Page 3 of Hollow Moon

This is Knox Marshall. I got myself into some trouble out in Garrett County. I was sneaking up on some kind of drug lab, and one of the bastards caught me.

He stopped, trying to think about how to give his location. He finally settled on,My car’s in a wilderness parking area near Polk Town. I’m northwest of there. You’ll catch the odor of drugs. Help appreciated if you can hear this.

He waited for a few moments with his heart pounding. Jonah and Alice had talked back and forth to each other—mind to mind. But no return message came back to Knox.

He might have given up if he hadn’t been in a boatload of trouble. Feeling like a fool, he repeated the mental SOS. Nobody was going to hear him. But what could he lose by trying while he kept digging?

###

It was getting on toward evening and Jonah Ranger was in the Decorah Security office catching up on the paperwork he hated when he felt a buzzing in his mind. Not a very accurate description, yet he knew he was picking up some kind of psychic broadcast—like when he’d first heard his future wife on the radio. Well, not quite.

Alice’s voice had reached him through static. Now he wasn’t even getting words. But he thought he was hearing a distress call.

His first thought was of her. Quickly he dialed her cell and was relieved to hear her voice.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Fine. Is something wrong?” she asked, tension creeping into her voice.

“No. I picked up some kind of vague message that I can’t decipher. I was afraid it might be you.”

“No. I’m fine,” she said again.

“Okay. Good. I’ll see if I can figure it out.”

He clicked off, got up from his desk, and went down the hall to one of the private rooms where Decorah staffers could relax or sleep if they couldn’t get home between shifts.

In the dark, he lay down and closed his eyes, trying to focus on the message.

Who’s there?he called out in his mind.

Nobody answered directly, but he thought he was hearing the initial message repeated. He tried several more times to make contact with the sender, but it was no good. The only thing he knew for sure was that someone was in trouble.

He clenched his fists, trying to figure out who was calling out for help. Someone he knew? A stranger who was making a desperate attempt at contact—the way Alice had?

But it was no good. He simply couldn’t get any more information. With a sigh, he heaved himself to a sitting position and leaned over with his elbows on his knees and his hands clenched into fists under his chin, struggling to ground himself. When he felt as though he knew what to say, he headed for Frank Decorah’s office. Frank had established the Decorah office several years ago. A veteran of the second Iraq War, he’d lost a leg in combat, but you’d never know it to watch him walk—or run. And he made a point of remaining active on important agency cases.

As far as anyone knew, he wasn’t married, but the members of the Decorah Security Agency functioned as his family. If there was a chance one of his agents was in trouble, he’d want to know immediately.

###

Using the piece of metal, Knox had made a hole about eight inches across and about six inches deep when he heard footsteps outside.

Quickly he crawled out from under the table and faced the door as he brushed off his clothing. The barrier stayed closed and he shifted to the right when he realized the men were clustered at the side of the building.

“Is it gonna work?” one of his captors asked. “I thought you had to eat the stuff.”

“This is a new delivery system.”

“And it does the same thing?”

“Not sure.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“We get some information.”

As he tried to process the conversation, he heard scuffling sounds, then something clunked against the exterior of the building. Footfalls moving upward told him that someone must be climbing a ladder against the side of the building.

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