backwoods

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.“Get Prendick up here now,” the man said at her.“Go call for—”Andrew sprang from his crouched posture, plowing his knuckles into the older man’s gut.Whoofing for breath, the man turned him loose and staggered backwards.Andrew scrambled to his feet, fists still clenched, squaring off.“Stop it,” Suzette cried, darting between them, hands outstretched.“Both of you.”“What the hell’s going on?” Andrew exclaimed to her.“He hit me!”“This is Edward Moore,” she told him, wide-eyed, pleading, and why should that name have been familiar to him, he wondered? “Doctor Moore,” she amended, and he relaxed his fists, opening his hands.Shit.“This is his facility,” Suzette told him.“His lab.His apartment.”Moore glared at him, still choked and flushed, his palm pressed to his gut.Alice had come to stand in the doorway now, curious by the commotion, her dark eyes round and darting between her father and Andrew.Shit, Andrew thought again.****“Let’s start at the beginning, Mister Braddock,” Major Prendick said.Although they hadn’t cuffed him, his soldiers hadn’t exactly been gentle as they’d escorted Andrew from Moore’s apartment.One of them, Corporal O’Malley, had caught him by the wrist and wrenched his arm behind his back, pinning it at an unnatural and painful angle.They were about equal in height, but O’Malley outweighed Andrew by a good ten pounds at least of nothing but muscle.Although not feeble by any stretch of the imagination, Andrew had nonetheless gone along without protest, harboring no illusions.O’Malley could have, if so inclined, kicked his ass.In a big, hard, stomping, painful sort of way.O’Malley had maintained his light yet painful grip on Andrew’s arm until they’d reached a small office on the building’s first floor.Here, Andrew had been made to sit in an uncomfortable metal chair in the middle of the otherwise empty room, left alone for at least twenty minutes behind what had turned out to be a locked door.O’Malley had returned to stand guard at the threshold.To Andrew’s surprise, this time he was accompanied by Specialist Santoro, the young woman who’d rescued Andrew the night before.Slim and petite, she struck a peculiar, somewhat comical contrast to the larger, brawnier O’Malley as they flanked the doorway together at rigid, unwavering attention while Prendick, upon his entrance, proceeded to trace a wide, slow circumference around Andrew.Keeping his hands clasped against the small of his back, his expression neutral, his voice friendly enough, Prendick would glance up and meet Andrew’s gaze each time he’d pass.“What are you doing out here?” the Major said.“These lands are all federal property.”Andrew sighed, irritated.“I told you last night.She brought me here.” He nodded once to indicate Santoro.“I work for Wells Environmental Management Consultants out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.We were hired to survey roughly ten-thousand acres southeast of here.I was driving on Highway 460 during the storm, on my way back to meet up with my crew at our hotel in Pikeville when something ran out in front of my truck.”Prendick raised a curious brow.“Something?”“I don’t know what it was.An animal, maybe, or a man.It stood upright on two legs.” Andrew mimed, using his forefingers in a scissor motion against his opposing palm.“Its arms looked deformed.Its back, too, like it was hunched over.” He sighed, shook his head.“It all happened really fast.I couldn’t get a good look at it, but it didn’t have fur, I’m sure of it.”“Specialist Santoro, did you see this thing he described?” Prendick asked, turning to the young woman in the corner.Keeping her eyes pinned ahead, her shouldered thrust back at rigid attention, Santoro barked in reply, “No, sir.”Prendick turned his stern gaze back to Andrew.“Do you have any documentation to prove who you are?” he asked.“Your work assignment? Any sort of company identification? A driver’s license?”“Of course I do,” Andrew shifted his weight, raising his hips to reach for his back pocket, his wallet.Then he bit back a groan as he remembered.I always lock it inside the glove compartment whenever I’m out in the field.“It’s in my Jeep,” he told Prendick, sheepish.“Which is currently sitting top-down at the bottom of a flooded gulley,” Prendick said.“How convenient.”Andrew frowned.“Am I under arrest or something?”“That’s what I’m trying to determine,” the Major replied.“What the hell for?” Andrew demanded.Prendick raised the corner of his mouth in tandem with his brow, as if amused by the antics of a petulant toddler.“For starters, violating Title Eighteen, Part One, Chapter Sixty-seven, Subsection Thirteen-eighty-two of the United States Penal Code, wherein the first paragraph stipulates that entry to any restricted portion of a military base or facility for any purposes prohibited by law will result criminal trespass charges punishable by imprisonment of six months in jail and a fine of up to five thousand dollars.”What? Andrew shook his head.He glanced between the Major and Santoro, hoping she’s say something—anything—to back up his story, to clear him.“You’re kidding,” he said, more to her than Prendick when she remained tight-lipped, eyes averted from him.“You can’t keep me here if you don’t arrest me.I know my rights.And you can’t arrest me because I didn’t do anything wrong, and you know it.”The corner of Prendick’s mouth flicked in a quick smirk.“What I know, Mister Braddock, is that if it was up to me, you would be out of here even as we speak.Dr.Moore is conducting experiments of an extremely sensitive nature that are of vital importance to national security.This facility contains classified materials and information to which you or the general tax-paying public may not, under any circumstances, be made privy.”“Then let me go,” Andrew said, exasperated.“Put me in a truck and drive me to the nearest payphone so I can call my guys to come pick me up.”“Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible,” Prendick said.“The storms last night triggered landslides up in the hills [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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