Page 68 of Thunder Pass

Who’s Uncle Dmitri?”

“He’s Papa’s friend.”

“What does he look like?“

“Like a frog, his lips do this.” She pushed her lips outwards so she looked like a fish. Ruth bit her lip to stop from laughing, even though she was now sure she’d recognize this Uncle Dmitri anywhere.

“Is he just visiting? What’s he doing there?”

“He takes all the men somewhere and when they come back everyone’s dirty and tired. We’re supposed to stay out of their way. Auntie Magda said they’re learning how to keep us safe.”

Training the militia.

To protect the gold they’d discovered? If there was gold, that could explain why Luke was bringing in reinforcements. Maybe a vein had been found upstream, and the kids happened to stumble across a bit that had broken off and flowed down the creek.

Follow the money, Naomi had said. Had she meant gold?

Her pulse pounded. A bona fide gold discovery would be a big deal, depending on the size of it. Luke wouldn’t want word getting out. That would explain why he hadn’t tried to get her or Sarah to come back. He didn’t trust them.

“Come on, Lilith, let’s go make some breakfast.” She swung her legs out of bed, wondering how much it would cost to take six little kids to the Magic Breakfast Bus for pancakes.

The universe must have read her mind. When she got downstairs, she saw the rest of the kids, already dressed, gathered around Ani Devi. She wore a thick cable-knit red sweater with a hood and deep pockets that Ruth instantly envied. “I’m here with an official invitation to the Magic Breakfast Bus on its last day,” she announced. “Sourdough pancakes for all, on the house! That means free,” she added when the kids looked confused.

Their faces cleared and they jumped up and down, cheering. “Thank you,” Ruth mouthed over their heads.

Ani nodded, but then her kind smile dropped and she stepped closer to Ruth. “I just came from The Fang. Martha was there looking for Sarah. She says she’s missing. Have you seen her?”

32

After showing off his new smartphone to Kathy at the general store, Gunnar settled onto the bench, which was squeezed between the chest freezer and racks of rental DVDs, and tried to find some information about “Sergeant Grant.”

He decided to skip the part where he bumbled around, getting nowhere, and cut to the chase by contacting Nelson. If anyone could figure it out, it would be his nephew, and he preferred to keep it in the family instead of reaching out to Charlie.

He sent Bridget an email, since even though Nelson was a whiz at computers, he wasn’t allowed to have his own email address. If people really wanted to control what their kids did online, they should just send them to Firelight Ridge, he thought dryly. They’d be doing precisely nothing online here.

Was that why his father had brought him here? he wondered suddenly. So that he’d never have the opportunity to stumble across something he wasn’t supposed to? It seemed like a stretch—what could be such a threat that it would require such a drastic move?

But nothing made sense anymore, so anything could make sense. If that made sense.

After a blessedly short wait, he got an email back from Bridget.

He’s right here, already tapping away at the keyboard for you. How are you?

Should he tell her he’d seen Jim Kelly, the same man who’d turned up in her car? Was his email being monitored? Was he being too paranoid?

I saw a friend of yours, he wrote. From Florida. We should talk more in private.

She answered with an email that included a link. Invite to an encrypted messaging service recommended by Nelson. Click on the link to make an account.

The last thing he wanted was to download some app he knew nothing about. He should never have gotten this damn smartphone.

Get on it! Bridget emailed next. Got info from Nelson.

With a sigh, Gunnar gave in and clicked on the invite link. In this day and age, was it really possible to completely avoid the Internet and all its new offerings?

With Kathy’s archaic WiFi, the process took some time. While he waited for the app to install itself on his phone, he went back to the aisles and grabbed a package of powdered mini-donuts to take the place of breakfast. He had to wait for someone to complete their transaction at the counter—a man he didn’t recognize—but went ahead and ripped the package open.

As he did so, he noticed something stuffed into the man’s back pocket. It seemed to be a map, hand-drawn, though it was folded so he couldn’t make out what area it showed. Maybe he was a hunter with a map of the best place to find Sitka black-tailed deer. Or maybe it was a map to the general store, who knew?

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