Paradox Valley Read online

  Hal glanced back at the door. He reckoned Jean could manage on her own. But hell, every last one of them was over seventy. Most nearing seventy-five, like him. What business did they have taking horses through the canyon along Paradox Creek?

  “Be an easy ride, Hal,” Carl said, as if reading his thoughts. “I suppose you’re like the rest of us. Got no batteries? No phone?”

  Hal nodded. “Nothing’s working. Don’t even know what time it is.”

  “Had to be an army helicopter,” Carl continued. “Probably from over at the base in Utah.”

  “I suppose sittin’ around here waiting ain’t getting us nowhere,” Hal said. “Daisy’s not been on a trail ride in a while. I guess she wouldn’t mind a trek through the canyon.”

  “Good. We’re going to meet at Dusty’s place. Come as soon as you can.” Carl paused before getting on his horse. “You might want to bring a rifle,” he said. “Ain’t no telling what’s going on.”

  Hal watched them ride away before going back inside. Jean was tidying up the lunch dishes.

  “What’s that fool got planned now?”

  Hal smiled at that. The Milsteads had been their neighbors for over forty years, but they weren’t exactly friends.

  “He’s rounded up a posse. Wants to go check out the helicopter crash,” he said. “Wants me to go along.”

  Jean stared at him. “And are you?”

  “Might as well. They figure it was an army helicopter. Shouldn’t take too long to get there on horses.”

  “Hal, you haven’t been on Daisy in more years than I can remember,” she said. “She’s likely to throw you right off.”

  “I’ll be okay, Jean. Let me go fetch her.” He motioned to the kitchen. “If you could put together something that I could eat for dinner tonight, that’d be real nice,” he said. “I’ve got that old canteen out in the barn. I suppose that’ll have to do for water ‘till we get to the creek.”

  He knew Jean didn’t like the idea of him going off, but he felt obligated. All of the other men were going. Even though he felt like it was probably a waste of time, he didn’t want to be the only one to stay behind. Jean could take care of herself for a few days. He reached down and ruffled the dog’s head. And she’d have Lucky. The dog wasn’t good for much, but at least he’d be some company for Jean.

  “Ain’t that right, boy?”

  Lucky seemed to be smiling up at him as he followed Hal to the barn. Hal smiled back, feeling a bit foolish. They didn’t need or want a dog…not at their age. But a momma dog had strayed up over at the Bensons’ place a couple of years ago. Momma dogs didn’t usually last long out here, but the Bensons took a liking to her. Next thing you know, all the neighbors were being offered puppies. How he and Jean ended up with one, he’ll never know. The momma dog was a half-breed black Lab. They didn’t have a clue as to who the daddy was, but all them puppies were jet black and as fat and round as little piglets. The Bensons brought over two of them, and the next thing he knew, Jean had picked one up and was cuddling it and cooing at it like it was a baby. He knew right then that the Bensons would only be leaving with one puppy that day.

  But Lucky was a good dog. Never caused them a bit of trouble. Except when he crawled into the water trough and made a mess of things. Hal guessed he might be more Lab than not…he sure did like the water.

  * * *

  Sutter ran his hands over his hair, back and forth. He kept it short, neat—military style. Always had. His wife hated it, but it was familiar to him. When he looked in the mirror, there was never any doubt who he was…what he was.

  “Sir? Did you want me to notify the families?” Duncan asked again.

  “Not until we know for sure,” he said. Though by all accounts, the aircraft was lost. Disappeared off radar like someone had flipped a switch. Disappeared in the sector where the unidentified…object had disappeared too. “He could have made a landing.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Sutter sighed, then leaned back in his chair. General Brinkley had chewed his ass out for sending up a Black Hawk in the first place. His only saving grace was that the target sector was mostly federal land and not state, or worse, private. Brinkley told him to sit tight until he heard back from him. Brinkley was following protocol and going through all the proper channels. Maybe that’s why he was promoted to rank of general, and Sutter had been passed over for promotion yet again.

  “Still no civilian reports? No one saw it go down?”

  “No, sir. It’s like there’s nobody out there.”

  “What about the power company? They get back with us yet on which grid we’re looking at?”

  “They said they’d get something to us before noon,” Duncan said.

  “And the cell towers?”

  “We’re pinging them, sir. Nothing.”

  “Media?”

  “As far as we know, there’s been nothing reported.”

  He gave a humorless laugh. “Well, there’s that going for us.”

  Duncan fidgeted with his hands and Sutter raised his eyebrows.

  “Sir…if I may?”

  “What, Duncan? You got another theory?”

  “Communication with the crew was normal. There was no distress signal. Nothing out of the ordinary. Communication was lost in mid-sentence. The exact same instant they disappeared from radar.”

  “I know. I was there.” He sighed. “Are you going to bring up this electromagnetic pulse crap again?”

  “It’s a credible theory, sir.”

  “Back on the UFO again, Duncan?”

  “There could be any number of ways to jam communication signals, shut down power grids. It could—”

  “I’m more likely to believe domestic terrorists before little green men from outer space,” he said loudly. “Our airspace was breeched. That’s what we should be concerned about. If it wasn’t a meteor and it was indeed an aircraft of some sort, how the hell did it get all the way to the Utah-Colorado border without being detected?” He slammed his hand on the desk. “And if it’s not domestic terrorists, then what goddamn country did it come from? Find that out, Duncan. Drop the UFO bullshit.”

  “Of course, sir. I’ll get back to it.”

  Sutter stared at the closed door long after Duncan had left. He had a bad feeling about this. Was it terrorists they were dealing with? Was there going to be an attack of some sort? Bio-terror?

  Brinkley had chewed his ass, yeah. But sending out a Black Hawk to do some reconnaissance seemed like the right move. What did Brinkley expect him to do? Notify the state and have a local sheriff go out and take a look?

  He shook his head. No. Brinkley wouldn’t go that route. Not with power and cell phones out. Something was going on and apparently no one on his staff had a clue…Duncan’s UFO theory aside. No. Brinkley wouldn’t notify the locals. Not yet.

  Chapter Eight

  Dana stared down the lane from their house to the road. It was a beautiful morning, cool and crisp. The sky was clear and blue, birds called from the trees and only a slight breeze rustled the leaves. It could have been ten, fifteen or even twenty years ago that she sat here. Things remained unchanged—timeless—in this little corner of the world. Life crawled at a slow pace here, following the ebb and flow of the sun as it rose and set. Early mornings, like today, it was a lazy breeze that blew, carrying with it the sounds of the chickens and rooster as they started their day. It seemed to be a perfectly normal morning in late May. It was nearly too quiet, too perfect. Even the generator was off for the time being, the absence of its constant rumbling creating a void in the stillness.

  She assumed Butch and his parents had made it back to their farm yesterday. Aunt Tina and Uncle George had walked back with them. Butch and his family’s house was bigger so they would stay there until someone could drive them over to Bedrock. Butch had been in a hurry to leave. They had chores to attend to, power or not. So did her parents, and Dana had found herself feeding the chickens, something she used to love to do as a child. She d
idn’t, however, particularly enjoy eating dinner when chicken was served. Even at that young age, she knew where the food had come from.

  “What are you staring at?”

  Dana turned, finding her mother watching her from the door. She patted the seat beside her, inviting her mother to join her on the porch swing.

  “Waiting on Butch to come back. We’re going to make a run for it, remember?”

  “We’re managing fine,” her mother said. “Your father has enough fuel to run the generator for a month, if need be.”

  Dana raised her eyebrows. A month? Did her mother really plan to stay here a month without knowing what was going on? Dana would go stark raving mad. In fact, a few more days of this might very well send her there.

  “While I appreciate your sense of adventure,” she said, “I can’t just sit here and hope the power comes back on.”

  “Well, you were going to be here for two weeks anyway,” her mother reminded her. “You should try to relax. The weather’s been beautiful. I know you like to hike. You should get out.”

  Maybe Dana had been in the city too long. Maybe that’s why she felt this underlying sense of panic. But to go hiking? As if nothing out of the ordinary was going on?

  “How can you act like nothing’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Oh, honey, it’s not like it’s the first time the power’s gone out. Why do you think everyone has generators? Besides, remember that freak ice storm we had a few winters ago? We were without power for four days.”

  “Not only the power, Mom. The batteries too. Our cell phones. There’s no satellite reception, no TV. Something’s going on.”

  “Well, the earthquake may have caused some damage. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

  “If it even was an earthquake,” she said. “It was obviously something. And I can’t simply go on about my business as if it was nothing.”

  “You worry too much,” her mother said. “Even when you were younger, you were always a worrier. What good is it going to do for you and Butch to go out?”

  “Someone has to know something, don’t you think?”

  “Dana, the power always comes back on.”

  But Dana shook her head. It was the second full day without power. Something wasn’t right. She didn’t want to sit here and wait. Because she didn’t know what they were waiting on. Waiting on the power to come back on? Waiting on someone to show up? Waiting on something bad to happen? At what point would her mother start to worry? At five days? A week?

  “What if it doesn’t come back on this time, Mom?”

  “It’ll come back.” Her mother stood up, signaling an end to the conversation. “I best start on lunch.”

  Dana frowned. They’d barely gotten finished cleaning up the kitchen from their early breakfast. A rather large breakfast, in fact. Apparently her mother was more worried than she let on. Cooking had always been her outlet when she needed a distraction from something.

  Dana let a heavy sigh escape, then turned her attention back to the road. It remained empty…and quiet. She hoped Butch hadn’t changed his mind. They’d agreed that if the power was still out today, they’d take off and try to make it to Paradox. Or at least to someone’s house where there was power. Since Butch had no bike and her old one had a flat, their mode of transportation would be by horseback.

  She’d grown up with horses, but once she’d left home, her father had sold the two that remained. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d ridden. Five years or more, she guessed, and that had been only a short ride with Butch on one of her rare summer visits.

  So she told herself it would be fun. She tried to forget the fact that it would take them more than one day to reach Paradox. That meant a night out. And again, horseback riding and camping were two things she did frequently when growing up. Now? She hated to admit it, but she’d turned into a city girl after living so long in Seattle.

  She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jeans and ran her hand over it affectionately. God, who would have thought she’d miss the damn thing so much. She closed her eyes for a second, then pushed the button. The screen remained black and lifeless. With a sigh, she slipped it back into her pocket and resumed her wait for Butch.

  Chapter Nine

  The ringing of her phone startled her so much, she stared at it for several seconds before walking over to pick it up. Corey couldn’t remember the last time someone had called her.

  “Yeah, Conaway here,” she answered.

  “Captain Conaway? Please hold for General Brinkley.”

  Her brow drew together in a frown. Sounded like an official call. The last time Harry had called to check on her—a month or more now—he’d used his personal phone. She only had to hold a few seconds before his familiar voice sounded in her ear.

  “Conaway? I know it’s early but…you got a minute?”

  “Yes, sir. Of course.”

  “We’ve got a situation,” he said. “I need your help.” He paused. “I need someone I can trust.”

  She ran a hand through her hair, noting the length of it. It hadn’t been this long since she was a teenager. She found a little humor in that thought, knowing that it really wasn’t long now. She’d lived in a military family all her life, had followed her father into the service, had moved up the ranks quickly. All the while, she kept her hair cut military short. She wasn’t a woman concerned with her looks. She was a soldier. But now? Was she still a soldier?

  “Corey? You there?”

  She turned her attention back to the phone. “I’m not in any kind of shape, Harry,” she said. “Mentally or physically,” she added.

  “I need you to get back in the saddle, kiddo. It’s time. I can’t leave you on special assignment forever, you know.”

  Yes, of course she knew that. She’d actually been surprised he’d let it go this long. But Harry Brinkley and her father had been best friends. She’d known him her whole life. When her father had been killed, it was Harry her family turned to for support. And when her team had gotten ambushed at a remote airport in Pakistan, Harry had been the steadying force when all she’d wanted to do was take her rage out on Colonel Sutter and his so-called intel. As her team had been lying dead on the tarmac around her, she knew Sutter was to blame. She, too, had been left for dead, yet somehow she’d survived. Her physical injuries had healed but not her mental ones. For all Harry had done, he couldn’t heal that. But he needed her now. She owed him that.

  She swallowed down her apprehension and nodded. “Yes, sir. You’re right, of course. It’s time to get back. What do you need me to do?”

  “That’s my girl,” he said quietly. Then he cleared his throat, pausing only a few seconds before continuing. “I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much. Sutter’s team spotted an object on radar. About four seconds of it anyway, for what it’s worth. They’ve got a potential grid of where it went down. Sutter sent out a Black Hawk for recon. It disappeared off radar approximately in the same area as our unidentified object.”

  The mention of Sutter’s name made her bristle, but she pushed her anger at him aside. “Assumed lost?” she asked.

  “No radio contact, no distress signal. Disappeared.”

  “What area are we talking about?”

  “Local,” he said. “Colorado, across the Utah border. Paradox Valley, if that means anything to you.”

  “I’ve driven through the area,” she said. “Desolate in places. A handful of farms and ranches.”

  “Power is out in the area. Cell towers are out too,” he said. “Because it is sparsely populated, there’s been nothing in the news. A unit for the salinity control of the Colorado River is out that way. A pumping station and an injection well, but there’s been no indication that they’ve had any problems with power. The outage appears to be to the north and west of Bedrock.”

  She scratched the back of her neck, not really understanding. “So you think the power outage is a result of this…this object on radar? Or something to do w
ith the Black Hawk?”

  “Unknown at this point. Hell, it could be a coincidence, for all we know.”

  “Okay, so what’s Sutter’s theory?”

  Harry sighed. “Several theories, all with no substance,” he said. “Sutter’s got a guy, Lieutenant Duncan, who is even going so far as suggesting it could be a UFO with little green men.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.”

  “Okay. So what’s the official theory?”

  “Unidentified object, possible meteor,” he said. “Got a seismic reading from the area…2.3. Of course, since they put in that injection well, they’ve had thousands of small earthquakes, most not even detectable above ground.”

  “Harry, you’re losing me here,” she said truthfully. “A possible meteor went down, took out power. What’s that got to do with us?”

  “We need to be sure, for one thing, that it wasn’t a hostile aircraft.”

  “If it was a hostile aircraft on a mission, wouldn’t we already know something?”

  “We have the greatest military in the world,” he said. “Yes, we would know if it was a hostile. Our intel says it wasn’t.”

  “Could it have been a drone or something?” she asked.

  “Too large. I’m going to believe our experts that it was only a meteor…but like I said, we need to be sure. Especially with the Black Hawk going down,” he said. “Obviously something took out the power grid, the cell towers. Something is causing batteries to turn useless.”

  “What do you mean…batteries?”

  “Maybe Duncan’s theory of an electromagnetic pulse is true. Maybe this meteor is radioactive or something.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s not only electrical power that’s out, Corey. When we lost contact with the Black Hawk, we sent in a squad of ten. The transport vehicle lost power…battery, whatnot. Communication was lost. Wristwatches stopped working. Everything stopped functioning. They hiked back out, but we at least know where the western edge of the zone is,” he said. “There’s only one highway that goes into the canyon from Utah to Colorado. It doesn’t appear to be affected. Our zone is to the north of that, including the town of Paradox. As a precaution, we’re closing the highway. Using a rock slide as the excuse. There’s not a lot of thru traffic anyway, but what there is, it’s being rerouted to the south. The Department of Transportation is cooperating, but since there really is no slide, it’s only a matter of time before word gets out.”