This was no coincidence, that she did not buy for a nanosecond. Speaking of DARPA, what if the hybrids had access to the kind of scalar weapons technology that could affect weather? DARPA certainly worked on things like that.

The building shook, but this was CIA headquarters, built to withstand anything. Atomic war. The subbasement was, anyway. She thought.

She returned to her monitors. Still no traffic in Willoughby. She flew down into the streets, picking up data from as many angles as she could get, but she couldn’t tell much beyond that a party appeared to be taking place in the local watering hole, the Glade. So maybe that was it, maybe everybody in town was attending some hoedown.

But they wouldn’t be, not with a fireline just cresting a ridge a few miles away. They’d be able to see the flames. So what were they doing in there? They should be in their churches, of which they had six in that little tiny town. It being California, though, they were probably all cafés by now.

She made a call to the young captain who was leading the search for Mark’s remains.

“I want a trip through the town. Take a look-see in the Glade, let me know what you find.”

The response was silence. These guys were Air Police forensics specialists, and they had little use for interference from some anonymous CIA officer. Given that her work was so secret, her place in their chain of command had to remain unclear to them. They had been told to respond to her requests, not take orders from her.

“Captain Forbes, I need this.”

“We’re on it” came the eventual reply.

She watched their truck, which remained parked on the roadside near the mouth of the cave Mark had entered. Presumably, some of them were still inside, but not the captain, or he would not have answered his satellite phone.

“I need you in motion now, please.”

Once again, there was no response.

She pushed back her anger. “I need you in motion now. Respond, please.”

What the hell was this? They weren’t going to just go silent on her, they were too professional for that. She zoomed in on the truck. Its headlights were on, but it wasn’t moving.

“Are you having a problem with the vehicle? Please respond.”

The driver’s door opened. For some moments, that was all that happened. Concerned now, she watched intently.

“If you can hear me but I can’t hear you, close the door now. I’ll see it and understand.”

Instead, a figure began to emerge, moving with odd, exaggerated care, prancing, touching everything as if it were hot.

Then she saw, coming out of the rear of the van, four more figures. By contrast, they moved like liquid.

Shocked, also fascinated, she watched them, her hands gripping the arms of her chair so hard pain began shooting up to her shoulders.