“What are you doing out here?” the Major said. “These lands are all federal property.”
Andrew sighed, irritated. “I told you last night. She brought me here.” He nodded once to indicate Santoro. “I work for Wells Environmental Management Consultants out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We were hired to survey roughly ten-thousand acres southeast of here. I was driving on Highway 460 during the storm, on my way back to meet up with my crew at our hotel in Pikeville when something ran out in front of my truck.”
Prendick raised a curious brow. “Something?”
“I don’t know what it was. An animal, maybe, or a man. It stood upright on two legs.” Andrew mimed, using his forefingers in a scissor motion against his opposing palm. “Its arms looked deformed. Its back, too, like it was hunched over.” He sighed, shook his head. “It all happened really fast. I couldn’t get a good look at it, but it didn’t have fur, I’m sure of it.”
“Specialist Santoro, did you see this thing he described?” Prendick asked, turning to the young woman in the corner.
Keeping her eyes pinned ahead, her shouldered thrust back at rigid attention, Santoro barked in reply, “No, sir.”
Prendick turned his stern gaze back to Andrew. “Do you have any documentation to prove who you are?” he asked. “Your work assignment? Any sort of company identification? A driver’s license?”
“Of course I do,” Andrew shifted his weight, raising his hips to reach for his back pocket, his wallet. Then he bit back a groan as he remembered. I always lock it inside the glove compartment whenever I’m out in the field.
“It’s in my Jeep,” he told Prendick, sheepish.
“Which is currently sitting top-down at the bottom of a flooded gulley,” Prendick said. “How convenient.”
Andrew frowned. “Am I under arrest or something?”
“That’s what I’m trying to determine,” the Major replied.
“What the hell for?” Andrew demanded.
Prendick raised the corner of his mouth in tandem with his brow, as if amused by the antics of a petulant toddler. “For starters, violating Title Eighteen, Part One, Chapter Sixty-seven, Subsection Thirteen-eighty-two of the United States Penal Code, wherein the first paragraph stipulates that entry to any restricted portion of a military base or facility for any purposes prohibited by law will result criminal trespass charges punishable by imprisonment of six months in jail and a fine of up to five thousand dollars.”
What? Andrew shook his head. He glanced between the Major and Santoro, hoping she’s say something—anything—to back up his story, to clear him.
“You’re kidding,” he said, more to her than Prendick when she remained tight-lipped, eyes averted from him. “You can’t keep me here if you don’t arrest me. I know my rights. And you can’t arrest me because I didn’t do anything wrong, and you know it.”
The corner of Prendick’s mouth flicked in a quick smirk. “What I know, Mister Braddock, is that if it was up to me, you would be out of here even as we speak. Dr. Moore is conducting experiments of an extremely sensitive nature that are of vital importance to national security. This facility contains classified materials and information to which you or the general tax-paying public may not, under any circumstances, be made privy.”
“Then let me go,” Andrew said, exasperated. “Put me in a truck and drive me to the nearest payphone so I can call my guys to come pick me up.”
“Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible,” Prendick said. “The storms last night triggered landslides up in the hills. The roads coming and going are buried under at least fifteen feet of mud and rocks, at least three hundred yards wide in either direction. It’s going to take earth moving equipment to get them cleared out.”
Beautiful, Andrew thought, biting back the urge to laugh. That’s just fucking great.
“Give me a couple of canteens, let me hike out of here on foot,” he said. “I can cut through the woods to get back down to the highway, then follow it from there to—”
“Mister Braddock, it’s more than seventy miles to the nearest town,” Prendick interjected. “That’s one way. Even if you average walking a mile in twenty minutes, that would make it an almost twenty-four hike. And that would be non-stop on a flat surface, not cutting through the bush out here in the backwoods.”
“I think I can manage,” Andrew replied, even though this was a lofty statement made more out of hubris than any real confidence. He was a proficient and experienced hiker, but it required a significant amount of gear and supplies to make the sort of trek he was proposing—none of which he had on hand, and none of which he was willing to bet Prendick would loan him. At best, he was looking at least at a three-day miserable hike through the wilderness. At worst, he was looking at winding up hopelessly lost and dying of starvation, thirst or overexposure.
Prendick met his gaze evenly. “I think I would be remiss if I were to let you try.” Cutting a glance and a crooked smile at Santoro and Corporal O’Malley, he added, “Besides, I wouldn’t want you to run into any trouble out there. Say, like this hairless, hunchbacked bear or something you say you saw.”
Santoro didn’t respond, but O’Malley uttered a quick snort of laughter that left Andrew bristling.
“Later today, I’ll send a squad out with shovels, the Bobcat front-end loader we have on site,” Prendick continued. “We can probably clear a way through the road in a week or two.”
“A week or two?” Andrew shook his head. “I can’t stay here that long. My crew has no idea where I am, what’s happened to me. I’ve got to get word to them.”
“Let me put it to you another way, Mister Braddock.” Prendick motioned with his hand demonstratively, indicating the cramped, empty office. “You can either remain in here as a prisoner of the United States Army or you can join us as a guest until such time as we can extricate you from this facility. But either way, you’re not leaving.”
The two stared at each other, Prendick’s eyes like glittering pieces of flint, brittle and hard-edged. Sighing, Andrew threw up his hands in disgusted resignation. “Fine. Whatever.”
Prendick nodded. “Good. You are to remain in this building at all times during the course of your stay here, and are free to make use of any and all of the public areas and amenities provided. If you feel the need for a spot of air, you can step out onto the parking lot or courtyard, but may go no further than the paved perimeter of this compound. You may not under any circumstances enter Dr. Moore’s apartment or laboratory. Failure to comply with these instructions will result in your being arrested and charged with felony trespass on government property as per our discussion a few moments ago. Do you understand?”
Again, Andrew glared. “Fine.”
Glancing over his shoulder at O’Malley, he said, “Corporal, escort Mister Braddock to the barracks wing. Take him to Lieutenant Carter’s room.” With a slight frown, he added, “He won’t be needing it anymore.”
“Yes, sir,” O’Malley said.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Andrew remembered when he’d brought Lila home to meet his parents for the first time, for dinner on a snowy Sunday afternoon in the middle of February. They’d been sleeping together for a little over three months at that point, and he’d fallen more than head over heels in love with her. He’d been nineteen years old—going on thirty in terms of maturity, if you’d asked him—and he’d been a college freshman longer than his sister, Beth, had been in her grave.
“Oh, so you’re a mind reader now?” his mother, Katherine, had replied as they’d stood together in the kitchen while he helped her clear the dishes from the dining room table. His father, Eric, had retired with Lila to the living room for coffee.