Fire And Steel (The Merryweather Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Otherwise, the dark and terrible things happening in Matheson would have already escalated to more horrifying levels. He shared Arch's disdain for what he was seeing from the two young people, but for different reasons. He wasn't opposed to the two young people falling in love, not at all. He just wished they would be more careful. He knew that he wasn't the only one watching them and for much the same reason. 
     
     

CHAPTER 3
          Faux stopped walking and breathed deep, the clean forest air almost overwhelming his lungs. Looking to the left and the right, he could make out the other men moving through the trees at the same slow pace that he was going. Teague on the right. Baker on the left. Past them, the other deputies were spread out at thirty yard intervals, widening the search pattern to over two hundred yards across. Always keeping each other in sight and within shouting distance, they knocked down brambles and limbs to hammer an ugly path through the trees, occasionally calling out their position if they were ever out of sight for more than a few seconds.
          The sun was low in the sky, dipping toward the horizon, when Teague called out to Baker and Faux. "Let's bring it in, guys." 
          Faux waited for Baker to reach him before they walked together to where Teague waited. They all stood in a circle of open ground in the middle of the woods as they waited for the other searchers to arrive. Baker stared out into the woods, watching the shadows grow longer, when the last of the deputies reached them and Teague said. "We're done for now. We'll come back at daybreak. We won't gain anything staying after dark and I don't want us ending up like the others."
          A couple of the other deputies were nodding in tense agreement. But Baker was shaking his head, peering up at the sky. He said. "Derek, we still have a couple of hours of light. A little more searching might get us something? Especially if these things are night feeders. We might see something after dark?" He looked at Faux, perhaps expecting him to back his play, but Faux was already shaking his head.
          Faux said. "We're not ready for whatever is out here. I'm sure of that. We need more men. And we need light."
          Baker gave over with only a little grumbling and soon they were back at the Mill. While Baker gathered in his team and they began backing up their equipment, Faux and Teague stood next to the big silo and watched the growing shadows. Teague pulled out a wrinkled pack of cigarettes, offering Faux one before lighting up. Huffing out smoke, he looked at Faux and said. "So why exactly is a Bureau man following around the Oklahoma State Police? And don't feed me that line about inter-agency co-operation." He had the good grace to smile while he said it, to take the sting out of his words.
          Faux paused a moment to light his own cigarette, then said. "What's to tell? I stepped on some toes."
          "Must have been sensitive toes?" 
          "Nah," Faux looked at Teague and grinned. "Expensive shoes." The two men walked over to the front of the silo. The door hung open, the fading sunlight not quite reaching the back wall of the silo. Inky darkness hung above, broken only by pinpricks of light, shining through rusted out places in the metal roof. Neither man moved to step inside the silo. Faux said. "This is some kind of strange town you have here, chief. I completely expected to find reporters crawling all over the scene? Missing children, as well as a missing police force, tends to draw them in like jackals?"
          Teague didn't answer right away. He smoked his cigarette for a long ten count, then spoke softly. His tone was introspective. "Matheson is a quiet place. A tourist town, with its share of secrets. Secrets that the town's leaders keep a very tight lid on, just in case they hurt the town's best interests."
          Faux nodded. He's seen it in lots of towns, cut off from a