But Eric was too busy swinging her back and forth to answer. He kept her moving, keeping her between the muzzle of Travis’s rifle and the muzzle of the stun gun held by a Guardian hanging out the doorway of the helicopter. Dick opened fire from behind them. The clattering roar of the engine drowned out any noise from the shot, but suddenly the window of the chopper exploded in a shattering spray of glass. Eric had a fleeting impression of a terror-stricken face, and then the helicopter peeled off sharply, seeking escape from the attack.

Travis stopped dead, his eyes wide with shock. “Hey!” he screamed.

At that moment a second shock wave rippled through the canyon. Cliff had just dropped the tree across the road from above.

Eric dragged Nicole backwards again. “Sorry, Travis. There goes your second source of help.”

Like a raging bull, his face contorted with fury, Travis whirled around and ran to the door of the elevator shaft. At point-blank range, he fired at the lock Eric had clipped into place, then kicked the door in. Instantly, orange-clad bodies came pouring out like popcorn spitting from a popper.

“Hold your fire! Hold your fire!” Travis screamed at them. “He’s got Nicole. Form a line. Take your positions.” He grabbed a man by the shoulder. “You! Get the Lloyd family back to the Visitors Center.”

By now Eric was in a half run, pulling Nicole back with him, and was nearly thirty yards from Travis.

“Stop, Eric, or we’ll shoot!” Travis had formed a skirmish line with his men and was moving swiftly toward him. The Guardians held no stun guns now, only deer rifles.

Eric knew that Travis’s threat was a bluff. They wouldn’t dare shoot with Nicole in the way, but why hadn’t Dick opened fire on the Guardians pouring out onto the dam? Then in a flash he understood. His family was just starting to disappear around the curve of the dam, out of the line of fire.

“Form a line! Stay behind me!” Travis waved his men into position behind him. “Don’t shoot. The others are coming. They’ll cut him off.”

Eric watched his family go around the curve of the retaining wall. Now! It was an inward shout, but as though Dick Andreason had heard it, the flat crack of a rifle, followed swiftly by another, burst out from behind him. The man next to Travis gave a sharp cry as the bullet slammed into him, cutting him down like a scythe.

“Under fire! Under fire!” Travis’s warning was totally unnecessary, for the orange-suited Guardians were already scrambling wildly for cover. But the top of the dam offered no cover, not from the vantage point of the hillside where Dick sat. The third shot sent another Guardian thudding off the retaining wall.