He entered the trees.
IN THE forest, the prints continued… past redwoods, fern patches, a field of tiny white flowers, a trickling stream… right into the middle of a wide clearing.
And then they stopped. Just disappeared.
The ranger looked around. Where the hell did they go?
Confused, he walked forward. They had to be around here somewhere.
“TOLD YOU there was nothing here. Let’s get back to the water.”
They were in the woods now, fifty feet from Redwood Inlet.
Listening to his own advice, Craig Summers started to turn. Darryl Hollis didn’t move.
Then there was a snapping sound from the direction he was facing.
Craig turned back nervously. “What was that?”
No one answered. They just studied the shadowy trunks and ferns, all perfectly silent now.
There was another snap.
Then a man in a tan ranger outfit appeared. “Are any of you Wayne Abbott?”
Darryl looked at him. “Sorry?”
“Wayne Abbott!” Ranger Allen Meyer was annoyed, realizing these people were wearing jeans and not joggers at all. “The park is closed; you know, you’re not supposed to be here.”
Jason just stared at the man, a ranger. A ranger looking for someone. “Who’s… Wayne Abbott?”
“A missing jogger. You didn’t see him, did you?”
Jason couldn’t believe it. “We haven’t seen anybody.” Then he noticed Lisa, visibly terrified, her face as tight as a drum. He forgot about the ranger. “Are you OK?”
Lisa didn’t answer—just shook her head.
Monique turned. “Hey, girlfriend. You want to go back to the boat?”
“Yeah, I think I do.”
“Thank you very much, Monique.” Jason patted her on the back.
“No problem; everything’s cool.” She put her arm over Lisa’s shoulder. “Guys, we’ll see you back there.”
As the women walked off, Allen Meyer was even more annoyed. Who the hell are these people? And how am I going to find this jogger? The park was enormous, more light was disappearing every second, it was just him and his wife and… “Damn it!”
Jason turned to him. “Anything we can do to help?”
Meyer didn’t respond. He worried he and Laura had miscalculated badly, that the jogger was nowhere near here. Four years ago they’d dealt with a similar situation. A teenager had gotten lost and gone missing for three entire days, finally turning up in the cornfields at the northern tip of the forest. Could the jogger have reached the same spot? Meyer wanted to check that next, but it was getting late, the fields stretched for miles, and there was only one way to search that kind of terrain. He turned to his unwanted guests—
“I don’t suppose any of you know how to fly a helicopter.”
Darryl and Craig shared a look. “Actually, we both do.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“All right… You’re going to help me. Right now.” He removed his hat and started sprinting. “Come on….”
They all ran after him.
CHAPTER 53
“LAURA, YOU out there? Laura, come in. Laura?”
Allen Meyer drummed his fingers impatiently, waiting for a response.
But the walkie-talkie was silent, nothing but static.
He put it down on his now-moving SUV’s dash and turned to Jason, in the passenger seat next to him. “My wife. She must still be charging hers.”
So was she outside too? Jason tried to appear casual. “She’s also looking for the jogger?”
A nod. “Since it’s just the two of us, we had to split up.” They pulled into the massive empty parking lot amid the trees. “You guys fly either of those?”
From the backseat, Darryl and Craig peered out at two helicopters, a huge jungle-green, twin-engine Vertol designed to carry thirty men and a smaller bright yellow Sikorsky. Craig nodded. “We fly both.”
“Let’s get going, then.”
Seconds later, the Vertol shot into the sky, Craig at the controls, Darryl at copilot, Jason, the ranger, and Phil on a mounted bench in back. Before Craig could even ask, Meyer pointed. “That way.”
THE EYES snapped open.
Deep in the central cavern, the creature had just been awakened. Not by a sound nor by a smell. By an electrical signal. An extraordinarily powerful one. The animal tuned in the darkness, trying to locate its source. It quickly realized it was from something outside the cave.
It flew toward it.
“DAMN IT! Son of a bitch!”
Darryl and Craig shared a look. Ranger Allen Meyer wasn’t built for a crisis. They’d just searched the entire perimeter of cornstalks at the forest’s edge and hadn’t seen any sign of the jogger. Craig tried to ignore the ranger. It was getting darker every second, and they had to stay cool. “What do we do here, Darryl?”
In the copilot’s seat, Darryl raised binoculars to his face. “Take her up slowly. I might be able to see that one trail from here.”
The chopper began rising. “See anything?”
Darryl shifted the binoculars. “Veer right a little.”
Summers moved the chopper’s levers. “This any better?”
“It’s fine, but these trees really are—” He stopped talking.
“Really are… what?”
Darryl didn’t answer. He just stared through the binoculars.
“Darryl?”
Darryl still didn’t respond. He just removed the binoculars and looked outside with naked eyes.
Craig turned. “Did you see some—” Then he stopped talking too.
Phil looked out, and his mouth fell open.
Then the ranger looked out. “Oh my God.”
What’s everyone looking at? Why’d we stop rising? At the far side of the chopper, Jason couldn’t see anything. He leaned forward. “Guys, are we—”
Then Jason saw what everyone else did. On top of a massive branch was a body in sky-blue mesh shorts, a white T-shirt, and New Balance sneakers.
They’d found the missing jogger.
CHAPTER 54
NO ONE spoke.
Darryl’s eyes darted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He didn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it. “Something else must have done this.”
Craig Summers couldn’t even begin to process it. “You want to get the body down?”
Darryl nodded, and before Jason realized, the chopper repositioned, Darryl climbed out on a ladder, and the body was put in back, wrapped in a black fleece blanket.
Still, no one spoke. They were too stunned.
Then Craig turned. “Darryl… are Monique and Lisa OK?”
“Son of a bitch.” Darryl rapidly removed his cell.
Don’t bother, Allen Meyer thought absently. But then he glanced at the branch and remembered his own wife. Where the hell was Laura? He reached for his walkie-talkie. It wasn’t there. He frantically squirmed, trying to find it. Where was it?!
“Monique?” Darryl had heard her voice, but the call instantly dropped. “Monique, you there? Son of a bitch…” He redialed but got a fast busy. He redialed again. Nothing. He swallowed nervously, looking out at the tree, then turned to Craig. “You think she’s OK?”
Summers was ice. “She is fine, Darryl. She is on the boat with Lisa.”
Darryl swallowed again. “But she doesn’t know about this. What if she decided to go for a walk or something?”
“Darryl, she is on the boat. She didn’t go anywhere.”
Darryl hesitated. This was logical and probably true. Then Phil leaned forward, snapping pictures of the bloodied tree branch with boyish enthusiasm. “Boy, these are some amazing shots.”