“Good question. I’m thinking he’ll hang around closer to Branson and wait for word. There’s a La Quinta Inn about a twenty-minute drive from Mincy. Same distance from the OK Marina, if we need to get off the water fast. My thought was that we’d head north after the mission. Berg can grab us at any number of locations along the lake.”

“You don’t seem too concerned that we lost an entire day hunting down boats,” said Marnie. “What’s the rest of the plan?”

“We launch the drone, make sure the infiltration point is clear before landing,” said Rich. “The drone searches for the camp while we land. Hopefully it finds the camp. Or we’re in for a long night.”

“That’s it?” said Marnie. “I’m not complaining. Just making sure I didn’t miss anything.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have much more to work with,” said Rich. “The place didn’t show up on Google Maps satellite imagery.”

“What do you mean?” asked Devin. “Is the tree canopy too thick?”

“No. The Google Maps image looks like it was taken after the leaves had fallen. You can see the shadows of the tree trunks on the ground throughout the entire conservation area. It’s been scrubbed.”

“That’s some high-level national security magic,” said Devin. “My mother either missed a high-profile sleeper, or we’re looking at the possibility of a sleeper in a very unique, but unpublished, national security role.”

“Or Barber diverted us from the real camp,” said Marnie.

“Always a possibility. All we know is what William Barber told us under considerable duress. One of these hollows, creeks, or whatever you want to call them forks into two. Go right at the fork. There’s a dock at the end. The camp is a quarter mile down a trail heading northwest.”

“But we’re not using that dock,” said Devin. “If camp is in session, they’ll be watching it somehow. Especially if they’ve received some kind of alert.”

“They have. Gupta found the same text message on both of their phones, received at the same time on Friday morning. Looked like spam, but it came from an SMS short code, which you normally have to opt into to receive. The likelihood of them both getting a skin-care product message for a product that doesn’t exist, at the exact same time, is near zero. We’ll land on the north shoreline and work our way south to the approximate camp area. There’s only one creek that forks into anything along the entire shoreline of the Mincy Conservation Area. North, south, or west. So we have a pretty solid idea where to look for the camp. A few drone passes should nail down the location.”

“Then what?” asked Marnie.

“I’m beginning to feel more than just the heat from the sun here,” said Rich.