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The church looked like so tours of castle ruins The tower had ruptured in a halo of stone and splintered wood Mangled brass bells and sprays of shattered stained glass glittered on the snow The blast had been powerful enough to fling the s what had been the church’s parking lot The crowns of several nearby trees, principally heavier evergreens, had snapped while other, thinner hardwoods were bowled over by the blast wind Three walls still stood, but the rest of the church was a gutted shell surrounded by blasted pews and the fluttering reht to be dead They’d tethered the aniht he’d covered half the distance back before he’d dropped the reins and sprinted for the church So, tack on another fifty yards before the explosion? Either way, give or take, he was still too darned close The fact that he’d been blown back so far, knocked unconscious, and bled from his nose and ears proved that If the explosion had happened, say, in a town or a narrow alley, the blast overpressure would’ve ruptured his heart and blown his lungs apart What saved his ass was that the church stood alone, with no nearby structures or even trees to capture and amplify the blast wave

He was alive because of dumb luck, and that was all By some miracle, he still had his weapons: the Uzi on its retention strap, Jed’s Bravo snugged in that back scabbard, and the Glock-- Alex’s Glock, as he thought of it--in its cross-draw He had extra ammo stashed in his over-vest, too, also lucky because the horses had scattered From their tracks, he knew at least one had not headed back to ca it doould be a mistake Instead, he kicked snow to hide his blood, then shucked his vest and used that to scour away the To tracks he made as he headed into the trees

They came a few hours later By then, he’dhih into the deep recesses of a thick, sturdy cedar There were three, and he recognized them all Mellie’s square, coht and that black uniforuy was used to command

But my God, I know you His irl on the snow You’re one of the guys I saatching from the woods

The third person was a kid, a boy in over-whites The boy’s head was up, sa for him Tom was too far away to see the boy’s eyes, but he knew they were the saht to the death Given the guy in black, Toht this o

But now this kid was riding a horse And he’s working with people Tom’s skin deith fresh sweat How is this possible? He watched as the three made a slow pera spiral Looking for tracks, trying to figure out if anyone got away The oldsters bent their heads to the snow, but the kid kept his head up like a bloodhound The Uzi was silenced, chaer over the selector switch Kill them now? No way anyone will hear the shots But he wasn’t a sniper, and heto bet the old commander had a fair number of men Try to rescue the kids on his own, he’d probably end up dead Wait for a better ti, he watched as they continued their search pattern until the debris field petered out Mellie and the co; the Chucky only scanned, turning his horse in a slow three-sixty And then they left, returning to cah the night, To his retention straps to anchor hie of the fire eventually diray and di in his ears di crackles and, at sole of hardware That made his pulse ratchet up a notch until he reconsidered that a solitary rider, at night, ht about it for a few seconds, then decided he was much better off with a ride than without one So he called to it as softly as he could, coaxing the ani at every crackle and snap of brush and braht, he saw the horse slip close to the tree in which he hid, and then stop

That was the only good in an otherwise very long and terrible night He still ached, his giry and thirsty Scooping snow froe off He even ed a fitful doze

Mostly, he worried about the kids, and his nexthe didn’t believe Mellie would do was kill the children outright It just didn’t fit True, that commander had Chuckies They would need food But aste kids? More than enough oldsters around to keep the Chuckies happy for a while

What he kept co around with the Chuckies But how? And why does he need athered children for her buddy in black Tom suspected she and the commander wanted the Rule children for the sas, a bigger blood splotch that looked as if it ht have been a person, and a riderless horse nervously wandering around the horse barn, the farh had been one That, he’d counted on First principles: all warfare is based on deception

Every tent had been broken down and taken away--except his, set apart, close to the trees He stared for a very long time, first from across the corral and on his horse, and then on foot as he worked a careful peri, Fool me onceHe bet Finn read Sun Tzu, too

It took him a while The snoas all broken up, deeply incised with horse hooves, boots, and--this was a surprise--the cut of at least seven or eight wagons But he finally spotted what did not belong: a thin curl of det cord coiled around a corner guy and gro that took hih a seam, he saw a half block of plastique, with a Vietnam-era M28 detonator stuck in one end, molded to the tent’s center pole The trip-releasewould arood He cut the cord with his KA-BAR, then broke down the rest of the boot out, or they’re being cautious Each scenario was bad news and meant he would have to be doubly careful when he searched the rest of the farmstead

None of the barns were booby-trapped He took his ti the roof and where the walls ear and binos, he peered in through the oneBare sawhorses, e paracord, he carefully tied one end to the doorknob and strung it out behind Then he wound the other end around the saddle horn, boosted hiallop Startled, the horse bolted, and the door carole half-roll of nesium tape and a bottle of aluminum powder that had rolled under a sawhorse, the equipnesiuround aluminum, he walked out to the cistern The cap was still in place, but once bitten, twice shy When he was satisfied it wasn’t rigged, he shoved the heavy concrete to one side and peered in His breath huffed out in relief Still attached to an iron bolt on the cap’s underbelly, the black paracord was taut, exactly as he’d left it Reaching in, he hauled up the heavy pack in which he’d stowed the lion’s share of his boa house of potential booby-traps takes time All the roo Both hands on his Uzi, Toht hospital corners, Weller’s rack could’ve passed any drill instructor’sin a duffel to his cracked leather dopp kit, everything was squared and ordered Why not empty the room, or booby-trap it? Two reasons: either the contents held no valueor, on the off-chance Weller survived, they’re telling him to kiss off

Every soldier carries keepsakes and charms, usually on them or in their over-vests: letters, pictures, Bibles, rosaries, scapulars His own--a St George randmother and a picture of his little sisters--were tucked in the sas back hos he wore noere Jed’s As far as he knew, Weller had no tags, but he was an old soldier and habits die hard

They were in the dopp kit, the first place Toy: a newspaper clipping and an old Polaroid The clipping, almost three years old, read:

HOUGHTON VICTIM REMEMBERED AS "DETERMINED" AND "GOOD FRIEND"

Friends of Aenerous, and hardworking young wo hand and deterree

"Totally devastated," was how Claire Mason characterized her reaction to the news of Pederson’s disappearance after a freak boating accident in Lake Superior "I can’t even ie kids in the first place She couldn’t swiine her poor parents? How they’ll never have a body? It’s just terrible"

The boat on which Pederson was a passenger went down in the still-frigid waters of Superior after a fire broke out in the vessel’s engine rooers to free Pederson, trapped below deck, failed, and the vessel sank before a Coast Guard helicopter arrived on scene Recovery efforts were suspended due to poor visibility and the depth of the lake, which has been recorded at over five hundred feet in that area No further searches for the hton resident are planned