“A good chance he won’t. The road up is on the other side of the hill, so we’re not visible from there. I suspect Deputy Dog drives up to the summit and checks the lot. If he sees anybody, he shoos them off with some lame excuse. If it’s empty, he turns around and goes back down the road and stations himself where he stopped us yesterday.”
“Let’s hope you’re right.”
“If he drives the lot perimeter, we’re busted, but I’m betting he doesn’t.”
As they sat with the windows open and listened, Donny fired up his tablet.
“Hey, a new signal report.”
“From that Burbank at the Allard?”
“Yeah. Gives me an idea.”
“An idea…it’s good to know you’re open to new experiences.”
“Ha-ha.” He gave her a pointed look. “More so than you, that’s for sure.”
“Are you carrying a grudge about last night?”
“Last night?” he said, all innocence. “What happened last night?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Time to change the subject. “What’s your idea?”
“The report gives the coordinates of each frequency it mentions. I’m just wondering if there’s one nearby. First let me get our own coordinates…”
He tapped around while Hari kept her ears alert for the sound of tires on the gravel above and behind them.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered. “There’s one right here on Norum Hill.”
“One of those signals?”
Hari found that unsettling. An electromagnetic impulse beaming out of nowhere and striking the Earth right where she was sitting.
“Exactly where?” she said.
“Somewhere down the hill a ways.”
“You think it’s connected with where they’re hiding the trailers?”
A shrug. “How can I say? Might just be an oddball coincidence.”
“Or it might not. I—” She held up a hand as she heard a crunching sound.
Definitely tires on the parking area gravel—crunching briefly, then fading away.
“I think that was him,” she said, not exactly sure why she was whispering. She slapped Donny on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Go where? The trucks can’t be here yet.”
“I want to see if we can find a vantage point that shows us where they leave the trailers.”
Keeping below the level of the summit, they made their way through the trees on the south face to where they had a view of a short segment of the mountain road. They crouched and waited. Soon the roar of tractor engines fighting the upgrade echoed through the air, but no trucks rolled into sight. And then the engine noise faded to silence.
“What the hell?” Donny said. “Where’d they go?”
Hari was wondering the same thing. “Maybe they turned their engines off?”
“Truckers don’t turn off their engines until they’re done for the day—less stress on the diesel to leave it running.”
“And you know this how?”
“I just know it.”
She shook her head sadly. “But you don’t know Deputy Dog.”
“And you don’t know lolz and slime. But whatever, I’m telling you these guys don’t turn off their engines.” He rose. “I’m going down there.”
Hari pulled him back. “You’re doing no such thing. The drivers came back down the hill yesterday, they’ll go back down today. And when they do, we’ll be close behind. Today we get some answers.”
Half an hour later the rumble of the engines returned—not abruptly, but gradually, swelling to a roar.
“Now!” Hari said. “Back to the car.”
They hurried to the Tahoe. Its four-wheel drive pulled them up the grade and back onto the gravel.
“Can that tablet of yours show us how close we are to the local signal?”
“Sure. I can compare our GPS coords to the signal’s.”
“Do it, then. I’m betting the trucks and signal are connected.”
She took it slow from there, virtually coasting down the incline. The trucks had departed but the tire marks on the pavement left no doubt where they’d turned on and off the mountain road.
“Same place as yesterday!” Donny said, hammering the dashboard with a fist. “Same dead end!”
“We’re missing something,” Hari said, cringing at the obviousness of the statement. “How close are we to the signal?”
Donny checked his tablet. “Holy crap. We’re almost on top of it.”
Pretty much what she’d expected. “I’m going in.”
No walking this time. She turned the Tahoe into the gap in the trees and crept ahead along the well-worn ruts. But instead of running into the wall of solid rock they’d faced yesterday, they found a wide opening through the granite.
“Okay,” Donny said. “This is spooky. How does this happen? And by the way, this spot matches exactly with the signal coords.”
Of course it did. Hari made no comment as she kept the Tahoe rolling forward.
Donny’s voice jumped an octave. “We’re going in?”
“If the trucks can do it, so can we. We go in, take a quick look, then haul our butts back out.”
She needed to know what was in there. She couldn’t leave until she did.
Driving through the divide was like threading a narrow canyon—a dark canyon, so dark she had to turn on the Tahoe’s headlights.
“How long is this thing?” Donny said.
Before Hari could respond, the stone walls fell away and they emerged from the passage into dim light. She slammed on the brakes when she saw what lay ahead.
“Oh, my god!” Donny cried, his voice reaching for a scream. “Get us outa here, Hari! Get us the fuck outa here!”
BARBARA
I opened my eyes and stared at the glowing red numbers on the bedside clock: 11:47. I jerked my head up for a better look.
What?
Yes. A quarter till noon. I’d overslept. Not that I had anything in particular to be up and about for. Well, Ellie, of course, but she wanted to be alone, so no use in getting up early for her.
But I never slept this late. Never. Plus I’d fallen asleep in my clothes. I must have been more exhausted than I’d thought.
I threw off the comforter and padded to the kitchen where I put the kettle on for tea. While the water heated, I checked Ellie’s room to see if anything had changed. Out of habit, I knocked before entering, just in case she’d come back through the passage.
“Ellie?”
As expected, no answer, so I pushed through and stepped inside. I glanced at the arch of
