7. Luke
7
LUKE
The snow is still coming down hard. They might not see our tracks, but if this Viktor guy is who Emma says he is, then I'm sure he knows exactly where the cabin is. I'm listening to every sound from the forest to see if I can hear something different. There are the animals who live in the forest that are making noises, but I’m listening for heavier noises, like footsteps.
A couple of hours later, I hear them. They are thunderous noises. I'm not sure if they deliberately are that loud or if they are like naturally.
I nudge Emma. "I hear them." She's alert and I see her eyes are wide. She's scared, but she will not admit it. "Emma, you stay in here. I know you're scared."
"I'm not," she says, staring at me. Yes, she is.
"Babe, I don't want to lose you now."
"I don't want to lose you. If I'm in here then I won't be able to help you and if something happens to you then I won't forgive myself for sitting it out in the backroom. They'll get me anyway."
I know she won't back down. "Okay, but you try and stay inside the cabin." I kiss her before I leave. "See you soon." I move to the back door, unlock it and silently move outside. I know they are close, but they aren't here yet. I have white camo on so they can't see me well in the snow. I keep low to the ground and move so that I’m just to the right of their path. I see one of them. They are all carrying weapons.
"Let's get that bitch. She's got there before me one too many times and we need to kill her. They might even think she was ravaged by bears." Their English is broken, but I hear what they want to do to Emma. Over my dead body. I fire the first shot, making one guy drop to the floor, screaming. Then I see another guy turn in my direction. He can't see me well.
I crawl over the snow and get myself in a position for the second guy. If I can get them on the floor, they are less likely to get back up and go for Emma. I called Frank earlier and told him to send reinforcements, so they should be here soon. I’m not out to kill these guys, but if I have to protect Emma, then I will.
"Where are you?" I hear Viktor shout out. He shoots in my direction, then it all goes quiet. Where the fuck are they? There's about three men left, including Viktor. Moving away from my place, I move toward the point their two men are on the ground, moaning and holding their legs where I shot them.
Viktor is at the front of the cabin, but there are another two people between us. I shoot the one closest to me and he goes down screaming. I only shot him in his shin, for God's sake.
I hear some glass smash, and I know Viktor is in the cabin. I rush back to make sure Emma is okay, but one of his men catches me. He punches me in the face. I go down and then I grab his legs and pull him over my head. He goes down headfirst and we grapple for a while, punching each other. I put my hands around his throat and squeeze. He kicks me and punches me and then tries to move my hands away, but I don't let go. My instincts kick in and in my head I am back in Afghanistan, where I choked a guy out for killing women and children. I didn't let go until he had stopped breathing and that is what I am doing now. When he goes limp in my arms, I know he's dead. Fuck.
I don't get long to think about it, as I can hear Emma scream. Then I hear a gunshot and I hope to God, Emma shot Viktor. But she didn't. I see her being taken away over Viktor's shoulder. He is moving fast through the forest, and I’m trying to keep up with him. Emma isn't saying anything. I hope she's not dead.
"Emma I'm coming for you," I scream, hoping she hears me.
Viktor laughs, and the sound reverberates through the forest, bouncing off the trees and not giving me his correct direction. I stop running as I need to get my bearings... I take out the satellite phone. "Frank, he's got Emma. We need to stop him. Do you know where his truck is parked? He seems to be going out of town. She needs an ambulance, he shot her."
"Luke, we have a team on the way up to you and we have a team going out to look for his truck. We will find her. Keep us informed." There is a lot of static and the call is dropped.
"She'll be fine. She won't bleed out. She can't," I say to myself as I follow in the footsteps in the snow.
I glimpse Viktor, so I move swiftly to catch up to him. But before I get to him, someone jumps out from behind a tree and starts opening fire. I dash behind a tree and then turn and shoot back. Another person shoots at me, too. This means that I'm outnumbered and Viktor is getting further away from me with Emma.
I take a deep breath, turn and shoot at the two men. They dash behind the trees, but I do too and I move further into the next row of trees. Then I creep along the forest floor and move closer to them. They are shooting at the tree where I was standing, and they move forward. I take the rifle and aim it at the first guy.
Bang!
I shoot him and he drops to the floor. I am not just shooting them in the leg, I am shooting to kill. Emma's life is in danger, and I'll save her whatever happens.
The second shooter turns in my direction, but I'm not wasting a minute. I've already moved to the next line of trees. I have him in my sight and before he can shoot in my direction, bang, he's down, too.
"Keep them coming Viktor, I'll take each of them out. Just give me back Emma and you can disappear. I won't contact the police, just give Emma back to me."
He laughs. "She is obviously important to you. I'll keep her thank you. I wanted to kill her but kidnapping her might be more fun."
I don't want to shoot him. He might hurt her, so I follow him and hope that someone has found his truck and is waiting for him. I can see the edge of the forest, further outside of town. I can only keep my fingers crossed.
When I see him going to his truck, no one approaches him. I see him put her in the truck and then he jumps in first.
He rolls down his window. "I'll be in touch." Then he roars off in the opposite direction to town.
What the fuck?
I pick up the satellite phone and call Frank. "Frank, he took her. I thought you were going to have the police here."
"Luke, this is bigger than just Viktor poaching our bears on the mountain. He is part of a bigger problem. The FBI are involved as they want him on several other counts. They put a tracker on his car so that we can find him. Then they are going to get a team to go to the location and bring Emma back. They want to catch him selling the bears he took for their pelts. I know you want Emma back, but we need to do this to put an end to the poachers. They are ruthless and aren't afraid to take a life, whether it be animal or human."
"That's what I'm saying though. They have already shot Emma. She needs a doctor and we've just let them take her. I want to be a part of the rescuing squad."
"I don't know... I'd have to ask the guy in charge."
"Ask him, I need to find her as quickly as possible." I'm not hanging around. Not when Emma's life is at risk. How did she creep under my skin so quickly? No other woman has in the past. Does this mean that she's special and someone that I could see myself with long term? I don't think so. I know so.
About ten minutes later, a smartly dressed guy with an FBI bullet-proof vest on comes over to me carrying a vest for me.
"Put this on." He shakes my hand. "I'm Sean, I hear you want on the squad? What experience do you have?"
"Sir, I have been in Afghanistan for three tours and then I’ve been involved with the teams sent to Gaza and Ukraine. I’m a marksman and can help." I need to be on that team. I need to be there for Emma.
"We'd be happy to have you on board, but you need to let us take the lead, I fear you are too emotionally invested to make the right decisions. So, follow our instructions and everything will be fine."
"Yes, Sir." I put the bullet-proof vest on and follow him over to his team. I shake hands with the other five members of the team. I tell them my name and they give me theirs. Dennis is the boss, then there's Rudy who looks after the equipment in the van and is their eyes and ears. Backing him up is Steve. Then there's Ryleigh. He's the guy who is currently staring at me and through me. What's his role in all of this? He looks like he's the muscles in this team, but then they tell me he's the negotiator. He's successfully closed out ten kidnappings this year alone across the USA. Impressive stats!
"So, we’ll know where they’re located when the truck stops. He seems to be in the same vehicle all the time, so there's no chance of him swapping cars so that we can't tail him. When we have a location, we can almost certainly guarantee he is handing the bear pelts over to a fence. We want both of them if we can." He looks over at me. "If Emma is still with him at this stage, you can be the one to remove her from the truck and get her out of there. We will concentrate on Viktor and his business partner."
"Sounds good to me." I'm relieved they're letting me join in and I'm happy they assigned me to look after Emma. I jump in their van, which has all their equipment in the back, including the tracking machine. I sit and listen to the beeps which tell us that the tracker is working. I can't stop staring at it. It's not blinking but doesn't appear to be moving.
"Right, it looks like he's stopped. Let's go get him." The guy in charge jumps into the van and sits next to me on the bench. Someone closes the back door, and we all sit in silence. It reminds me of being back in the military. This is what I'm good at-- rescuing people. But it's different when it's one of your own.
It feels like we’re driving forever before we turn off the highway. I can feel we are on rougher terrain as the van is bumping down the road. The driver pulls off the road, and he stops. He turns to us. "I won't go further because they’ll see us approaching. We need to go on foot from here.”
We all get out and the guy in charge looks at all of us. "I want you all to focus on your role." He looks at me. "Don't go all Yippee-ki-yay on me. Stay focused on Emma. We’ll make it safe to rescue her, then you go in and get her out of there. If they've hurt her, don't get all possessive and pissed off. Just get her out of there and we’ll take care of the rest. Understand?"
I nod. "I understand. Her safety is the most important thing." I nod again.
I have green camo on now with the bullet-proof vest on, and I keep down low to the ground. I have a gun, but not a rifle, but I see a couple of his men have them.