The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) (18 page)

Maynard sat up in his chair. “Really? What are we waiting
for?” he stood up.

The other two rose from their chairs. “Alright,” Steven said.
“Follow me.”

He led the others to the library and slid open the bookcase,
revealing the stairs. They descended, and once they reached the bottom, entered
the large room with the many project tables. Steven led Maynard over to the
table that held the legend shelf. Roy followed behind.

“Our friend Eliza used this to control the Marchers that were
topside,” Steven said. “Rerouted where they could go.”

“He protected the place well,” Maynard commented, looking
down at the shelf. “See the blue?” he asked.

“The blue lines?” Steven asked.

“Yes, those,” Maynard replied. “That should have tipped you
off that it was a vortex.”

“We had no idea about vortexes,” Roy said from behind them.
“We wouldn’t have figured that out.”

Steven was about to offer that Eliza’s legend shelf didn’t
have blue lines, but then he remembered the confidential nature of her work,
and didn’t want to have to explain to Maynard why she had a shelf.

“Now we know,” Steven said instead, looking back down at the
device.

“Have you catalogued all of these?” Maynard asked, looking at
the various projects sitting on the many tables in the room.

“None of them, really,” Steven said. “We have no idea what
most of them do.”

“Except for one,” Roy added. “The one in the room over
there.” He pointed to the door in the back of the workspace. Maynard saw where
he was pointing and began walking toward it.

They entered the small room that held three devices, all
sitting on a single table. Steven pointed to one with a sphere mounted on a
clear base. Inside were two discs, one above the other, motionless.

“When we first found this device,” Steven said, “the discs
inside were spinning. They would generate a pulse that caused the drain. The
closer you were to it, the stronger the effect.”

“Fascinating,” Maynard said, leaning over the device, looking
at the inscriptions on a black rim that surrounded the sphere. “A device to
keep other gifteds from meddling. Brilliant.”

“Worked too slow, though,” Roy said. “We figured it out
before it completed its task.”

“It was barely on,” Steven said. “Had it been at full speed,
we’d have been drained very quickly. We’d be useless now.”

“And these other two?” Maynard said, sidestepping to take a
look at the other devices on the table.

“We think this one was used to hold what the discs collected,
in these little cubes,” Steven said, pointing to the device next to the sphere.
“You can see they’re all broken. We think that Unser’s mother, Anita, was
consuming them.”

“That would have made her very powerful, I assume,” Maynard
said.

“That she was,” Steven replied.

“This other one,” Roy said, pointing to the device on the
other side of the sphere, “we have no idea what it does. These three projects
were segregated from the others out there, so we figured it must be important.”

Maynard moved to the third device and observed it. Steven
joined him, realizing he’d never really spent much time looking at it. In its
center was a metal pot with a lid, like a pressure cooker, but not as tall.
Wires extended from the base of the pot, connecting to a clear gelatinous ring
that haphazardly surrounded it. Steven dropped into the River, and the device
looked exactly the same, except for the ring. He could detect movement within
it, so he got closer to it to have a better look.

Inside were small insects. He thought they looked like
maggots; small and white, twisting through the matter. He watched them for a
few moments, then dropped out of the River.

“My god,” Steven said. “It’s full of bugs. Never noticed
before.”

“What kind of bugs?” Maynard asked, but before Steven could
answer he’d dropped into the River himself, and was observing the ring.

Steven answered to Roy instead. “Looks like worms to me.
Little worms, like maggots.”

Steven was surprised to see Roy’s face turn white. He’d never
considered his father squeamish. When Roy’s eyes shifted to the left, looking
away from him, Steven began to wonder if the insects meant more than he
thought.

“What?” he asked Roy.

“I hope it’s not…” Roy started, then stopped.

“Not what?”

Maynard returned from the River. “Yup. Maggots.” Steven saw
Maynard turn to Roy, and Roy looked back at him. The two obviously saw some
significance in the discovery of the insects that Steven didn’t share.

“So the maggots mean something?” Steven asked.

“He doesn’t know?” Maynard asked Roy.

“I’ve never told him,” Roy said. “I don’t dabble in it. I’ve
always stayed a million miles away from it.”

“Dabbled in what?” Steven asked.

“Now, we don’t know for sure that that’s it,” Maynard said.
“Let’s just have a look see under this lid.”

Maynard reached forward and grabbed a small black handle on
top of the lid that covered the metal pot. Slowly, he lifted it. Smoke drifted
out and ran down the sides of the pan, like dry ice.

Maynard blew into the pan to disperse the smoke, as though he
might be blowing into a pot of stew to cool it down. As the smoke dispersed,
they all three leaned over the device to look down into the open container.

It was black. Nothing was distinguishable; no sides, no
bottom.

“Shit,” Roy said.

Maynard replaced the lid. “Well, I guess now we know what he
was up to.”

“We don’t know why,” Roy said. “Why he went there.”

“Went where?” Steven asked, thoroughly confused.

 “I always heard that these were unstable,” Maynard said.
“Perhaps that’s why he constructed the giant vortex. To make it stable.”

“Just like a rich guy,” Roy said. “Didn’t want to travel.
Wanted his own personal access. Rich people always want their own private
entrance.”

“Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?” Steven
asked, irritated. “I’m getting pissed.”

“I think your friend Unser here was even more ambitious than
you realized,” Maynard said, turning to Steven. “It wasn’t about draining
gifteds, although that’s the fuel he’s using. And it wasn’t about building a
giant vortex, although he’s certainly built one. It was about this.” Maynard
pointed to the covered metal pot.

“That?” Steven said. “An empty pan?”

“It’s far more empty than you think,” Roy said.

“You explain it to him,” Maynard said. “He’s your son.”

“It’s nothing I wanted him to know,” Roy said. “Lived my
whole life having nothing to do with it. Wanted the same for him.”

“I feel the same way,” Maynard said. “But you’re wrapped up
in it now. You’ll have to explain it.”

“Goddamnit!” Steven said. “I’m right here, you two! Somebody
tell me what the fuck this thing is!”

“Upstairs,” Roy said. “I want another drink first.”

Roy took another gulp of his second old fashioned and gave
Steven a long stare. They were seated in a group of high back leather chairs
that were situated in a corner of the library.

“I never wanted you to come into contact with this,” Roy said.
“I’ve avoided it my whole life. Parents try to shield their kids from things
that aren’t good for them.” He took another gulp.

“I’m waiting,” Steven said.

“You’ve spent enough time in the River now to know how varied
it is,” Roy said. “When you first discovered it, just after we finished off
Lucas, you spent a lot of time in it. You had that trouble with the slenders,
and I warned you not to spend too much time in the flow, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Steven said. “Go on.”

“Well, there are parts of the River that are harder to get to
than others,” Roy said. “The more time you spend in the River, the easier they
are to reach. And then there’s some parts that are hidden, not just hard to get
to, but you really have to put in an effort to get there. Think way up in the
mountains in the middle of nowhere, that kind of thing.”

“OK,” Steven said patiently, waiting for Roy to get on with
it.

“There are a handful of gifted people who, for some reason,
gravitate to those really hard to reach places, and they spend a lot of time
there. Too much time. It warps them, twists them. They get addicted to it, and
want to stay.”

“Like Eximere?” Steven asked, connecting the dots.

“Kind of like that, yes, but not this nice, nothing like
this,” Roy said. “The places they go to are vile and disgusting.”

“It’s called the Dark River,” Maynard said. “Most of us won’t
have anything to do with it.”

“The Dark River,” Steven repeated. “What does this have to do
with Unser?”

“There’s shady parts of the River that you or I might stumble
upon,” Roy said, “but there’s only a few ways into the Dark River. You have to
physically go to an access point. They’re rare.”

“There’s one not far from my home,” Maynard said, “in a cave.
There’s a blood river that runs through it, and you can get to the Dark River in
there. It’s one of the few places on the continent.”

“We think Unser wanted to be able to go to the Dark River
whenever he wanted,” Roy said. “So he made his own way.”

“That device you saw in the basement,” Maynard said. “The
blackness inside the pot, the maggots in the gel. That device makes it possible
for him to get there. I suspect that everything else — this place, the
vortexes, the graves — they’re all here to service that purpose.”

“So the bodies buried outside aren’t being used to power
Eximere?” Steven asked.

“Some of them are, yes,” Maynard said. “But I’ll bet you many
of them were buried to power the access point, wherever it is.”

“You knew the moment I told you there were maggots in the
gel,” Steven said to his father. “I could tell you knew.”

“Maggots are associated with the Dark River,” Maynard
replied, defending Roy. “Most of us know that. I suspect energy from the graves
is transferred to the gel on that device, and the maggots eat through it,
transforming it somehow into the fuel that feed the access point.”

“He enters the Dark River through that pan?” Steven asked.

“No,” Maynard said. “That’s just the device that makes it
happen. If our theory is correct, the access point will be somewhere in the
cave, somewhere he could easily get to.”

“So when Christina said he’s not dead, she was right?” Steven
asked. “He’s actually there? In the Dark River?”

“Very possibly,” Maynard replied.

“So he might come back?” Steven asked.

The conversation stopped. Roy took another gulp of his drink.

“We buried his body,” Steven said. “Assuming that was him. It
was just bones. But it did have the ring that operated the device.”

“It’s never your body that goes there,” Maynard said. “Like
when you enter the River. Your body usually stays put. If Unser went there, it’s
likely he’s been there a long time. People get addicted to it, like a drug. He
probably went there years ago, and is still there.”

“His body died in bed,” Roy said. “Like he knew he wasn’t
coming back before it would give out.”

“It’s got a strong pull,” Maynard said. “My father always
warned me to never consider it.”

“Mine either,” Roy said.

“But you didn’t think I should know?” Steven said. “Your dad
told you, but you weren’t going to tell me?”

“You came to all this pretty late in life,” Roy said, taking
another gulp, finishing off the glass. “I didn’t think you needed a lesson on
it, no. I was hopeful you’d go the rest of your life and not even hear about
it. It’s bad news, something to steer clear of.”

“Well, I guess when we made the decision to camp out here at
Eximere, we steered right into it,” Steven said. “I want to know everything
there is to know about this Dark River, and I want to know now. Spill it.”

“Not much more to say,” Maynard said. “Honestly.”

“You know those kids at school who seemed off, who seemed
like they’d grow up to become arsonists, or molesters, or murderers?” Roy asked
Steven. “Those are the kind of people, if they’re gifted, who are drawn to the
Dark River. It’s full of that kind. Unser was obviously one of them. Look what
he did to get there — all the people he buried, all the lives he ruined.”

“Including our great-great-great-grandfather,” Steven said.

“Including Christina,” Maynard added. “Just a little
nine-year-old girl. Didn’t deserve that. The draw to go there is strong to some
people, so strong they’ll commit horrible crimes.”

The conversation stopped again.

“We should —” Steven started, but Roy stood up, cutting him
off.

“NO!” Roy said loudly, the effects of the booze adding to the
volume.

“You don’t know what I was going to say!” Steven said.

“I know exactly what you were going to say,” Roy replied,
“and the answer is no. No, no, no!”

“What do you think I was going to say?” Steven asked.

“You were going to say that we should go into the Dark River
and hunt Unser down,” Roy said. “And the answer to that will be, absolutely
not! I’ll never set foot in there. And there’s no reason to go there. By all
accounts it’s a hellish place, and if that’s where Unser is spending eternity,
perfect!”

“That was
not
what I was going to say,” Steven said
patiently. “I was going to suggest that we figure out a way to ensure that he
can’t come back. Can we destroy the access point?”

Maynard rubbed his chin. “Don’t know. I’ve never seen a
man-made one before. This is a first for me.”

“He’s not coming back,” Roy said.

“What if we snipped all those wires running from the pan to
the maggots?” Steven asked. “Like defusing  a bomb?”

“Might work, might not,” Maynard said. “It could be a bad
idea. The access point might be tied into this place somehow.”

“You mean if we destroy it, we might destroy Eximere?” Steven
asked.

“He isn’t coming back!” Roy said, more loudly this time.

“You saw how the vortex worked,” Maynard said. “Everything is
connected. One little piece of it goes wrong, it impacts the others. Could be
the same with the access point. I don’t know.”

Roy stood up. “Listen, you two. Unser has been over there for
more than fifty years. He isn’t coming back. He’s addicted to whatever’s there.
There’s no chance.”

“If that access point is open,” Steven asked, “can other
things come through it? From the Dark River, to here? Other than just Unser?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Maynard said.

“Could he have used the access point to place the Marchers
here? Pulled them through from the other side somehow?” Steven asked.

“I suppose,” Maynard said.

“Then other things, like the Marchers, or worse, could come
through it?”

“Nothing’s coming through it,” Roy said. “Even the vortex
starting to fall apart didn’t bring Unser back. He doesn’t care about any of
this in the real world anymore.”

“Yeah, but how long before something
does
come through
it?” Steven asked. “Some opportunistic little prick like Jurgen? He found that Oregon
portal in a mine in the middle of nowhere! If these access points are as rare
as you say, I imagine this one would be valuable. Someone like Jurgen would
turn it into an enterprise. Eximere would become a ticket booth.”

“You’re letting your imagination run wild,” Roy said.

“If you’re right, and there’s an access point somewhere in
this cave,” Steven said, “we’ve got a huge liability to deal with now. For all
we know, we’ve simply been lucky. Lucky that nothing has come through.”

Roy rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m going to bed,” he
said. “I’m tired.”

“How can you sleep?” Steven asked, standing up. “Knowing
something might slip in here and slit your throat? There’s no way to lock up
this house. There’s no way to lock your bedroom door. We’re sitting ducks.”

“We’ve been sleeping here on and off for months,” Roy said,
walking to leave the room. “Nothing’s changed.”

“Other than the knowledge that we might be sleeping in a
deathtrap,” Steven said.

“I’m going to bed,” Roy insisted. “We can talk more about it
in the morning, if you want. But right now I just want to go to sleep. Good night,
the both of you.”

Roy padded out of the library.

“Are we in danger?” Steven asked Maynard.

“I don’t know,” Maynard said. “This is all just a theory. For
all we know, we could make spaghetti in that pot.”

“You know that’s not true,” Steven said.

“I’ll admit the story fits. Whether or not it’s true remains
to be seen.”

“You’re not in the least bit concerned about what might come through
that access point?”

“If you haven’t seen anything in the time you’ve been here, that’s
a pretty good indication. You haven’t, right?”

“Aside from the hallucinations I saw when the vortex was
unstable, no, there hasn’t been anything unusual. The place is always calm and
quiet, just like now. It’s always the same, every time we visit. You can’t even
hear my father walk up the stairs.”

“And it’s addictive,” Maynard said.

“Yes, I remember thinking that when we first discovered it,”
Steven said. “Doesn’t occur so much to me now.”

“You’ve become used to it,” Maynard said. “Perhaps its
proximity to the access point is the reason for its addictive qualities.” He rose
from his chair. “Listen, I’m going to bed too. I’m tired. But I do think we
should hunt for that access point tomorrow, and see if we can determine what
condition it’s in. Maybe it’s closed, and everything is fine.”

“If it’s closed, then why all the activity in the device?”
Steven asked. “The maggots were churning through something.”

“I don’t know,” Maynard said. “But I’ll have a new head in
the morning, and I’ll think it through then. Good night.”

“Good night, Maynard,” Steven said. “And thanks for all your
help.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, walking out. “This has been the
most unusual vortex I’ve ever come across. It’s been kinda fun.”

Wish I could view it that way
, Steven thought as Maynard left the
room.

◊

Come on, Eliza, pick up,
Steven thought. He was cold and knew he’d only last a
little while, standing in the woods, the cell phone pressed to his ear.

He couldn’t sleep. Knowing there was some other way into the
cave, a way for god knows what to creep into Eximere, he’d just tossed and
turned in bed, his mind racing. He’d decided to call Eliza, so he got out of
bed and walked back up the stairs, through the tunnel, and out into the woods
where he’d be able to get barely enough reception to place a call.

“Hello?” came the voice at the other end of the line.

“Eliza? It’s Steven.”

“What time is it? It’s two a.m., Steven. What’s wrong?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I had to talk to you. There’s been some
developments, and I need some advice.”

“OK. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Have you ever heard of the Dark River?”

There was a pause.

“Yes,” Eliza said hesitantly. “I’ve heard of it.”

“Apparently no one wanted to tell me about it.”

“It’s something most of us who operate on the legitimate side
of things don’t delve into.”

“Well, the current thinking is that Unser built an access
point to the Dark River. That’s what the other device in the basement room was
all about. I had to pry information about the Dark River out of my dad and
Maynard. They didn’t want to talk about it.”