In the middle of the night.
Stella Sterling was startled awake by a strange noise.
Her eyes snapped open, sharp with vigilance. She scrambled out of her sleeping bag, secured the gun on her waist, and gripped her long knife. Cautiously, she pulled back a corner of the tent flap to peek outside.
In the darkness of the night, only the endlessly fluttering snowflakes were clearly visible. Everything else was just a blurry shadow.
Stella Sterling took out her specialized night-vision goggles and put them on. Her vision cleared considerably. Dozens of meters ahead, bathed in the glow of a fire, several people were huddled together under the eaves of a dilapidated old building.
The strange noise she had heard was the sound of their voices. Perhaps they couldn't hear each other over the wind and snow, because they were practically shouting. With her already decent hearing, Stella Sterling had caught it.
