Dead Man's Switch by Sigmund Brouwer

Author:Sigmund Brouwer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736957236
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.

CHAPTER 27

They were a hundred yards from the house, jogging inland, when King spoke.

“What’s the matter with the shoreline back there?” King asked.

“You say that like you know there’s danger.”

“You’ve given this some thought,” King answered. “Black sweats, my size, in your closet. Black sneakers, my size. Like you’ve been ready for us to run.”

They were on a gentle rise, headed toward the tree line that started closer to the center of the island.

Mack didn’t answer, just kept a good rhythm to their jogging.

“Easy escape,” King said, “would be to have a boat hidden as close as possible to our house. Three minutes of jogging gets us to the shoreline, and we’re on the water.”

This seemed utterly surreal. The two of them on the run. Because King had assaulted the warden with pepper spray and then gone a step further and duct taped him and squirreled him into a bush.

But then it seemed surreal to King that the man he was escaping with had hidden more than a quarter of a million dollars. Money he had earned for reasons that King couldn’t even guess. All because a kid who drowned had been sending King on a chase, directed in cyberspace.

No sense thinking about it all, King told himself. Roll with the flow. Or more accurately, jog with the flow.

“I know stuff,” Mack finally said. He stopped, barely breathing hard. “And they know I know stuff. I couldn’t tell you. They were using you as leverage. They promised something would happen to you if I let you off the island. It’s why you couldn’t visit Ella. And that was killing me as much as it was killing you.”

Mack put up a hand and cocked his head, listening. He seemed satisfied at what he heard. Or didn’t hear.

“And they also threatened Ella’s coma would end with her death.”

“What!”

“It’s like they’ve got her in a prison,” Mack said. “She’s helpless and can’t move. So I had to pretend everything was normal. I couldn’t tell you. Didn’t want to tell you. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you. I just wanted to protect you.”

He waved his hands. “Obviously, things have changed. So yes, I’ve had an escape plan in mind. Even Murdoch had to admit that if I didn’t visit Ella at the hospital once or twice it would look bad. I bought some stuff for escape each trip, and I’ve done some planning. You would be right about the shoreline. They’ve got thermal sensors everywhere. Keeping a boat hidden wasn’t going to do it. They’d know down to the second when we got into the boat. A minute later, a chopper would be there. We’d be sitting ducks.”

Mack began jogging again. “They’ve got the entire shoreline rigged with sensors. Hidden cameras too. They know if someone gets on the island. Or gets off. The whole island is a prison.

King kept pace. “Except for the northwest corner, right? At the cliffs. That’s where we’re headed. No point putting sensors there.”

There was a stretch of about a half mile where the island rose vertically from the strait.

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