Chapter 13 - Track Nine
Rain hammered the windshield as Eleanor drove the armored utility truck through the mountains the following evening.
Rafe sat beside her.
Marcus followed with federal agents three minutes behind.
Their plan depended on secrecy.
Victor believed his stolen maintenance truck had allowed him to obtain the eastern switching sequence. What he didn't know was that Eleanor had changed the mechanical lockout codes immediately after his attack.
The freight train was twenty-three minutes away.
Eleanor stopped beside an abandoned signal house.
"This is it."
Rafe scanned the tree line.
"No movement."
"That doesn't mean nobody's there."
"Now you're learning."
She opened her door.
Rafe caught her arm.
She raised an eyebrow.
He released it.
"Sorry."
"Better."
They moved toward the track.
The manual switching mechanism sat beneath a corrugated metal shelter, its huge steel lever connected to two rusted control rods.
Eleanor crouched.
"Someone tampered with it."
Rafe knelt beside her.
"Recently?"
"Very."
Fresh tool marks covered the lock plate.
Then a branch snapped.
Rafe shoved Eleanor behind the concrete signal box as bullets tore through the shelter.
Three armed men emerged from the forest.
Rafe returned fire.
"Stay down!"
"Terrific advice!"
One attacker rushed around the opposite side.
Eleanor saw him before Rafe did.
She grabbed the heavy switching wrench and swung.
The tool struck the man's wrist.
His pistol dropped.
Eleanor kicked it beneath the rail.
Rafe turned and drove the man into the signal box with one brutal shoulder.
The remaining attackers fled toward the trees when sirens sounded in the distance.
Rafe could have followed.
He didn't.
He stayed beside Eleanor.
"Show me your hands."
"What?"
"Your hands."
She held them up.
"No blood."
"I'm fine."
"You just hit an armed trafficker with a railroad wrench."
"He was annoying me."
Rafe stared at her.
Then he shook his head.
"I married a lunatic."
The distant train horn echoed through the valley.
Eleanor's expression changed.
"We're out of time."
She hurried to the switch.
The lever wouldn't move.
Victor's men had welded a steel restraint across the control rod.
Rafe examined it.
"Can we cut it?"
"Not before the train arrives."
Another horn.
Closer.
Eleanor looked toward their truck.
"Tow cable."
Rafe understood instantly.
They hooked the truck's reinforced recovery cable around the switching arm.
Eleanor climbed behind the wheel.
Rafe stood near the track, guiding her.
"Slow."
She reversed.
The cable tightened.
Steel groaned.
"More."
She pressed the accelerator.
The welded restraint bent.
The truck's rear tires slipped through mud.
"More!"
Eleanor floored it.
The restraint snapped.
The switch slammed across.
Signal lights changed from green to amber.
The train appeared around the mountain curve.
Rafe ran toward the truck.
"Move!"
Eleanor accelerated off the maintenance path seconds before the locomotive thundered past.
Shipping containers blurred through the rain.
One.
Two.
Three.
Six containers marked AGRICULTURAL PUMP ASSEMBLIES.
Exactly as Marcus predicted.
The redirected train left the main corridor and entered Track Nine.
Three miles ahead, federal agents waited at a secured industrial siding.
Eleanor stopped the truck.
For several seconds, neither she nor Rafe spoke.
Then Marcus's voice crackled over the radio.
"Target secured. Train stopped."
Rafe closed his eye.
Eleanor gripped the steering wheel.
Another message followed.
"Agents are opening Container Four."
Static.
Then Marcus returned.
His voice was different.
"Jesus."
Eleanor couldn't breathe.
"Marcus?"
"We have survivors."
Rafe reached for the radio.
"How many?"
"Twenty-seven in Four. More containers still being opened."
Eleanor covered her mouth.
Rafe's hand settled over hers.
By midnight, sixty-three trafficking victims had been removed from the train alive.
Victor's network had suffered its largest loss in years.
But Victor himself was nowhere near the shipment.
When Marcus arrived, rain dripping from his coat, his expression carried no celebration.
"He knew."
Rafe looked at him.
"What?"
"Victor knew we might intercept the train."
Marcus handed Eleanor a plastic evidence sleeve.
Inside was a photograph recovered from the locomotive cab.
Whitmore House.
Taken that morning.
On the back were five handwritten words.
YOU CANNOT GUARD TWO HOMES.
Eleanor stared at it.
Rafe's expression became murderous.
Victor hadn't lost tonight.
May you like
He had created a distraction.
And while everyone watched the railway, somebody had gone to Eleanor's house.
