Page 3 of Obscurity
This week, she needed to discover information these mountains already knew.
The engine of her 91 Jeep Wagoneer hummed steadily beneath her as she navigated another sharp curve. But the familiar sound did nothing to calm the nervous energy thrumming through her veins.
In just over an hour, she’d be seeing Jason Stewart for the first time since he’d joined Aegis three weeks ago.
In those weeks, she’d successfully managed to avoid him. He’d been away on assignment, and when he returned she was gone, and vice versa.
Now, they were going to have to see each other. Work with each other.
Pretend to be married.
And she wasn’t sure she was ready.
But this case required both of them, and there was no avoiding him anymore. He would leave his current assignment and meet her at the lodge a little later.
She was a professional and could handle this. That was what she kept telling herself at least.
The sun was sinking behind the ridgeline, casting long shadows across the narrow ribbon of cracked asphalt that wound through the mountains like a scar. What had started as a proper two-lane highway hours ago had gradually deteriorated into something barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass.
The pavement was pitted with potholes that could swallow a tire, and in some places, chunks of roadway had crumbled away entirely, leaving jagged edges where the mountain had reclaimed its territory.
On her left, the road dropped away into a steep ravine choked with rhododendron and mountain laurel. Their dark leaves created an impenetrable wall of green that seemed to swallow sound.
On her right, weathered rock face rose at an impossible angle, streaked with rust-colored minerals and crowned with scraggly pine trees that clung to impossible handholds. Every few hundred yards, loose gravel cascaded down the slope, pinging against her windshield like warnings.
The guardrails—where they existed at all—were ancient things of rusted steel and rotting wood posts that looked like they’d collapse if a strong wind hit them. Most of the curves were blind, forcing her to creep around each bend while hoping nothing was coming from the opposite direction.
This wasn’t the kind of scenic mountain drive featured in tourism brochures—this was backcountry wilderness that felt more abandoned than picturesque, the kind of place where a breakdown could leave you stranded until morning.
Her phone rang on the holder on the dash, the screen displaying “Rex Blackwood.” Her boss. He was probably checking in one last time before she went dark for the weekend.
She hit the button, putting the phone on speaker.
“Sterling here.” She kept her eyes on the increasingly treacherous mountain road as she answered.
“Olive, I just wanted to—” Rex’s voice cut out, and harsh static filled the line.
She winced at the sound. “Rex, are you still there?”
“We’re getting reports of?—”
More static.
Then silence.
“Rex? Can you hear me?” She glanced at her phone’s display.
She had two bars, but the call had dropped.
She tried calling back, but the phone wouldn’t connect.
Spotty mountain reception most likely. What had he been trying to tell her?
Maybe he’d try again later, especially if it was important.
For now, Olive kept driving, mentally reviewing her persona for the weekend and all the details she needed to keep straight.
She hit the Play button on her phone screen, and music began drifting through her phone’s speaker. The band was Obscurity, ironically a group she’d never heard of before this assignment.
