* * * *
Melissa did everything she’d been told about shooting, or tried to. She squeezed the trigger ever so slowly, ever so gently. She looked through the darkness at the spot where she’d seen the glint, at the barely darker, shadowy shape there. When she suddenly became aware of the sound, she wasn’t sure whether it hadn’t been audible a second before or she had merely failed to notice it.
Helicopters, several of them. And vehicles, coming up the road to the mine. From the sound, they were barely over the hill. Everything slid into slow motion. Maybe she moved, but all at once, the bulk of the strange man was silhouetted against the paler darkness of the sky. He massed big, appearing thick and awkward. He knelt or crouched, bringing a rifle up to his shoulder, pointing it at Lawton. Fo
