Oath of Office

Lou felt embarrassed about his near obsession with the woman, but decided that so long as he could keep his fantasies and projections from getting the best of him, he could only do what he could do.

Another useful saying.

Eventually, he and Joey emerged onto a narrow dirt road. Lou paused and scanned the track and the surrounding fields. “I know this place,” he said.

“Well, the mound I found is in the woods off the end of this road. Not far now.”

“This is near where I was attacked.”

“Attacked?”

“Never mind,” Lou said quickly.

He remained on high alert the rest of the way. If Chester’s corn was the source of all the troubles in Kings Ridge, it was likely that the mogul’s henchmen would be stationed someplace close by. The afternoon was virtually windless, and he kept a cautious lookout for any movement of the stalks, while at the same time scanning the dense rows in a futile attempt to spot Anthony Brite’s body.

At the end of the dirt road, Joey veered into the woods to their left, and Lou followed several paces behind. The cart’s bicycle-like tires were designed to traverse difficult terrain, making it fairly easy for him to maneuver over the ground’s exposed roots and rocks. The two of them bushwhacked their way another quarter mile or so. Although Joey seemed confident, Lou, now grimy and soaked in sweat, was beginning to have doubts. Gratefully, his ankle was not aching badly.

“Bingo!” the young chef cried out from some distance ahead.

Lou took a moment to settle down the burning in his chest, then headed toward Joey’s voice. The packed- mud bellicosus castle rose from the forest floor like a rocket on its launching pad. There were hundreds of large termites scattered along its length, and dozens more of them flying around like an air force fighter squadron.

“Whoa!” he whispered, marveling at the staggering height and geometry of the thing. “It’s awesome.”

“Don’t I know it!” Joey said. “Awesome is the word.”

The jagged, conical tower, two or three feet taller than Lou, was peppered with impressively large termites. It looked like a decaying tree trunk, sculpted with spires and crevices.

From about two feet away, Lou cautiously circumvented the spectacular construction. “Amazing,” was all he could say. “Absolutely amazing.”

“Well, I’ve got to go,” Joey said with singsong nonchalance.

“Go? What are you talking about? Where are you going?” Concern crept into Lou’s voice.

“Why, back to work, of course,” Joey said. “I did tell you I had to work a double, didn’t I?”

“Actually, no, you didn’t,” Lou replied, laughing nervously. “Joey, what if I can’t find my way out of here?”

“Oh, the trail behind us is pretty well marked now. You can follow the dirt road back there, and skip the cornfields entirely. It’ll only add two or three miles to your return trip.”

“Two or three miles? Joey, I don’t even know where this gizmo is going to take me, let alone how to get back from there.” The notion of being back in these fields in the dark of night was not the least bit appealing.

One look at Joey, and Lou’s distress quickly began to ebb. The kid had done his best.

Lou had read two historical accounts of the Louis and Clark expedition. If they could accomplish their remarkable, uncharted journey, he could find his way back to the restaurant. Still somewhat apprehensive, he thanked his young guide.

“If you find a queen, let me know,” Joey said. “Even though they can make a new one, the colony is struggling without a leader. They need a purpose.”

“Will do,” Lou said, holding up one of the specimen jars he had brought. “And thanks for sacrificing your lady to the greater good.”

“I was just kidding, Doc. Don’t try to find one. She’d be deep within the colony. Before you got to her, you’d be hamburger.”

Joey tipped his hat, waved good-bye with his heavily bandaged hand, and was gone. Lou listened until Joey’s footfalls had disappeared into the dense woods. Finally, when the only sound in the still afternoon was the continuous scraping and scratching from the bellicosus termites, he powered up the radar machine.

Despite the bug repellent he had swathed on himself, he wondered at what distance the insects would sense the presence of live flesh, and organize themselves for an attack.

The ground radar system whirred softly as it came to life. The cart’s handlebars vibrated, causing Lou’s forearms to tingle. The display screen went from deep gray to varying lighter shades. The background colors were of no interest to him. They represented natural soils, not the organized, hyperbolic reflections of air tunnels within the ground, which were black.

Lou maneuvered the radar closer to the tower, fearing that the ground beneath him might cave in. The first subsurface ventilation shaft came into clear focus a foot from the conical structure. The markings on the radar’s display screen looked like flickering, serpentine shapes-black, projected onto a gray background. As Lou moved the antenna away from the ventilation shaft, the change in reception altered the subsurface reflection, causing the curved shape to disappear from the screen. By trial and error, he learned that so long as he had the black patterns on his radar display, he was standing over one of the ventilation shafts.

Using a pad and pencil, Lou mapped a number of the largest shafts, keeping a careful log of the orientation and length of each on graph paper Humphries had provided. Each of the tunnels led to a small hole in the surface topography along with a baseball-sized depression in the soil that contributed ventilation to the remarkably constructed tower.

Sweaty and aching, Lou mapped the entire area until one quadrant, which he had labeled SE-southeast-caught his attention. It contained a thicker, curved black shadow than the others-a dark snake that went to the edge of the screen and did not seem to have an end. Lou wheeled his apparatus ahead and followed the winding shape on his display as it led him away from the huge structure and deeper into the forest.

One hundred yards … two hundred … three …

The shaft was still beneath his feet, running parallel to the surface, about two feet deep.

Eventually, Lou emerged into a broad clearing about the size of a football field, with a single-story, windowless brick structure at the far west end. There was a narrow unpaved access road just opposite from where he stood, which opened into a small dirt parking area. There was a single empty car standing in the lot-a large black Mercedes four-door with Virginia plates.

The ventilation shaft remained at the center of the screen, although the depth seemed to have increased- perhaps three feet now, maybe even a bit more. Lou followed the shadow until it came to an abrupt end at the south-facing side of the building. At that point, the depth of the serpentine ventilation tunnel increased sharply, and moments later, the radar display screen turned totally gray.

Lou checked his machine, which seemed to be functioning all right. The shaft appeared to have disappeared into something much larger-a subterranean chamber of some sort.

Lou sensed there might be something underneath him. He flipped through the instruction manual, but it was quite technical, and there was no explanation for something like the phenomenon he was observing. The one thing he felt fairly certain of was that the fearsome bellicosus termites in the forest and subsequently in Joey’s Lucite terrarium were originating here.

Scanning the surroundings for cameras, he walked the radar around the building. There was a slight crack in the foundation, and he wondered if farther down, the bugs had escaped that way. There was a green metal door by the east corner. Lou carefully tried to open it, but it was locked. He backed away and wheeled the radar machine into the woods.

Given his experience with the gunmen, the deserted Mercedes was unnerving.

Still, Lou felt desperate to get inside the blockhouselike building. A possible solution, he decided, was among the contacts in his cell phone-Chief Gilbert Stone.

Three rings and Stone answered. “Stone here.”

“Chief Stone, it’s Lou Welcome.”

“Welcome. Everything okay? What can I do for you?”