The three surviving escapees drove hard for the first three hours, and that brought them onto the flatlands of Kansas on Interstate 70. They stopped for a break after that, but not together. If the pursuers in Colorado knew anything about them, it was that they’d come and gone in two cars, so on the way out, they made their single stop for gas, a restroom break, and breakfast in different towns, and not on the interstate highway, where everything was likely to be recorded by surveillance cameras.

Nearly twelve hours and six hundred miles of driving brought them as far as Kansas City, Missouri. Lee Wolf didn’t mind being the one who was alone in a car and had to do all the driving himself. He had confidence that in any foreseeable situation, he was more likely to survive than Lonny Mann or Edison Leonard. It wasn’t something he would have said aloud, but he was sure of it.

He didn’t call them on the burner cell phones again until he was on U.S. 24 and leaving Kansas City. He reminded them of the directions to where they were going and made sure that Leonard could recite them into the phone. He also told them that when they reached the end of the open highway part of the trip, they should pull over and wait for him to catch up.

He said, “We members of the Swift Sword of the Savior are a bunch of violent lunatics, and if that’s what you are, you keep track of every bit of news you can get. If they’ve heard about what happened in Colorado, they might assume the next people coming up that road toward them will be cops of one sort or another. The safest way is to go up with me.”

“Where is the boundary line?” asked Leonard. “Where’s the place where they might start to get nervous?”

“It all depends,” said Wolf. “These are free men, and free men think for themselves. If they recognize you, there won’t be a problem. But if they don’t, it’s best to stick close to me.”

Late that afternoon, Lee Wolf came upon the other car parked a mile from the start of the road leading up into the hills. He had made a lengthy stop in the last town to do some shopping, so they had been waiting for some time. He rolled down his window. “If you’ve got any guns in the car with you, put them in the trunk now.”

“We already did.”