The one puzzle piece that didn’t fit was the speed limit sign. Why that? We weren’t in danger then.
No, came the answer, but you were about to blow away everything your dad had done for Rick. Why would you think the pouch would only bless you or your family? And that’s not all. The speed limit sign let you know that there was much more to Le Gardien than a dusty old pouch hanging on your wall.
Wow! The thought blew my mind. That had been a turning point for me. It really did help me accept all the other stuff that had happened last night without going crazy. In fact, I realized I was even starting to directly look to it for help.
That was quite a thought, but I was so tired I was having trouble getting my head around it. I looked at Rick. “Have you got a place picked out?”
“I think so.”
“Great. Wake me when we get there.”
My next conscious awareness was of the raucous cawing of crows. I opened my eyes and saw dappled sunlight on the windshield in front of me. Above me was the foliage of a large cottonwood tree. It took me a moment to remember why I was sleeping on the seat of Rick’s 4Runner. When I did, I also became aware of the soft sound of the engine running.
Raising my head, I looked around for Rick. He was nowhere in sight. I half turned and checked the backseat. Cody was sprawled out there, breathing deeply. Good.
Moving carefully, I grasped the passenger side door handle and eased the door open. As I slid out and stood up, my right leg nearly buckled. Instantly it started to tingle with what felt like a thousand tiny pinpricks. My leg had gone to sleep.
Breathing deeply, I glanced up at the sky. The sun was not quite a third of the way to its zenith, which meant it was probably 8:30 or 9:00. I reached for my cell phone to check the time, then remembered that Rick had taken the battery out of it. Probably closer to nine, I decided. The heat of the day was starting to seep into the air in spite of the deep shade.
Curious but wary, I started around the 4Runner, wondering why Rick had left the engine running. The windows were down, so it wasn’t to keep us cool. As I came around the front of the truck, moving carefully, searching the trees, I saw him immediately. He sat beside the truck, his back against the front door, knees up. A black cord came out of the open window above his head and connected to his iPhone. He was working on it, concentrating hard. His father’s rifle was propped up against the truck within easy reach.
“Hi,” I said softly.
He jumped a little. “Oh! Hi. Didn’t know you were awake.”
“I’m not. This is just a front.”
He grinned. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you that tired before.”
Without thinking, I reached up and felt my hair. I groaned. Where was my overnight bag with my hairbrush? Oh, well. The Wicked Witch of the West rides again. Since there was nothing I could do to make it better, I asked, “What time is it?”
He glanced down at the phone. “Eight forty-eight.” Another grin. “You slept over three hours. I checked on you a couple of times just to make sure you hadn’t checked out on me.”
I sat down beside him, looking over his shoulder at the phone screen. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Checking the Internet. Learning about Spyware.” A frown pulled the corner of his mouth down. “I’m sorry to say, but I’m pretty sure you have it on your phone. Can I ask you some questions?”
“Sure.”
“How long have you had your phone?”
“Let’s see.” I counted backward, using my fingers to keep track. “Mom and I bought it on our last day in Las Vegas. That would have been . . . umm . . . last week.”
“So, a week ago today.”
“No, today is Tuesday, and—oh, I guess it is tomorrow now, isn’t it? Okay, so yeah, a week ago.”
“And in those first few days, while you were learning how to use it, do you remember any of the following happening?” He read from the iPhone’s screen. “Has the phone ever lit up by itself? I mean, other than when you got a call or a text message or some other notification?”
I blew out my breath, trying to remember. “Yeah, maybe a time or two.”
“Have you ever heard funny background noises while you were talking? Not loud, but maybe a clicking sound, something like that.”
I felt something twist in the pit of my stomach. “One night right after I got it, when you and I were talking, I asked you if you could hear a funny noise on your phone. Remember?”
He sighed. “I’d forgotten that. One more. Have you opened any e-mails on your phone, especially ones from someone you didn’t know?”
“Of course. I’m always getting junk e-mail.”
“But you opened them?”
“Some of them. Not all of them.”
Looking glum, he set down his phone. “Spyware can be sent through an e-mail. When you open it, the program automatically downloads to your phone.”
I drew my knees up, laid my arms across them, and rested my head on them. On top of everything else that had happened, this was a devastating blow. “But how could someone put something on my phone without me knowing about it?”
“It is actually ridiculously simple. Usually it’s done by parents who want to monitor their kids’ messages or phone conversations, or who want to know exactly where their kids are all the time. Once it’s on the phone, there’s no way to detect it. At least, not without special equipment.” He reached out and touched my arm briefly. “I’m sorry, Danni, but I think El Cobra has been listening to every call you’ve made and read every text you’ve sent or received.”
“And tracked my locations.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sorry.”
I said nothing. I was still trying to process what that meant. I felt betrayed. Violated. I was embarrassed, thinking about all the stupid things I shared on my phone. Learning that some Peeping Tom had been watching my house for the last week wouldn’t have been much more disturbing to me. But I knew Rick was right. The Spyware was how El Cobra knew so much about me. Like my nickname. Any time I called Dad and he saw it was me on his caller ID, he’d always answer the phone with, “Hey, Danny Boy.” And that’s how El Cobra knew where the mine was, and how he could send someone to watch us. And how he knew about the bags of ore—I had taken pictures of them.
I had to force my mind away from it. I felt physically sick. “What about your phone?”
“No, there’s no way. I don’t even have an e-mail account set up yet. One of the things on my to-do list.”
“Are you sure?”
“We’ve been here for three hours now. If they could track my phone, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it.”
“Oh. Good point.”
As my mind kept working, something else clicked. If my parents’ phones were tapped, that answered a lot of other questions. El Cobra had probably listened in on all of Dad’s conversations with the Canadian mining company and the assayer. Dad sometimes did his online banking using his iPhone. If El Cobra could read it when Dad entered his password, then he had complete access to Dad’s account. He would also have known about Mom and Cody going to Denver and when they were returning and that they would be in the house alone.
In a way, that was all bad news, but it was also a relief. El Cobra wasn’t some mysterious superspy. This was a much simpler explanation. And that meant that maybe he wasn’t as formidable an enemy as I had conjured up in my mind. Which meant a great deal to me right now.
Chapter 32
I stood back as Rick explained Spyware to Cody. No surprise that Cody understood it immediately. He was pretty good on computers and techno stuff. He had even helped me figure out my cell phone several times. He had questions, but they sounded to me like they were pretty savvy. As I watched them, I felt a little twinge of envy. Their easy casualness together—in spite of the four-year difference in their age—the whole male-bonding thing—was something I wasn’t quite sure I understood.
“Anyone hungry?” I said when it looked like they might go on for another day
or two.
“Famished,” Cody said.
“Amen,” agreed Rick.
They both stood up, and I noticed Rick’s Levis were damp up to his knees. His sneakers were soggy and quite muddy. “Where have you been?” I asked.
For a moment, he looked sheepish. “That was the next thing I was going to tell you.”
“What?”
“I waded across the river and found a spot where I could watch the highway without anyone seeing me.”
“What for?”
“Just curious.”
“And?”
He sighed. “About an hour ago, two vehicles passed, moving real slow. Fifteen minutes later, they came back again, headed east this time.”
“Was one of them a black Hummer?”
“You got it. The other was a dark maroon Ram 1500. Two guys in that one. Only one driving the Hummer.”
I wanted to sit down again all of a sudden, but I didn’t. If Rick hadn’t figured out the tracking feature on my cell phone, we would have been sitting at his house when El Cobra’s men drove up.
“Were they wearing ski masks?”
“No. But the one in the Hummer wore green scrubs, just like you said.”
“Then what?” I asked.
“That’s it. They haven’t been back.”
He looked away quickly. He was funny that way. When he had something unpleasant to say, he found it hard to look directly at me.
“What else?” I asked.
“They were driving real slow, like I said, so I got a good look at them.” He paused. “I didn’t recognize any of them.”
That surprised me a little. “So what?”
“You said El Cobra told you he had a local contact. That would have to be someone in Hanksville, right?”
Ah. And if that were the case, Rick would have recognized him or her—or them—immediately. I was glad someone was thinking clearly. “Which means, there’s probably someone else out watching our house.”
“That’s the way I figure it too.”
I turned and kicked savagely at the truck’s front tire. Now what? We were safe here, and probably would be as long as we didn’t move. We were also totally useless to my family if we couldn’t get out of here.
“What are we going to do?” Cody asked, coming over to take my hand.
And Rick—steady-as-a-rock Rick—said, “First, we’re going to grab a bite to eat, then we’re going to wait for Dad to call. And then”—he smiled, but it was tight and grim—“then, we’re getting out of here.”
Rick’s cell phone rang a little before ten o’clock. He got up and started pacing back and forth as he talked. He kept his back to us so it was hard to hear him. Mostly he was just listening, and saying, “Sí,” or “Sí, Papá.” When he clicked off, he put the phone away then turned to Cody and me. Concern was heavy on his face. “My Dad’s in Moab and my sisters are with my aunt. But he needs to get them some groceries and things before he starts back.”
“How long?”
“About another hour before he’s on the road again.” Quick breath. “He wants to know if you’ve reconsidered calling the police.”
“No!”
“That’s what I told him, but he said to ask you to really think about it carefully. We can call him if you change your mind.”
“I’m not going to change my mind, Rick. And if that bothers you, then thanks for your help and we’ll see you later.”
Cody jerked around. “Danni!”
Rick rocked back a little.
I regretted it the moment the words left my mouth. “I’m sorry, Rick. I didn’t mean it.”
“I know,” he murmured, but I could tell he was still hurt.
“Really. I don’t know what we would be doing if it weren’t for you.”
“She’s kinda this way when she first wakes up,” Cody explained, giving me a dirty look. “Dad says it’s best to stay a mile or two clear of her for the first hour or two.”
I spun around, but he laughed and danced away before I could pop him.
“It’s true,” he sang. “Grandpère says that sometimes you have to throw her raw meat to get her in a good mood.”
Rick managed to hold his face to a stupid smirk. “Then let’s get some breakfast in her.”
“Are you comedians through now?” I said. Then, realizing the only way to stop their teasing was to bring things back to the issue at hand, I asked, “We can’t just sit here all day doing nothing. What are we going to do?”
“Once it’s dark, we could get away without them seeing us,” Cody suggested.
Rick shook his head. “That won’t be for another twelve hours. We can’t wait that long.”
“Well, well,” I said, still irked by the raw meat comment. “Finally something productive from the more masculine half of this partnership.”
“Two thirds, actually,” Cody said, still in an impish mood.
“Say what?”
“There are two males and one female. It’s not half, it’s—”
“I get it, Code. Thanks for the math lesson.”
Rick wasn’t smiling anymore. He was watching me closely. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Danni, but sarcasm doesn’t become you,” he said softly.
One of my gifts, according to Dad, is zippy—even stinging—comebacks. Dad hadn’t meant it as a compliment. One of those comebacks came to me right now: And sitting around making stupid jokes about me doesn’t become you either, Ramirez. But I bit it back and made myself swallow it. It didn’t go down easy, but it did go down. Finally, I asked, “So what do we do?”
“Dad wants us to get out of here. Take the back roads until we’re clear of Hanksville, then head for Salt Lake.”
“Salt Lake?” I cried. “El Cobra’s not taking my family to Salt Lake. Why Salt Lake?”
“I’ll tell you, if you promise not to take my head off. It’s just an idea that I discussed with Dad. He totally agrees. I’ve been thinking about it all morning while you were sleeping.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“Are you really?” he asked. He was smiling as he said it, but I could see it was a mild rebuke. Probably deserved, but certainly not appreciated.
“What’s in Salt Lake City?” I asked.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
“Great!” Cody exclaimed. “Can we eat something before we take off?”
Chapter 33
If you had asked me what it would take for Rick to change my mind, I would have said nothing. Once my mind is made up, I rarely change it. That’s the Irish side of my nature. But for all my feisty, in-your-face attitude, I was deeply frightened. Most of that was about the safety of Mom, Dad, and Grandpère. It was like having a huge black cloud hovering over me. But I was also scared to death that I was going to mess things up, do something stupid that would only make things worse. Like getting Cody hurt. Or triggering El Cobra’s wrath. I wasn’t even sure I was right about my obsession not to involve the police. I was scared, and that’s the straight of it.
But when Rick mentioned the FBI, I didn’t stop to think. I shot to my feet and cried, “No! No! No! How many times do I have to say it? I will not take a chance on having someone betray us. No police. And that’s final.”
Rick said nothing, his face expressionless. After almost a minute, when it was clear he was going to wait me out, I sat down again. He went on like nothing had happened. “Danni, I know you’re tired, and this is a highly emotional thing for you, but—”
I shot him a look hot enough to blister steel. “If you tell me to stop acting like a girl and to be more rational—meaning, think like you—I’m going to grab Dad’s rifle and shoot you in the foot.”
He rocked back, shocked. “Where did that come from?”
“Oh, I know what you and Cody are up to.”
“Really? And what would that be?”
“You’re convinced I’m wrong, so you’ll help me come to my senses. Bring me back into the light. Why don’t you just say it
? ‘Stop being an idiot, and do what we know is best for you.’” I had to stop. I was livid, my hands shaking with emotion.
He slowly got to his feet. The look on his face told me I had just crossed a line with him that I had never crossed before. Rick didn’t have much of a temper, but now he looked like a volcano in its initial stages of eruption. His eyes were hooded, his jaw set in stone. Finally, he got his emotions under control and shook his head. “I’m not telling you to stop acting like a girl. I’m telling you to stop acting like Lisa Cole.”
I was already regretting my outburst. I had to stop letting my tongue take over for my brain. But Lisa Cole? That only infuriated me even more. “El Cobra doesn’t have your family, Rick. So you don’t get to decide what I should or shouldn’t do.”
For one brief instant, he was stunned. And instantly I was sorry. Really sorry. “I . . . Rick, I didn’t mean that. I—” I felt awful. If I were him, I would have turned around right then and gone home. Got in the 4Runner and left. Told Danni McAllister to take a flying leap. But he didn’t do any of those things. What he did do totally knocked me back on my heels.
“If you think yelling at me will stop me from saying what you need to hear, then you don’t know me. Stop freaking out like some airheaded, ditzy sixteen-year-old kid, Danni.” He threw his hands up. “I mean, come on!”
“I am a sixteen-year-old kid,” I fired back, “in case you’ve forgotten.”
“No, you’re not. That’s what frustrates me so much. Remember what your grandfather said? You’re not a kid anymore. You’re a young woman. Don’t you get it? What you have done in the last few hours is stunning, Danni. Absolutely brilliant.”
“But—”
“So why all of a sudden are you acting like this? It’s stupid, Danni.”
“Oh,” I said hotly, “because I disagree with you and Cody, now I’m stupid?”
“This has nothing to do with me. It’s stupid because you haven’t even thought this through with that amazing brain of yours. When you can tell me you’ve done that, that’s when I’ll shut up. Tell me why you won’t call the FBI. Tell me what’s worrying you. But don’t just go off like a rocket and start yelling at everybody.”