When they were alone, Linda Coldren began to pace the room. Myron was again awed by her looks the paradoxical combination of beauty, strength and now delicacy.

The strong, toned arms, yet the long, slender neck.

The harsh, pointed features, yet the soft indigo eyes. Myron had heard beauty described as "seamless"; hers was quite the opposite.

"I'm not big on" Linda Coldren made quote marks in the air with her fingers "woman's intuition or any of that mother-knows-her-boy-best crap. But I know that my son is in danger. He wouldn't just disappear like this. No matter how it looks, that's not what happened."

Myron remained silent.

"I don't like asking for help. It's not my way to depend on someone else. But this is a situation .... I'm scared. I've never felt fear like this in all of my life. It's all-consuming. It's suffocating. My son is in trouble and I can't do anything to help him. You want proof that this is not a hoax. I can't provide that. I just know. And I'm asking you to please help me."

Myron wasn't sure how to respond. Her argument came straight from the heart, sans facts or evidence. But that didn't make her suffering any less real. "I'll check out Matthew's house," he said finally. "Let's see what happens after that."

Chapter I3

In the light of day, Green Acres Road was even more imposing. Both sides of the street were lined with tenfoot-high shrubs so thick that Myron couldn't tell how thick. He parked his car outside a. wrought iron gate and approached an intercom. He pressed a button and waited.

There were several surveillance cameras. Some remained steady. Some whirred slowly from side to side. Myron spotted motion detectors, barbed wire, Dobermans.

A rather elaborate fortress, he thought.

A voice as impenetrable as the shrubs came through the speaker. "May I help you?"

"Good morning," Myron said, offering up a friendlybut-not-a-salesman smile to the nearest camera. Talking y to a camera. He felt like he was on Nightline. "I'm looking for Matthew Squires."

Pause. "Your name, sir?"

"Myron Bolitar."

"Is Master Squires expecting you?"

"No." Master Squires?

"Then you do not have an appointment?"

An appointment to see a sixteen-year-old? Who is this kid, Doogie Howser? "No, I'm afraid I don't."

"May I ask the purpose of your visit?"

"To speak to Matthew Squires." Mr. Vague.

"I am afraid that will not be possible at this time," the voice said. '

"Will you tell him it involves Chad Coldren?"

Another pause. Cameras pirouetted. Myron looked around. All the lenses were aiming down from up high, glaring at him like hostile space aliens or lunchroom monitors. .

"In what way does it involve Master Coldren?" the voice asked.

Myron squinted into a camera. "May I ask with whom I am speaking?"

No reply.

Myron waited a beat, then said, "You're supposed to say, 'I am the great and powerliil Oz.' "