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  The riders exchanged looks but did not refute his comment. They launched into a quick dialogue in front of us, one we couldn’t understand of course.

  “If you need a guide,” I said, “we’d be happy to take you over there.”

  “You will go nowhere near the site,” Jakatra said.

  “We’ll place security measures on the trail to ensure we’re not followed,” Eleriss told him, clearly choosing English so we’d understand.

  So long as they went straight to their cave and left Autumn alone…

  “You can keep your cave to yourself,” Simon said, “but we’ll be needing the second half of our payment for finding it for you.”

  Jakatra’s chin came up. “We must verify that this is the correct cave, if there even is a cave.”

  “Fine, then go verify it. We’ll wait.” Simon pointed at the asphalt at our feet.

  Jakatra looked like he had another comment lined up, probably something along the lines of they’d pay us whenever they felt like it, but I looked Eleriss in the eyes and spoke first. “It would be impolite of you to make us wait if you find that we have indeed located your destination for you.” I thought about threatening to unveil what we knew about them if they weren’t prompt, but decided to see if a plea for propriety worked first. All along, Eleriss had struck me as the peacemaker, someone who didn’t want to ruffle feathers or do the wrong thing and stick out. Besides, making threats to someone wearing a sword wasn’t usually a good idea.

  “Very well,” Eleriss said. “We will check to see if the cave is there and if it is the one we seek. If so, we will return with your payment.”

  Jakatra muttered something in his own tongue.

  Eleriss made an upward motion with his hand that wasn’t familiar to me, but the gesture had a placating feel, and Jakatra desisted. Once again, I wondered what their relationship was. In the beginning, I’d assumed Jakatra was in charge, but perhaps they were equals, or maybe Eleriss was even the leader. I’d believe Jakatra was the bodyguard if someone suggested it. Despite the shared hotel room with the single bed, I’d never gotten the lovers vibe from them.

  It didn’t look like they were going to stick around to explain anything to me. They revved up the motorcycles again. This time, Simon and I stepped aside, and the riders tore out of the parking lot. As soon as they disappeared from sight, I pulled out my phone and called Autumn.

  She answered on the first ring with, “They after me?”

  “I hope we convinced them to prioritize something else,” I said, “but you should get out of town anyway.” It crossed my mind to tell her to toss that blood in a garbage can somewhere and distance herself from the danger, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. I wanted to see the results from the DNA sequencer. I hoped I’d bought her the time she needed to run the sample, and that I wasn’t endangering her further.

  “Working on it. Had to take that vet tech home first.”

  “Are you still with Temi?” I asked.

  “She dropped me at my car and drove off. She said she’s heading back to get you two.”

  “Good. Thanks. Keep in touch, will you?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I gotta go if I’m going to get out of here.”

  “Wait, what’d you tell that vet tech anyway?”

  “That secret government agents were trying to keep me from discovering The Truth and sharing it with the public,” Autumn said.

  “And he bought that?”

  “He was wearing an old X-Files T-shirt under his lab coat. Of course he bought it. He’s convinced that monster out there is an alien. He was even talking about this blog that’d been posting pictures of it… Know anything about that?” An engine rumbled to life-she must be ready to drive out of town.

  “Not a thing,” I said innocently. “Stay safe on your trip.”

  “I will. Later.”

  When I hung up, Simon was watching me, his eyebrows elevated.

  “Our ride is on its way, and your blog entries are becoming famous,” I said.

  “Things are looking up.”

  “For the moment. Did you really find a cave, or did you send those two on a fool’s errand? Because if it’s the latter, they’re going to be irked when they catch up with us again.”

  “I found a cave,” Simon said.

  “Oh, good. Maybe they’ll be too busy exploring it to think about their blood for a while.”

  “That was my plan.” His smirk was on the smug side.

  “Too bad we can’t follow them again. I’d love to see a secret cave that nobody else has been in for a long time, if ever.” Though I’d be even more intrigued if there were signs of prehistoric habitation. The Hassayampa River cavates had been interesting, and I certainly planned to write an article on them, but what else might we find in a subterranean cavern beneath Prescott? Something cool enough to get me an invitation to write for one of the big archaeology magazines? “Enh, perhaps it’s just as well that we can’t follow them,” I said. “Our predator keeps showing up wherever they go.”

  “Not until night fall though, and that’s a long ways off.” Simon arched his eyebrows. “As for the rest, why can’t we follow them?”

  “Uh, did you miss their comment about booby-trapping the trail?”

  “No, but there’s that lovely little kayak rental place on the other side of the lake…”

  CHAPTER 21

  Like most of the other businesses in town, the kayak rental place was closed. While Simon tried the handles on the equipment lockers, I observed the scenery across the water, wondering if Eleriss and Jakatra were already out there, burning holes in rocks. Ducks floated in the shallows near the wetlands end of the lake, calm and undisturbed. I took that for a promising sign. At the other end of the lake, lumpy gray mounds of granite rose, the ancient bedrock eroded by wind and water. I’d called the mounds boulders, because I lacked a better word, but many of the formations would dwarf the buildings downtown and some loomed tall enough to entice eagles to roost on the tops.

  Simon wandered over to investigate the building, though I’d already tried the doors and found it as locked as the library. Temi’s silver Jaguar was the only car in the parking lot. She leaned against the door, waiting for us. She was too polite to say, “Which one of you college-educated geniuses thought the kayaks would be lying out for anyone to take?”

  According to Simon’s tracking app, the motorcycles were on the other side of the lake. The riders had driven past the parking lot over there and onto the no-motorized-vehicles-allowed trail, then stopped somewhere behind the formations. They had a head start on us; before driving out, we’d popped into one of the few open stores for rope, deciding duct tape might not be sufficient for this endeavor. We’d also stopped back at the van to pick up food and water along with our flashlights and my whip and bow. Taking the weapons made me feel silly-like I was my RealmSaga character, ready to travel into some monster-infested dungeon-but who knew what might be down there?

  A jangle sounded, and Simon jogged into sight. He waved a keychain. “Here we go.”

  “How’d you get those out of the building?” I asked.

  “I downloaded a lock-picking app.” Simon stopped in front of an equipment shed and started trying keys.

  “It taught you how to pick a lock in five minutes?”

  “No, it showed me how complicated lock-picking is in five minutes, so I walked around the building and tried all the windows until I found one open. I wiggled inside, let myself out of a stinky bathroom, and found the keys.”

  “You’re a real MacGyver, aren’t you?”

  Simon winked at me as he pulled open the now unlocked door. “You’d be lost without me, admit it.”

  “Only if you admit you’d be more lost without me.” I peered inside the windowless shed where rows of kayaks leaned against walls and racks.

  “It’s true that a brilliant hero needs a trusty sidekick to do the grunt work.” Simon pointed inside. “I’d like the green one, please. Would you mind?”
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br />   “Locking you in the shed?” I grabbed his arm. “Not at all.”

  “Are we ready to go?” Temi asked from behind us.

  I released Simon. “As soon as everyone picks out a kayak and drags it down to the beach on his or her own.”

  “Hm,” she said.

  I’d meant my comment for Simon, of course, but remembered that her knee might preclude such activities. “Do you think you’ll be able to do this, Temi? Or will it hurt your leg?” If she couldn’t kayak, she’d have even more trouble scrambling over those boulders or into the bowels of a cave. Maybe it’d be best to leave her back as the support staff again.

  “I’ll manage,” Temi said tersely.

  There was a determined set to her jaw, so I didn’t mention my concerns. If she wanted to come, I wouldn’t stop her.

  Simon dragged out a two-person green kayak. It might have been my comments or perhaps a desire not to appear puny in front of Temi, but he hauled it down to the water himself. I helped Temi tote a blue one-person model to the lake while Simon grabbed paddles for everyone. Before I could ask if she wanted to share the double or go on her own, she tossed her shoes and water bottle into the back of the single. She rolled her pants up to her knees. I caught a glimpse of nasty scar tissue and the bottom edge of a knee brace before she pushed the kayak into the shallows, and I decided I should be doing the same thing.

  We soon had all our gear loaded and were paddling across the lake. I shivered at the chilly breeze sweeping across the water. The sun was shining, but it was starting to feel more like November than October. The leaves on the cottonwoods at the end of the lake had turned orange and yellow, and I bet Prescott would see snow before long. It was a far cry from Phoenix with its daytime highs still in the 80s and 90s.

  I would have expected the two-person kayak to be faster, with Simon and me paddling together-I’d taken the back seat to make sure he paddled-but Temi’s strokes were effortless and powerful. Her craft surged ahead and she had to pause to wait for us. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she’d been kayaking all of her life, but we hadn’t grown up around water, and I doubted she’d had time for many hobbies during her tennis career. I might have been slightly pleased when she’d first shown up, needing my help, but watching her now, I had to admit that it was sad that the car accident had ended her career. She was meant to be an athlete.

  “Veer left when we get close to the rocks,” Simon called to her. “We’ll have to get close to find a place to land.”

  The granite mounds came all the way down to the water, but there were inlets here and there, and I remembered a few grassy spots accessible from the hiking trail. Of course, we didn’t want to go anywhere near the trail, not if it’d been booby-trapped.

  Ahead of us, Temi stopped paddling and pointed to the right, back toward the wetlands. The ducks were taking off with a frantic batting of wings. I didn’t see anything in the trees and tall grasses behind them, but that didn’t mean much. I hoped our predator wasn’t making an exception to its preference for the night shift.

  Temi pointed again, this time toward an inlet between two towering gray mounds. “In there?”

  “Let’s try it,” Simon called softly.

  We’d all lowered our voices since the ducks flew off.

  We slipped into the cove and followed the rocks until we reached an area clogged with floating branches and logs. A faint animal trail cut across the grassy bank rising behind it. We picked our way through the deadwood and helped each other pull the kayaks out.

  A great thrashing came from the tall grass a few feet away. I lunged for my bow-it was still in the back of the kayak. A splash sounded, then the grasses grew still. The whole cove grew still. I forced myself to loosen my grip on the weapon.

  “I don’t know what that was,” I said, “but it wasn’t big enough to be our monster.”

  “Nah, the monster would have jumped toward us instead of away from us,” Simon said. “It was probably a fat beaver.”

  Despite his words, he had his phone out, probably with his camera app loaded. I hoped his obsession didn’t get us all killed. I was already beginning to think coming out here had been a mistake, the coolness of an undiscovered cave not withstanding.

  Temi turned slowly, gazing up at the rock on all sides of us. “How are we going to figure out where Eleriss and Jakatra are?”

  “We’ll have to climb up to a high spot and look for smoke,” I said. “If they use… whatever they used before, there’ll be some smoke or fumes at least. Though I admit, it’ll be hard to see outside.”

  “In other words, we’re hoping to get lucky,” Temi said.

  “That’s usually how our business goes.”

  Simon grunted in agreement. As soon as we’d put on all of our gear, we hunted for a promising spot to ascend. The mounds were uneven, some tall, some low, and some in between, so we didn’t have to scale any cliffs, but the climb was challenging. Temi struggled because of her leg, I struggled because I was carrying the bow as well as my backpack, and Simon struggled because he couldn’t be bothered to buy a pair of real shoes. We were all sweating by the time we clambered onto the top of one of the higher rocks. The view was magnificent though, with the lake stretching behind us and the lumpy granite formations heading off to the horizon. I spotted the rail trail about a half a mile away. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any smoke or anything that would suggest our employers were in the vicinity.

  “Where are we in relation to their bikes?” I asked.

  Simon pulled out his phone. “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean? They left?”

  “No, I’m not picking up a signal any more. They were over there a half hour ago.” He waved toward the trail. “But now, I’ve got nothing.”

  “Meaning they drove out of range?”

  “Or finally found the tracking device and destroyed it,” Simon said.

  “Oh.”

  “We could wander around these rocks for days and not find a cave entrance,” Temi said.

  “I know. Anyone have any ideas? Simon, would your program be able to show a newly constructed tunnel?”

  His “uhm” didn’t sound promising, but he did start poking at his phone.

  I sat cross-legged and watched the sky, still hoping to catch a wisp of smoke. An eagle that had a nest on top of one of the outcroppings took off, flying away from us. Maybe it found our presence intrusive. It flew straight, but it banked and did a few circles, rising higher with each revolution. At first, I simply watched, but then I bolted to my feet.

  “That might be it.” I squinted, trying to note landmarks beneath it and pick out a route for us to take.

  “What might?” Temi asked.

  The eagle reached the altitude it wanted and headed out.

  “A thermal?” Simon asked.

  I nodded. “That’s my guess. If we’re right, something’s heating up the ground over there.”

  “Let’s check it out then.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Temi didn’t complain as we climbed and descended, weaving through the dells and scrambling over the rocks, but I caught winces on her face more than once. I also winced a few times from scraped hands and banged knees. When I’d first seen that eagle, my heart rate had tripled in anticipation of finding a fresh tunnel and following Eleriss and Jakatra into some underground chamber that had been sealed for countless centuries, maybe forever. After almost an hour of trying to reach that spot, my excitement had waned.

  “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Simon asked.

  “I’m sure we’re closer to the place than we are to the Winslow rest stop,” I said, bringing up our long-standing joke.

  “How comforting,” Temi said. We’d have to fill her in on the story later. Or perhaps not. That hadn’t been my bladder’s finest moment.

  A clatter arose in the distance somewhere ahead of us. Rock fall. Our feet-and our mouths-halted as one. We exchanged long looks with each other. As agile as Eleriss and Jak
atra were, it was hard to imagine them knocking rocks loose.

  We were down in one of the hollows and couldn’t see far ahead. I listened for further noises, but not even the birds were talking.

  “What was that?” Temi whispered.

  “Rock climbers?” Simon suggested.

  “Who would be out climbing when there’s a man-slaying monster roaming around town?” I whispered.

  “Uh, us?” Simon said.

  A faint scraping sound reached my ears. It wasn’t continuous but intermittent and so faint that it might be in my imagination.

  “Are those claws?” Simon breathed.

  Not my imagination. He’d heard it too.

  I wished I had something more deadly in my hands than a bow. We could have stopped and bought firearms-from what I’d seen, Arizona had some of the most lax gun laws of any state in the country-but I reminded myself that neither bullets nor arrows had put a dent in that creature at the campground the other night. The glowing sword might be the only thing that could hurt it. In that case, we’d be best served by catching up with Eleriss and Jakatra and staying close. Well, technically that wasn’t true-we’d be best served by going back to the motel and locking the door.

  “Is anyone else having second thoughts about this adventure?” I whispered.

  Temi nodded. “Yes.”

  Simon shook his head. “No.”

  I stared at the dust and tufts of grass at our feet while listening for more scrapes. I didn’t hear anything. It’d either moved on or it was hiding in the shadows somewhere, waiting for a chance to pounce on us. Except that it hadn’t proved that subtle yet. It simply attacked when it wanted. Maybe we’d heard something else. Or maybe it had bypassed us and was after the sword. Either way, I was less enthused about hunting for caves. When I’d agreed to follow the riders, it had been under the assumption that our monster friend wouldn’t be roaming about during the day.

  “Why not?” I asked Simon quietly.

  He shrugged. “We need to keep an eye on our employers. Once they get what they want, they might take off and we’d never see them again.”