As the scope moved to turn full circle, Evan dropped to the cold earth behind a tree trunk and lay still. He exhaled down into the collar of his jacket so his clouding breath wouldn’t give him away.

When he risked a look again, he saw that the sniper had directed his attention to another stretch of the rise. Dawn was leaking through the valley, sending a glare off the new-fallen white.

If Evan could get across the swell of land beside him, he’d be out of sight, his path to the summit clear. Once he made it over the brink into the vast surrounding mountains, René’s men would never catch him.

One more stretch of snow and he’d be free.

He checked the sniper again, but the man was still facing away.

All clear.

Evan bolted.

The uneven earth jarred his boots, the dense pines jolting back and forth, as much obstacle course as cover. He crested the rise and saw the ground slope away. He slid down on the soft-packed snow, dropping over the final swell, dipping from the south sniper’s vantage.

He was beyond reach.

He’d made it.

He lay for a moment, catching his breath, enjoying the sight of the wide-open sky above. Then he shook snow from the cuffs of his pants and started to stand.

He’d just pulled himself up to full height when a wedge of tree trunk exploded two yards from his face as if hammered free with an ax. Before he could process what had happened, he heard the big-caliber signature boom across the valley.

For a moment his thoughts spun in freefall. It made no sense. The south sniper was lost to a fold of the mountain behind him. And the shot’s trajectory was wrong.

He scrambled into motion, heading for the nearest tree line. A bullet kissed the top of his shoulder, fraying the thick coat and obliterating a branch. He juked left, a half-assed wide-receiver move, but already his legs were throbbing, his boots skidding on ice.

Another shot whipped overhead, annihilating a pinecone. Splinters rained down across his shoulders.

Any way he turned, he was in the crosshairs.

The pinecone was a message, sent from the base of the valley. An incredible shot.

With dawning dread Evan put it together.

The north sniper had moved out of position, coming across the range to pin him down from an unexpected angle. This man who had taken a pinecone off Evan’s palm from five hundred meters.

And Evan was in the middle of an open patch, fully exposed. One wrong step and he’d be missing a limb.

He froze.

He could feel his heartbeat in the hollow of his throat.

He gritted his teeth.

Bowed his head.

Then he raised his arms, raised them high and wide so they’d be visible through a scope. He waited, his breaths jerking through his chest, steaming in the night air.