Operation: Midnight Guardian. Linda Castillo

      For the first time Mattie realized that in the last few minutes the wind had picked up. Snow mixed with sleet was swirling around the treetops. A thin layer already covered the ground.

      She knew these men were going to kill her. The ringleader had all but promised to torture her for information about EDNA. Once they got what they wanted from her, she would be expendable. A chill that had nothing to do with the cold snaked through her at the thought of the horrors she faced in the coming hours….

      “Get in the chopper,” the ringleader said to his men.

      “I can take you as far as Canada,” the pilot said as they started toward the hatch.

      “Excellent,” the terrorist said. “Let’s go.”

      As the pilot stepped into the craft, the terrorist raised his handgun and fired a single shot. Blood spattered the yellow fuselage. The pilot pitched forward and landed on the ground with a thud.

      “That’s for killing Sean Cutter,” the terrorist muttered.

      Horror and disbelief pummeled her like fists. Another man dead. All because these men wanted the plans for the final phase of EDNA….

      She wondered how long she would hold up under torture. She wondered how terrible it would be. And in that instant she decided there was no way she could let them take her alive.

      “Fire!”

      Mattie glanced toward the chopper to see black smoke billowing from its fuselage. Surprised shouts erupted all around her. The men scrambled from the craft. “Grab the extinguisher!” one of them shouted.

      “Watch the woman!”

      “The fire is coming from the engine! Quickly, put it out!”

      Run!

      The flight instinct kicked in with a vengeance. Refusing to think of repercussions, she spun away from the chopper and literally ran for her life.

      She darted across the clearing to the forest, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground. She scrambled over the trunk of a fallen tree, through brush that tore at her slacks. She knew they would catch her; there was no way she could elude four men with guns. But terror and adrenaline were driving her, not logic.

      Shouts erupted as she fled. She heard her pursuers behind her, following her, breaking through brush. Praying for a miracle, she glanced over her shoulder toward the place where the man called Cutter had fallen.

      But he was gone.