Lindsay Buroker - Torrent

“Almost caught a glimpse of them there,” he said. “I thought they’d be able to navigate these holes on their bikes a lot faster than us, so I was going as quickly as I could.”

“We noticed.” Temi, sitting at the table behind us, rubbed her head.

“They’ve slowed down though. They must be looking for something.”

“Maybe they know we’re following them,” I said.

“They shouldn’t be able to hear us over their motorcycle engines unless they turn them off.”

“Something they’ll do when they reach their destination,” I pointed out.

“I’ll try to guess when they’re getting close, and I’ll stop our engine before they do. Hopefully.”

“We’re novices at tailing people,” I told Temi.

“Yes, as far as I can tell, your business is expanding into new territories by the day.”

By the hour, I thought.

The road forked and we turned into a dry valley clogged with scrubby brush. Pine trees rose to either side. The ride grew even bumpier, and I squinted suspiciously at the leaves beating against Zelda’s fender. “We’re not on a road anymore, are we?”

Simon grinned, though he didn’t take his eyes from the route ahead. “Nope.”

“It looks like a dried river bed,” Temi observed.

We splashed through a trough filled with mud and water.

“Mostly dry,” Temi amended.

I compared the topo map with what the GPS map on my smartphone offered. The cell had a couple of bars of reception, but the maps were slow to load. Not surprising. We weren’t on-or close to-any official roads. “We’re not far from Mount Union and Hassayampa Lake.” The trees blocked the view, but I waved in the general direction.

“What’s down here?” Temi asked.

“Uh, nothing.”

“There must be something .”

“Maybe those two were just looking for a private place to-oomph.” The ceiling was higher in the van than in a car, but my head almost cracked it anyway. If not for the seat belt I’d wisely put on earlier, it would have. “Get busy,” I finished weakly.

“They did seem to be sharing the one bed,” Simon said.

“Their faces were similar,” Temi said. “I took them for siblings.”

“Which makes it all the more likely that they’d look for a private place if they wanted to get busy,” I said.

My joke met with pitying stares, and I went back to studying the map. We rolled out of the riverbed and onto a road with brown grass and weeds sprouting from the center between the ruts. They were tall enough to slap at the base of the windshield. They also-as we discovered when my head nearly hit the ceiling again-disguised big rocks.

“If we get stranded out here, I’m going to pummel you,” I told Simon.

“Noted.”

The road dipped back into the riverbed, then out the other side. It never detoured far from the dusty banks, and we occasionally splashed through water, a rare find in the desert mountains this late in the year.

“Oh,” I said, “this must be the Hassayampa River.”

“Anything significant about it?” Temi asked.

“Well, it’s kind of an interesting river. The name is Native American and means the river that flows upside down or the upside down river. We’re not far from the headwaters, and some of it is obviously above ground, but it flows beneath ground for a lot of its route, a good hundred miles if I remember correctly.” As I’d spoken, I’d plugged the name into Google, but the reception had grown too pitiful for the search.

At that moment, we splashed through a clear pool framed by granite boulders. Water sprayed the windshield.

“Oops,” Simon said and veered to the left. It took a few tries before he managed to coerce the van up the bank and into the dryer shrubs on the side.

“If Zelda were a really cool van,” I said, “she’d be equipped for aquatic operations.”

“Oh, like one of the Ducks from World War Two?” Temi asked.

“I hardly think that’s necessary in Arizona.” Simon shot me a dirty look. “And Zelda is really cool. You can start sleeping outside if you don’t think so.”

“My apologies. I was obviously mistaken.” I nodded toward the windshield. “Are we stuck? I don’t wish to offend Zelda, but I notice we’re not moving.”

“We stopped because they stopped.” Simon turned off the engine.

The soft calls of birds and the rustling of grasses stirred by the wind replaced the noise.

“Anything else interesting about this river?” Simon asked. “Old mine shafts or caves full of rusty treasures?”

I poked at my phone, but that didn’t make the reception any better. “I wish I’d known we were coming here; I could have looked it up before. From memory… there is some folklore about it. An old saying about how if you drink the water, you won’t be able to tell the truth again.”

“Good thing the fridge is full of Mountain Dew,” Simon said.

“I think I’d rather take my chances with the river,” I said, drawing another dirty look from Simon, though Temi was nodding behind me. I hadn’t seen her drink anything more deleterious than a tea latte. She’d probably gotten used to a strict diet as an athlete.

“They’re definitely not moving.” Simon rolled down his window and stuck his head out. “I don’t hear the engines either.”

“It must be hiking time,” I said.

We did that on occasion, so we had packs in the back with first-aid kits, flashlights, munchies, and the usual supplies. I threw a couple of bottles of water into my sedate tan pack, an old REI model I’d found at Goodwill. Simon tossed cans of Mountain Dew into his denim sack, an item he’d also found at Goodwill, though he’d taken it upon himself to decorate it. Now it was adorned with patches that endorsed everything from Metallica and Savatage to the Serenity and Stargate Command.

After packing his bag, he took his MacBook to the front of the van, set it up on the dashboard, and started fiddling. I fastened my whip onto my belt and, after a moment of consideration, grabbed the bow and arrows too.

“I’m afraid I didn’t come prepared for a hike,” Temi said. “Or a hunt.”

I dug a canteen out of a cupboard and filled it from a five-gallon jug. “That’s all you need. We’re not going to be out here long.”

“How do you know?” Simon asked. “They might be heading off on a sixty-mile pack trip.”

“Good for them. We’re not going that far.” I pointed skyward. “We’ll follow for a while, but we’re getting out of this forest before it gets anywhere near dark. I don’t want to see our genetically engineered whatchamacallit again.”

“I concur,” Temi said before Simon could sputter out a protest.

I eyed her with new speculation. “Oh, I like this. With an odd number of people, we suddenly have the ability to settle disputes with a vote, a vote that can’t end up in a stalemate.”

“Wait a minute,” Simon said. “We need to discuss this. As a new member, her vote shouldn’t count for as much as mine.”

“It only needs to count for a hundredth of yours, so long as it can be added to my full vote.” I smiled and opened the van door.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all…”

Still smiling, I shoved him out the door. “You should have thought of that before arguing to have her join the team.”

I stepped outside after Simon. The quiet of the forest reminded me that we weren’t alone out here, and it wouldn’t do to be overheard. We didn’t have a fire extinguisher this time, and I wasn’t about to start shooting at people with my bow. I didn’t like the idea of facing the two riders in another brawl anyway. Eleriss had been pleasant enough, if odd, when I’d talked to him the night before, but I didn’t think that politeness would last if he found us stalking him.