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"They’re co," Laura told hiot Daddy?"

"Yes, I think so But we didn’t know about them then, and eren’t prepared"

The Mercedes was on the state route now, out of sight most of the ti hills and turns between the two vehicles The car seemed to be about two hundred yards behind, but it was probably closing because it had a bigger engine and a lot more power than the Jeep

"Who are they?" Chris asked

"I’m not sure, honey And I don’t knohy they want to hurt us, either But I knohat they are They’re thugs, they’re scuo at Caswell Hall, and I know the only thing you can do with people like theht back, because they only respect toughness"

"You were terrific back there, Moood yourself, kiddo That was very sunfire, and to have the garage door on the way up by the tiot behind the wheel That probably saved us"

Behind them the Mercedes had closed the distance to about one hundred yards It was a road-hugger, a 420 SEL, which handled as well as anything on the highway,fast, Mo the eastern point of the lake, Laura pulled up behind a rattletrap Dodge pickup with one broken taillight and a rusted buether by stickers with supposedly funny sayings-I BRAKE FOR BLONDES, MAFIA STAFF CAR It chugged along at thirty miles an hour, below the speed liap; when they were near enough the killerszone, but she could see enough clear road ahead to risk thearound the pickup, traot in front of the truck, and returned to the right lane I about forty, and she passed that, too, just before the road got too twisty to allow the Mercedes to get around the old truck

"They’re hung up back there!" Chris said

Laura put the Jeep up to fifty-five, which was too fast for soan to think they were going to escape But the highway split at the lake, and neither the Buick nor the old Ford pickup followed her along the south shore toward Big Bear City; they both turned toward Fawnskin and the north shore, leaving the road ean to close the distance between theround to the right and on the lower ground doard the lake on her left Some of them were dark, probably vacation homes used only on winter weekends and in the su the trees

She knew she could follow any of those lanes and driveways to a hundred different houses where she and Chris would have been taken in People would open their doors without hesitation This was not the city; in the small-town atmosphere of the mountains, people were not instantly suspicious of unannounced night visitors

The Mercedes closed to within a hundred yards, and the driver flicked the headlights froleefully saying, Hey, here we coey, and nobody can run from us forever, here we coe in one of the nearby houses, the killers probably would follow,not only her and Chris but the people who sheltered theround in the heart of San Bernardino or Riverside or even Redlands, where they were likely to encounter police response, but they would not be intimidated by a mere handful of bystanders because no htered, they could no doubt elude capture by pushing the yellow buttons on their belts and vanishing as her guardian had vanished one year ago She had no idea where they would be vanishing to, but she suspected that it was a place where the police could never touch them She would not risk innocent lives, so she passed house after house without slowing

The Mercedes was about fifty yards back, closing fast

"Mo Bear City, but unfortunately the place was inaptly named It was not only less than a city but not even h streets for her to hope to lose their pursuers, and the police presence was inadequate to deal with a couple of fanatics ar the other way, and she got behind another car in their lane, a gray Volvo, around which she whipped on an almost blind stretch of road, but she had no choice because the Mercedes ithin forty yards The killers passed the Volvo with equal recklessness

"How’s our passenger?" she asked

Without unfastening his safety harness, Chris turned to look into the back of the Jeep wagon "He looks okay, I guess He’s getting bounced around a lot"

"I can’t help that"

"Who is he, Mom?"

"I don’t know et out of this fix, I’ to tell you what I do know I haven’t told you before becauseI guess because I didn’t knoas going on, and I was afraid itabout hierous than this, huh? So I’ll tell you later"

Assu to be a later

When she o-thirds of the way along the south shore of the take, pushing the Jeep as fast as she dared, with the Mercedes just thirty-five yards behind, she saw the ridge-road turnoff ahead It led up through the mountains past dark’s Summit, a ten-mile county road that that cut off the thirty- or thirty-five- that two-lane highway south near Barton Flats As she recalled, the ridge road was paved for a couple of raded dirt lane for six or seven miles in the Unlike the Jeep, the Mercedes did not have four-wheel it had winter tires, but they were not currently equipped with chains The e road’s paveive way to a rutted dirt surface patched with ice and in some places drifted over with snow

"Hold on!" she told Chris

She didn’t use the brakes until the last e road so fast that the Jeep slid sideith a tortured squeal of tires It shuddered, too, as if it were an old horse that had been forced to h the driver had not knohat she was going to do As they headed into higher elevations and greater wilderness, the car closed the gap to about thirty yards