Emily felt everything was in slow motion, like a horrible dream.

Nash's Huey ascended, clearing for the FBI. The rotors blew Hood's cap and glasses over the edge.

Paige's face was blistered and scraped. Her eyes found her mother. Horrified. Hands reaching to her in vain. Rachel's eyes. Her hand slipping. Hood locked his powerful arms around Paige's waist. Turned, dropped.

"No!"

Doug was shouting.

Hood with Paige. Vanishing. Over the edge.

No. Please.

The National Guard helicopters arrived, the first taking a point just over the gorge some sixty yards out. An FBI sniper worked quickly to sight Hood through his scope.

"Not yet," his commander said. "He's all over her."

The second helicopter took a one o'clock point one hundred yards above Hood; another sniper was prepared to lock him in his crosshairs.

The aircraft were keeping enough distance so the drafts from the rotors would not create a risk. "Stand by," the FBI commander said.

Eyeballing Hood from one hundred feet up. Calm. Cool. His jaw muscles pulsating. Zander forced himself to let his training kick in.

"Down. Down. Down," he urged the pilot.

Bowman was stunned by the scene below.

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

The Bell swooped, landing behind the Huey. Bowman and Zander exploded from their helicopter behind Doug and Emily.

It was as if Emily were underwater. Coming to the cliff, she saw Hood's head. He had jumped to a large lower ledge.

Her eyes filled with terror. She froze at the nightmare before her.

Oh God. No.

Hood stood at the lip of the gorge. Arms extended, big hands locked on Paige's wrists, swinging her like a pendulum out beyond the edge, over nothing but four hundred feet of dizzying dead drop.

"Oh, please! Oh, please!" Paige pleaded. Sobbing, toes kicking, reaching for the rock in a vain attempt to save herself. Looking down at the abyss at death, sobbing gasping. Her arms aching.

'Mommeeeee!'

The helicopters were deafening.

Hood moved with animal speed, lowering Paige down the side of the rock face, barely allowing her to catch her toes solidly on a two-inch rock ledge. Only her fingers were visible now, clinging precariously above her on the cliff. Slipping. Slipping. Clinging for her life. Gasping. Pleading. Hood lowered himself beneath Paige to a second lower ledge, looking up in time to see Emily dropping to her stomach, reaching for Paige.

"Mommy, please!"

"I've got you, baby!"

Emily seized her daughter's wrists, began sliding backward, pulling her up while suddenly feeling the horrible weight.

Hood is gripping Paige's ankles!

"Mommeee!"

Paige's eyes pleading. Rachel's eyes. Save me. Help me.

Emily shouting: "Isaiah, let her go! You can't have her! Let her go!"

Two rock chips flew from the rock wall near Hood's head.

His eyes burned into Emily's.

"I just wanted one friend in my life!" he shouted.

Emily pulled. Paige screamed as Hood stepped from the ledge, his full weight locked on her ankles, nearly pulling her and Emily down as Doug caught her.

"God," Doug grunted. "Hang on."

Paige shrieked, feeling her body stretching. Three rock chips flew near Hood. The snipers were inches from his back.

Zander and Bowman arrived, flinging themselves down. Bowman reaching for Paige's upper right arm; Zander worked his fingers toward his pistol. Paige was screaming, nearly fainting from the excruciating agony. Emily shouted above the choppers, "Isaiah, if you let her go, I'll be your friend forever! Let her go, please!"

He smiled his brown-tooth smile.

"It was just a game, Natalie Ross. Just a game."

Hood surrendered, releasing his hold on Paige. His arms shot out, his eyes met Emily's.

Face lifting to heaven, smiling, falling; sweet air rushing, embracing him. No more hooks, no more prison, no more pain--only blue sky, mountain peaks, sunlight, serenity, peace. Free in his home, forever with a friend.

Paige sobbed hysterically.

Pulled to safety.

Emily hugged her.

"It's over. It's over." She wept.

Doug crushed them both in his arms.

Zander peered over the edge at Hood's body smashed against the rocks below. Bowman tried catching her breath on the flattop near the Bakers.

No one spoke. Nothing but the helicopters as Emily soothed Paige, sobbing.

Then Bowman heard it. A faint cry. "What was that?"

A yelp.

Zander investigated. A dozen yards away, he located Kobee.

"Hey there!"

Secured by his harness, the terrified beagle was dangling from his leash that had looped on a jagged ledge when Hood tossed him over the cliff.

Zander stepped down and retrieved the dog, reuniting him with Paige.

"Kobee!"

The Bakers were frozen in their embrace, staring at Zander and Bowman.

Helicopters thundered.

Radios crackled.

The Bakers smiled at Zander, warming his weary heart.

It was over.

EPILOGUE.

After Paige Baker downed a pizza and large root beer she slept.

Doctors at Montana General Mercy in Missoula told reporters she had suffered exposure, dehydration, sun burn, some shoulder separation, strain of tendons, ligaments and post-traumatic stress from her ordeal.

"She is in remarkable shape considering her exposure to such extremes for five days and nights. Her dog was a factor. His warmth helped her endure the cold. His presence was a psychological boost; another being to care for and keep her company," Dr. Oliver Veras, Mercy's chief of staff told the press in a news conference that was broadcast live across the nation.

"When can America see her, Doctor?" one network TV reporter asked.

"That's up to her family. But when she wakes tomorrow, we expect she'll be in good condition."

That evening Tom Reed, Molly Wilson and Levi Kayle filed their pictures and account of the Baker story. The San Francisco Star moved quickly to lock up worldwide syndication rights, and the story-picture package was purchased by newspapers from Columbus to Cairo, from Buffalo to Bucharest. It ignited speculation about a Pulitzer.

"Violet's ecstatic," Wilson said passing her cell phone to Reed after they filed. "Cripes, Reed. Send you to fish for a story, you bring back Moby Dick. Good stuff."

Later that night, Reed called Ann in Chicago.

"Didn't forget about the wedding, dear. I'll be on a plane tomorrow night after the news conference."

Paige slept for twenty hours. Kobee was allowed in her hospital bed and never left her side.

For this moment in history, Paige Baker was the most famous ten-year-old girl on earth. Her story was known around the world.

Montana Highway Patrol Officers guarded her hospital room, which filled with balloons, teddy bears, flowers, toys, and cards from well-wishers.

The flow would not stop.

It spilled across the hall to the room where Doug and Emily Baker slept.

At one point in the night, Emily awoke and went to Paige's door. Two FBI agents posted there allowed her a glimpse of her daughter sleeping soundly with her arm around Kobee.

Emily strolled down the tranquil hall, finding Bowman in the lounge, awake in a chair. She sat beside her.

Neither woman spoke for the longest time. Then Bowman took Emily's hand and their eyes met in the night.

"Emily I--"

"We both know what is like to lose someone, Tracy."

Bowman nodded. "Uhm. You know, Frank and I must talk to her first. It's not officially closed yet."

Emily nodded. "Yes," she whispered, with a half-smile, before returning to bed.

Tracy stared into the night, remembering Carl, then thinking of Mark.

The doctors summoned the FBI when Paige awoke. Zander and Bowman entered her room. Her bed was blanketed with stuffed toys. She was drinking orange juice, an IV connected to her arm. Hair in a ponytail, face dotted with some scrapes but radiating with the bright aura of a happy little girl. The agents introduced themselves and chatted for several minutes with Paige, joking about all the presents she received.

Eventually, Bowman asked, "So what happened?"

Paige knitted her brow. "What do you mean?"

"Tell us how you got separated from your mom and dad," Zander said.

"Kobee chased a chipmunk. I went to find him and got us lost."

"That it?" Zander smiled. "Was your dad mad or anything?"

Paige chewed her straw, nodding. "Cut his hand chopping wood."

"Then what happened?"

"I went to find my mom and got lost. It was Kobee's fault."