Midnight Sun (89 page)

The
packed
collection
of
mansions
gradually
thinned
and
gave
way
to
something
more
like
what
he
remembered
as
they
continued
south
a
couple
of
miles.
Further
down
the
road
,
the
scene
was
again
wooded.
The
occasional
average
house
poked
through
heavily
treed
yards
in
the
increasingly
the
rural
setting.
A
smattering
of
ancient
-
looking
log
cabins
and
a
few
single-wide
trailers
with
wooden
additions
popped into view here and there. Many of them
topped
with
blue
plastic
tarps
to
help
the
roofing
stay
water
proof
under
the
winter
snow
load.
These
were
,
of
course
,
holdouts
from
the
old
days.
Most
of
the
area
had
been
bought
up
by
the
richest
of
the
rich.
The
larger
tracts
of
land
had
become
estates
with
a
much
greater
degree
of
privacy,
planting
massive
ten
-
thousand
square
foot
micro-kingdoms
on
their
own
twenty-acre
parcels
of
arctic
paradise.

“
So,
”
Mike
said
,
“
got
any
idea
what
we
’
re
looking
for
,
other
than
a
white
Audi
driven
by
a
British
Albanian
guy?
”

“
No,
not
really,
”
Marcus
replied
.
“
I
figure
it
will
be
like
the
old
days
back
in
Force
Recon
,
though.
If
we
drive
around
in
the
area
where
the
bad
guys
hang
out,
we
’
re
bound
to
run
into
them
,
or
at
least
their
trail
,
at
some
point.
”

“
How
far
back
does
this
road
go
?
”
Mike
asked.

Marcus pointed south.
“
A
little
ways
further
,
it
splits
up
into
a
bunch
of
smaller
dirt
roads
that
wind
around
the
hills.
Most
of
them
are
steep
and
unmaintained
dirt
paths.
I
don
’
t
think
Farrah
’
s
Audi
will
be
down
one of
those
roads
—it
looked
too
clean.
”

“
Yeah,
he
didn
’
t
seem
like
the
backwoods
type.
”
Mike
jerked a
thumb
toward
the
stacked
mansions
that
made
up
the
Prominence
Point
subdivision.
“
You
think
he
might
be
up
in
mini
Beverly
Hills
back
there?
”

“
I
doubt
it.
While
his
profile
fits
someone
who
wouldn
’
t
mind
that
environment,
he
’
d
be
looking
for
seclusion.
Maybe
even
a
defensible
position.
”

“
That
makes
sense.
”

Marcus
passed
the
new
Muslim
retreat
center.
There
were
no
signs
or
markings
on
the
road
to
identify
its
location
,
and
he
almost
missed
it.
The
owners
of
the
center
tried
to
stay
out
of
the
public
eye
as
much
as
possible.
The
only
reason
he
knew
about
it
at
all
was
from
a
popular
radio
talk
show
earlier
in
the
year.
The
host
was
decrying
the
growth
of
fundamentalist
Islam
in
the
US
and
cited
that
even
Alaska
now
had
multiple
mosques.
Marcus
mulled
the
possibility
of
a
connection.
He
never
liked
to
base
opinions
on
stereotypes,
but
he
had
spent
too
many
years
in
the
Middle
East
fighting
men
who
regularly
used
mosques
as
bases
for
military
operations
in
hopes
of
giving
W
estern
forces
bad
press
when
they
fought
back.
One
of
the
bloodiest
days
in
his
life
took
place
beneath
the
minarets
of
a
mosque
in
Iraq.