Read The White Mountain for Free Online

of a feeding trough.
    That was it.  In a ten by ten
room, there was no place to hide.  Where could Randall’s attacker have gone?
    A gust of wind rattled the
roof overhead.  Mary glanced up at it.  Something dark and out of place on a
ceiling rafter caught her attention.  As she stepped closer, trying to deduce
what it was, a flash of lightning provided her all the light she needed. 
    Mary said, “Uh...Randall?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I think I found your
footprint.”  She turned, looking at the joist beside it.  “There’s another
one.”
    “What the—”  Randall reached
up and ran his fingers across a ridged layer of dried mud.  Some of it flaked
away and dropped to the floor.  He wiped his hand on his jeans.  “Damn nimble
bastard.  Waiting up there, wasn’t he?  Hoping I’d come in and he’d be able to
drop right down on me.”
    “Looks like it.”
    “Mystery solved.”
    “Not really, but it’s a
lead.  What now?”
    Randall walked over to the
wire-covered window, gauged the area outside.  The rain on the tin roof had
accelerated from a machine gun rattle into a Gatling gun salvo.  He said, “Me,
I’m gonna wait, get ready.  Make sure all the guns are loaded, sharpen the
knives.  Gotta figure out where I can send Alice and Jesse for a few days.”
    “What?  No, you need to pack
up—all of you need to pack up and run.”
    “Run?  Hell no.”
    “You can’t just hole up here
and wait it out, Randall.  Who knows how long it’ll be before he comes back.”
    “Not just he.  Them . 
And I don’t have a choice.  It’ll take as long as it takes.”
    “You know Al won’t just leave
you here alone.”
    “She don’t have a choice. 
Get gone or get dead, because I can’t guarantee I’ll make it out of here alive
myself.  She’ll need to take Jesse and get as far away as possible.”
    “Randall—”
    “No other way around this
mess.  Could be days, could be weeks.  I can’t risk it.  No way.”
    Mary realized that she wasn’t
going to change his mind.  He was prepping himself for another trip into the
bush.  Whether they came from a superior or from circumstance, orders were
orders.  She said, “They can come stay with me and Jimmy.”
    “Won’t work.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’ve got a job for
you.  I can’t pay you much, but I sure could use the help if you’re willing.”
    “A job?”  It was hard to
imagine she could do anything for Randall, aside from getting her sister and
nephew out of harm’s way.  As unfathomable as the idea was of a super-secret
cadre of trained assassins coming after her brother-in-law, he seemed convinced,
and reluctantly, she believed him.  He’d always been straight with her before. 
“I don’t know what I could possibly—”
    “Hear me out.  You’re the
only person in this damn town with more sense than God gave a goose.  This
ain’t gonna be easy, and it’s probably as dangerous as hell, but what I need is
somebody I can trust.  Sure as heckfire won’t be Henry and them boys, I can
tell you that for certain.”
    Mary moved closer to him,
braced herself against the wall to take more of her weight off her leg. 
“Okay.”  She nodded.  “Okay.  What do you need?”
    “Here’s the thing: I’d do it
myself if I could, but I can’t leave town because that’ll set off all kinds of
alarms inside Henry’s head.  You, not so much.  I reckon I need you to do what those
ten-watt bulbs up at Langley can’t.  Find out who’s running this damn contest
so I can go after them.  Cut the head off the snake and make the prize money go
away, game’s over.  Won’t nobody keep playing just for the fun of it.  Not if
the money’s gone.”
    She almost laughed.  If it
hadn’t been for the pleading look in his eyes, she would’ve.  “That’s it? 
Really?  That’s all?  Outsmart the CIA, find some sadistic billionaire hiding
out in his secret lair like a James Bond villain, killing off war heroes?