She did: the cutoff from Norum Hill Road to the passage to that other place. What was he doing back there?

“Remember I told you I had some unfinished business up here? Well, this is it. It’s been a busy morning, lemme tell you. I contacted a few folks I’ve come to know on the dark web and arranged the purchase of a satchel bomb.”

“Oh, crap!” Hari said aloud. “Don’t!”

“It’s twenty pounds of C4 explosive. My little gift to those Septimus sonsabitches. Their trucks made another delivery. Another ten trailers and tankers, no doubt filled with more freeze-dried food and water. I watched them leave the mountain, so I’m here all alone.

He slammed a fist on the Tahoe’s hood.

“Damn them! They knew this was coming and didn’t tell anyone. Grabbed everything they could and socked it away for themselves. Big plans to profit from the shit storm. Remember how I told you someone needs to take them down? Well, that someone is me. I’m gonna see to it they went to all that trouble for nothing.”

“Please be careful,” she whispered.

She noticed the running time stamp in the upper right corner of the video. He’d recorded this almost an hour ago. That meant whatever he planned to do was already done.

Then why was his phone going straight to voicemail? And why hadn’t he called her back?

Anxiety began a slow, tingling crawl through her gut. She didn’t like this one bit.

“Like I said, the truckers have come and gone, the passage was open but now it’s closed again. But I’ve got twenty pounds of C4 wedged into the mountain wall back there right where the passage opens. When I send the signal, a shitload of rock is gonna come down. Ain’t nothin’ or nobody gonna be traveling between worlds through there.”

He leaned closer to the camera.

“It looks like I’m going to be able to get away with this, Hari. There were a couple of spots where things could’ve gone south—like taking delivery of the satchel bomb, for instance. You never know when a fed is going to be playing games with you. As insurance, I slipped a thumb drive into your bag this morning. It contains everything I’ve learned about Septimus and its operations. It’s all moot now, but I’m just letting you know so you won’t be puzzled when you find it.”

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

“Showtime, babe.”

Something awful was going to happen, she just knew it. She held her breath as he raised a cell phone and pressed a button.

Up the road behind him the side of the mountain exploded, causing the camera to shake and blur the image. Smoke billowed as shattered trees and rocks blasted into the air. It took a while for the debris to stop falling, but the smoke remained.

And so did Donny. She released her breath with a sob. He was unscathed. The young jerk was fine. He turned to the camera, grinning.