Valley of Death by Gloria Skurzynski

simultaneously by three bullets fired from three separate SWAT team rifles, each bullet hitting exactly where the red laser had pinpointed his jacket. Shaking, the man raised both hands into the air and yelled, “Don’t shoot!”
    â€œPlease,” Jack begged the man who was holding him, “let me go so I can find my sister.”
    â€œTake it easy,” the man answered. “Our guys are working on it. This entire mission has been to get your sister back. We’ve caught all the men who were on their way to help the kidnappers escape, and it looks like both kidnappers have surrendered. Unless they’re entirely stupid, they’re not going to fight us when we move in to cuff them.” He released Jack saying, “You don’t have to lie flat anymore, but don’t stand up. Just stay sitting.”
    By then, bright lights were sweeping all across the desert as though it were halftime at the Super Bowl. Some of the SWAT team members led the eight militia men away, jerking them forward by their elbows because their hands had been secured behind their backs. Others were patting down the two kidnappers, searching for weapons. Still others had jumped into the dugout behind the rock barricade. And then….
    Jack let out a hoarse cry. There was Ashley, being lifted by the rangers. From that far away he couldn’t get a really good look at her, but she seemed limp, as though she couldn’t manage to stand up on her own. At the same time a helicopter was setting down very close to them. The men carrying Ashley ran toward the chopper, ducking low beneath the whirling rotor blades. When they handed Ashley inside, other waiting arms reached out to receive her.
    The SWAT team member who’d been holding Jack spoke into his radio, “I’ve got the girl’s brother here, too. Do you want me to bring him over so he can fly back with her?”
    The answer cracked back into the handset. “Sure. Bring him.”
    â€œWhat about Leesa?” Jack asked anxiously. “Do they have room for Leesa, too?”
    When the man relayed the question, the answer came back affirmative. He called over to the two SWAT team members who were holding Leesa, and within seconds she and Jack were hustled across the sand toward the waiting helicopter.
    â€œAnd Jesse,” Jack wanted to know. “What’s going to happen to Jesse?”
    â€œYou mean the guy who drove you out here?” When Jack nodded, the man said, “I think he’s gonna be in a world of hurt.”

CHAPTER TEN
    T wo o’clock in the morning, and all of them were still awake. They hovered around the bed where Ashley lay staring up at them, her eyes large, shadowed, and frightened—but no more frightened than Olivia’s. Olivia held one of Ashley’s hands, and Steven held the other, while Jack and Leesa stood at the foot of the bed.
    â€œMy throat hurts, Mom,” Ashley said. “I was so thirsty.”
    â€œYou’re safe now, sweetie, and you can have all the water you want,” Steven told her. “Or do you want juice? They have orange drink in the soda machine at the end of the hall—”
    â€œNo, don’t leave, Daddy,” Ashley begged him, looking fearful again.
    â€œI’ll get it,” Jack offered, and Leesa said, “I’ll go with you,” but Ashley stopped them with, “I don’t want any of you to go away from me right now. For such a long time I thought maybe I’d never see you again, so now that we’re all together, I want you to stay here with me. Please?”
    Steven knelt beside the bed and gently stroked a tangle of her curls. “You’ve been through a terrible ordeal, Ashley. But you’re safe now. We’re here.”
    Ashley closed her eyes, but didn’t quit talking. “The one man kept staring at me and staring at me, and he wouldn’t stop, and I got so scared. Then he said he had a daughter just