Chapter 4 - The Voice in the Trees
The scream echoed through the ranger station and ended with a burst of static.
Daniel moved toward the door.
Melissa blocked him. "It could be old audio."
"It sounded real."
"That is what they want."
The loudspeaker clicked again. This time Thomas spoke.
"Daniel, do not bring them anything."
A blow landed. Thomas groaned.
Noah began shaking.
Daniel forced himself to think. If Vale's people truly held his parents, they would expect him to trade. If they did not, going to the bridge would surrender the only leverage he had.
Melissa opened the station's evacuation map and traced a faded utility line. "There is a fire lookout above the bridge. We can see the exchange point without entering it."
"Twenty minutes."
"Then we move now."
They left through a rear window and climbed the slope behind the station. Melissa's wound slowed her, but she refused help. Noah stayed between them, silent and alert.
The lookout stood on a rocky spine above the ravine. Its stairs had collapsed, but Daniel found a maintenance ladder nailed to the back. He climbed first and pulled Noah through a trapdoor. Melissa followed.
From the dusty windows, they could see the broken bridge below.
Three men waited on the far bank. One held the loudspeaker. Another controlled two dogs. The third wore a pale hat and stood beside a woman tied to a tree.
Ruth.
Daniel's hand tightened around the window frame.
His mother was alive. Her mouth was taped, but she was upright. Thomas was nowhere visible.
The man in the pale hat checked his watch.
Melissa whispered, "That is Owen Kreel. Vale's operations chief."
"How do you know him?"
"Claire photographed him outside the courthouse last year."
Daniel studied the area. Kreel's men expected him to approach from the station. The collapsed bridge prevented a direct crossing. A narrow maintenance path descended on their side and curved beneath the cliff, possibly reaching the far bank downstream.
Noah pointed across the ravine. "Grandma's hands."
Ruth moved her fingers behind the tree. Three taps, pause, one tap, seven taps.
317.
Then she pointed her chin upward, toward the lookout.
She knew they were watching.
Kreel approached her and removed the tape.
"Call him again," he said.
Ruth looked toward the trees instead. "Daniel, your father is not here. Do not trade."
Kreel struck her.
Daniel stepped away from the window before Noah could see his face.
Melissa caught his arm. "We can get her out."
"How?"
She removed a road flare from a cabinet. "The dogs are trained to follow scent and sound. We send both the wrong direction."
They found an emergency rescue pack containing rope, an old climbing harness, and two smoke canisters. Daniel tied the rope to a steel support beam. The plan was reckless: descend the rear of the cliff, reach the maintenance path, create smoke downstream, and cross a fallen tree hidden by the ravine bend. Melissa would lure one guard away while Daniel reached Ruth.
Noah refused to stay in the tower alone.
"They already know I'm here," he said. "And Mom gave me the marker. Maybe she wanted me to help."
Daniel knelt before him. "Your mother wanted you alive. Helping means doing exactly what I say."
Noah nodded, though fear remained in his eyes.
They descended. At the ravine floor, Melissa lit a flare and wrapped it in Daniel's spare shirt. She tied the bundle to a length of rope, swung it across the creek, and let the current drag it downstream. The dogs caught the scent and began barking.
One guard followed them. The second moved to the edge of the ravine.
Melissa threw a smoke canister. White smoke rolled between the trees.
Daniel and Noah crossed the fallen trunk.
Ruth saw them first. She deliberately collapsed, pulling Kreel's attention downward.
Daniel reached the tree, cut the rope around her wrists, and caught her before she fell.
Kreel turned.
For one suspended second, he and Daniel stared at each other through the smoke.
Kreel smiled.
"Claire had your eyes," he said.
Daniel lunged.
Kreel stepped aside and fired into the dirt beside Noah.
"The next one isn't a warning."
Ruth threw herself between them.
A vehicle engine roared from the logging road. Kreel's remaining guard shouted that police were coming.
Kreel backed toward the trees. "Locker 317, Daniel. Midnight tomorrow. Bring everything, and I will bring your father."
"You said you didn't have him."
"I didn't say that. Your mother did."
He vanished into the smoke.
Minutes later, two county sheriff vehicles arrived. The officers claimed they had received an anonymous emergency call.
The deputy in charge introduced himself as Calvin Rusk.
When he saw the brass key hanging from Daniel's hand, his expression changed for less than a second.
Then he smiled and said, "You people are lucky Black Pine found you first."
Everyone went silent.
May you like
Daniel had never told him the name Black Pine.
Rusk's two companions shifted almost invisibly, closing the distance between themselves and the family. One rested his thumb against the safety of his rifle. The other watched Noah rather than the surrounding woods. Daniel noticed their boots were clean despite the muddy road, as though they had changed into uniforms nearby. Ruth noticed too. Her fingers closed around Daniel's wrist once, a childhood signal meaning danger behind the smile.
