Page 109 of The House of Cross

Bree came close behind me, whispered, “What’s going on?”

I turned off the mic.

“Don’t know,” I said. “Something or someone’s been by the trees where I put the stuff.”

“Bear?”

I hadn’t thought of that. I picked up the helmet and walked to the tracks. The snow was deep. The walls of the tracks had caved in places. And fresh flakes were settling in the bottoms.

There was no doubt that those were human boot prints. But were these the exact trees where I’d left the guns and the pack? I went closer still, peered into the limbs, saw no guns or pack there.

“Is this the spot?” Bree said.

“I think so, but—”

I caught a flash of green through the lower limbs of the trees a split second before the helmet radio crackled again.

“Missing a few things, Dr. Cross?”

CHAPTER 84

I WANTED TO HURLthe helmet when Malcomb chuckled.

“You didn’t think I’d send a man to look where you said you left your weapons and pack?” he asked. “You didn’t think the helmet you’re wearing had an internal GPS beacon that has been telling me your exact location since you put it on? Too late, Dr. Cross. Too little imagination, Dr. Cross.

“And you, Chief Stone, throw down your weapon or die right now.”

I dropped the helmet. Bree and I both spun around to find Lucas Bean and two other Maestro men in the clearing at our nine o’clock, forty yards away, guns aiming at us. Bean had lost his helmet but wore a radio headset over a black watch cap and was now stalking toward us in our own tracks.

Bree glanced at me. I nodded, and she tossed the machine pistol into a bank of snow; it vanished under the powder.

Bean and his operators converged on us fast, their weapons never leaving their shoulders, their attention never leaving us. Other snowmobiles were coming closer from the south.

“M says pick up the helmet, Dr. Cross,” Bean said when he stopped about fifteen yards from us. “Pick it up and put it on.”

I hesitated, then picked up the helmet and put it on.

“Better, Dr. Cross, but raise the visor now. And you as well, Sarah. I want to watch this grand finale from your perspective as well.”

I raised the visor. The person behind Bean raised the visor, revealing the beautiful and steely features of Sarah, the former Mossad operator.

“What a remarkable alpine setting and stunning light in which to die. Don’t you agree, Dr. Cross? Chief Stone?”

Before either of us could answer, Malcomb began to cough. It went on for almost ten seconds. He cleared his throat and cleared it again.

Bree turned on her mic, said, “How long do you have to live, Ryan?”

There was a pause. “A lot longer than you, Chief Stone.”

I said, “You should know something before you kill us.”

“What’s that?”

“You screwed up. Or whoever you sent to search for my weapons did.”

Malcomb chuckled. “Highly unlikely. Right, Bean?”

“Impossible,” Bean said.

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