist.
“You can barely aim.”
He looked at me.
“Watch me.”
Victor walked toward Elena.
“Your brother disappointed me.”
She spat in his face.
Victor wiped it away.
Gage almost moved.
Curtis restrained him.
Then Victor smiled.
“Put her in the van.”
The guards turned.
That was their mistake.
Gage fired.
The first man dropped.
Curtis fired twice.
Chaos exploded.
Elena hit the ground.
The other guards returned fire.
I ducked behind the wall.
Gage moved into the open.
“ELENA!”
Her head snapped toward him.
“GAGE!”
Victor turned.
For one second, absolute disbelief crossed his face.
“You.”
Gage raised the pistol.
Victor grabbed Elena by the hair and dragged her upright.
The gun pressed against her neck.
“Drop it!”
Gage froze.
Victor smiled.
“Finally.”
Curtis aimed.
“No shot,” he whispered.
Victor backed toward the van.
“Gun down, Gage.”
Gage slowly lowered it.
I looked around.
There had to be something.
Then I saw the old emergency lever beside the loading machinery.
A rusted chain connected it to an overhead timber chute.
My father had once explained how the mill worked.
Pull the release.
Everything above drops.
I crawled toward it.
Victor never noticed me.
“Kick the gun away,” he ordered.
Gage did.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Gage looked at Elena.
“Let her go.”
Victor laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
I reached the lever.
“You think this is about territory?”
Gage’s eyes flicked toward me.
Only once.
That was enough.
He saw my hand.
He understood.
Victor continued.
“This is about replacing you.”
I pulled the lever.
Nothing happened.
My heart stopped.
Then the mechanism groaned.
Victor looked up.
A mountain of old timber crashed down between him and the van.
He shoved Elena aside.
Gage lunged.
Curtis fired.
Victor disappeared through a side doorway.
Elena ran toward her brother.
“Gage!”
He caught her.
Then his legs gave out.
He collapsed into the snow.
I ran.
“Gage!”
Blood was pouring through the bandage again.
Elena dropped beside him.
“What happened to him?”
“He was shot.”
“And stabbed.”
Her face went white.
“By who?”
Derek was dragged from the tunnel.
Elena looked at him.
Recognition flashed across her face.
“You.”
Derek looked away.
Gage grabbed my hand.
“Delaney.”
“I’m here.”
His grip was surprisingly strong.
“Did we get her?”
I looked toward Elena.
“Yes.”
He exhaled.
“Good.”
May you like
Then his eyes closed.
This time he didn’t wake when I called his name.
