Allison Brennan - Cutting Edge

Her sister. And Duke.

“We haven’t much time, Sean.”

“I heard,” he said, grim. “I’m working on it.”

She forwarded the link Maggie had sent her to Hooper and Duke and also to Hans Vigo in Quantico for impartial analysis. She was too close to the situation to be useful in that respect; it was her sister in jeopardy She had to get perspective.

She focused on flying. Sean was a good instructor, and she wasn’t doing anything complicated. When they hit turbulence, he simply said, “Hold the wheel with both hands and pull it slightly up. Not too hard, but enough to keep that line right there”-he tapped a gauge on the panel-“level. Watch the line, not the sky.”

She did, finding the process calming.

Until Hans Vigo called her. “You sent me a bad link.”

“It goes to a video of Maggie and Quin. She injected her with heparin. We don’t have much time.”

“There’s nothing at that URL.”

Hooper called her a minute later with the same response.

“How did she know I viewed it?” she asked.

It was Sean who answered. “Easy. She’s watching from her computer. As soon as you hit the link, she timed how long it took to buffer the video and then took it down off the server.”

“Why would she do that?”

“She doesn’t want you to trace her.”

“Could I? If it was streaming?”

“Yes, but not instantaneously. It takes time.”

Hooper asked, “Did she say anything incriminating?”

“Yes-and she hurt Quin and threatened her.” Her voice broke.

“Don’t mess with your phone, we can pull the buffer from your memory. Don’t turn it off, don’t delete anything.”

“I won’t. Where are you?” she asked.

“We’re passing through Auburn.”

She turned to Sean. “Where are we?”

“Stockton is coming up to the west.”

“How long?”

“Depends where you want to land. I think I have a place that will get us real close.” He tapped the map. “It’s right next to the reservoir, and at least ten minutes closer than Colfax to your final destination, plus we gain five minutes’ flight time.”

“I’ll take it. Hooper, Sean found a landing spot. He’ll give you the coordinates. I need someone to meet me there.”

“Negative,” he said. “SWAT is headed to Colfax Airport.”

“But we may miss our window of time. You didn’t see that video! Maggie injected Quin with heparin and will cut her in less than an hour. I need this time.”

“We have a little time, Nora.”

“No we don’t!” She squeezed her eyes closed. “Hooper, the woman is on edge. I can’t trust her, and the more time we have the better. Please understand that. I need to get to Last Chance Road earlier than she thinks I can make it. We need every advantage we can get at this point.”

“Let me talk to Hooper,” Sean said to her.

She handed Sean the phone.

“Hooper, tell Duke I’m not landing anywhere I’m not one hundred percent confident that I can get both in and out without trouble.” He listened, then read off the coordinates of the landing spot. “Yes, and enough for takeoff as well … Thanks, see you there.”

He handed Nora back the phone. “Hooper cleared it.”

“Your brother just worries about you, like I do Quin.”

“It’s a little more than that.” He paused. “Our parents died in a small-plane crash.”

Nora looked at Sean, her heart breaking. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Duke didn’t like it when I started taking flying lessons from J.T., and I just made my hours to fly solo. But I assure you I know what I’m doing,” he added quickly.

“I have complete confidence in you, Sean.”

“It’s time, Quin.” Maggie took out her knife and cut Quin on one biceps.

Quin bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her head felt fuzzy, and she wondered if Maggie had put something else in the heparin. Or maybe this was a side effect of the drug.

She turned her head and watched as her blood seeped from the long, shallow cut. She was going to die.

“I wish we could have really been sisters.” Maggie cut her other arm along the mark she’d made earlier.

Quin wished she’d listened to Nora. She wished she hadn’t fought with her. She wished she could tell her she was sorry.

Maggie cut the small mark on her right forearm to match the one that was still bandaged on her left. Maggie didn’t seem to notice or care about the bandage. She was focused intently on running the blade lightly along her skin, cutting the skin and barely slicing the layer of muscle underneath. Under any other circumstances, the cuts wouldn’t be fatal. But today, they would be.

Maggie kissed her on the cheek. “I’m sorry.”

She sounded sincere; then Quin saw the sick joy in her eyes as she cut along her chest.

It was the most painful cut of all, and Quin cried.

Maggie whispered in her ear. “Just a little advice-the more you move, the more you panic, the faster your heart pumps, and the faster you die. Maybe that is for the best-get it over quick. But it won’t be as much fun for me if Nora can’t watch, so I’d rather you calm down.” She kissed her again. “I’ll see you soon.” She grabbed a backpack and left.

Quin willed her heart to slow down, she tried not to panic. But Maggie’s words had been meant to terrify her, to make her heart pump, and it took every ounce of strength to control her breathing. To control her thoughts. To keep her eyes closed and not watch the blood seeping out of the cuts on her arms.

She felt the warm blood drip down her cold skin. It was pooling under her buttocks, dripping off her fingertips. Her head was heavy, and she just wanted to lie down. To lie down and sleep forever.

Duke had turned off on Weimar Road when J.T called him with information about the cabin. “I sent you detailed maps. They’re fresh, you should be good.”

“You found the cabin?”

“Yes. You’re ten minutes away, plus or minus. You’ll have to park a quarter mile away, and there’s a chance she will hear you.”

“Noted. I need a footpath from the cabin to Last Chance Road.”

“Give me a couple minutes.”

Hooper said, “What makes you think there’s a footpath?”

Duke said, “I think she plans on taking Nora out as soon as she reaches the end of Last Chance Road. Think about it-if she planned on sending Nora from place to place, she wouldn’t tell her to meet this close to where she’s hiding. There’s no easy road, so there has to be some sort of trail.”

“True,” Hooper said. “But it’s still a risk. She could hunker down in the cabin, draw out the time.”

“So we go in smart. We were both Marines, we assess and act. On foot she can disappear. If she has any survival skills, which we have to assume she has, she can run parallel to us if she spots us, or simply get away. I’ll bet we don’t see her car. It’ll be well hidden.”

Duke drove as fast as he dared on the winding mountain road. He smelled something and first thought his car was burning transmission fluid, but immediately realized that wasn’t it.

“Hooper, do you smell that?”

Hooper said, “Yes. A fireplace? We’re close.” He frowned. “No-it’s not.”

“It sure as hell isn’t a fireplace. We have a forest fire on our hands.”

“Damn weird coincidence. I’ll call it in.”

“It’s no coincidence,” Duke said. “Tell your SWAT team to step on it and get their ass to the airstrip. Sean and Nora are five minutes out, and if that fire is anywhere near the road, they could be trapped.”

Sean said, “Nora, look over there-to the west. That’s a fire. And there-there-I see three.”

“Five,” she said, and frowned. “Five fires? They’re pretty small, but two are right next to the road.”