Free Fury by Steven James Page B

texts. She’ll wonder who Madeline is. She’ll wonder if there’s something going on between yo u and another girl.
    “It’s kind of a long story,” he said. “But this one map made me think of that institute. I’m wondering if it has something to do with the wolf poaching.”
    “Why would you think that?”
    “After it was built, maybe a month or so later, the wolves started getting killed. Plus, it’s located pretty much right in the middle of the area where the wolves are being shot.”
    They tramped through the snow until they could see the outline of the facility a few hundred feet away through the bare, leafless trees.
    Going closer, they found a metal fence surrounding the property. It had a slanted top that was laced with razor wire.
    “So, do you know what they do here?” Nicole asked.
    “Fish management studies. That’s what I heard.”
    “A fish management place that’s surrounded with a razor wire fence?”
    “Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it?”
    “I’m thinking not.”
    While they stood there, a van from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections rounded the corner of a nearby county road and rumbled toward the building. The gate opened and the vehicle entered the property.
    “Okay,” Nicole said, “and why would a prison transport van be visiting a fish research facility?”
    “I have no idea.”
    The two of them ducked behind a downed log, but leaned up just enough to watch what was going on.
    Two officer s—o r the y might have been prison guards, it was hard to tel l—l ed another man out of the back of the van.
    Nicole whispered, “Is that guy in handcuffs?”
    “I think so.”
    “Okay, this is too weird. We should take off.”
    “They might see us if we do. We need to wait until they’re inside.”
    Daniel recognized one of the cops as the man who’d driven into the snowbank last night, the one who’d congratulated him after the game.
    When he and Kyle had gone to help him, Nicole hadn’t gotten out of the car so Daniel doubted she would realize who it was. “That guard on the left,” he said, “that’s the man from last night, the one who went off the road.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    “No. It’s him.”
    Their conversation was interrupted by a series of deep, guttural growls coming from the other side of the property hemmed in by the fence.
    Dark flashes of movement appeared between the trees as four guard dogs barreled toward them.
    The officers who were leading their prisoner stopped and stared in Daniel and Nicole’s direction, but the two of them quickly slipped behind the log again.
    Daniel wasn’t sure if they’d made it down fast enough to avoid being seen. He imagined the men coming closer, finding him and Nicole and questioning them, and he tried to think of a good reason why they would be out here hiding behind a log, something he could tell them that would satisfy them, but he couldn’t come up with anything that sounded very reasonable.
    He waited, waited, waited until he thought maybe the officers would’ve stopped checking in their direction. When he glanced at Nicole, he saw her staring at him, her eyes wide and nervous.
    From the sound of it, the dogs were close.
    Slowly, Daniel raised his head just high enough to have a look.
    The guards and the prisoner were disappearing into the facility’s front door, but the dogs had arrived and leapt at the fence, snapping and clawing at it.
    “Okay. Time to go,” he told Nicole. “Before someone comes to see what’s up with those dogs.”
    They retraced their steps through the snow and were almost back to the Pine River Trail when a gunshot echoed through the air.
    It didn’t come from the facility, but rather from the other side of a hill just to their left.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
    Daniel scanned the forest to see if he could locate the person who’d fired the gun. Though he couldn’t see anyone, to really get a good look he would need to climb the hill and search the woods nearby.
    “Is it