It's one of the peculiarities of the deep winter that the road is usually lighter than the surroundings. The paved roads are whitish with dried salt, and the gravels with packed snow. It makes it a lot easier to see the road in the dark. We squeaked in the snow as we walked across the road. Over to the bank. In darkness on the roadway, I became aware of the fact there was a bit of a moon, hidden from view behind the hill from our parking spot. The moonlight shadow of the hill reached out over the roadway. The field across the road was slowly lighting up, as a couple of clouds moved past the moon. It was like a postcard. We were standing on a roadway that curved very gently to our left, disappearing after about half a mile. It curved around a big flat field, maybe three quarters of a mile across. Like a quiet harbor in the Arctic.
We reached the bank, and I shone my flashlight on the area John indicated. Snowmobile track, all right. Fresh, with little crumbled bits and chunks of snow scattered on both sides. Straight out into the field.
I turned off my light. 'Son of a bitch. Doesn't that track lead toward Borglan's and his hired man?'
'I think it does. Harvey Grossman, you mean?'
'Yeah.'
I looked off in the direction of the track, letting my eyes readjust to the darkness. There was a discontinuity in the snow cover, about half a mile across the field. 'You see that… that different sort of area… off that way, and just before the trees…?'
He did eventually. 'Yeah, that's that lonesome machine shed of Borglan's. You know, the one with no other buildings anywhere…'
Oh, yeah. The one where some of the tracks led from Grossman's place.
I walked back up the roadway, in the direction the snowmobile had come from.
'Was it this dark last night?' I asked.
'Darker, the moon was down by the time he came by.'
'Hmm.' We stopped at the point of the curve, about a hundred yards from our car. I looked at it. 'You say he had no lights?'
'None.'
I could make out the exhaust plume of our car because I knew to look for it, but not the car itself. Well, not clearly, at least. Too much stuff in the way, like brush, trees, and rocks. I began walking toward it. About sixty yards from it, the left front fender became visible. By fifty yards, you could begin to see the area of the driver's door. At forty or so, a shrub began to block the view of the left front fender again. A narrow range of visibility, but…
'It looks for all the world like he was coming around the corner, saw you, and ducked off the road.' I looked back toward the curve. 'The distances are right if he's goin' about forty-five or so.'
'But he didn't have any lights…'
'Yeah, I know.' So how did he see John? Night vision goggles, that's how. 'I'll bet you look good in green light.'
'What?'
'Night vision goggles. NVGs.'
'Oh. Yeah, that'd do it.'
'Sure would,' I said. 'Let's get back in the car before I freeze to death.'
I stomped through the snow again, trying to hit my original tracks and not succeeding particularly well in the dark. But, back in the car, the heat felt good. I'd left my parka in the backseat, of course. Just too much of an encumbrance. Besides, the heat would warm up the granola bars enough that they wouldn't break my teeth…
We each cracked a window, subconsciously listening. To hear a railroad train over the loud hiss of the heater/defroster and the engine would have been quite a feat, but we did it anyway.
'Granola bar?'
'Yeah, thanks.'
We munched in silence for almost a minute.
'So,' said John. 'What do you think?'
'I think we got something really spooky here,' I replied. 'I don't know why, but somebody with a silenced snowmobile and NVGs is touring the countryside. Near a murder scene. Where the killer probably left via snowmobile.'
'I never heard of a snowmobile like that, with the goggles and all.'
'I did once,' I said, around a mouthful. 'On TV. Finnish Army.'
'Who?'
'The Army of Finland. They and the Swedes were on TV. They have special units that use that sort of stuff. Go a hundred and sixty miles per hour on lakes in the Arctic like that. Quiet, and run 'em at night.'
'Yeah…' said John.
'No,' I said, 'I don't think we've been invaded. But military people use this kind of stuff. Or, at least, would if they needed to. Survivalists would probably know about it, then.'
'Oh.'
'Just have to figure out who and why,' I said. 'For starters.'
I could just hear Art with that one. I'd be labeled the conspiracy theorist of the year.
'Don't tell anybody. I mean, anybody. Got that?' I was deadly serious.
'Yes, sir.' So was John.
'I want you to keep working this area, but don't hang it out too far on this thing. All right?'
'Yes, sir.'
'You did exactly right, last night, by not giving any indication that you saw it. He probably thinks he just blew past you and you weren't even aware of him. That's good. And…'
There was a rising whine, followed by a suddenly deepened tone, along with the crunch of snow and gravel, and a black object flew by on the roadway. And was gone. Just like that. He'd come from our right this time, and wouldn't have been able to see us at all.
We looked at each other.
'You see well enough to drive?'
'Without lights, you mean?'
'Yep,' I said, making sure my seat belt was secure. I knew his answer.
'Oh, yeah,' he said, pulling the gearshift lever down. And away we went.
Without any lights on, it was fairly easy to see the road. It wasn't possible, however, to see the speedometer, so I had no accurate idea of how fast we were going. Probably just as well. We were fishtailing a lot of the time, and I thought we were going to go into the ditch more than once. It might have just been my perspective, but I thought the ditches were getting deeper and steeper on my side as we went. Because of the curving road and the nearness of the hills, we were in and out of moonlight constantly. I really sweated those dark patches.
'You see him?' I asked.
'Nope.'
'Let me know if you do…'
We rounded a curve and caught a little moonlight. Up, over a small hill, going about 50 on a straight stretch. Over the top and down, like a roller-coaster ride.
'Careful… there's a bridge here somewhere,' I said. Just as we flew across it.
'Yep.'
He accelerated.
'Watch it, the curves start again really soon… and be careful, he's gonna be kicking snow, might be hard to see…'
'I see him… I see him…'
So did I. We were just barely gaining on a darker spot about a hundred yards up the white snow-covered roadway. He was hazy or fuzzy or… of course. The rooster tail of snow I'd just reminded John about. He was picking up just enough from the roadway to make a snowy haze.
'Try not to lose him, but don't fuckin' kill us, either.' I get all fatherly in tight circumstances.
'Okay.'
I picked up the mike. 'Comm, Three. Nine is in pursuit of an unknown vehicle, proceeding south on G4X. Vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed…'
'Ten-four, Three.'
