Chapter 149 - The Hounds of Missisquoi
As if summoned by Julian’s words, a long, low howl split the freezing night air from down the railway embankment.
Arthur slammed the handset down, tearing the clips from the terminal. "Snowmobiles. Two miles back. And bloodhounds."
"They picked up our scent from the marsh," Emma said, her fatigue completely burned away by adrenaline. She scooped Maya back into her arms, wrapping the heavy coat around them both like a cocoon. "Julian! How do we get to him?"
"He has a timber road half a mile north of the rail spur," Arthur said, checking the slide on his semiautomatic with a sharp, metallic clack. "There’s an old Ford pickup parked behind the grade crossing. The keys are taped inside the frame. But we have to cross three hundred yards of open pasture to get there."
Arthur extinguished the penlight. He slowly unbarred the iron door, easing it open by inches.
The blizzard had resumed in full fury. Snow was falling in thick, blinding curtains, driven by a howling wind that roared through the telephone wires overhead. Visibility was down to less than fifty feet—a blessing against thermal optics from the air, but a deadly trap on foot.
They slipped out into the storm.
The snow was up to Emma’s knees now. Every step required an immense heave of her legs, her lungs burning with the sub-zero air. Behind them, the baying of the hounds grew louder, sharper, carried on the back of the north wind.
"Mommy, I'm scared," Maya whispered into Emma's neck, shivering violently.
"Hold on to me with everything you've got, Maya," Emma gasped, her vision blurring with exhaustion and stinging ice. "Don't let go. No matter what happens, you don't let go."
Suddenly, a beam of brilliant white light lanced through the blizzard from the tree line fifty yards to their left.
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"Stop right there!" a voice barked in accented English over a loudspeaker. "Federal Marshals! Place the child on the ground and step away!"
"Don't listen to them!" Arthur shouted, raising his weapon and firing three rapid rounds into the darkness toward the light. The searchlight shattered with a shower of blue sparks.
