great show.
“C’mon, kid. Get it over with.”
Eddie glanced up over the trunk and Jack gave him a thumbs-up. Eddie straightened and wiped his face with his shirt.
“I feel better now.”
“You’d better be sure,” the trooper said. “You mess up that car, there’l be hel to pay.”
“No, real y. I’m okay. I just don’t like being cooped up.”
“Wel , get used to it. You’re gonna be there awhile.”
He guided Eddie back into the rear seat and slammed the door, then walked back around the car. He checked the door on Jack’s side to make sure it
was latched, then wandered away toward the excavation.
Eddie pul ed on his door handle. The door unlatched.
“Hey! It opens!”
“Keep it closed!” Jack said.
“Why? I thought—”
Jack pointed to the light in the ceiling above their heads. “That goes on when the door’s open. We’ve got to make this fast and time it just right.”
He checked out the trooper. He was maybe a hundred feet away, talking to the guy in the suit. Both had their backs turned.
Now or never.
“Okay. When I give the word, Eddie opens the door, we al dive out, stay low, and run into the bushes. We’l circle around to the bikes and get our butts
back home. Everyone okay with that?”
Weezy was staring out the window. “I wish I knew if they were finding anything.”
Jack waved a hand in front of her face. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No. I real y want to know.” She looked at him. “But I real y want out of this car too. So let’s go home.”
That was a relief. For a minute there he’d been afraid she’d want to stay.
“Okay. Get ready, Eddie. I’l tel you when.”
Jack fixed his gaze on the trooper and the suit … waiting … waiting …
And then pine lights appeared, half a dozen of them, swirling above and around the helicopters. Jack had seen a couple once. No one knew what they
were—bal lightning, some people said—but every so often they appeared, varying from basebal to basketbal size, skimming along the treetops.
What had drawn them here? The light? The noise?
Everyone around the excavation stopped what they were doing to point and look up, and then Jack realized his time had come.
“Now!”
Eddie opened the door and tumbled out, Weezy close behind him. Jack brought up the rear and swung the door closed—enough to turn out the light but
not enough to latch it. With al the racket from the helicopters he probably could have slammed it with no risk of anyone hearing, but didn’t want to risk it.
So he leaned his shoulder against it until he felt the latch catch.
He turned and saw Eddie in a low crouch, disappearing into the brush a few feet away. But Weezy stood tal , gazing in awe at the pine lights.
“Look, Jack! I’ve seen one or a pair at a time, but
“Worry about them later. Let’s go!”
He grabbed her arm and pul ed her into the brush.
Fifty feet or so into the woods the excavation site disappeared behind them and it was safe to walk upright.
“Did you see them?” Weezy said. “Six pine—”
She broke off, whirled, and put a hand over Jack’s mouth. Eddie’s too.
“Don’t move,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Jack froze. What? Had she seen or heard something?
And then Jack saw it—a dark shape slinking among the pines. If it was a man, it didn’t move like one. A breeze carried its sour odor their way and the
smel made Jack break out in a sweat. Al his instincts screamed
dozen feet short of the fire trail it stopped and crouched among the brush and trees, watching.
