area her headlights covered and the total darkness beyond made it difficult to tell for sure. Silently calling herself several kinds of fool, she switched off the lights. The shadows separated into half a dozen large evergreens and the silhouette of a roof steeply angled to shed snow.
Since it seemed they'd arrived, Vicki shut off the engine. After a heartbeat's silence, the night exploded into a cacophony of discordant noise. Hands over sensitive ears, she sank back into the seat. 'What the hell is that?'
'Horny frogs.'
'How do you know?' she demanded.
He gave her a superior smile. 'PBS.'
'Oh.' They sat there for a moment, listening to the frogs. 'The creatures of the night,' Vicki sighed, 'what music they make.' Snorting derisively, she got out of the van. 'Somehow, I expected the middle of nowhere to be a lot quieter.'
Stuart Gordon had sent Vicki the key to the lodge's back door and once she switched on the main breaker, they found themselves in a modern, stainless-steel kitchen that wouldn't have looked out of place in any small, trendy restaurant back in Toronto. The sudden hum of the refrigerator turning on momentarily drowned out the frogs and both Vicki and Celluci relaxed.
'So now what?' he asked.
'Now we unpack your food from the cooler, we find you a room, and we make the most of the short time we have until dawn.'
'And when does Mr Gordon arrive?'
'Tomorrow evening. Don't worry, I'll be up.'
'And I'm supposed to do what, tomorrow in the daytime?'
'I'll leave my notes out. I'm sure something'll occur to you.'
'I thought I was on vacation?'
'Then do what you usually do on vacation.'
'Your footwork.' He folded his arms. 'And on my last vacation — which was also your idea — I almost lost a kidney.' Closing the refrigerator door, Vicki crossed the room between one heartbeat and the next. Leaning into him, their bodies touching between ankle and chest, she smiled into his eyes and pushed the long curl of hair back off his forehead. 'Don't worry, I'll protect you from the spirit of the lake. I have no intention of sharing you with another legendary being.'
'Legendary?' He couldn't stop a smile. 'Think highly of yourself, don't you?'
'Are you sure you'll be safe in the van?'
'Stop fussing. You know I'll be fine.' Pulling her jeans up over her hips, she stared out of the window and shook her head. 'There's a whole lot of nothing out there.'
From the bed, Celluci could see a patch of stars and the top of one of the evergreens. 'True enough.'
'And I really don't like it.'
'Then why are we here?'
'Stuart Gordon just kept talking. I don't even remember saying yes but the next thing I knew, I'd agreed to do the job.'
'He pressured you?' Celiuci's emphasis on the final pronoun made it quite clear that he hadn't believed such a thing was possible.
'Not pressured, no. Convinced with extreme prejudice.'
'He sounds like a prince.'
'Yeah? Well, so was Machiavelli.' Dressed, she leaned over the bed and kissed him lightly. 'Want to hear something romantic? When the day claims me, yours will be the only life I'll be able to feel.'
'Romantic?' His breathing quickened as she licked at the tiny puncture wounds on his wrist. 'I feel like a box luuu ouch! All right. It's romantic.'
Although she'd tried to keep her voice light when she'd mentioned it to Celluci, Vicki really didn't like the great outdoors. Maybe it was because she understood the wilderness of glass and concrete and needed the anonymity of three million lives packed tightly around hers. Standing by the van, she swept her gaze from the first hints of dawn to the last lingering shadows of night and couldn't help feeling excluded, that there was something beyond what she could see that she wasn't a part of. She doubted Stuart Gordon's junior executives would feel a part of it either and wondered why anyone would want to build a resort in the midst of such otherness.
The frogs had stopped trying to get laid and the silence seemed to be waiting for something.
Waiting
Vicki glanced towards Lake Nepeakea. It lay like a silver mirror down at the bottom of a rocky slope. Not a ripple broke the surface. Barely a mile away, a perfect reflection brought the opposite shore closer still.
Waiting
Whipper-will!
Vicki winced at the sudden, piercing sound and got into the van. After locking both outer and inner doors, she stripped quickly — if she were found during the day, naked would be the least of her problems — laid down between the high, padded sides of the narrow bed and waited for the dawn. The bird call, repeated with Chinese water torture frequency, cut its way through special seals and interior walls.
'Man, that's annoying,' she muttered, linking her fingers over her stomach. 'I wonder if Celluci can sleep through'
