"Now!"

"Oh, just hell," Lucy said and stepped off the skid.

She dropped less than six inches from skid to gravel, stumbling into a crouch as the rotors whipped overhead, then the engine whined in protest as LaFavre powered it to max and the chopper roared back into the night sky. J.T. grabbed her and pulled her down in the grass on the side of the berm so they were hidden, and she huddled against him gratefully.

"I miss my night-vision goggles," he whispered.

"I miss the dogs," Lucy whispered back.

"I didn't think we'd be in the swamp," he went on. "Bridge with lights, yes. Ship with lights, yes. Swamp, no."

"Okay," Lucy whispered. "Next time, I'll pack the night goggles."

"Next time," he said and laughed quietly. "God, I love you."

"What?" Lucy said.

He was quiet for a minute, and then he said, "I love you," and kissed the bridge of her nose. Then he pointed right, while Lucy was still breathless. "The speedboat is that way. I saw it coming in. Less than-"

"Wait a minute," Lucy said. "Do you mean-"

"Fuck you!" Nash's voice echoed through the air, and Lucy forgot everything else as J.T. froze and then pointed toward the other side of the berm and down about ten yards.

"The happy people are over there," he whispered. But then he nod-ded the other way, left along the road, back toward the Talmadge. "The crazy person and Pepper are probably coming from that way if they're not already here." He reached in her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, but before he could punch in the ghost's number, Lucy saw something move in the darkness and hissed a warning. J.T. looked right and nodded as he saw what she did: a figure staggering up onto the road, dropping one of the heavy plastic cases onto the gravel.

The figure straightened, and Lucy recognized Bryce. The actor turned and disappeared back down the other side of the berm. "Bryce?" she whispered, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I was surprised, too," J.T. whispered back and finished punching the quick dial.

"Yep?" the ghost said, loud enough that Lucy could hear just from being close to the phone.

"We're at the RV," J.T. said, talking low. "Where's the girl?"

"Where's the chopper? You were supposed to land it, not do a touch-and-go."

"It's nearby. I'll tell you where it is when we have the girl."

Pepper, Lucy thought. When we have Pepper. She shivered. So close. So many things to go wrong.

"The girl's nearby. I tell you where when I get the chopper. And I don't see you at the RV. I saw three people at the boat. But not you and your lady friend. So let me see you." The phone went dead.

J.T. took the black case off the side of his pack and opened it, revealing the pieces of a sniper rifle set into the foam. He pulled out the stock.

"Where's Pepper?" Lucy asked.

"Close."

"Close, which way?"

"Since he's probably got this under cover with a long rifle, that way." J.T. nodded to the left. "I think we need to split up. I go after the ghost and Pepper, you stay here and watch if anything happens with our friends in the boat."

"No," Lucy said. "We're a team. We're not splitting up."

Wilder was silent for several moments. There was a distinct click as he slid the barrel into the receiver and locked it down. "All right. Got your gun?"

She fumbled with the holster and pulled out the Beretta, feeling about as stupid as she had the last time she'd held it. "Yes."

"Round in the chamber?"

"How can I tell? It's dark." Jesus. It's not like she did this every day. Only when she needed Pepper back. Hold on, honey, she thought.

"Here." J.T. took the gun, did something, and then handed it back. "You got a round in the chamber and the safety is off. So it's hot."

"Right."

"Put it back in the holster, carefully, and take this." J.T. held out his little machine gun. "It's also got a round in the chamber, safety off, set on automatic. You're going to spray a lot of bullets if you pull the trigger, so make sure there's a lot of people you want to shoot in the direction you aim."

"Thank you," Lucy whispered, thinking, I'm gonna trip and take out half the swamp. "But won't you need-"

"I've got this." J.T. held up the long rifle he'd just bolted together.

"Oh, good, yours is bigger." Lucy hefted the submachine gun. "You know, it's damn dark out here." She could hear the voices of Nash and Bryce and Althea, but she couldn't make out what they were saying, except that Nash was furious and Althea was bitching. They must have taken her hostage. Should have thought that one through, boys. She was pretty sure the swamp was not up to Althea's standards.

And the ghost, the fucking ghost had Pepper in this hellhole, all alone in the dark. "Pepper-"

"Ghost wants us over at the boat."

"With Nash?"

"Yep." J.T. got slowly to his feet, the long rifle in his hands. Lucy stood, too, trying desperately not to jar either gun and kill him. The submachine gun, in particular, felt wrong in her hands. Hell, nothing felt right at the moment, except for J.T. at her side.

"Let's go get our girl," J.T. said to her, and Lucy bit back tears.

"I love you, too," she said.

J.T. nodded. "Yeah, I know. Come on." Then he walked up onto the road.

Tyler slowed the ATV, cutting the engine noise, then finally killing it and letting the three-wheeled vehicle roll to a stop. He knew from his recon that he was about a hundred yards short of the rendezvous point.

He slung the Kid over one shoulder and with the other grabbed a bag of gear out of the cargo rack along with his sniper rifle. Then she kicked him, wriggling to get away, and he realized she'd been faking unconsciousness for a while. Fucking stupid kid.

He ran forward in the darkness with her over his shoulder. He could hear the helicopter behind him, in the distance and coming closer, but ahead he could hear voices raised in argument.

Fuck-ups. He halted less than fifty yards from the voices and knelt on the edge of the gravel road and dropped the Kid on the ground. The gag was tight around her mouth and her wide eyes were staring at him. He pulled out a long bayonet from his pack, held it high over his head as the Kid's eyes got even wider, and plunged it down.

Wilder paused as they got to a point just before the boat. He heard a voice raised high in a whine and recognized it immediately from four days of filming: Bryce was complaining about something. There was a glow ahead, but it was still damn dark.

Lucy bumped into him from behind.

"Careful," he whispered.

"Yeah, well, where's BMNT when you need it?"

"About six hours away."

Wilder nudged her and they drew closer to the boat. The glow was from a lantern of some sort, set next to Althea, who was sitting on the engine compartment, swinging her legs and looking into the cockpit. Nash was nowhere in sight, which wasn't good.

Bryce was pulling another of the plastic cases out of the water and onto the berm, floundering in the canal, struggling to hoist the case up. Physical labor. Wilder shook his head as they silently moved closer. I hat was hostage work. Bryce should have kidnapped somebody without a manicure.

They were less than ten feet away when Wilder called out, "Hey, Bryce."

Althea spun around on the fantail, shifting her attention from the cockpit. "J.T.? Is that you?"

"J.T.? J.T.'s here?" Bryce sounded delighted. He was waist deep in swamp water, and his face was turned up, searching the darkness blindly, while he slapped at mosquitoes.

"J.T., have you come to save me?" Althea called.

"Save you?" Bryce said, his whine turned up to eleven. "You're the one with the gun."

Oh, crap, Wilder thought. "Where's Nash?"

Both Althea and Bryce looked into the cockpit of the boat.

"Come on out, Nash," Wilder called. "We're working a trade here."

"Fuck you." Nash's head appeared above the windscreen. "I can't come out because the fucking bitch has got a gun on me."

"Althea?" Lucy said from beside him.

Well, it made more sense than Bryce, Wilder thought. Althea smiled innocently and Wilder could now see her right hand, a pistol in it pointed right at Nash.

"Can we go now?" Bryce asked.

"Poor puppy," Lucy said softly from behind Wilder. "Mary Vanity must be looking really good right about now."

"All we want is Pepper," Wilder called. "Although we'll take Bryce with us while you two work out your… problems."

Lucy's cell phone rang in Wilder's pocket, and he sensed Lucy's jump.

"It's okay," he said, trying not to remember all the firepower she had with the safeties off. He answered the phone. "Where is she?"

"East," the ghost said. "On the road."

Wilder turned and the beam of a flashlight suddenly appeared, shooting up from the swamp to a small figure on the edge of the road: Pepper, crying, her hands cuffed in front of her, a rope going from the cuffs to something pinned in the ground.

"Son of a bitch," Lucy hissed and started forward but Wilder grabbed the back of her shirt and stopped her.

"Wait."

"She's crying." The rage ripped through Lucy's voice and Wilder felt the same, but he knew now was the time to be careful, very careful.

"Trust me," Wilder said, holding the phone tight against his chest so the ghost couldn't hear.

"I trust you," Lucy said, still staring at Pepper. "Now let me go get my kid."