Free Triple Threat by H. L. Wegley Page B

the gondolas. Maybe we can jump on board and lose them on the mountain.”
    Josh ran hard to stay close behind her. “What if there’s a waiting line for the gondolas?”
    “This isn’t a time to be courteous. We crowd.”
    They sprinted between two buildings, emerging into a large open area with the gondolas for Whistler Peak straight ahead. And there was a line of people. A long line.
    Kate took his hand and raced through the crowd milling around the gondola terminal, pulling him with her.
    “Excuse us, please. Urgent business,” she said as they ran to the front of the line. She slowed when they approached a red gondola rounding the loading loop.
    The people let them pass.
    Kate flashed some tickets she had evidently purchased online. They jumped into the gondola when the door opened.
    Josh spun around and looked through the wrap-around Plexiglas windows toward the line of people behind them. As the door latched shut on the gondola, Josh spotted the man and the woman crowding to the front of the line. Another gondola swung around behind them. It contained a family, but the gunman and the woman stood ready to take the next car.
    “Their two cars back, Kate. Do you know this run?”
    “We stop halfway up the mountain, and then the chairlift takes us to the top of Whistler Peak or…”
    He waited. “Or what?”
    “We switch to the peak to peak gondolas.”
    “The peak to peak? This is serious, Kate. We’ve got to lose them. If they catch us, or even get one gondola behind us, they can—”
    “I know, Josh. I’m working on that.”
    “Just don’t work too long.”
    “How far can you run?”
    He looked at Kate’s long, slender but muscular legs. She was an incredible athlete, a star on the women’s softball team. She could probably run him into the ground. “I’m good for three or four miles.”
    “How about eight or nine miles down the mountain road to the village?”
    “If we have to. What were you thinking about the peak to peak ride?”
    “It’s a little bit risky.”
    “So far, just being with you is risky. It can’t get much worse than—”
    “Thanks a lot, Josh.” Kate’s brilliant blue eyes shot him a sharp glance.
    They needed a plan, and he needed to rely on Kate. She was the one who had experience with dangerous people and dangerous situations. “Tell me about how we use the peak to peak run to lose these two terrorists or foreign agents, whoever they really are?”
    “OK. At the end of this run, when our gondola opens, we jump out and sprint around to the peak to peak run, get in, and lay flat on the floor. Before they can possibly find us, we’ll be fifteen hundred feet above the valley on our way to Blackcomb.”
    “What if they suspect that’s how we got away?”
    “It’s not like that’s our only option. We could continue up to Whistler Peak and lose them on the mountain, or run down the mountain on the bike trail.”
    “How long does it take to ride the peak to peak to Blackcomb?”
    “Less than fifteen minutes. I know what you’re worried about, Josh. They could ride back to the village, and then wait for us at the base of the Blackcomb lift.”
    He nodded.
    “We’ve got some decisions to make, Josh. Our lives, and who knows what else, are on the line here. We need some help.” She took a deep breath, exhaled, and closed her eyes.
    “Please don’t tell me you’re praying. Use your head. We need your intellect, Kate, not your wishful thinking.”
    Kate’s brow wrinkled forming two deep lines. “I’m using the ultimate intellect. He’s always accessible if you really want to know Him.”
    “I want to know that you and I have a plan to elude that couple who pointed their guns at us.”
    She gave him a sharp glance, and then shook her head. “Josh…never mind.” Kate’s head dropped and her mind went someplace, to some Person, who existed only in her imagination.
    What a shame.
    Even more so because her misplaced trust could get them killed.
    Her face and