The Buried

CHAPTER 35

The GPS coordinates led Orbits off the highway and onto a dirt road, then another, and finally a third that he almost didn’t see. The entrance was nearly grown over, and had NO TRESSPASSING signs posted on each side.

It turned out to be more path than road, barely wide enough for a single car. From the way it was overgrown, he was sure no one had driven on it for years.

For the first few minutes, he caught glimpses of open fields through the trees, but then the brush began to thicken, making it feel like he was driving through a dark tunnel. It wasn’t long after this that the road deteriorated even more, until finally he could go no farther.

According to the coordinates, the location wasn’t too far ahead, so he decided to go the rest of the way on foot. The brush continued to crowd in, officially turning the road into a trail. The trees, too, grew thick above him, cutting off most of the sky.

He almost walked right into the barbed wire. He’d been shining his flashlight at the ground to watch his step, and had to stop abruptly when the beam lit up the lowest wire. There were six strands in all, each approximately a foot apart, and running off as far as he could see to either side. Mounted to one of the nearby poles was another NO TRESSPASSING sign.

The wire was rusty and had long ago lost some of its tension, making it easy for Orbits to pull two of the strands wide enough apart for him to slip through.

On the other side, the dense cover continued for another thirty yards, and then stopped entirely at the edge of the meadow he’d seen in the satellite photo. Though no X marked the spot, he did pick out the white objects hidden in the grass he’d seen in the satellite image. They turned out to be concrete squares that were part of two longer pieces running parallel to each another, just above ground level.

He moved between them to give himself a different view. As he took his second step, he felt the ground give a little. He jumped back, thinking he was about to be sucked into some kind of sinkhole. But the ground remained unchanged.

He knelt down on one of the concrete strips and put his fingers into the dirt near where he’d been standing. It was easier than it should have been to work his fingers through it. About five inches down, he hit something solid.

He pulled away grass and dirt until he had a palm-sized hole dug to the obstruction. Shining his light into it, he saw that the unmovable object was a flat piece of metal.

He removed the dirt between the strips, and in ten minutes uncovered a metal door.

Yeah, baby. This is what I’m talking about!

Built into the door was a handle, and next to the handle, protected from the dirt by a piece of scratched Plexiglas, was a row of eight tumblers, each showing the number 1.

He tried the handle first but the door didn’t move.

The hinge connecting the Plexi to the metal surface had not fared as well as the rest. It took a considerable amount of force to break through the rust to get at the tumblers.

It was a lock, each dial containing digits from 0 to 9. He tried a few random combinations but, as he expected, none of them worked. The girl was the key. She had the coordinates to this place, so she had to have the combination, too.

Good thing he hadn’t killed her.

He wondered what was down there. Gold? Cash?

Whatever the case, he figured he’d have at least a day before The Wolf showed up here. Maybe even two, depending on how Danielle reacted to the drug he’d give her before the handoff. Plenty of time to grab what he wanted.

Fifty million and whatever was beyond the door.

Hot damn.

Having no idea which direction Orbits and his men had taken Dani, Quinn played a hunch and headed back toward Topeka. At one point, he and Nate caught sight of a pair of taillights in the distance, but before they could close the gap, the other vehicle disappeared.

As they approached the on-ramp to Highway 24 at the northern edge of the city, Quinn pulled to the side of the road.

“They could be thirty miles away by now,” Nate said.

“Then why did they come up this way?” Quinn asked.

“They were trying to lose us,” Nate said.

Quinn shook his head. “No. That didn’t happen until they started making all those turns. Think about it. We had driven past the exit they’d taken and were almost out of Topeka before we realized they weren’t there. When you checked, they were already heading north, but were they racing away?”

“No,” Nate admitted.

“Were they employing any tactics to lose a tail?”

Nate shook his head. “They were heading down the highway at normal speed.”

“Exactly. They had no idea we were still behind them.”

“Maybe not then, but they did later.”

“Something tipped them off, but not until after we neared them again.” He fell silent for a moment. “No, they’re in this area for a reason.”

“Hold on,” Nate said. “They could be just driving through and heading farther north.”

“That wouldn’t make sense.” Quinn brought up a map of the area on his phone. “Look. Highway 4 connects to the same road we came across Missouri on. If Orbits wanted to go someplace to the north, he would have stayed on that and not dipped down to Kansas City. Whatever he’s interested in, it’s somewhere in this area.” He circled a ten-mile length of Highway 4. “It’s got to be.”

Nate started to say something, but stopped.

“What?” Quinn asked.

“I was thinking — he’s supposed to hand Dani off in about eight hours. This seems like kind of an odd place to do that, don’t you think?”

It was a good point. A city would be considerably better for this kind of transfer — more location choices, not to mention plenty of options for getting away if things went south. But perhaps there were other circumstances dictating where it needed to take place. Something Roger Platt — Edmondson’s partner — said echoed in Quinn’s mind.

Sam wanted to get the location from her first.

The location.

The reason everyone was interested in Dani.

“I don’t think the handoff is the reason Orbits came here,” Quinn said.

“Then what is?”

He shared his thoughts with Nate.

“Whoa,” Nate said. “Getting paid and taking whatever everyone’s looking for — that’s major double-dipping. If it’s true, Orbits’s got some balls. There are so many ways that could get messy.”

The only problems now were, they didn’t know where Orbits was or where the handoff would take place. Quinn called Orlando.

“Did you find them?” she asked.

He told her what had happened, and his theory about why Orbits had brought Dani here. “We could hunt around all night and not find them,” he said. “The one thing we do know is that they’ll be at a specific place at nine a.m., and there is a way to find out where that’ll be.”

She said nothing for a moment, then, “The Wolf.”

“Exactly. There can’t be too many chartered jets flying from Minneapolis to somewhere in eastern Kansas at just after seven in the morning.”

“No, there shouldn’t be. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out where she’s headed.”

Now that he wasn’t focused on telling her what he needed, he realized he could hear a background hum over the line. “Are you in a car?”

“Maybe.”

“Where are you going?”

“Are you trying to keep tabs on me?”

“No, I was just—”

“Nate doesn’t keep a lot of food in his house. I’m hungry, okay?” Her tone dared him to question her.

“Okay. Sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”

Softer now, she said, “I know. I love you. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“I love you, too.” He hung up and said to Nate, “Let’s find someplace to get some sleep.”

Orlando could feel Ananke staring at the back of her head as she put her phone away. “Go on. Say it.”

“Say what?” Ananke asked.

“What you’re thinking. That I just lied to him.”

“Did you? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Because I’m not lying,” Orlando said. “I’m starving. We’ll stop on the way.”

From the driver’s seat, Daeng said, “Riggo’s taco stand or In-N-Out?”

“In-N-Out, please. A double-double and fries, animal style.”