Mary stepped away as the soldiers entered the building, the general in the lead, Wakeman at his side. She waited in the bright light until they emerged again, Allie with them now, the shield still in place on her head. Within minutes she was gone, and in the wake of her leaving Mary felt a terrible heaviness descend upon her, everything she’d worked for gone, vanished the way the craft had vanished and the bodies had vanished, the way everything had vanished but…
She whirled around, walked quickly to her office, opened the safe and took it out, a small metal artifact, oddly marked, which, as it rested in her hand, suddenly began to glow.
Chapter Two
Allie sat on the bed of the farmhouse where they’d taken her. She could feel the metal helmet, but during the long drive through miles and miles of farmland she’d learned to balance its weight, which was part of the way you had to live, she supposed, dealing with burdens that came out of nowhere and gave no sign of going away.
A nurse had hooked a tube to her arm, and the little pinch of the needle still ached slightly.
Private Pierce seemed to sense her pain.
“How are you doing?” Pierce asked her.
Allie could feel that something lay buried within the chambers of his mind.
“I’m all right,” she said.
Pierce smiled. “You like to read? I keep a copy of Huckleberry Finn. It was my mom’s favorite book. She’d bake us Toll House cookies, and we’d share a whole plate of them while she read.”
“If it wouldn’t make you too sad to remember her, I’d like to hear the story,” Allie said.
Pierce shook his head slowly. “No, it wouldn’t make me sad at all.”
Allie listened attentively as Pierce began to speak. Outside a vast array of military vehicles was assembling, soldiers scurrying into positions where they lay in wait, a whole army in full alert, but for all their weaponry still only men whose fears Allie sensed, fears of death and loneliness, of height and water, of bugs and snakes, and everywhere the fear of being afraid. Wakeman was standing among them, watching all this immense preparation with what Allie sensed, as she drew her mind toward his, a terrible foreboding.
Suddenly, Pierce leaped to attention as Beers entered the room.
“That’ll be all, soldier,” Beers commanded.
“Yes, sir,” Pierce said. He glanced at Allie, and she saw that he didn’t want to leave her alone with these men, but had no choice.
Beers turned to Wakeman. “Are you ready to proceed?”
Wakeman turned toward Allie and smiled. “Magic time,” he said as he removed the helmet and her hair fell loosely to her small shoulders.
Charlie knew nothing else to do, no place else to go. And so he was at her door now, standing with Lisa, waiting for Dr. Penzler to answer his knock.
When she opened it, he knew she had something to hide… or something to fear.
“Come in,” she said, then led Charlie and Lisa into the room, carefully closed the windows and drew the curtains. “You don’t have to worry,” she told them. “No one’s coming here.”
“What do you mean?” Charlie asked.
“I work for them, Charlie,” Dr. Penzler said. “I was the one who called them.”
“Tell us where they are,” Lisa demanded. “Tell us where they took Allie.”
Dr. Penzler hesitated a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “I know you don’t believe me, but I really don’t know. I’ve been calling people. At numbers I was given. But all the numbers have been disconnected.” She glanced from Charlie to Lisa, then back to Charlie. “I have no way of finding them.”
“We trusted you,” Lisa said.
“They told me that I was helping,” Dr. Penzler explained. “That they had proof people who had been taken were in great danger. I thought I was helping.”
Lisa glared at her. “You told them Charlie was here. You told them that Allie was with us and now they have her.”
Dr. Penzler nodded. “Lisa, I’m so sorry,” she said.
Lisa glanced at Charlie, then back to Dr. Penzler. “I want you to regress me,” she said. “Allie and I have this link, and in regression I’ve had these moments where I feel Allie… sense where she is. I want you to help me find her.”
“We’d have to go pretty deep, Lisa,” Dr. Penzler warned.
“Can you get me there?” Lisa asked desperately.
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
“I’d go anywhere to get Allie back.”
Dr. Penzler rose, her face full of resolution. “All right,” she said. “We’ll do it.”
She moved over to Lisa and placed her hands on her forehead. “Close your eyes and take a deep breath.”
Lisa did as she was told.
“And another.”
Lisa drew in a second deep breath.
“And a third.”
Lisa took the third breath, even deeper than the previous two, and let it out very slowly.
“Now I want you to go to that place where you and Allie find each other,” Dr. Penzler said. “It’s in your heart and in your head. Can you find it for me?”
“Yes,” Lisa said softly.
“Good,” Dr. Penzler said. “What do you see?”
“Darkness,” Lisa answered. “All I see is darkness.”
“Go ahead. Tell me more.”
“It’s very dark,” Lisa continued. “It smells kind of moldy. But I feel something. There are people waiting. Soldiers.”
“Waiting for what?”
“Waiting,” Lisa began, then stopped. She heard clamps being loosened, felt a strap beneath her chin fall away.
“Waiting for what?” Dr. Penzler repeated.
“They want something,” Lisa answered. “They’re waiting for something.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“It’s a room,” Lisa said. “License plates on the wall. Peeling paint. A calendar with a tractor on… Walling-ton’s… Feed… and… Grain.”
“The license plates, where are they from, Lisa?”
“ Peace Garden State. ND. North Dakota.”
“Tell me more,” Dr. Penzler said urgently. “We’re getting to that place, Lisa.”
Lisa flinched violently and felt something splatter onto her chest. She opened her eyes and saw a stain, red and glistening, then, at her feet, Dr. Penzler’s body, curled and bloody. She looked up and saw a man standing a few feet away, his pistol now aimed at her.
Charlie rushed forward, grabbed a lamp and brought it down on the man’s head, then gathered Lisa into his arms. “We’ve got to get out of here,” he said.
Wakeman stood beside General Beers in the observation room, his eyes on Allie.
“What happens now?” the general asked curtly.
“We wait,” Wakeman answered.
“How long should it take?”
“I don’t know.”
“You believe they’ll come?”
“Absolutely,” Wakeman answered. “But then again, I believe a lot of things.”
Mary walked to the phone in her father’s study and dialed the number.
“Superior Fish,” the technician answered.
“This is Mary Crawford,” she said. “Look at the map. Any new lights?”
A pause, then, “There’s one new light.”
“Where on the map?”
“ North Dakota. Benson Country. Just outside of Brins-made.”
Mary quickly wrote the name on her notepad. “Thank you,” she said.
The roadblock appeared almost out of nowhere, a truck strategically parked, soldiers all around it.
Charlie lifted his foot off the accelerator, and looked at Lisa. He saw her answer in his eyes, that they had no choice but to go on. He pressed down on the accelerator and continued on until he reached the roadblock.