by Peter Idone
“But after five years, what could possibly be left? The Air Force must have ransacked the place for every piece of equipment in the hope of finding out what might have caused the accident. Iron Mountain was probably removed with every other computer and server there.”
“Yes, that is a possibility. And it is also possible that Siebert could have gone down to the pump house and checked on the computer, studying some results, let’s say, and maybe took it back to the lab with him, where it turned to dust along with Plante and the rest of the crew. There is another possibility that outside of a very few people—Plante, Havermeyer, and Viv—no one knew about Iron Mountain. Maybe Air Force personnel never made it into the pump house basement and if they did, it was overlooked. Stranger things have been known to happen. Just think for a second, you too, Natalie, on the off chance that it might be there, and you’re already on-site, don’t you think it’s worth a look?”
Logan couldn’t argue with the logic; he could only worry about the risk. Maybe it would be easier to head straight for a particular place on the estate grounds, rather than wander around hoping to observe some anomaly only mentioned through hearsay. “Yes,” Logan said, “it would be well worth the look.”
“Splendid. Now, I have one question for you. What’s your motivation, Logan? I can guess what Creech’s motivation is. He’s sweet on Natalie, and as she has mentioned, the little mutant is an outcast. He’s lonely. God knows what he does in his spare time. Chewing on soap? Eating wallpaper glue or whatever it is cockroaches and silverfish do alone in the dark?”
“That’s enough, Glass,” Natalie barked.
Glass snorted with laughter. “So, what is it then? What motivates you to take this on?”
“Well, I haven’t asked for money, although if you care to pay me to see that Natalie gets in and out safe, then it won’t hurt my feelings any.”
“I’m not prepared to pay you a fucking dime.”
“I didn’t expect that you would. I’ll see to it that Natalie comes to no harm. As for my motivation, all I can say is this is my home and it’s been overrun by an army of occupation. If I can help in defining what Pine Haven was and what it has become, then it might serve me and the residents of Essex. Besides, I really want this challenge.”
“Sounds all so altruistic. I only have your word that there is no ulterior motive.”
“Natalie said she needed help. I need some kind of network. We joined forces out of need. Having her go in there alone is crazy. I can at least watch her back. Unless you have so much trust in Creech, you can afford to leave me out.”
“I have very little trust in anyone. Natalie is taking on all the risk, so I will have to defer to her judgment. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I won’t.”
***
The briefing now officially over, it was time for Logan to go. There were no invites for a drink or cup of coffee or to stay for a meal and converse. These people weren’t his friends, Logan had to admit. They weren’t even acquaintances. He became aware, suddenly, of a thread of desperation running like a constricted current through their lives. Glass knows about me and Natalie, he thought. Maybe he won’t admit it to himself, but the thought lay coiled, venomously, in the back of his mind. Their relationship was probably a long, torturous labyrinth of indiscretions and disappointments. Natalie was a handful and Glass…well, Glass was just too old for her. Logan knew himself well enough not to take on the conceit that he could replace him. Remember, it’s just business, he reminded himself.
“I’ll see you out,” Natalie said. As was expected, Glass did not utter a word as Logan left the room. He was led downstairs to the back door again. “How does all this new information change your plans?” Logan asked.
“Our main challenge is getting in and out. What we do or where we go once inside Pine Haven is all a crapshoot. I suppose it always has been. Will you be available tomorrow?”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“I’m going to try and contact Creech. I’d like you to drop me off nearby. I don’t want to take my car. It will be OK. You won’t have to wait around. I’ll call you tomorrow and we can set it up then.”
“I’ll do whatever.”
Natalie thanked him and patted his shoulder as he went out the door. As he drove home, his head swam with all he had listened to. If there was any truth to what was in the darknet file, it was no wonder the Air Force wanted to keep Pine Haven under wraps. Exogenous signals in the human brain, psychics, and remote viewers. Abductees. Whether or not any of it was true was anyone’s guess. Maybe all of it was real and the work had continued over the past few years. How many other Pine Havens existed throughout the country, and what were the scientists and their military overlords attempting to discover? What kind of strange new war were these guys attempting to wage?
16
The following day Natalie called and asked to be picked up in downtown Essex. It was around three thirty, and she was waiting in a parking lot at the back of a string of shops. She was dressed for the bush: a Gore-Tex parka, olive-green woolen field trousers, and hiking boots. Despite the getup, she didn’t look unattractive. Logan spotted the Range Rover nestled among some parked vehicles. She climbed into the cab of his pickup and said, “We’re going to_use your vehicle from now on. At least until I sort out this thing with Creech. It might take a couple of days, or it might be over by this evening.”
“How do you plan to do this? Use Creech as a guide?”
“I want us to penetrate the fence and then link up with him later at the Romantic’s Garden. Look for it on one of Henry’s maps. It’s there. I saw it. I’ll use the pump house as a pretext, a place where we can eventually meet up or at least hide out if we—I mean me—if it becomes necessary. After we’re finished then, I want to get the fuck out of Pine Haven as fast as possible. I really want this thing to be over.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“Down Raven’s Perch. I’ll tell you when I’m ready to bail.”
Logan turned the truck around and headed west, back through town, and then veered left at the fork onto the beginning of Raven’s Perch. “Tell me something, Natalie, why is there next to nothing on the Internet about Glass? No articles or files written by him? Except for some photographs taken at conferences and a blog, I couldn’t find anything substantial.”
“You heard what he said last night about his site being attacked, didn’t you? All his investigative material was published on his own site. If there is anything out there, it would be on a small-worlds network or archived on some other website. He’s not disseminating anything while working on this project. Keeping a low profile, remember.”
“Where did he go to school?”
“What’s with all the questions? It’s terribly…unattractive.”
“I don’t care how unattractive it is. If I’m sticking my neck out, I’d like to know a little about who I’m doing it for.”
“Fair enough. I’ll give you the short version. Glass studied business at Princeton but didn’t finish. He joined the Army and ended up in the intelligence branch. That’s where he met a lot of his contacts. He was stationed in Germany for a little while, but most of his tour was spent stateside. He almost decided on a career in the military, but knew it wasn’t for him. After the service he joined his father’s company. It was a firm that dealt in strategic metals. It was successful, and the family was rather well-to-do. I don’t think Glass enjoyed being a businessman any more than being a career soldier.”
“What did he do, quit?”
“In a manner of speaking. When his father died, Glass got the business but decided to sell. He split the fortune up with his two siblings. Brothers, I think. The mother had since passed away.”
“You ever meet his family?”
“One of his brothers, once or twice. They aren’t close. All that money hasn’t helped bring them any closer. It was an ample sum for all involved. Glass inherited a small fortune. He manages his money, which enables him to
pursue his passions. Does that do it for you?”
It was enough. Logan wished he had haggled with Glass about money concerning their little operation. Hell, he thought, that porno-loving freak could have been a temporary employer. “So does Glass pay you like an employee for doing research?”
“Not exactly. There’s an operations fund I can work with. The funds must be accounted for, so I don’t behave extravagantly. Not that I would. We make it manage, somehow.” She fell silent for a minute and then said, “I’m going to make some changes after all this is over with. After the investigation is over and the book is written, or maybe when nearing completion, I’m going to get out from under of all this. I think I’ve gone about as far as I can go with Glass. Our race is run. It will be time to embark on something else.”
“Have you anything in mind?”
“Maybe go back to school or do a Web-based TV show. I think I can bring my research skills to good use, especially if Glass’s book is successful. If we pull this off, it will be big, Joe. You’ll be interviewed or maybe write a book of your own.”
Logan smiled but didn’t believe a word of it. Things like that just didn’t happen to guys like him, he thought. I don’t want it to happen. Not like that. The only outcome I expect to get out of all this is not to be unceremoniously tossed into a detainment camp.
“How about you, Joe? Have you got any plans? I mean, is this it for you: Essex and trying to survive from one week to the next? Do you have anything you really, really want and dream about?”
“I take it one step at a time. For right now all I want is to not get cut in half by some Tactical wielding a squad automatic weapon when we penetrate the exclusion zone. That’s all. Everything after that is gravy.” And another session of slap and tickle on his living room floor would be real good gravy, he thought. Natalie asked what he was smirking about, but he didn’t answer.
They neared the end of Raven’s Perch Road. She made him turn right and then right again at the first driveway. It was predominantly mud, with large chunks of gravel and stone. She told him to move up, slowly, about one car length. He stopped next to a large pine tree, its lower boughs drooping low, obscuring the truck. The house was further up, with only a shingled corner and a partial window visible through the shrubbery. Only days ago he had driven farther up this same road and parked the truck in the bushes when he went for his little recon. It was the Saturday after he had met Natalie. He never would have guessed then that he would have had sex with her and be planning a break-in of the estate.
“Is this cool?” Logan asked.
“You won’t be lingering. I know the gal who lives here. We met during the summer while I was researching. I’d stop in every now and then for a chat and a cup of tea. She’s something of a shut-in and was grateful for the company. She’s been a good source of information about some of the weird paranormal shit going on in the neighborhood when the project was up and running. Even after the accident. There was a story to tell, and I hung around to listen.”
“Is she expecting a visit now?”
“Hardly, but I doubt if she can see the truck from the house. Even if she does, she won’t make a fuss. The old girl hasn’t much use for the Tacticals, believe me. They’ve been disrespecting everybody’s property rights except for Frenchy’s. Don’t worry. You don’t have to stay. Drive around and do whatever. Just be back here no later than six.”
“It might be a good place to stash a vehicle on the big night.”
Natalie didn’t like this idea and pulled a face. “Absolutely not. Should anything happen, which it won’t, I don’t want it to get back to her in any way. I’ve got a plan for our transportation, so don’t expend any energy working up a strategy.”
As she started to get out of the cab, Logan said, “Maybe I should hang out at Frenchy’s and have a beer…”
Out of the truck, Natalie turned and spoke vehemently. “Do you really want to spend the next couple of hours with those losers? Stay clear of Frenchy’s. If the Tacticals make a sweep, how are you going to explain yourself? Be a good soldier and do as I say. Head back to town. Buy yourself a cup of coffee.” Before he could say a word, she peeled off a ten-dollar bill for him, then sprinted down the driveway and across the narrow road, disappearing amid the trees and undergrowth.
Logan, being a good soldier, drove back to town. Maybe that’s why she chose me to help her with this little caper of hers, Logan thought, because I do as I’m told. His entire life he had done what was expected, what was needed, either as a son, brother, or husband. “Didn’t get you very far, did it?” he shouted aloud. There was no payoff. He lit a cigarette and choked down some of the self-loathing that had erupted in his craw.
When he returned downtown, he went to a luncheonette on Main Street that served the few shop owners still left in town. He sat at the counter and ordered a coffee. After a while he decided to spend the money Natalie had given him, and ordered a slice of apple pie with cheddar cheese and vanilla ice cream. The waitress gave him an odd look when she heard his request. Still pissed—mostly at himself—thoughts of money, where to get it and how, raced through his mind. If I get called in for a job, he thought, all bets are off for Natalie and Glass. They can pay me to do Pine Haven, and I promise they’ll gag on my price. And then of course there was the computer hard drive, Iron Mountain. If they were lucky and found the computer, he could rip Natalie off real easily and hold it for ransom. How much would Glass be willing to pay: ten, fifty thousand? They would have to negotiate. He hadn’t thought about bringing the gun along on the night in question. He probably shouldn’t, but now he decided he most definitely would. Unforeseen dangers, he told himself. He didn’t know this guy Creech or his relationship to Natalie beyond what she’d told him. They’re hatching a plan, and I’m still too far on the edge of things. Natalie, he concluded, was a user. So was Glass. People like that could burn his life down to the ground if he wasn’t careful.
***
Forty-five minutes had elapsed and still there was no sign of Natalie. He had eased into the driveway off Raven’s Perch at five minutes to six. He was getting antsy. To make matters worse, he saw the nimbus of a bright light north, in the direction of Sheffield State Park. It only got brighter with every passing second. It wasn’t a UFO or some anomaly Pine Haven was allegedly known for. No, he wouldn’t be that lucky. It was a Tactical armored vehicle, one of the old Stryker variety they used, with a large spotlight mounted on the side of the driver’s compartment, sweeping its beam from right to left. Logan ducked low in his seat, hoping his truck was parked far enough up by the large tree to not to be noticed. He half expected the light to be trained on him while a team got out to inspect his vehicle. But the Stryker kept going and after a few minutes, went down the road in the direction it had come from.
To say he was nervous was an understatement; he was riddled with anxiety and had an urge to take a gigantic dump. Thoughts raced through his head about what he would say if he were stopped and questioned. Maybe Natalie and Creech were picked up and detained while they searched for him, he thought. Maybe Creech was picked up and the Tacticals are searching for Natalie, or some variation thereof. He allowed a couple of minutes to pass and then started the pickup, keeping the headlights doused. Backing into the road, he turned right onto Raven’s Perch, switched on the parking lights, and headed for Frenchy’s. He would park the truck at the fuel depot for a little while, amid some of the junked vehicles on the property, and wait there before heading back to the old woman’s driveway. Better to incur Frenchy’s temper for committing trespass than be questioned by the Tacticals. If Natalie turned out to be a no-show, Logan didn’t know what to do next. Park and wait, he guessed.
Approaching the depot, he could see the bare bulb illuminated next to the door of the farmhouse. People were standing there, but he could not make out who they were. He inched along slowly when suddenly a figure ran up to the side of the truck. The door swung open. It was Natalie. “Get in,” he barked.
Natalie jumped in and slammed the door. “Where were you going?” she asked in an accusing tone.
Logan made a three-point turn on the narrow gravel road and headed toward town. “I think the question of the hour is, where have you been? I’ve been dodging Tactical patrols, and that driveway was becoming unsafe. I wasn’t about to wait around when they made another sweep.”
“Sorry. Creech had a lot to tell me. I had to listen.”
“Are you going to brief me?”
“Of course I’m going to brief you. What were you doing driving down to Frenchy’s?”
“Relax. I was only going to park on his property for a little while. Fortunately you showed up before I got there. What difference does it make?”
“None.”
“Good, ‘cause you sound a little peeved.”
“I just wish you followed my…directions.”
“I have to think for myself sometimes when the occasion warrants, Natalie. It was a judgment call.”
“That’s fine, Joe, really. Don’t give it a second thought.” She smiled tightly but did not relax. “Things didn’t go all that well with Creech.”
“What happened?”
“Just drive for now, OK?”
Logan could tell that Natalie’s mood bordered on the foul. After several minutes of silence, and with an element of gravity to her voice, she finally spoke. “Creech was supposed to provide me with a portable, handheld transmitter. It would have been the one thing, the tool, to get us into Pine Haven and out again safely.”
“What? He’s refusing to give it up to you?”
“There are a number of these transmitters in use by workers on-site and Tactical supervisors. Creech said a single one wouldn’t be missed. Now, all of a sudden, the transmitters had to be accounted for and signed out from the equipment locker. He claims an audit had been done a few days ago, and the lax control over the transmitters was considered a serious breach of security. The transmitters can, when entering the proper codes, disable the sensors and alarms on the fence and then reactivate them without alerting the computer monitoring stations at the observation tower.”