DAY 2
Marcus’s left hand was numb when he woke up. He rolled over, off the root he was lying on and farted loudly. He groaned in embarrassment.
He was miserable. His hips were locked up, his legs numb, and he was cold. He should have grabbed his more elaborate camping gear from his garage so he could have been more comfortable. But then he would have had to carry more gear. As his brain caught up with his body, he remembered what was going on and realized this was the least of his worries.
The sky over the ridge was still dark, although the stars illuminated the distance. Marcus walked to the edge of the timber to piss and got his first look at the country below the camp.
The ground fell away south through the spruce into a basin with two lakes — long and flat. Past them the country opened up some toward the east. A line ran along the near shore. He stared at it while peeing and decided it was pavement.
He counted three sets of lights stopped on it. Separated, but similar.
Vlad was sitting on the ground where he’d been when Marcus fell asleep. His eyes were open but the tablet was face-down on his thigh. He looked terrible — hunched over, shoulders tight, and not moving other than slowly breathing.
Samantha was asleep, curled on her side with the pack under her head, snoring softly.
Marcus crouched at the fire ring and held his palm over the ash, which was still warm. He fed in a little brush, then a piece of the dry spruce Vlad had found. He blew lightly on it low until it caught. He smiled, remembering when his dad taught him that on a trip to the Grand Mesa in high school.
He set Sam’s stove on a flat rock, filled the pot from the bottle, and got it going.
“You’ve been up all night.”
“Yes.”
“Get some sleep. I’m up. I’ll keep watch.” Marcus kept his voice friendly. “You’ve got four hours before Sam has us moving. I’ll wake you if a squirrel does anything.”
“No.”
Vlad didn’t turn his head.
Marcus had four packets of instant coffee in the lid of his pack. He tore two of them, dumped them in the cups, poured, and carried one over. Vlad took it with both hands and held it against his chest without drinking.
Marcus thought about his friend Brett who had called four times last month. Marcus hadn’t had time to call him back so had sent him a thumbs-up from an airport in Dallas. He now regretted he hadn’t called, caught himself, and decided that wallowing in self-pity because Vlad was mad at him was silly.
He sat quietly on the other end of the log and sipped his coffee for a few minutes. The silence was loud.
“I want to run something past you,” he said. “The way you told me to. I’m coming to you first.”
Vlad sipped his coffee.
“I want to get one thing to Seth. Not from me. You write it, you send it, you pick the words. It says we’re alive, we’re fine, stop looking. That’s it. Nothing about what we have, nothing about where we are.”
“No.”
“Vlad, hear me out —”
“I heard what you said.”
“But you didn’t really listen to what I was saying, because you don’t know Seth.” Marcus put the cup down on the rock. “He’s not going to sit in Boulder and wait. He can’t reach us, so my bet is he’s already called someone. He’ll be discreet, but he’s going to try to figure out what is going on. I know I fucked up texting him. But, he’s a VC — he’s curious — and he’s just going to start pulling on strings. And eventually, no matter how careful he is, someone will connect him to us. And then it’ll be news that we are missing. It’ll be on X, and then what we used to call VC Twitter will light up because everyone needs to be smarter than everyone else, and then a reporter will call Seth —”
Vlad set his coffee in the dirt.
“He called someone at a lab in Boulder yesterday morning,” he said. “Eleven minutes. Since that call his phone has done nothing. Twenty hours. That is not normal for him.”
“So he’s being careful.”
“So he is thinking.” Vlad picked up the tablet and turned it over and didn’t wake it. “I can see Seth. I cannot see the person he called, but I know it was Nadia. I have no idea who she called. Your text started something beyond where I can look and watch.”
“Then let’s steer it.”
“Every message you send puts two more numbers in somebody’s file. Yours and Seth’s.”
“Vlad, he is the only person out there working for us. Everything he does points back to us. One note from you and he stops.”
“No.”
“That’s not —” Marcus stopped and started over, easier. “Okay. What would it take.”
“Nothing.”
“C’mon Vlad. You do everything on your side. I don’t touch a device, I don’t see the screen, I don’t know what channel it goes out on.” He was getting animated, but made himself slow down. “I’ll do it however you want. If you want to do it from my device, in my name, that’s ok with me.”
Vlad sat silently for a moment, staring at Marcus.
“You are trying to buy something.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“You are trying to manipulate the situation. I can’t figure out what you really want. Tell me what it is.”
“Vlad, I’m trying to help. I’m a founder of this company. I’m the CEO. I’m your partner. I am not a hostage.”
“Then grab your pack and walk out of here. It’s a few miles.” He turned his palm over toward the basin. “Go.”
The fire popped. Marcus didn’t look at the basin.
“You said you’d do whatever we told you,” Vlad said. “At the pass. You said it in front of her.”
“I did.”
“So do it.”
Marcus stood up, took his cup to the pot, and refilled it.
Behind him Samantha made a noise and sat up in her bag, her hair flat on one side, and looked at the two of them as she rubbed her eyes.
Marcus tore the third packet, stirred it in, and carried the cup over to her.
“Good morning,” he said, crouching down next to her. “Let me tell you what I’m thinking.”