“Had no choice,” she responded in a quiet voice. “The sedative must have given you some hell of a nightmare. But it’s over now, and we need you to be quiet. Don’t want to wake up the others.”
He looked over to see another double bed in the room, where Quincy and Lily lay side by side.
“Don’t panic,” she said. “It’s important she stay asleep until we can figure out how she’s able to do what we saw. And nobody wants to hear Quincy Martin’s crap at the moment, so it’s just fine that he keeps sleeping too. We have no intention of hurting anyone.”
“You’ll understand that’s hard to believe.”
“Well, we had strict orders to bring you in unharmed. And we needed some time to process what happened out there. So it was just best that you slept on the road.”
He vaguely remembered the last words of the man in the front seat.
“My grandmother… she knows about this?”
“She does,” said a whisper from the window. The man with the shaved head stood peering out through blinds, a long rifle in his hands. “And we intend to deliver you in one piece. Thus the necessary constraints.”
“Who are you?” he said, sitting up despite the woman’s pressure.
“You’re stronger than I thought,” she said.
“My grandmother would never, ever condone a kidnapping. Not of me, and never of a little girl.”
“Your grandmother didn’t see that little girl just kill federal agents by looking at them. And if she thought you were in danger at all, then believe me, she would have authorized it.”
He began to demand to speak with his grandmother when he saw the guns lined up beneath the window. Six AK-47s, four with bump stocks. Two large black bags sat before the guns, obviously used to carry the weapons into the motel room. The man had a pistol on his waist, as did the woman with the bandana, who walked over to continue watching from the other side of the window.
William knew nothing about his grandmother’s work or who was ever on the other end of those secretive phone calls in Grandpa Tom’s office, who sent the mail that arrived for her with no return address, and who she thought of when she silently watched the trees behind her home.
But this? These people? No. Not his grandmother.
He looked over to Lily. Then again, nothing made sense.
“Are you Researchers?” he asked.
The man raised an eyebrow. “Do we look like academics?”
“Then who are you?”
“Neve, keep watching for Kevin. He should have found a place to stash the van. We got lucky that no one was outside when we snuck ‘em in. I know Kevin’s trying to be cautious.”
The woman nodded, fingering her pistol to take off the safety.
The man came to kneel in front of William. “What do you know about this girl?”
“Maybe you could start by explaining who you are—”
“We were dispatched by an organization to which your grandmother, shall we say, belongs. When word surfaced of your appearance, we were sent to keep you safe. And given what we saw, it’s a good thing we came.”
William narrowed his eyes. “You knew something would happen?”
“Keep your voice down. Let’s just say we had reason to be concerned. Let me ask you: Has Lynn Roseworth ever mentioned the SSA? Anything about them?”
The thick packages that arrived with “URGENT,” usually in red marker, arriving at his parent’s house. Swells of people that surrounded him in public bathrooms, asking for just a minute of his time to answer some questions. The social media pages run full-time by strangers that stole his picture and sent out warnings about government conspiracies. All part of the hysteria he’d hated his whole life.
The man before him reeked of it.
“What you’ve just seen should let you know that there’s a whole lot more going on than what you’ve ever known of. I can also see that you don’t believe me. Well, you tell me, then—you tell me why those federal agents were trying to take you. Why they had two helicopters filled with agents ready to bring you in at gunpoint, both at that trailer and then the airport. Agents who all wore black suits. All at the same time a little girl shows up with the ability to kill on the spot. You tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t have a damn clue.”
“I think you do, Mr. Chance. I don’t think you’re stupid. I think you need to explain to me what you know about this girl and how Quincy Martin is involved.”
William did not miss the fact that the man continued to keep his finger on the trigger.
Stay calm. Keep everyone calm.
“Listen. I don’t know who she is. She somehow ended up in my trailer with an agent from the federal park service. I don’t really understand why they came. The agent said the girl insisted on finding me. I have no idea how those men died at the airport and the field—”
“What do you mean the field?” Rudd asked. “You mean it didn’t just happen at the airport?”
“I don’t know what happened. And then that guy—Quincy—who drove the Porsche, was there. He wanted to run, and I couldn’t just leave her there. So we took off.”
The man pointed angrily. “Why was Quincy Martin there?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know who he is. All he said was something about wanting to make some kind of deal.”
“Are you kidding? Swooping in on all this trying to make a buck? Not that he needs it. You really don’t know who he is? I don’t think it’s by chance he showed up at the same moment those agents moved in. He needs to be removed from this scenario. And fast.”
“Listen. No one gets hurt, understand?” William said. “I understand you think you’re keep me safe, but you have to let us go—”
“You don’t get it. We let you go, and the government gets you, and you disappear forever—”
The sound of a pistol resounded from outside, followed by another.
“Rudd!” Neve said, peering out the window. “It’s Kevin, he’s running!”
“What’s going on…” Quincy muttered from his bed. Lily too began to stir.
The bald man turned his eyes, streaked with reddening vessels, back to William. “Stay away from the windows. Can you keep the girl calm?”
“I don’t know—”
“I suggest you try,” the man said, running to the door.
William hurried over to the bed while keeping an eye on the man. Those bloodshot eyes were now peering through the peephole, his finger was on the trigger of the gun. Neve, too, had her pistol raised in preparation.
William gently brushed the girl’s forehead and face. “Lily, can you wake up…”
Her eyes popped open in panic, her voice raspy. “There’s a monster in the mountain.”
“It’s OK, Lily—”
“There’s a monster in the mountain,” she frantically repeated. “She’s there. We have to go!”
“It’s OK, it’s OK,” he whispered. “Don’t talk right now, OK?”
Quincy began to groan and tried to sit up. “You’ve got to keep quiet, too. These people are heavily armed. Something’s happened outside—”
Rudd pulled open the door, and William recognized the man who injected Lily. His thick shock of black hair was flattened somewhat by the Nixon mask he’d worn before.
“What happened?” Rudd asked, quickly shutting the door.
“Drone. I had to shoot it down. Hovering over the other end of the parking lot. Couldn’t take a chance on it getting video of us,” the man said, holstering his pistol and picking up one of the semiautomatics.
“Every man in a midlife crisis has one of those,” Quincy said, holding his head. “What the hell is wrong with you people—?”
“Quiet!” Rudd commanded, pointing the rifle at Quincy. “I am not screwing around here!” He then held up his hand at Lily, cautiously. “We’re here to protect you too, honey.”