Page 51 of Into the Storm

He looked in the adjacent cabinets and drawers, turning up nothing. Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to search every tool and storage box. There were dozens, probably hundreds of small drawers holding nails, screws, washers, and every other metal thingamajig imaginable. It would be a waste of time to search each one for cartridges to a gun that probably hadn’t been fired in more than a decade.

But damn. A gun would be pretty handy about now.

“Flyte, there’s movement on the lake.”

Chris turned to the window. Huang was crouched low, looking out toward the water. The rain had slowed in the few minutes they’d been inside. The patter on the roof was less frantic. But visibility remained poor.

Still, night vision caught things the naked eye would miss, and he saw it too.

“A boat.”

Huang nodded. “It came from the dock in front of the lodge, I think.”

The boat went farther out, toward the center of the lake, and Chris adjusted his NVGs to zoom in.

The boat stopped as the clouds thinned, offering a slight green glow to illuminate what had been dark shadows. He could just make out the outline of two men as they gathered at the stern of the small fishing vessel.

It wasn’t a big boat, but it was a nice one. A fishing boat designed for comfort, with a trolling motor. It probably belonged to one of the inholding families. Trolling motors weren’t zippy, but they could be powerful enough to move gear and people when roads were closed—as the lodge road was due to several downed trees.

This could be how the tangos were getting past the blockade they’d created. It didn’t hurt that trolling motors were quiet, and in this storm, they would be invisible if not for the NVGs.

He watched as the two people—large men, from the looks of them—hoisted something. They rested the heavy item on the gunwale for a moment before pushing it over the side and into the lake.

In that frozen moment of rest, the dark green shape took form.

All Chris could do was hope the body they’d dumped in the frigid lake didn’t belong to one of the missing trainers or the missing Fire Team.