And an instant later, they began to feel the heat.
“See what’s going on out there!” Carl shouted to one of his accomplices.
The man who had sat beside Ben in the car ran to one of the front windows and pulled away the tattered curtains. He turned back, his eyes wide with horror, a horror he was able to describe in a single word:
“Fire!”
Chapter 67
All four men rushed out the front door.
“Don’t leave us!” Ben shouted, but no one stopped.
“I can feel the fire from here,” Maureen said, twisting her neck around, trying to see.
Ben didn’t waste any time. As soon as they left, he started trying to get free. He pushed up with his feet, launching himself into the air. The chair clattered back down to the floor. He could feel the bonds loosening, but not enough to give him any slack. The chair didn’t break.
He did it again, this time pushing even higher. He heard the chair creak a bit on impact, thought he felt a split-but that was all. He was still tied tightly to the chair.
Before Ben could make another attempt, a familiar, if dreadful figure appeared in the rear doorway.
“Slade!” Ben said, teeth clenched. “I know you were behind this. What’s going on?”
“There’s a ring of fire,” Slade answered. He reached down and began untying their bonds. “All around us.”
“You’re letting us go?”
“I know you don’t have a very high opinion of me,” Slade said. “Maybe you shouldn’t. But I’m not going to let you two burn alive.” A few moments later, Ben and Maureen were free.
“Come on!” Slade shouted, pointing toward the door. The group raced outside. Almost instantly, Ben felt assaulted by the tremendous heat. Even though the fire was still a good fifty feet away, it felt as if he had stepped into the middle of it.
“But it hasn’t been hot enough for a brush fire,” Maureen said.
“This fire didn’t just happen,” Slade growled. “It was set.” He waved a bread box-size metal can under her nose. Ben recognized the distinctive smell before he even saw it.
It was a gasoline can. And it was empty.
Maureen stared at the can. “Al,” she murmured.
“What?” Slade said. “What are you talking about?”
Maureen wouldn’t answer him, but Ben knew exactly what she was thinking. Al was over the brink, out of control, crazy with rage. Al had been staying out late at night in the forest. He had said he’d discovered something-something secret.
And he’d sworn to pay them back for what they did to Doc.
It was clear now what he’d uncovered. He’d found this secret hideaway. He’d probably waited from a distance till he saw people come back to it. And then he crept out of hiding and set the fire. Not realizing that his own colleague, Maureen, was inside. Not to mention Ben.
“If he wanted to kill us, why wouldn’t he set the cabin on fire?” Slade asked.
“He doesn’t just want to kill you. He wants you to suffer, like Doc did. He wants you to see it coming.”
Slade ran a few feet around the shack, searching. “Looks like my associates got through the fire,” Slade said. “But it’s too late now. If we jump into the middle of that we’ll be burned alive.” He turned, scanning the horizon. “We might be able to get through in the car.”
All together, the three of them started running toward the vehicle. Thick smoke clouds made breathing difficult. Coughing and tearing, they piled into the car.
Slade slid behind the wheel. “Here we go.” He shoved the key into the ignition and turned it.
Nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” Maureen asked. A note of panic crept into her voice.
“I don’t know.” Slade turned the ignition again-with the same result.
“Come on!” Ben said. “We’ve got to go!”
“Talking won’t get us anywhere.” Slade pushed a button to pop the hood, then jumped out of the car. Ben followed him.
Slade stared down into the engine. In seconds he ascertained what had happened. He ran his finger through a white, granular smear, then touched it to his lips.
“Sugar,” he said bitterly.
“Sugar?” Ben said. “What do you mean?”
Slade glared at Maureen. “It’s a technique these bright young Green Ragers have for disabling automobiles. Put sugar in the crankcase. Or the gas tank. Or both. Stops the car dead.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying this car isn’t going anywhere.” He glanced at Maureen. “Good work.”
She held up her hands. “I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“One of your associates, then. A very thorough one.” He slammed the hood down. “And now we’re all going to pay the price. All because of you!”
“Wait a minute,” Maureen said. “This would never have happened if one of your men hadn’t killed Doc.”
“That would never have happened if you and your gang of trespassers hadn’t illegally blocked the road.”
“We wouldn’t’ve had to, if your corporate masters weren’t so determined to sacrifice our forests to make a buck!”
“We don’t have time for this!” Ben shouted. “Like it or not, we’re all in this together now.”
“He’s right,” Slade said. His lips were pursed together; Ben knew he was thinking. He scanned the ring of flame encircling them, growing closer. “Let’s spread out. See if we can find an opening anywhere in the flames.”
They did as Slade bid. Ben ran the farthest, toward the opposite side of the cabin. No matter how far away he ran, though, he couldn’t get away from the oppressive heat, the intense burning sensation. His face was flushed; sweat poured down his body. It was getting hotter; he was certain of it. Because the flames were coming closer.
He followed the fire around the back of the cabin. It was an almost perfect circle, with the cabin at the heart. He ran into Maureen, coming from the other direction. “I didn’t find an opening. Did you?”
Maureen shook her head grimly. “No.”
“I don’t understand it.”
“I’m afraid I do. Even in this crazed mental state, Al is very smart, very thorough. He probably saturated the ground with gasoline, forming the circle.”
Ben gazed at the intense wall of flame. It made his eyes hurt; it was like peering into the sun-or more accurately, like peering into the pits of hell. “I can’t tell how thick the wall is. Maybe if we made a run for it-”
“You’d be burned alive.” Slade was coming toward them. “You’d be burning head to toe before you got through that wall.”
“Then there’s no way through,” Maureen said breathlessly. “No way out.”
“Now you understand the situation,” Slade said. He stared into the inferno. “There’s no escape. We can’t get out, and if we stay here much longer-” The flickering flames reflected in his eyes. “We’ll all be dead.”
Chapter 68
Maureen pressed up against Ben. He cradled her in his arms. “I don’t want to die,” she said, her voice choking. “Especially not by-” Her voice broke off before she completed the sentence.
“We can’t give up,” Ben said. “We have to keep trying.”
“Trying what?” Slade shook his head. “It’s over, Kincaid. Might as well walk into the flames and get it over with.”
“I won’t accept that.” He felt Maureen pressing into the crook of his neck, felt the tears spilling from her eyes. “We have to think about this logically.”
“Logic!” Maureen laughed bitterly.
He pushed her away, holding her by the arms. “Look, what are our options?”
“We don’t have any.”
“Yes we do. If we can’t go through the flames, then we either go under them or over them.”
Slade stared at him incredulously. “Under them? Forget it, Kincaid. Even if we all worked together and had the proper tools-which we don’t-we couldn’t dig a tunnel under those flames in time. We’d be dead before we got anywhere.”