The helicopter skimmed the tops of the trees in the Loire Valley as Nava navigated toward one of the most beautiful Renaissance treasures in the world-the beautiful 16th century Chateau de Chenonceau. Construction of the storied chateau had begun in 1513, when Catherine Briconnet and her husband, Thomas Bohier, decided to build a turreted pavilion directly over the foundations of an old water mill on the banks of the Cher River. After Henry II of France acquired it, it became a royal palace and the home to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who extended the chateau out over the Cher River. Upon Henry’s death in 1559, his wife, Catherine de? Medici, who went by the title of Queen consort of France, expelled Henry’s mistress to a lesser chateau and took possession of Chenonceau for herself. Today, the chateau is owned by a family of chocolatiers and is open to the public.
In this historical setting, Nava and Alon raced to rescue one of their own, even though both knew the odds were already stacked against them. Sarah and the two people with her were being tracked by men with dogs, but it had taken the rescue flight an hour to get to them, an eternity under the circumstances. As the chopper approached the chateau, Alon and Nava traded looks. The banks and fields along the river appeared empty.
In the cold water along the bank of the Cher River, Sarah shivered among the tall reeds. Hiding next to her were Fredrick and Martha, the brave couple who had risked everything to save her life. Fredrick was in his late 60’s, but a life spent working outdoors, lifting and stooping, had left his tall thin frame as gnarled and twisted as the oaks he had once tended with loving care. Martha, in contrast, was a short and slightly plump woman of German ancestry, with braided blonde hair and fair skin with rosy cheeks. Both were now shivering in the cold river water as they listened to the sound of men’s voices in the woods close by.
“How long has it been since we called?” Sarah asked through chattering teeth.
Fredrick moved close to her and whispered into her ear. “It’s been almost an hour. They should be here any minute.”
“Ya,” Martha whispered. “It won’t be long now, Liebchen. It’s a good thing my Fredrick took care of those dogs.”
Earlier, as the three had been running for the hotel’s back door through the kitchen, Fredrick had grabbed a commercial-sized container of pepper before throwing the contents all over the floor. Needless to say, the pursuing hounds had been turned into a sneezing and slobbering group of whimpering canines that had been rendered useless for tracking. In addition, the men chasing them had suddenly lost the cell phone signal they were using to zero in on the trio.
From that point on, the men had been reduced to searching the old-fashioned way, using only their eyes and ears to scout the woods and roads surrounding the village until the helicopter with thermal imaging equipment arrived from Paris.
Peering skyward, Sarah and the others listened as their bodies stiffened in the cold water. There, off in the distance, they heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter. The sound grew closer, prompting Sarah to lift her head slightly. Quickly, she ducked back down again. Twenty yards away, she had seen a man wearing a dark suit and speaking into a Bluetooth-like headset. He also had a gun stuck in the waistband of his trousers. Through the dry brush, they could hear him walking their way.
Fredrick held his finger to his lips and began leading the two women through the reeds along the bank of the river. Quietly, they waded through the freezing water toward the chateau. By now, the usual crowds of tourists were gone and the area appeared completely deserted. With the sound of the helicopter growing louder, Sarah lifted her head up again, only to see the man in the suit walking slowly along the riverbank. He’s looking in our direction!
Sarah grabbed Fredrick’s shirt and pointed. Quickly, they submerged their bodies up to their necks in the frigid water. The man walked by and stopped for a moment before continuing on his way.
“We’ve got to get out of this water,” Sarah said. Rising up, she saw that the chateau was right in front of them. “Do you think we can get inside, Fredrick?”
“There’s a door down below that was once used for water deliveries to the kitchen. It’s probably locked, but we can try.” He was shaking like a leaf.
The sound of a helicopter’s engines suddenly filled their ears just as a small blue helicopter swooped overhead.
“It’s them!” Sarah shouted. She watched as it turned and began flying back toward them along the bank of the river. Sarah rose up further to look for the man with the gun, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“It’s now or never.” Climbing up the bank of the river, she waved her hands in the air above her head just as the chopper passed by directly overhead. A wave of excitement warmed her shivering body when she saw the pilot wave back.
“Hold it right there!”
Sarah spun around to see the man in the suit pointing a gun right at her as he spoke quietly into his radio headset.
The chopper had spun around and was now hovering directly overhead as the man with the gun looked upward. He raised the gun and pointed it right at the pilot.
Instantly, the air around him turned red as he fell to the ground. Sarah looked up and saw a large man leaning out the side door with a smoking Uzi machine gun in his hands. It was Alon. Her friends had sent the right people!
“There are more of them moving through the woods in this direction,” Nava shouted. “We need to get those people out of that water … now!”
She spun the helicopter around and set it down hard on the bank of the river. Alon jumped out and pointed his gun at the woods. Without looking back, he shouted over his shoulder to Sarah and her friends. “Run!”
Immediately, Sarah and Fredrick were up running, but Martha slipped and slid back into the water.
Alon could see movement in the trees and began advancing on the woods. Behind him, Sarah and Fredrick had returned to the river to help a struggling Martha up the slippery bank. Seconds seemed like hours until finally, the three of them were sprinting toward the open door of the helicopter. Keeping his eyes locked on the woods, Alon began to back away, his gun pointed at the trees. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Sarah, guiding him as he backed his way toward the door.
Looking over her shoulder, Nava watched their progress. Her fingers gripped the throttle, and as soon as they were through the doorway, she powered up and began lifting off. The helicopter rose a few feet in the air but seemed to stall before settling back to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Alon shouted.
“Damn! We’re too heavy.” Nava slammed the turbines beyond their safe power threshold and urged the little chopper a few feet into the air. The helicopter’s engines were still struggling when the men in suits burst from the woods and began running toward them, firing their weapons.
In one of those moments, when a pilot has but a few seconds to make a life or death decision, Nava remembered the river behind them. She knew the air over the water was cooler, making it slightly denser than the warmer air blanketing the ground.
“Hang on!” she screamed. Shoving the stick forward, she pointed the chopper down and disappeared over the steep riverbank. The two men in suits exchanged puzzled glances and froze, waiting for the sound of a crash.
Inside the cockpit, Nava was busy trying to bring the aircraft to a hover above the water without letting it descend into the river. She worked the controls and increased the power even further into the danger zone before finally managing to bring the tiny chopper under control. Tilting the aircraft forward, she let the nose of the chopper skim the surface of the river as the whirling blades clawed at the air in a struggle to fly. The chopper shuddered, then dipped once more before picking up speed, slowly climbing away from the water until they were racing downstream at treetop level, leaving the surprised men standing on the riverbank with their mouths hanging open. Thirty seconds later, the little chopper had risen to five hundred feet, and within minutes, the village of Chenonceau was nothing more than a dot on the horizon behind them as Nava backed off on the power and tried to keep her feet from shaking on the foot pedals.
Alon reached in back and wrapped his big arms around Sarah. “Thanks for the help … it’s good to see you again, Sarah. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No … thank you … thank you both for getting here so quickly.” Sarah’s teeth were chattering so violently she was having trouble speaking. “We … we wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I hate to think what those men would have done with us if they had caught us.”
“You’re safe now. Sorry we don’t have any blankets for you. We had to throw everything out to make the chopper lighter.”
Martha placed her arms around Sarah and frowned. “Smart thinking. Another pound and we would have sunk like a rock.”
“This is Martha,” Sarah said, laying her head on the woman’s shoulder … and this is her husband, Fredrick. If it wasn’t for these two, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
Alon studied the shivering couple sitting side by side next to Sarah. “That was a very brave thing you two did back there. Do both of you work for the Acerbi Corporation?”
“They’re a bunch of Nazi’s.” Martha practically spit the words out. “My husband and I have worked at the chateau for almost two years now, and things there are definitely not what they seem. Those people are up to no good.”
“What do you mean … no good?”
“Let’s just say it’s not a place you would want to spend your vacation.” Martha reached into her blouse and pulled out a plastic bag containing a thin, white folder. “And I have some papers here that will prove everything I’m about to tell you.”
Above the small blue chopper, an unmarked Blackhawk helicopter remained out of sight as it followed behind at a distance.
Inside the spacious cockpit, the co-pilot reached above his head and flicked a switch before looking over at the pilot. “Should we take them out now, sir?”
“No,” the pilot responded in a tone that was measured and calm. “Our orders are only to follow them and see where they go … nothing else. Mr. Acerbi wants to know where they land.”