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After a moment of consideration, Ronan said, “Pass along to Slash that we’re in the area and starting a house-to-house search. Or actually going yard by yard, garage by garage.”
“The old-fashioned way. Got it.”
They mounted up and headed out again.
As Tessa walkedinto the dusty gas station office in front of Taylor, she saw a small box sitting under a metal desk. “The office wasn’t well equipped, so I made provisions,” he said as he closed the door behind them. She gave him a puzzled look. “With the garage bay door closed, this is the only way out of the garage. I welded the back doors shut. Now it’s time to get to work. Get that box out and open it.”
The box contained a laptop. She looked at him. “What do we do with this?”
“We check my Facebook page,” he said.
“Right.”
“Do it.”
Seeing he was serious, she sat in front of the computer and, following his instructions, logged on to his Facebook page. The page was filled with links to anti-government sites.
“Okay, I’m there. Now what?”
“Now you post my demands.”
“Demands?” She’d figured this was coming. When he handed her a piece of paper, she stared at the list. “Where would they land an airplane?”
He scowled. “It’s a fucking desert. Anywhere.”
She sighed. The demands were lengthy, and it was unlikely anyone would meet them, even if they could. But at least he was giving the authorities until morning to comply. That bought them all some time—about sixteen hours. A lot could happen in sixteen hours.
“So you think the authorities will read these?”
He laughed. “They have supercomputers scanning the Internet twenty-four hours a day, collecting every scrap of information. How could they miss my demands?! Once they know the kids are missing, it’s the first place they’ll look. And since you’ve told them about me, it should be easy, even for the FBI.”
“I suppose so.” She wasn’t at all sure that was the case.
Ronan staredout over the desert feeling hopeless. “There are enough buildings out here we could spend a week searching.”
“We don’t have a week,” Jett said. “It’s pitch dark, and even a bus is practically invisible. If we manage to find them, it’ll just be luck. If we pass by the damn thing, we might never find it.”
“It’ll be light again soon.”
Ronan’s phone rang, and he grabbed it. “It’s Rafe. What have you got, man? Please tell me it’s good news.”
“Another caller,” he said, chuckling. “Your clever niece just texted you to say hello and to tell you that the hide and seek game was getting boring. Besides, she’s cold.”
“She’s okay?”
“Seems so. She said to tell you to bring a pizza. I had her make a call and leave the phone on.”
“You can find her?”
“I’m tracing it now, my friend, as we speak. And let’s see, yes, there it is, and triangulating on the signal, I’ve got her coordinates. I’ll just load that into the map app, and oh yes, there they are. You’re where?”
“We’re coming back down the road from I-40 where it connects west of Ludlow. I don’t know the name of the road, but we’re halfway to 247.”
“I see it. Damn, you must be almost on top of them.”
“Tell me!”
“Wait until the computer does its zoom thing. Yes, there’s an abandoned gas station and restaurant about two miles down the road, north of you. I think you’ll find the bus there.”
