THE 13: STAND BOOK TWO (21 page)

“Let’s not miss it, then.”

“Right. You take your side, I’ll take mine. We’ll go back to the big curve and come back through. If we don’t see it by then, we’ll have to just…”

“What? Have to just what?”

Eli shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll think of something.”

The speed limit on the old two-lane was forty-five mph. Megan set the cruise control on thirty-eight mph and started off. She tried to scan every inch of what was passing by her, hoping to catch some narrow dirt road they might’ve missed. Unfortunately, she didn’t. And neither did Eli. They had returned to the spot in the road prior to the big sweeping curve. She turned the cruise off and turned the car around again.

“See anything?” she asked Eli.

“Nothing. You?”

“Nope. Nothing but trees.” She reset the cruise and started back. “Okay, I’ll take this side. You got that one.”

Eli nodded. And rolled down the window. “Gives me a better look.”

Megan nodded and rolled hers down as well.

They were halfway down the straightaway when Eli sat upright. “I think I just saw it.”

Megan was about to hit the brakes when a pair of headlights appeared in the rearview mirror. Instead, she turned off the cruise and accelerated to the speed limit. “Company behind us.”

Eli turned in his seat to see the approaching car. It wasn’t gaining on them, but it was the third time, now, that they’d passed by this stretch of road. Couldn’t be too careful. “Just keep it steady and see if they come up on us. If they do, just keep driving until we reach a turnoff. Then take it. See what happens.”

Megan did as Eli instructed, while Eli kept his head turned just enough to see behind them. Suddenly, Eli tapped her shoulder. “That was it. That was the road.”

Megan looked in her rearview again to see that the headlights had disappeared. Whoever it was behind them had turned off Durant Road. “That must be where Hayes went.”

Eli turned back around. “Okay. So, here’s the deal. We can’t just leave this car sitting out on the side of the road. But we can’t go back and turn in there, either. We have no idea how long of a drive—if it even is a drive—or road that is. Or what it leads to.”

“Can’t be another road. That was just pine straw and an opening,” Megan said. “Has to be a drive of some sort. But you’re right. There’s no telling how far back it goes or where to.”

“Right. We need to ditch the car and go on foot. How far from that entrance do you think it was back to the big bend?”

Megan thought about it for a second. “I don’t know. Quarter mile?”

“That sounds about right.” Eli reached for the map again. “Keep driving and pull over where we turned around before.”

Megan did as Eli said and continued on around the small bend until the obscure turnoff was out of sight. She went a little farther, just for good measure, and then pulled a U-turn and then moved over to the side of the road.

Eli, not bothering with the small penlight he’d been using, turned on the dome light. He traced his fingers along the map and then pointed. “There.”

“What?”

“That’s about where they turned off. Look here.”

Megan looked with Eli as he pointed out the large bend in the road.

“We can park at the start of that bend and cut through the trees,” Eli said. “Even if that drive, or whatever, goes straight north, as long as we walk due west from here,”—he pointed—“we ought to run right into whatever’s there.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” She put the car in D
RIVE
and took off.

It only took a few minutes to drive back to the start of the huge bend. Instead of U-turning the car this time, Megan just pulled over to the side of the road. She wanted to be facing the way they needed to leave. Just in case. They got out of the car and checked their weapons. Both satisfied, they hurried across the road and into the trees.

Eli had been spot on. They had only walked a couple hundred yards before they cleared the trees and came upon a narrow dirt road. Looking back down the way, they could now see why it had been so hard to even see it in the first place. A long row of trees lining the main road only had enough of a break in them for the road to exist. The two giant trees’ branches on either side of the entrance had grown into each other and hung low over the entrance. There was just enough of a clearing for a vehicle to pass through.

Looking the other direction—to where the drive was headed—they could see the outline of a small farmhouse, with a few lights on, about five hundred yards away. They were currently just off the dirt drive in what was opening up to be a large field that ran along the dirt drive all the way to the house. The field, it appeared, had been left unkempt intentionally. The weeds and grass were waist high. They decided this was to their advantage. They could skirt the dirt road via the field and take cover quickly, should another car come through that opening in the trees. They gave themselves about a twenty-yard berth from the road and began moving toward the house.

“What do you want to do when we get there?” Eli whispered.

“How ’bout go knock on the door and see what they’re doing?”

“Works for me.”

Megan rolled her eyes.
Typical guy
, she thought. “We’re going to do what Jennings said. We’re going to stay back and watch.”

“I guess that works, too,” Eli said, sounding disappointed. Then, “Unless someone shoots at me. Then it’s game on!”

Megan had to laugh at Eli’s candor. “Okay there, James Bond.”

Eli pulled up beside her. “You do realize that I, technically,
am
the real James Bond?”

Megan rolled her eyes again. “Yeah, and Boz is,
technically
, the real Jack Ryan, and Jon is,
technically
, the real Jason Bourne.”

They continued on in silence as they approached the house. When they were fifty yards out, Megan stopped.

Eli moved over to her. “What is it?”

“How many cars you see?”

“Five. Two pickups, an SUV, a crossover, and some sort of sedan behind that. Can’t make it out, though.”

Megan nodded. “That’s what I see, too.” She let her gaze drift toward the house. Several windows stood opened on the ground floor—not unusual, given the unseasonably warm weather. She lowered her head and strained to listen. “You hear that?”

Eli stood motionless for a second. “No. I don’t hear anything.”

“Me either. That seem strange to you?”

“Maybe. That house has to be close to a hundred years old. Well built. Probably pretty good soundproofing.”

“I see at least four windows open on the ground floor. We should be able to hear someone talking inside.”

“We should get closer.”

Megan shook her head. “No way. Jennings said to stay back. What if they’re down in the basement or something? They could come up any second.”

Eli pointed to the vented siding on the foundation of the house. “You see that? That’s a crawl space. That house doesn’t have a basement.”

They sat there, crouched in the tall grass, for another minute in silence before Eli finally said, “The real Jason Bourne, huh?”

Megan laughed to herself. They were back to that now? “He probably thinks so.”

“Hmm. I think I’m going to like him.” Then, “Sit tight. I’m going for a closer look.”

Before Megan could reach out and grab him, Eli was gone.

She had to admit, though, he was swift and quiet. If she hadn’t watched him leave, she wouldn’t have even known he was in the grass in front of her. She was trying to spot him when she suddenly saw a flicker of movement next to one of the pickup trucks. Eli had somehow completely crossed sides of the field and popped up next to the cars on the other side of the dirt road. She tried to keep him in sight as he moved but lost him again.

She was starting to get a little worried. He’d been gone for nearly five minutes and she hadn’t seen or heard anything. She was about to make her own way toward the house when a hand touched her shoulder from behind. She whirled around with a backhanded fist, which Eli caught in midswing.

“It’s completely empty,” Eli said. “No one’s home.”

“What? That can’t be. We saw at least two of these cars come back here.”

“I know what we saw. But I’m telling you there’s no one here. I walked around the whole place.”

Megan started to stand up. “Well, they’ve got to be somewhere. Let’s go.”

Eli nodded and said he’d lead her the same way he had just gone. Megan followed close behind. In just a few moments they were standing beside the house. They stood still for a few seconds, making sure it was still quiet. Satisfied, they began to move behind the house, around to the other side, where the automobiles were parked.

“Hey, check out the old toolshed. You think it’s anything worth looking into?”

Eli turned to her. “I don’t know, but take a look at that.”

They were now in view of the parked cars. Two pickups, an SUV, the crossover, and the sedan that they couldn’t fully see from the field. Eli was pointing at the sedan.

Megan felt her pulse quicken. She hurried over to the car to get a better look. It was a silver, base-model Toyota Celica and had an Enterprise rental license plate on the front bumper. She was about to open the door and check the inside of the car when the stillness of the night was interrupted by a loud
click!

Both she and Eli picked their heads up and turned in the direction of the old toolshed. Megan put a finger to her lips, drew her gun, and started in that direction. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Eli was following.

Within seconds she was standing in front of the old shed, waiting, listening for whatever it was that she’d heard. She moved to step inside and immediately withdrew. The concrete floor inside the shed was opening up, and voices could be heard ascending from below.

K
eene unlocked the door to his house and grabbed the knob. He was expecting to find a dark, cold house, full of cobwebs, several inches of dust, and probably some varmints camped inside. He’d been gone for five months now.

After dinner, Jennings had two other cars meet them at the restaurant to take him and Boz home. Jennings had told them to go get a good night’s rest. They would start tracking down this new threat in the morning. And as much as he wanted to start right then, he knew Jennings was right. It had been an exhausting twenty-four hours. His body needed to sleep. And he didn’t want anything more right now than to take a long hot shower in his own bathroom and then sleep in his own bed.

Suddenly, another thought occurred to him. What if varmints weren’t what he had to worry about? Five months of the house sitting empty, there could be squatters. Or worse, crackheads. He pulled his gun and pushed the door open. What he saw surprised him.

The house had been completely cleaned. Even better than before he’d initially left to go track the Prophet in Texas. Clothes that had been left on the couch were gone. The dishes in the sink had been washed and put away. All the wood in the house looked to be freshly dusted. Even the coffee cup rings on his end table were gone, replaced by a note.

Keene read the note again and felt his hand trembling. He sat down on the couch beside the table and put his head in his hands. Suddenly, everything he’d been through for the last several months came back to him like a flood. He felt the sudden urge to get on his knees. He pushed the table away with his foot and scooted his big frame out of the couch and slumped to the floor. He turned around and laid his head on the couch.

“God…I don’t even know where to start…but I just want to tell You how grateful I am. I know that You could’ve left me there with Chin to die. Heck, I even asked You to. And I know Quinn says I’m supposed to stop whatever is happening now, but God, I just don’t know what to do or where to start. So please help me. Lead me where You want me to go. Help me make the right decisions. And one other thing—will You please watch out for Megan?” Then, “And I’m not even sure how to end this whole praying thing. So, I guess…thank You, Jesus. Amen.”

Exhaustion had completely taken over him. As bad as he wanted to get up, walk upstairs and take a shower, and then go jump in his bed, all he could think about right now was closing his eyes. He had just started to doze off when he felt the vibration of the sat-phone Jennings had given him inside his pocket.

“This is Jon.”

“Jon, this is Quinn.”

Keene picked his head up off the couch. Something was wrong.

“Go ahead.”

“I know you’re tired. And I know you just got home. But Megan and Eli are in trouble. You need to get Boz and go to Raleigh.”

Immediately, Keene felt a surge of adrenaline course through his body. However tired he was when he walked in, he was wide awake now. “Where are they?”

“Raleigh is all I know. Jennings can give you details.”

“I’m on my way.”

He clicked the button to end the call and immediately dialed Boz.

“Hey, this is Jon. Quinn just called.”

“What’s up?”

“I’m picking you up in thirty minutes. We’re headed to Raleigh.”

M
egan heard the voices coming up from the hole beneath the old toolshed and froze. She looked around for someplace to take cover, but she and Eli were completely exposed. She looked at Eli, who waved her to follow him.

The field
, he mouthed to her.

They both took off at a dead run. They only had twenty yards to get to adequate cover, but the voices were getting louder every second. She pushed as hard as she could to reach the tall grass. Eli was five yards ahead of her. When she was only a few feet away, she launched herself into the tangled weeds. She landed hard on her shoulder and rolled into the thick cover. She sat up from the grass, crouching next to Eli, as the first of several heads appeared out of the hole.