Six Days

Prologue

Six Months Earlier

Twelve hours, he thought. In twelve hours he’d be home and away from these madmen.

Walt Phinney of the U.S. Department of Energy tightened his seatbelt as the Air Force C-141 Starlifter transport rumbled down the bumpy runway and took off, climbing into the frigid Russian air. Below were the drafty and cold buildings of a Russian air force installation, and when this was done, if he never went further east in his life than Cape May, New Jersey, he’d be a happy man indeed. He was sitting uncomfortably on a row of seating made from red webbing that ran for most of the fuselage’s length. He sat alone, with a clump of Air Force personnel up forward, holding their own private court. No matter if they wanted to sit apart. Damn it, he’d gladly ride on top of the cockpit if it meant going home today.

Home. He unzipped his Air Force-issue parka and reached into the inside pocket, pulled out a creased photo of his wife Kelli and their two-year-old daughter, Sherri. He smiled and rubbed his thumb across the portrait. Little Sherri looked so much like her mother, from the blonde hair to that dimpled smile. Soon, loved ones, I’ll be home soon, he thought. Three weeks on this miserable mission that shouldn’t have taken more than three days, except for the damnable bureaucrats from the DOE, the Air Force, and the Russian government.

He looked to the rear of the jet, where a pallet was secured in the middle with tie-down straps and ropes. The pallet was a framework of wood and foam rubber, and centered in the middle of the pallet were twenty little bullet-shaped gifts, twenty green and yellow presents less than a yard tall that were coming home to America. Of course, these little gifts had been designed to visit American troops and American equipment much, much earlier, on the invasion battlefield of West Germany, in the Fulda Gap, where the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies planned to pour into the West. He put the photo in an outside pocket and folded his arms. Now, of course, the Fulda Gap still existed but there was one Germany, no more Warsaw Pact and one poor Russia that was gladly giving up these twenty 10-kiloton tactical nuclear warheads in exchange for grain and technology credits. Other C-141s in other parts of the old Soviet empire were doing their part as well this early spring, gladly disarming the pieces of that old terror in exchange for feeding civilians. Not a bad deal.

The jet bumped a bit and he stretched out his legs, the better to hold himself in the web seating. Seeing these babies home was Walt’s job. He had come along with this Air Force unit to ensure all twenty warheads were ready for travel, that they were in fact what the Russians claimed they were -- further back was the pallet of his own detecting equipment which had proven just that -- and he was to be with these twenty warheads all the way to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, to a refueling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, and then all the way home to the Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, where he had been stationed these past four years. There, the warheads would be disassembled. And then, after a while home, it’d be time to put in his resignation and get the hell out of government service. He was tired of working so closely with such deadly materials, materials that sometimes gave him dreams so dark that he would wake up in the middle of a night with a shout. It was time to move back east, where the land wasn’t so dry and where green things grew even in the absence of sprinkler systems. Time, maybe, to move into one of those gated communities, drop out and just work on raising a family and to hell with everybody else.

He folded his arms, tried to warm himself. Damn past three weeks, he hadn’t been warm once. The heating system in the old Soviet Air Force barracks creaked and groaned but didn’t produce much warmth. There were no showers, just baths, and every bath was missing a stopper. He had to steal a raw potato from the base commissary and use that as a plug, though the food was so awful, he probably should have just eaten it instead. And there had been other things he had noticed as well. The crumbling concrete, the exposed and rusting rebar in he buildings. The grass growing in cracks along the runway. The old MiG fighters, motionless in their concrete revetments, their tires flat. The shabby uniforms of the Russian technicians. This, this had been the enemy that his father and grandfather had been so concerned about? This had been the enemy that had been the focus of so much energy, so much hate, so many dollars in defense systems over the decades? It had seemed ridiculous.

Walt looked up forward, where the knot of Air Force personnel was still clustered. They sure didn’t think it had been ridiculous. They had seemed to take a perverse joy in disarming such a stubborn and old enemy. The group had been led by a Captain Raynor and they mostly had been tolerant of his presence. That had been it. No late night drinks. No small talk. No glad-handing. Just the logistics of their mission and nothing else. And not to be paranoid, but Walt always had the feeling that whenever he entered a meeting room or jet hangar, the small group of Air Force people stopped talking for a second and then quickly changed the subject. Nothing he could prove, but there had been something there. A presence, a scent, like something had been changed, and just for his benefit.

Madmen. He wasn’t sure who was madder. The old Russian military personnel down there, cheerfully giving up weapons of mass destruction for bread, or these American military personnel up here, still thinking they mattered. Walt wasn’t sure what mattered nowadays. The current Washington scandal involved the President’s bladder habits, for God’s sake, and defense budgets were being cut left and right, as the powerful aging baby boomer generation demanded more and more Social Security and Medicare benefits. Once upon a time the economy had been so hot that the Air Force couldn’t hold onto trained personnel, but such a hot economy was a fading memory in the third year of the current recession. He could see the difference, in the tired eyes of the pilots, the carefully mended jump suits, and the old equipment that still bore stenciling from the first Persian Gulf War. They were still number one, but were fading and worse of all, they knew it. Walt wondered if the Russian military had been so damn friendly because they knew their old rival would soon join them in disarray and disrepair.

There was another jolt, sharper than before, and a loud snap that made him clench the webbing tight with his hands. Walt looked to the rear of the jet. Damn it all to hell, talk about disrepair and old equipment. The last jolt of turbulence had snapped a couple of the tie-down straps, and one of the warheads was leaning away from its protective berth. Not that it was much of a problem: the C-141 could suddenly plow into the steppes -- not a very pleasant thought of course -- and not a single warhead would detonate. The triggering devices would simply be crushed. But it wasn’t good to have the damn thing hanging like that for the rest of the trip. Suppose there was more turbulence? Goddamn thing could fall out and roll around the metal flooring, crush a few toes in the process.

He looked forward. No one up there had noticed. Walt unbuckled his seatbelt and got up, a bit unsteady as the jet still climbed to its cruising altitude. Let’s take a look and then get back up to Captain Raynor. Get a couple of the more muscular sergeants back here and put things right. He walked the dozen feet aft, holding onto wall straps and webbing to keep his balance. There. The little bastard was leaning out. Maybe we could push it back in place. He reached out and touched it and --

Something was wrong.

He stepped back. Why? Why was something wrong?

Walt wasn’t sure, but there was a sour taste in his mouth. His gut was telling him something was wrong, and after five years at Pantex, assembling and disassembling nuclear warheads, he always listened to his gut. Always.

What was it?

It was a warhead, like any other, with serial numbers and Cyrillic lettering, and openings for probes and connections to mate it with an artillery shell or a rocket body.

So what was wrong?

Touch. He knew there was a problem when he touched it.

Walt touched it again. The casing was smooth. He rubbed at it.

Too smooth, idiot.

True. He touched the other warheads, noticed the bumps and rough patches where the old Soviet technicians had done a good job, but not a great job, in putting it together. The joys of a command economy. You got the job done and that was that.

He touched the leaning warhead again. It didn’t match. It didn’t belong. It was too well-polished.

The sour taste grew stronger in his mouth. Somebody had just pulled a fast one.

And he had caught it just in time.

Walt made his way quickly up forward, passing his seat and the mid-aft doorways on each side, and then to the seats that the Air Force guys were occupying. Again, that damn feeling he was being watched in a critical fashion. One of the tech sergeants, however, did smile up at him. Ramez, who was originally from Miami, just like Walt, and the only guy who treated him as more than just a government weasel. They had spent at least a few minutes during the past few weeks, discussing yet again another disappointing Florida Marlins season. Walt passed through and Captain Raynor glanced up from a military-issue lapbot that he had been typing on. He had a large nose and his skin was slightly pockmarked, and with his large brown eyes, he looked like a hawk, always on the hunt.

He leaned down, yelled above the engine noise in Captain Raynor’s ear. Captain, we’ve got a problem!

What is it? the captain asked, closing the gray lapbot cover.

A couple of tie-down straps on the pallet just let loose, and that’s not all, Walt said, trying to choose his words carefully. One of the warheads doesn’t match. It looks like a fake.

The captain’s eyes seemed to bulge out. What? A fake?

Walt nodded. Yeah, a dummy warhead. All of the warheads checked out yesterday. I think someone scammed us, just before takeoff. Captain, we’ve got to turn around and go back. Once we’re on the ground, I can prove it’s a fake. Then we can take it from there

The captain shook his head, almost in disgust, and said something to a lieutenant sitting near him. The lieutenant got up and went toward the cockpit. The captain stood up and said, You better show me, Mister Phinney.

Walt turned and started back to the rear of the jet, and he stumbled again as the jet made another turn and he could feel it suddenly start to descend. Good. The pilot was heading back to the Russian air force base. Once on the ground and once he got his detecting equipment unpacked, he could prove that the warhead was a dummy. Nicely made, but a dummy nonetheless, and it’d be up to the guys upstairs to figure what to do next, how to untangle this crisis, and --

He gasped as something struck him from behind. Walt fell to the floor, jamming his fingers. He yelped in pain and gurgled as something hit him again, stunning him. He fell flat on his face, crushing his nose. The plane rolled and bucked. Light suddenly flared at him and there was the rush of wind. He moved his head, blinked at the fierce breeze blowing past him.

One of the side doors was open. He was looking down at the brown surface of the earth, thousands of feet below.

He started to slide.

Sweet Mother of God, no!

He moved over on his back, tried to grab something, anything.

His stomach rolled in terror as he felt his feet go through the door.

Something, something, we’ve got to grab something!

He flailed out with his hands, felt a sharpness and then --

A flapping tie-down strap, firm in his right hand, the uninjured one.

The jet tilted again and now his knees and lower thighs were hanging outside over the void. The wind tore at his feet, flattening them against the side of the fuselage. The strapping cut into his hand. He dimly realized his crotch was soaking wet, for he had just soiled himself.

He looked up, not able to say anything, only screaming in loud, repeating grunts.

There! Coming forward was that Tech Sergeant, Ramez. He had a safety harness on, and a long belt, fastened to the nearest bulkhead. Ramez inched forward, closer and closer, his face knotted in concern and concentration.

The wind seemed fiercer. Now his upper thighs were at the door’s edge.

Closer, damn it, get closer! He tried to form the words but he couldn’t. All he could do was yell in terror.

Kelli, Sherri, I swear I’ll get off this jet once it lands and I’ll never fly again.

Ramez came closer, grabbed a free hand. He clenched it tight in joyous terror. Close, we’re gonna make it, we’re gonna make it. Ramez motioned with his head, to the other hand that was tangled up in the strapping.

Of course. He couldn’t be dragged in if that mess was still tangled around his hand. He moved quickly, as quickly as he could, and the strap came free and Ramez nodded, grabbed the other hand.

There! Oh, sweet Jesus, we’re gonna make it, we’re gonna get back in --

And the last thing Walt Phinney saw was Ramez letting go.

Captain Raynor was in the cockpit, talking to the pilot, as the C-141 resumed its heading towards Germany. His hands were slightly sore from holding the fire extinguisher that he had slammed into that DOE clown just a few minutes ago. A hard thing to do, hitting him like that and opening the door, but it had to be done.

He put a hand on the shoulder of the pilot, leaned forward. Will we lose much time to Germany?

The captain felt the shrug of the pilot. Ten, fifteen minutes, not much. We’ll probably make it up as we get along.

Good.

It’s going to be hard to explain what happened back there to that Energy guy.

How long to Germany?

Four hours.

The captain said, I’ll think of something by then.

The pilot turned his head, looked up with a smile on his face. God bless.

He smiled back. God bless.

Captain Raynor went aft, looked at his carefully-chosen crew, who were sitting in their seating. He felt a flush of pride in what they had just done, in flying thousands of miles in and out of enemy territory, doing what had to be done to make things right. He grinned at them and gave them a thumbs up, and they all smiled back, especially Ramez, who had done a very tricky job indeed. Would have to write up a commendation -- carefully crafted, of course -- for the sergeant when he got home.

He sat down in his seat, pulled the seatbelt taut and picked up his lapbot. Before opening the cover, though, he saw something on the metal flooring. A little square of paper. He reached down and picked it up.

It was a photo, of a woman and a child. Both with blonde hair. He turned it over and saw a woman’s handwriting, and it was hard to make out the words. But the first two did say, Dear Walt.

Well, the captain thought. There you go.

He crumpled up the photo and shoved the waste piece of paper in his parka, and then went back to work.

Chapter One

"Buried deep inside a Virginia mountain, a vast, top-secret installation -- one of the great artifacts of the cold war -- remains at the ready. Known as Mount Weather, it is a Strangelovian relic of yesteryear intended to shelter the President and other top U.S. officials in case of nuclear war... Mount Weather is operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which for years has fended off inquiries about the installation with a firm 'no comment.' Jokes Bob Blair, a FEMA spokesman: ‘I'll be glad to tell you all about it, but I'd have to kill you afterward.’"

-- Time magazine, December 9, 1991

It was a cool September morning, and Drew Connor surveyed their campsite with a pleased and practiced eye. It looked pristine, like no one had ever stayed here before, and he was glad of that. They were high up in the White Mountains, in the western part of New Hampshire, less than twenty miles from the Vermont border, probably another sixty miles from Quebec. Their campsite was a half-hour bushwhack from one of the maintained trails in these parts of the mountains, and had offered both privacy and a central spot to do some other hiking during their stay in the mountains. He had broke camp about an hour ago and Sheila was down by a small stream, washing her hands. Sheila was... well, what could he call her? Girlfriend sounded like they were back in high school. Companion sounded like they were in a retirement home, sharing their last meals together. And significant other sounded like someone from the U.S. Census Bureau, trying to fit them onto a computer form.

Well, there was one way to fix that quandary, and he had planned to do it, earlier in the week, when he and his Miss Sheila Cass had started their four-day hiking and camping trip into the Monroe Range of the White Mountains. He reached into a side pocket of his backpack, where the small ring case was hidden. Drew sighed. He hadn’t taken it out, not once, during their four days together. He had thought about it, lots of times, wondering what she would say and do once she saw the ring case. But every time he had touched the hard surface of the case, he had hesitated. Let’s see, he thought with disgust. For a number of years, I’ve been in service to my nation. I’ve parachuted out of planes and helicopters. Several times in my life, I’ve been fired upon and have returned fire. I’ve been alone in hostile territory, everywhere from Serbia to Bolivia. And yet this one thing, this one question he was prepared to ask of her, frightened him like nothing else.

He took his hand out of the pack pocket. Later, he thought. Later I’ll pop that question, and looking at the form of Sheila down by the streambed, he knew why he was fretful. Sheila had been married before, an eleven-month disaster a number of years ago that she claimed had forever soured her on the idea of marriage. Living together, well, that was all right, and the two of them had shared a home these past two years. But marriage? No way, she had said. No offense, Drew, but I like what we have. It’s comfortable, it’s relaxed, and that little wedding ring and wedding license would weigh everything down.

Drew zipped the pocket shut, looked around the campsite. It was on a small bluff of land that had good views of the surrounding peaks, but was also protected enough that the night winds didn’t disturb them. He had set up their tent beyond a clump of boulders, offering them privacy not only from other hikers, but also peering eyes from overhead. The Forest Service now had surveillance drones checking out the surroundings for timber thieves and wildfires, and Drew liked to keep out of their view. The drones recorded everything that they saw, and while he and Sheila were doing nothing illegal, nothing out of the ordinary, he didn’t like the idea of being permanently recorded in some government computer somewhere, forever accessible to some nosy bureaucrat. He had run-ins with bureaucrats before, and had always vowed to stay away from them for the rest of his life.

Hey, you! came a voice, and he turned. Sheila was standing up, wiping her hands on her T-shirt bottom. Ready to head home?

You got it, he yelled back, and he stood up, pulling up his dark green backpack. He put the backpack on and felt his back wince, and it was like his poor spine had its own memories, for little thoughts flashed through him, of all the times he had put on a backpack: as a Boy Scout back home in Nebraska; the first weeks of Basic Training; the first weeks at Special Forces school in Ft. Benning, and the many other times, saddling up for a mission, feeling that strange buzz of nervousness and excitement, all at once. But this time, cinching the straps tight, this time it was for fun and relaxation. Nothing else. We be heading home, and it’s time.

As he waited for Sheila to amble her way back up, he looked again at their campsite. He had wetted down their campfire ashes enough so that they were as cold as the surrounding ground. He then placed pine needles and old leaves over the small firepit, and had also done the same for where their tent had been. A random hiker going through here in a half hour would never know that he and Sheila had been here, and in a week, even the best investigators -- from the FBI to the DoD -- would be hard-pressed to find a trace of their presence.

Paranoid? Who, me? Just heightened awareness, that’s all, he thought. In his new life, retired from everything that he had done before, he was proud of maintaining a low profile. Once he had done many things at the command of others, but that time was past. He now worried about himself and Sheila and no one else.

He turned as Sheila came up, and he helped her on with her own light red backpack, and got a kiss as a reward. Her face was a bit shiny from being freshly-washed and her brown eyes looked like they were laughing at him. She grabbed a free hand and said, Okay, sport, listen up.

He squeezed her hand. All right, what’s that?

She leaned up and gave him another kiss. That’s my way of thanking you for a wonderful trip up here in the woods.

And before he could say anything, she grabbed the back of his head and gave him a deeper kiss, running her tongue around his lips, slightly moaning for effect. And that’s my way of thanking you for not taking me on another trip like this for a few months.

He laughed. We live on a lake, we go canoeing almost every day and stargazing every night. Are you telling me you don’t like the great outdoors?

She stepped back, smiling, a wisp of blonde hair falling free from her ponytail. I love the great outdoors, but only in small pieces. I also love electricity and indoor plumbing, and right now, I’m looking forward to our hike out and the drive home. I want to make sure we hear the loons one more time before they leave.

Sure, he said, heading out to the trail, and she laughed again and smacked his butt with her hand as she strolled by. Don’t be so quick to be in front, Drew. You move so slow that we won’t get to the car until dark. Let me set the pace.

For a moment he thought about grabbing her shoulder and saying wait a minute, and then having her reach in and pull out the small black box with the engagement ring. But he couldn’t do it. He thought about what she might say, how words and expressions might be exchanged, how this perfect trip up in the mountains would be ruined. Later, he thought. After a shower and good meal and out on the dock, listening to the loons, as they called to each other before their winter migration out to the Atlantic. I’ll pop the question tonight, at home, at that safe sanctuary that with her help had healed him these past months.

All right, he said. You lead on.

Another laugh. Don’t I always?

A couple of hours later, Drew shifted the backpack against his back, tightened the straps some, peered down the steep trail at the tiny red dot that marked Sheila’s pack, perched on an outcropping of rock. He didn’t like it when she went ahead, he never did, but she never listened. She teasingly said that when she got moving, she hated to wait for anyone, even him, her sweetheart. How true. He looked up at the darkening sky. They were on the Monroe Trail and about ninety minutes from their parked car at trailhead, and -- if he guessed right -- about five minutes away from being seriously rained on.

As much as he wanted to get closer to her pack, he had to rest for a moment. His forty-year-old knees were screaming at him from the hike down. Hard to believe, but hiking down a mountain -- for him, at least! -- was worse than going up. That constant thump-thump jarring his knees, stretching the cartilage and tendons, making everything ache was the price he paid for mountain climbing. Yet he had no regrets. He looked about him, enjoying the view despite the thick and black line of clouds that were rumbling in towards this tiny valley. The trail was steep and rocky, and the trees and shrubbery were thin at this point. Fall had come early this September, and some of the hardwood leaves had already drifted down. The nearest range -- Mounts Ida and Lovell -- were to his right. Even though he had grown up on the plains of Nebraska, he had always loved mountains. Mountains were beautiful, they were majestic, and they offered so many wonderful places to hide out. Not like the flat plains where he had grown up, where you can be spotted, miles away, and definitely not like the hot, flat plains in Asia where once everything had gotten bloodily screwed up, eventually sending him to exile in this northern state.

Now, it was going home time, though of course, he thought, by the time we do get home, we’re going to be soaking wet. He gave the straps another tug and started down the trail. His pack was lighter since the day they had begun -- most of the food and water having long since been consumed -- but including his smelly and unwashed clothes he still carried his sleeping bag, mattress pad, a small gas stove and two-person tent. He had on his leather hiking boots, thick cotton pants, and a pullover shirt, and if he was smart, he’d stop and take out his rain gear. But he didn’t want to stop, not until he reached Sheila’s pack. He always told her that it was bad business hiking alone, even if the backwoods were reasonably safe, because you never knew if you’d run into a militia group or body smugglers or dropouts. Even here. But did she ever listen?

There. He stopped again, breathing hard. Damn, old man, you are getting old, despite what you think. Around the straps of Sheila’s backpack was a small notepad. This had been a running joke in their hikes. Sometimes the note she left would be something like, Gone to the streambed to the right for more water. Or teasingly, Hey, hiker-stud. If you can find me, you can have me. He smiled at the memory. That had been nice, two days ago.

This afternoon it said in her clear writing, Hon, have to pee, and it looks like there’s a shelter or a building off to the left. Come up and join me! S.

A rumble of thunder, coming closer. He looked up to the left, saw a faint, overgrown trail, heading up. The trails all through these mountains were maintained by volunteers from the Appalachian Mountain Club, and some were decades old. Sometimes, though, due to misuse or overuse, old trails were abandoned, and nature soon reclaimed them in a growing season or two. He peered through the overhanging trees, saw a faint shape, up there in the distance. Looked like the tip of a roof. Damn, that woman had good eyes.

The wind stirred the trees, causing some of the orange and red leaves to tumble free. Storm was coming, and it might not be a bad idea to go up there. He picked up her pack, swayed for a moment from the extra weight. Jesus, it was still damn heavy, and he knew why. Sheila had insisted on carrying her lapbot throughout the hike, and after he had said it made no sense to haul it on the trip, she had said, What do you care? It’s my pack and I can carry it. I don’t complain about the weird things you pack, do I?

He started up the abandoned trail, her pack awkwardly shouldered on one side. She had a point. She wanted her lapbot with her, and that was fine.

He hiked with a 9 mm. Beretta stored in another one of the side pockets, and as far as he was concerned, that was even better. He smiled at the thought. Engagement ring in one pocket, pistol in the other. Love and death, all together.

Sheila Cass paused in front of the tiny building, slightly out of breath and with her bladder screaming at her for release, feeling like an over inflated tennis ball in her gut. Behind her was the rumble of thunder. Oh, this is just great, she said aloud. First we’re gonna wet ourselves, and then Mother Nature is gonna take care of the rest.

She ran a hand across her face, feeling the sweat and grease. A shower would be wonderful. In fact, a shower right now would even be better than sex, and sorry Drew, right now if I had a choice between you and a hot shower, soap and water would come first. She touched her shoulder-length brown hair, pulled back in a ponytail, and grimaced at the feel. Sorry, hon, right now, even a warm shower with no soap would come before you.

But right now, first things first. Like a toilet. She knew Drew loved these excursions into the woods, knew they calmed him down and made him a joy to live with, but after the first day, she started missing things. Like a refrigerator. Like plumbing. Guys have it easy, standing up and watering trees and shrubbery whenever they had the urge. Even Drew, as smart as he was, could never get the point of how uncomfortable it got, squatting and hoping you didn’t hit your boots or your socks. And even when you were finished, you didn’t feel particularly clean, having done the deed outside.

Which is why she was here, in front of this tiny building. She had caught a glimpse of it a while ago and thought it was an overnight hiking shelter. And even if the shelter just had a two-hole outhouse, that would be fine. Beats squatting and hoping you’re not over a clump of poison ivy. The building was in a flat area of land, surrounded by low shrubbery and trees. She was sure that if it hadn’t been for the dropped foliage, she would have missed it.

She got closer, saw what was there, and said, Shit, in a loud voice. It wasn’t a shelter, not at all.

The building was small, about the size of a large garden shed. It was made of brick and cement, and had a steeply-pitched roof. Two small satellite dishes were on the roof, along with a couple of tall antennas, and there was one metal door. On the door was a sign:

PSNH RELAY STATION TWELVE. KEEP OUT. NO TRESPASSING

Sheila had no idea what a relay station was, but knew PSNH stood for the state’s largest utility, Public Service of New Hampshire. The door handle had one of those electronic locks with punch-in numerals. She halfheartedly tried the door. Locked solid. Wouldn’t budge.

Shit again, she said. Time to look for a log or something to sit on, to do our business.

Then everything lit up, like a floodlight had clicked on and off, and she instinctively ducked. There was a sharp crack-boom! and she yelped in surprise at the nearby lightning strike. The wind came up, gusting, and she felt drops of water on her bare arms. Damn, that was close, and without thinking, she tried the doorknob again.

This time it clicked open.

She grinned. She was a PSNH ratepayer and if they didn’t like her trespassing, too bad. She was just going to get out of the rain, and if she was lucky, maybe there was a bucket or something in here she could use.

Sheila opened the door and could not believe what she saw.

Drew reached a place where the land leveled out, and saw the small brick building, a couple of minutes after a nearby thunder strike had made him wince. The noise was too close for comfort, eh? The door was ajar and he was sure Sheila was inside, hunting for a toilet or something. Odd place for a building like that. Took a lot of work and effort, hauling up all those bricks. Most structures in these woods were made from the local timber, not bricks. He walked closer and stopped, feeling out of place. Something wasn’t right, and he sniffed the air. That was the problem. He smelled something that didn’t belong here, something...

Pakistan. Now, why in hell had he remembered Pakistan? Jesus, that was a place he never wanted to think about, ever again.

He sniffed the air again. That’s why. Aviation fuel. Somewhere around here, aviation fuel had been used. Or spilled. He got closer to the building, dumped the packs. A quick look-see and then I’ll find Sheila, he thought.

Drew walked to the center of the small clearing, which was flat scrub and rocks. He knelt down and touched the gravelly soil. There... and there. Stains. Aviation fuel had been leaked here, and not too long ago. He stood up, looked again at the flat area, and then squeezed his eyes some, trying to put everything out of focus, just for a moment. Sometimes a trick that worked. Sometimes it didn’t.

This time it did.

He noticed six rocks, placed in a wide circle, each with a small piece of low shrubbery growing nearby. He went to the nearest rock, ran his hands across it. Nice piece of work. It looked like it belonged. He knelt down and examined it further, saw the little overhang and then reached in. His hand encountered smooth glass. He rubbed at the glass and then stood up. Sure. Made sense. Hidden landing lights, set in a circular pattern, for a helicopter landing pad next to a building that looked like it could hold a John Deere tractor and not much else.

A lot of work and effort had gone into this place, this very strange place.

Where Sheila was now inside.

He walked quickly back to the dumped backpacks, unzippered a side pocket and took out his 9 mm. Fine, everything’s just fine, he thought. We’re just taking precautions. That’s all.

He put the pistol in the rear of his waistband, knowing how Sheila felt about weapons. She put up with him having them, but she never liked it when he brought one out in the open. He looked at the nameplate on the door, saying it was a relay station for PSNH. Yeah, right.

Then he grabbed both backpacks and went through the open door, just as the rain started falling.

There was so much to see, so much to look at, but first things first. When she descended the steep staircase, past the tiny glass-enclosed booth, she went along the dimly-lit corridors, past cubicles, until she found a women’s room. After the long days and nights up in the mountains, it felt wonderfully decadent to actually sit upon a real porcelain goddess, and to use toilet paper that wasn’t soggy and spotted with pine needles. When she was done she came out and went to the nearby sink. A tiny little sign over the sink said CONSERVE WATER. Sure, she said. Maybe tomorrow. She turned on the faucet and used the soap dispenser, and washed and re-washed her hands, and then did her face and arms. Jesus, that felt good, she thought. The water was hot and though it smelled heavily-chlorinated, it felt delightful on her skin. She dried off using some paper towels and saw in the far corner, two shower stalls. Tempting... but if she knew Drew, he was probably wondering where in hell she was, and what she was doing.

Drew. He had tried to be so casual and relaxed these past four days, and she had seen right through him, like he had been trying to hide a tattoo on his butt. An innocent phone call from a jewelry store in Laconia, inquiring as to whether Drew was satisfied with the setting of the diamonds, had told her everything she needed to know. And a quick sneaking look into his backpack while he was showering before they had left had confirmed it. Her Big Lug was going to ask the Big Question during the hike, and she was wondering when he was going to do it, selfishly enjoying the far-off look in his face over the past few days that no doubt meant he was trying to screw up his courage.

Poor man. If he didn’t say anything about the ring by the time they got home, she would wrestle it out of him, and she smiled at what she had planned. She didn’t plan to say yes but she also didn’t plan to say no, either. She planned to offer him a strong maybe, with just a request for a little more time. After that disaster with Tom, she never thought she would ever consider marriage, ever again, but Drew was different. Drew was worth waiting for, and she hoped he felt the same way about her.

Sheila opened the ladies room door and went back to the main area, and there she saw Drew coming towards her, his face ashen, moving quickly, a pistol in his hand.

He stopped as he got to the entranceway of the tiny building. Recessed lights in the cement ceiling were on. A stairway led down and to the right. Before him was a glass-enclosed booth, with a speaker’s grill in the center, and two metal slots built in. It looked like a teller’s cage for a drive up, but he didn’t like the two metal slots. They looked like gunports.

Drew peered in through the glass, seeing a couple of chairs, a closed door, some empty clipboards hanging on the far wall and not much else. He tapped on the glass. Thick. Bulletproof. He stepped back and looked at the setup again. A checkpoint. A nice little checkpoint.

Guarding what?

He went downstairs, his feet echoing in the tiny space. The entranceway opened up to a flat cement floor with a chained-in enclosure off to the right. A sign overhead said DECONTAMINATION AREA. Before him was a twin to the checkpoint booth upstairs, except this one was larger, with four gunports instead of two. Drew went past the checkpoint, into a large open area. The room was dimly lit and he found a set of light controls on the near wall and flipped up a palmful of switches. The large room came into focus, and he tried to take it all in at once. The waist-high set of cubicles in all directions. The long tables with chairs and phones. The maps and whiteboards and graph boards hanging on the far walls. The glass-enclosed offices out in the distance. Hanging from the ceiling, a post with directional signs and little arrows pointing down the corridors. He stepped closer, looking up at the signs. INFIRMARY. CAFETERIA. CONF. ROOM A. CONF. ROOM B. DORMITORY.

From the nearest table, he could make out the rows of telephones, each with a little nameplate attached to the handset. NAWACS. NORAD. FERA REGION 1. FERA HQ. NRC. DOD DUTY OFFICER. The words seemed to sink right into his chest. Jesus, what have we found here...

And with the lights on, he could also see the maps clearer. There was a national map, and another depicting northern New England. Beside the maps were a whiteboard with magnetized signs and shapes. One sign said NUDET. Another said PLUME DIRECTION. Yet another said TRAFFIC CONTROL. Beside the whiteboard was a lined graph whiteboard. The sign above the whiteboard said INTERNMENT CENTERS. The rest of the graph was empty. The whiteboard to the right of that was completely blank, except where someone had left a handwritten message. It was large and to the point: CASE SHILOH: ON 9/19 WE TAKE HER BACK!

Sheila? he called out, disgusted at how weak his voice sounded. Sheila, where are you?

Even with the added lights, he felt claustrophobic and slightly nauseous. Everything was wrong here, quite wrong. This place didn’t belong here. The whole damn top of this mountain had been hollowed out, and he and Sheila shouldn’t have gotten in so easily.

Sheila?

He looked around at the cubicles, at the long rows of desks, and then froze as he spotted what was in the far corner, up near the ceiling.

A surveillance camera.

With a tiny red light at its base illuminated, meaning it was on.

From behind him came the sound of a toilet flushing.

He turned and ran towards the noise, pulling his 9 mm. free.

Drew was right to the point. Sheila, we’ve got to get out of here! We’ve got to get out of here right now!

She started to say something snappy in return, like, don’t you want to use a real bathroom before we leave? But everything about his look -- the red face, visible behind the four-day-old growth of beard, his constantly shifting eyes, the way he was holding his pistol out like that -- made her stop.

Drew, what’s wrong? What’s going on?

He reached over and grabbed her wrist, hard. She winced and started moving with him as he raced back up the corridor. Not here, I’ll explain it when we get out.

Drew, wait, I can’t move --

Damn it, woman, there’s no time to explain! You’ve got to trust me, right now! Move it!

She did as he asked, moving along with him as they ran back through the facility -- only now, having finished her business in the bathroom, could she appreciate how large this place was -- and then went back up the stairs that had led in. Along the way she started feeling frightened, wondering what had gone wrong. The look on Drew’s face said it all. It was a look that he sometimes got when he had a particularly bad dream, one that would wake him up at night. He never woke up screaming or shouting from his nightmares. She only knew that the night demons were within him when he started breathing heavily, like had just finished a long road race, and his arms started twitching. When that happened she had learned to wake him up slowly, whispering into his ear that everything was all right. Then he would wake up with a gaunt look, of fear and terror, and he would gently kiss her and then go out onto the front porch that overlooked the lake, not saying anything, just sitting on the couch with a thick blanket about him. And he would never tell her what the dream had been about, and too frightened herself, she had never pressed him.

But there was no front porch here, no blanket, nothing comforting to calm him down. She ran to keep up with him, holding onto his hand, and then they were outside. The air was damp and the sun was out. Rainwater glistened on the rocks and scrub grass, and she didn’t even have time to enjoy the view before Drew was beside her, practically throwing the backpack onto her, after he had slammed the door shut. She was still frightened but she didn’t like how he had dragged her up here, and she said sarcastically, Oh, thank you, mister scoutmaster. I guess I just plumb forgot how to put on my little ol’ pack.

If Drew noted her sarcasm, he sure as hell didn’t show it. He just put on his pack without a word and started down toward the trail, still holding that damn pistol in his hand.

When they were back on the Monroe Trail, heading down to the trailhead, Drew knew he had some explaining to do. From the pursed look on her face, he knew that she was about one minute away from losing her temper, and he wanted to head her off. But he wasn’t sure how much she’d understand, how much she would realize. Sheila was a Web designer and a computer graphics consultant, and had made a great business and name for herself, working out of their home on Lake Montcalm. He doubted she could see, as quick as he did, what had been back there. So he owed her plenty of explanations.

But he didn’t want to waste time. He couldn’t, feeling the fear starting to churn around in his gut.

Sheila, he said, looking down the trail, glad to see it was empty. Can you hear me?

Yeah, I can hear you.

Good. First things first. My apologies. I should have explained more back there, but I couldn’t. He checked his watch. Five minutes since they left. Still have at least ninety minutes to get to the car. And how long for a response from whomever was on the other end of that surveillance camera? And damn it, am I overreacting?

And why the hell not? she demanded. Damn it, hon, you were acting like a crazy man. Running around with that pistol, grabbing my wrist. What’s going on?

Of course, the car might be gone, alarm system or no alarm system. Car thefts were up this year in the entire state. Then what?