Eddie looked over his shoulder and gave him Roland’s own impatient twirl of the hand: let’s go.

Roland pointed at the track, instead. “This was some sort of motor.”

“Did you hear one?”

“No.”

“Then you can’t know that.”

“But I do,” Roland said. “Someone sent her a ride. Or some thing .”

“You can’t know that, goddam you!”

“Andy could have left a ride for her,” Jake said. “If someone told him to.”

“Who would have told him to do a thing like that?” Eddie rasped.

Finli,Jake thought. Finli o’ Tego, whoever he is. Or maybe Walter . But he said nothing. Eddie was upset enough already.

Roland said, “She’s gotten away. Prepare yourself for it.”

“Go fuck yourself!” Eddie snarled, and turned to the path leading upward. “Come on!”

Four

Yet in his heart, Eddie knew Roland was right. He attacked the path to the Doorway Cave not with hope but with a kind of desperate determination. At the place where the boulder had fallen, blocking most of the path, they found an abandoned vehicle with three balloon tires and an electric motor that was still softly humming, a low and constant ummmmm sound. To Eddie, the gadget looked like one of those funky ATV things they sold at Abercrombie & Fitch. There was a handgrip accelerator and handgrip brakes. He bent close and read what was stamped into the steel of the left one:

“SQUEEZIE-PIE” BRAKES, BY NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS

Behind the bicycle-style seat was a little carry-case. Eddie flipped it up and was totally unsurprised to see a six-pack of Nozz-A-La, the drink favored by discriminating bumhugs everywhere. One can had been taken off the ring. She’d been thirsty, of course. Moving fast made you thirsty. Especially if you were in labor.

“This came from the place across the river,” Jake murmured. “The Dogan. If I’d gone out back, I would have seen it parked there. A whole fleet of them, probably. I bet it was Andy.”

Eddie had to admit it made sense. The Dogan was clearly an outpost of some sort, probably one that predated the current unpleasant residents of Thunderclap. This was exactly the sort of vehicle you’d want to make patrols on, given the terrain.