“Yeah. This is minor compared to what it could have been.”
“How’s Claire?” Penny asked.
“Hanging in there,” Holly said. She pulled the stethoscope from her ears. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know, but there’s a rescue team on the way. I hope.” If they could get through. Even now, the rain and wind whipped at the chopper body. “We just need to stay put until someone comes.”
Raina met her eyes. “You did good, Pen. I don’t know how you did it, but you did.”
Penny wasn’t sure either. “God did it. I was praying the whole time, so that’s the only explanation I’ve got.”
“Yeah.”
She needed to check the chopper and see what the damage was. Not that she could fix it, but . . .
She glanced upward. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Holly shot her a quick look. “What?”
“Nothing.” Penny eyed the teen and didn’t like what she was seeing. She snagged the radio and called it in, then waited. No reply. With another glance at her passengers, she tried one more time, all the while knowing it was useless. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is Medevac 2646 advising of an emergency landing somewhere on top of Mount Mitchell. Requesting immediate extraction. Four passengers. One critical. Over.”
No response.
“Okay, that’s not good,” she muttered. She snagged her cell phone from her pocket. One bar. She dialed 911 and waited. The call dropped. She tried again with the same result. If she had a sat phone, she could use that, but she didn’t. And she didn’t have time to be angry over the reason why.
Think, Penny, think. She turned back to the others who were monitoring Claire. “Holly, I can’t get a signal and nothing’s happening with the radio. I’m going to have to try and walk until I get something.”
Raina scowled. “Stupid mountains.”
“All right, here’s the deal,” Penny said. “I have no idea if anyone heard my Mayday—or anything else. You guys keep Claire stable. I’ll be back as soon as I can get word to someone where to find us. I saw a few houses scattered in the area. I just need to find a road and follow it. Hopefully, the closer I get to a neighborhood or house, I’ll pick up a cell phone signal.”
“Can’t they track the ELT?” Holly asked.
The emergency locater transmitter. “They should be able to, but I don’t know that I want to take a chance on it malfunctioning. Something’s going on with the electrical. The instrument panel keeps flickering, and the radio’s not working.”
“You can’t go out in this,” Raina said. “This weather is too dangerous.”
“If Claire wasn’t in such bad shape, I’d sit it out with you guys, but I’ve got to try—and as soon as we get back, we’re having a fundraiser for a satellite phone.” She was going to have it out with her supervisor as soon as she saw him face to face. Thanks to his budget cutting, they could very well die out here. If she had a sat phone, she could—
Nope. Not going to think about that.
Penny grabbed the poncho from the bin next to the stretcher. “If I’m not back and help arrives, you get Claire to the hospital. I can wait for the next ride.”
“But Pen—” Holly started to protest, but Penny was already shaking her head.
“I mean it,” she said. “You know you can’t wait on me to get back.”
“Fine,” Raina said. “But if you’re not back in an hour, I’m coming looking for you.”
“Don’t you dare. Holly needs your help with Claire. I’ll be fine. If I can survive juvie, this little storm is child’s play.”
“Juvie?” Holly asked. “Why is this the first I’ve heard of that?”
“Long boring story. I was a bad girl, they sent me to juvie, and I got my head on straight. End of story.”
“Right.”
Penny pulled four protein bars and two bottles of water from the small pack she carried on every flight. “Just in case you guys get hungry.” She slid the pack with the remaining protein bars and bottles of water over her shoulder and grabbed the emergency flashlight from the box, then opened the door. The rain had slacked off slightly—at least she thought so. She pulled the poncho over her and the pack and hopped to the ground. “Keep her alive! I’ll be back!”
Penny shut the door behind her and turned. With her cell phone clutched in her left hand, she darted into the woods.
FBI Special Agent Holton Satterfield jerked his feet from the desktop and slammed them to the floor even while he pressed the phone to his ear. He hadn’t thought the day could get any worse. First his conversation with his sister Rachel about their older sibling Zoe had gone so far south, it was probably north at this point. And now this. “I know you didn’t just tell me that.”
“Unfortunately, I did,” Gerald Long said. The Special Supervisory Agent didn’t sound any happier than Holt. “But Darius Rabor is armed and on the run.”
“How?”
“He had help. His loyal girlfriend, Shondra Miller, disguised herself as a nurse and walked right in with a key to the cuffs.” Gerald’s disgust echoed through the line.
Holt wasn’t going to bother asking how she managed to bypass all the security and ID checks to get to the patient. That was someone else’s responsibility to investigate, but it had happened and now he needed to deal with the fallout.
“When?” After Darius Rabor, also known as the Lothario Killer, had killed a federal judge, the FBI had joined the hunt for him. Holt had been lead on the task force that had put Rabor away two years ago. He’d been on death row, his execution date coming up next month.
“Two hours ago,” Gerald said. “Darius was in the hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery. Killed a nurse and the two transport officers. One of the hospital security guards is in surgery. I’m reconvening the original task force as everyone is already familiar with this guy. I need you and Sands in Asheville, North Carolina, yesterday.”
“Asheville. Of course, he’d go back there,” Holt muttered. “He knows those mountains well and he has family and friends there.” Holt was in the Columbia, South Carolina, field office and Darius had been incarcerated at the Broad River Correctional Institution just a few miles away.
Where his sister was also an inmate. He grimaced at the unwanted thought. But there was nothing he could do about Zoe. He had a killer to capture again before anyone else died by his hand.
“Yep. He had surgery yesterday. This afternoon, he was in his room, cuffed to the bed. The next time someone checked on him, he was coming out of the bathroom, dressed in street clothes. Before the guard had a chance to pull his weapon, Rabor used a knife to stab the guy three times.”
“That’s his weapon of choice. A knife slipped to him by his girlfriend along with the key?”
“No doubt. And the clothes to allow him to blend in. After he killed the guard, he took the man’s weapon and, in the ensuing chaos, shot his way out. The two then stole a car from the valet parking attendant and headed out of town with police after him. He made it to Asheville, then crashed at the bottom of Mount Mitchell. He and Shondra took off on foot going up. I’m sending you the coordinates. Police chased them up the mountain and put out an alert for residents to lock their homes and report anything suspicious. Asheville RA is expecting you and will be offering support.” He paused. “On the ground anyway. Air support is iffy at this point with the storms getting ready to unleash their worst on the area. But you’re going to have to take a chopper to get there. It’s standing by. When you land, there’ll be a car waiting for you.”