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

These men were ruthless and they had everything to lose. They would have heard the shots from earlier. They’d know the direction they came from.

Rachel eased to the opposite side of the opening, careful to keep out of sight. Alex followed. She peered out. She could no longer see anything, including the rifle scope. Had she been wrong?

She watched as Alex searched the area below them then shook his head.

“I don’t see the person anymore, either. I could have been wrong.” She didn’t believe it, though. There was someone out there. The only question remaining was how many of them there were.

He didn’t answer. His focus was trained on something below. “Wait, I see something. There’s at least three men coming this way.”

She looked in the direction he indicated and spotted them. “We can hold our ground against them for a little while until we run out of ammo, but it’s going to call a lot of attention to us. The rest of Temple’s men will be here before your team has a chance to find us. There will be no escaping then.”

Alex hurried across the room and looked down below. “Nothing but a sheer drop-off back here. There’s a small ledge, which barely has room to stand and no room for error.”

She understood what that meant. They’d have to try to hold off Temple’s team until the Scorpions arrived.

Rachel grabbed Liam’s weapon and checked the clip. He was almost out of rounds. Hers wasn’t much better. It was only a matter of time before they were overthrown.

If they were going to die here, she wasn’t letting that happen without telling Alex how she felt about him.

Alex headed for the opening where he’d seen the men, but she stopped him. “Alex, wait.”

He turned back to her, searching her face.

Rachel slowly found the courage she needed. “Alex, we may not make it out of here and I can’t die without telling you...how I feel about you.”

She’d never seen him look so uncertain. He reached for her and tugged her close. His arms were everything that she remembered, but she needed to tell him everything.

“No, I need to say this.”

He waited for her to go on.

“When you chose the job over me, well, it was crippling. I thought we would have a future together and then it just ended.” She shrugged. She couldn’t lose control now. “When I got back home, I was a wreck. I couldn’t function for the longest time, but slowly, with Liam’s help and the Reagans, I moved on. I married Brian because I cared about him. He knew all about you and me, but it didn’t matter to him.” She stopped for a breath. “I’ll always be grateful for him, but I never stopped loving you, Alex. And I never will.”

He framed her face with his hands and kissed her tenderly. When he looked at her the way he was right now, she was so afraid. She had so much to look forward to in life, and it might quite possibly be taken from her again.

“I’m not going to let that happen, Rachel,” he said, reading her worried thoughts. “We will make it out of here, and when we do, we will have a lot to talk about. Do not give up on us.” The sincerity in his eyes made her want to keep fighting with all her might.

She managed a smile for him. “I won’t. I’ll never give up on you again.” With one final kiss, they both eased to the opening once more. The men had stopped. They appeared to be assessing the station carefully. She could see them talking, then one of the men slipped closer to the station.

“He’s coming inside. If we can take him out, it might force the others to search for him. It will give us some leverage.”

Rachel understood. She would act as bait for the man to draw his attention away from Alex, who would take the man down. She heard the first step below creak, followed by another. She’d been in situations like this hundreds of times in the past, yet the adrenaline rush of the life-and-death situation was always there.

A shadow fell across the door to the building. Rachel kept her hand on her gun. This was it. Their lives—their future—came down to her not losing her cool. The door slowly opened. She saw the barrel of the gun first. She waited for the man to enter. Her thoughts screamed that she didn’t want to die here along with Liam and Alex without knowing what their sacrifice was all about.

Alex waited behind the door as the man eased through it. He barely cleared it when he spotted Rachel. Before he had the chance to fire off a single round to warn his comrades, Alex grabbed the man from behind in a choke hold. The man struggled like a wild animal. Alex tightened his hold around the man’s neck. After what felt like forever, his struggles grew weaker. The weapon slipped from his hand. Rachel rushed to grab it before it could hit the floor. Once the man was unconscious, Alex eased him down to the floor.

“That didn’t go as quietly as I’d hoped.” He went to the opening and glanced down at the two men. They were definitely on alert.

Rachel joined him. “I’m not sure they heard him, but it won’t be long before they come looking. At least for now, it’s two against two.”

It was something, he guessed, but how long before the rest of Temple’s goons came after them?

Alex went back to the man and checked his pocket. He had a cell phone. “Thank You, God,” he said in a grateful tone, before he punched in Jase’s number. “Jase, it’s me, Alex. I don’t have much time.” Alex knew his commander wouldn’t recognize the number. As quickly as he could, he told Jase what was happening.

“We’re still an hour out at best,” Jase told him. “We ran into some sketchy weather. We’ll head for