Vortex (12 page)

A short, stocky boy with a thick head of blond hair came out of the van. He glared up at Ryker with a round face that looked angry, as if he had just been punished for something. “Hello, Stewart,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”

Stewart said nothing, just continued to glare.

To Marjorie, Ryker said, “Level four was the best you could do? Penny is a level five. A level four hunting for a level five... I don’t know, it doesn’t sound too promising.”

“Penny’s the best we’ve got and our other two level fives were unavailable. Don’t worry, Stewart is
very
good. Part of the reason for Stewart’s level four status is his bad attitude.” She looked down at the boy. “Isn’t that right, Stewart? But that’s not going to be a problem here, is it?”

The boy didn’t look at her.

“
Is
it, Stewart?” she said sternly.

He shook his head slowly.

“Well, come on into the motorhome,” Ryker said, “and I’ll explain the situation to you. It’s nice and warm in there.”

“That’s good to know,” Marjorie said. She put a hand on Stewart’s shoulder and turned him around to follow Ryker. “The heater in the van is pretty weak and I’m freezin’ my tits off.”

“No, no, you don’t want to go out there now,” Mr. Mahler said, shaking his head. “It’s very cold and... the snow.”

Karen looked at Gavin and saw him give her a glance. It was his second attempt to get Mahler to give them a tour of his property, and Gavin had decided it wasn’t going to happen. So now he was giving her the signal to go out there whenever she felt comfortable doing so.

Mahler didn’t pay much attention to her. He talked to Gavin and occasionally glanced at her. Even when she asked him a question, he directed his response to Gavin. She was just a woman. Why should he take her seriously? Karen’s grandfather had been the same way. He expected women to stay in the kitchen and speak only when spoken to.

Mahler was a tall, rawboned man with shaggy white hair that was thinning on top and weathered skin that looked like leather. He spoke slowly and with a German accent that no doubt had faded over the years.

While Mahler and Gavin talked, Karen looked around the kitchen. Mrs. Mahler was bent over, taking the chicken out of the oven. Gertie was drying her hands on a dishtowel, but was watching Karen from the corner of her eye.

Karen waited for a pause in the conversation, then said, “Excuse me, could I use your bathroom?”

“Oh, certainly,” Mrs. Mahler said. She pointed. “Right through that door, you turn right and go down the hall. Third door on the left.”

“Thank you.” Karen stood and left the kitchen. It would look a little odd if she went back to the foyer and got her coat to go to the bathroom, so she went down the hall without it. At the other end was a room with a door that had a square window in the top half. The window looked outside.

Karen passed the bathroom and went into the room at the end of the hall. It held a washer and dryer, a large, deep sink, a shelf of detergents, bleach, fabric softeners and stain removers. She went to the door and looked out the window at the covered porch in back. She went out, closed the door, crossed the porch and stepped outside.

It was still snowing and Karen’s breath fogged in front of her face with each exhalation. The wool sweater she wore was not enough to hold off the freezing cold, but she decided she would survive. She saw the low white building some distance from the back of the house. Two motorhomes, a white van and some cars were parked near it.

“Hello, Mr. Ryker,” she muttered to herself. Then she started in that direction.

I
n the motorhome, Ryker watched as Stewart held a hairbrush that had belonged to Penny. The boy squinted and frowned at it as he ran his fingertips over it. Ryker stood with Marjorie at the far end of the home, by the door to the bathroom.

“He’ll be able to locate her,” Marjorie whispered. “Have you got people to get to her when he does?”

“This little town is
full
of my people. They’re all on call day and night for whatever comes up. They’ll get to her immediately.”

As they watched, Stewart seemed to become distracted. He lifted his gaze from the brush and his eyes darted around. “What’s wrong?” Ryker whispered.

Marjorie frowned and shook her head. “Something’s bothering him.” She walked over to the boy and said, “Stewart? What’s the matter?”

He looked up at her and said, without hesitation, “Someone’s here. Someone who knows where she is.”

“Here?” Ryker said, stepping over to them. “At this ranch?”

Still frowning, Stewart nodded. “A man and a woman.”

“How do they know her?” Ryker asked.

“They don’t know her. Not really. But... they’ve met her. Recently. They’re here... for other reasons.”

Ryker began to feel a tightness deep in his abdomen. “Other reasons?
What
other reasons?”

Stewart closed his eyes a moment and his frown deepened. He was just a boy, but Ryker suspected deep lines would soon be etched into his forehead from all the frowning he did.

“I’m... not sure,” Stewart said. “But it’s related to... to you. And what you’re doing here.”

Marjorie turned to Ryker. “Would you like him to focus on this for the time being?”

“Yes.”

“Continue, Stewart. Who are these people and what do they want?”

Stewart set the hairbrush aside on the couch and closed his eyes. “They’re not together right now,” he said, his voice almost dropping to a whisper. “The man is in the house and... the woman... she’s nearby. Coming this way. She’s watching. Right now.”

Ryker took his cell phone from his pocket and thumbed a button. When he heard a voice on the line, he said quietly, “We’ve got a problem. Somehow, there’s been a leak and we’ve got two intruders. There’s a woman somewhere between the house and the lab right now and she’s on her way here. Stop her. And put this place on lockdown. Immediately. That includes the Mahlers. Nobody leaves or talks to anyone on the outside. Shoot to kill if necessary. All bets are off. We’ll worry about clean-up later.”

Pyk had been finding it difficult to remain still. He was feeling hungry and achy from not moving. But it helped that he was not really in the room—he was still reaching beyond the walls that surrounded him.

The new presence was another young one like Penny, but without Penny’s goodness and warmth. The new presence was searching for Penny, and it was doing that for
them
, for the same creatures that had harmed Pyk and held him here in this ugly place. Then, quite abruptly, the new presence changed its focus—from finding Penny to following one of her friends, the female close by who had come to help.

He wanted to get up and interfere because he knew the new presence did not have good intentions and it would only cause trouble for Penny’s friend, but he did not know if the time was right. He decided to wait a little while longer and see what happened.

Crystal was getting worried. She sat on the couch in her living room and found that she’d begun fidgeting because Penny’s agitation was contagious.

The girl paced the length of the living room repeatedly clenching her fists, running a finger through her hair, rubbing the back of her neck and wearing an expression of dread.

Crystal had not gone to her office that day. She wasn’t about to leave Penny alone and was afraid to take her out of the house, so she’d canceled all her appointments. She’d made breakfast for Penny and they’d watched TV for a while, but late in the morning, the girl began to get restless. Now she paced the room like a cat reacting to howling, barking dogs at the door.

Suddenly, Penny stopped, spun around to face Crystal and said, “We have to go out there.”

“Out where?”

“To Gertie’s ranch. Somethings wrong. Karen and Gavin are in trouble. I mean, no, not in trouble, not yet. But they’re about to be. Something is about to happen out there, it’s, it’s, well, I don’t know but, but—” Her fists were clenched and as she spoke and she pounded them against the sides of her legs.

“Please calm down, Penny.”

She spun away from Crystal and began pacing again. “I
can’t
calm down. Something bad is going to happen.”

“Tell you what. Why don’t I call Karen? She left me her cell number. Would that make you feel better?” Crystal went to the phone.

“Will you let me talk to her?”

“If she can talk, sure.”

“Okay, but... hurry.”

The snow crunched under Karen’s feet as she made her way around a pen of goats. She kept her eye on the white building and the black motorhomes parked near it, watching for some kind of activity. She had no plan, wasn’t even sure what the hell she was doing, but this wasn’t the first time. She wanted to get as close to that lab as she could, and if possible, get inside for a look around. She doubted that would happen, though. This was, after all, a Km Services project. She was surprised the building wasn’t surrounded by armed guards.

Beyond the goat pen was a run-down old shed not much bigger than a phone booth. She stood behind it and peered around the corner at the building. No people, no sounds, no movement. She was heading quickly for a couple of pine trees when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Once she was behind one of the trees, she took the phone out and flipped it open.