The Secret of Rover (22 page)

“But where are we going?” asked Katie.

“Washington.”

At this Katie looked alarmed. “Washington DC? But there are Katkajanians all over Washington! They could be looking for us in Washington—that's where Trixie is!” Her uncle had named the last place on earth where she wanted to be. “That's where we just came from! We can't go—”

Firmly, Alex cut her off. “If we didn't have to, we wouldn't,” he said. “But there's someone I must see—someone to whom I must speak. And that person is in Washington DC.” Rising distractedly, he produced a large, flat washing pan and began to stack their plates and cups inside it.

“Do we have to go with you?” asked Katie, getting up to help. She felt that she could see Nose and Hair, and hear Trixie's harsh, splintery laugh.

“I'm afraid you do—both of you,” said Alex. “I don't want either of you staying here alone.”

“We can take care of ourselves!”

“Yes, Katie, of course you can,” he replied. “But that's not it. Those two thugs who grabbed you will eventually figure out where I live.”

This was too close to what they already knew to ignore. The blessed sensation of protection that they had both been savoring since they walked through their uncle's door vanished like smoke. The sighing of the wind in the trees and the trickling of the creek, which had been the sweet music of safety, became veils that concealed creeping footsteps and approaching danger.

“So we'll all need to go,” repeated Alex, “and first thing in the morning.”

“Maybe we should leave now,” said David. Katie had been right. Nose and Hair would only waste so much time in New Hampshire.

“No,” said Alex firmly. “Right now it's almost dark. We'll travel in the morning.” He gazed at their ashen faces, and woe creased his forehead. “I've scared you,” he said miserably. “I'm so new to all this. I have so little experience with children. Please forgive me. Sit down,” he added, abruptly changing his plan. “We'll wash these later—or rather, I will after you've gone to sleep, which you'll be doing again, very soon. But first I want to talk about Katkajan.”

And he did. They all pulled their stools outside, where the evening sky deepened from blue to indigo to black as the stars grew bright above and the fireflies glimmered below. While night fell, Katie and David's uncle told them about the faraway place where their sister had been born and their parents had vanished.

It seemed that Alex had lived in Katkajan, years ago when he was young. He had loved the place and the people. Katkajan was a free country then, but already a growing insurgent movement threatened its peaceful government. When Alex had returned home and he and the Bowdens had developed Rover, he'd particularly hoped their invention would help Katkajan, along with the people there whom he admired so much.

“So I don't like to see you hating Katkajan, Katie,” said her uncle. “It isn't a bad country—there are no bad countries. There are only bad people, and most Katkajanians are good. I'm sure most of them would help your parents if they had the chance.”

“Is that your plan?” asked Katie. “Are you going to get the good Katkajanians to help?”

“No—I'll be trying something different,” said her uncle.

“But what?” Katie persisted.

“We can discuss that later,” he replied. “You've been under a terrible strain. Right now you need your rest.”

Katie was about to say that she was not too tired, but David cut her off.

“Uncle Alex,” David said, “this all reminds me—all this talk about Katkajan and stuff. About Rover—what is it anyway? I mean, what does it do?”

Katie heard this question with interest. Rover had always been off-limits, but David did have a point, asking about it now. Things had changed, after all.

Apparently they had not changed enough. Alex's face shut like a book at the mention of Rover. “David,” he said, and his voice was kind but firm, “I can certainly understand why you would want to ask. But I'm afraid that information is only available on a need-to-know basis. That means that only those who need to know can be told. And right now you have no such need. Fortunately,” he added.

“Well, will you use it? To help find Mom and Dad and Theo?”

“We'll see,” said their uncle. “But first we have to get to Washington.”

Katie and David exchanged glances. They were glad
that Alex was helping. It was a huge relief, just being with him. But as for Rover, they were not at all sure that they didn't need to know.

Alex, though, was moving on. He frowned. “I rarely wish that I had a car, but I have to admit that tonight I do.”

“We have a car,” said Katie.

Alex looked confused. “Of course you do. Maybe even two cars, at home. But we'll need one here,” he said. “In Vermont.”

“It is here. David, where's that little card?”

David gave her his I'm-being-patient-with-a-mentally-challenged-person look. “Katie?” he asked, eyebrows up. “I have no idea what you're talking about?”

She glowered. “The card from the taxi guy. We came here in a taxi,” she explained, turning to Uncle Alex. “I guess we didn't tell you that part. And the driver gave us his card.”

“A taxi?” asked Alex. “I thought you said you rode in trucks.”

“Mostly it was trucks,” said David. “We just took a taxi part of the way. It was my idea,” he added, feeling suddenly proud. Pretty cool idea, come to think of it.

“The driver was very nice,” said Katie. “He could tell something was wrong and he said we should call him if we ever needed anything. So I'm sure he would take us to Washington.”

“Washington's a long way to go in a cab,” said Alex dubiously.

“Here it is,” said David, who had been fishing in his pocket. He produced a battered rectangle of white cardboard and looked around for a phone. “Mike. I'll call him. What do I say?” he asked, suddenly not knowing.

“Depends,” said his uncle. “What did you already tell him?”

“A bunch of lies,” admitted David. “But we never told him we were looking for you, if that's what you mean. Or not exactly, anyway.”

“Tell him now,” said Alex decidedly. He rose and continued talking as he bent to lift his stool. “Tell the driver you found your uncle who lives on the mountain. It's OK,” he added in response to their questioning looks. “I'm a hermit, but I'm not a secret. They know about me down in Melville.

“If this Mike was worried about you, then at first he might not be happy that you're with me. He might not like it that we want to go so far. But we don't actually have to convince him to take us—not tonight, anyway. We just have to get him to talk to us. So tell him I'm the one you were looking for. And tell him now that you've found me, we want to go get your parents.”

“Which is true,” put in Katie.

“Right. But don't tell him anything else. And we'll have to watch what we say when we're in his car. No one must
know what's really going on. Not even Mike.” Alex stood, stretched, and then swung his stool indoors.

“Got it,” said David. “Um, how about a phone?” he added, holding up the card.

Alex stepped smartly over to a shelf above his bed, lifted down a box, and removed a small, sleek cell phone. He held it out to David, grinning. “Thought I didn't have one, didn't you?” he asked.

David grinned back. “No comment,” he said, flipping it open.

Katie was very tired. She scarcely listened as David dialed and he and their uncle arranged to meet Mike for a conversation the next day. Mike hadn't said yes to the trip, but he hadn't hung up on them either. Good.

Nice as it was outside, Katie simply felt better indoors and she breathed easier once her uncle locked the door. Ever since his warning, shadowy figures had seemed to watch her from the darkened woods, and the flickering of the fireflies seemed like reflections from their bright, hidden eyes. The cool air was refreshing, but she reached up to close the window, wanting it, too, to be sealed and locked.

As she raised her arms, the short sleeve of her T-shirt slid back on her left shoulder and the corner of her eye seemed to catch its slithering motion. She gasped and slammed the window shut, her heart pounding in fear.

David and Alex turned in alarm to see her pale, staring face.

“I saw something. It must have been just my sleeve,” Katie said miserably.

“Are you sure?” demanded David.

“I think it was,” she said. Because if it wasn't, then what she had just seen was the quick, stealthy movement of someone in the woods.

Their uncle strode to the door and threw it open. “Who's there?” he barked.

Not so much as a twig snapped in response. For a moment Alex simply listened to the silence and stillness that met his gruff call. But then—and without taking his eyes off the woods—he reached for a cupboard that hung by the door. Pulling it open, he drew out a pistol. Gripping the weapon in both hands, he cocked it.

The unmistakable sound of a firearm clicking into shooting position ricocheted through the silent woods.

Neither David nor Katie so much as breathed. They had never been so close to a gun before.

Alex closed and locked the door. When he turned around to face them, his expression was grim.

“Neither of you is to touch this gun,” he said.

“No problem,” said David. As if they would.

“I'm a man of peace,” continued Alex, looking unhappy.

“Understood!” said David.

“I cherish the quiet of my mountain.”

“We believe you!” said David.

“But sometimes, when you live alone, you need a weapon.”

“Uncle Alex,” said Katie, jumping in, “we're not arguing!”

Alex sighed. “Everything looks good out there,” he said. “What did you see, Katie?”

“Probably just my own arm,” she confessed, embarrassed that she had reacted as she did. “I'm pretty sure I didn't see anything. Sorry I yelled.”

Alex looked relieved. “You're tired,” he said. “And everything you've been through has made you jumpy. It's time for bed.”

Wearily Katie laid herself down. She was beyond tired. She was so tired, she was broken.

No sooner did Katie's head touch the pillow than she felt it begin to swirl, spinning her down, down, downward. But despite her weariness—just before she slipped into unconsciousness—she distinctly heard the click of the cupboard as her uncle opened it and put the pistol away. And she also heard the fastening of the window latch as he locked it for the night and carefully turned it tight.

That was not the last they were to see of their uncle's gun. Early the next morning, just before they left the little house on the mountaintop, Alex again opened the cupboard, then slipped the weapon into his pocket.

He thought that Katie and David did not see this, but they did. They exchanged a look, but neither of them said a word.

The rest of their preparations went quickly and smoothly. Alex produced a backpack into which he put his phone, a bottle of water, some homemade bread, and a fat hunk of Vermont cheese. The children added their map, which was now badly bedraggled, and their flashlights, which would need new batteries. And then Alex brought
indoors the things he usually kept out, turned the key in the lock, and led the way.

Katie and David followed their uncle along the bank of the stream, heading down the same path by which they had arrived two days before. The morning was clear and cold. Sun shone where they walked by the water, but daylight had not yet chased the shadows from the woods. They could see only a short distance into the forest on either side of them.

It was deeply still in there, and the darkened woods were silent.

Katie gratefully savored the warm sunshine on her shoulders and averted her eyes from the blackness on either side of them.

Alex appeared to be absorbed in thought, and they tramped along in silence.

David was the first to break it. “Um, Uncle Alex?” he asked.

“Mmm?” said Alex.

“Do you have money and stuff like that?”

“David!” Katie exclaimed. Talk about a mood-breaker. Really, her brother had no manners.

“I mean, for the taxi. Because, like, the last time this guy drove us we didn't have enough to pay him.”

“That's incredibly rude!”

“It's OK, Katie,” said her uncle. “If you're going to live
as strangely as I do, you have to expect questions. And the answer is yes. I have money from Rover, just the way your parents do. And the first place we're going to ask your taxi to take us is to my bank in Melville. Katie, it isn't necessary to scuff the leaves that way. Let's try to enjoy the silence of a mountain morning.”

“I'm not scuffing,” said Katie.

“Well, David, then. Please pick up your feet.”

“Right,” said David absentmindedly. “That's good about the money, Uncle Alex. It's a good thing you're so normal.”