“Probably,” said Nemo, “which means stealth is more important than speed at this point. So, we stay here for a few hours, get some sleep, then head out.” Nemo took a sleeping bag out of the trunk and led Patton a short way into the woods to a small clearing. “You can take the bag,” he said. “I can sleep anywhere.”

Patton shoved the two guns into the foot of the sleeping bag and crawled in. She thought the idea of sleeping in the middle of the afternoon foolish, but ten minutes later she was out like a light. When she awoke, Nemo and the car had both disappeared.

They were not named Fritz and Franz. They were named Karl Gruning and Erich Koepler and they were smart enough to know they had fucked up. Or at least Karl was. Erich was the one who had gotten trigger happy twice in one morning and ended up killing someone who worked for local law enforcement. Not a smart move. Karl had followed his companion up the road after Erich failed to answer a radio message. He had heard noises coming from the toolshed and had pried the lock and hasp off the rotting wood of the door with a knife to discover Erich groggy from the effects of a tranquilizer dart. They wanted to search P.J. Harcourt’s house, but when they came out of the shed, they saw a sheriff’s car pull into the side yard. Afraid their escape might be blocked, and still a little loopy from the tranquilizer, Erich had taken a shot at one of the men who got out of the car. Karl grabbed the gun and considered shooting the other man, but no one had seen them, and he didn’t want to compound Erich’s mistake. Their employer would be angry enough about one dead cop. Luckily, the ensuing confusion on the part of the survivor gave them plenty of cover to get the hell out of there. They knew that pretty soon cops would be crawling all over the place, so they ran back down the road to where they had left the van and drove away, turning right on the main road, away from town. They would take back roads down the mountain to avoid any police who might be coming in from town. It might take an hour longer, but there was no point in rushing. Nemo and the woman could be anywhere by now.