Empire Of Salt (20 page)

The air horn cut through the night again, and the gate opened. A strange military vehicle with no windows and heavy armor exited. Two uniformed men came from the back and set about picking up the bags left behind and preparing the bus to tow it inside the fenced area.

They found a soldier near the water's edge. He moved slightly as the uniformed men approached. But instead of being helped to his feet, one of the men put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger.

Natasha jerked her head back in surprise.

When she looked again, the body had been removed and the vehicle was returning from whence it came.

Natasha tried to find where the surviving soldier had gone, but she'd lost him when her attention had been drawn to the vehicle. If he was smart, he'd hide inside one of the abandoned trailers.

But which one?

She settled into her chair, drew her legs beneath her and sat staring at the night sky for a long time, staring into the night sky and listening for the creatures. The last thing she thought about before her dreams stole her away was what Veronica and Derrick would say when she told them what she'd seen.

A
ll her muscles hurt, burning beneath her skin. She wanted to sit up, to change position, but she didn't think she could even move. It took a moment for her to remember where she was: the creature, her flight, her destination.

And Trudie.

She looked at the unmoving dog in her arms. Her little tongue stuck out from her mouth, her eyes were mere slits, her chest didn't move, and the skin beneath her fur felt cold and hard.

Abigail drew in a rattling breath and sobbed, whispering the dog's name. The worst of it was it was her fault.

Her sobs caught in her throat as she felt a hand press against her head.

Another hand reached for Trudie and pulled the dog free from her grasp.

She had no choice but to let it go. She remained still, straining her ears to hear what was happening, and was shocked to hear the sound of a child making cat sounds to her dead dog.

"Meow. Meow."

As strange as it sounded, the tiny fake cat sounds soothed her for a time. So she listened.

Natasha had been aching to leave all morning, but Auntie Lin had her and Derrick moving furniture and cleaning the inside of the trailer. Natasha had thought it clean, but it wasn't to Auntie Lin's standards, so the greater part of the morning was spent wiping down walls, baseboards and the floors.

Derrick had known that something had happened; Natasha had tried several times to tell him, but it seemed like every time she'd been able to get a moment alone with him, Auntie Lin had popped into the room with yet another cleaning directive. Auntie Lin was probably Natasha's closest confidante, but she couldn't see herself telling the old woman about the creatures she'd witnessed the night before.

She realized that she should be scared; and she was, a little bit. But more than scared, the prospect of the creatures excited her, for the first time since she'd left Pennsylvania. As morbid and terrible as it seemed, Natasha wanted to see these creatures again and find out what they were about.

On a more sobering note, her father hadn't come home last night. Although she doubted something bad had happened, she wasn't about to leave Bombay Beach without him, no matter how troubled he was, no matter how terrible he was at being a father. The fact was that he was their father and the only parent they had. Natasha dreamed of a day when he'd come to terms with his problems, and wanted to be there for it.

Every now and then, during the course of the morning, she'd stop and think about what she'd seen, reliving the terror she'd felt for the soldiers when the creatures had surged from the sea, while simultaneously trying to put it in a context she could understand.

It all just seemed so unreal. Perhaps part of the reason she wasn't as afraid as she should be was because of her distance from the events. She hadn't been down there on the ground with the creatures when they'd attacked. She'd viewed everything through the telescope's lens and, by doing so, had removed herself from the event. It had been little different from watching it on television, except that what she'd seen was real.

Or was it?
her fickle mind tickled back.

They worked until ten o'clock, and then Auntie Lin left, with the reminder that they'd need Natasha's and Derrick's help for lunch at the restaurant.

So now, with Derrick close behind her, Natasha made a beeline for Veronica's trailer. Not that the girl would know what to do, but she was Natasha's only real friend in town.

As it turned out, Veronica wasn't home and her aunt didn't know where she was.

Derrick kept pestering Natasha to tell him what had happened, but she just told him to shut up and let her think. Kim Johnson had been on her roof last night as well. Maybe the older woman had seen something.

Natasha grabbed Derrick and they ran the four blocks to a quadruple-wide trailer, so big it was square. The sign read
Lot's Church of Redemption
, and a bunch of smaller signs plastered over the structure's bright yellow siding asked if you wanted to be "Born Again."

Natasha knocked for several minutes before giving up.

So much for
that
idea.

She knew Veronica's uncle worked for the Duvall Brothers, so they tried there next.

Half of the inside of the giant tent they used as an office was filled to the ceiling with blocks of compressed salt. A set of workbenches ran along one wall holding various tools and several dive tanks. Rico Duvall was sitting at a large light table going over a map of the bottom of the Salton Sea. The area nearest Bombay Beach was colored in red hash marks with the words "RESTRICTED AREA" marked prominently across the space.

Rico looked up when he heard them enter and greeted them. He told Natasha that his brother and Veronica's uncle had gone out harvesting salt in the region just south of Bombay Beach and wouldn't be back until mid-afternoon. He didn't know where Veronica was.

Natasha was disappointed. She'd been so excited at the prospect of telling Veronica about last night, but now it all felt kind of flat. She and Derrick walked out of the salt warehouse and into the heat of the day.

And there was Veronica, walking down the street with Carrie and three of her kids, having an animated conversation. She waved at Natasha, said something to the Carrie, and ran over to join them. She wore white shorts that ran past her knees, a long white tank top that could have been her uncle's, and basketball shoes.

"What's up?" Then: "What happened?" She looked at Derrick.

"I don't know. She won't tell me."

"I just wanted to wait until we're all together." Natasha glanced around. "Come on. Let's go somewhere cooler so I can tell you what I've been waiting to tell you."

They went to Veronica's room. This time Derrick was too interested in what secret his sister was keeping to look at the pictures.

So it was, with Veronica and Derrick sitting on the bed with their mouths hanging open, that Natasha relayed what she'd seen. Awed, they grilled her, asking her questions, which she answered as completely as she could. Finally Natasha announced that their next step had to be finding the missing soldier.

"Do you think he's still here somewhere?" Derrick asked.

"Where else could he be? Look around you," Veronica said. "This is the middle of the middle of nowhere. That's exactly why my Mom sent me here in the first place. Trust me, there's nowhere to go from here."

"We have to find him," Natasha insisted. "You know that Hopkins and his men will go from house to house looking for him tonight. Then it will only be a matter of time."

Veronica held up a manicured hand. "Wait. No one has asked the most important question."

Natasha raised her eyebrows. "What's that?"

"Who all is involved with this? You said Hopkins is involved, which doesn't surprise me. People have suspected him of bad things for a long time. But who else? The Mad Scientist? The Deputy Sheriff? The Duvalls? I mean, if there are creatures in the water then this is big. Super big. There have to be a lot of people involved. It can't just be that Hopkins guy."

"We can leave out my dad and Auntie Lin, and probably Maude too," Natasha said. "We weren't even around when this started. The only one here was my grandfather. I bet if we're ever able to decipher that notebook, we'd learn that strange things have been happening for a long time."

"Then leave out my aunt and my uncle too," Veronica said.

"Not so fast," Derrick countered. "Doesn't your uncle spend all of his time on the water? If there are creatures out there, how come he doesn't get attacked? Maybe he knows something."

"Fuck that," Veronica snarled. "No way could my uncle ever be involved in something like that. He's given up a lot for me."

"But we can't rule them out," Derrick persisted.

Veronica surged to her feet, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.

"Whoa! Stop, Veronica!" Natasha held her hand out. "We're not saying they are involved. We're just pointing out that it could be anyone. I mean, don't forget Lu Shu. He fishes every day too. Or Kim Johnson. She runs the local church."

"Or Carrie Loughnane for that matter. Or that Elvis guy with the cans. Or even that guy we saw in the golf cart with the hooks for hands. What's his name?

Veronica stared at them, steaming. Finally she said, "Gerald. His name's Gerald." Veronica breathed through her teeth for a few seconds, as if to relax. "Okay. You guys have made your point." She put her hands on her waist, and began pacing back and forth. "It could be anyone - Will, the Duvalls, Maude, the Mad Scientist, even Kristov the Elvis guy could be involved. We don't know so we can't tell anyone about this."

"You can scratch the Mad Scientist off that list. I know that he isn't involved," Derrick stated, crossing his arms.

"What makes you so certain?" Veronica crossed her arms too. "I thought we just came to the conclusion that it could be anybody."

"Almost anyone, yeah, but not the Mad Scientist." Looking at the two girls, both waiting expectantly for an answer, he added, "It's obvious because of the hand we saw him working on. It must have belonged to one of the creatures. Why would he work on it in secret in his laboratory if he was part of the whole thing and had access to the plant?"

Both girls stared at him, then Natasha nodded.

"Okay then, the Mad Scientist goes on the good-guy list," she said. "Auntie Lin and my dad are on it already, but we should add Maude too. I don't think she's involved."

"Why do you think that?" Veronica turned her stare on Natasha. "Her boyfriend is dead and her girlfriend is missing. Of course she could be involved."

Natasha groaned. "I can't believe that." She remembered how warm the woman had been to her when she'd made grilled shrimp on the deck of their trailer their second night in Bombay Beach. "I refuse to believe that." Then a thought came to her. "We need to warn people so they can -"

"No!" Veronica hissed. "That's the last thing you want to do. You tell anyone and Hopkins will find out. He probably has snitches all over the place. He probably even has snitches who don't know they're snitches, just passing information along because they think it's the right thing to do. And do you really think your father will keep quiet about this? Do you really think he won't try and call in the state police or the FBI or someone?"