Page 104 of Five Survive

Oliver strayed away from her, over to the sofa, dropping down, his face hidden in his hands.

Red breathed in, emptied herself out, tried to listen to the thoughts in her head, but all she found was an empty hiss. Static. The static. She turned around, the walkie-talkie waiting for her there on the counter. Red walked to it, scooped it up, the familiar weight in her hands. Her job, her responsibility. And now she had another one too: saving Maddy.

They’d not found any interference all night, but morning was drawing closer, maybe someone was up and working in a nearby farm or something…anything.Please,Red begged the device in her hand. There was nothing else Red could do to help Maddy, this was her only job, the only thing she knew how to do. She pressed the + button, cycling up past channel three, through four and five, beggingthe static to go away, to give her a voice. Any voice.Please.

This was all her fault. Maddy was bleeding out in the middle of the RV and it was Red’s fault. This was about her, her secret. She was the witness in the Frank Gotti trial, and now Maddy was going to die because of that decision. The men with rifles were here to kill her, no one else. So why didn’t they? Red asked herself, spooling up through the channels, static flickering in and out as she pressed. Why didn’t they take the shot when it was her outside? Why was she still standing, not bleeding out on the road like she was supposed to be? Why Maddy and not her? Red didn’t know, she couldn’t understand it. They wanted their secret and they had it, it was her. Why hadn’t they killed her?

Unless…a thought stirred in her mind, tunneling away as Red’seyes flicked back to Maddy, and the beach towel steadily turning red on her leg. Red looked away and reached for the thought, pulling at it, thread by thread. Unless she wasn’t the secret herself. Not the fact that she was the witness. Because shewasthe eyewitness in the Frank Gotti trial, that much was true. But that wasn’t the whole story, was it? What if the secret they wanted wasn’t just Red, it was what Red knew, the other half of the plan? Maybe they didn’t want her, not alone. They wanted the other person involved, didn’t they? The name they didn’t know, but Red did. Was that why they couldn’t kill her, not yet? Because she hadn’t told them that name? Was that what they wanted, after all these hours and escape plans and two dead people outside and Maddy bleeding out, did they want that name from Red before they killed her?

Everything slotted into place, sense where there’d been none before.

Red’s heart was back, acid-wet, hammering against the back of her teeth. What should she do? She’d already let the plan go a long time ago, said goodbye to it and everything it would give her. But she swore she’d never tell anyone, she swore, and how could she say it here, right in front of them? Cause them more hurt and confusion than they already had. But did Red have a choice? Maddy was bleeding out, surely that undid everything, all the rules of the plan? She would make the same choice, wouldn’t she?

And if that was it, the secret the sniper wanted, would he let the rest of them go? Red would have to stay behind, she understood that, but could the others get Maddy in that truck and drive her to a hospital?

She had to try. For Maddy. She would understand, she would forgiveher.

Red had cycled up to channel thirteen, but now she switcheddirections, flicking back through the channels, toward three, toward the sniper. She was going to give him the name, she had to, if it was the thing that saved Maddy’s life. Everyone would want that.

Static fizzed in her ears and behind her eyes, under the skin of her fingertips.

Down through channel ten.

Nine.

Red inhaled.

Eight.

Static.

Seven.

Six.

The static cut away before her thumb pressed the button again.

“—check, over.”

A voice broke through the fuzz.

Static.

“What was that?” Simon asked, standing up by the door. “Was that the sniper?”

“No,” Red said, staring down at the walkie-talkie. “I’m on channelsix.”

The static broke off.

“Yeah, the team have removed the truck and the cell tower itself doesn’t look too bad. But some of these antennas are damaged, so let’s get the engineers up here ASAP now that it’s clear. Over.”

Static.

Red’s breath snagged in her throat.

Interference.

People were talking on two-way radios and she’d found them, she’d found them, and before she lost them she had to—

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