“Okay,” I said aloud. “Anything else?”
I couldn’t think of anything. And in the heavy coat I was starting to sweat more than I had before.
“Think, then act,” I said, repeating what Aahz had said a hundred times. “It’s time to act.”
With one last look at the town of Evade down in the valley, I took a deep breath and triggered the D-Hopper.
The storm slammed into me like a hammer. I tucked the D-Hopper into my shirt and focused on how Tanda had led us the other three times to the cabin. The dust didn’t let me see anything around me, but I knew there were some scattered trees. We had passed them the last two times.
Tanda had gone slightly downhill and to the right, so I figured out what I thought was directly downhill, then angled a little to the right, counting my steps to make sure that if I was on the wrong path, I could get back. After twenty steps could see the faint shape of a tree. I was sure that had been there the last time, so I kept going.
Another thirty slogging steps and another tree loomed out of the blowing dust. I thought that had been there as well. So far so good.
I kept moving for fifty more steps before I saw the faint light in the window of the cabin below me. I had almost missed it, walking too high-along the hillside.
I eased my way down to the cabin and tried to look in the window, but the dirt and shades made it so that I couldn’t see anything.
It looked as if I was going to have to go in, hard and fast, like a soldier going after a dangerous outlaw.
I got to the door, braced myself, and eased open the door latch then shoved hard, the rock from Kowtow ready in my hand as I stumbled in.