Chapter 5 - Into the Abyss"Check the perimeter!" a rough voice shouted from above. "Vance said the cop tracked the car here! We find her, we handle her—and we make sure Reed's body is never found!"
Natalie drew her service weapon, her heart hammering against her ribs. She was outnumbered and trapped at the bottom of a ravine in a storm.
She ducked low behind the rusted hulk of Andrew’s car, using the shadows of the concrete culvert to conceal her movement. She tapped her radio quietly, keying the emergency distress signal to send her precise GPS coordinates to Frank.
Click. Click.
"Come on, Frank, receive it..." she whispered under her breath.
Above her, heavy boots began scrambling down the slippery slope.
"She’s down here!" one of the henchmen yelled, spotting the tracks in the mud.
Natalie didn't hesitate. She plunged into the dark, echoing cavern of the quarry drainage tunnel. The air inside was freezing, smelling of copper, damp earth, and decaying pine. Her flashlight beam cut through the pitch-black darkness, revealing footmarks—a drag line from a broken leg and handprints smeared with blood along the concrete wall.
Andrew had crawled in here to escape his pursuers four nights ago.
"Andrew!" Natalie called out in a low, urgent voice, her footsteps splashing through ankle-deep water. "Andrew Reed! I’m Officer Natalie! I’m here for Ashley!"
From deep within the subterranean darkness, a weak, raspy cough echoed back.
"Ash... ley...?"
Natalie ran toward the sound. In a small, dry alcove behind a collapsed concrete pillar, she found him.
Andrew was slumped against the wall, pale as a ghost, his left leg horribly broken and wrapped in a makeshift tourniquet made from his own belt. His hands were covered in dried blood, frostbite clawing at his fingertips. Yet, tucked tightly inside his jacket, right against his chest to keep it safe from the elements, was a single, unbroken unopened bottle of fever reducer he had managed to salvage.
Even near death, his only instinct had been to keep his daughter's medicine safe.
"Andrew!" Natalie knelt beside him, checking his pulse. It was faint, thready, but he was alive—clinging to life by sheer willpower for four agonizing days.
"My... my daughter..." Andrew choked out, his eyes bloodshot and glassy with fever. "Is she... did she..."
"She’s safe," Natalie said tears shining in her eyes as she wrapped her emergency thermal blanket around his shivering frame. "Ashley is at the hospital. She’s going to be okay, Andrew. You saved her."
Tears streamed down Andrew’s dirt-streaked face. "I... I tried to crawl home... they rammed my car... they wanted the thumb drive... I couldn't get back to her..."
"Hey! Over here! I hear them!"
Shining flashlights swept into the tunnel entrance. Vance’s two henchmen stepped into the cavern, weapons raised.
"End of the line, Officer," the lead henchman sneered, aiming his pistol at Natalie. "You should have stayed out of this. Now you both disappear in a 'tragic landslide.'"
"I don't think so," Natalie said calmly.
Before the gunman could pull the trigger, sirens screamed from the road above. Red and blue lights flashed wildly through the trees as three police cruisers, led by Detective Frank Reyes and Captain Miller himself, skidded to a halt at the top of the ravine.
"POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS NOW!" Frank’s voice boomed over a loudspeaker.
The two henchmen panicked, turning toward the tunnel mouth. Taking advantage of the distraction, Natalie leaped forward, sweeping the lead gunman’s legs out from under him and disarming him in one fluid motion. The second man threw his hands up in the air as officers flooded into the tunnel with weapons drawn.
Captain Miller rushed inside, his eyes widening in shock as he saw Andrew huddled in the blanket, held by Natalie.
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Miller looked at the injured father, then at the blood-soaked concrete, and finally at Natalie. The cynical veteran officer swallowed hard, a look of deep shame washing over his face.
"Get the paramedics down here NOW!" Miller barked into his radio, his voice shaking. "We’ve got a hero to save."
