Page 27 of Hollow Moon

“But maybe we’d have to testify,” Brand said. He turned to Knox. “Are you okay with that?”

“I guess I have to be.”

“Do you know what they’re making?” Zack asked. “It smells pretty potent, even out here.”

“The brother—Campbell—claimed it was something new. I gather he’s not capable of manufacturing it himself. He’s working with a chemist.” He slapped his fist against his palm, frustrated that they were standing here talking. “We have to rescue Maggie before we do anything else,” he said, struggling to keep from shouting. “He was already pressing her for information about me. If we attack the lab, they may kill her.”

“Her brother would kill her?” Jonah asked.

“I’m not sure what he’d do. He was pretty angry—and barely holding it together. Plus he was babbling about her always wanting him to fail. You saw him march her into the house. From the way they were talking, it sounded like they never had a very good relationship. And I’d call him unstable.”

“But murder his sister?” Zack pressed.

“From what I heard, he sees this new drug as his big chance for fame and fortune. If he thinks she’s screwed that up, he could go batshit.”

“Then I say, attack the lab,” Brand said.

Knox’s head whipped toward him. “Jesus. I just told you we can’t do that.”

“He’ll be too charged up about his enterprise to be thinking about his sister.”

“And we’ll be in place to rescue her when chaos erupts,” Brand added.

Knox shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Too dangerous.”

“Nobody’s rushing off to put her in danger. Before we do anything, we’d better have the answers to some questions,” Cole said. “How many bad guys are here?”

“I saw four.”

“And two of them were with the brother?”

He made a frustrated sound. “Yes. But I can’t be sure if more are in the house. Or how many are down at the stable. Maybe we have to figure five plus the brother.”

“And maybe the chemist who’s making the stuff is no fighter,” Zack put in.

Knox shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“What about security? Did they catch you because they have a perimeter set up?”

He made an angry sound. “No. One of the guys was out in the woods taking a crap and spotted me. He’s the one who destroyed the phone.” He dragged in a breath and let it out. He wanted to say he shouldn’t have gone in alone, but he’d already said that.

Instead he said, “Thanks for figuring out I was in trouble.”

Jonah cleared his throat. “Maybe I can find out what’s going on with Maggie.”

Knox turned toward him. “How?”

“I may be able to view the scene inside the house.”

Knox struggled not to shout. “Then do it.”

“Give me some space.” Jonah sat down, leaning against a tree as he closed his eyes.

Everybody backed up, still facing him.

After a few minutes, he opened his eyes. “I can’t do this if you’re all standing there hanging on every twitch of my face.”

Knox wondered if he couldn’t do it anyway. Maybe Cole felt his tension because he put a hand on his arm. “We can go back to the SUV and get some of the stuff we brought.”

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