Myrna sighed. “It’s never happened as far as I know.”
“The fence works, Myrna,” Slade said.
At least it did when it came to keeping out those with no measurable levels of talent, he thought. Devin, with his newly stirring senses, might have been tempted to try to get inside but Nate would not have made it. If Devin had managed to get lost in the Preserve, Nate would have raced back to town to report the problem.
“There are other things that can happen to a couple of kids alone,” Myrna said.
“It’s okay to worry,” he said.
“Gee, thanks for that, boss. I feel so much better now.”
“Sorry,” Slade said. “That wasn’t very reassuring, was it? Look, Devin said that he and Nate were going to Hidden Beach to do their treasure hunting. They would have taken Merton Road. You could drive out there and see how they’re getting on for yourself.”
“Are you kidding? I can’t check up on Devin. He would be absolutely mortified if I did that to him in front of Nate.”
“True. I’ll tell you what, I’ll drive out there and take a look.”
Myrna looked inordinately grateful. “Thanks, Chief. I really appreciate this.”
Slade looked at Rex. “Let’s go, buddy.”
Sensing a new adventure, Rex chortled, grabbed his clutch, and bounded up onto Slade’s shoulder.
Slade looked at Myrna. “It has been suggested that hanging out with a dust bunny who carries a purse might have a negative impact on my image as a hard-core crime fighter.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Myrna said. “It’s a very nice clutch.”
Chapter 19
NATE GRABBED DEVIN’S ARM. “DID YOU HEAR THAT?”
“Ouch.” Devin winced. “Yeah, let go, man. That hurts.”
They were sitting side by side, their backs against a massive granite rock. Nearby a waterfall splashed into a pool. It was late afternoon but night fell fast and early inside the Preserve. The last of the sun had vanished a few minutes ago and a deep twilight was descending.
The plunge through the weird energy fence had been bad for both of them, although Devin suspected that it had frightened Nate more than it had him. Nevertheless, they were now facing the prospect of spending the night inside the Preserve and he was not looking forward to it any more than Nate was.
At least there had been no sign of the two smugglers. The really bad part, Devin thought, was that they did not have a flashlight. They hadn’t had anything to eat for hours. He thought wistfully about the packs they had left on top of the cliff above Hidden Beach.
“There’s that creepy noise again,” Nate whispered. “Maybe it’s those two guys.”
Devin stared hard at the dense darkness between the trees. Nate was not imagining things, he decided. Something had moved in the shadows. He could have sworn that for a couple of seconds he saw a pair of glowing eyes but it was hard to be certain because whenever he concentrated with all of his energy it seemed to him that there were a lot of small, strange things glowing in the dark around them. He’d realized very quickly that Nate could not see all the scary glow-in-the-dark stuff so he had decided not to mention it. Nate was already freaked out enough as it was. One of them had to stay calm.
“No,” he said. “It’s not the smugglers. If they had found us they would have shot us by now. You heard them back there at the cove. They said they couldn’t follow us into the Preserve.”
“They think that whatever is in here will get us. Don’t know about you but that doesn’t make me feel any better. Who knows what’s in this place?”
“You’ve lived on Rainshadow all your life. If there were dangerous wild animals in here you would have heard about them by now.”
“I’m not talking about wild animals. I’m talking about other stuff. Lots of people have gone missing in the Preserve over the years. What if they didn’t just die? What if they’re still around?”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
“How do you know that?”
It was, Devin thought, a legitimate question. How did he know there was no such thing as ghosts? He decided he did not want to pursue that line of logic.
“At least it’s not too cold in here,” he said. “If we have to spend the night we won’t get that hypo thing.”
“Hypothermia,” Nate said automatically.
“Yeah. That.”
Devin took out the old compass that Charlotte Enright had given him. He held it tightly in his hand. He had already discovered that it didn’t work inside the Preserve. When he’d tried to use it earlier he saw that all four points of the compass were glowing equally brightly. There was no way to tell which way was true north. But it felt good to hold it in his hand. Comforting.
“I’m thirsty,” Nate said after a while. “I’m going to get some water.”
“Me, too.” Devin got to his feet.
They moved across the grass to the grotto pool and looked down at the frothy water.
“Huh,” Nate said. “Something weird about that water.”
“Like what?”
But he could sense it, too, Devin thought, probably better than Nate could. There was something strange about the water in the pool.
“You can’t see the bottom,” Nate said. He looked down into the pool as if he was fascinated by it.
“The rocks at the bottom are dark so the water looks dark. That’s why you can’t see anything,” Devin said.
“Oh, man, there’s something down there,” Nate whispered.
“A fish, maybe,” Devin said uneasily.
“Whatever it is, it’s big. Don’t know about you but I’m not thirsty enough to put my hand into that water.”
“It’s just a fish.” Devin started to lean forward to scoop up some of the water.
Something dark swirled in the depths of the water. He realized he suddenly felt an overpowering urge to plunge into the pool. The darkness down below summoned him with a force that was slowly becoming irresistible. His heart started to pound. He leaned a little farther forward.
“Are you crazy, man?” Nate shouted.
He grabbed Devin’s arm and yanked him back from the edge.
Devin felt as if he had just awakened from a nightmare. He gasped for air and took several deep breaths trying to calm his racing pulse.
“Thanks,” he managed.
“Come on, we need to get away from this place,” Nate whispered.
“If we start running around in the Preserve no one will ever find us.”
“No one’s ever gonna find us, anyway,” Nate said. He did not take his eyes off the dark surface of the pool.
“Wrong,” Devin said. “The chief will find us.”
Chapter 20
SLADE BROUGHT THE SUV TO A HALT AT THE END OF Merton Road and sat quietly for a moment, hands resting on the wheel. The first frisson of unease shifted across his senses.
“This is not good,” he said to Rex. “We should have passed the boys on their bicycles somewhere along the way.”
Rex was perched on the back of the passenger seat where he had a good view out the windows. Sensing Slade’s concern, he muttered.
“We’d better go take a look.” Slade opened the door. “If Devin did decide to try to get Nate and himself into the Preserve and it turns out they got lost, I’m going to be pissed.”
Clutch in paw, Rex sidestepped along the back of the seats and hopped onto Slade’s arm. From there he scrambled up onto Slade’s shoulder.
They made their way through the trees along the top of the cliffs. To the left sheer rock walls plunged into the cold, churning waters of the Amber Sea. Slade knew that the rock face went down several hundred more feet below the surface. Rainshadow was a natural fortress, he thought. It wasn’t the first time that realization had crossed his mind. If you wanted to conceal some serious secrets, this was a good place to do it.
Fifteen minutes later he stood on top of the low cliff above Hidden Beach. There was no sign of Nate and Devin. He tried to shake off the chill factor but his senses were growing colder and more acute. His hunter intuition was telling him the truth, whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not.