“Hang on, guys,” Larson told the two children, the first bursts of light bouncing off the low clouds up by the manor house. It reminded him of the Fourth of July, of festive holidays and drinking too much. Weak and faint from the loss of blood, his every wound stinging unmercifully from the salt of his sweat, Larson looked and felt far worse off than he was. Most of the cuts were shallow, none life-threatening, and yet he felt himself fading fast.
Penny rode bareback in front, gripping the mane. The boy-Adam, he’d finally told Larson his name-held fast around Penny’s waist, a stranger to horses. Larson led the quarter horse by the halter, first at a walk, then a trot, following a westbound trail. He’d discovered a laminated map of the compound’s trail system posted outside the tack room and followed it now in his head. There were three major forks he would face-two rights and a left-in order to reach the estate’s western boundary. It was there he was to rendezvous with SPD, although he wasn’t ruling out seeing Rotem himself. Hamp and Stubby would be sights for sore eyes. But being with Hope and Penny together was all that mattered now.
With the detonation of the ordnance, he believed Hope’s chances greatly diminished. With the compound now under attack, any extra baggage would be dealt with quickly. He might have believed her already dead had it not been for the second message from the BlackBerry:
MM, 3rd Fl.
Meriden Manor, Third Floor. It had arrived just before the first explosions. It at least gave him faint hope that she’d escaped or had bought herself time.
“Firefly!” he heard from behind him.
Two black-clad SWAT operatives converged on Larson from behind. One took the horse’s reins from him. The other, wielding a semiautomatic rifle, continued sweeping the surroundings, forward and back in constant motion.
“As far away as possible,” Larson instructed, “as quickly as you can.”
“Copy that.”
He reached up and touched Penny’s small hand. “You’re doing great,” he said.
“But where’s Mommy?” she said. The two kids had held up amazingly well, Penny a leader throughout.
“I’m gonna go get her,” Larson said.
The SWAT guy took off at a jog, leading the horse. The kids hung on.
Larson turned back down the trail, and started to run.