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I retreated to the Y in the hollow and took the left-hand branch that I’d forgone a minute earlier Within six or seven hundred feet, I caht--toward toas afraid I’d be playing into their assuh it would lead me deeper into the unpopulated hills

Froruine, distant at first but then suddenly nearer The engine noise was so powerful that I thought it ca a low pass This wasn’t the stuttering clatter of a helicopter, butlight swept the hilltops to the left and right of hty feet over ht, so intense, that it seeush of soht It arced away and reflected off distant ridges to the east and north

Where did they get this sophisticated ordnance on such short notice?

Was Sandy Kirk the grand kleagle of an antigovernment militia headquartered in secret bunkers jammed eapons and a true Such things were merely the stuff of real life these days, the current events of a society in freefall--while this felt uncanny This was territory through which the wild rushing river of the evening news had not yet swept

I had to knoas happening up there on higher ground If I didn’t reconnoiter, I would be no better than a duh the brush to the right of the swale, crossed the sloping floor of the hollow, and then cliht seeinated in that direction As I ascended, the bea in froht--and then scorched past a third ti the brow of the hill tohich I wasthe penultiled the final ten onof weather-scored rocks that provided a measure of cover, and I cautiously raised inal entrified for sale to civilians--stood one hilltop away froiant oak Even poorly revealed by the backwash of its own lights, the Hu, four-wheel-drive wagon perched on giant tires, capable of crossing virtually any terrain

I noo searchlights: Both were hand-held, one by the driver and one by his front-seat passenger, and each had a lens the size of a salad plate Considering their candlepower, they could have been operated only off the Huht and put the Hu lih it were cruising a freeway, putting its tailgate toward e, soon reappeared out of a hollow, and rapidly ascended athese coastal hills

The uns, were keeping to the hollows In an atteround, to force ht findthe hilltops

"Who are you people?" Ifarther hills, illurass in an indecisive breeze that ebbed and flowed Wave after wave broke across the rising land and lapped against the trunks of the island oaks

Then the big wagon was on the hts bobbling, one searchlight swinging wildly, along a crest, into a hollow and out again, it e point

I wondered how visible this activity ht Bay on the lower hills and the flatlands, closer to the ocean Possibly only a fenspeople happened to be outside and looking up at an angle that revealed enough colie boys in an ordinary four-by-four were spotting coastal elk or deer: an illegal but bloodless sport of which most people are tolerant

Soon the Hu by the pattern of its search, it ht arrive on this very hill in two more moves

I retreated down the slope, into the hollow from which I had climbed: exactly where they wanted me I had no better choice

Heretofore, I had been confident that I would escape Now rass into the drainage swale and continued in the direction that I had been headed before the searchlights had drawn me uphill After only a few steps, I halted, startled by soreen eyes that waited on the trail in front of me

Coyote

Wolflike but sy creatures could nonetheless be dangerous As civilization encroached on them, they were quite literally murder on family pets even in the supposedly safe backyards of residential neighborhoods near the open hills In fact, fro off a child if the prey was young and sh they attacked adult humans only rarely, I wouldn’t care to rely on their restraint or on my superior size if I was to encounter a pack--or even a pair--of the frohts, and a tense reen eyes were too closely set to be those of a coyote Furthermore, unless this beast was in a full pounce posture with its chest pressed to the ground, its baleful stare was directed at me from too low a position to be that of a coyote

As ht, I saw that nothing ar, which would have been far worse than a coyote and reason for genuine terror, but a e, iloom

Most cats are not stupid Even in the obsessive pursuit of field mice or little desert lizards, they will not venture deeply into coyote country

Indeed, as I got a clearer view of it, the particular creature before me seemed more than usually quick and alert It sat erect, head cocked quizzically, ears pricked, studying me intensely

As I took a step toward it, the cat rose onto all fours When I advanced another step, the cat spun away fro into the darkness

Elsewhere in the night, the Hurew louder

I picked up one a hundred yards, the Hu so Overhead, the predatory gaze of the lights swept the night for prey

Upon reaching the next branching of the hollow, I discovered the cat waiting for me It sat at the point of division, committed to neither trail

When I ht It halted after several steps--and turned its lantern eyes on me

The cat must have been acutely aware of the searchers all around us, not just of the noisy Huht even perceive phero It would want to avoid these people as much as I did Given the chance, I would be better off choosing an escape route according to the ani engine of the Hummer suddenly thundered The hard peals echoed back and forth through the hollows, so that the vehicle see away With this storm of sound, indecision flooded o the way of the cat