“With all that food, what about mice?” My eyes searched the corners and cracks for any sign of movement.
“We put d-Con all around the cave. No mice. Welcome to Fort Cody.”
“Maybe we should make you the Guardian,” I murmured gratefully.
“What does that mean?”
“Never mind.” We heard the barn door open. “Turn off the light,” I hissed.
We huddled close together, listening to the sounds of our pursuers entering the barn, El Cobra’s steady stream of Spanish urging them on. Or so I assumed. With a start, I realized that just as quickly as it had come, my gift of interpretation was gone. What gives? I shook off the question. Anything that might have to do with the pouch was becoming more confusing with every passing minute.
“Please don’t hurt them.” Mom’s voice was clearly frightened, but it didn’t sound like she was crying, as near as I could tell. “They’re just frightened children.”
“Señora, they’re going to be a lot more than that if you don’t call them back.”
A tiny flash of light hit my eyes, and I instinctively jerked back. The men had those powerful flashlights out and were sweeping the lights back and forth.
“Don’t worry,” Cody said softly. “Me and Jordie left two narrow cracks in the front wall as peepholes so we can see what’s going on in the barn. But they’re too narrow to allow anyone to see inside, especially from a distance.”
Jordie was Cody’s best bud. His parents ran a small garage in Hanksville. As if that mattered at the moment.
Dad spoke up. “There’s a light switch over there. May I turn it on?”
Someone grunted, and a moment later small shafts of light dimly penetrated our little cubbyhole. “Does Dad know about this place?” I whispered.
“Yes, but Mom doesn’t.” He touched my shoulder then crawled up to one of the cracks.
I followed and pressed my eye to the other crack. Bless you, Cody McAllister and Jordan Woods.
Our peepholes—or peep slits—looked straight down the length of the barn. I counted quickly. I could see seven people, counting Mom, Dad, and Grandpère. I assumed the rest of them were looking for us and were out of our line of sight.
Dad cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted, “Danni! Cody! If you’re in here, come out now.”
“They won’t hurt you,” Mom added. “But you have to show yourselves.”
Cody stirred. Thinking he was going to obey, I grabbed his arm. He shook it off and glared at me. “I’m not going anywhere,” he hissed. “No way.”
“Sorry,” I murmured. Realizing that it was his quick thinking that had saved us, I touched his cheek briefly. “Thank you, Code. This is perfect.” Then I had another thought. “What if they stand on top of us?”
“It won’t collapse,” he said proudly. “Me and Jordie made sure of that.”
I turned back to our peephole. It’s funny how much a quarter-inch crack can reveal if things are far enough away from it. We could see the whole main aisle of the barn and most of the people in it. They were milling around, waiting for direction.
Grandpère’s voice sounded next. “Danni, if you’re in here, you need to do what’s best for your parents. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
What’s best for your parents. I thought it was interesting that he phrased it that way. What was best for Mom and Dad was for us not to get caught. El Cobra might be raging, but he wouldn’t hurt Dad or Grandpère because they had to be at the closing, and he wouldn’t hurt Mom because that would take away his leverage with Dad.
Once again I marveled at how clearly I was thinking. “Grandpère’s telling us not to come out,” I told Cody.
“I know,” he said.
El Cobra issued more directions, and then they all started moving, spreading out, coming slowly toward us, checking the stalls as they came. A bucket crashed as Doc gave it a vicious kick. Someone knocked over a sawhorse with a saddle on it and it crashed to the floor.
“Is there a back door to this place?” That was from El Cobra.
“Not a back door,” Grandpère said. “Another side door on the right, up there near the hay.”
“See if it’s open,” El Cobra barked.
Even as someone moved across our line of vision, Doc growled, “They’re in here. I can feel it.”
Maybe he could, and maybe he couldn’t, but thanks to Cody and Jordie, he wasn’t going to find us. I was absolutely sure of that.
They searched for five minutes, stomping around in the loft above our heads, slamming things around, muttering nasty things to each other. Hay rained down on us when two of them climbed the stack to make sure we weren’t hiding on the top. They walked right over the top of us, but the roof never budged.
And all the time El Cobra raged. He sent three of his men outside to look for us. He threatened Mom. He threatened Dad. They kept pleading with us to come out. But I could tell neither one of them really meant it.
When the three men returned, El Cobra’s rage turned into a cold fury. He called everyone to gather around him. Even through the crack, I could see that they were getting nervous. They had to be panicking. What if we got away? What if we were even now calling the police?
El Cobra wasn’t the only one who was upset. The woman came up to him; she only reached about to the top of his chest. “¡Vámonos! ¡Vámonos!” I caught something about la policía. Then she switched to English. “We have to go.” She stood on her toes and shoved her face next to El Cobra’s.
He stared right back at her, but she didn’t budge. Then, without warning, El Cobra swung around and threw a punch at my dad.
He never saw it coming and the blow caught him square on the jaw. He crashed back heavily against the wood planking of the nearest stall, then crumpled into a heap in the straw.
Mom screamed, darted past El Cobra, and fell to her knees beside Dad. Grandpère started moving forward too. This time it was Doc who reacted. He clubbed Grandpère from behind with a clenched fist, sending him to his knees. “Stay where you are!” he shouted.
Muttering under his breath, El Cobra pulled out his pistol and strode over to Dad. He aimed the muzzle at Dad’s head. No one moved. I drew in a sharp breath and closed my eyes.
Nothing happened. When I opened my eyes again, El Cobra had stepped back. But I could see his chest rising and falling. The others stood motionless, not daring to risk calling his wrath down on them. He stood still for nearly thirty seconds, and then he began to speak rapidly, but in perfect control. And he spoke in English.
“Forget the kids. We have to get out of here. Eileen, you get the keys to the SUV. And while you’re in the house, straighten things up as best you can.” He reached in another pocket. “Here’s the girl’s cell phone. There’s a charger in the kitchen. Leave them on the table where she’ll find them. Then lock the door behind you in case someone comes.”
As she started away, he called after her. “And bring that purse to me.”
She slowed, looking back. “You want that old purse?”
“Yes. And bring the vehicle back here when you’re done. No lights.”
As she went out, El Cobra turned back to Dad. “Where are the keys to your truck?”
Dad reached in his pocket and handed them over without hesitation.
El Cobra tossed them to one of the others. “Move his truck and the ATVs around back where they can’t be seen from the road.” He turned to Gordo and one of the others. “Get the Hummers up here too. No lights.”
“But, Jefe, do you think it is wise to leave one of us here? What if the kids called—”
The pistol whipped up so fast that I barely saw it before I heard the soft pop of the silencer. Gordo let out a cry and jumped to one side. Whether that was what saved him or the fact that Cobra deliberately missed him wasn’t clear, but Gordo got the message. He broke into a waddling run after the woman. The other men hurried out as well.
In another instant, El Cobra returned to loom over Dad. He grabbed him by
the shirt and hauled him to his feet. “Let’s go.” He jabbed him in the ribs with the pistol. “I’ll burn this place to the ground with you and your family in it if you even think about resisting.”
“I understand,” Dad said.
“No,” El Cobra screamed. “You don’t understand, señor Luke. No more problems. Nada. None. ¿Comprendes?”
Grandpère got back to his feet, wincing with pain. “Why do you assume that we can control everything? Mr. and Mrs. McAllister didn’t tell the children to run. We didn’t put that pistol in the pouch.”
He swung around, the pistol coming up and pointing at Grandpère’s head. “You are starting to really annoy me, Grandpa.”
To my astonishment, Grandpère straightened to his full height and snapped right back at him. “Then maybe you’d better take something for your nerves, Monsieur El Cobra. Your little operation is unraveling at the seams. Those kids are panicked. They could be on their way to town right now to call for help.”
“He’s right, Jefe,” Doc said. “We’ve been here for nearly six hours now. If they did go for help, then—”
“They’ve not gone anywhere,” he hissed. “They’re still here somewhere.”
For a long moment, El Cobra teetered between rage and rationality, then he finally lowered the gun and stepped back. He turned in our direction, surveying the expanse of the barn. “If you can hear me, chiquita, listen up, and listen good. If we see a police car of any kind, or an aircraft circling over our heads, or anyone snooping around, I’ll feed your Mom and Dad to the fish. And then I’ll come looking for you and your little brother. Do you hear me, little one?”
I heard him. I turned away from the peephole and sat back against the hay, feeling sick to my stomach. A moment later, we heard the truck start up outside, then drive around so it was parallel to the barn, but on the side away from the road. The door slammed, the barn lights went out, and we heard the door close. And finally we were alone.
Chapter 26
Cody and I lay perfectly still for the next several minutes, listening intently to what was going on outside the barn. We could hear the soft murmur of voices but could not catch any of the words. Car doors opened and shut. We heard the two Hummers come from around the back of the house. Moments later, a third vehicle approached—Mom’s car. More doors. More voices. Finally, three vehicles drove away, one following after another.
“They’re leaving,” Cody whispered into my ear.
“Shh!” I hissed, grabbing his arm to silence him. I strained forward, focused intently on the sounds of the receding vehicles. They were fading fast, but suddenly the sound abruptly diminished. “That’s got to be Gordo,” I said to Cody. “Sounds like one vehicle stopped out by the equipment shed.” That was a guess, of course. My ears weren’t that good, but my sense of danger was pinging like a submarine’s sonar. “Let’s go up in the loft. We can see better from there.”
“What if they left someone in here with us?” he said, his voice strained.
That brought me up short. I had watched them go out and was pretty sure I had accounted for all of them, but I sure didn’t want to be wrong. The feel of danger was still strong, but not like it was close by. “Let’s give it another five minutes.”
“What time is it?” I asked after what felt like an hour and a half.
A soft glow came on beside me. Cody’s wristwatch had a black neoprene band that not only told you what time it was, but also had a stopwatch, alarm clock, calendar, compass, altimeter, toaster, blender, and garbage disposal all in one. The light went out again. “It’s three twenty.” He paused. “That’s a.m. by the way.”
“Yeah. Thanks for reminding me.” I leaned forward, peering through the crack between bales at the darkness of the barn. We hadn’t heard a single sound. “Okay. I’m pretty sure there’s no one else in here. Help me get the top off, real quiet-like, then I’ll check for sure. If we’re okay, I want to go up in the loft and look around.”
We moved the bale with hardly a whisper of sound. Moving carefully, I stuck my head up and listened intently. There was nothing. The moonlight filtered through several cracks in the wooden walls, filling the barn with a faint, soft light. It wasn’t much, but after the total darkness of the fort, it was enough to see quite a bit. I let my eyes sweep the interior, watching closely for any movement. I focused on what I was feeling, and I found nothing there, either. Finally, I sighed. “It’s okay. We’re alone.”
He wiggled up beside me. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“No. You stay here.”
“No, Danni. I’m going with you.”
“It’s better that—” Then I changed my mind. “Okay, but leave the hole open. If we hear someone coming, we’re back inside your cave like a couple of rabbits.”
“Okay.”
“I think it’s all right if you turn on the flashlight. Just keep it mostly covered, and don’t shine it directly on the walls or windows. They might see the light through the cracks.”
“Right.” The flashlight came on but then it disappeared again as he dropped back into the hole.
“What are you doing?”
“Just a minute.” A moment later he appeared, handing the flashlight to me. “Okay. Let’s go.” He had something cradled in his arm, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
I kept the flashlight mostly covered by my hand, lighting the way as we made our way off the haystack and over to the ladder which led up into the loft. “You always keep a flashlight hidden in the barn?” I asked him as he started to climb.
He looked down and grinned. “Yeah. Why?”
“Good job.” I touched his ankle. “I’m glad you didn’t listen to me, Code. If you had, they would have caught us for sure.”
“So you’re saying I was right and you were wrong?” Even in the darkness, the smugness was evident in his voice.
“I suppose so.”
“Wish Mom and Dad were here to hear you say that.” He laughed, then scampered up the ladder, using only one hand. He held something in front of him, and I heard the soft rustle of a plastic sack.
The barn loft covered the eastern quarter of the barn. We used it mostly to store the grain we purchased for our stock. It had two large double doors with a block and tackle for hauling things. From there, I figured we could see if we still had Gordo for company.
We did. In the full moonlight, we could clearly see one of the Hummers parked behind the equipment shed.
“I can see one man,” Cody said. “Do you think they left two?”
“No. Remember when El Cobra told Lew to stay behind, he said he was going to send some help. How long it will take for them to get here we don’t know. But that means we’ve got to get out of here as soon as possible.”
But where to go? We couldn’t just strike out blindly. Discouraged, I dropped down on a bag of grain. But as the despair began to rise, I reminded myself that we were free. We had done it. We had gotten away a second time. And that was so remarkable I decided we could take five more minutes to recover our balance before starting to move.
Something cold touched my arm. I gave a low cry and whirled around.
“Geez, Danni. It’s just a bottle of water,” Cody said. “Aren’t we the jumpy one?”
I took it, then a moment later felt something pressed into my hand.
“Hope you like Kit-Kats,” he said.
I didn’t much, but right then a piece of Styrofoam would have been welcome. I opened the bottle and took a long drink, then ripped the paper off the bar. “You’re a pretty handy guy to have around, you know that?”
It was hard to see his expression in the moonlight, but he seemed very serious. “Wish Mom and Dad were here to hear you say that,” he drawled again.
I started to laugh, then went instantly serious. “Me too, Code. Me too.” After a few moments, I turned to Cody. “How long ago did you build the fort?” I asked.
“About two weeks, when we were bringing in the first crop of hay.”
“
Where did you get the idea to do it?”
He didn’t answer. I peered at him more closely in the faint light. His head was down, and I could see he was fidgeting a little. “Cody?” I prodded. “Is there something I should know?”
“Promise you won’t go all crazy on me?” he mumbled.
“What did you do?”
“Uh . . . Remember that day you and Mom went to Moab?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“Well, me and Jordie were playing wizards and warlocks out here in the barn while Dad and the others were bringing in the hay. I was the wizard. And . . . um . . . so like, I kinda got this idea. Since Mom thinks the pouch is enchanted, I thought it might be fun to pretend we were casting evil spells on our enemies.”
I shot him a hard look. “You took the pouch from my room?”
“Only for an hour. I put it back.”
“It was still wrong,” I cried. “It’s not a toy.”
“I know,” he said meekly.
I bit back my desire to read him the riot act and asked another question. “So what does playing wizard and the pouch have to do with the fort?”
“Well, while we were playing, suddenly I got this idea to build a castle to protect us from the evil necromancer.”
I burst out with a giggle. “Necromancer? Do you guys really talk like that?”
He sniffed loftily. “Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Yes, go on.”
“So anyway, the idea caught us off guard, but we both thought it would be cool. So, with Dad’s permission, we started stacking a few bales on top of each other, but all we managed to do was build a very wobbly wall. While we were working, I put the pouch over my shoulder, so we wouldn’t step on it or something. And then it just came to me. I saw it all in my head. I suddenly knew how to build a real fort—one that no one could find. And so we did.”
“Are you saying the pouch told you to do that?”