Brett Battles - Little Girl Gone

“Did you get her?” Carl said, his voice barely audible.

Logan wiped the blood off his hand, then took Carl’s and held it tight. “Yes. I got her.”

Carl smiled, “Good,” then a moment later, the last of his life slipped away.

When they got back to the base, Logan learned that the girl died on the way to the hospital.

If he hadn’t stopped to help Carl and kept running, he was sure the girl would still be alive. If he had left the first time Carl had told him to get her, he was also sure she’d still be alive. And if he had just stayed with Carl, and done what he could, it was very possible his brother-in-law would still be alive.

But instead, they were both dead, killed by just a few seconds of inaction. His inaction.

It was news for weeks. SECURITY FIRM DEBACLE IN KABUL: 5 CIVILIANS DEAD and OFF DUTY RENT-A-SOLDIERS KILL INNOCENT BYSTANDERS. Those were just two of the headlines, many were even worse.

Trish didn’t wait for weeks, though. Two days after he’d returned with Carl’s body, when he admitted to his own perceived guilt in his best friend’s death, she walked out. “I can’t look at you any more,” she had said. “You even admit you might have been able to save him, but you didn’t. Every time I see you, I see him. I see his dead face. You took him from me. You took my brother.”

Faced with a PR disaster, Forbus went hunting for a scapegoat. Logan was the obvious choice. They made it sound like it was his idea to go on this trip. They made it sound like Carl was the one who protested. To sweeten the pot, they even floated the rumor that Logan was responsible for some abnormalities in the books. Jon Jordan himself gave him the choice: leave on his own or be publically dragged through the courts.

Logan didn’t put up a fight. He didn’t correct any of the misperceptions.

He just left.

33

At around 2:30 a.m., the train began to slow as it approached the next station. Logan was on the first class side of the dining car, so he hustled to the back of the train, and waited by one of the doors until they pulled to a complete stop.

As before, he stepped down onto the concrete pad. This time he did a few stretching exercises to get his blood flowing. Even then, his mind was still a little foggy, so he almost didn’t realized that someone had stepped off the same first class car where the others’ cabin was.

The lights on the platform left something to be desired, but the passenger did him the favor of moving down the train into the halo cast by a lamp on the outside of the station.

It was Aaron.

Logan’s first thought was that the others were getting ready to leave.

He moved back to the door, ready to jump on and grab Daeng. But none of Aaron’s companions appeared.

“Okay, so what are you doing up?” Logan said under his breath.

Aaron pulled something out of his pocket and raised it to his ear. A phone, Logan realized. Unfortunately, he was too far away for to hear what Aaron was staying, so he pulled himself back onto the train, then rapidly made his way to the smokers’ area passageway just beyond the dining car. There he leaned up to the open window and listened.

There was nothing at first, not even footsteps. For a second, he thought that maybe Aaron had already finished and gone back inside. Then Logan heard a foot kick at the concrete almost directly below him. Involuntarily, he pulled back a few inches.

“Yeah, yeah…okay,” Aaron said. “No problems at all…yeah, I’m sure…okay, okay…we’ll see you in a few hours, then.”

Logan heard the muffled tone of the call being disconnected. There was some movement, then a scratching sound followed by the intake of a breath. A second later, he caught the whiff of cigarette smoke.

Aaron took a few steps, then stopped. Logan could hear him blow out a stream of smoke. Suddenly, he was enveloped in its cloud, and had to choke off a cough.

“Who’s up there?” Aaron asked, surprised.

Dammit.

Logan ducked into the dining car, intending to rush back to his bed, and get behind his privacy curtain in case Aaron came looking for him. But he only made it halfway across the empty dining car, before the train started rolling again. He tottered to his right, and grabbed the nearest table to keep from falling down, then started on his way again. He was just moving around the snack counter into the narrow passageway, when he heard the door behind him open.

“Hey, you!” Aaron yelled.

There was no way he would get into his berth now. That left him two choices: keep going until he reached the end of the train, or stay in the dining car where there was no one but the two of them. Either way he sensed was a confrontation in his future. And while he liked his odds no matter where it happened, it would be best, he thought, if they weren’t surrounded by sleeping passengers.

Having walked the train a dozen times already, he knew there was a little nook at the backside of the kitchen near the exit to the next car.

He raced down the passageway, took the sharp left that marked the end of the kitchen, then tucked himself into the nook.

Five seconds later, Aaron blew passed him, then stopped at the car door without opening it. It was easy to imagine what was going through his head. I didn’t hear it open .

That’s right, Logan thought. You didn’t.

Aaron’s youth was his downfall. Once he realized he’d been tricked, he whipped around so he could figure out where Logan had hid. What he didn’t expect was that Logan had silently slipped out of the nook, and was standing two feet behind him.

“What the hell?” Aaron shouted, jerking back.

“Aaron Hughes?” Logan asked.

Aaron’s eyes widened, confirming what Logan had already assumed.

“Hello, Aaron,” Logan said. “Nice to finally meet you. I’m Logan Harper.”

Aaron stared at him confused. “Harper? Harper. You’re…you’re that guy.” Though he had never seen Logan before, he’d obviously heard his name from Ryan or Angie back in Los Angeles.

“I’m that guy,” Logan confirmed, then hit him in the jaw.

Aaron stumbled backwards into the wall, and fell to one knee. He wasn’t out, but he was definitely shaken up.

Logan grabbed his arm and pulled him back to his feet.

Aaron took a swing, but Logan easily moved out of the way, and grabbed Aaron’s wrist, using its momentum to guide the kid’s fist into the wall. There was a satisfying crunch.

Aaron yelped out in pain, then tried to swing at Logan with his other hand. Logan decided it was time to do him a favor. He twisted Aaron around, then put his arm around the kid’s throat and cut off his air just long enough for Aaron to slip into unconsciousness.

It really wasn’t a fair fight from the beginning. Logan had had years of military training and experience, plus the element of surprise. Aaron had maybe a year or two as a cocky bastard in high school, and little else.

It was Aaron’s own fault it had even happened, though. Logan hadn’t wanted to fight him in the first place. Aaron didn’t have to chase him after he’d heard Logan cough. He could have let it go, and assumed Logan was just someone out getting a little fresh air in the middle of the night. It would have sure made a hell of a lot more sense from his point of view than finding the guy who’d been snooping around looking for Elyse back in L.A.

Logan dragged him down the passageway, and laid him on the floor behind the snack counter. It was only a temporary solution, but it was out of sight in case anyone else came by on a late night stroll.

He then went and woke Daeng.

“My turn already?” Daeng said as he opened his eyes.

“I need your help.”