Brett Battles - No Return

“That had nothing to do with it,” Wes insisted. Still, there was some truth in Lars’s words. He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the face of the man in the cockpit. But the one he saw still wasn’t Adair’s. “There must be someone unaccounted for. Some other pilot who’s missing. That’ll be the guy I saw.”

“We don’t have anyone unaccounted for.”

Wes’s phone beeped in his pocket. It was his alarm. He frowned. “I gotta get back.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Lars said.

“Can you do me a favor and check it out?”

“Check what out?”

“This picture. The pilot. Just make sure there wasn’t a mistake. I saw the guy, Lars. It’ll help put my mind at ease.”

Lars rose from his seat and shrugged. “I don’t know what you expect me to find, but okay. I’ll check.”

They walked around to the parking lot off the alley that ran behind the restaurant. Lars stopped next to a generic-looking sedan that Wes immediately pegged as base issue.

“Seriously? If terrorists ever knew the Navy made you drive around in that, they’d realize they’d already won.”

Lars grimaced. “Yeah, well, we can’t all be driving BMWs.”

“You overestimate me. Back home I drive a Prius.”

“Tree hugger, huh?”

“Only in my off hours.”

Lars seemed to relax a little. Holding out his hand, he said, “It’s good to see you again.”

Wes shook it. “You’ll let me know what you find out?”

“Of course. But can I be honest with you?”

“Sure.”

Lars hesitated before he spoke. “I think chances are I’m not going to find anything wrong. So you might want to start assuming your mind’s playing tricks on you.”

“You’re probably right.” Wes smiled. “I’m glad we got together.”

“Me, too.” Lars opened the door of his sedan, then paused in the opening. “Welcome home.”

Lars Andersen had just driven through the gate of the China Lake naval base when his cellphone rang. He grabbed his Bluetooth headset off the cigarette lighter and put it in his ear.

“Lieutenant Commander Andersen.”

“Lars, it’s Janice. Commander Knudsen just got here for our meeting. You’re almost back, right?”

Lars checked his watch. The meeting with Knudsen was supposed to start in fifteen minutes. “Any way we can push it back an hour?”

“He’s already in the conference room. Why? You can’t make it?”

If Lars kept going on the road he was on, he’d be at his office in two minutes. Instead he turned left.

“You’ll have to take it without me.”

“He’s not going to be happy,” Janice said.

“Make something up. You can fill me in later.”

“If that’s what you want.”

“No choice,” he said, then disconnected the call. Immediately he punched in a new number.

“Commander Forman’s office, Seaman Litoff speaking.”

“This is Lieutenant Commander Andersen. I need to see the commander now.”

“Sir, the commander isn’t here at the moment.”

“Where is he?”

“I’m afraid I’m not authorized to give you that information.”

“Well, Seaman, I suggest you call your boss and tell him I’m on the way to his office and he’s going to want to see me right away. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. Understood. Can you tell me what this is regarding?”

“No.”

Lars disconnected the call.

Asit turned out,Wes could have stayed longer at lunch.

“Our afternoon schedule just got canceled,” Dione told the crew once everyone had regrouped at the motel.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Monroe said.

“It’s the crash,” Dione explained.

Wes frowned, confused. “I thought we weren’t going back out to the Pinnacles until Monday or Tuesday.”

“I’m not talking about the Pinnacles. We had those Native American sites on the base this afternoon. But I just got a call from our Navy contact, who said because of the crash all unnecessary visitor passes have been revoked. That includes us.”

“Well, that sucks,” Alison said.

“Pool time,” Danny said, smiling. Everyone turned and stared at him. “What? You guys brought suits, right?”

If they were going to have the afternoon off, Wes realized now might be the time to take care of that unfinished business, the errand his mother had asked him to do. He’d been dreading it, and had secretly hoped he’d be unable to make time to visit the storage facility. But he also knew it was something he had to do. Now was as good a time as-

“Just because the schedule got screwed up doesn’t mean we can’t get anything done,” Dione said, looking directly at Danny. “We’ll get some B-roll.”

While Wes felt a sense of reprieve, Danny suddenly looked like a kid who’d been told the trip to Disneyland he was about to take was really heading for the city dump.

“All afternoon?” he asked.

“As long as it takes.”

B-roll shots were usually taken on the go as a crew was shooting other things. The name was a holdover from the days when everything was shot on rolls of film. The A-roll, though few, if any, called it that, was the scripted shots, while B-roll was random shots taken as they came up.

“Danny, you and I will take the Highlander, and Wes, you can take the Escape,” she said. “I’m looking for beautiful desert images. Anything you think will be interesting.”

“Why do I need the chaperone?” Danny asked.

“Do you really have to ask?”

“What am I supposed to do? Just sit here?” Monroe asked.

“You’ve got the afternoon off,” Dione said, looking at Monroe, but meaning Alison and Anna, too. “You’re all free to do whatever you want. Tony, you can-”

“You’re taking both cars,” Monroe cut her off.

Dione pasted on her putting-up-with-the-talent smile. “You can rent a car for the day. We’ll pay for it.”

“So I have to rent my own car now?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Tony said, jumping in.

“Whatever,” Monroe said. “I’ll be in my room. Tell me when the car’s here. And not one of those crappy subcompacts.”

As Monroe walked away, Dione mouthed “Thank you” to Tony.

“She does know how to drive, right?” Alison asked, keeping her voice low.

They all silently stared at one another.

“I, um, assume so,” Dione said.

“Has anyone actually seen her behind the wheel?” Alison asked.

Shaking heads all around.

Tony groaned. “Please tell me I don’t have to drive her around.”

“Absolutely not,” Dione said. “She can drive herself if she wants to go anywhere, whether she knows how to or not. I want you to make a list of what we’re going to need tomorrow. We’ll be on the road most of the day, with no stores nearby that I know of, so you’ll have to get supplies tonight when we get back. When you’re done with the list, write up the production report for yesterday and today. I’ll take a look at them later.”

Dione glanced at Danny and Wes. “All right, guys. Shall we hit it?”

Danny retrieved his camera from the Escape and put it in the other SUV.

“So you’re going to be all alone?” Anna asked Wes.

“Looks that way,” Wes said.

She glanced at Dione. “Mind if I join him?”

An odd smile formed on Dione’s face. “Fine by me.” She opened the driver’s door of the Highlander, then asked Wes, “Which way are you going to head?”

He shrugged. “Thought I could go north.” He pointed at the far end of the valley, where the hills met the Sierras. “Get some of the volcanic stuff.”

“Great idea,” she said as she climbed in. “We’ll go east toward Death Valley.”