Blake Crouch - Snowbound

“Okay.”

“So we start thinking about all the points of entry.”

“How many are there?”

“Right now? Probably more than forty.”

“How’s that possible?”

Kalyn stopped, opened the door of room 111, pointed to the window. “First priority is locking every room on every corridor.” She knocked on the wood. “These doors are thick, and the locks look damn near indestructible. That’s not to say they won’t be able to get through, but they’ll make a hell of a lot of noise doing it. You have a master key, Will?”

“Yes.”

“Give it to Devlin, let her go and do that right now.”

“I don’t feel comfortable with her running around by her—”

“I think we have some time to work with here.”

Will pulled one of the master keys out of his pocket, handed it to his daughter. “Go,” he said. “Be careful, and remember to check every door after you lock it.”

As Devlin took off back toward the lobby, they reached the alcove.

“Here’s our first trouble spot,” Kalyn said. “I’ll bet they try to come in through a window either here or at the north-wing alcove. Or both. We should station someone, maybe even two people, a little ways back in the corridor with shotguns.”

“Who? There’s just me, Rachael, and—”

“We’ll need help from Sean and Ken, maybe even some of the women. Come on.”

They jogged back down the corridor, emerging finally into the lobby.

Kalyn pointed to the entrance.

“I’m not terribly worried about those doors. We’ll lock them, but no one storms the castle through the front door. With those iron bolts, they’d literally need to blow it off the hinges. I’m not sure they’re going to announce their presence like that, since they won’t know what they’re facing.”

She led them through the passage, past the dining hall, to a door that opened onto the veranda. “We’ll need someone here.”

They backtracked into the lobby, now approaching the library.

Devlin was already to the end of the first floor of the south wing. Will could hear the doors slamming, locks turning.

They entered the library.

“No one can be in here, since they could pick us off through the windows. We’ll station someone in the lobby to watch this door and the front entrance and back up the corridors.” She opened the small door to the right of the fireplace. “This would be another great point of entry.”

They started down the spiral staircase, their footfalls echoing on the metal, causing it to vibrate, Will gliding his hand along the railing.

“Move very slowly,” he said.

“I’m not going anywhere, Will. Don’t know if you’ve realized, but we need each other.”

They reached the floor of the cellar. Peering just ahead, Will could see a door outlined by seams of light where the sun passed between the cracks.

Kalyn opened it. Light poured in. He saw the empty cages.

“They won’t all enter the same way, but this is where I’d come in.”

Kalyn’s eyes fell upon something that made her smile.

She approached a wall adorned with ancient tools—saddles, scythes, machetes. Kalyn tapped one of two enormous bear traps.

“This thing’s made to catch grizzlies,” she said. “Break a man’s leg like it was nothing.”

“You think they still work? Looks pretty rusted out to me.”

“We’ll see. Come on, let’s head back up. I want to take a look through the binoculars.”

SIXTY-ONE

I don’t see them,” she said. “It’s just the plane.”

Kalyn stepped back inside, and Rachael shut the doors and locked them.

“How much time you think we have?” Will asked. “That’s deep snow. Might take them what? An hour? Hour and a half to get here? And we’ve burned thirty minutes already.”

Kalyn shook her head. “I actually think we’ve got time on our side. They flew right over the lodge, ballsy fuckers, set down in plain site, so they have to realize we’re aware of them. For all they know, we’ve got a small army in this lodge.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m fairly certain they won’t make their move until dark.”

Rachael said, “I felt better when I thought this was going to happen in daylight.”

“No, it’s good. Gives us time to prepare. We should meet with Sean and Ken and the women, tell them the good news, sign up a few recruits. But I’d like a moment with my sister first. I only saw her through a peephole yesterday. I don’t even think she knows I’m here.”

“She doesn’t,” Will said.

“Well?”

“You really think we have time for a family reunion?”

“Please, Will.”

“Five minutes.”

Will unlocked the door and walked inside, caught him rising out of bed, puffy-eyed from dehydration and looking very afraid.

“Sit down, Sean.”

Sean complied as Will closed the door and dragged a chair away from the desk. He sat facing the young man, the shotgun lying across his lap.

“Are you going to kill me?” Sean asked.

Will shook his head. “My daughter overheard a conversation between you and your father yesterday morning. You know what I’m talking about?”

Sean stared at his bare feet for a moment. “You mean in the library? After breakfast?”

Will nodded. “You didn’t want to be here, did you, Sean?”

“I didn’t know what this lodge was. I swear to you.”

“Did your father?”

“No. I mean, he’d heard it was a wild place, but we didn’t have any idea. Would you have believed it without seeing it?”

“My wife has been here for five years.”

“I’m sorry, man. Really.”

“I need to know something.”

“What?”

Will locked his gaze on Sean.

“Did you help yourself to any of the women here?”

“No.”

“You can tell me the truth.”

“I swear to you. This place makes me sick.”

“Then what did you do yesterday?”

“I stayed in my room.”

“All day?”

“Until dinner.”

“What about your father?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he would have hurt anyone. That’s not like him.”

Will stood. “Did you grow up with firearms around the house?”

“My dad and I go elk hunting in Montana every fall.”

“Good.”

“Why is that good?”

Will walked to the door, pulled it open, cold air from the corridor sweeping in.

“Let’s go talk to your father. I’ve got some bad news.”

Lucy Dahl sat in a chair by a fireplace in one of the guest rooms, a book in her lap, her legs propped on a footstool, basking in the heat.

Kalyn closed the door and moved quietly across the room toward her sister, no sound but the shift of smoldering logs and the paper scrape as Lucy turned the pages of her book.

It had been three years since Kalyn had laid eyes on her sister, and their last words had been angry ones, a stupid fight that Kalyn had started—big sis telling little sis what was best for her life.

Two steps from the chair, Kalyn’s eyes welled up. She couldn’t see Lucy look up from her book through the lens of salt water shivering on the surface of her eyes.

“Kalyn? Oh my God.”

They sat on the floor by the fire, Lucy crying, Kalyn whispering, “I’m here, honey. I’m here.” Wanting to tell her she was safe now, that they had a plane waiting on the lake to take her home, back to her husband, away from this nightmare.

Lucy must have sensed her holding back, because she said, “What’s wrong, K? What is it?”

Kalyn shook her head, footsteps entering the boondocks of her perception, Will already coming back, the five minutes gone faster than it seemed possible.

“We’re together,” she said. “Just that we aren’t home yet.”