“Did they hit something with their car?” Grimshaw asked. Or someone?
“Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly?” He and Osgood were going to have a talk about giving succinct reports.
“Their car is now stuck in a glacier.”
Grimshaw rubbed a hand over his face, as if that would help his hearing. “Say that again.”
“There’s a small—well, smallish—glacier filling the road leading out of Sproing, and the Cornleys’ car is stuck inside it. Mostly inside it—one of the back windows was still visible when I got to the scene, and the fire department and I were able to extract the Cornleys from the car before the ice . . . swallowed the vehicle.”
Gods above and below. “Any way to get around the ice?”
“A couple of the firefighters did a walk around and said the ice is about two village blocks across and three blocks deep and half a block high. No vehicles are going to get in or out of the village from that direction.” A pause. “What should I do, Chief?”
“Take the Cornleys to Doc Wallace and have him check them out, make sure they don’t have frostbite or whatever. Then escort them to the station and take their statements.”
“Yes, sir.” Another pause. “Chief? Could you check the road heading west?”
Grimshaw felt a chill run down his spine. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”
When he ended the call, he glanced at Aiden, then focused on Ilya. “Seems there’s a problem on the road heading east. Could you ask your driver to check the road heading west for obstacles?”
“Of course,” Ilya replied. “Is he looking for something in particular?”
“He’ll know it when he sees it.” Grimshaw considered his options, then added, “I’d like you to come with me.”
“What about us?” Richard Cardosa demanded. “We’re supposed to leave today. I have classes to teach tomorrow.”
“I’ll let you know when you can leave,” Grimshaw said. “In the meantime, stay in your cabins.” And hope they don’t burn.
He didn’t think Aiden would burn down a structure that belonged to the Sanguinati on a whim, but you never could tell with the Elementals.
“Boris is leaving Silence Lodge now,” Ilya said when they were in the cruiser and heading back toward Sproing before Grimshaw turned at the crossroads and drove north. “May I know where we’re going?”
“There are two roads out of this area. One runs east–west and the other runs north–south. We’re checking out the north road. I don’t expect we’ll need to go far before we confirm that the road is blocked.”
“With what?”
“Well, the road heading east is blocked by a glacier. The Cornleys’ car is trapped inside it, so Osgood is bringing them to the station.”
Ilya stared at him. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
“Didn’t think you were. But what started as a prank or research has brought a shit storm down on top of us, and . . .” He slowed the cruiser and stopped well behind a handful of cars that were going nowhere. Then he pulled the cruiser across both lanes before he and Ilya got out to study the earth mound that blocked the north road.
He wasn’t sure what disturbed him more—that the Others were able to excavate that much dirt from either side of the road and pile it into a hill that quickly . . . or the smiley face made out of boulders that was pressed into this side of the mound.
Ilya’s mobile phone rang. He reached into the cruiser and pulled it out of his briefcase. “Boris?” He listened for a minute, then ended the call.
“The road heading west is blocked?” Grimshaw asked.
“Yes. Earth mound.”
He blew out a breath. “We’d better see what’s blocking the south road before figuring out what to do.”
“There is nothing to figure out,” Ilya said quietly when they were back in the cruiser and heading south. “We have to survive. That is what we have to do.”
CHAPTER 29
Them
Thaisday, Novembros 1
She had learned long ago how to pitch her voice in such a way that it corroded another person’s willpower, making them malleable. And the beauty of it was that the people she molded into such lovely monstrosities never realized what was happening. She was just an annoyance, an irritant other people were convinced didn’t do any actual harm.
If only the fools in this village knew what she had already achieved.
There was only one person who was immune to her peculiar talent, because he had the same skill. That made him a rival—or worse, a potential enemy. And he was here. He shouldn’t be. They never overlapped their experiments. On the occasions when they met to compare notes over dinner, they met on neutral ground.
This wasn’t neutral ground. This was hers and he knew it.
All those fancy-pants men from the colleges would be packing up and going home by tomorrow, except . . .
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
She’d noticed Pops Davies readying a couple of orders when she walked into the general store. Nothing odd about that, except . . .
On impulse, she grabbed two packages of toilet paper off the shelves, prepared to complain that he wasn’t carrying the brand she preferred—something she’d asked him to do several times already.
“Only one package per household,” Pops said, putting the other package behind the counter.
“But I need two,” she whined, pitching her voice in a way that should have drilled a hole right through the damn man’s brain. “Theodore is having tummy troubles, and it’s so messy.”
She saw him waver. He should have given in.
Pops shook his head. “You and Theodore will have to cope. Only one package per household.”
He watched her until she walked out the door, which denied her a chance to slip anything interesting into her purse or coat pockets.
No matter. She would send in one of her lovelies. They knew she always had special treats for them.
CHAPTER 30
Vicki
Thaisday, Novembros 1
The Jumble. Vicki speaking.”
“It’s Pops. Listen, I’ve set aside a box of supplies for you. Things I figure you wouldn’t want to do without. Ineke’s coming over to pick up the box I set aside for her. You should come soon. And pull up behind the store.”