72 Hours (A Thriller) (16 page)

CHAPTER 44

From the highway, the first gate was ten miles down a poorly maintained dirt road.
 
The gate was secured by a chunky Master Lock and a thick chain.
 
The Hummer came to a stop amid a cloud of red dust.
 
Archer got out.

The fence stretched into the distance for miles.
 
Simple barbed-wire.
 
He followed it on foot in the suffocating heat to the sixth fencepost to the right side of the gate.
 
Next to the fencepost was a rock the size of a bowling ball.
 
He rolled it aside.
 
The dry alkaline ground had been dug out beneath the rock and an empty soup can was inserted in the hole.
 
The key to the lock on the gate was inside the can.

Archer fished it out and unlocked the gate.

The second gate was fifteen miles beyond the first.
 
The dirt track leading to it was primitive and ungraded.
 
Bouncing along it inside the Hummer, fifteen miles felt like a thousand.
 
This time the hidden key was to the left of the gate, at the twelfth fencepost.
 
He threaded the chain through the metal panels and swung the gate wide.
 
He drove the Hummer through and then relocked the gate.

The primitive road was a vague, meandering line cutting across the desert floor.
 

“This is so freaky,” Ramey sighed.
 
The road had beaten most of the spirit out of her.
 
The big tires jolting from rut to rut made the grueling ride seem interminable.
 

The trail sloped down into a narrow canyon.
 
Sandstone walls loomed high above on either side.
 
The passage was painfully slim for a machine of such bulk.
 
Archer had to concentrate to not shave off the side mirrors against the sandstone bluffs.
 
The temperature dropped noticeably as they were swallowed in the shadows of the canyon.
 

The third gate materialized as they emerged from the canyon.
 
It was the most substantial of the three.
 
Archer approached the gate and rattled the chain.
 
He knew he was probably being watched through the telescopic lens of a riflescope.
 
There had been laser sensors all along the thirty-odd miles of desert they had crossed, announcing them.
 

Archer waved his arms high over his head.
 
He stood for a moment at the gate, the cool of the shade falling across the back of his neck, his face edging into the sunlight at the mouth of the canyon.
 
He was relaying a message that he was not a threat.

A few minutes later a cloud of dust became visible moving toward them from about a mile in the distance.
 
He could see a small dark silhouette among the dust.
 
It was a man driving a 4-wheel ATV.

The ATV stopped outside the gate.
 
The man was wearing goggles and leather gloves.
 
He raised the goggles to his forehead and smiled as he approached Archer.

“Been a long time, Archer,” the man said.

“Good to see you, Raj.”

“Let’s get you in out of the sun,” Raj said.

Archer nodded and turned for the Hummer.
 
Raj entered a code into the lock on the gate and opened it.
 
Then the Hummer followed him on the ATV down the dusty track.
 
They rocketed across the rugged terrain for about two miles as the blinding sun bore down on the barren landscape, and then suddenly they were driving into an underground tunnel.

CHAPTER 45

Metal-paneled doors had opened before them, the ATV and the Hummer slamming down a concrete ramp into a passage supported by rounded concrete walls.
 
The doors closed behind them.
 
The sunlight was cut off with such abruptness it was as if someone had flipped a switch.
 
They drove with headlights on.

Lindsay and the children rode in stunned silence.
 
Twenty-four hours earlier, she had been shopping and the kids had been in school, and now they were speeding through a tunnel somewhere in the middle of the desert.

The passage opened up into a cavernous space lit by banks of fluorescent rods.
 
The Hummer parked alongside the ATV in a circular hub.
 
Raj led them through a door into a narrow corridor lit by canned lighting in the floor.
 
No one spoke.
 
Then the corridor opened into a low-ceilinged space divided into many rooms and hallways.
 

A second man, the mirror-image of Raj, entered the room from an adjacent wing of the living quarters and greeted Archer with a firm handshake.

“Simeon,” Archer said.

“Where have you been, brother?”

“I’ve been around,” Archer answered.

Archer made quick introductions.

Simeon said, “We have satellite, so we’ve seen the news.
 
You will be safe here.”

Raj nodded in agreement.

Lindsay cleared her throat.
 
“Thank you.”

“Please make yourselves at home,” Simeon said.
 
Then he and Raj took Archer into another part of the living quarters to talk.

The men assembled in a room they called the library.
 
Raj closed the door.
 
The furniture was stout and plain.
 
They were identical twins born in Egypt to an American mother and Egyptian father who had been a professor at various universities throughout Europe.
 
And aside from Raj’s clean-shaven face and Simeon’s neatly trimmed white beard, their physical appearance was indeed truly identical.
 
Archer had met them a lifetime ago in a far corner of the globe.
 
He had not seen or spoken to them in years.
 
The brothers lived off the grid.
 
They communicated with the outside world solely by means of a satellite phone, and all communication was filtered through their only other sibling, a sister named Penny.

The library contained wall-to-wall metal shelving, books and periodicals stacked high and deep.
 
There were books on every conceivable topic.
 
Every one of them having been read and reread.
 
The Egyptian brothers were a wealth of knowledge with eclectic interests.
 

Simeon offered him a glass of tea with ice.

“Think you were followed?”
 
Raj leaned against a wall, folded his arms over his chest.

Archer stood in the center of the room.
 
A long rectangular rug covered much of the smooth concrete floor.
 
The glass of tea was cool in his hand.
 
He glanced from wall to wall of the windowless room.
 
He wondered exactly how deep underground they actually were.

Archer shook his head.
 
“I was very careful.”

They discussed strategy.
 
The best case scenario would be that they’d ride out three quiet days and nights in the cool stillness of the underground compound, playing cards, sharing stories, staring at the sunrise, and watching the clock tick slowly toward 12:01 AM, Monday morning.

But it wasn’t quiet for long.

Suddenly an alarm sounded in the underground compound and red lights mounted on the walls began flashing.

Raj and Simeon made eye contact.

Simeon stood.
 
“The outer perimeter alarm,” he said.
 
“Looks like someone has already found us.”

CHAPTER 46

Lindsay rushed to find them, concern in her eyes.

“What is that noise about?
 
What’s going on?”

Archer needed to calm her.
 
“Probably nothing,” he said.
 
“We’ll know more in a few minutes.
 
How are the kids?”

She shrugged, trying to look past him.
 
“Mostly just tired.
 
Still pretty scared.”

“Tell them to not let the alarm bother them.”

She looked into his eyes, then she nodded.

Archer followed a corridor that branched in the opposite direction from the library.
 
He entered a long, narrow room with a metal table that occupied the entire length of one wall.
 
The table was covered with electronic surveillance and monitoring equipment.
 
There were several flat panel computer monitors with cables trailing to computer towers standing upright on the floor beneath the tables.
 
A half-dozen laptop computers.
 
A laser printer.
 
Shortwave radios.
 
Digital broadband receivers designed to intercept thousands of channels of outside communications.

The Egyptian brothers were studying a series of monitors.
 
Raj was seated in a swivel chair with a wooden seat while Simeon remained standing, looking over his brother’s shoulder at the computer screen.

There was a black and white video feed visible onscreen.
 
The imagery was of the monotonous desert landscape.

“Switch to camera fourteen,” Simeon said.

A new camera perspective filled the screen.
 
Still all they saw was dust and sand blowing across the scrub, as well as a small section of what Archer believed he recognized as the first gate he had passed through on the drive in.

“Hmm.
 
Okay, try camera fifteen,” Simeon said to his brother.

Again the camera perspective changed.

Simeon leaned in close over his brother’s shoulder.

“There,” he said, pointing at an upper corner of the screen.

Raj nodded, moving the mouse and clicking on a tab to zoom in.
 
“A small car.”

“A Honda or Toyota.
 
A little rice burner.”

“No one inside,” Simeon said.
 
He turned to Archer.
 
“Recognize it?”

Archer stood with his hands hitched on his hips.
 
He nodded.
 
“There was a yellow Prius in my rearview mirror for a while.
 
It came and went but disappeared a few hours back.
 
Lost sight of it long before we turned off the highway.”

Raj typed on the keyboard.
 
“Apparently whoever was driving has gone for a walk.”

The video screen divided into a dozen separate windows.
 
Each was an angle from a different camera.

Then they saw movement.

Raj clicked on one of the video squares, enlarging it to fill the screen.
 
“There he is,” he said.

They saw a small man wearing a Lakers jersey and baggy shorts, casually following the dirt track inside the first gate.
 
He had what looked like a rucksack on a strap over one shoulder.

“Climbed over,” Simeon said.

“What do you make of it?”
 
Archer asked, studying the moving image.

“You were followed.”

“Impossible.”

Simeon turned to face him.
 
“My friend, you are the first visitor inside that gate in seven or eight years.
 
This guy makes two on the same day.
 
You got tailed, brother.”

“Doesn’t look dangerous,” Raj said.

Archer turned for the open door.
 
“I’ll find out.”

CHAPTER 47

Soji had walked a mile and a half and still couldn’t see anything.
 
The gate had been locked, so he’d been forced to scale it and go a distance on foot to look for evidence that the black Hummer has passed this way.

He stopped to catch his breath.
 
He was soaked in sweat.

He dropped the messenger bag off his shoulder, opened the flap and removed his laptop.
 
He refreshed the screen and saw the icon denoting the Hummer still hadn’t moved.
 
It had been stationary for at least the past forty-five minutes.
 
It was definitely somewhere inside the gate.

He needed to return to his car before he dropped dead of heat exhaustion.
 
He took out his cell and dialed Smackdown’s number.

“It’s me again, boss,” he said.
 
“She’s hiding in the desert.”

CHAPTER 48

Smackdown was on Line 1 with Soji.
 
He had him live on the air again.
 
Soji was complaining about the heat and about the long drive from the city, and Smackdown laughed along like they were old frat buddies.

Wes banged on the glass.

Smackdown frowned and gave him the bird.