Brought Down

25. The Mountains

Garrett

The rock overhang is big enough to hide the plane from anyone looking for it from above. This spot in the mountains have served me and Angie before, and it will do for now, too. It's far enough from the hideaway to not endanger my people if the royals do track us. Also, the caves will come in handy. We can stay there for a while, until...

Until what? Until things calm down a little, so that I could try to return and convince them I'm not a traitor? Or perhaps try to seek refuge in another settlement? I have friends in a few places, but when they find out what I did, will they still be my friends?

I flick the switches off and the indicators go dark. Then, I just sit in silence, trying to find sense in what I've done. There's none to be found. Yet there's no going back.

I did what I had to do, now I can only make the best of it.

When I can't delay it any longer, I turn back to look at Julian.

He's sitting very upright in the rear seat, and he meets my gaze immediately. The coat he's wearing is so big it makes him look twice his size. There's still a gag in his mouth. I sigh, take out my knife and reach back to cut the strap holding the gag in place. He bows his head and keeps still, allowing me to do my job.

As he spits the gag out, I put my knife away and open the cockpit roof. "Let's go."

"The handcuffs," he says hoarsely.

"Yeah, right." I glance at his hands. "Those are the simple ones. You can break them by twisting, you know?" He looks at me blankly, so I just reach over my seat and show him. "Like that, you see? One of the links will break." I guide his hands, then apply some pressure. He winces, and then the chain snaps.

"Wow." He stares at it, then at me.

I look down at the chain binding his ankles. "We'll have to break that one with a stone or something."

"Why do you keep helping me?" he says. "I just keep waiting for the other penny to drop. You're in serious trouble now, aren't you?"

"Let's just concentrate on the foot cuffs." I hate those questions I don't have answers to.

"What about the bomb?"

"They're too far to detonate it now. We'll take it off you in the cave."

"Cave? What cave?" He frowns. "And why didn't they set it off when we were still at the exchange spot?"

I shrug. "They saw me. They wouldn't have detonated it knowing that it would kill me, too."

"You sure have a lot of trust in your people."

"I earned some respect over the years." I also probably lost all of it today, but I'd rather not think about it now.

He shakes his head. "Garrett --"

"Let's just get out of here, okay?" Before he can start talking again, I lean over, pick him up and carry him out of the cockpit.

Once on the ground, I find a handy stone and smash the chain connecting his foot cuffs. I can feel his eyes on me all the time, but I avoid looking at him. I discard the stone, get up and gesture for him to follow me.

We walk a couple of dozen feet, the stone overhang getting lower and lower until it almost touches the top of my head. Finally, the wall of the mountain opens into a long, dark cave. I can't see the back wall of it from the entrance, but I know there's another exit there – two exits, actually. One of them is leading to a chain of smaller caves and eventually outside, while the other ends in a deep crack in the stone floor, forming a sort of a natural well. It's a good thing to be in a place with more than one exit, even though I hope we won't need to use the other one. Encountering things here is unlikely, the mountain being so devoid of life there's little for them to feed on, but I wouldn't rush into confined dark spaces unless I have no other choice.

I turn back to Julian. "Stand still."

I check his coat. The explosive belt is sewn to it from the inside, but I don't see anything connecting it to Julian's body that would cause it to detonate if we took the coat off. Rykar must have relied on him being handcuffed and therefore unable to get out of the coat. Still, I hesitate.

"You don't know," says Julian.

I look up and meet his gaze. His eyes gleam feverishly, and his breathing is fast and shallow. He licks his lips. "You don't know how to disable it."

"No," I say. "But I think we can try to take it off."

"I can take it off," he says. "You should stay away. If something...goes wrong, there's no need for you to be here."

"Shut up already." Before he can protest, I begin to take the coat off him. He tenses, then tries to help, moving rigidly, extracting first one, then the other hand. We end up standing in front of each other, eyeing the heavy coat I'm still holding, half expecting for an explosion to rip us to pieces.

Nothing happens, so I turn around and carry it to one of the cracks in the wall, the one leading to the cave with a well. With one hand, I turn on a flashlight and check that the immediate area behind the entrance is empty. The light finds the crack in the floor. I lean inside the cave and throw the coat into the crack. It disappears, and I only hear a few noises as it makes its way down the well, occasionally brushing against its walls. Eventually, all sounds subside.

I step back and return to the main cave.

Julian is sitting on a big boulder, shaking. Whatever self-control was keeping him calm is now gone, and all the suppressed stress has taken over.

I crouch down to examine the cuffs on his feet. The chain is broken, but I don't think I can break the cuffs themselves.

"You'll have to keep this jewelry on for now," I say.

His hand brushes through my hair, surprising me. I jerk away. He remains with his hand in the air, looking at me with a confused half-smile.

"I don't understand," he says. "I hate it when I don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"What do you earn by keeping me alive?"

Having to answer tons of unwanted questions, for sure.

"It just felt wrong to let you be killed like that."

"And you've ruined your career for that?"

I hate it that he puts it so plainly, but yes, I guess that's exactly what I did.

"There's so many things that go wrong," he says, "but I usually just play along, because I know I can't fix everything."

"I wanted to fix this," I say.

"Why?"

"Because," I snap. "Stop talking! Stop asking --"

He raises his hand preventively, but I trail off by myself, and listen to the distant sounds coming from the outside. A fighter jet. Gunshots. An explosion. More gunshots. They're far away from us, but they're unmistakable.

The sounds of a battle.

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