Lindsay Buroker - Torrent

I grimaced. “Not that there was much room for maneuvering, but I wish we’d hidden Zelda.”

“We’ll have to hope they thought incinerating the rope was enough of a delaying tactic,” Temi said.

A wad of braided duct tape flopped out of the hole. I caught it before it could fall back in, then tied the end around the stump. “If they incinerated the van, Simon will be devastated.”

“I didn’t get the sense that they felt that… angry toward us,” Temi said.

“What gives you that idea?”

“I thought I was pretty quiet in moving toward my hiding spot, but they both looked toward my trees before they jogged off up the riverbed.”

“They saw you?” I asked, then leaned over the hole. “You’re set, Simon.”

“Thanks, coming now,” he called up.

“I can’t be positive, but it seemed so,” Temi said. “After eyeing my hiding spot, they exchanged looks with each other. I thought their expressions were more… exasperated than murderous.”

“It’s true that I didn’t get a murderous vibe when I talked to the chatty one either,” I said. “Though I definitely don’t think we should consider them buddies.”

“Which one is the ‘chatty’ one?”

“Uh, the younger one. I guess I can’t be sure if he’s younger, but he seems more innocent. Less hard and chiseled. That’s Eleriss. Blue Eyes.”

Scuffs and pants drifted up from below. Simon was having as much fun with the climb as I’d had.

“What’s the other one’s name?” Temi asked. “He was more… striking.”

“Jakatra.”

Simon’s head popped up, then he stuck his hands out on either side of the hole. The worried crease on his brow didn’t seem to have anything to do with the climb. He was frowning at Temi, though she was gazing off in the direction the riders had gone.

“Who’s striking?” Simon mouthed to me.

“It’s not important.” I stood and helped him the rest of the way out of the hole. Even if Temi thought Jakatra was a handsome cat, she’d reassess any attraction once she saw those eyes on a dark night. I shuddered. I told myself it was because of my soaking clothing, but I wasn’t certain that was the truth.

By the time we made it back to the van, the sky had grown a few shades darker. The sight of Zelda’s blue paint filled me with relief. The van hadn’t been incinerated or otherwise demolished. So long as Eleriss and Jakatra hadn’t decided to pay us back with slashed tires…

Perhaps fearing the same thing, Simon jogged ahead. While he was doing a lap around the van, his gaze toward the tires, I noticed that the driver-side window had been rolled up. It had been down before, hadn’t it? Yes, and I’d cracked the one on the passenger side a few inches too. Now all of the windows were up.

“I think our friends may have visited the van again,” I said.

Simon followed my gaze to the windows, then he tried the side door. We’d locked it, but he opened it without needing a key. “I knew it! I’ve got those punks now!”

He jumped inside, his fists balled, then lunged for the corner where he kept the Dirt Viper.

“Huh, it’s still here,” he said.

I climbed inside. “If they found their sword, they wouldn’t need a metal detector anymore.”

“Their sword ?” Simon asked.

“You didn’t hear that part?”

“Must have been when I was grunting and straining to get out of that hole.”

“When they left, Temi saw them carrying a bundle she thought might be a sword,” I said. Temi had fallen behind on the jog back to the van, but she was limping out of the riverbed now. I gave her a wave, then turned the motion into a scratch of my jaw and peered around the van. “If the metal detector is here, what’s missing?”

“I’m… not sure. But I can find out.” Simon headed toward the front. “Could be they enjoyed the springiness of our seat cushions the last time they broke in and came in to rest their feet.”

“Yes, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been tempted to jump into random people’s cars to take a load off, if only I knew how to pick the locks.”

Simon had left his MacBook on the dashboard, but he frowned when he got up there. It was upside down on the floor. “Weird.”

I sniffed. “Does the van smell like cleaning solution to you?”

“Now that you mention it… yes, which is odd. Because we don’t clean.” He picked up the computer and prodded a key, bringing the screen to life, though it brightened gradually instead of simply flashing on, like usual.

“Hey, I sweep out the bread crumbs now and then.”

Temi leaned inside. “Perhaps we should discuss this from the safety of town. It’s starting to get dark, and it took us a while to drive out here.”

“Good idea.” Even if the monster was twenty miles to the north, I didn’t relish the idea of navigating the tangle of unmarked forest service and logging roads in the dark.

“Wait,” Simon said. “Let’s see what my camera footage caught.”

“You recorded the interior of the van?”

“Knowing those thieves were parked right up the gully? Of course, I did.”

I gave him a quick look, wondering if it was “thieves” he’d hoped to catch footage of. Maybe he’d thought the monster would be out here and that the riders had been heading out to deal with it . And maybe his recording had less to do with getting me a language sample and more to do with catching that thing on video.

Simon plopped into the passenger seat without meeting my gaze and brought up the webcam software.

Temi looked at the woods, then climbed in and shut the door. “Can you drive, Delia?”

“Yes, if someone didn’t lose the keys in the river.” I poked Simon in the shoulder.

He was fast-forwarding through footage of the van’s interior. Without taking his focus from the screen, he fished the keys out of his pocket and handed them to me.

I didn’t get further than plugging the right one into the ignition when he said, “Ah ha!”

My curiosity got the best of me again, and I leaned over to watch. One figure in a black leather jacket hopped into the van, then the other followed. Jakatra carried the bundle Temi had mentioned. That did look like a sword hilt sticking out of the fabric wrapping. The camera had recorded the sound of them speaking, though it was hard to make out because they hadn’t been anywhere near the built-in microphone. But maybe with enough enhancement…

“What language is that?” Temi drew closer, tilting an ear toward the laptop.

“I haven’t figured it out yet,” I said, “but Simon’s going to save that video for me. With an mp3 of the audio, I bet I can find some language identification program out there to run it through.”

“Will do,” he said, his eyes still riveted to the playback.

The riders had gone directly to our storage cabinets, as if they knew exactly what they wanted. They must have taken the full tour on their previous visit. Eleriss pulled out a jug from under the sink.

“That’s my rust remover,” I said. “What do they think our van is? Their private dispensary of field supplies?”

“Well, we are following them around,” Temi said.

While Eleriss read the directions on the back of the bottle, Jakatra unwrapped his bundle. Temi’s guess had been right. It was a sword in an ornamental scabbard. Huh. I’d been expecting a much more advanced weapon for monster slaying, something more like whatever they’d used to burn that hole in the rock. I leaned closer, trying to make out some of the runes trailing down the side, but the scabbard must have been buried for a long time. Rust coated it, and age had worn down the etchings. Even if it were in pristine condition, I doubted I could have made out much at that distance.