A Quill Ladder (49 page)

Caleb placed the second cream card in front of Simon, and he picked it up and gazed at it intently.
“
Abbey found that music helped
…”
Caleb started.

Simon waved him away.
“
Music is noise to me.
”
He turned the card over and over in his hands, feeling the edges of it, drawing it closer and then moving it farther away.

“
It goes this way
…”
Caleb began again, reaching for the card, but Simon shook his head and pulled it to his chest. Then abruptly he took the card and started to peel the top layer of cardstock away, separating the card into two pieces.

“
What are you doing?
”
Caleb rose from the table to snatch at the card. Simon leaned back, stared at him with his eyebrows raised, and then flipped the card around to reveal the row of numbers written in plain black ink on the second layer of cardstock.

“
What? How did you know to do that?
”
Caleb sputtered.

Simon blew a faint huff of air out of his nose.
“
When governments send out documents that have been requested under freedom of information, they have to black out the parts that are private or confidential. They used to black it out by hand with a pen. These days they do it with big black bars that they place over the text in Word. But they often screw up and fail to combine the bar and word into a single image. Most computer techies know how to lift the bars and reveal the words underneath. The card looked like it had two layers glued together. I took a chance.
”

“
But how would Caleb and I have been able to read numbers that were under a layer of cardstock?
”
Abbey said.

“
That, I have no idea. Maybe you have x-ray vision.
”
Simon rocked back in his chair.
“
Don
’
t you think maybe you should call the police, or Sylvain or someone? Maybe someone at Dad
’
s office?
”

“
Sylvain disappeared about half an hour ago. Do the numbers mean anything to you?
”
Abbey asked.

Simon rolled his eyes and looked at the card, clearly determined that he couldn
’
t help, but then his eyes went wider and his eyebrows scrunched together. He dropped the front legs of the chair to the floor and pointed to one of the five sets of numbers.
“
I know this number. It
’
s the latitude and longitude of the causeway with the spaceships. I checked it on my phone when we were there.
”

“
Why didn
’
t you say something before? We could have looked that up,
”
Abbey said.

“
I forgot.
”

“
Is it the latitude and longitude of Coventry?
”
Abbey said, embarrassed that she didn
’
t know this.

“
Give me your phone,
”
Caleb said, snatching it out of her hand.

Abbey thrust the card in front of Mark, who was drawing lines from their house to a circle that she assumed represented Sylvain
’
s house.
“
Are any of these sets of numbers the latitude and longitude of Coventry City?
”

Mark barely looked up from his map.
“
No.
”

“
Yes!
”
exclaimed Caleb, waving Abbey
’
s phone.

Mark looked up at Caleb, then returned his gaze to his map.
“
No. They are the latitude and longitude coordinates of various areas surrounding Coventry.
”

“
What areas exactly?
”
Abbey said.

Mark looked back at his map, then up at Abbey, then back at his map. Then he gave a deep sigh.
“
I need my computer and mapping software. But this one is to the southwest, near the stones. This one is to the northwest.
”

“
This one set is almost right on top of the stones,
”
Caleb interrupted.

“
This one is almost due north,
”
Mark continued.
“
Then these ones
—”

“
The one that
’
s due north looks like it might be right on top of Sylvain
’
s house,
”
Caleb exclaimed.

“
So maybe the coordinates mark the stones,
”
Abbey said.
“
Do you think that
’
s possible, Mark? Maybe there
is
another set of stones. What
’
s the closest set of coordinates to here?
”

Bert drifted to the door of the room and everyone tensed up fractionally.
“
Ten minutes until Simon is due at art therapy.
”
He glanced at the map with elevated eyebrows.

“
We
’
re playing an orienteering game,
”
Abbey said.

“
Oh, we like those around here,
”
Bert said. He wandered away to inform a few of the other residents of their upcoming classes.

Mark tapped one set of coordinates.
“
I would estimate that these would almost be on top of
—”

“
Salisbury Swamp!
”
Caleb announced.
“
That
’
s why Mom always wanted to protect it. Because there are stones there.
”

“
But the swamp is on fire,
”
Abbey said.
“
What about these ones?
”
She pointed at the two remaining sets of coordinates in the first line. She was trying to work out the distances in her mind. Equilateral. Were the coordinates the same distance apart? Did they form an equilateral shape? Was she right about Mrs. Forrester
’
s drawings? She wasn
’
t sure. The swamp was definitely closer to the stones by their house than it was to the stones at Sylvain
’
s.

Mark looked at the coordinates.
“
This one is in the Circle Mountains. There are no roads that way. It would be a very long hike. This one is near the Granton Dam.
”

“
It
is
the Granton Dam,
”
Caleb crowed.
“
Another place Mom is associated with.
”

“
So it looks like the burning swamp is our best option,
”
Abbey said, putting as much sarcasm into her voice as she could muster.

“
It
’
s only smoldering now,
”
Caleb said.

“
I need to go home and use my map plotting software,
”
Mark said.

Caleb handed Abbey her phone, and turned to Mark.
“
I don
’
t know if we have time. We need to get to the swamp, and it would be better if we went right away in the Jag before someone sees the bullet hole and starts asking questions.
”

Simon grabbed Abbey
’
s arm, and darted a furious glance at the doorway to make sure nobody was there.
“
You were shot at? And who
’
s driving?
”

“
Mark,
”
Abbey said.
“
He was very safe.
”

“
I need my laptop and mapping software,
”
Mark repeated.

“
You
’
re not going to go anywhere that you
’
re being shot at,
”
Simon ordered.

Caleb had already gone to stand by the door.
“
No worries. We
’
re going in the opposite direction. Let
’
s go.
”

“
I really want to go home,
”
Mark said, collecting his stuff and placing it back in his satchel. Abbey trailed Mark to the door, uncertain what to do.

“
Just drive us to the swamp, and drop us off, and then you can go,
”
Caleb said to Mark.

Simon rose from his chair.
“
No. You should just go home.
”

Caleb twisted the door handle.
“
Well, regardless, we can
’
t stay here. I doubt we
’
re on the lunch distribution list.
”

Simon
’
s voice oscillated up a notch from his teenage baritone.
“
Promise me you
’
ll go home. And call someone from Dad
’
s office. Maybe Sheridan. She
’
ll know what to do.
”

“
We will,
”
Caleb said.
“
Don
’
t worry.
”

They retrieved Farley, got in the Jag, and pulled out of the parking lot. It wasn
’
t until they were on the road again that Abbey realized she had left Sylvain
’
s file folder
—
the one that had slid out from under the car seat
—
on the table with Simon. She hadn
’
t even had a chance to look at it yet. She
’
d have to go back for it another time.

Once on the parkway, Mark and Caleb resumed their argument about where they were going. Mark stubbornly insisted on going home to map out the coordinates, while Caleb was determined to head to the swamp.

“
We told Simon we would go home, and we have no idea who the Energy is for the swamp,
”
Abbey said.

“
I still think we should just check it out,
”
Caleb replied.
“
The Energy might be like Mark; they might live near the swamp, so the stones are always active. It
’
s worth a try.
”

“
Except that they
’
re on fire,
”
Abbey said.

“
Smoldering,
”
Caleb corrected.

“
But even if we find the stones and don
’
t get burned to death and they
’
re working, we have no idea where we
’
re going to land on the other side, in the future, or which future. We could end up in a desert.

She could tell by the set of Caleb
’
s jaw though that he was going to try.
“
If I go first, we should end up in the causeway future. But you and Mark can go home. I
’
ll go by myself. I
’
ll turn right around if there
’
s a problem on the other end.
”

Mark continued to drive too slowly down the parkway. If Caleb was going, they were all going, Abbey decided.

“
Mark, you might be able to track down Kasey and get that other map,
”
she said.
“
Once we find Mom.
”
If we find Mom
, she thought.

Mark shook his head. But there was a hesitation to his shake.

“
You could also check out a map of the future. Last time you were there, didn
’
t you just look at old maps? There might be something useful on a map of the future.
”

Mark didn
’
t shake his head this time.

Smoke rose from the swamp in lazy furls, and for a moment they might even have believed it was just patches of fog hanging low in the hollow
—
until they got out of the Jag and the smell hit them, and they knew that the swamp still burned. Farley bounced around in exhilaration, convinced that he was finally going for his walk.