The Double

And I rolled us over the front edge of the wing.

I was praying that my body was heavy enough, and that we’d fall fast enough, that we’d fall out of the engine’s suction before it could suck us in. But as we fell, I could feel us being pulled back, back, the underside of the wing racing past above us. As we cleared the wing, we seemed to hang in the air for a second, the engine sucking us up while gravity sucked us down.

And then I felt us begin to fall. I hugged Hailey tight to my chest—

My back hit the pavement, so quick and hard I felt the shock but not the pain. We bounced, spun.... I saw glimpses of red and blue lights, storm clouds, the plane racing away from us... then we hit again and this time the pain lit up one whole side of my body from ankle to shoulder. Another bounce, my stomach dropping away as we rose into the air... and then we slammed down and rolled, over and over, and all I could do was clutch Hailey close and pray she’d be okay.

We finally came to rest by the side of the runway. I knew I was panting because I could feel my chest heaving, but I couldn’t hear my breath. I couldn’t hear anything.

I opened my arms and legs, releasing Hailey from her protective cocoon. She struggled to her hands and knees. Moving. Talking, even though I couldn’t hear her. Alive! The cut on her head was bleeding and she was covered in bruises but she was okay.

That’s when the pain started to hit me. Not just my arm, but my legs, my ribs. There didn’t seem to be anywhere that didn’t hurt.

I managed to roll over. At the far end of the runway, Ralavich’s plane rose into the air and banked away, rising towards the clouds. Hailey moved into my view, staring up at the plane in horror. Her expression said it all. He got away!

I took her hand with my good arm and squeezed it. It doesn’t matter, I mouthed.

I drew her down for a kiss as red and blue lights surrounded us.

Nothing else mattered.

Only her.

Epilogue

Hailey

Six Weeks Later

WE’D BEEN DRIVING for several hours, taking turns. We should have been exhausted after all the traveling: it was mid-afternoon and we’d started our journey the evening before, an overnight flight and then another, much smaller plane to the tiny town where we’d rented the SUV. But we’d never been more awake. We were experiencing the opposite of white line fever.

We’d just crested another rise and I’d stopped in the road to drink in the view. It wasn’t like I was holding up traffic: we hadn’t seen another vehicle in hours. To our left, snow-capped mountain peaks clawed at the sky. To our right, the ground dropped away towards verdant green forest. And directly ahead, a sparkling river curled and twisted into a deep valley. The air felt different, here: bitterly cold but clean and fresh in a way that made New York air feel like it came from a bottle. It felt so good in our lungs, we had the windows wound down, even though it meant we had to huddle in gloves and thick jackets.

Alaska, I’d decided, was awesome.

Somewhere down there in the valley was our destination, but it was still too far away to make out. When we’d organized this over a video call, we’d been unsure if we’d be able to pull it off. It was late November and once the snow came, the track we were following would be almost impassable until spring. But we’d gotten lucky and the snow had held off. We had a week before we’d have to go back to civilization. Long enough for this visit, one that was way overdue. It had been almost two years since my friend Kate had left the New York FBI office for the tiny one in Anchorage, Alaska, with weekends and vacations spent out here in the wilds, at Mason’s cabin.

We were truly in the middle of nowhere. We’d lost cell phone reception hours ago and there wasn’t a telegraph post or a power line in sight. It was a little unsettling to think that, if we got into trouble out here, no one would find us for weeks or months.

Of course, really we were safe. If we didn’t arrive, our hosts would come out looking for us. But it made me think how isolated Kate must have felt, doing this journey on foot, with no supplies and no back-up. Of course, she’d had him. Her protector, now her man.

I looked across at my man. “Last stretch,” I said. “Maybe an hour. Want me to take it?”

Konstantin shook his head. “I’ll take it. I’m meant to be exercising my arm.”