Read Run: An Emma Caldridge Novella: The Final Episode for Free Online Page B

cabin.
    “Nothing usual about this,” Emma said. “Other than Sumner up there ready to blow Shaw’s head off.”
    Shaw kept near her. “Tarnell told me about your buddy calling the governor. You tell him he shoots me, the boy explodes into a million little pieces.” He handed her a cell phone. “Go ahead, call him.” Shaw’s voice was filled with confidence.
    Emma took the thin device. It was cool in her hand and weighed next to nothing. The screen was dark
    She knew a lot about land mines and IEDs because she’d dealt with them when making her way through the paramilitary controlled Colombian jungle. Homemade bomb builders employed various triggers for their explosives; mousetraps that sprung when you stepped on them, wires that pulled on the trap when you walked into it, pressure set bombs that exploded when a weight—usually an innocuous soda can or other bit of trash—was moved, and cell phones that ignited a spark when they were activated.
    She stood in the morning sun and started sweating. She didn’t doubt that Shaw had rigged the phone to trigger the bomb if it was turned on. He was using her to kill the boy. It would make his point and he’d still have her as a hostage.
    “I said call your buddy,” Shaw said. His voice was oily.
    “She can’t,” Vanderlock said. “The cell phone towers are inactivated. None of our phones are working.”
    Shaw put the gun against Emma’s temple. “I said call him, and I want you to do it now. Turn on the phone.”
    Putting the gun to her head and insisting she turn on the device removed all the risk for her. Now, she was certain the phone would trigger the bomb, and also certain that he would have to kill her first to get his hands on the phone because she wasn’t going to release it. She had no doubt that Sumner would shoot Shaw once he realized that the cell phone was in her hand and safe. The odds were that the boy would live. She thought about Ryan, the risk analyst, and wished she could have asked him what the odds were that they would all survive the standoff, but knew in her heart they were long.
    Holding the phone up into the air so the light glinted off of it, she and turned to Shaw.
    “No,” she said.
    Rage filled his eyes, and he took a step and straight-armed the gun at her.
    Then his head exploded, bits of brain matter and blood spewing in haphazard patterns as the bullet tumbled through his skull.
    “Take care of the boy,” Emma yelled at Vanderlock, who reached behind him and pulled a gun out of his waistband. He tossed it to her before taking three long steps to the child. Emma caught it and ran toward where Johnson had been holding Ryan hostage. The two of them had disappeared.
    Emma plunged through the mudroom and into the kitchen, looking for them, and stopped. The women were there, several drying and wringing their hands, and in the center of that group she saw the one Shaw had punched. Her cheekbone had an ugly, mottled bruise and her hair was disheveled and hung down around her face. She held a shotgun pointed at Johnson, who was facedown on the floor. Ryan stood next to her, looking grim. The woman glanced up. Emma was sure she’d never seen such a look of determination on someone’s face.
    “Is my son alive?” she said.
    Emma nodded. “He’s okay. Shaw’s dead.”
    The woman’s eyes closed and Emma saw the rifle in her hands start to shake. She stepped up and gently took it from her.
    “It’s over,” she said.
    S UMNER STOOD NEXT to Emma in Sheriff Tarnell’s offices. They both stared through the glass of a gun cabinet, where Sumner’s Dragunov and Emma’s pistol had been put.
    “You got the key?” Sumner asked.
    Emma shook her head. “It’s on Tarnell. What happened to him, and where’s Vanderlock?”
    “He got a call and took off,” Sumner replied. “Said to tell you he’d be in touch. Tarnell’s in custody along with the other men in the cult.”
    “So I guess extreme measures are called for,” Emma said.