Danielle overhears him. “Can your system do this?” She touches the trackpad and the coffin spins in 3-D space. It’s not just a 2-D image system. The computer has built a 3-D map of everything underneath us.

We’re watching a real-time image of the entire area below our feet. Gimbal grumbles something, then shuts up.

As the coffin rotates, the resolution begins to improve. The hinges and engravings stand out. Danielle spins it to one side, then to the other and stops.

We all see what she’s looking at.

The lid is partially open.

The edge is raised only a few inches, but as she switches to a closer view, we can see the gap.

It looks like Chloe pried the coffin open and climbed through eight feet of dirt. This isn’t just a planted body. This is a complete illusion.

“Holy shit,” mutters Gimbal.

I quietly second that reaction.

“I can also check the moisture and the soil density.” Danielle glances up as a tech hands her a memory card. While we were staring at the display, he’d used another disk attached to a handheld computer to take readings from other grave sites to create a baseline of the surrounding soil. She plugs the memory card into her computer and a row of numbers fills the screen. “This dirt is just as old as everything else here. Ain’t nobody been digging here for some time—down at least.”

“Impressive,” Gimbal remarks. It’s obvious he’s talking about the machine and still hasn’t processed what that means.

Danielle clicks back to the 3-D image. “You ain’t seen nothing.” Danielle types in a sequence and there’s another wave of humming coming from the disk. “Y’all want to take a look inside the coffin?”

7

THE EXTERIOR IMAGE of the coffin begins to dissolve away and reveal the interior.

Empty.

Chloe’s coffin is empty.

I catch myself looking back at the body of Chloe. Her glassy eyes, still moist, gaze out in terror. In my mind I can see her crawling out of her grave.

I know that’s not what happened. It can’t be.

I’d say it was impossible, but I know better.

The sight of the coffin gives me a chill different from what everyone else is feeling. I’ve had my own close encounter with death in one. It was the breaking point for me with my family. But I came out on the living side. Not Chloe.

I walk away from the display while it renders and start searching the ground. I know why Ailes wanted me here, or at least part of the reason. It didn’t hit me until I saw the empty coffin.

It’s a magic trick.

The whole thing is one giant magic trick.

Ailes must have known about my own history with that coffin. What happened in Mexico . . .

Coffins and magic have gone together for hundreds of years. It’s the ultimate symbol of death, and the greatest miracle a magician can perform is cheating death. It’s what made Houdini famous. People didn’t watch to see him escape from shackles and chains, they came to see him punch the Grim Reaper in the jaw. A defiant little man with an attitude to challenge fate.