Nightrise

Jamie had examined his brother. He could see no sign of any external injury, and in a way that made his condition even more disturbing.

    "We'll be there in a couple of hours. Maybe you should try to get some sleep."
    But they never made it to Lake Tahoe Airport.
    They had just passed through the Eldorado National Forest and some of the most beautiful countryside in California and were heading north toward the lake itself. They came to a sign pointing to the airport and Alicia turned off, following a narrow, leafy road. Nathalie had certainly been right. Nobody would think of coming here.
    But the police must have decided to cover every airport in the surrounding area. It was always possible that they weren't working alone. Perhaps Nightrise had been influencing and advising them. Either way, the road was blocked. There was a single police car parked across it, with two young officers checking every car that came their way. They were looking bored. There couldn't have been more than half a dozen cars in the last few hours.
    Alicia pulled in and waited with the engine ticking over.
    What now?
    "Is there another way?" Daniel asked.
    Alicia bit her lip. "I don't think so, Danny. I didn't see any other signs."
    Jamie was sitting up in the backseat. He was feeling sick. They were so near. It didn't seem fair that they should be stopped at the very end. "Can you drive around?" he asked.
    "There's no point," Alicia said. "I could get past them — but suppose the plane hasn't arrived? They'd just follow us into the airport and that would be the end of it. And even if the plane's there, we'd never reach it in time."
    "We could try on foot…"
    "Scott won't make it. And anyway, it's too late."
    She was right. The two police officers had noticed them. They were already muttering to each other, staring at them suspiciously. It was always possible that the details of Nathalie's plate number had been sent out. It didn't really matter. A car had been driving toward them. Now it had stopped. Something was obviously wrong.
    Alicia made a decision. It was probably the wrong one but she couldn't think of anything else to do. She slammed the car into reverse, spun the wheel, and sped off.

    "What are you doing?" Daniel demanded.
    "We can't get past them. The road to the airport's closed. The only thing to do is to get back to Reno. We can hide out at the trailer park; Nobody knows we're there. The senator will help us. Maybe that's what we should have done from the start."
    The two police officers had seen them leave. Without a moment's hesitation, they ran back to their car and set off in pursuit. One of them was already on the radio calling for assistance from every town in the area. Four suspects heading east toward Carson City. A blue Mercedes plate number NATHAL3. There were few roads in this part of the country and the distances were huge. There was no chance they were going to get away.
    The Mercedes was doing almost a hundred miles an hour. Alicia was gripping the wheel, her eyes fixed on the road. She already knew that she had made a mistake, trying to break away. She had turned herself into a target. Any minute now, she expected to see more cars blocking the road. Maybe a helicopter would come swooping out of the sky. She had lost sight of the police car but she could hear it. The officers had turned on their siren. It was less than a mile behind.
    They flashed through a commercial center with supermarkets and shops selling boat equipment and ski gear. That was the thing about Lake Tahoe — skiing in the winter, boating in the summer, beautiful all the year round. Now they caught occasional glimpses of the lake on their left, the icy, deep-blue water shimmering on the other side of the pine trees that covered the banks. They were still speeding, putting more space between themselves and the pursuing police car, which seemed to have dropped back a bit in the distance. Certainly, its siren seemed fainter. Alicia wondered if she should come off the road — but there was no turning, nowhere to hide. On one side there was the lake. On the other, the ground rose up steeply with a rough, sandy rock face and above it more trees that seemed to continue all the way to the sky.
    They were trapped on the road and Jamie had come to the same conclusion as Alicia. They weren't going to get away. What would happen if they were arrested by the police? John Trelawny would help them —
    but would he be able to reach them in time? It only