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Back A Small Town Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Thomas Perry
  3. THOMAS PERRY
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
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  20. 15
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  23. 18
  24. 19
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  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. 29
  35. 30
  36. 31
  37. 32
  38. 33
  39. 34
  40. 35
  41. 36
  42. 37
  43. 38
  44. Back Cover

The smaller east-west highways were the state routes 36, 44, 70, and the big one was 299, which ran nearly the width of the state. There was a twist in U.S. 395 that ran east-west for a time north of Reno, Nevada, but that stretch seemed too far away from the small towns of Lassen County to be the place. Leah went on Google and typed in “24900” and the numbers of the routes, and then waited to see what appeared on-screen. Leah tried Highway 70, Highway 44, and then, on Highway 36, she found it. The picture on the screen included the big gate and the beginning of the road going up the hill to the house. But most prominently, she could see the big black mailbox with the number 24900 on it.

23

During the first two days near Susanville Leah spent eight thousand dollars of the city of Weldonville’s money on equipment. She found an infrared rifle scope that used body heat to pick out targets in darkness. She bought Level 4 body armor, tested to stop bullets up to and including .30-06. She ordered two sets of black-and-gray camouflage battle dress to go over the armor, with pads on the knees and elbows. She ordered combat boots in the same camouflage. She bought a pack for ammunition, water, and protein bars. She bought camouflage makeup and a marine Ka-Bar fighting knife honed to a razor edge. Finally, she bought a DJI Phantom 4 drone with both thermal-imaging and light-enhancing cameras.

Every night she dressed in full battle gear and prowled the fields and woods near the lake getting accustomed to the gear, the clothing, the packs, and the night-vision scopes. She practiced dropping and freezing to evade searchers, ejecting and replacing ammunition magazines, attaching suppressors to her weapons, finding good cover, attacking and retreating in darkness. Each night when she was finished with her training, she would run a couple of miles, go into Honey Lake for a swim at around 4:30 a.m., and then return to the cabin to sleep.

She used the hours of darkness, slept through most of each day, and gradually became nocturnal. When she wasn’t training, she studied the online images and photographs of the target area until she was familiar with every landmark.