Don't Look Down Read online

  A long black metal case lay at the bottom of the locker and he stared at it for several moments, then pulled it out. He ran his fingers along the engraving on the top-his name, with the outline of the Special Forces patch below it. He thought of what Crawford had said about the two killed in the swamp. Sniper.

  He put the case into a specially designed slot on the right side of the backpack.

  He pulled out his keys to lock the Jeep and saw the Superman logo on the key chain Pepper had given him. It felt like a hole opened up in his chest and a cold wind blew through. He leaned forward and put his head on the support for the roll bar and heard Pepper saying, "Soon?"

  "Ah, fuck." He tried to regain control of his breathing, of his heart, of his feelings.

  It didn't work.

  Not right away.

  This is my fault, Wilder thought. My responsibility. I told Lucy they'd all be safe. His phone rang and he grabbed it. "Wilder."

  "Hey, bud," LaFavre said. "Got your message. I was in a briefing. What the hell is going on? We got two gunships locked and loaded. Two lift birds ready to go get some Navy SEALs and kick ass. Waiting on some CIA dickhead's decision."

  "Dickhead named Crawford?"

  "Yep. Standing about twenty feet away with his buddies, acting important. You know him?"

  "Yeah. Weaselly little bastard. Don't trust him. Where are the SEALs?"

  "Close, based on the radio traffic and on the fact the lift birds are to pick them up if called. Within twenty miles."

  SEALs, Wilder thought. Sea-Air-Land. Stud muffins whose brains sometimes turned to mush above the high-water mark, but no one better in the world on, or in, the water. He turned and looked down from the parking lot at the dark water of the Savannah River. Then he looked up from there toward the darkening horizon where the thousands of islands of the low country lay and beyond it the Atlantic. SEAL country. They'd even give Moot a run for the money in the swamp. He'd bet they taught alligator wrestling at Coronado.

  "You there?" LaFavre sounded worried.

  "Yeah."

  "And where is there?"

  "On the Talmadge Bridge getting ready to shoot our last scene with what I have a really bad feeling is live ammo."

  There was a moment of silence. "What is going on?"

  "You know that little girl you gave the sunglasses to?"

  "Pepper." LaFavre's voice slowed. "What happened?"

  "They took her to make sure we kept shooting the movie."

  "Fuck. They planning on giving her back?"

  "That's what they say."

  "What do you say?"

  "I say the bastard who has her just tortured a man and threw him to a gator."

  "What do you need?"

  "You remember that helicopter pilot you hit on?"

  "Karen?"

  "She's in on it. At the airfield now, probably right across the runway from you, getting ready to take the chopper to the bridge. They really need that chopper. Get it and we'll do a trade. Be careful. Karen has a black belt."

  "I got a Glock."

  "She has the coordinates for the pickup, or will shortly. We'll need those."

  "I'll get 'em." LaFavre's voice was grim in a way Wilder hadn't heard since Afghanistan. "Don't worry, bud. We'll get your kid back."

  "Yep." Wilder turned off the phone and nodded as he thought about having people you could count on. A SEAL platoon. LaFavre. Lucy.

  And Pepper. She was five, but she was smart. He thought of her alone with the ghost and shivered in spite of himself.

  Fucking ghost was gonna die for this one.

  Lucy was standing by the bridge rail, scanning every tall building in sight, her muscles tense with worry, when J.T. came to stand beside her.

  "How's it going?" he asked her.

  "Althea's insisting on filming. She won't leave the bridge." And Pepper's out there with a lunatic.

  "Great." J.T. took a deep breath. "Well, we'll set her up on a rope, too, then. Everything else okay?"

  "Pepper's not." Lucy gripped the rail. "She's out there in the dark. With that crazy person. And I can't do anything."

  "I don't think he's crazy out of control," J.I", said, patting her on the shoulder clumsily. "I think he's the one who shot out the skid on the helicopter when Bryce fell. You're not out of control if you can do that. Damn good sniper."

  "Oh, Christ." Lucy shrugged his hand away. "He's the bad guy."

  "Yeah, but he's really good at it," J.T. said. "You gotta respect that and factor it in."

  "You're crazier than Nash," Lucy said. "My next guy is going to be an accountant."

  "There is no next guy." J.T. moved his hand to her waist and pulled her close. "I'm it."

  Lucy leaned into him. "Oh, God, I hope so."

  "Relieve it. We're going to have some stuff to talk about when we get Pepper back."

  Lucy smiled in spite of herself at his "when." Confidence. That's what she needed right now. "What about LaFavre?"

  "I called him. He's in action." He straightened. "I'd rather stay here and pat you, but I have to go teach Bryce to be a hero now. I'll set up Althea's line, too."

  "You got about ten minutes," Lucy said.

  "That should do it." He grinned at her and walked off, and she watched him go and then looked back over the rail at the swamp, wondering if Moot was the gator who'd gotten Finnegan. Since Finnegan was dead at the time, it shouldn't matter, but hadn't Pepper said something about feeding alligators making them unafraid of humans? If you fed them humans, wouldn't that make them even less afraid? And Pepper was out there someplace…

  But someplace high, so no gators. One worry gone. Lucy squinted toward the grain elevators in the distance. I hey were high. But so was the hotel. So were the cranes in the port on the other side of the bridge. So were-

  Gloom came up beside Lucy.

  "We're good to go," he said, handing her a harness for Althea. "Depending on how loosely you define 'good.'"

  "Thanks." Lucy cook the rig and looked up at him, his long, cranky face trying to look sympathetic and just looking pained. Confidence, she thought. Time to stop thinking worst-case scenario, start planning for the future, for when Pepper was back. "Listen, when we get Pepper back, I'm staying down here with her and Daisy. Daisy and I are going to open a southern branch of the business, so you're going to have to run the New York office. From my loft."

  "You sure about this?" Gloom said after a moment.

  "I'm positive," Lucy said. "I need a new lire. And they must need commercials with dogs down here, too, so I should be set." She lifted her chin. "That okay with you?"

  "Under different circumstances, I'd be thrilled," Gloom said, looking depressed.

  "We'll talk when we get her back," Lucy said. "We're going to get her back-"

  "Lucy?" Althea said from behind her.

  Lucy turned and saw the little blond actress, her face drawn and tense.

  "J.T.'s talking to Bryce. He said you wanted to talk to me?"

  "Yep." Get to work, Armstrong. Lucy held up the cable harness that Gloom had given her. "You're going to learn how to rappel off a bridge, babe."

  "I'll go check on the camera," Gloom said and began to leave. Then he turned back. "Thanks. For the loft. And everything."

  "You deserve it." Lucy turned to see Althea looking at the harness with no enthusiasm. "You don't have to do this," Lucy told her. "You don't have to be here at all. You can stay down in base camp."

  "This is my big scene," Althea said, sounding very sure. "I'm going to be in it."

  "Okay. Well, things may go… differently tonight." Lucy pasted a smile on. "So, while I know the storyboards call for you to wear this only as a safety, you might actually have to use it in case you have to rappel over the side."

  Althea looked at her, eyes wide. "What's going on?"

  "We're shooting a scene that could go wrong," Lucy said. "But Bryce will be there to take care of you."

  Althea looked at her doubtfully.

  "And J.T."