Chapter 42

42

Fenn emerged from the old structure, the frigid air hitting him like a wall. His body thrummed with a restless energy, the events of the past few minutes replaying in his mind. Excess adrenaline—and the sweet taste of success—masked the bumps and bruises from his sketchy maneuver.

Rescue successful. Kate safe.

Mason clapped him on the back. "Nice riding! Serious Rambo action, my man."

Fenn staggered forward under the blow. "Nice of you to show. Excellent timing. I figured you dudes were still an hour or two out."

Mason jabbed a gloved finger at the gleaming helo fifty yards away. "Borrowed a ride."

Made sense. Instead of flying to Endurance, then racing back on snow machines, the team had simply flown straight to the site. Something he was certain Bridger made look easy, but couldn't be more difficult in the dark, arctic conditions.

AR cradled in gloved hands, Graham strode up to them. "Looks like you got a new team."

Fenn's ragtag posse stood guard over Jimbo, who sat in the snow, his splinted arm tucked into his side. "They rock. You guys have some serious competition."

Graham laughed, but Mason eyed the group. "A couple of those guys are former teams. You coulda done worse."

"No doubt." He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at the sight of his friends from the settlement. Judging from their erect body language, they felt it, too.

The moment Jimbo spotted Fenn, he yelled out, his voice laced with pain and anger, "You hit me with a snowmobile! You broke my arm!"

Burl McCoy, recognizable by the size of his gut even in his snowsuit, poked Jimbo with his foot, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You best be happy that's all that's broken, friend. It's gonna be a long ride back to Endurance. Lots more bad things could happen to a fella like you."

Fenn suppressed a grin, the corners of his mouth twitching. Then he sobered, facing Lester. "Sorry about your rig," he apologized. "I'm not sure it's salvageable."

The other man actually looked pleased. "Soon as you took off, I figured she was toast. I got insurance. Thinking about a new Yamaha four-stroke anyway."

"Good deal." He was on the move before he finished the comment, heading straight for Kate.

He was two steps from her when Bridger's voice crackled over the comlink, his tone grim. "Steele is in the wind. He had a snowmobile on standby somewhere. We could follow him but…"

He didn't need to say the rest. Follow Steele where? Straight into a Consortium ambush?

His heart sank. "Copy that."

Kate, without a comlink, looked at him quizzically. "What's up?"

His breath fogged in the frigid air. "Hawk has disappeared. That tunnel or crevasse he jumped out of must lead to an exit out the back. Obviously, he had a getaway machine ready."

Quite the prepared dude.

"We'll get him," Kate insisted, her eyes blazing with determination.

Fenn wasn't so sure, but there was no way he was going to discourage her right now. Seeking a distraction, he pointed to the yellow helicopter, its sleek lines illuminated by the lights set out around the doors.

Kate sighed, her eyes widening in appreciation. "An Airbus H145. Nice."

Fenn could hear the jealousy in her voice, and he couldn't blame her. It was an impressive machine.

Bridger joined them, nodding in agreement. "Copy that."

"Does it fly as pretty as it looks?" Kate asked, her gaze still fixed on the helicopter.

Bridger grinned, his teeth flashing white in the darkness. "Absolutely. We need one."

Kate nodded, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. "Yeah, we do. Is this one for sale?"

"I wish." Bridger shook his head, his expression turning rueful. "Borrowed it from an old buddy from the teams. He runs security for one of the pipelines. If I scratch it, I'm dead."

Kate eyed the lovely machine again, her lips pursed in thought. "That's fair."

Fenn couldn't help but smile. It was one of the things he loved about her, her ability to find joy and excitement in the smallest of things.

But as he watched her, he couldn't shake the feeling of unease that settled in his gut. Hawk was still out there, still a threat. And until they caught him, none of them would be truly safe.

He just hoped they'd get another chance to bring him down.

Before it was too late.

Fenn watched as Rog and the rest of his ad hoc posse said their goodbyes, their voices jovial and teasing despite the gravity of the situation. They headed back to the settlement, leaving Fenn, Kate, and the team with Jimbo to escort back. The group congregated in the relative warmth just inside the doorway, their breaths fogging in the frigid air.

Graham and Mason stood outside, their eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of Steele or his reinforcements. The urgency to leave was palpable, hanging heavy in the air. They needed to go. Now.

Bridger assessed the situation, his brow furrowed in thought. "There's room in the Airbus for four. That leaves two to take snowmobiles back."

Fenn stepped forward, his voice firm. "I'll do it."

With any luck, Steele would show himself.

Mason shot him a knowing look. "I'm in, too. Moon's good for hunting."

Kate's head snapped up, her eyes flashing with anger. "No way. I can handle Hawk if he reappears."

Fenn growled. "Not with a dislocated shoulder."

"Safer to have you in the copilot seat, anyway," Bridger added. "I could use a good backup."

Kate opened her mouth to argue, but then closed it again, her shoulders sagging in defeat. "Fine," she muttered, her tone sheepish.

Bridger made certain Fenn and Mason had sat phones and active comlinks. Unfortunately, Tai's surveillance drones couldn't fly in the subzero weather, the batteries wouldn't last five minutes in the cold. So Bridger and the team couldn't provide aerial surveillance, but Kate and Bridger planned to do a quick aerial reconnaissance before they headed back to base to ensure that Steele didn't have reinforcements on the way.

Fenn was more than okay with that plan. Anything that got Kate back to base quickly and gave him another possible chance to take down Hawk Steele. With any luck, the man would follow him and Mason.

He stood next to the helicopter, his fingers fumbling with the straps of his suit as he prepared for the ride back to Endurance. Kate stood beside him, her eyes distant and her face a mask of blankness. Their conversation was stilted, surface-level, and it made Fenn's heart ache.

She was trying to be brave, he could see that, but the devastation was written all over her face. She was uncharacteristically withdrawn, tentative even, and it made his chest burn with anger.

He wanted to pound Steele unconscious for shaking her world so badly, for making her withdraw into herself. That most of all.

And just when he thought the two of them were building a solid bridge, a connection that went beyond just teammates or friends.

Mason's voice crackled over the comlink, pulling Fenn from his thoughts. "I disabled Steele's ride. Mount up, Fenn. It's time to go."

Fenn nodded, pulling on his helmet and jogging over to the snowmobile. The moon was just slipping over the horizon, casting a silvery glow over the frozen landscape. Stars glittered overhead, so bright and close that he felt like he could reach up and touch them.

It was a fairytale setting. The kind of place where magic happened and dreams came true.

Too bad he and Kate seemed destined for the opposite.

As he climbed onto the snowmobile Jimbo had ridden out on, Fenn cast one last glance over his shoulder at Kate. She was climbing into the helicopter, her movements stiff and pained. His heart clenched at the sight.

He wanted to go to her, to wrap her in his arms and tell her that everything would be okay. That they would get through this, together.

But he knew that wasn't what she needed right now. She needed space, time to process everything that had happened.

And he needed to focus on the mission at hand, on getting them all back to base safely.

And capturing Steele.

So he revved the engine of the snowmobile, the sound echoing across the frozen expanse, and set off into the dark, Mason on his six.

The wind whipped at his face, the cold seeping into his bones, but he barely noticed. His mind was on Kate, on the look in her eyes as she'd climbed into the helicopter.

She was warrior strong. But that didn't make it any easier to watch her suffer.

And it didn't make it any easier to know that he couldn't be there for her, not in the way he wanted to be.

When this was over, when Steele was finally brought to justice and the world was set right again, maybe then they could find their way back to each other.

Maybe then they could build that bridge, that connection, that fairytale ending.

But for now, all he could do was ride.

And hope.