Melanie hefted the sack with the chicken carcass. “Look,” she said. “I’m only here because I really need the money. I hate working for Howard Freaking Wells, and I don’t know what they’re up to here, but…something’s not right.” She held out the sack. “If you’re looking into it, maybe a sample might be helpful.”
Ogden reached out to take it, but my hand got there first.
“Thanks,” I said. “It might.”
We filed out of the barn and Earl made sure we knew where we were, where we were going. We turned to go our separate ways, but then I stopped and turned back, suddenly struck by a curious question.
“Hey, can I ask you all something?” I called out.
They stopped and turned back, and Claudia and Ogden paused, waiting for me.
“You all have bird splices. Do all the chimeras here have bird splices?”
They were quiet for a moment, then Melanie said, “Yeah, actually. Never thought of it, but I suppose they do. Why?”
I shrugged. “Chickens are birds, too. Does it bother you, especially, seeing them cooped up, so many of them dying?”
Hitchcock laughed. “Hawks eat chickens. Owls do, too.” He shrugged. “Frankly, chickens are pretty dumb. But they are tasty.”
Earl snickered at that. Melanie looked away, vaguely disgusted.
We thanked them for the information, and they thanked us, laughing, for trying to save them. Then, they turned and headed back to their hole in the inner fence and we made our way back to the hole Claudia had made in the outer fence.
With the hilly terrain, I couldn’t see where we were going, but just as I was figuring we had to be getting close, I saw a pulse of red and orange lights reflected in the sky.
“Hold on,” I said.
Ogden said, “What the hell is that?”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Claudia said. “Thanks a lot, Roberta.”
TWENTY-ONE
Peeking over the next rise, we saw a pair of private security vehicles approaching slowly along the inside of the fence to our left, sweeping it with mounted spotlights and heading toward our escape hole.
“Dammit,” Claudia muttered. “Roberta drew them here. They’re going to find that hole, and then we’re screwed.”
The hole was practically invisible in the darkness, but those spotlights were bright. If one of them even got close to it, security would see it for sure.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“We need to cause some kind of diversion,” Claudia said.
Ogden opened his mouth to speak, but his face didn’t show much confidence in whatever he was about to propose. Before he could say anything, though, a sharp but distinct zzzzap rose to our right.
Both spotlights jerked toward the sound, slashing into the night. We turned to see what they were aiming at, but my attention was snagged, just for an instant, by the rough edges and slack wires as the light swept past our hole. Then another light appeared way down on the fence line, an angry orange ball of fire, bright enough to cast shadows even where we were.
Instinctively, we flattened ourselves to the ground.
“Well, there’s your diversion,” I whispered, as the security vehicles sped right past our hole and toward the fire.
We watched as they dwindled in the distance, then Ogden said, “Let’s go.”
I reached the fence first and slipped through the hole. Apparently I’d learned my lesson on the way in, because I managed to get through without a spark. I held the cut section out of the way as Claudia and Ogden slithered through.
Down the fence line, the fireball had subsided and was now just fire, a large, flaming tree branch lying across the fence. I smiled, knowing that Rex was almost surely responsible.
We dashed across the road and up the driveway next to the old farmhouse. But when we reached the van parked in the back, there was no sign of Rex or Roberta.
“Where the hell are they?” Ogden asked in a hoarse, exasperated whisper, his head jerking around as he looked for them.
I was about to point out that they had probably just caused the diversion that allowed us to escape, when I heard a distant crashing, thrashing sound, quickly drawing nearer.
“Start the van,” I said. “Turn it around.”
Ogden nodded and hit the start button, but kept the lights off. Claudia and I got out of the way as he pulled it around in a tight three-point turn. Rex and Roberta burst through a curtain of vines, both of them running flat out.
Claudia and I scrambled into the back of the van just before Rex and Roberta did.
“Go! Go! Go!” Rex shouted as soon as he was inside.
Ogden hit the accelerator, spraying dirt and gravel high enough that I could hear it raining down onto the vines behind us. We lurched when we hit the bottom of the driveway, then he cut the wheel hard. The tires screeched as they grabbed the road surface.
From down by the fire, about a quarter mile down the road, the two spotlights swung toward us, momentarily painting the van’s windows with overlapping shadows of the fence pattern. The security vehicles took off after us, their headlights flickering through the fence as they sped along it.
“They’re coming after us,” Rex announced.
“Inside the fence or outside?” Ogden called back.
“Inside, for now,” I said. “The entrance is on the far side of the property. We should be okay.”
“Unless they radioed ahead and they have people waiting for us,” Claudia said. “Like the cops.”
The headlights were getting brighter and closer.
“They’re catching up,” I said.
I knew from firsthand experience that fences could be driven through. The security vehicles were relatively small, little more than armored golf carts, but with enough speed, they might be able to punch through the alloy steel. They could also start shooting—which would be an extreme reaction, especially since they had no idea who we were or what we were up to, but they worked for Wells, so it was possible.
Another pair of headlights appeared up ahead, coming toward us.
“Crap,” Ogden muttered.
The security carts had drawn almost even with us and the vehicle ahead was fast approaching, but so was the edge of the property, the corner, where the fence made a ninety-degree turn away from us. Our pursuers would have to stop or try to punch through the fence.
“Hold on,” Ogden said, but everyone already was.
As we flew through the intersection, past the edge of the Wells property, the car coming at us passed by without incident. It was just a regular civilian car. One of the security carts swerved away at the last second as the other skidded to a halt. Both remained inside the fence.
Through the back window, I could see the red taillights of the other car receding behind us and the spotlights from the security carts stabbing the night sky at skewed angles.
Claudia let out a deep breath. “That was close.”
I leaned toward Rex. “Thanks for the distraction.”
He nodded toward Roberta. “It was Roberta’s idea.”
She turned to look at me, her usual sneer turned down to nine or even eight, but still definitely there. Of course, if she hadn’t been such a bonehead, insisting on trying to fit through the hole when it was obviously too small, the security types probably wouldn’t have come looking to see what was the matter in the first place. But I was trying to take the high road.