Target on the Mountain by Elizabeth Goddard (the chimp paradox .txt) 📕

Her breathing accelerated. She needed to help him.

I have to get out of here. I’m a sitting duck.

“Where are you, Ryan?”

With all the gunfire, he could be shot and injured or worse... Dead.

He’d told her to wait, but she couldn’t.

Then she heard him.

“Tori, get out of the vehicle! I can’t make it to you!” he called, his voice sounding distant. “I’ll hold him off!”

More gunshots resounded.

Time to move.

She kicked against her door again but it still wouldn’t budge. Tori crawled across the console to the driver’s side. Keeping low, she slid out, her weapon ready to fire. She needed somewhere to go, but she was stuck hiding behind the door of the vehicle as she tried to figure out where to go. She wanted to call out to Ryan but didn’t want to give herself away. He had to know she had climbed out, because he’d been shooting at someone to keep them from shooting at her.

If someone wanted her dead, wasn’t there any easier way to go about it? What a ridiculous thought to have at this moment.

Footfalls pounded the ground.

Two sets now.

Her heart hammered. Someone was running, but in which direction? Away from her, or toward her? She risked a peek down the alley and spotted Ryan giving chase.

That was it. She was going, too. Tori shoved from the vehicle, propelling herself forward and running after the two of them. The man he was chasing turned a corner.

“Ryan, wait up!” she called.

Ryan hesitated at the corner and then turned to wait for her. She caught up with him and didn’t miss a step as together they bounded around the corner and into the service vehicle access behind the buildings.

But the guy had disappeared. They continued forward until they made the end of the access behind the buildings that opened up to another alley.

She gasped for breath. “Déjà vu. This happened before. We can’t lose him this time. I’m going right, and you go left.”

“No.” Ryan held his weapon ready to aim and fire at the first sign of trouble. “We’ll go together.”

Tori didn’t argue and crept down the alley, Ryan at her side. She held her weapon ready to lift and fire at a moment’s notice. As she moved, she looked in every direction, waiting for the perp to jump out of the shadows or a corner. Ryan did the same but she had the uncanny sense that he was guarding her, as well. What a strange situation to be thrust into. At least Tori trusted Ryan to have her back, though she wasn’t giving him much choice at the moment.

A door slammed in a vacant building up ahead. She gestured toward the building. “In there.”

“I don’t like this, Tori,” Ryan said.

“I don’t like it, either, but we have to catch this guy. I’m not going to be safe until this is over.” Clearly she’d been completely wrong to believe she was safe with the ecoterrorist group in custody. Sanchez had been right on that point. That chafed. Unless Sanchez had been wrong and they had missed someone. But she couldn’t think about that right now.

Ryan grabbed her before she entered. “I’m lead on this. I’ll give chase.”

“And I’ll watch your back.”

He opened the door and stepped inside. “Police. Give it up.”

Slowly and methodically they cleared rooms on the lower level of a forsaken, multi-floor commercial building, then moved to the next floor. Neither of them spoke as they worked together. Very well together, she noted.

When they approached the last door in the building, Ryan hesitated and they shared a knowing look. The guy had to be in this room. And the perp had to know this was the end of the line for him.

Ryan positioned himself to safely enter the room, then called out in his official law enforcement tone, “It’s all over. I’m going to open the door. If you’re holding a weapon—”

The man fired off three shots. Bullets passed through the door. Tori’s pulse roared in her ears.

“I think he’s out,” Ryan said.

“He could have another clip,” she said.

Ryan nodded. “Give it up,” he called through to the shooter. “I’m with the Maynor County Sheriff’s Office, and I’m going to open this door. I’m going to shoot you if you are still holding a weapon. Understand?”

“Understood.” The response from behind the door surprised her.

Except, what did that really mean?

“Be careful, Ryan,” she said. “This could be a trap.”

Ryan kicked the door open and pointed his weapon. “Police!”

Tori came in low behind him.

A man stood at the far side of the room with his hands in his air. A gun lay on the floor in front of him. “I’m out, man. Don’t shoot me. I’m out.” Oddly, tears leaked from his eyes.

He was scared? That didn’t fit with the cold-blooded killer she’d been imagining. There was more going on here than she’d realized.

Finally a break in this case. The break they needed. Finally she could learn what happened to Sarah.

The window shattered. The perp’s face scrunched and then he crumpled as gunfire rang out.

Lights flashed from the emergency vehicles parked near the car accident that had taken out Ryan’s unmarked car. The wrecked vehicles had been moved to the side of the road to allow for traffic to flow.

The county coroner had already examined the perp’s body, and the building across the street from where the kill shot had been fired had been swept for evidence. Ryan hadn’t been informed on what had been discovered yet.

Medics had checked both Ryan and Tori out because neither of them wanted to sit in the hospital again. Not with a killer out there. With the attacks ramping up, they had to be getting close to the truth about who was behind this. And that meant Tori was in even more danger.

Ryan and Tori had already given their statements. It was getting late and Ryan was exhausted, but he’d grown somewhat accustomed to the long and odd hours as a detective. What was unfamiliar—and uncomfortable—was the hands-on scrutiny