Snow(69)

“You’re not the hard-edged, the-world-can-kiss-my-ass firecracker you were last night.”

Kate laughed. “Oh, brother, believe me—after all this, the world can certainly still kiss my ass.”

“I guess I’m just wondering if this is the real you.”

“I don’t open up to a lot of people, Todd.”

“What about me? You think if we were in a different place and under different circumstances, you would have let me in?”

“No.” There was no humor to her voice. “My parents f*cked me up pretty good and now I’m f*cking myself up every chance I get. I doubt I would have sat still long enough to see who you really were, had the situation been different.”

“What if I would have asked you out right there in the bar? Forgetting for the moment, of course, that you’re engaged.”

She put her hand on the side of his face. Kissed him. Softly.


“This is a map of the whole town,” Bruce said, pointing to the printout on the desk in the computer room. It was just Todd, Bruce, and Brendan in the glow of the halogen lamp, their weapons already secured on their belts. Each one was armed with a handgun and extra magazines, a shotgun and extra shells, and several rounds of loose ammunition packed into his pockets. Bruce had strapped Tully’s extra flamethrower to his back, the fuel canisters at his waist, while he’d given both Todd and Brendan portable butane torches. Only for use in extreme emergencies, Bruce had warned them, wary about drawing unwanted attention to themselves while out in the open. “This is the sheriff’s station here,” he said, pointing with one steady finger, “and this is the town square here. The whole bird’s-eye view. We’re talking just over a mile to the square then, of course, just over a mile back. You both look to be in pretty good shape, but it can get pretty treacherous moving through the snowdrifts.”

“It’s not the snowdrifts I’m afraid of,” Todd said.

“My plan is to cut straight through the trees here, bypassing the road. It’s a straighter shot but it’ll get a bit dicey going through the woods. It slopes down to a small stream that we’ll have to cross, then climb up the embankment on the other side. From there we’ll have no choice other than to cut straight through Vermont Street and over onto Fairmont. That’s when we’ll be the most visible.”

Bruce traced his finger up the map toward the center of town.

“Crossing Fairmont will bring us up to the back end of the shops in the square. Most of them are connected but there are narrow alleyways between some of them. That’s our ticket into the square itself—take one of those alleys down to the street on the other side. We’ll come out roughly about here”—Bruce pointed—“and the Pack-N-Go is three or four shops down this way to the left.”

“Three,” said Brendan. “Three shops down.”

“What’s this thing look like, in case we wind up having to search for it?”

“It’s in a black nylon carrying case,” Todd said. “Pretty standard. It’s got a tag with my name and address on it.”

“All right,” Bruce said. “We’ll establish rendezvous points as we go. In the event any of us get separated, we backtrack to the last rendezvous point and wait for the others. And if all hell breaks loose and we’ve got the computer…well, let’s just remember what our goal is here. Priority one is to get that laptop back here to the station. That means it’s a priority over your life”—he pointed to Todd—“and your life”—he pointed to Brendan—“and my life. We’ve got two kids downstairs who need to grow up.”

“And an unborn baby,” seconded Brendan.

Bruce nodded. “Right.” He rolled up the map and handed it to Todd. “You take it in case you get lost and turned around. Brendan and I grew up here; we can find our way back blindfolded.”

Todd folded the map and tucked it into the pocket of the police coat Bruce had given him. “Good idea.”

“And these,” Bruce added, sliding two walkie-talkies across the desk. “We’ve only got two batteries that still have any juice, and they’re both about half full, so we can’t waste ’em. And whatever is blocking your cell phone signal, Todd, it’s also interfering with the handhelds, although not as strongly, since we’re down here on the ground. The frequencies stay pretty low, geographically speaking.”

Todd picked one up. It was about the size and weight of a brick.

“You take one,” Bruce said to Todd, “since you’ll be the one who’ll probably get hands-on with the laptop. If we’re not in earshot when you grab the computer, give us a chirp on the handheld and let us know we need to beat a retreat.”

“Sounds good,” Todd said, clipping the handheld to his belt.

“All right,” Bruce said. He was piling a few extra articles of clothing into a backpack. “Are we ready?”

Both Todd and Brendan said, “Yes.”


Outside, the world was silent. The sky radiated with a sickly green hue and the low-hanging clouds looked like brownish chunks of clay. There was no breeze; the bare branches of the nearby trees remained motionless, climbing up into the false-looking atmosphere like countless medieval spires. Kate, Molly, and the two kids stood by the double doors as the men waded out into the snow. Before leaving, Bruce handed Kate one of two keys that unlocked the front doors. “The minute we start walking, Kate, you lock this door behind us,” he told her. “And when we get back here, you demand we show you our shoulders.”