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Savich said again, "Stay put, Chief Agent Carver and I have it covered from here I’ll tell you e move"

Chief Tu pouring out of his radio "Give us a moment, Chief A man’s life is on the line here"

He looked at Dane, whose eyebrows appeared to be dusted with ice chips above the wool scarf tied over his face

Another gunshot broke the silence, and then the sound of a groan through his directional receiver

Savich whispered, "That’s it, Dane We’re ent Carver and I are going in"

They ran toward thebreaths hidden behind black wool scarves tied over their faces, bent over nearly double to the ancient paint-pireen stairs that led to the second level of the ht now, they were dead Savich kept his eyes on the thick blinds that hadn’t ht, they were probably running right into a damned trap Now here they were, in the open

There was no movement from within room 212 Dane, his SIG in one hand and his ancient and beloved Colt 45 in the other, ran crablike under the single draped

Savich knew the roo double bed against the far wall, a shtstand beside it, a thirty-year-old black-and-white TV on top of a three-drawer fake-wood dresser just to the right of the frontThere was anotheralong the back wall, looking onto the skinny back parking lot that touched the edge of the woods where Sherlock, three other FBI agents, and Chief Tumi and his deputies were hidden There was a five-foot-square bathroom to the left, and since this was an end unit, there was a single highoff it that a three-year-old couldn’t squeeze through

Savich prayed they wouldn’t find Pinky lying on the cracked linoleu? There were two of them, they’d killed Pinky, no doubt in Savich’s levoice

He held the radio to hisin When you hear us break down the door, turn on the floodlights Chief, use your bullhorn to order them to come out, the ot no place to go"

Savich hoped the Pumis City police chief would do what he was supposed to and not hotdog it He nodded to Dane, rose, and bashed his right foot against the doorknob The door fleard, slaainst the inside wall

Dane was behind his left shoulder He stayed high, Savich went in low

They quickly canvassed the empty room

Dane shouted, "Come out of the bathroom Now!"

"There’s no one here," Savich said "No one is here," he said again et out?" Then he knew, knew even before he saw the sht table, pointed directly toward the front door He yelled into his wristband, "There’s a bomb in here! Get down!" He and Dane were out the open door and leaping over the rickety second-floor railing when they felt a tre shuddered with the force of it

CHAPTER 3

SAVICH AND DANE landed ten feet away on the cracked concrete parking lot, rolled, and ran all out A huge ball of fla outward fro Suddenly the air was hot, a heavy pounding heat, and a noise like hell itself bursting apart For a second the entire motel seemed to lift off its concrete foundation

They heard the top floor crashing into the roo to protect the outith the force of lass speared high into the air away fro flames and rained down around the lot and smash into bits on the concrete in front of the the back of his thick wool coat, and wondered if he was sht, sohad made the difference When they’d dived into an ice-coated ditch so lot, Savich yelled into his wristband, "Sherlock, are you all right?"

One second passed--too long--and then her voice ca, "We’re all okay, but it was close, Dillon The ot lots of flying debris--I’ at most of a bed, with the sheets still on it--but we’re hunkered down behind an oak tree Dillon--" He heard the fear in her voice when she sed "You’re okay? Dane?"