Ms. Parker stalked out of Broots’ office with Broots and Sydney in tow. Broots had picked up Jarod’s phone call signal. For once, it wasn’t scrambled. And although the call was too brief to listen in on, it was plenty long enough to pin-point the location, within a reasonable margin.

Sydney was protesting . “Surely you don’t believe Jarod would be forgetful enough to leave off his scrambler. There has to be another explanation.”

“Like what?” Ms. Parker snapped over her shoulder.

“Like maybe it was stolen.” Broots offered. “Or maybe he’s sick and someone else made the call for him!”

“That’s a nice thought.” Ms. Parker purred. “Regardless of ‘why’, we are going ‘where’ the call came from.”

Ms. Parker and crew were on their way to the Grand Canyon.

***

Grand Canyon:

8:00PM: Julius sat watching the two campers. He couldn’t believe his good fortune. What were the odds that two people, the right sex and size, would show up outside the camping grounds just when he needed them?

Liz rummaged in her backpack for a roll of essential paper. “I’m, Mmm…going to use those bushes. So if you are off to get more wood, don’t go in this direction. Okay?”

Luke grinned at her. “Don’t worry. Now, if you were going to take a bath…”

“Remind me never to take one when camping with you.” She grinned back.

She grabbed a stick and started feeling her way to the designated bathroom. The stick was to beat the ground and bushes ahead of her so no slithery critters could give her a surprise. When she started back, there was someone bent over her sleeping bag. And it wasn’t Luke.

“Hey! Hey you!” She yelled as she ran towards him, and then she saw the still form of Luke spread out on the other side of the intruder. A sharp rush of fear and adrenalin almost stopped her in her tracks. “Luke!”

The intruder turned to face her and the feral glitter in his eyes gave truth to his words. “It’s too bad you had to come back so soon. Now I’ll have to get rid of both of you.”

Liz screamed and turned to run, but something, like an electric shock, slammed into her, and darkness came up and hit her before she hit the ground.

***

Flagstaff, Lazy Eight motel:

Isabel and Maria were stretched out on their beds, putting on nail polish and giggling about the looks on Michael’s and Alex’s faces. “Poor baby.” Maria said about Michael. “He was sooo looking forward to spending the night with me. Not that anything could happen. You know, with Max there.”

Isabel laughed again. “I actually think Alex was relieved. Imagine, being ‘alone’…with me… in a motel room!” She shook her head. “I almost think that I was the disappointed one. And don’t you ‘ever’ tell him I said that!”

Someone banged on their door. “Come in! The door’s not locked.” Maria yelled, and looked at Isabel with a ‘yours or mine?’ look. But it was Max that came barging in the door.

“Its Liz. She’s in trouble. We are going there now!”

“Not without us!” Isabel and Maria both yelled as they catapulted off the bed and scrambled for their shoes. “Wait for me!” Maria yelped as she dove back into the room, grabbed some stuff and stuffed it into her bag. “Here I come!”

As soon as they all piled in, the questions started. Max explained that he had gotten a surge of fear from Liz. Then nothing.

“What about now?” Maria asked. She was squeezing Michaels hand so tight that he thought the circulation was going to be cut off. Max glanced at her in the rear view and shook his head.

He turned to Isabel. “Do you think you can…”

Isabel cut across his question. “Not a chance in this jalopy. If you want to pull over for a moment, I can try.”

Max debated with himself briefly, then pulled to a stop. They all sat watching Isabel as she tried to relax and put herself into the proper mental state. She slipped easily into the dream plane and hummed for Liz’s dream orb. She knew all her friend’s orbs well enough to sense right off that Liz’s was not there. But she tried a little longer for Max’s sake. For all of them really.

When she came out of the dream plane, she looked around at the others and shook her head. “She’s not dreaming. So she is either unconscious or…”

“No! I still feel her there! She’s alive, just in trouble.” Max threw the Jeep in gear and took off.