“Give it to me.”
Jill said, “The two dead men at the MRI center have been identified. Brothers, Lee and Todd Voorhies, out of Ogden, Utah. They are…were…members of a small white nationalist group. We ran car info on them; Todd owned a blue Jeep Wagoneer.
“From cameras around Boulder I accessed, I see a blue Jeep Wagoneer parked across the street from Cara’s Bakehouse and in the lot of the MRI center at the same time you were at both places.
“I then have several images of what appears to be the same vehicle entering Eldora Mountain Resort. I see one person in the vehicle.
“But there is also an image from when it’s leaving the ski slopes, and I see two figures. One in the front seat, one in the back. Both are large, presumably male, but with the snow and shadowing, I can’t tell more than that.”
Zack said, “That’s probably going to be Lancer and an accomplice. A full-sized man in the backseat sounds like somebody controlling someone down on the floorboard.”
Teddy spoke up now. “That’s what I’m thinking. But it’s not just the two dudes. One of the images Gumdrop got shows the Wagoneer parked next to a black Ford Bronco. Can’t see inside either vehicle, but a man from Ogden named Carl Maybus owns the same make, model, and color vehicle. He’s a known associate of Todd Voorhies, and a member of the same nationalist organization.”
Zack said, “Okay, that’s three enemy, minimum, in addition to the two DRTs at the clinic.”
Gumdrop spoke up now. “What’s DRT?”
“Dead right there,” Hanley answered. “Don’t worry about it,” he immediately said. “Night Train, there’s more.”
Hightower said, “I only need to know where they went after they snatched her.”
Angela Lacy spoke up now. “I tracked the cell phone of Andrea Delaney, and it is still showing at the resort. We’ve got to assume they tossed it when they took her.”
Zack said, “Yeah, that’s a dead end.”
Lacy continued, “And I tracked credit cards of the brothers and CarlMaybus, didn’t get anything in the area, but then I ran a very wide net. Had a team here at Langley check the credit card usage of every name in the group, and then every known associate of Maybus, Lancer, and the Voorhies brothers. Some one hundred thirty individuals in all. Finally, a woman named April Winter came up. She’s not in the nationalist movement currently, but her cousin is Ronald Winter, and he is in the group. He did two years in the pen in Idaho for armed robbery. Anyway, April’s credit card was used about two hours ago to rent a vacation cabin online that’s ten miles northeast of Eldora Mountain Resort.” Lacy added, “She lives in Utah. Who rents a vacation home the same day they’re going to use it?”
Zack almost shouted into the phone. “That’s it! Get me the address!”
Hanley said, “I don’t want to give you the address till Six gets there. You can’t hit that place alone.”
“I won’t. I’m only armed with a pistol, and I’ve got a fresh knife wound to my already shot-up leg.”
Teddy said, “Wait. You got stabbed? At the clinic?”
“Not a big deal. I can do what I need to do, but I won’t be taking on four or more guys by myself. I’m not a fucking idiot. Give me the address.”
Hanley relented. “Okay, Gumdrop will give it to you, but answer this. Did Lancer say why they were going to call you back in a few hours? If they’re trying to swap you for the girl, why didn’t they want to meet up right then?”
Zack shut his eyes a moment. Held in a sigh. He said, “They probably want time to fortify their location. They wouldn’t have known about Andie till I went to the bakery this morning, and they probably thought they’d kill me without having to use her. They figure I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, so they’re going to get that cabin ready for me.”
Hanley said, “You are not making a trade with them, are we clear? There’s no way they’re just going to set her free after killing you; don’t let your judgment be clouded by—”
Zack yelled into the phone now. “My judgment is fine! I’m going to the area, I’ll stay out of sight, and I’ll get a plan together for when Six arrives.”
“Okay,” Hanley said finally, and Lacy passed on the address.
—
Thirty-five minutes later, Zack’s F-150 was virtually the only vehicle rolling along a snow-swept two-lane mountain road. It was two thirty in the afternoon now, three hours into the five-hour countdown, and he slowed a little, because instead of focusing on the road, he had turned his attention towards a winding, narrow, snow-covered drive on the left that disappeared up a steep slope into thick pines.
This was the address Angela Lacy had provided, and as he passed, Zack saw multiple fresh sets of tire tracks going up the drive.
He continued on the two-lane paved road for a couple of minutes, passing several other driveways, all, he assumed, leading to individual secluded cabins up on the same hillside. Finally, he slowed and pulled into a turnoff a couple of miles past where he suspected Lancer was keeping Andie, deciding that he would go back the other way and make one more pass by the target before stopping at a gas station three miles to the east.
But just moments after turning back in the other direction, he saw a vehicle approaching, its lights on in the already fading afternoon light. As he neared, he realized it was a white pickup, and quickly he noticed it had an orange stripe on the side and a light rack on the roof.
He passed the truck seconds later and saw an emblem on the side and the word “Fire,” also in orange.
