Annabelle held up a sheet of paper where’d she taken notes during her conversation with the driver. “And these are the towns nearby? All of them? You’re sure?”

“Lady, there ain’t that many of them. That’s it. Happy searching.”

He closed the door and the bus pulled away.

Annabelle met up with Caleb and Reuben and filled them in on what she’d learned. “Knox is doing exactly what we are, only he has a head start,” she said.

“Yeah, but there are three of us,” Reuben said. “We can split up. I’ll take two of the four places and you guys hit the others.”

“Good idea,” said Caleb.

“And you brought everything I told you to?” asked Annabelle.

“Yeah, but I feel like I’m running a damn Hollywood prop department.”

“You just never know when something might come in handy. We can load it in the van.” After they were done she looked at the sheet. “Caleb and I will do Mize and Tazburg. Reuben, you can hit South Ridge and Divine.” She pulled maps from her bag and handed them to Reuben. “I got these from the bus station. The towns look to be anywhere from two to three hours apart. They’re not far as the crows fly, but all the roads are back roads and switch backs with chunks of mountain in between.”

“Winding roads. Perfect cruising turf for the Indian,” Reuben said, affectionately patting the motorcycle’s gas tank.

“They just make me queasy,” said Caleb. “Not that I’m complaining,” he quickly added as Annabelle shot him a look.

“We’ll keep in touch via cell phone. Whoever finds something positive, we can hook up within a few hours.” She handed a photo to Reuben. “This is a picture of Knox, just in case you run into him.”

“Thanks,” said Reuben as he climbed on his bike and put his helmet and old-fashioned goggles back on.

“What if we find Oliver at the same time that Knox does?” asked Caleb.

“Then we persuade him to let Oliver go with us,” Reuben said.

“He’s not going to do that, Reuben.”

“He will if we’re really persuasive.”

“We can’t take out a fed,” Caleb said. “Even new testosterone Caleb draws the line at that.”

“Caleb,” Annabelle said, “let’s worry about that only if we have to. Right now, all I want is to find Oliver. And the longer we stand around here the better the chances are that Knox will find him first.”

Reuben kick-started the Indian and the engine roared to life. He gave them a little salute, glanced at one of the maps and took off heading east.

Annabelle started to climb in the driver’s seat of the van but Caleb stopped her. “I’ll drive,” he said, hopping in and putting the keys in the ignition.

“Why?”