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"Bryce… it’s "

"Jake?" Copperfield asked, squinting curiously at Bryce

"You mean that man in there is the saht?"

"Somebody… help… Jesus, it’s c-cold… so c-c-cold"

"It sounds like him," Bryce ad ht here all this tieneral "I told you we searched everywhere last night Even in the goddamned eneral said

"Hey, out there! I’!"

Jenny touched Bryce’s ar"

Copperfield said, "Sheriff, we can’t just stand here and allow an injured ht," Frank Autry said, "he would’ve frozen to death by now"

"Well, if it’s a meat locker," Copperfield said, "then the air inside isn’t freezing It’s just cold If the "

"But how’d he get in there in the first place?" Frank asked "What the devil’s he been doing in there?"

"And he wasn’t in there last night," Tal said iain

"There’s danger here," Bryce told Copperfield, "I sense it My e senses it"

"I don’t," Copperfield said

"General, you just haven’t been in Snowfield long enough to understand that you’ve got to expect the utterly unexpected"

"Like er, Bryce said, "You haven’t been here long enough to understand that… well… nothing’s quite what it seeet an to cry His whi pleas were awful to hear He sounded like a pain-racked, terrified old erous

"We’ve got to help thatain ordered Sergeant Harker and Private Pascalli to look in the h it was obvious froer for uns, he told theeneral still believed the ene as sas

The two soldiers hurried along the rows of coolers toward the gate that led into the butcher’s work area

Frank said, "If Jake could open the door, why couldn’t he push it completely open and let us see hietting the door unlatched," Copperfield said, "You can hear it in his voice, for God’s sake Utter exhaustion"

Harker and Pascalli went through the gate, behind the coolers

Bryce’s hand tightened on the butt of his holstered revolver

Tal Whit with this setup, damn it If it’s really Jake, if he needs help, why did he wait until now to open the door?"

"The only e’ll find out is to ask hieneral said

"No, I mean, there’s an outside entrance to that locker," Tal said, "He could’ve opened the door earlier and shouted out into the alley As quiet as this town is, we’d have heard him all the way over at the Hilltop"

"Maybe he’s been unconscious until now," Copperfield said

Harker and Pascalli werepast the worktables and the electric ? Is soan to raise another objection, but Bryce said, "Save your breath"

"Doctor," Copperfield said, "can you actually expect us to just ignore the man’s cries for help?"

"Of course not," she said, "But we ought to take ti a look in there"

Shaking his head, Copperfield interrupted her: "We’ve got to attend to him without delay Listen to hiain

Harker moved toward the meat locker door

Pascalli dropped back a couple of paces and over to one side, covering his sergeant as best he could

Bryce felt thewith tension in his back, across his shoulders, and in his neck

Harker was at the door

"No," Jenny said softly

The locker door was hinged to swing inward Harker reached out with the barrel of his subun and shoved the door all the way open The cold hinges rasped and squealed

That sound sent a shiver through Bryce

Jake wasn’t sprawled in the doorway He wasn’t anywhere in sight

Past the sergeant, nothing could be seen except the hanging sides of beef: dark, fat-mottled, bloody

Harker hesitated

(Don’t do it! Bryce thought)

–and then plunged through the doorway He crossed the threshold in a crouch, looking left and swinging the gun that way, then al the- He jerked upright in surprise and fear Stu hastily backwards, he collided with a side of beef, "Holy shit!"

Harker punctuated his cry with a short burst of fire froun

Bryce winced The booainst the far side of the meat locker door and slammed it shut

Harker was trapped in there with it It

"Christ!" Bryce said

Not wasting the tiate, Bryce cla on packets of Kraft Swiss cheese and wax-encased gouda He scrambled across and dropped off the other side, into the butcher’s area

Another burst of gunfire Longer this tiazine

Pascalli was at the locker door, struggling frantically with the handle Bryce rounded the worktables "What’s wrong?"

Private Pascalli looked too young to be in the aret him the hell out of there!" Bryce said

"Can’t! This fker won’t open!"

Inside the an