Kate was cuffed in a chair a few feet away from the kitchen table. Coop was sitting next to me on a bench seat. Alex was in a chair across from us watching Bella lay out the first-aid supplies. She had already stripped off his shirt.
“Didn’t think I’d see you again, Alexander, or is it Alex now?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Alex said.
“The wound is clean, but deep. How’d you get it?”
“LaNae Fay.”
“She likes her knives.”
Not anymore, I thought.
I slowly put my hand in my pocket.
“She’s dead,” Alex said.
Keep her talking. Keep her occupied.
“Bound to happen,” Bella said. “How’d she die?”
“I hit her on the head with an oar.”
“This is going to sting.”
The phone was out.
Coop gave me a subtle nod.
I glanced at Kate. She could clearly see what I was doing from where she was sitting.
Bella poured a liberal amount of disinfectant onto a sterile pad and put it on Alex’s wound. He jerked away from her.
“Don’t be a baby.”
I looked down at the phone. There was a volume button on the screen. I moved it down to zero.
“You need sutures,” Bella said. “Maybe Lod will have the doc look at it.”
“I doubt it,” Alex said.
“I doubt it too, but you never know what Lod is going to do.”
Bella wasn’t paying any attention to me. Carl was in the passenger seat next to Bill with the shotgun resting between his legs. He had swiveled the chair around to face us, but he looked half-asleep.
“So I hear you’ve been working at the library for the past few years.”
“That’s right.”
“Learn anything?”
“Guess not.”
Coop and Kate were staring at me. I gave them both a slight head shake. They looked away.
I found the redial button.
I pressed it.
No sound.
Relieved, I slipped the phone under the cushion with the microphone semiexposed.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Shut up,” Carl said.
I guess he was paying closer attention than I thought.
“They call it the Deep Two Point Zero,” Kate said loudly.
“Shut up,” Carl repeated.
“No,” Kate said.
Carl got halfway out of his seat.
“Go ahead,” Kate said defiantly. “There is nothing you can do to me that isn’t going to happen to me anyway. Might as well get it over with now.”
“Let them talk,” Bella said. “It might be interesting to hear what they think they know.”
Reluctantly, Carl resumed his seat.
“So what is this Two Point Zero?” I asked.
“They’re going underground,” Kate answered. “Again.”
Which meant I was going underground. Again. I suddenly felt dizzy. I hoped Agent Ryan was on the line listening.
“I don’t think it’s too far from here,” Kate continued. “Lod has been planning it for years. He already has people there. People I knew from New York. People I thought had been sent to the mush room, which by the way, doesn’t exist, and never did.”
“So everyone sent to the mush room is already there?” I asked.
“No,” Kate answered.
I didn’t need to ask what happened to them. They had no doubt been taken care of the same way Lod had taken care of Martin: brutally, without the slightest bit of remorse.
“I’m going to have to wrap the dressing to your shoulder to stem the bleeding,” Bella said, ignoring us. “It’s going to hurt.”
Alex screamed, his eyes rolled up into his head, and then he passed out. Coop jumped up and caught him before he hit the floor. He glared at Bella.
Bella smiled. “It was either that or bleed out. By the color of his face he’s already lost a lot of blood. Get back in your seat.”
“We need to lay him down,” Coop said.
“There’s only one bed in here. Lod won’t be happy if we get it bloody.”
“Lod won’t be using the bed, or the motor home, after we get to the new compound,” Kate said.
Bella thought about it for a moment. “Fine.”
Coop wrapped his arms around Alex’s chest. I took his feet. He was surprisingly light. We carried him into the bedroom in back and laid him on the bed. As I was putting a second pillow under his head he opened his eyes and pulled me in close.
“Do you have my USB thing?” he hissed.
“The flash drive?”
“It’s not a flash drive. It’s a silver bullet. Do you have it?”
“I have it.”
“Guard it with your life. We’ll need it when we get into the Deep. I’m not as bad off as I look.”
I was going to tell him about the satellite phone, but Bella interrupted me.
“That’s good enough. Get back out here.”
I asked.
Coop glanced at my wrist, saw that I was no longer wearing my watch, and caught on immediately.
“Ten after two.”
“So, we left the park forty-five minutes ago?”
“About.”
Are you out there, Agent Ryan? Can you hear us?
Bella was sitting on the sofa across from Kate. Carl was dozing in the passenger’s seat.
“Lod has a copy of the document we gave to the FBI,” Kate said, loud enough to be heard out on the highway.
Carl’s head snapped up.
“How did he get ahold of that?” Coop asked.
Bella shook her head and chimed in. “Lod has people above in every walk of life. It’s been that way from the very beginning. Not everyone went into the Deep. Some of us stayed above, and some of those became prominent leaders in government and business. I suspect many of them will be joining us in our new home soon, if they aren’t there already.”
“Why?” I asked.
Bella smiled. “Because a change in the weather is coming.”
“What do you mean?” Coop asked.
“None of you will be around long enough to find out.”
Bill slowed the motor home down and made a sharp turn to the left.
“What time is it?” I asked.
Coop looked irritated. “Fifteen minutes past the last time you asked me what time it was.”
Did you hear that, Agent Ryan?
as we started up a steep incline. With my hand cuffed it was all I could do to stay in the leather chair. I thought we were going to tip. I looked over at Coop and Pat. They were holding on to the table. Carl nearly fell out of his seat. Bella was using both her arms to brace herself against the window frame.
“You sure this is right?” Bella shouted at Bill.
“Yeah,” he shouted back to her. “There was a lightning cloud sign, and I can see taillights up ahead. It’s a compacted gravel road, in good shape in spite of the rain. If we can get this rig up it no one else is going to have any problem.”
Coop had taken off his coat.
I was startled by the tattoo coming out of his T-shirt.
He laughed, still gripping the table. “A phoenix rising from the ashes.”
“Wait until you get to be sixty-five,” Bella said. “Then see what that chicken looks like on your flabby, wrinkled skin.”
“According to you, I’m not going to get to sixty-five.”
Touché, Bella.
“That’s a fact,” Bella said.
I think we were all talking to get our minds off the terrifying angle of the motor home.
“I like the tat,” I said. “I’ve always wanted one.”
“What kind?” Coop asked cheerfully, as if he wasn’t riding in a metal coffin to his own funeral.
“I don’t know. Something light and airy. Maybe a mountain. Maybe a sunrise.” I looked at Pat. “How about you?”
“Weirdly, I’m kind of with
Bella on this one,” Pat said. “Don’t get me wrong. I like looking at tattoos. I just prefer to use ink for writing things down.”
Bella stared at Pat. “Did you write the Beneath document?”
“We all wrote it,” Pat answered. “It’s epistolary.”
“What’s that?”
Coop gave his standard mini-lecture about epistolary writing.
Bella actually seemed interested in what Coop was saying. Coop didn’t seem to care that she had a butcher knife tucked under her belt and a pistol in her right hand, with permission to murder all of us if she felt like it.
“I was never much of a reader,” Bella said.
“It’s never too late. Does this new Deep have a library?”
“I don’t know. The compound in New York had a few books, but I wouldn’t call it a library.”
I’d known Bella my entire life, and I could see that she was struggling. She didn’t want to like Coop, but she couldn’t help herself.
“I don’t get it,” Bella said.
“What?”
“Your cheerfulness. Your calmness. Don’t you know what’s going on here? Don’t you know what’s going to happen to you?”
“I don’t think anyone knows what’s going to happen to them,” Coop answered quietly. “I’ll admit that it doesn’t look too good for us at the moment, but there’s no sense in wasting whatever time you have left by being miserable about it.”
“Carl!” Bella shouted.
Carl’s head snapped up.
“Watch them. I’m going to sit up front for a while.”
They switched places.
Carl was not nearly as charmed with Coop as Bella. He watched Coop through half-closed eyes, licking his lips as if he wanted to devour him.
“Sorry about your dog,” Coop said.
Carl said nothing.
“I wish it hadn’t happened.”
Carl grunted.
“I’m sure you miss him. I know I would.”
Carl’s eyes opened a little. He gave Coop the slightest nod.
“Rottweilers have a bad reputation,” Coop said. “I suspect you don’t agree.”
Carl shrugged. “Too much dog for most people,” he said. “Hard to control.”
“What do you mean?”
“Every once in a while they go nuts on you. You gotta deal with it right then. No hesitation.”
“What about pit bulls?”
“Had one once.” He lifted his sleeve, revealing an ugly scar. “He was a good dog up until he did this. We were walking above. He got this weird look in his eyes. Next thing I knew he’d latched on to my arm. Took a long time to shake him. He ran off. More like limped off. Never saw him again. Got Prince.”
“Prince?”
“That’s what I named my Rott.”
I didn’t know Carl well, but this was the first time I’d heard him have a normal conversation where he wasn’t angling for something. He was just talking.
“No dogs here?” Coop asked.
“No.”
“Do you think they’ll be allowed in the new compound?”
Carl shook his head. “From what I hear it’s nothing like the old compound. No need for guide dogs, Seekers, or guard dogs. One way in. One way out. And no reason to go out. It could be years, or decades even, before we see the light of day.”
It was clear by his glum expression that he wasn’t looking forward to it. Perhaps this was why he stole the money from my pack. Had he been thinking about leaving the Pod?
“Those are just rumors, Carl,” Bella said from the passenger seat. “Lod will let us know how the new compound is going to work when we are all there. Not even I know the details.”
It was interesting that Bella didn’t want to talk to Coop, but she was still listening. The problem for Carl was that if the new compound was everything he feared, once inside, he wouldn’t be able to leave the Pod.
Coop must have seen that the direction the conversation was going was upsetting Carl. He turned his attention to me and changed the subject. Sort of.
“You said you wanted dogs. What kind? How many?”
“When did she say that to you?” Bella asked.
“In DC,” I answered for Coop quickly. No point in aggravating Bella further by mentioning the notes. “I’d like to have a dozen dogs, but I’d settle for three. As to which breeds, I’m not sure. I like small dogs. I was very fond of Enji.”
Carl nodded. “I liked that little basenji of yours too. Little dog, big heart.”
“I hope she found a good home up top,” I said.
“I heard the FBI rounded up most of the dogs and are holding them,” Carl said.
“Where did you hear that?” Bella asked, back in the conversation. She couldn’t seem to help herself.
“Lod told me.”
“Whoa!” Bill said, slowing the motor home. “We’re here.”
it’s five after three,” Coop said.
“Thanks,” I said, and started to get up from the kitchen table.
“Sit back down!” Carl said. “I need to zip-tie your wrists.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Orders from Lod.”
While they were talking about dogs I had this fantasy that Carl was actually on our side and that he would shoot Bella and Bill, jump behind the steering wheel, slam the rig into reverse, and get us out of there.
I guess I was wrong.
There were bright lights shining through the windshield. Carl was the first to slip on his shades. Bella and Bill followed next.
“It’s a mine,” Bill said, getting up from his seat. “Or it was a mine.”
“What kind of mine?” I asked loudly.
Your last hint, Agent Ryan.
“How would I know?” Bill said. “They’re waving for us to come out.”
Bella and Bill picked up small identical blue backpacks from between the seats and slung them over their shoulders. I hadn’t seen Bella do it, but I guessed she had slipped Alex’s computer in her pack.
“Put your hands on the table,” Carl said.
“What about Alex?” Coop asked. “I don’t know if he can walk. We can’t help him with our hands tied.”
Carl seemed to falter for a moment, then shook it off. “Nah. Gotta tie your hands. I’m in enough trouble with Lod as it is.”
I wanted to grab the phone, but I couldn’t. Carl was too close and Bella was looking right at me.
Carl zip-tied our hands in front of us. I figured this was a compromise. He could have tied our hands behind our backs. Kate wasn’t so lucky. Bella freed her from the table, then recuffed her with her hands behind her back.
Carl handed his shotgun to Bill, then went into the bedroom. A minute later he came out with an unconscious Alex cradled in his arms like a sleeping baby.
“Is he okay?” Coop asked.
“He’s alive,” Carl said. “Let’s go.”
Bella stepped outside first, pistol in hand, followed by Kate, Coop, me, Carl, and Bill carrying the shotgun.
Dozens of rigs were parked close to one another in a huge gravel parking lot.
It was drizzling and foggy.
Floodlights on tall stands lit the night.
The rumble of portable generators was deafening.
A woman carrying a clipboard walked over to talk to Bella.
“I heard you were bringing company. Their names?”
“Coop O’Toole. Pat O’Toole. Kate Dane, who you already know. And Alexander Dane.”
“Lod’s little brother? I thought he was dead.”
“He will be soon.”
The woman wrote the names on her clipboard. “Just follow the road up to the mine entrance. People will meet you inside and tell you where to go.”
“Is Lod here?”
“Not yet. He’ll be the last down. He’s making sure everyone gets inside safely. I think we’ll be sealed up in less than an hour.”
I turned around and saw more headlights coming up the road behind us.
/> What I hoped to see were flashing police lights.
We started up the road toward a black rectangle cut into the side of a rock wall.
“You going to be okay?” Coop asked.
“Probably not,” I said.
Up ahead, a line of people wearing backpacks were disappearing into the dark hole as if they were being willingly devoured. My heartbeat increased. My mouth went dry. I glanced behind. Bill was smiling like he was heading toward heaven’s gate. In front of him, Carl (still cradling Alex) was frowning like he was heading toward the gates of hell, which for him was an eternity with no dogs allowed. Behind us was another group, and behind them another, with more rigs pulling into the lot. None with flashing lights.
I was going into the Deep.
Again.
The entrance looked much bigger close up than it had from the parking lot. I took some solace from this, until I stepped through the opening.
The cavern beyond was cold and dark. Something brushed my cheek. I reeled backward and slipped. Coop caught me before I fell. No easy task with his wrists bound.
“Easy, Lil Bro.”
“Something flew past my —”
“Bats,” Kate said. “There are millions of them hanging on the ceiling.”
With her acute night vision, she could probably see them clearly.
“Millions?” I asked. “Bats are nocturnal. Why aren’t they outside hunting?”
“Hibernation,” a man said from the darkness. He turned on a flashlight with a red beam. “We’re trying not to disturb them. If they fly out into the cold they might starve. Not enough insects to support them this time of year.”
“Then why did you build the Deep here?” Kate asked.
He looked down at a clipboard. “Ah, you must be Kate Dane.” He looked at Coop and me. “Our hostages.”
He said this cheerfully, as if he were welcoming us to a fun party.
“Hostages?” I asked.
He ignored my question.
“For your information, Kate, the bats didn’t show up here until last fall, years after we created this cavern. We’ve been very careful not to disturb them. Your early arrival to the new compound put a serious kink in our plans for these bats. We had planned for you to arrive in the summer so we could shoo the bats from here at a time when there would be plenty for them to eat as they search for a new roost.”