[MD2, 6:00AM, the cabin]
Kate woke up to the sound of a ringing cell phone close to her ear. She
grumbled incoherently and searched for it, finally finding it of all places
half-way under her pillow. Why it was there, she wasn't entirely sure, but
when she thought about it, she couldn't remember actually intending to fall
asleep. The last thing she remembered was deciding to look over some files
around two in the morning, and sure enough, her files and notes were spread
out across the bed just where she'd left them.
Without doing much more than opening one eye, she brought the phone to her
ear. "Calloway."
[Did I wake you?]
Kate cheered up, slightly, when she heard the voice of Josh Peters. He was
one of maybe three people in the world she wouldn't be annoyed at for
calling so early. But it was still too darned early to be awake. "As a
matter of fact, you did," she said. "Don't tell me you just called to make
sure I was out of bed on time?"
[Would I do that? No, you're getting a new agent, September Foster.
She'll be at the airport in Scranton at ten.]
"I hope her flight goes more smoothly than ours did," Kate commented dryly.
[I heard. Is everyone all right?]
"We're fine, although I've been considering the possibility of taking the
train back to DC when all of this is over. I've got some good news,
though. We found one of the missing agents last night."
Josh laughed. [Leave it to you. You don't believe in wasting any time, do
you?]
"No. As much as I'd love to take credit for brilliant investigating, it
was just dumb luck. Anyway, he was taken to the hospital in Scranton. I
wanted to check on him anyway, so I'll drop by after I pick up Agent
Foster. There was something very wrong with him." She frowned suddenly.
In the light of day, after a few hours rest, she realized there was
something wrong with the whole scene last night. The rangers and the
rescue vehicles had responded a little too quickly. It couldn't have been
more than twenty minutes between the flash of light and the time they got
back to the cabins.
[Wrong how?]
"He was acting child-like, speaking incoherently. He seemed to have
developed a bizarre fascination with the local flora."
[So he couldn't tell you where he'd been or where the other missing people
are.]
"That would be much too easy."
*****
[7:45AM, Sullivan County Sheriff's office]
Kate had pressed the team into action early, since she had to get this
meeting with the sheriff over and still make it to Scranton by ten. That
hadn't made her exactly popular with the team. Although no one had
actually said anything, she'd heard a few grumbles that included the words
'seven o'clock in the morning' and 'Saturday.'
The sheriff was a good-natured, round-faced and balding man, probably in
his early sixties. He stood up from his desk when the team entered and
greeted them cheerfully.
"Good morning," he said. "Sheriff Bob Kastenbach, at your service."
"Sheriff Kastenbach, thank you for seeing us so early," Kate said. "I'm
Agent Calloway. And this is my team, Agents Woods, Robins, Prescott and
Weill."
"Nice to meet all of you. And please, everyone around here calls me
Sheriff Bob. Now, what can I do for you?"
"Do you have any theories about what's going on up at World's End," Flynn
asked.
Sheriff Bob shook his head. "Beats the hell out of me. I mean, people go
missing from time to time, but they usually wander out of the woods after a
few days." He shrugged. "You all are free to check out my files. I've
got reports on all the incidents, but there's not much to tell. The one
couple that disappeared, Tim and Karen Hough, were local folks. Their
relatives couldn't shed any light on what happened, but I can give you
directions to their place, if you want."
"Good. At least that will be a place to start," Kate said.
"What about unusual government activity in the area," Newt asked.
The sheriff nodded. "There have been some rumors that there's something
going on. Don't really know anything about it myself, but I will say I've
been noticing more suits than usual in these parts. Mostly, people are
talking about some kind of covert mining operation. Speculation is they
found some kind of uranium or something up in the hills."
Kate nodded. A mining operation would fit with the sounds they heard last
night. "Do you know a park ranger by the name of Docker," she asked.
Something about the man was bothering her, and the more she thought about
it, the more suspicious she got.
Sheriff Bob frowned. "Nope. I know most of the rangers who work this
area, but I've never heard the name Docker before."
That was just as Kate thought it would be. She checked her watch. "Well,
if I'm going to make it to Scranton on time, I better get going. I think
someone should talk to the Hough's family. Start asking questions." She
grinned. "Maybe see if you can find one of those 'suits' and find out what
they're doing here. I should be back by early afternoon."
With that, she left the office, got in the rental car and pointed it toward
the highway. She pulled a tape out of her purse and slipped it into the
tape deck. She would never allow anyone to actually catch her listening to
the Leningrad Cowboys, but every now and then, when there was no one else
around, she just couldn't help herself. There was just something about
their rendition of 'Stairway to Heaven.'
In the rearview mirror, she spotted a gray Taurus. It stayed about twenty
car lengths back, even though there was no one else on the road and even
though she repeatedly sped up and slowed down just to see what they would
do. Finally, she decided to ignore it unless and until it made an
aggressive move.
*****
[9:50AM, Scranton airport]
Kate found a vacant spot next to a sign that warned '15 minute parking -
violators will be ticketed' and went into the airport. The gray Taurus was
still following, now stopped in the loading zone. Kate locked the car and
went into the terminal.
The plane was a few minutes late. Kate waited at the gate until a
passenger got off who fit the description Josh had given her, and walked
over to the dark-haired woman.
"Agent Foster?"
"Yes."
"I'm Kate Calloway. Welcome to unit Delta."
"Thank you. And thanks for coming all this way to meet me."
"Not a problem. Have you looked over the case file yet?"
Agent Foster nodded. "Yes, on the plane."
"Well, there's already quite a bit to add to that. Let's get your luggage
and I'll tell you all about it on the way to Mercy Hospital."
Agent Foster looked puzzled. "Mercy Hospital?"
On the way to baggage claim, Kate started related the events of the
previous day and evening.
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