Lou was engrossed in searching for a means to cross the moat, and was considering ways they might get in through one of the many windows, when Vaill nudged him and pointed to their left. A figure had appeared on the lawn, no more than fifty or seventy-five feet away—a dark silhouette, at least as large as Collins. Even through the heavy air they could hear the man’s radio crackle to life, followed by the sound of his voice.

“Yeah, Drake here. I’m not seeing any sign of trouble. Still no word from Collins?… Let me finish checking this side, then I’ll go take a look for him.… Yeah, I know it’s getting dark. I’m not a fucking ninny, Ronnie. I can see. I got a flashlight right here.”

Out in the open, with no place to run to or to hide, Lou and Vaill were just seconds away from being discovered. They remained flattened on the damp grass, asking questions of each other with their eyes. To Lou, their only option, a poor one, was somehow to disappear over the bank and slide down into the moat. But even if they tried, it was doubtful they could complete the maneuver without being detected.

After pausing to use his radio, the huge guard was on the move again. And as if locked onto their position, he was lumbering directly toward them. The behemoth was perhaps twenty feet away when his gaze hit on what must have looked like a boulder.

The seconds it took him to work out what the odd shape was proved lethal.

Vaill sprung to his knees and fired a single shot that seemed muffled by the heavy air. The bullet struck Drake square in the throat, and the big man instantly crumpled to the ground, spewing crimson from the hole in his neck and from his mouth. Inside the study, Lou saw stirring. The portly man approached a window and peered out. Drake lay on his back in dense shadow, sputtering as he drowned in his own blood.

With the odor of gunpowder wafting around them, Lou and Vaill remained motionless, staring across the moat at the majestic windows. Fifteen seconds … twenty. They could see the portly man searching from side to side. Finally he turned and headed back to wherever he had been sitting. The dreadful gurgling from Drake was dying away. A few spasms of his arms and legs, and he went still.

Lou stared spellbound at the corpse. Vaill had been right. It was just point and shoot. Just like a camera. He was wondering if he would ever have the cool to do the same if he had to, when he became aware of Vaill tugging at his Windbreaker sleeve.

“There can’t be too many of these monsters about, or one of them would be here by now,” he said. “But just the same, I think we should get around to the north side.”