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“I wish she’d mentioned why she was shooting.”
“If they knew I was spying—surveilling—then I can guess why.”
“Maybe they’ll think you got scared off, since we’re leaving town.”
“Good.” He tucked the note into his pocket, and opened the back door for Elias.
Molly gave Lila a hug goodbye. “Please be careful,” Lila whispered. But she didn’t say “don’t go.”
Molly took that as a good sign.
“Wait, before you go.” Lila took a manila envelope from the glove compartment and handed it to Molly. “I’ve been talking to people at The Fang, and I guess something rang a bell with Martha. She brought me this along with her pickle order. I haven’t even looked at it yet, but you should take it in case it’s important.”
“Good work. I’ll check it out when I get a chance.” She slipped it into her tote bag.
As they boarded the plane, Sam and Molly shielded Elias from view until he was buckled into a rear seat, where he wouldn’t be seen from outside.
“Will we be able to see my house?” Elias asked nervously.
“We’ll be able to see the property, but not much else.”
“Will they see us?”
“They might, but they won’t be able to see inside the plane. I can give you some binoculars and you can tell me what you see, how’s that?”
Molly had to hand it to Sam. He’d figured out a way to get some more inside information about the compound, while making it fun for Elias. This way he wouldn’t feel as if he was betraying his family or breaking any rules.
It worked, too.
After some white-knuckle squeals from Elias as they lifted into the air and immediately wheeled to catch the updraft from Firelight Ridge, Sam got them to a good cruising altitude low enough to still see details of the landscape.
“Wow,” said Elias. For the first time, he sounded like a normal kid. His eyes shone with exhilaration and he released the grip bar so he could use the binoculars. “This is so cool.”
Sam smiled over at him. “You’re a natural. Some people would be grabbing for their airsickness bag about now.”
“Hey,” said Molly, just in case that was a dig at her.
He snorted. “Facts is facts.”
“I see our sheep pasture,” Elias called out. “The sheep are just little white dots.”
Molly peered out the window. Without binoculars, she couldn’t even see the little white dots.
“There’s our power station.”
“Past those trees?” Sam asked casually, jerked his head to the northwest.
Clearly it was news to him that the Chilkoots had a power station.
“Mmm hmmm.” Elias was still glued to the binoculars. Sam glanced back at Molly, and she got the message. Pulling out her phone, she snapped a number of shots of the area they were talking about, though she certainly couldn’t see anything that looked like a power station.
“There’s the greenhouse!” he exclaimed, pointing toward something that barely looked like a building. “From here it looks so different. All you can see is the roof and a lot of trees. It’s so much bigger than that.”
Molly took more photos. Was a greenhouse important? Hard to say. Sam craned his neck to see what Elias was pointing at. But by then the entire Chilkoot property was behind them. Too bad they couldn’t circle back and see things from a different angle, but no doubt that would set off alarms down below.
“Now for some scenery,” said Sam, banking right. The next part of the trip was one breathtaking vista after another. Deep ravines still filled with snow. A lake high in the mountains, studded with icebergs that had broken off from a glacier. Korch Glacier itself sprawled between jagged peaks, a high shelf of ice, glinting crystal blue in its depths.
And then there were the Firelight Ridge Ice Falls. Finally, Molly got to see what all the fuss was about. She’d never seen anything so beautiful. Rivers of ice cascaded over the edge of a mountain, frozen into place as if a winter queen had put a spell on it. It must be hundreds of feet tall, a majestic gash of ice down the mountain.
