Thank you for coming to nathanschneirov.com The website is being built now nathanschneirov.com was created: August 14 2012 18:45:02. Today Thursday 23 May 2013 00:05:49 She was actually a help, because it was so much easier to have two sets of eyes and ears. After thirty minutes of hard running we finally hit a road. It was a single carriage way potholed and no more than three or four meters wide. I paralleled it to the right, running through the trees about ten meters to its side. We hadn't gone far when I heard a vehicle. We stopped, got down, and I rested on my elbows and knees to keep myself out of the mud and preserve body warmth. It was approaching fast from behind us, engine roaring and tires splashing on wet tarmac. A blue and white appeared and sped past, its roof-mounted red and blue light bar flashing brighter than was normal in daylight because of the cloud cover. The police would have things squared away by now; they were probably placing a cordon around the whole area. They'd then either wait for us to emerge, or come in and flush us out. The moment the cruiser disappeared from view we got up and started moving. The wind had strengthened and I could see waves of heavier rain coming in ahead. After twenty minutes of running through deeply rutted, puddled ground we came to a large open area, a perfect square of about five acres cut out of the forest, with a white cattle fence around the perimeter. Sitting in the middle, and approached by a driveway from the road, was a two-story ranch house built of wooden slats, with a pitched roof, tiled with gray slates. A square extension had been added onto the far end, and I could see an open garage at ground level. Inside were a pickup truck, two other cars and a small powerboat on a trailer. The building and two of the three vehicles looked as if they'd seen better days. There was no approach to the garage that avoided open ground. I guessed there would be windows on every side of the house, to take advantage of the views. Six or seven horses were loose in the field, but there was no evidence of dogs and the house itself seemed quiet enough. Maybe everybody was still tucked up in bed. "You stay here," I whispered to Sarah. "I'm going to go and get a wagon. When you see me drive out, move up to the road." "Why aren't I coming over with you?" She sounded suspicious, as if she thought I'd get in a vehicle and just leave her stranded. If only she knew. She was in no position to question my decisions, but I answered. "Number one, it's quieter if I go on my own I know what I'm doing, you don't. Number two, I don't want you killing anybody else. And number three, you have no choice. I have your documents in here." I half turned to show her the bag on my back. "You want me to help you, you wait here." The plot of land was as flat and green as a pool table, not a single fold in the ground. Checking the road for vehicles and the sky for helis, I set off across grass that was about three inches high and full of moisture, running but trying to keep as low as possible. I didn't know why, because it didn't make me any less visible, but it just seemed the natural thing to do. I was leaving a clear track in my wake through the wet grass, but I couldn't do anything about that. I kept looking at the windows for movement. As I got closer I could see that the upstairs curtains were drawn. I wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Redneck were sitting in bed watching the news about last night's events down the road. For sure, there'd be more news crews at the lake by now than there were police. Reaching the house, I bent down below a side window with open curtains. In this weather there would have been a light on if people were up and about, and there wasn't, but even so I didn't chance looking inside. I held it there for a few seconds and listened. Nothing. Now that I was close up to them I could see that the slats weren't wood at all, but aluminium painted to look that way, and the roof was just felt, masquerading as tiles. I moved around to the opposite side of the house, toward the garage extension, making sure that I kept low to avoid the windows. I shook my head to get the rain out of my face. There were no wet tire marks on the garage floor or rain on the wagons. There had been no movement since at least last night. The first thing to do was check whether any of the vehicles were alarmed. I couldn't see any warning signs, flashing LEDs, or other telltales. An alarm would probably have cost more than the two cars anyway. © ISPmanager licensed