Part 2
Then Dylan heard it.
A mechanical click.
He looked down.
A thin wire ran from beneath the panel toward the wall.
He hadn't noticed it before.
Shadow had.
Dylan immediately backed away.
The stranger had wanted him to chase.
Whatever was beneath that panel mattered more.
Dylan returned to Maya's opening.
“What's your name?”
The frightened face slowly appeared.
“Maya.”
“Okay, Maya. I'm Dylan. That's Shadow.”
Maya looked at the dog.
Her expression softened for the first time.
“He found me.”
“Yeah.”
Dylan glanced toward the second panel.
“What happens if I open that?”
Maya began crying again.
“The alarm.”
“What alarm?”
“They hear it.”
“Who?”
“The men.”
Dylan looked toward the doorway.
“How many?”
Maya lifted three fingers.
Three.
The man who had just fled wasn't alone.
Dylan touched his radio again.
Nothing.
Then he remembered the emergency beacon clipped behind his vest.
Short-range satellite burst.
Designed for exactly this kind of situation.
He activated it.
No voice.
No confirmation.
Just a small green light.
Signal transmitted.
Now someone knew where he was.
Hopefully.
Dylan crouched beside Maya.
“How did you get under there?”
“There was a tunnel.”
“Can you get out?”
She shook her head.
“They blocked it.”
“How long have you been here?”
“I don't know.”
Dylan didn't press.
“What about the others?”
Maya pointed toward the secured panel.
“Three.”
“Children?”
She nodded.
Dylan's jaw tightened.
He looked toward Shadow.
“Search.”
Shadow immediately moved.
Not toward the panel.
Around it.
Nose low.
He followed the wire toward the wall, then behind a broken bookshelf.
Dylan pulled it aside.
There.
A small battery-powered contact alarm.
Primitive.
But effective.
Opening the panel would complete the circuit.
Dylan disconnected the battery.
No alarm.
Shadow looked at him.
“Good boy.”
He returned to the panel.
Three metal brackets held it closed.
Dylan removed them carefully.
Then lifted the door.
A dark stairwell descended beneath the cabin.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a tiny voice.
“Is Maya there?”
Dylan looked toward the girl beneath the fireplace.
Maya began crying.
“Yes!”
A second voice joined the first.
Then another.
Dylan exhaled.
Three children.
Alive.
“I'm coming down.”
Shadow immediately stepped in front of him again.
Dylan stopped.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
Shadow sniffed the first step.
Then the second.
Then barked.
Dylan aimed his flashlight downward.
The third stair had been partially cut through.
A grown man's weight could have broken it.
Below was a narrow drop into the stone foundation.
Dylan stared at Shadow.
“Twice in one day.”
The dog's tail moved once.
Dylan stepped over the damaged stair.
The underground room was small.
Three children sat together against the wall.
Two boys and a girl.
The oldest appeared about eleven.
The youngest perhaps six.
All three stared at Dylan as if they couldn't decide whether he was real.
“I'm Sergeant Cross.”
Nobody moved.
Then he added:
“Maya's safe.”
That changed everything.
The youngest boy started crying.
Dylan crouched.
“We're getting everyone out.”
The older girl shook her head.
“They'll come back.”
“Help is coming.”
“You don't understand.”
She pointed toward the far wall.
Dylan followed her finger.
A row of photographs had been pinned to the timber.
Cabins.
Roads.
Vehicles.
Maps.
Dates.
Then Dylan saw photographs of search teams.
His search teams.
Someone had been watching them.
He stepped closer.
One picture showed his unit arriving in the valley that morning.
Another showed their vehicles near the forest access road.
Dylan's stomach tightened.
This cabin hadn't been randomly discovered.
Someone knew the search operation was getting close.
A photograph near the bottom caught his attention.
Maya.
Standing beside a school bus.
Dylan removed it.
“When was this taken?”
The oldest girl whispered:
“Before they brought her here.”
Dylan looked around.
This wasn't simply a hiding place.
It was part of something larger.
Then Shadow barked upstairs.
Dylan froze.
One bark.
Pause.
Two.
Their alert pattern.
Someone was approaching.
Dylan climbed back up.
Shadow stood at the broken window.
Outside, headlights appeared between the trees.
Two vehicles.
The man had returned.
And he'd brought company.
Dylan's emergency beacon suddenly flashed.
Green.
Green.
Blue.
Signal received.
Help was coming.
But not yet.
Dylan looked toward Maya.
“Listen to me.”
She stared at him.
“Go through the second opening with the others.”
Her eyes widened.
“No.”
“Shadow is staying with you.”
That mattered.
Maya looked at the dog.
Dylan crouched beside him.
“Guard.”
Shadow immediately moved toward the underground entrance.
Maya followed.
Before disappearing, she looked back.
“Are you coming?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Dylan hesitated only a fraction of a second.
“Promise.”
He lowered the panel without securing it.
Then moved toward the cabin door.
Voices outside.
Three men.
Maybe four.
One said:
“He found the basement.”
Another answered:
“Then we're out of time.”
Dylan listened.
A vehicle door slammed.
Then something unexpected came from the distance.
A low mechanical thump.
Helicopter.
The men outside heard it too.
Their voices changed.
“What is that?”
Dylan almost smiled.
The emergency beacon had worked.
A spotlight suddenly swept across the treetops.
One of the vehicles accelerated away.
The second tried to follow.
Then sirens came from the mountain road below.
The cabin filled with flashing light.
Dylan didn't pursue anyone.
He stayed between the entrance and the children.
Minutes later, members of his search team entered.
“Cross!”
“Four children below.”
The team leader stared at him.
“Four?”
“Maya and three others.”
Medical personnel followed.
One by one, the children came upstairs.
