The Broken Lake (26 page)

Something in me wanted to protest, or even hang up, but I didn’t. My body stiffened, my mouth went on Mute, and my ears opened. Silence followed for a few seconds and still I wasn’t able to speak. I stood there listening to my own breath until he asked me to put Wes on the phone.

“Who is this?”

“I already told you, that’s not your concern. Go get Weston. Now. I know he’s there.”

I went completely quiet again, other than the sounds of my breath escaping my flared nostrils.

“No,” I finally stated firmly. “Not until you tell me who’s calling.”

I heard a huff of breath on the other end. “Tell me something, Sophie. Do you like the cold?”

My lips tightened as I went to the window, fearing someone might be watching me from the trees. “Who is this?”

The man’s voice was still low, but sharp, and seemed more casual now. “You answer my question first,” he said.

“And that was?” I asked, scanning the darkness.

“Do you like the cold?”

“No,” I hissed.

“Well, if you want the heat turned back on, then I suggest you put Weston on the phone.”

My brain spun around inside my skull and flipped a few times before coming up with the conclusion that I shouldn’t protest. Without responding, I turned toward the steps and felt my way upstairs.

Wes could tell by my eyes that something was wrong. He met me halfway across the room, reading my every expression.

“Someone wants to talk to you?” I whispered.

He took the phone without hesitation. “Hello?”

He listened for a few seconds then, with similar instincts, walked over to the window, scanning the landscape. I followed, staying close.

“Yes. No.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head. He moved across the room and sank onto the foot of the bed. With his elbows on his knees, he held the phone in one hand and gripped his hair with the other.

I sat on the floor in front of him, trying to see his face.

“What do you want?” he asked quietly. Then, firmly, “I don’t have it.” After a long pause, he shook his head. “Why now? I’ll be home Tuesday. That’s good enough. You don’t have to do this. No. That’s not necessary. I’ll do what you ask. You just do what you said
before
I leave.” Without saying good-bye, he hit the End button and tossed the phone onto the bed.

I was on my knees now, making room for myself between his knees. He was clenching his teeth and I could see the tension bursting within. “Wes, who was that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what do they want?” I asked quickly.

With a blank stare he paused and looked toward the floor. “They want me to go with them.”

“What? When?”

“Tonight.”

It didn’t make sense. We were snowed in. No one was going anywhere. “How?”

“I don’t know. They said they’re coming and I have to leave with them.”

“So tell them no. That’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t have a choice, Sophie.”

“Yes, you do. They can’t make you.”

“They can.”

“How?”

“Because they’re the ones who shut off everything. They’re prepared to let us all freeze if I don’t.”

I grabbed his face and made him look at me. “Then we all freeze. You’re not leaving with anyone.”

His eyes were sad, defeated. “If I don’t go now, they’ll come in here and take me anyway. And they’ll wait until we’re vulnerable.”

“I don’t understand. What do they want?”

“They want information for a project they’re working on.”

“That makes no sense. They can set up an appointment back home.”

Wes chuckled a little. “Sophie, people like this don’t make appointments. They want something from me and they don’t want anyone else to know they’re getting it.”

I shook my head, adding to the spinning sensation already present. “Wes, they can’t just take you. You’ve worked too hard to let someone find out about you now.”

He looked at me with more urgency. “That’s why I have to go now. They don’t know about me yet.”

“You don’t know that. Why else would they want you?”

He took my hands and placed them in his lap. “Our research. If they already know what I am, then they wouldn’t have threatened me with letting
you
freeze in here.”

I growled another very clear, “No.”

“Listen to me and listen carefully. If I don’t go with them now, they’ll wait until we’re all freezing, and if they see me like that, they’ll know something isn’t right. And then they
will
take me. So I have to go with them now, give them whatever information they want, and then I’ll meet you back home.”

I pushed his chest back to wake him from his dream. “They don’t want to take you just so they can let you go. Don’t be stupid.”

He took my face in his hands. “Listen! They want something, and they know killing me or you isn’t going to get it for them. If they think I have information they want, it’s in our favor. It’s all we have. We have to be sensible, Sophie. I’m useless in this cold. If I go, they’ll take me out of here to someplace warmer and let you guys go home where you belong.”

“I belong with you. I don’t want you to go.” I couldn’t keep from crying. My tears collected where his hands still gripped my face.

He pulled me to his chest and rocked me gently. The more he rocked, the colder it became. I could feel it all around us, no matter how much I wished for warmth. No matter how much I wished we hadn’t come.

“I was so stupid to bring you here. You can’t even defend yourself.”

He squeezed me, and I lifted my head so it fit in the nook between his collarbone and neck. His flesh was cool.

“Sophie, stop. Whoever these people are, they’re serious enough to pull off something like this. If it didn’t happen here, then it would happen somewhere else. This is not a new concern of mine. People have been looking for information for years.”

“But how did they even know you were here?”

“I don’t know.”

I took in a huge, deep breath of cool air. My lungs felt the cold and every muscle in my body tensed. I jerked away as it hit me. “Oh, my gosh. Chase.” I stood up, pacing.

Wes followed. “Chase doesn’t have the means to—”

“Wait. I didn’t get a chance to tell you. Danny told me that he overheard Chase talking to two men in suits and they were mad when they found out Chase waited so long to tell them where we were. It was him. I know it. Please, Wes. Something’s not right. Please, don’t leave. I can’t just let you go with these people.”

I felt like I was sinking into the floor. It was all so insane. How was I supposed to let Wes go with some strangers who wanted God knows what. It was too much. My legs went weak.

I felt him grip my arms, and we both settled onto the floor.

“I don’t want to go either, but I can’t let it get cold in here. I can’t let them see me like that, and I can’t let anything happen to you.”

I felt my body turn to mush. Helpless, weakened, defeated. His voice was turning into distant echoes.

“We just have to trust that they only want to pick my brain.”

I cringed at the thought of them doing anything else to him. What if they
did
know about him? What if they planned to do horrible things to him. I was so sick, so afraid, so angry. And all I could do was wait. I squeezed him tighter and blinked my eyes several times, trying to focus.

Within a half hour, I felt Wes perk up, listening attentively. He went over to the window, looking at the sky. I knew he heard something and within minutes I heard it too. It sounded like a thousand locusts, homing in on the house. Shortly after, the blackened sky was lit by a large white light that grew closer and brighter.

“It’s a helicopter,” Wes said, and then he dug his phone out of his pocket. With less than three taps on his screen, his phone was dialing out.

“Who are you calling?”

“Dr. Lyon,” he whispered. Then, he covered his other ear, trying to block out the increasingly deafening sound. He walked away from the window as the line was ringing.

“Dr. Lyon, Wes here. There’s something going on, and I need you to take precautions.” He was adding to his layers as he spoke. “I’m in Virginia, and some men are forcing me into going with them. They want information about our research. I need you to lock down all labs and wait for my call. No. I know what I’m doing. Just do as I say, please.”

Before there was sufficient time for Dr. Lyon to respond, Wes hung up the phone, turning his attention to me. His phone rang again, but he ignored it. “These guys are for real, Sophie.”

I’m not sure if he thought telling me that would calm me, but it sent me into a frenzy. I grabbed his coat. “No. You can’t go alone. I’m coming with you.”

The helicopter landed right outside the front window on the unplowed road just beyond Kerry’s driveway. Wes moved away from me and headed downstairs. At that point I heard Kerry’s and Dawn’s doors open and Wes turned to me.

Grabbing my shoulders tightly, he leaned right into my face. “Sophie, you can’t make a scene in front of them. I promise you, I’ll be okay.”

“No.”

“Stop it,” he whispered in a near hiss. “This is serious. You have to help me get my stuff on, so I can make it to the helicopter. If they find out about my vulnerability, we’re in real trouble. Please.”

“But we can call the police? They can help us before it’s too late?”

He shook his head quickly. “The police can’t stop people who go to these extremes. And they’d never make it up the mountain in this weather. Besides, it would draw way too much attention to me. You have to trust me.”

“It doesn’t feel right.”

“It’ll be fine. Give me some time to settle this, and if you don’t hear from me in forty-eight hours,
then
you can call the police. Now promise me you
will
go home, and stay safe. Don’t go anywhere alone.” He was nearly shaking me by my shoulders now. “Do you hear me, Sophie?”

I blinked away a few more tears and sucked in the rest. I must have nodded, because he pulled me by my hand and I reluctantly followed him down the stairs.

“What’s going on, guys?” Kerry asked.

Wes took charge. “I’m sorry, Kerry, but something has happened at one of my labs, and I have to go right now. I’m sorry to leave so unexpectedly.”

Dawn spoke up. “You’re leaving us here, in the cold. What about us?”

He turned, losing patience, but still calm. “I looked into it. I was assured that the gas and electric would be on soon. They’re fixing it right now.”

She sighed then jumped up and down a few times. Her mood completely changed as the sound of the gas furnace reached us. I remained silent and went straight to the garage, afraid that my eyes or voice would give away my emotional state.

Inside the garage, I helped Wes into several layers, including his heated gear and snow boots. Our time together was cut short by the constant powered-down whine of the chopper engine and Wes’ rushed effort to wrap up.

I looked at him and pleaded one more time. “Please. At least let me come with you.”

His gentle smile returned. “I want you to,” he admitted. “But I won’t be able to slip through this if we’re together. I’d be too worried about you and you’d be too worried about me. I have to concentrate on everything I do and say, and I can’t unless I know you’re home and safe.”

I hated everything he was saying. I wanted to shove him away and pull him to me at the same time. I wanted him to fight to stay with me, to keep from leaving me. All the while, I knew those desires were unrealistic and selfish.

We couldn’t put on a showdown with a helicopter. We’d be fools to refuse, and although I hated to admit it, he was right. He was better off going with them while he could still hide the one weakness that would give away his secret.

“Please, please be okay.”

I felt his cool lips press against me, and he pulled me in for one last hug. “I wouldn’t leave you now if I thought there was another way. And I wouldn’t leave at all if I didn’t think I’d come back to you. You just have to go home and wait for me.”

Without another word, he reached up and pressed the garage door opener. An instant gush of cold air burst through, and he went out, stepping through the deep snow, toward the sound of our enemy. And, just like that, my joy, my comfort, my everything, disappeared into the windy, bitter, snowy terrain. Unable to bring myself to close the garage door behind him, I walked inside, feeling lifeless.

D
awn cornered me as soon as I got inside. “What the hell is that all about?”

It took everything I had not to break into sobs. I tried my best to explain, saying that someone had stolen something important and that Wes had to take care of it right away. Before she could respond, I went over to the window to get a view of the chopper. The spotlights were shining bright enough to see Wes trudging his way closer to it. Then he stopped, midway.

My heart froze when he looked back, almost as if he had changed his mind.
What’s he waiting for? What’s wrong with him?
I wanted him to hurry, or to turn back, anything but stand there.

Then the lights came on in the chalet and I watched him turn away, his last condition fulfilled. He approached the helicopter, appearing strong, and was met by two men wearing black jumpsuits.

By then, Rich and Jackson were also at the window. “Must be something important,” Rich said.

I turned to him, afraid to speak, for fear of hysterical gibberish coming out.

Fortunately, Kerry was thinking the same thing I was. “What makes you say that?” she asked.

“Because that’s a military chopper. No regular helo could land on this terrain.”

My skin crawled at the revelation. I thought of the possibilities, of everything I remembered Andy telling me about secret government experiments. I thought about everything at once and how much I wanted to kick and punch the glass.

Anger escalated within as I watched the chopper leave with my Wes. I was so angry I had let him go, angry because I couldn’t scream. The only thing that kept me from cracking in front of everyone was my trust in Wes’ instincts. He had to have had no choice if it meant leaving me distraught and alone on this mountaintop.