She approached him, noted that his eyes had closed even if his mouth hadn’t, and his muscles were not completely slack. Now she could see him more clearly—a closely trimmed beard covering his long face, his chin and nose both forming sharp points. She felt for a pulse and found one easily. Enola had not killed him.

She dug around in his jacket pocket and found the key to the SUV, as well as a large pocketknife, which she gladly stole. She felt around in his pants pocket, and found a badge, one that was attached to his pocket with a clip. She pulled it out and was greeted with a big old PRESS at the top of the badge, directly beneath it a name and a publication: Kaveh Mazandarani, The New Yorker.

Oh no.

Oh no.

She returned his press pass, but kept the pocketknife and the key to his SUV, and for a fleeting moment humored the idea of finishing what Enola hadn’t. She shook her head, disgusted with herself, and ran toward his vehicle before she could entertain that thought any further.

* * *

Driving back up the hill to roughly where she had found the road cut her travel time considerably. Making it back to the cave was a little more difficult, but she remembered a few landmarks that she had noted just in case she did need to come back. Walking into the dark cave was an exercise in horror movie terror, the night sky black and both Ampersand and his soft little drone lights now gone. Her breath echoed against the walls of the cavern as she entered, one hand holding the pulse emitter, the other the shaking flashlight.

No sign of Obelus. She flicked her flashlight to either side of the cave, keeping the pulse emitter up like a gun, as if she were a cop entering a hostile perp’s house. She’d always found that scene at the end of The Silence of the Lambs where Clarice entered Buffalo Bill’s house terrifying, but right now she was feeling a new sense of empathy with Clarice. She kept her back to the wall of the cave so nothing could sneak up from behind her, her eyes on the pill bug in the center of the chamber where she had left it.

She tried to steady her hand and her breathing, eyes darting between the exit of the cave and that dark second chamber. After about a minute of no movement, she moved to the center of the chamber and knelt, still circling the room like a radar, and picked up the pill bug, keeping her eyes on the entrance to the dark second chamber the whole time.

“Where is he?”

Cora heard the voice before she caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, and she whipped around to see Obelus blocking the exit of the cave. On instinct, she raised the pulse emitter toward him.