“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Fay said. Since the gray-haired man walked back from the van to the warehouse, they’d seen no movement at all.
“I don’t know. Maybe Tyler and Grant will be able to tell us.”
They went silent, waiting for the cell phone to buzz.
Fay turned to Jess. “You haven’t spoken to Tyler much since we left New Zealand.”
Jess sighed. “Not much to say.”
“Did you talk to him about Andy?”
Jess shook her head. “Not yet.”
“I’ll leave that to you.” Fay took a deep breath. “Are you ready to tell me why you broke up with Tyler?”
“We didn’t have the same priorities at the time.”
“Were you in love with him?”
Jess hesitated. “I suppose I was.”
“And now?”
“Of course not.”
“Liar.”
“I haven’t seen him in over fifteen years.”
“I can see it when you look at him. The chemistry is still there.”
“Well, I can tell you this is just a job for him. He’s a professional and it’ll stay that way. I wish you’d told me you were going to call him.”
“You are a pill, Jessica,” Fay said.
“I know.”
“I just want to see you happy before I die.”
Jess’s heart sank. She squeezed Fay’s hand.
“I know, Nana. But you’re a tough lady. You’ll be around for a long time.”
Fay smiled with a tinge of sadness. “I only wish your parents could see what a lovely woman you’ve become.”
Jess was about to reply when she saw movement in the parking lot of the warehouse. Two men went to the CAPEK truck. One of them got in while the other stood behind it.
They watched as the truck backed up to one of the trailers and was hooked up by the man behind.
“Is this what Tyler wanted to see?” Fay asked.
“I don’t know.”
When the tractor and trailer were attached, the rig moved around until it was directly in front of a second trailer. Then the rig backed up, and the second trailer was hooked up. They continued this choreographed hookup process for ten minutes until all four trailers were attached in a line.
“What did Tyler say that was called?” Fay said.
“A road train.”
They’d seen a dozen of them on their way out to the CDU facility and back. Tyler had told them they were the longest street-legal trucks in the world. With minimal rail service in the Australian interior and huge distances to cover, road trains were the most economical means to transport goods between remote outposts.
The two men who’d been attaching the truck got into a white Ford sedan and sped off. Jess and Fay ducked so they wouldn’t be seen. When they sat up, Jess saw the gray-haired man and a companion getting into the van.
Jess was surprised to see the CAPEK truck start and rumble forward. She gawked at the sight of the massive vehicle roaring off with no one in the driver’s seat.
The truck turned at the end of the road. A few minutes later, the van drove off, leaving the warehouse lot empty. All the loading bays were open.
“What in the world is going on?” Fay said. “Where are Tyler and Grant?”
Jess called Tyler’s phone but got no answer. She started the engine. “We’re going to find out.”
She sped over to the warehouse. It was unlikely anyone was still inside with all the vehicles gone and the warehouse interior exposed.
She got out but left the Jeep running. Fay joined her.
Jess pushed herself up onto the raised loading platform and stood. Fay, who was an experienced rock climber, clambered onto the ledge without assistance.
The cavernous space was still. Surely Tyler and Grant would have called by now if they were watching the warehouse from outside.
“Hello?” she called. No one answered.
As she tiptoed into the open space, her heart thudded. She hoped the worst she’d discover would be that Tyler and Grant couldn’t respond because they were tied up and gagged. But then something Jess saw in a side room made her freeze.
Two boots. A woman’s. Jess could only see the lower part of her legs. They were motionless.
“Wait here,” she said to Fay.
“Why?” Fay spotted the legs. “Oh, my God!”
“Stay here!”
Jess moved forward until she was standing in the doorway. Now the whole body was visible.
The woman was dead, her eyes staring unfocused at the ceiling, a dime-sized hole in her forehead.
The sight was made all the more horrifying by the bullet-riddled bodies of four other men piled behind her, the smell of blood thick in the air. They couldn’t have been dead for more than fifteen minutes.
Jess only got close enough to see that none of the corpses was Tyler or Grant. She ducked out and caught her breath, trying not to hyperventilate or vomit.
“Call the police,” she gasped to Fay.
“Is she dead?”
“Yes. Tell them there’s been a murder.”
As Fay made the call with her cell, Jess took out her own phone and dialed Tyler.
He didn’t pick up. She was about to hang up and try again when she heard the buzz of a vibrating cell phone coming from the office.
Jess steeled herself to walk back into that charnel house, phone in hand.
At the door Jess listened for the sound and her stomach lurched when she realized why Tyler hadn’t picked up her call.
The buzz was coming from the pocket of the dead woman.
NINETEEN
Rummaging around in the pitch-black through an unconscious man’s pockets was not Tyler’s idea of fun, but it was the only reason he was now holding a cell phone, courtesy of Professor Stevens. Colchev must have been expecting it to be incinerated in the blast. Unfortunately, the phone was more useful as a meager light than as a communications device.
While Tyler focused the light on the C-4 explosive in Grant’s hands, he checked the phone for a signal. No bars. The few times he’d gotten a signal, it dropped before he could complete a call to the police. Tyler didn’t know Jess’s email address or phone number, so he’d sent a short email to Fay: This is Tyler. We’re in the truck that just passed you. Call the police. Bomb inside the truck. He could only hope that it would be sent in the miniscule gaps in the blockage.
Grant, cursing under his breath, pressed the plastic explosive into the door panel where the external latch would be.
“How’s it coming?” Tyler said.
Grant glanced up at him. The whites of his eyes were like beacons next to his brown skin. “You know, when I said I was looking for some thrills during our trip, this wasn’t what I had in mind. More light, please.”
Tyler angled the phone so that Grant could see while he inserted the detonator.
“Just be thankful it’s not summer. It’d be a hundred and twenty degrees in here by now.”
“It’ll be two thousand degrees if you don’t give me some more light.”
Tyler shifted the phone closer. “Better?”
Grant nodded and unspooled the wire to attach it to Milo Beech’s identical phone. “If we die, just remember that this contraption was your idea.” He deftly crimped two wires together using Tyler’s Leatherman. “Any signal yet?”
Tyler looked at his phone’s display. “Still nothing. And we could be only a few minutes from the target.”
“Yeah, but what’s the target?”
That was the million-dollar question. They had no idea where the truck was headed, so there was no way to know how much time they had left.
When it had been clear they weren’t going to get a signal, Tyler decided that they’d have to take matters into their own hands to stop the truck. And the first order of business was making an exit for themselves.