He tossed it over the edge of the cliff and climbed down after it as fast as he could without breaking his neck. He jumped the last dozen feet or so, panicked for Sherri’s safety.

He knelt at the edge of the pit as Ray worked his way down the opposite rock face. “Tate?” Griffin called down into the hole. “Sherri? You down there? It’s Griffin Caldwell.”

Silence.

Ray pulled out a red-filtered flashlight and shined it down in the pit.

Empty.

But Ray immediately swore. Griffin asked quickly, “What do you see?”

“Ladder marks. Lower me down. I want to take a closer look.” Ray moved to one end of the pit for Griffin to stretch out on his belly and let Ray use his arm like a climbing rope to lower himself into the hole.

Ray’s voice floated up. “She was down here, all right. Looks like she fell. Landed on her ruck. But someone else was down here with her. Three…maybe four…men.”

“Her classmates?”

“These aren’t SEAL-issue boots.”

“What?” Griffin squawked.

“Close your eyes. I’m gonna take some pictures of these tracks,” Ray said.

Protecting his night vision, Griffin closed his eyes against the flash of Ray’s cell phone camera.

Then Ray said, “Someone came down here and hoisted or carried her out of here. Some of the tracks get deeper like they were carrying a heavy object.”

“Like Tate?” Griffin asked, numb with shock.

“Looks that way. You got radio reception?” Ray asked.

His implication was clear. It was time to call out the cavalry. Griffin keyed his mic but got no response. “No reception. We’ll have to get out of this canyon.”

Griffin held an arm down to Ray. While the guy climbed up to him, Griffin reported, “I found an orange pylon on top of the cliff. Same kind we mark the run course with. What if someone put out a fake pylon when she was coming, turned her into this canyon, and ran her into this pit trap?”

“Why would someone go to all that trouble to kidnap Tate?” Ray asked reasonably. His hand slapped into Griffin’s, and Griffin heaved hard. Ray popped out of the hole and onto his belly beside Griffin.

They rolled to their feet. “I have no idea why anyone would snatch Tate,” Griffin answered raggedly. “If her classmates wanted to get rid of her, there are a crap-ton of easier ways to do it.”

Ray keyed his throat mic. “This is Peevy. Come in.”

Nothing. Griffin and Ray took off running at full speed back toward the mouth of the arroyo and radio reception. They popped out of the canyon, and Ray tried again.

A voice answered immediately, “Go ahead, Peevy.”

“We’ve got a problem. Looks like a trainee was lured off the course and kidnapped. We need a search-and-rescue helicopter launched ASAP.”

“Say again?” the voice squawked.