“Brother, listen to me,” he pleaded.
“They’ll put this on me,” Eddie replied, pointing towards the men inside.
“Maybe,” Lazzo agreed. “But they won’t kill you. You were not there. You were not here.”
Eddie took a deep breath as the rest of the men came up behind him.
Lazzo gave him one last long look and whispered, “Please.”
Eddie nodded, and this time Lazzo didn’t try to stop him as he walked past.
Eddie entered through the front doors and asked for the Russian commander.
“He’s gone,” was the reply.
Of course he was. Eddie asked what happened, but no one there had been in the room when the vice president died. Eddie asked who had been there. It had been the Russian commander, the two torturers, and a guard with the keys to the vice president’s chains. Curious. “Why the guard? Just to take the dead body?” Eddie asked.
“No,” was the reply. “He went in before prisoner died. With pen and paper.”
Pen and paper? What? Why? Eddie asked if they’d taken away the vice president’s body. They had. He asked several more questions, but no one knew anything else.
Eddie couldn’t help but wonder if they’d managed to get what they’d wanted and killed the man, or if something else had happened altogether. He now had to get down to Denver and find out.
SIXTY-THREE: “The Cold Hard Truth”
Cameron died before they could get him back to the cave. I’m certain it was a terrible and emotional scene—far more than I can capably summarize—and yet I was reluctant to press them for more details. From what I understand, Danny tried to carry his best friend on his back and go faster, but Cameron kept telling him it was no use. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, make it. Danny refused to listen, but as they closed to within a mile of the cave Cameron put his head next to Danny’s and said, “I love you, man. Take care of my girl.” And then he stopped breathing.
Cameron’s body went limp and he began to fall. The sudden weight shift knocked Danny off balance, nearly pulling him down too. Danny managed to regain his balance and catch his best friend just above the ground. He knelt beside his best friend in the snow, pleading for him to wake up—to hang in there just a little longer—but it was no use. He tried, in vain, to bring him back with CPR. Finally Hayley had to pull him off. It took all her strength and a little of Blake’s. This was the first time she’d seen Danny cry since Sophie had died. He fought against Hayley and Blake to continue to try to save his best friend, but Hayley held him down, and finally he just sobbed.
This was going to go down as Danny’s worst day. Probably ever. No one knew him better than Cameron. No one, other than maybe Kate and Hayley, meant more to him than Cameron. The two of them had shared the highest and lowest moments of their lives together and had no secrets from each other. Danny even knew Cameron was going to propose to Jenna at Christmas. Millions of memories flashed through Danny’s head in a handful of seconds as he looked at his fallen friend. Danny yelled out in anger and despair, with a voice that no doubt echoed down the canyon and across the valley below them to the Endovalley camp. Hayley held him tightly, and Blake led Abbey away.
Despite his anguish, Danny knew they had to keep going. He knew Kate was waiting for him, and he knew Hayley was dying inside with him. This wasn’t his loss alone, but it felt like it was his fault. He’d walked them right into those lions. He couldn’t compare it to losing his mother, but he didn’t remember ever feeling worse. If we hadn’t needed Danny as much as we did, I don’t know what losing his best friend would have done to him. But at that moment, Cameron’s last words reminded Danny of Jenna. Cameron needed him to keep going. He needed them to make it back to the cave. I don’t know how a twenty-year-old gets to be more mature than a man nearly twice his age, but Danny handled it better than I had handled Sophie’s death… by a mile. I could only credit that to his mother’s strength. Sophie would have had that courage, too.
Danny picked up his best friend and somehow carried him down several steep cliffs and across the face of Bighorn Mountain on his own. He wouldn’t let anyone else carry Cameron. This was his burden. Hayley and Blake respected his wishes and stayed ahead of him with Abbey. Hayley constantly checked behind her to make sure Danny was still with them and to help out the few times he needed it, but no one said a word to him.
She knew he was going to blame himself for this. She figured he’d probably even be a little short with Reagan and Abbey. There was no way he could help it. Cam had risked his life to save Abbey, and it had cost him. It had cost Danny. It had cost all of us who loved Cameron. We lost a lot of strength, smiles, and security that day.
As they closed to within a hundred yards of the cave, I saw them. And they saw me. The first thing I noticed was the little girl with Hayley. Yes! They found her. I was about to call back down the tunnel when I noticed Danny was carrying someone. Even without using the binoculars I held, I could see who Danny was carrying, and my hands started shaking. I could tell by their faces it was bad, if not the absolute worst. My mind went to the same place theirs was at that moment. It went to Jenna. And I went inside to find her.
I led her up the tunnel towards the ledge as Dad lifted open the front door. Blake stepped through with Abbey, and Reagan swept her up. Tara gave Blake a big hug, and then Hayley entered. Mom and Kate were there with open arms to meet her. Jenna could hear people coming in and was trying to see past me, to move past me, asking why I wouldn’t let her go, but I held her back.
“Jenna,” I said, shaking my head. It registered an instant before Danny stepped through the entry with Cameron. She covered her mouth with both hands and let out a stifled scream. Everyone in the room froze and looked at Jenna, then back at Danny, who gently set Cameron on the floor, stood up, and walked towards Jenna.
“No no no no no no noooo,” she cried, collapsing on the floor.
Danny knelt beside her and pulled her against him. “I’m so sorry. Jenna, I’m—” I could see tears running down his face.
“How could you?” she wailed, and I saw Danny bite his lip.
“I’m sorry,” was all he could say.
Reagan was in a difficult place. She was hugging her little sister tightly to her and wanted more than anything to celebrate her return, but the mood in the room was anything but celebratory. It was clear Cameron had played a significant role in our lives. But then, I figured she had to be wondering what anyone knew about her dad…and she was probably afraid to ask. She didn’t yet know anyone other than Jenna well enough, and this was obviously not the time to ask her anything.
She knelt down beside her little sister and whispered to her. Tara took Emily over to introduce her to Abbey. Mom was trying to heat up some soup for Hayley, Abbey, and Blake. We knew Danny wouldn’t eat anything. He had walked up the tunnel to the back entrance with Kate and Jenna, no doubt trying to help Jenna any way possible.
I kept my eyes on Reagan and called Blake over. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and joined me at the tunnel entrance. “Blake. What happened down there?” I asked. I knew Danny wouldn’t be in the mood to talk.
He told me about everything that had happened at the hotel, about the Secret Service agents, the bunker, and the escape. Then he described the mountain lion attack. Cameron’s uniform had protected his body but not his throat. A major artery had obviously been nicked, because there had been no way to stop the blood flow completely and no way to get him here fast enough. It could have happened to anyone, but it didn’t.