saw Cade ahead of them watching her, but then he turned around and hiked forward at breakneck speed. Isaiah gave her a reassuring nod and tugged his helmet and goggles back on. She followed his example and hiked next to him, drawing strength and confidence from him. She had strength, too. She just had to dig down deep and find where it had hidden and pull it out. This is a search and rescue mission just like any other. She could do this. And as for anything else, like escaping? As long as Zach, Jason and Liam, and possibly Rhea, carried weapons, there wasn’t much else they could do except follow orders.
Wait and pray.
A new team would be sent to search for them at some point when they didn’t show up. But Heidi dreaded how long that would take. SAR volunteers were already stretched thin due to two ongoing rescue operations before Cade, Heidi and Isaiah had been delivered to the drop point near the summit.
How long before David began to worry? How long before they could even send a team to search for them? And if they did, she’d bet David and Adam would both be on that team. But the farther they trekked into the deep mountain wilderness, the less chance they had of being found, especially with a man like Zach, who would do everything within his power to keep their whereabouts hidden.
No. She couldn’t count on being rescued. They were on their own.
No one knew they’d sent the search and rescue team to face a killer. Or killers. No one knew they were headed to the ice field. Making it there in this weather? That was another story altogether.
Cade stopped and held up his hand, signaling for the rest of them to stop.
Heidi closed the distance to stand just behind him. She sucked in a breath. Rush Gulley, Cade’s initial suggestion, would have been so much easier than this jagged, angular descent into the lower ridge on this side of the mountain. She wouldn’t want to do this on a good day, much less a stormy night. What would Zach’s cronies say when they saw this, though their view would be limited?
“Looks like I’m up,” she said. She had more experience in multipitch technical climbing, though both Isaiah and Cade could hold their own.
“Wrong. I’ll go down first, make sure there’s no loose rocks or hazards. And I’ll untie them once they’re lowered to the bottom. That’s all we’re doing here, lowering them down.”
Heidi wanted to argue, but giving him a spiel about working as a team right now would be pure bad timing. Cade had always been the team leader, and that’s just the way it was, so she held her tongue.
He shook his head. “I don’t like this. Why did I listen to Isaiah?”
“He was right, that’s why.” She steadied her breathing, reining in the panic that threatened beneath the surface again. “We’re a team, Cade, so we have to start acting like one. Granted, this is the worst possible scenario, but we pass this test tonight, and we can’t face anything worse.”
Except maybe a bullet to the head.
There. She got in her spiel after all, and reassurance for the both of them, too.
“Whatever we do has to be quick, or we’re going to get caught in the jaws of something driving, cold and wet. I don’t like keeping these people, no matter their crime, out in the elements any longer than necessary.”
Isaiah stepped next to them. “Let’s get busy then. We can rig a seat harness for this, and anything else we face. No point in risking their lives by letting them attempt to climb.”
Even Zach looked a little daunted as he peered into what, for him, with only a headlamp, would be a bottomless abyss. “What’s the plan?”
“You’re forcing us to go on a suicide mission, that’s the plan,” Heidi said. “We need to set up the tents and wait out the storm. Not climb down some insane multipitch terrain at night.”
It was worth a try anyway.
Isaiah dumped his pack and began setting up everything to lower them down.
A creepy grin slid onto Zach’s face. “But here you are, preparing to do exactly that. You’re turning out to be useful, after all. I’m glad, because I wasn’t ready to leave you behind. Not yet.”
Frowning, Isaiah motioned for Heidi to join him and help. She was grateful for the excuse to get out from under Zach’s gaze. But his words clung to her just the same. Isaiah set up an anchor around a rock, and Heidi clipped a carabiner—a small oval ring used as a connector—to hold the belay device, which was used to create friction on the rope, in place for lowering the climbers.
“So, um, what should we do to get ready?” Jason asked. “We don’t have climbing gear.”
Very perceptive.
“Pray. That’s what you should do.” Isaiah worked with the tubular webbing they always carried to create the right seat harness.
Depending on the situation and injuries, they could create whatever kind of harness they needed for the person or persons they rescued.
“That is,” Isaiah said, looking up from his task, “if you consider yourself a praying man, Jason. We need a lot of prayer if we’re going to live through the night.”
* * *
Two hours later, Isaiah knew someone had been praying.
Shivering at the bottom of another ridge cutting between the mountains—which kept them in the upper elevations—they quickly assembled the three tents, all geared with the required flies, sealed seams and enough extra snow flukes to withstand the approaching blizzard. Then supplies of water and food were dispersed among each shelter. They’d only brought one cooking stove with fuel, though.
Regardless of their predicament, relief coursed through Isaiah that they’d been successful in lowering their charges and setting up a camp, all in the middle of a frozen night. All as the storm closed in on them. Still, he wasn’t sure he could ever shake Rhea’s shrieks as they lowered her.
Zach had finally agreed to stop but only after Rhea’s terrifying experience down the terrain had left her crying and pitching a fit. She demanded they stop and wait until daylight. Isaiah could see that she would freeze to death if they kept going, as it was. Inside the tent, she could get warm in a sleeping bag and then get into the better winter wear they’d brought with them.
Isaiah finished building a snow wall around the last tent to protect it from the gale-force winds, and couldn’t wait to climb in and warm up. Rest his weary bones and mind. Except, depending on how fast the snow accumulated, he’d have go back outside to dig them out at regular intervals. Too much snow could collapse the tent.
Zach approached and shoved him with his foot, his headlamp flickering. “One of you sleeps with each of us in a tent. Rhea and Heidi are together.”
Isaiah stood to face the man. “There’s nowhere for us to run.”
“Get in.” Zach held his weapon.
Did Zach know how to clean the snow and weather out of the bore so it wouldn’t malfunction? Just before Isaiah climbed into the tent, he saw Cade and Heidi, and shared a look of regret with each of them.
Isaiah had a feeling he knew what they were both thinking. Once they got Zach and his men and woman to safety, they would likely be killed. They knew more than they should know about the armored-car robbers and killers. Knew their faces and their names. He squatted and crawled into the tent. What a weird twist of fate, to save people knowing they would kill you when you finally delivered them to safety. Isaiah crawled over to the sleeping bag to the right, making it his own. He dropped down and didn’t bother taking off his coat. Not warm enough inside yet.
At least tonight he would be warm and dry, despite the nefarious company.
Their supplies were limited because they hadn’t expected they would be hiking through the frozen Alaska wilderness. They were all too exhausted tonight to use the small camping stove they’d brought to warm up their water. But if they were in this very