The captain slid his chair back from the desk. “You people better stay here tonight. We’ll find bunks for you out back.”

“What about Perez and…” Jake hesitated, feeling foolish about calling Monster by his nickname.

With a shrug, the captain said, “They’re in the infirmary. Under guard. They’re not going anyplace.”

He got to his feet and Jake stood up, too, then helped Glynis to raise Younger from his chair.

“I’ll get one of my men to pick up your car tomorrow morning, once the storm blows away.”

“Thanks,” said Jake.

The ghost of a smile curled the captain’s thin lips slightly. “How much you want to bet there’ll be a lawyer here for those two punks before we get your car back to you?”

*   *   *

It was nearly ten A.M. before Jake, Glynis, and Younger left the highway patrol barracks. Jake drove Younger’s Land Rover back toward the lodge, to pick up Glynis’s Jaguar.

“I hope I can get it started,” she said.

“Do you have jumper cables?” Jake asked Younger.

Tim shook his head. “Never needed ’em.”

“I have cables in my trunk,” Glynis said. “I bought them last summer.”

“Good,” said Jake.

The sky had cleared to a cloudless brilliant blue, the interstate was plowed and sanded, big white banks of snow sparkled in the sunlight on either side of the road.

As he drove, with Glynis and Younger seated behind him, Jake turned on the radio and pecked buttons until a news station came on.

“… several thousand households are still without electrical power in the wake of last night’s surprise blizzard,” a woman was saying, as cheerfully as if announcing a lottery winner.

Then she added, “But Lignite County and points west were only affected by the blackout for less than an hour. The experimental power generator operated by the university outside the town of Lignite provided electrical power for the entire western half of the state all through the storm.”

Jake glanced at the rearview mirror. Younger was grinning tiredly, Glynis was beaming at him.

“Score one for MHD,” Jake said.

Younger nodded happily and then broke into an enormous yawn.

By the time they reached the lodge Younger was snoring quietly, one arm wrapped protectively around Glynis’s shoulders. Her head was resting on his shoulder.

Jake wished she were sitting beside him, with her head nuzzling his cheek.

Glynis’s car was buried in snow. As Jake stopped the van and wondered if he could find a shovel inside the lodge, Glynis murmured, “They were going to kill me. You saved me, Jake. You and Tim.”

“Your damned Jaguar saved you,” Jake grumbled. “If Monster’d been able to start the car, they’d have taken you off before we got there.”

“Still…” Glynis said softly, gazing at Younger’s sleeping face.