Safehouse in the Catskills

The Sikorsky helicopter flew northward along the spine of the Hudson Valley, leaving behind the smog of the metropolitan sprawl for the rugged, snow-dusted ridges of the Catskill Mountains. Below them, dense forests of spruce, hemlock, and bare birch trees stretched across rolling granite peaks. As the helicopter crossed into Greene County, the gray sky opened up, releasing a thick, swirling curtain of heavy snow. The first major blizzard of…