She turned now and studied them again.As before, he tried not to look like a killer or creeper.He could tell her they were all right, but why should she believe them?Words wouldn’t help them now.She’d have to use her instincts—assuming she had some.
For something to do, he studied the clothes that Alice said were wrong.Under a fitted jacket were visible the collar of a white blouse.The skirt was pleated and she had neatly folded ankle socks and saddle shoes?Was that what they were called?
She carried what could have been a coat in one hand, clutched a piece of paper in the other.
She couldn’t have been out here long.She was clean and neat, though the clothes were just a bit drab and tired.
With a slight sigh, the girl stepped back and turned, sliding onto the bench on one side of the tiny table.
Alice climbed in first and stopped, but the girl seemed to be over whatever wariness she’d felt.That was good for them, but as a general policy?Not great.
“Let me get you something to drink,” Alice said.“I don’t have a huge selection.Small refrigerator.”
Ty grasped the hand hold and swung himself inside.This time the girl tensed a little.
“Would you rather I waited outside?”he asked.It was the first time he’d spoken to her, he realized.
She blinked and then gave him a shy smile.
“Call him Tom,” Alice said, straightening with two bottles of soda, one held in each hand.She must have stowed the device somewhere because he couldn’t see it.“And you can call me Ava.”
Ty was impressed.She hadn’t said those were their names, but she also hadn’t given her their real names, just in case the girl was the trap.
“My name is Ness,” she said.
“Any idea where we are?”Mel asked, as she finished helping Jack push theRaydeep into the shadows on the edge of the field or meadow.
Jack straightened and looked around, then shook his head.“Not a clue.And yet,” he rubbed his face then gave her a rueful look, “it feels familiar, like I’ve been here before.”
“It feels familiar to me, too,” Mel muttered, remembering their nighttime hikes in blacked-out, war-torn France.She turned around, studying the darkness and then stopped.“Is that a light or something over there?”
“Something,” Jack agreed.
Mel felt him thinking.She’d had a lot of practice learning to recognize it.He wasn’t sure they should leave theRay.She wasn’t sure they should leave it.If something changed and it left without them?The suckage would be huge.Was there bigger suckage than this?Mel almost flinched at the thought.There was always bigger suckage waiting out there.
“I guess we’d better check it out,” Jack finally broke his silence.“We won’t be able to figure out where and when we are standing here in the dark.”
“True.”Mel picked up her pack and experienced her own hesitation.She had a handgun in there where it would be no help at all if events went south really fast.But people also saw weapons as hostile and tended to react badly.
Jack had crouched and opened his pack and extracted his handgun.Apparently, guys didn’t worry as much about coming off hostile.Mel got hers out, too and tucked it in her waistband against her back.Then tried getting at it with the pack on her back.Well, that didn’t work that well.
She moved it to the front and dropped her shirt down over it.It wasn’t ideal, but then nothing was.
They set off through the silent woods in the direction of the light, picking their way carefully, with Jack in the lead.He turned now and again to softly warn her about hazards.They could have extracted their flashlights, but neither of them had.That was curious.She got that they didn’t want to call attention to themselves, but face-planting was no fun either.Just as she’d decided she needed to bring it up with Jack, they reached the edge of the woods, where the moonlight was more helpful.
Across a clearing was a house, large and rambling against the moon.It would have made a great jigsaw puzzle, she thought.Trees nestled close, but to one side, in a smaller clearing, there was a smaller structure.A shed?It was too small to be a barn and she didn’t think the shape was right for a barn.
Like she knew barns, she scoffed to herself.
She glanced at Jack and finally noticed his curious stillness.“What’s wrong?”she whispered.
“I think,” he stopped and cleared his throat, but when he continued his voice was still rough, “I think I know where were are.”
The airfield where Con set the Pitts down was nice, though spare on what he’d call the basic amenities.
There were a couple of foreboding buildings and one visible hangar.The spareness was broken by the sudden appearance of several military Jeeps with someone at the machine gun on the back of each Jeep.
He shut down the engine and released the canopy, his gaze moving further out, studying the surroundings.Based on what he could see, he thought they were in Nevada, north of where the silo had been.
