Бентли Литтл - The Disappearance

“I say we take it to them,” Gary said.

“We don’t know where they are,” Stacy pointed out. “Or who they are.”

Reyn nodded. “We’re going to have to play defense.”

“Set another trap?” Gary wondered aloud.

“I don’t know how we’d do that,” Reyn admitted. He looked over at Joan. “Any ideas?”

She shook her head. “I’m out of my depth here. And, to be honest, you guys probably know as much as I do at this point.”

“I’m not going back to any of our rooms,” Stacy announced. She obviously didn’t want anyone else overhearing their conversation because she backed onto the grass, away from the crowd, motioning for them to follow. “I think we should rent a hotel room,” she said, her voice lowered.

Reyn shook his head. “There’re only a few hours left until morning. By the time we find someplace, it’ll almost be time to get up again. Besides, we’d have to use a credit card. And right now, I think we’d better assume that they have the ability to track our cards and know where we go.”

“He’s right,” Gary agreed.

Joan nodded.

They spent the rest of the night in the student union, taking turns sleeping on chairs that they’d pulled into a wagon-train circle, with one person awake and on watch at all times. Joan had brought her bat, and it was passed to each person standing guard, first Reyn, then Gary. It was Joan’s turn to play sentry after that, but the clock on the wall said it was five thirty and Gary knew he would never be able to fall asleep for just an hour, which was when Reyn needed to get up for class, so he stayed awake and let the others get some extra shut-eye.

Brian called him on his cell phone at six, and Gary moved away from his friends to the middle of the room to take the call. Brian said he’d taken a pill he’d been saving for just such an occasion and stayed awake all night.

Gary was in no mood to lecture.

“No one called,” Brian said, disappointed. “I was ready to record that sucker and turn it in to the cops, but either they lost my number or I’m not important enough to bother with. Probably they were too busy to call,” he quipped. “You know, with the fire and all.”

Gary smiled. It helped to have someone not take things so seriously.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Everyone’s trying to figure that out,” Gary told him. “Right now, I guess we keep our eyes open and just try to get through the day.”

“That’s not much of a plan,” Brian pointed out.

“Yeah, well…”

“Need another knife?”

“Joan has the baseball bat I bought her.”

“What about you? What if they come after you?”

“I think I’m pretty safe here on campus.”

Brian snorted. “Are you kidding? If you’d been in your room last night, you’d be dead. They kidnapped you on campus. You need a knife.”

“Maybe,” Gary conceded.

“Meet me in front of the bookstore at seven forty-five. They don’t open ’til eight.”

“I can’t carry a weapon to class! Give it to me later.”

“Name the where and when.”

“I’ll call you.”

Reyn had awakened, and Joan was stirring, so Gary said good-bye and returned to the circle of chairs. He tried to smile. “Up and at ’em,” he said. “It’s a new dawn.”

Before their first class, Gary took Joan to Subway for breakfast, something neither of them had done before. Stacy studied in her car, with the windows rolled up and the doors locked. Reyn parked his own car in the west lot, rather than leaving it near his dorm. They were all making an effort to vary their routines and throw potential tails off their trails, but Gary couldn’t help thinking it was futile. These were people who had nullified his driver’s license and erased his school records. Did he honestly think they wouldn’t find him if he ate breakfast at a new location?

No.

The only thing that gave him any comfort at all was the fact that every police department in the western United States was on the lookout for Father, and his picture—the same one that had overlooked every room in the Home—had been on TV constantly ever since the raid. Even casual viewers would know that he was a dangerous and wanted man if they happened to run across him. Of course, if Father shaved his beard and changed his hairstyle, no one would ever know who he was. But that would be a victory in itself and not something that he thought would happen.

He still held out hope that Father would be located and caught. From a logical, rational perspective, it was not only possible but probable.

And yet…

And yet his gut told him exactly the opposite. It was nothing more than a feeling he had, a vague, floating, unsubstantiated notion that Father could not be stopped, that he would find them wherever they went, whatever they did. But Gary believed it utterly, and it frightened him to the core.

His cell phone rang in the middle of classical mythology, and Gary jumped in his seat, startled. The students around him turned to look, and Dr. Choy, at the head of the room, frowned. Cell phones weren’t allowed in class, but ever since Joan had been kidnapped at Burning Man, his had been on all day every day.

Gary’s first thought was that it was Joan and that she was being attacked. His second thought, immediately upon the heels of the first, was that it was Reyn, calling to tell him that Joan had been attacked and was missing.

Or dead.

He hurried out of the classroom to answer the call, pressing the TALK button even before he reached the door. “Hello?” His voice sounded as frightened as he felt.

“Gary?”

It was his dad. The classroom door closed behind him, and he was alone in the corridor save for a couple dressed in black who were making out next to one of the windows. “Dad?” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” His father’s voice was accusatory.

Gary feigned ignorance. “Tell you what?”

“Your girlfriend, this Joan , was kidnapped by a cult, a cult that she used to be part of, and now that cult leader is loose and on the rampage.”

He should have known they’d figure it out.

Actually, he was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. He’d been expecting a call immediately after returning from Texas, but somehow his parents had missed that initial round of news stories. Thank God for small favors. Although he should have taken the initiative and called them first.

“Your mother and I saw Dateline last night, and they had a whole thing about it.”

He could hear his mom in the background, shouting, “ Let me talk to him! I want to talk to him! ”

His dad’s voice lowered. “As I’m sure you can guess, your mother is very upset.”

“Listen, Dad—”

“The police rescued her and now she’s back in school, but this madman is still after her. They explained all about it.”

It sounded as though the part he and his friends had played in the events had been left out, and for that Gary was grateful. Sheriff Stewart was definitely a class act.

His mom grabbed the phone. “What are you doing with a girl like that?”

“A girl like what?” he said angrily. How dare his parents pass judgment on Joan. They’d never even met her.

“She was in a cult! We didn’t raise you that way. Maybe we didn’t go to church that often, but—”

“Mom,” he said, trying to keep his tone even, “you know nothing about Joan. And you know they make things up for TV. How else would they get ratings?”

“It was on Dateline !”

Once again, he realized how far he’d come since his Ohio days. He was a real Californian now, and whether that meant he was more cynical or more sophisticated than he had been, the fact was that he no longer saw things the way his parents did. They were nice people and he loved them, but their world was much simpler and much more black and white than the one in which he now lived.