King screamed, "Sylvia! Sylvia!" but it was useless. He turned, looked around, and it finally struck him why his surroundings looked so familiar. The dock he was now staring at washis dock. They were in his cove! And there sat his jet boat in its slip. dock. They were in his cove! And there sat his jet boat in its slip.

And yet the FasTech was already out of sight. How could he possibly find them in time?

And then it hit him, what Eddie had said.Full circle. He's coming full circle.

King swam toward the dock with all his might.

CHAPTER 97.

MICh.e.l.lE WAS FLYING THROUGHthe darkness on the Sea Ray heading toward Sylvia's home when Williams came up beside her.

"The connection was lost on your phone," he said glumly.

"It's probably the storm."

"Yeah, probably," he said.

She looked to the sky. "I don't see a chopper."

"d.a.m.n, Mich.e.l.le, in this weather? What'd you expect? You can't risk a bunch of people's lives like that."

"Why the h.e.l.l not? I spent nine years of my life doing that at the Secret Service!"

"Come on, we're doing all we can-"

"What's that?" she said suddenly.

"What's what?"

"It's the phone!" she screamed. "My phone, where is it?"

"Back on the seat."

"Take the wheel."

She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the phone and hit the answer b.u.t.ton. Her heart leaped when she heard his voice.

"Mich.e.l.le, could you hear anything on the phone?"

"Yes, Todd and I are in a boat heading to Sylvia's right now. We called out everybody."

"Listen, Eddie's still got Sylvia. He's headed to the cove below where the first body was found. Do you know where that is?"

"Yes."

"I'm heading there in my boat right now."

Mich.e.l.le raced to the c.o.c.kpit with the phone pressed to her ear, grabbed the wheel and plowed the Sea Ray into a thunderous turn, pitching its deck almost perpendicular with the water. Williams fell down again.

"I'm on my way. Ten minutes. We'll send everybody there. Oh, and Sean?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for being alive."

Eddie aimed the bow right at the ring of red clay that stuck out from the cove he was in, cut power and ran the FasTech right up onto it. He started to open the door to the cabin.

"Okay, Doc, let's go."

The stream of fire extinguisher fluid hit him flush in the face. He staggered back and was. .h.i.t on the head with the canister. Blinded, he grabbed at his face and dropped to his knees. But he sensed Sylvia racing past him, and reached out and tripped her with one of his big arms.

"Get away from me, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d, get away from me," she screamed.

Eddie wiped his face off with his hand, his eyes stinging like crazy. He grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt, lifted her completely up in the air and threw her onto the hard clay sh.o.r.e, where she landed with a thud and lay still.

He opened a storage bin and lifted out the short-handled ax, jumped off the bow, and his feet hit dirt. He waded out into the water and dipped his head below the surface to clean off the c.r.a.p she had shot him with. He stood, gazed out at the lake and the lightning crackling in the distance, took a deep breath, turned and walked over to her.

"Get up."

Sylvia said nothing.

"I said get up." He emphasized this point with a foot in her ribs.

"I think my arm's broken," she whimpered.

"Which one?"

"My left."

He reached down, grabbed her left arm and pulled her up as she shrieked in pain.

"d.a.m.n it, you're killing me, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

"That's right. I am." He dragged her along into the woods.

King's boat flew through the water. He glanced behind him and saw the wink of lights about five hundred yards behind. He clicked on his phone, which had somehow survived its dunking in the water.

"Is that you behind me?" he asked.

Mich.e.l.le answered, "And coming up fast."

King slowed the boat as he maneuvered into the narrow inlet. As soon as he saw the beached FasTech, he cut his running lights.

"Okay," he said into the phone, "looks like they're out of the boat."

Mich.e.l.le's cruiser appeared at the mouth of the inlet. She powered down, cut her lights and coasted into shallow water next to the jet boat.

"Are you armed?" she called across.

He held up his pistol. "I stopped at my houseboat before I headed back out."

Mich.e.l.le and Todd grabbed flashlights out of the Sea Ray's cabin, and the three climbed off their boats and waded to sh.o.r.e, their pistols aimed at the FasTech just in case Eddie was lying in wait.

Covering each other, they quickly made a search of the boat and found nothing except a used fire extinguisher.

They headed to sh.o.r.e and then into the woods.

"We'll spread out," said King, "but keep visual contact. No lights yet. He could pick us off easy that way."

A bolt of lightning hit on the hill opposite them with such force that the ground seemed to shake.

"If the d.a.m.n lightning doesn't get us first," muttered Williams.

They threaded their way up to the crest of the hill and peered over.

"Two hundred yards and to the right is where the first body was found, if I'm not mistaken," whispered King.

"About that," said Mich.e.l.le.

"We'll take it slow and easy," said Williams. "This guy's nuts but cagey as h.e.l.l. I'm not looking to end up like Chip-"

Sylvia's scream hit them all right in the gut.

King tore down the hill, Mich.e.l.le right on his heels, with Williams rumbling along in the rear.

CHAPTER 98.

"PLEASE, G.o.d, DON'T DO IT."Sylvia was on her knees, head flush against the top of a rotted stump, with Eddie's knee in the middle of her back holding her in this position.

"Please," she continued to wail. "Please."

"Shut up!"

"Why are you doing this? Why?"

He stuffed his pistol in the gear belt he'd put on in the boat and pulled out a black hood from the inside of his wet suit. He donned the hood, adjusting the eye holes so he could see. It wasn't the circle-with-crosshairs one the police had confiscated, but it would do just fine for this impromptu execution.

He swung up the ax in one strong hand.

"Any last words?"

Sylvia was nearly unconscious with pain and fear. She started to mutter something.

Eddie laughed. "Are you praying? s.h.i.t! Fine, you had your chance."

He raised the ax over his head. Yet before he could bring it down on her neck, the handle of the ax exploded.

"h.e.l.luva shot, Maxwell," muttered Williams as they hurtled forward.

If they thought Eddie was simply going to surrender, they quickly saw that wasn't the case.

He jumped sideways, far enough to reach a steep incline, and he rolled and slid down to the bottom. He was up in an instant and sprinted off.

King ran up to Sylvia and cradled her.

"It's okay, Sylvia," gently whispered King. "You're okay."

There was a flash of motion.

"Mich.e.l.le!" screamed out King. "Don't!"

She cleared the crest, rolled down and hit the bottom. Up just as fast as Eddie, she sprinted after him.

"d.a.m.n it," screamed King. He handed Sylvia over to Williams and raced after his partner.

As King ran along, he could only tell where he was heading when the pitch-blackness was lit by lightning. Or when he heard the crash of footsteps up ahead.

"Why the h.e.l.l are you doing this?" he called out to Mich.e.l.le even though he knew she couldn't hear him.

After spending the last hour with Eddie Battle he had no desire to ever go near the man again unless he was behind bars with twelve guards surrounding him. And maybe even then he'd take a pa.s.s.

He stopped suddenly because the sounds up ahead had ceased.

"Mich.e.l.le?" he hissed. "Mich.e.l.le?" He gripped his pistol and swung it in arcs, periodically looking over his shoulder in case Eddie had circled around to rear-flank him.

Up ahead Mich.e.l.le was staring at a clump of brush with great intensity. She glanced down every so often to see if the tiny red light was dancing across her body. She eased her pistol's muzzle through a small gap in the wild holly bush she was hidden behind and parted its branches slightly. There was slight movement to her right, but it turned out to be a squirrel.

She heard a noise behind her and whipped around.

"Mich.e.l.le?"

It was King, about twenty feet away. He'd taken a different path and was separated from her by a wall of bramble.

"Stay back," she said between clenched teeth. "He's stopped right up ahead."

She turned and waited. One lightning flash; that was all she needed. She edged around the bush, backtracked a bit and then slowly made her way down and around with the goal of coming up behind Eddie.