Modoc County, California
Monday, 17 April, 2.55 P.M.
Ephraim glared at the Cadillac. It was no longer stuck in the snow, but he’d wasted precious minutes rocking it free. At least it still drove, just in case he needed it to get away if things went wrong. Wishing he’d stolen a vehicle with four-wheel drive, he shouldered his backpack and gathered his guns.
The Cadillac had fit in perfectly in Granite Bay and the neighborhood around Rafe Sokolov’s Victorian, but it was woefully ill suited to this terrain. Sokolov and Rhee, on the other hand, were probably able to navigate a blizzard of biblical proportions.
Luckily, he didn’t have to walk too far and he knew the area like the back of his hand. Eden had been located here for seven years, after all. He set off, taking a shortcut that would lead him to the former settlement. If he played his cards right and didn’t lose his cool, he could shoot the two cops and Sokolov’s sister, then take Mercy back to Eden in Sokolov’s Subaru.
If he was forced to get away in the Cadillac, he’d steal a four-wheel drive as soon as possible. He’d need the extra power to get up the mountain. The community had relocated to one of their previous hideaways, necessary since they’d left in such a hurry. And in freaking November. Snow had already been deep in the mountains and digging out new earth homes simply hadn’t been possible in the short time they’d had to evacuate after Miriam’s escape.
At first he’d been angry that Mercy and Sokolov had found the previous Eden, but it really was perfect. He could drag the bodies of the three he didn’t care about into one of the earth homes and leave them there to rot. Or be eaten. This time of year, with winter still hanging on and food in short supply, their bodies would be scavenged by hungry animals in no time.
And Mercy and I will be free.
Modoc County, California
Monday, 17 April, 3.05 P.M.
Rafe and Erin approached the clearing cautiously, but it became quickly apparent that it was abandoned. There was a central courtyard, circular in shape, about the size of an ice rink. Structures were arranged on the perimeter. ‘Twenty-six,’ Rafe whispered after counting them. They were vaguely domelike, with what looked like stairways leading down to open doorways.
‘Earth shelters,’ Erin said quietly.
Rafe brushed snow from the sloping side of the structure nearest to where they stood. ‘Covered in vegetation.’ Vines, mostly, but also some shrubs. ‘This area would have looked green from above. Which explains why Eden was never visible from the air.’ He’d pored over the satellite maps of the area around Mt. Shasta, but he’d never checked maps this far east. He didn’t know if the FBI had, either. It didn’t really matter, because the settlement was very efficiently camouflaged.
Erin turned in a slow circle, studying the layout. ‘The fence poles are twelve feet tall, around the outside perimeter, but there’s no fencing to connect them.’
‘They may have taken the fencing with them. Like the doors.’ Rafe’s instincts were screaming that something was very wrong here, but that was understandable given the horrors that must have occurred within the compound’s walls. ‘We need to radio for backup.’
‘But who?’ Erin pushed back. ‘Do we really want locals on the scene? They might be great, but at the same time, this is too big not to handle appropriately. We can’t take the chance that they’ll be sloppy with . . . all this.’
‘The FBI is leading the search for Burton and Eden, so Gideon can call Molina. And we’ll stay here until the FBI can secure the area.’
Erin nodded. ‘Agreed. I want to check out one of these earth shelters. Cover me?’
Rafe wasn’t so sure that was wise, but he followed her, drawing his gun from his holster. ‘Don’t go too far in. If they’re not stable, they could collapse on your head.’
Erin gave him an arch look. ‘Thank you, Professor Sokolov.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I’m serious.’
‘And I’m not stupid.’
‘Jury’s out on that,’ Rafe muttered as she descended the stairs of the closest structure, her flashlight lifted over her head, angled down.
She turned to glare at him before disappearing through the doorway. Within thirty seconds she was backing out, pocketing her flashlight. ‘Empty,’ she said when she rejoined him. ‘But extensive. There are separate rooms inside. At least three in that one – what looked like two bedrooms and an open sitting room. If we walked to the back side of these homes, we’d see the hole for what was probably a stovepipe. There were gouges in the door frames, like there used to be hinges there. I think you’re right that they took the doors with them.’
‘Toilet facilities?’ Rafe asked.
‘Not in that one, although one of the rooms might have had an outhouse-type hole. I didn’t get that far. But there doesn’t appear to be plumbing. Or people.’
‘No tire treads in the snow, no footprints. I think it’s okay for Mercy to take a look around.’
‘I’ll go get her,’ Erin offered. ‘This snow isn’t easy to walk in.’
Rafe wanted to protest – I can do it! – but she was right. The snow was a bitch and his cane kept sliding when it hit the layer of ice beneath the most recent accumulation. ‘Thank you.’
A minute later, Mercy and Sasha were at his side. ‘This isn’t Eden,’ Mercy said. ‘Or at least not the way I remember it.’
‘How so?’ Erin asked.
‘We had houses,’ she said. ‘Actual houses, made of wood, with four walls and shingled roofs. The Founding Elders had really nice houses, but these all look the same. And this is smaller than I remember. There are how many structures here?’
‘Twenty-six,’ Erin answered.
‘We had at least forty.’ She went silent, turning in a circle to study the abandoned settlement, much as Erin had done, but her expression was distant, clearly lost in memory.
‘So Eden is shrinking in numbers?’ Rafe asked, and she blinked, her eyes refocusing.
‘I guess so. The layout . . . it’s familiar. This was the common area. Houses ringed the perimeter, just like these huts. Shared spaces were at two, six, and ten o’clock. Most families had cookstoves for small meals and general heating, but that hut at two o’clock would have been the shared cooking facilities for larger meals like turkey, wild boar, or deer. The hut at ten o’clock was the clinic. Six o’clock was the school.’ She walked to a slight bowl-shaped depression in the ground. It measured about six feet in diameter. ‘Fire pit.’ She pointed to the largest structure at twelve o’clock. ‘The church. Pastor’s home was next door. Outhouses used to be behind each home. I don’t see that here, but they could be hidden behind the huts. Can we walk beyond the ring?’