"It's okay, Maya. We're safe here."
The Harlequin shook her head as if he had said something very foolish. Safety was a false word for her. Another illusion.
"I've never met your father and I don't know where he is," Maya said. "But I just wanted to say that—maybe he did this to protect you. Your house was destroyed. Your family went underground. According to our spy, the Tabula thought you were dead. You would have been safe if Michael hadn't gone back on the Grid."
"That might have been the reason. But I still ..."
"You want to see him."
Gabriel nodded.
"Maybe you'll find him one day. If you have the power to become a Traveler, you might meet him in another realm."
***
GABRIEL CLIMBED THE ladder to the loft bed. He tried to sleep, but it was impossible. As a cold wind came down the canyon and rattled the window frame, Gabriel sat on the bed and tried to become a Traveler. None of this was real. His body wasn't real. And he could leave it. Just. Like. That.
For an hour or so, he argued with himself. Assuming that I have the power, then all I have to do is accept that fact. A plus B equals C. When logic didn't work, he closed his eyes and was swept away by his own emotions. He could find his father and talk to him if he could break away from this cage of flesh. Within his mind, Gabriel tried to walk from darkness into light, but when he opened his eyes he was still sitting on the bed. Feeling angry and frustrated, he pounded his fist on the mattress.
Eventually, he fell asleep and woke up at dawn with the rough wool blanket wrapped around his body. When the shadows disappeared from the corners of the loft, Gabriel pulled on his clothes and climbed down the ladder. No one was in the bathroom and the bedroom was also empty. He went down the hallway to the kitchen and peered through a crack in the door. Maya sat with her sword case on her lap and her left hand flat on the table, staring at a patch of sunlight on the red tile floor. The sword and the intense expression on her face made him feel as if the Harlequin was cut off from any real human contact. He doubted if there could be a more solitary life: always hunted, always prepared to fight and die.
Maya turned slightly when Gabriel entered the kitchen. "Did they leave us anything for breakfast?" he asked.
"There's tea and instant coffee in the cupboard. Milk, butter, and a loaf of bread in the refrigerator."
"That's enough for me." Gabriel filled a kettle and placed it on a burner of the electric stove. "Why didn't you make something?" "I'm not hungry."
"Do you know anything about this Pathfinder?" Gabriel asked. "Is he young or old? What's his nationality? They didn't give us any information last night."
"The Pathfinder is their secret. Hiding him is their act of resistance against the Vast Machine. Antonio was right about one thing: this community could get in a lot of trouble if the Tabula knew we were here."
"And what happens when we meet the Pathfinder? Are you going to hang around and watch me fall on my face?"
"I've got other things to do. Don't forget, the Tabula are continuing to look for you. I've got to make them believe that you're somewhere else."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"You said your brother gave you money and a credit card when you were separated at the clothing factory."
"Sometimes I use his card," Gabriel said. "I don't have any of my own."
"Think I could borrow it?"
"What about the Tabula? Aren't they going to trace the card number?"
"I'm expecting that," Maya said. "I'll use the card and your motorcycle."
Gabriel didn't want to lose the motorcycle, but he knew that Maya was right. The Tabula knew the bike's license plate number and a dozen other ways to track him down. Everything from his old life had to be discarded.
"Okay." He gave her Michael's credit card and the motorcycle key. Maya looked as if she wanted to tell him something important, but she stood up without a word and walked to the doorway. "Eat your breakfast," she said. "Antonio is going to be here in a few minutes."
"This might be a waste of time. I might not be a Traveler." "I've accepted that possibility."
"So don't risk your life and do something crazy."
Maya looked at him and smiled. Gabriel felt like they were connected to each other at that moment. Not friends, exactly, but soldiers in the same army. And then, for the first time in their relationship, he heard the Harlequin laugh.
"It's all crazy, Gabriel. But you find your own sanity."
***
ANTONIO CARDENAS SHOWED up ten minutes later and said he would drive them to where the Pathfinder was living. Gabriel took along the jade sword and the knapsack filled with his extra clothes. In the back of Antonio's pickup truck were three canvas bags of canned food, bread, and fresh vegetables from the greenhouses.
"When the Pathfinder first arrived, I spent a month at the site setting up a windmill to power a water pump and electric lights," Antonio said. "Now I just show up every two weeks with food supplies."
"So what's he like?" Gabriel asked. "You haven't really told us."
Antonio waved at some children as the truck moved slowly down the road. "The Pathfinder is a very strong person. Tell the truth and you'll be all right."
They reached the two-lane highway that led back to San Lucas, but turned off a few miles later onto an abandoned asphalt road that cut a straight line through the desert. NO TRESPASSING signs were everywhere, some hanging from steel posts, others left faceup on the cracked ground.
"This used to be a missile base," Antonio explained. "It was active for about thirty years. Fenced off. Top secret. Then the Defense Department took out the missiles and sold the land to the county sanitation district. When the county didn't want it anymore, our group bought all four hundred acres."
"This looks like a wasteland," Maya said.
"As you'll see, it has certain advantages for the Pathfinder."
Bear grass and cactus reached out and scratched the sides of the truck. The road was covered with sand for a hundred yards or so, then it reappeared. As the road slowly gained elevation they began passing piles of red rocks and groves of Joshua trees. Each stubby desert tree raised its spike-leafed branches upward like the arms of a prophet praying to heaven. It was very hot and the sun appeared to grow larger in the sky.
After twenty minutes of cautious driving, they reached a barbed-wire fence and a shattered gate. "We have to walk from here," Antonio said, and everyone got out of the truck. Carrying the food bags, they slipped through a hole in the gate and headed down the road.
Gabriel could see one of Antonio's windmills in the distance. The heat rising from the dirt made the tower waver and bend. Before he could react, a snake slithered across the road. It was about three feet long with a rounded head, a black body with cream-colored bands. Maya stopped and touched her sword case.
"It's not poisonous," Gabriel said. "I think it's a garter snake or gopher snake. They're usually pretty shy."
"It's a king snake," Antonio told them. "And they're not shy around here."
They kept walking and saw another king snake moving through the dirt, then a third one sunning itself on the road. All the snakes had black bodies, but the pattern and color of their bands seemed to vary. White. Cream. Pale yellow.
More snakes appeared on the road and Gabriel stopped counting. Dozens of reptiles coiled and slithered and looked around with their little black eyes. Maya appeared nervous—almost frightened. "You don't like snakes?"
She lowered her arms and tried to relax. "You don't see many in England."
As they got closer to the windmill, Gabriel saw that it had been built next to a rectangular concrete area about the size of a football field. It looked like an enormous machine-gun bunker abandoned by the army. Directly south of the concrete area was a small aluminum trailer that reflected the desert light. A parachute had been set up as a sunscreen over a wooden picnic table and plastic boxes filled with tools and supplies.
The Pathfinder was kne
eling near the base of the windmill, welding a reinforcement strut. He wore blue jeans, a long-sleeved checkered shirt, and thick leather gloves. A welder's helmet covered his face and he appeared to be concentrating on the flame as he fused two pieces of metal.
A four-foot-long king snake slithered by, almost grazing the tip of Gabriel's boots. He could see that the sand on both sides of the road was marked with thousands of faint S curves, a sign of reptile movements across the dry land.
Thirty feet from the tower, Antonio shouted and waved his arms. The Pathfinder heard him, stood up, and raised the welder's helmet. At first Gabriel assumed that the Pathfinder was an old man with white hair. As they got closer he realized that they were about to meet a woman who was more than seventy years old. She had a broad forehead and a straight nose. It was a face of great strength without an ounce of sentimentality.
"Good morning, Antonio. You brought some friends this time." "Dr. Briggs, this is Gabriel Corrigan. He's the son of a Traveler and wants to know if—"
"Yes. Of course. Welcome." The doctor had a brisk New England accent. She pulled off one of the welder's gloves and shook Gabriel's hand. "I'm Sophia Briggs." Her fingers were strong and her blue-green eyes were intense, critical. Gabriel felt like he was being evaluated and then she turned away from him. "And you are ..."
"Maya. Gabriel's friend."
Dr. Briggs noticed the black metal case hanging from Maya's shoulder and understood what it contained. "How interesting. I thought all you Harlequins were dead, slaughtered after various self-destructive gestures. Perhaps you're too young for this business."
"And maybe you're too old."
"There's some spirit. A little resistance. I like that." Sophia returned to her trailer and tossed the welder's gear into a plastic milk crate lying on the ground. Startled by the noise, two large king snakes came out of the shadow beneath the trailer and slithered over to the windmill.
"Welcome to the land of Lampropeltis getula, the common king snake. Of course, there's nothing common about them. They're brave, clever, perfectly lovely reptiles—another one of God's gifts to a fallen world. What you're seeing is subspecies splendida, the Arizona desert king snake. They eat copperheads and rattlesnakes as well as frogs, birds, and rats. They just love to kill rats. Especially large, nasty ones."
"Dr. Briggs studies snakes," Antonio said.
"I'm a biologist specializing in reptiles. I taught for twenty-eight years at the University of New Hampshire until they forced me out. You should have seen President Mitchell, a silly little man who can barely walk upstairs without huffing and puffing, telling me that I was too frail for the classroom. What nonsense. A few weeks after the retirement dinner, I started getting messages from my Internet friends that the Tabula had discovered I was a Pathfinder."
Antonio dropped his canvas food bag on the table. "But she wouldn't leave."
"And why should I? I'm no coward. I own three firearms and know how to use them. Then Antonio and Martin found out about this site and lured me here. You two are clever schoolboys."
"We knew you couldn't resist," Antonio said.
"You're right about that. Fifty years ago the government wasted millions of dollars building this ridiculous missile site." Sophia moved past the trailer and pointed at the site. Gabriel saw three enormous concrete disks set in rusty steel frames. "Right over there are the silo lids. They could be opened and shut from the inside. That was where they stored the missiles."
She turned on her heel and pointed to a mound of dirt about half a mile away. "After the missiles were pulled out, the county turned that area over there into a dump. Beneath nine inches of dirt and a plastic tarp is twenty years of rotting garbage that sustains an enormous population of rats. The rats eat the garbage and multiply. The king snakes eat the rats, then live and breed in the silo. I study splendida and it's been quite successful, so far."
"So what are we going to do?" Gabriel asked.
"Have lunch, of course. Better eat this bread before it goes stale."
Sophia gave them all jobs and they prepared a meal with the perishable food. Maya was in charge of slicing a loaf of bread and she seemed annoyed with the dull knife. Lunch was simple, but delicious. Fresh tomatoes mixed with oil and vinegar. A very rich goat cheese cut into chunks. Rye bread. Strawberries. For dessert, Sophia took out a bar of Belgian chocolate and gave everyone exactly two squares.
Snakes were everywhere. If they got in the way, Sophia picked them up firmly and carried them over to a moist patch of ground near the shed. Maya sat yoga style at the table as if one of the reptiles might slither up her leg. During the meal, Gabriel learned a few more facts about Sophia Briggs. No children. Never married. She had consented to hip surgery a few years ago but—other than that—she tried to stay away from doctors.
In her forties, Sophia began to make annual trips up to the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba to study the fifty thousand red-sided garter snakes that emerged from limestone caves during their annual breeding cycle. She became close friends with a Catholic priest living in the area and, after many years, he revealed that he was a Pathfinder.
"Father Morrissey was an amazing man," she said. "Like most priests, he presided over thousands of christenings, weddings, and funerals, but he had actually learned something from the experience. He was a perceptive person. Very wise. Sometimes I felt he could read my mind."
"So why did he pick you?" Gabriel asked.
Sophia smeared the soft goat cheese on a piece of bread. "My people skills aren't the best in the world. In fact, I don't like people all that much. They're vain and foolish. But I've trained myself to be observant. I can focus on one thing and get rid of the extraneous details. Maybe Father Morrissey could have found someone better, but he got lymphatic cancer and died seventeen weeks after the diagnosis. I took a semester off and sat by the hospital bed while he gave me his knowledge."
When everyone had finished eating, Sophia stood up and looked at Maya. "I think it's time for you to go, young lady. I've got a sat phone in the trailer and it works most of the time. I'll call Martin when we're done."
Antonio picked up the empty canvas bags and headed back down the road. Maya and Gabriel stood close to each other, but neither one of them spoke. He wondered what he could say to her. Take care of yourself. Have a safe journey. See you soon. None of the commonplace farewells seemed to apply to a Harlequin.
"Goodbye," she said.
"Goodbye."
Maya went a few feet, then stopped and looked back at him. "Keep the jade sword with you," she said. "Don't forget. It's a talisman."
And then she was gone, her body becoming smaller and smaller as she disappeared down the road.
"She likes you."
Gabriel turned around and realized that Sophia had been watching them. "We respect each other ..."
"If a woman told me that, I would consider her to be extraordinarily dim-witted, but you're just a typical man." Sophia returned to the table and began to pick up the dirty dishes. "Maya likes you, Gabriel. But that's absolutely forbidden for a Harlequin. They have great power. In exchange for this gift they're probably the loneliest people in the world. She can't allow emotions of any sort to cloud her judgment."
As they stored the food and washed the dishes in a plastic tub, Sophia questioned Gabriel about his family. Her scientific training was evident in the systematic way she went about getting information. "How do you know that?" she kept asking. "What makes you think that's true?"
The sun drifted toward the western horizon. As the rocky ground began to cool, the wind grew stronger. It made the parachute above them snap and billow like a sail. Sophia looked amused when Gabriel described his failed attempts to become a Traveler. "Some Travelers can learn how to cross over on their own," she said. "But not in our frantic world."
"Why not?"
"Our senses are overwhelmed by all the noise and bright lights around us. In the past, a potential Traveler would crawl into a cave or find sanctuary in a church. You
have to be in a quiet environment, like our missile silo." Sophia finished covering the food boxes and faced him. "I want you to promise that you'll remain in the silo for at least eight days."
"That seems like a long time," Gabriel said. "I thought you'd know fairly soon if I had the power to cross over."
"This is your discovery, young man, not mine. Accept the rules or go back to Los Angeles."
"Okay. Eight days. No problem." Gabriel walked over to the table to get his knapsack and the jade sword. "I want to do this, Dr. Briggs. It's important to me. Maybe I can contact my father and my brother—"
"I wouldn't think about that. It's not very helpful." Sophia brushed a king snake away from a storage bin and picked up a propane lantern. "You know why I like snakes? God created them to be clean, beautiful—and unadorned. Studying snakes, I've been inspired to get rid of all the clutter and foolishness in my life."
Gabriel looked around him at the missile site and the desert landscape. He felt like he was about to leave everything and go on a long journey. "I'll do whatever is necessary."
"Good. Let's go underground."
Chapter 41
A thick black power cable ran from the windmill's electric generator to the missile silo. Sophia Briggs followed the cable across the concrete pad to a ramp that led down to a sheltered area with a steel floor.
"When they stored the missiles here, the main entrance was through a freight elevator. But the government took the elevator away when they sold the site to the county. The snakes get in a dozen different ways, but we have to use the emergency staircase." Sophia set her propane lantern on the ground and lit the wick with a wooden match. When the lantern was burning with a white‑hot flame, she pulled up a hatch cover with two hands, exposing a steel staircase that led into darkness. Gabriel knew that the king snakes weren't dangerous to humans, but it made him uneasy to see a large specimen gliding down the steps.