When they approached to within a few miles of their destination, Bill nudged Mike fully awake.
“How close are we?” asked Mike.
“Not really sure, but maybe a mile and a half,” said Bill.
“Why aren’t you sure? Did it move while I was asleep?” Mike looked around and saw the detector on the seat behind him. It was off.
“No,” said Bill. “Well, actually I don’t know, but it’s still daylight for another few hours. I was thinking though—we know it’s on this heading, but it could be any distance. We assumed that it was nearly on a straight line from where you first saw the footprint to the kids house, but it could have veered.”
“That’s true,” said Mike. “It will be easy to test though. We’ll just fire up that thing and wait for the direction to change if we pass it.”
“That’s why I woke you up,” said Bill.
“Oh,” said Mike. “Sorry, I’m still a bit asleep.”
He reached around and fetched the device. The device was small, tiny compared to Gary’s version, and Mike could hold it with one hand and point it in various directions to find the strongest signal. The display was a simple bar-graph, made of green, yellow, and red lights. Only the power requirements, which meant it had to be plugged into the car’s accessory outlet, prohibited the device from being truly portable.
Mike flipped the switch and waved the device in a short arc, honing in on the signal.
“Still headed the right direction,” he announced. The signal was at its peak in nearly the exact direction they traveled. Mike reached to the back again and pulled out one of his large paper maps he had brought along to supplement Bill’s GPS. He propped the map up on his knees.
A woman’s voice called out from the GPS, instructing Bill to turn right.
“What do you think?” asked Bill.
Mike traced the lines on his map before answering. “Makes sense,” he said. “This road is going to veer off to the left up here, so yeah, a right turn.”
Bill slowed and turned on the next road. For almost a minute the signal stayed off to their left, forcing Mike to point the detector almost in Bill’s face. As soon as their road wound around a few more turns, the signal moved out front once more.
“Arriving at destination,” the GPS announced, surprising both men.
“I guess I missed the mark with the GPS,” said Bill.
“No worries,” said Mike. “We’re still going the right direction.”
Bill obeyed a stop sign and they took the opportunity to conference over the paper map.
“There’s nothing in this direction,” he said.
“Could be he’s holed up in another cave,” offered Mike. “We know he’s fine with cave-lodging.”
“Yeah,” said Bill. “I’ll just keep driving until the signal pulls off.”
SEVERAL MINUTES LATER, when they had traveled almost four miles, Bill prepared to pull over so he could see if Mike knew how to properly read the device.
“I’m telling you, it’s fine,” said Mike. “The signal is getting gradually stronger, and it’s for sure… Wait. Stop!” he yelled as he spun in his seat.
Bill brought the car to a skidding halt on the cracked pavement. When he had pulled off the road onto the shoulder, Mike handed him the detector and focused on the map.
“It’s here,” he tapped his lap. “Through the woods.”
“Just out in the woods?” Bill asked as he adjusted the device and narrowed down on the exact bearing. He didn’t look up from the readout to ask his question.
“Nope,” said Mike. “Look. I think it’s here." He held his map right in Bill’s face, so the engineer couldn’t ignore him.
“Huh,” said Bill. “Sewage?”
“Yeah,” said Mike. “All the town’s sewage comes down to this treatment plant. It’s just far enough away so the smell isn’t a nuisance.”
“That’s great,” said Bill. “Where would this thing hide in a sewage treatment plant?”
“I don’t know,” said Mike. “We’ve got a couple hours of daylight left. Let’s go find out.”
Bill nodded and handed the detector back to Mike so he could find a good place to park. They had to settle for a wide shoulder on the other side of the road about a tenth of a mile north. Mike gathered up the two maps he found most suitable and climbed out of the car. He stretched while Bill collected the detector and several other things from the back seat.
“Wait a second,” said Mike, “how are we supposed to use the detector? It hooks up to the car.”
“Ah,” said Bill. “I have another surprise.” He flashed a smug smile at Mike and bent over to pull the trunk lever. Mike met him around the back of the car and looked on as Bill hoisted open the trunk.
“That’s got to weigh a ton,” said Mike, pointing at the extra car battery in Bill’s trunk.
“It does,” Bill admitted, “but I’ve got a backpack for it.”
After wiring the device to the spare battery, Bill loaded the heavy power supply into a small backpack and held up it to Mike.
“Help me on with this, would you?” asked Bill.
“As long as you’re carrying it,” said Mike. He took the heavy load from Bill and helped him thread his arms through the straps.
“Not bad,” said Bill, adjusting his shoulders. “Wouldn’t want to sprint or anything.” He fed the wires under his arm and held the device with one hand.
“How long will it last on battery?” asked Mike.
“I think about an hour, but I’m not too sure,” said Bill. “I know how much current it draws, but not how long this particular battery will go between charges.”
“Leave it off for a while then,” said Mike. “We can spot check it later, but I think I have a good idea where we should start.”
They crossed the road and plunged into the woods quickly, leaving the road behind and getting enough foliage between them and it for good cover. Even though it was slower going, they didn’t want to risk being seen trespassing. Mike led the way. He kept his head up most of the time, keeping an eye on the position of the sun. The map’s contour lines provided him enough information to keep them on track.
“Let’s get a fix,” Mike said after twenty minutes of walking.
Bill powered on the detector and ran a sweep. His big arc showed the strongest signal in the direction they had been walking. “Good job so far,” he said. “Right on target.”
“Good,” said Mike. “We’ve got one more small hill before we should see something.”
“I can smell something already,” said Bill.
“Yeah,” agreed Mike.
As they crested the small hill, Mike had his head buried in the map as he shuffled along. Bill caught him by the collar and stopped him. On the other side of the bush, just past where Mike would have pushed through the branches, the hill was cleared all the way to the sewage facility.
“Thanks,” said Mike.
“Let’s circle it,” suggested Bill.
Mike nodded.
Bill powered up the device and the two men headed south, staying in the woods and skirting the clearing. By sweeping a narrow arc every few steps, Bill was able to point accurately at the origin of the signal. They crouched and had a decent look at the buildings and pools.
“Is this place manned?” asked Bill.
“I don’t know,” said Mike. “Wait—yeah. Look at the cars.” He pointed towards a small parking lot sticking out from the other side of a low building. They could see the hoods of three cars.
“Maybe we could pretend to be inspectors or something. Get inside the place?” asked Bill.