Darryl suddenly wanted to strangle Phil. But then he noticed the ranger. Allen Meyer had found his walkie-talkie—it was on his lap now—but strangely, he wasn’t using it. “You OK, Ranger?”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure, fine.” It was a rapid-fire reply, clearly meaningless.
Darryl was calm. “Is your wife still checking trails out there?”
Meyer didn’t respond.
“Ranger, you really should try her on that walkie-talkie.”
But Meyer didn’t touch it. It was like he was afraid to. “I haven’t been able to get her all day. She’s out there with our baby.”
Darryl and Jason shared a look. The guy was cracking up. They grabbed for the walkie-talkie at the same time; Darryl got it first.
Jason jutted out his hand. “Darryl, give me that, please.”
“I can’t press a button as well as you?”
“This is important! Give it to me!”
Darryl shoved it at him angrily. “Same old Jason.”
Jason didn’t care about hurt feelings now. “What’s your wife’s name, Ranger?”
Eyes wet, Meyer turned. “Laura.”
Jason pressed the walkie-talkie’s talk button. “Laura, are you out there?”
He waited for a moment. One second ticked past, then another. There was no response.
“Laura, I’m with your husband. Please pick up.”
He waited again. Just the same soft hissing.
Craig shook his head, eyeing the bloody tree branch. “We better find her. We better find her right now.” He turned back to Jason. “Unless you want to fly the damn helicopter, too.”
Jason was momentarily silent, upset at the situation—and maybe at himself, too. “Let’s just find her, Craig.” He eyed the ever-darkening skies. “As fast as we can.”
AS THE men sped off, they didn’t know they were being studied.
CHAPTER 55
THE BLACK eyes shifted as the hulking machine shot across the sky then dipped down and disappeared. Then the eyes blinked. The creature had just seen its first helicopter.
From its mountaintop perch, the predator turned back to the tree branch where its kill had been. It knew instinctively what had happened. Its food had been stolen.
It began tuning for other prey, but the interference from the now-unseen helicopter was overpowering. Then the interference cut out and it immediately detected something else. In another part of the forest. Two signals, their frequencies identical to the jogger’s. Then, it detected another two signals with the same frequency, in another area still.
The predator looked up at the sky. It wasn’t as dark as it would have liked, but the prey was out there now. It was going to replace its stolen kill immediately.
CHAPTER 56
“LET’S GO, let’s go, let’s go….”
Craig Summers drummed his fingers impatiently on the chopper’s cyclic lever. They’d landed in the parking lot to split up: some to find the ranger’s wife and the others to check on Monique and Lisa. Summers was by himself now, watching the others outside. What are they doing? He drummed his fingers faster. Craig hadn’t been entirely honest with Darryl earlier. He didn’t think Monique was fine. Not necessarily. With what they’d just seen, he didn’t want to take any chances. It was getting dark fast, and he wanted to go. He pounded his fist. “Come on!”
In the parking lot, Allen Meyer sprinted toward an SUV, Phil stood by himself wondering what was going on, and Jason and Darryl yelled at each other over the thumping noise.
“Just let Phil do it! We need you to come with us, Darryl!”
“Monique’s my damn wife, Jason! And I’m gonna check she’s OK! You know how that is! Not trusting someone else to do something important!”
“Monique is safe on the boat! Sending Phil is just a precau—” He stopped yelling as an SUV sped toward them and slammed to a stop, the ranger at the wheel, tense and ready to get going.
“Damn it, Darryl, this guy’s wife is alone in the middle of the forest with a baby! We’ve got to help him! You want me to trust you more; I want you to trust Phil more!”
Darryl couldn’t say no to this. He nodded, and Jason ran over to Phil. “We’re all set! You sure you’re OK doing this, Phil?!”
“I want to get back to my computer anyway!”
Jason paused over the thumping noise, wounded anew. The sad fact was that he wasn’t sure he trusted Phil Martino anymore. The only reason he knew he’d go back to the boat was because of his goddamn precious laptop. Jason had no idea why he was so obsessed with it, but he didn’t care now. “Go, then!”
As Phil climbed into the chopper, Jason realized the SUV’s driver’s seat was empty now, Allen Meyer in back and waiting to go. “You want to drive, Darryl?!”
“Can you trust me to!”
“I’m sorry, Darryl, all right? I’m sorry! Let’s just go!”
Darryl rushed into the driver’s seat, Jason into the passenger’s, and they sped off.
As the trees started to blur by, Jason put on his seat belt.
CHAPTER 57
“THERE IT is!”
From an open window, Phil pointed to the Expedition, docked farther up Redwood Inlet.
Craig rocketed the big bird toward it, reaching it in an instant, then they started to descend. “Open the door, Phil! I’ll take care of the ladder!”
Phil swung the door open, stood strong against the rush of wind, and started climbing. He hopped onto the deck just as Monique ran up.
“What’s going on, Phil?!”
Phil waved to Craig. “Come on! I’ll tell you inside!”
Below deck, Phil walked quickly to his bedroom. He saw it immediately. His laptop was just as he’d left it on the little desk.
“What the hell’s happening, Phil?” Monique was behind him. “What are you doing?”
He eyed his machine for a moment and turned, saying nothing.
“Where’s Darryl? Where’s everybody else?”
“They’re… outside.”
“What are we supposed to do?”
Phil didn’t answer for a moment. His mind seemed to be working, almost like he couldn’t remember. “You’re supposed to meet them at the rangers’ station.”
“Really?”
As Lisa walked up, Phil nodded. “Right away. You know how to get there?”
LAURA MEYER walked rapidly down the trail. With Samuel and his portable chair in tow, she wondered if her husband had found the jogger. She’d tried him earlier on her now-charged walkie-talkie, but strangely, he hadn’t picked up. It wasn’t like her super-anal husband not to have his walkie-talkie on. Could he have gone out of range? Earlier, Laura had sworn she’d heard a helicopter and wondered if he’d been inside it. But that was impossible; Allen didn’t know how to fly.
The walkie-talkie was off now. It produced tremendous static, which always made Samuel cry. The baby was prickly already, and Laura didn’t want to push him over the edge—she just couldn’t deal with that right now. On a wide trail surrounded by towering redwoods, she looked up. Probably not more than twenty minutes of light, she thought. Then Samuel made a sound, and she glanced down at him. Son of a bitch. A crabby look. Such looks typically preceded legendary crying fits. “Come on, Samuel; please don’t be like that.”
She couldn’t worry about it now. She had to find the jogger. She walked forward tensely.