"Bad word," she said.

He ignored her. It was either that or kill her, and there was that damn proof of life-

"Did you see Moot in the swamp?" she said.

"What?"

"Moot. The alligator with one eye. Did you see her?"

"Yeah, I saw her." Tyler checked the time. They should be heading for the bridge soon.

Behind him, the bag rustled again.

Fuck, he wasn't going to have any Cheetos left.

"You smell," the girl said.

Tyler thought, You die, and put his eye to the scope.

Lucy met J.T. and Gloom on the bridge. Three days before, she'd been new on the bridge, watching a helicopter land and J.T. get off. It seemed like a thousand years ago now.

"What did the doctor say?" J.T. asked her as she joined them.

"Daisy will be out for a while but she'll be fine. Estelle is sitting with her. The doctor's on call. She's going to be all right." Lucy swallowed. "We should get Pepper back before she wakes up, though."

"Jesus," Gloom said.

"Gloom just got here," J.T. said. "I called him-"

"Good," Lucy said. "Because that was my next move. We need a plan." She set her jaw. "This is out of control. We have to take back control. We can't just wait for them-"

"We're not going to," J.T. said. "What's the fewest people you can film the stunt with?"

Lucy stopped, forcing her mind away from Pepper. "We're way ahead of you. We have the crew set everything up and then they leave, except for me to direct, Gloom on clapper and camera, and you as

Bryce's double. The stunt team because the assholes want to be here for their damn plan. And then Bryce, unless we can convince him to leave the bridge during their big scenes."

"That's it, then," J.T. said. "We keep everybody else down in base camp."

Gloom nodded. "Okay, but here's what I don't get. J.T. just told me that all Nash and his cronies are doing is taking the helicopter and flying out to meet this Latsky-"

"Letsky," J.T. said.

"-But why a helicopter? It's not like there are mountains around here they have to fly up to. Why not a car or a boat? It'd be a lot less hassle and a lot less noticeable. Hell, with a boat and all these islands…"

"The weight?" Lucy guessed. "Jade penises have to weigh a lot. What difference does it-" She stopped because J.T. was frowning.

"Cargo net," he said. "They needed the cargo net for the art. But when they picked up Finnegan and the art, they could have just loaded it in a boat…" He closed his eyes. "Jesus, of course, that's it. They don't have the art."

"What are you talking about?" Lucy said.

J.T. pressed his hands against his temples. "I asked Crawford this morning where the art was and he told me not to worry about it. I got the feeling that Nash didn't have the art yet, that Finnegan had it. But-yeah, okay, this makes sense now-I bet you anything that Finnegan didn't have the art either, and the stunt is a cover for them getting it. They swoop down in the helicopter to wherever it is, load it in the net, and take off to go to Letsky. Nobody follows."

"Who's Crawford?" Gloom said.

"The CIA," Lucy said, frowning at J.T. "Well, why haven't they already done that? What's so important about tonight? Because they took Pepper to make sure we'd shoot tonight." She swallowed, thinking about Pepper alone out there with a madman. "I'm going to kill them all. That stuff I said about not shooting the gun? I can shoot the gun."

"The CIA is involved?" Gloom said, appalled.

"Actually, the CIA would be J.T.," Lucy said. "Can we-"

Gloom drew back. "I thought he was a Green Beret."

"He's that, too," Lucy said, feeling her temper rise. "Later, he's gonna open for Aerosmith. Can we get Pepper back now?"

"The art has to be close," J.T. said to Gloom. "That's why Nash picked the Talmadge for the stunt."

Gloom leaned back. "It's in a truck coming across the bridge? We'll only have the two lanes on one side shut down. The other half of the bridge will still be open to traffic."

J.T. shook his head. "I wouldn't take down a truck on the bridge. Too conspicuous, too hard." He looked out over the choppy river. "And in this wind, impossible. But Lucy's got a good point, the timing seems to be critical. The schedule is the thing that Finnegan and Nash have been insisting on."

"I don't care," Lucy said, ready to scream. "I don't care, I don't care. How do we get Pepper back?"''

"We follow them," J.T. said, calm as ever. "I would like to know exactly what they're doing so I know where they're going, but bottom line is, we follow them. When whatever it is goes down, we each take one of the team. I follow Nash, you follow Doc," he said to Lucy. "As for Karen…"

"I'll do anything," Gloom said. "But it's only fair to warn you, I don't think I can take Karen. She's a black belt in karate. I'm a Ralph Lauren cowhide with brass grommets."

"You're going to run base camp," J.T. said, taking out his phone.

"Who's got Karen, then?" Lucy said.

"LaFavre."

"Poor Karen," Gloom said, brightening. "She's toast."

"Fuck Karen," Lucy said. "She's part of the team that took my Pepper. LaFavre can toss Karen out of the helicopter for all I care. So we wait for one of them to lead us to Pepper? That asshole could have killed her by then." Her voice caught. "God, J.T.-"

"She's not going to die," J.T. said. "They're going to need her alive to get what they need."

"The jade?" Gloom said.

"No. The helicopter," J.T. said. "We're going to make a trade." He checked his watch, pulled out his cell phone, and punched in a number. "Don't make me wait," he snapped when it was answered after the fifth ring. He listened for a minute and then his voice changed, soft and light. "Hey, P.L., how's it going?" He smiled as he listened to what she said next. "We'll get you crunchy Cheetos when we get you home. Aunt Lucy wants to say hi." He handed the phone to Lucy and nodded.

"Pepper?" she said, trying to keep her voice light.

"Aunt Lucy?"

"Yes, baby." Lucy felt her throat swell. "How are you?"

"I am hungry and the Cheetos are bad," Pepper said. "Can you come get me?"

"Soon, baby," Lucy said. "We just have to shoot the stunt and then that man will tell us where you are."

"We're up high in this building," Pepper said. "We can see the brid-" And then Lucy heard her say, "Hey. "

The asshole came back on. "Not playing fair, there, buddy-boy."

"You hurt her, I'll kill you," Lucy said, trying to be matter-of-fact.

"Whoo-ee. This the mother? No, no, wait a minute, she's out cold. This is Aunt Lucy. Aunt Lucy with the great ass."

"If you hurt her-" Lucy felt her temper rise to the breaking point. Steady.

"Honey, you can come get me anytime you want."

"I will fucking castrate you, you limp-dicked-"

J.T. grabbed the phone from her. "I'll call again," he said and hung up. He looked at Lucy. "If you can't stay calm, you can't talk to him."

Lucy blinked back tears as Gloom put his arm around her. "Okay, we trade her for a helicopter. How the hell are we going to get a helicopter?"

"We aren't. LaFavre is." J.T. punched in the numbers.

Lucy thought about LaFavre taking the helicopter away from Karen. "He's not going to be able to charm her out of it."

"He has other skills." J.T. spoke into the phone, leaving a message.

"I hope they're painful." Lucy took a deep breath. "Listen, Pepper said they were high up in a building. She said they could see the bridge."

Gloom turned to survey the landscape. "That could be anywhere."

"But close," J.T. said. "That's something."

"That's not enough," Lucy said. "I want to do something now."

"Good," J.T. said. "You can learn to fall off a bridge."

"What?" Lucy said, jarred out of her fear for Pepper. "What happened to 'the molecules won't part for you?"

He handed her a harness. "A controlled fall. On a rope. If something goes wrong, you need to be able to go over the side of this bridge, and I'm going to show you how to do that."

"Will it help me get Pepper back?" Lucy said.

"Yes," he said.

"Then show me," she said.

Chapter 19

Wilder stood on the Jeep's back bumper, dressed once again as Bryce's double. He was parked in the breakdown lane on the east side of the Talmadge Bridge, just short of where Lucy's crew had set up the fake shoot. The sun had set not long ago, and the lights of Savannah sparkled along the riverfront on the south side. Wilder ignored the sight and unpacked his gear from his footlocker, stuffing it all into his battered green rucksack.

A long black metal case lay at the bottom of the locker and he stared at it for several moments, then pulled it out. He ran his fingers along the engraving on the top-his name, with the outline of the Special Forces patch below it. He thought of what Crawford had said about the two killed in the swamp. Sniper.

He put the case into a specially designed slot on the right side of the backpack.

He pulled out his keys to lock the Jeep and saw the Superman logo on the key chain Pepper had given him. It felt like a hole opened up in his chest and a cold wind blew through. He leaned forward and put his head on the support for the roll bar and heard Pepper saying, "Soon?"

"Ah, fuck." He tried to regain control of his breathing, of his heart, of his feelings.

It didn't work.

Not right away.

This is my fault, Wilder thought. My responsibility. I told Lucy they'd all be safe. His phone rang and he grabbed it. "Wilder."

"Hey, bud," LaFavre said. "Got your message. I was in a briefing. What the hell is going on? We got two gunships locked and loaded. Two lift birds ready to go get some Navy SEALs and kick ass. Waiting on some CIA dickhead's decision."

"Dickhead named Crawford?"

"Yep. Standing about twenty feet away with his buddies, acting important. You know him?"

"Yeah. Weaselly little bastard. Don't trust him. Where are the SEALs?"

"Close, based on the radio traffic and on the fact the lift birds are to pick them up if called. Within twenty miles."

SEALs, Wilder thought. Sea-Air-Land. Stud muffins whose brains sometimes turned to mush above the high-water mark, but no one better in the world on, or in, the water. He turned and looked down from the parking lot at the dark water of the Savannah River. Then he looked up from there toward the darkening horizon where the thousands of islands of the low country lay and beyond it the Atlantic. SEAL country. They'd even give Moot a run for the money in the swamp. He'd bet they taught alligator wrestling at Coronado.

"You there?" LaFavre sounded worried.

"Yeah."

"And where is there?"

"On the Talmadge Bridge getting ready to shoot our last scene with what I have a really bad feeling is live ammo."

There was a moment of silence. "What is going on?"

"You know that little girl you gave the sunglasses to?"

"Pepper." LaFavre's voice slowed. "What happened?"

"They took her to make sure we kept shooting the movie."

"Fuck. They planning on giving her back?"

"That's what they say."

"What do you say?"

"I say the bastard who has her just tortured a man and threw him to a gator."

"What do you need?"

"You remember that helicopter pilot you hit on?"

"Karen?"

"She's in on it. At the airfield now, probably right across the runway from you, getting ready to take the chopper to the bridge. They really need that chopper. Get it and we'll do a trade. Be careful. Karen has a black belt."

"I got a Glock."

"She has the coordinates for the pickup, or will shortly. We'll need those."

"I'll get 'em." LaFavre's voice was grim in a way Wilder hadn't heard since Afghanistan. "Don't worry, bud. We'll get your kid back."

"Yep." Wilder turned off the phone and nodded as he thought about having people you could count on. A SEAL platoon. LaFavre. Lucy.

And Pepper. She was five, but she was smart. He thought of her alone with the ghost and shivered in spite of himself.

Fucking ghost was gonna die for this one.

Lucy was standing by the bridge rail, scanning every tall building in sight, her muscles tense with worry, when J.T. came to stand beside her.