Carrie took the envelope and opened the flap with the stiletto of her finger. Inside was a printout showing a section of map with a town in the center called Cherokee. There was also a time, an alphanumeric number, a compass heading and a note saying: approximate distance to target, four miles.
“Some people sympathetic to our cause did me the courtesy of installing LoJack devices to the cars of Dr. Kinderman and Professor Douglas. I figured it might be useful to know where they were in case they managed to evade us. Dr. Kinderman’s car has been in the long-term parking lot of Dulles International Airport since early yesterday evening. I think it’s safe to surmise that he is no longer in the country, but we have others looking into where he may have gone. The signal from Professor Douglas’s car, however, was picked up by a state trooper in Swain County, North Carolina, about half an hour ago.” He pointed at the piece of paper. “That gives you a rough idea of where he is. It’s about a five-hour drive from here on good roads, so it will probably take you a little longer today, the weather being the way it is. If you head off now you should get there before dark.”
He closed his eyes and looked up, one hand on his heart, the other raised in front of him like a benediction. “I pray you, God, watch over these, your servants, along the righteous path so they may do your work, and bring these foul sinners to swift and rightful atonement so that their souls may finally be freed from the burden thou hast given them, amen.”
He opened his eyes and smiled at them both, as though something wonderful had just happened. “You should make a start. Daylight is burning. If you leave the way you came in, Miss Boerman will give you everything you need. We will have more accurate information by the time you get to Cherokee. Remember, we need to send a message to anyone else who would dare to stare upon the face of God. I’m counting on you to send that message, loud and clear. And if anyone tries to stop you in this sacred mission, anyone at all, be they civilian or officer of the law, then they must also be sacrificed in the name of the greater glory.”
55
Shepherd burst from the interview room and headed across the almost empty office with Franklin following close behind. “It was during summer break at the end of the first year of my master’s,” he said, bundling the laptop back in its case as he walked. “I was at Marshall working as a lab monkey in data analysis, cataloging all the new stuff that was pouring in from Hubble. James Webb had just been green lit and Professor Douglas was in charge, though he hadn’t put his team together yet. It was really hot that year and everyone else seemed to be on holiday. Me and a couple of other research students were the only ones doing any work.”
They pushed through a set of double doors out to the main stairway and started heading back down to the reception area. “One Friday a few weeks into our placement Professor Douglas popped his head around the door and told us all to go back to the dorm we were staying in and pack for a two-day trip. We had no idea what he had planned but he was the boss so we did as we were told.
“He picked us up in his old jeep and we headed east. We thought maybe he was taking us to one of the other launch areas but we drove right past them and kept on going. He said it was good to go back to basics every once in a while, remind yourself of what it was all about, and that was what we were going to do: no hi-tech, no computers, just a simple reflector telescope, a few beers and a clear sky.
“We wound up late in the afternoon heading up into the Smoky Mountains just north of Cherokee, North Carolina. He had this log cabin there, way up on a ridge. It looked like it was straight out of a Western: three rooms, potbelly stove, freshwater you had to pump out of a well. It even had a porch with a rocking chair on it. I guess it was just far enough away from anywhere so that the sweep of the modern world kind of passed it by. And because it was miles from anywhere it got so dark that the whole sky lit up at night. You could see more stars there with your naked eye than you could with a good telescope in a light-drenched town or city. He had a telescope set up near the cabin in a hunter’s hide built on a rocky ledge and we spent two days up there, tracking the planets, looking at the stars, talking about Galileo and Copernicus and Kepler, where it all came from and where we thought it was all going. He was fired up about James Webb even then. Talked about how it was going to see right to the edge of the universe, right back to the beginning of time.”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and the desk sergeant looked up wearily.
“We need a car,” Franklin said.
“Sure, no problem,” the walrus replied, wearily picking up his phone and punching a button. “I trust your stay with us has been a pleasant one. Please let me know if you used anything from the minibar. I’ll let you know when your cab is here.”
“I don’t mean a cab. We need to borrow a car. One that’s going to be able to cope with the weather out there.”
Shepherd frowned. “Why do we need a car? I mean, much as I hate to say it, but wouldn’t flying be quicker?”
“I doubt anything will be taking off in this,” Franklin said, pointing outside at the thickening snow. “We might get lucky and make it to Charlotte, always assuming they haven’t got worse weather there. But then it’s still about a three- to four-hour drive to Cherokee on mostly mountain roads. It’s maybe five hours from here but mostly on dead-straight, flat plain roads. Trust me, I know this area pretty well. We’ll be better off driving.”
Franklin steered Shepherd away from the main desk and over to the row of seats by the wall. “Tell me why you think Douglas is there.”
“There was something special about the place. The professor had history there, real history, why else would he drive all that way when there are plenty of mountains much closer to Huntsville? It had all these photographs of people in frames tacked to the walls, some going way back, including one of the professor as a kid standing on the porch and squinting into the sunlight as he held a model plane over his head. He must have been about five or six but you could still see the man he would become.”
Franklin looked over at the desk sergeant who was now resolutely ignoring the constantly ringing phone. “How we doing with that ride?” he shouted over.
The sergeant looked at them over the top of his reading glasses. “We’re just having a Caddy waxed and polished for you now.”
Franklin turned back to Shepherd. “Funny guy. He should be on Comedy Central.”
Shepherd glanced outside at the swirling white. “What about the roads — the traffic’s all snarled up already, we saw it coming in.”
“Exactly. We saw it coming in to town. The roads heading out will be pretty clear. So long as we get a decent car, driving’s going to be our best option. Trust me.”
Shepherd nodded, but for the first time he wasn’t sure whether he did.
56
Liv sat in the kitchen eating dried fruit and salt crackers she’d found in one of the food lockers. Kyle pulled a stool from beneath a stainless-steel countertop and sat down wearily opposite. “You should drink some of this,” he said, pulling a bottle of water from a thermal box on the floor. “It might taste a bit funny because it’s got rehydration salts in it.” He poured half of the bottle into a glass and slid it over to her. “I made up a batch for your friends. Don’t worry, it’s clean. In fact, all the water’s clean. I’ve been running tests every hour and the ground water’s flowing pure again. The pressure must have blown away the contaminants, though I’ll still keep checking it. Go ahead — drink.”