LITMIR.BIZ

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Their eyes rolled white at the edges and their feet moved quickly, tapping up clouds of restive dust. She heard a low rumbling noise, like a plane flying overhead, though there was no sign of a contrail in the blue sky.

      “Hannah?” she called again. “Your mother sent me to get you. Come on out, honey!”

      But there was no sign of the child. Check the pony rides, the girl’s mother had said, she loves animals.

      Well, that hadn’t panned out.

      Maya reversed her direction and headed back toward Main Street. The girl couldn’t have gone far. Maybe she’d wandered into the livery building to see the baby goats.

      Or else she didn’t wander at all, instinct whispered. The Mastermind had kidnapped children before and used them to draw Bear Claw officers into danger. The entire bomb squad was in the theme park. The chief and the others were nearby.

      A big detonation would wipe out a big chunk of the task force.

      Maya nearly spun and ran, nearly shouted for Sawyer to get his people out of the park. The only thing stopping her was the look she’d seen in the eyes of the other cops when her watch had run down and nothing happened. The look of disbelief.

      They thought she’d called in a false alarm, just as they thought she was wrong about Henkes. If she evacuated the park again and nothing happened, her credibility would be shot once and for all. Did she dare run that risk?

      Did she dare chance the alternative?

      Maya swallowed hard and called, “Hannah?” one last time, thinking it futile.

      Then she heard a small voice call, “Mommy?”

      Relief spiked and Maya zeroed in on the livery building. The airplane noise increased as she bolted into the building and stumbled to a halt at the sight of a small girl, maybe six or seven years old, strapped upright to one of the leaning columns.

      The dark-haired child was wearing a pink shirt and denim shorts, with sandals on her feet and tears streaming down her face. Her lips trembled when she saw Maya and she quavered, “I want my mommy!”

      She struggled against her bonds, flailing with her feet and head, but making no progress against the thick leather strap that had been lashed across her chest and buckled on the other side of the pillar.

      “Hold on, Hannah, I’ve got you!” Heart pounding, Maya crouched down beside the girl and went to work on her bonds, cursing the bastard who used innocents in his sick games. “Are you hurt?”

      “N-no.” The girl’s voice cracked on the word and fresh tears streamed. “The ranch man told me—”

      “We’ll talk about it later,” Maya said as she yanked the buckle free and hurled the leather strap to one side. She wanted to hear about this “ranch man,” wanted to know if he looked like Henkes or one of his associates, but first things were first. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of there.”

      The airplane noise increased to a ground-shaking roar, only it didn’t sound like an airplane anymore. It sounded more like…

      Hoofbeats, Maya thought with a clarity born of terror.

      The goats and sheep inside the petting zoo galloped in circles, becoming a bleating, milling mix of hooves and bodies. The lone bison in the far corner stomped, shook his head and reared partway up, as though he might jump out of his enclosure at any moment.

      Maya’s heart rabbited in her chest. “Come on!” She scooped the girl up and ran for the entrance, staggering beneath the weight of the child.

      They were twenty feet from the door when a splintering crash sounded over the mind-blowing rumble that went on and on and on. Maya risked a look back, and nearly tripped and fell at what she saw.

      Bison. Five, maybe ten of them, had broken through the back wall of the livery and were bearing down on her at a full-out gallop. Their small eyes were wide and scared, their nostrils flared with deep, sucking breaths, and their stubby horns cut the air as they charged. The penned animal bellowed and crashed through his fenced enclosure to join the others.

      Maya turned and ran for her life.

      Hannah’s arms were wrapped around her neck in a chokehold that nearly cut off her breath, but Maya didn’t care. She had to get the girl to safety. Had to get herself to safety.

      But where was safe?

      She burst through the petting zoo doors and skidded onto the main road. Thinking that the bison would follow the path of least resistance, she bolted for the ticketing area, hoping the buildings and the turnstiles would deflect them. She could jump over while the bison turned, like some mad reenactment of the running of the bulls.

      She heard shouts and gunshots, saw figures running along the ridges on either side of the ranch, and felt the growing hoofbeats in the trembling of the ground.

      But the noise wasn’t coming from behind her anymore. It was in front of her.

      Suddenly, dust gouted from beyond the snack bar, which was the last building in line before the ticketing area. The noise increased to unbelievable proportions, as though Maya was caught in a tunnel with trains bearing down on her from either side.

      She ran for the turnstiles, legs weak, lungs burning, too aware of the dozen bison bearing down on her from behind.

      Then the dust in front of her thickened to shadows. Legs. Horns. Mad, panicked eyes. Twenty bison burst around the corner and turned down Main Street. Forty more followed them. A hundred. A full, panicked stampede of thousand-pound animals galloping hell-bent—

      Directly at Maya and the little girl.

      Chapter Three

      Heart pounding a panicked rhythm in her ears, Maya bolted across the street, toward the snack bar, which had an ice cream booth on the flat-topped roof. She tightened her grip on Hannah and fixed her eyes on the stairs leading up to the snack area. Up. If she could just get up, she would be—

      A heavy, hairy weight slammed into her from behind, driving her to her knees. Hooves struck her in the side and she curled her body around Hannah in a futile effort to protect the girl.

      Then the pain and the blows were gone. Too quick, Maya thought. That couldn’t have been the whole herd.

      It wasn’t, she realized moments later when she uncurled and looked around. She’d been struck by the offshoot group, the dozen animals who had burst through the livery after her. They had turned and galloped down Main Street.

      The ground shook as the main herd bore down on her, no more than a city block away. The noise increased by the moment, hoofbeats overlaid with snorts and bellows and the sound of gunfire.

      Maya saw white-rimmed eyes, red-flared nostrils and pounding, pulverizing hooves coming closer. Too close.

      Knowing she was too late, that there was no way she was going to make it, Maya dragged herself to her feet, hauled the girl onto her hip and took two stumbling steps toward the stairs, toward safety. Her knee sang with pain. Her legs folded beneath her—

      And strong arms grabbed her, lifted her and half carried her across the road as the air thickened with dust and fear.

      Rough hands shoved her toward the stairs and a man’s voice shouted, “Climb, damn it!”

      Disbelieving, heart pounding, Maya climbed, aware of being crowded, being hustled, being shielded as her feet hit the stairs. She stumbled, needing both arms to hold the girl, and felt strong hands grab her waist and boost her upwards.

      The leading edge of the stampede hit them. A big male bison demolished the lower stairs, blasting through the two-by-four construction as though it was made of matchsticks.

      With nothing holding them off the ground, the upper stairs sagged and began to fall.

      “Go!” Maya’s rescuer shouted. He nearly threw her up over the edge, onto the low roof of the building.

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