I followed him up the slope, and to me it sounded like we were making enough noise to wake the dead. We reached the top of the hill and now I could see the lights of the interstate about a mile to our left. To our right was the Knoxville airport. And, directly below us, the parking lot to an air freight company.
“Right where I left it,” Mike breathed. “Okay, let’s go.”
I crouched in the trees just at the edge of the little lawn that surrounded the parking lot as Mike jogged to a silver 380Z parked at the far corner of the lot. I didn’t know what the heck was going on and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know, but there was no turning back now, and I figured eventually Mike would fill me in on the details.
The Z roared to life and Mike zipped over, waving to me through the open window. I jogged out of the trees and into the lot as Mike slowed to a stop. He floored the gas as soon as my butt touched the seat.
Mike headed into the mountains, taking the Z up to eighty on the straightaways, maybe a little bit slower—but not much—on the curves.
We went through a couple of small towns in the foothills; then, right before the entrance to the national park, Mike turned onto a gravel road that seemed to wind straight up the side of a mountain. The little access road hugged the mountain on one side and a deep ravine dropped off the other. I happened to be seated on the ravine side. I closed my eyes and willed my heart not to leap out of my mouth.
Finally the car rolled to a gravel-crunching stop and I opened my eyes. We were parked in front of a log cabin sitting by itself in a clearing hacked out of the mature trees covering the mountaintop.
“Home sweet home,” Mike sang out and stepped out of the car. “We’re perfectly secure here. Nobody knows about this place, Al. Not even the Company, and the Company knows practically everything.”
He came around to my side of the car and stood there, like he was expecting me to get out. I didn’t.
“Get out of the car, Al,” he said.
“I’m not getting out of the car, Mike,” I said, “until you tell me what’s going on.”
“I think I told you. You’ve been extracted.”
“Why?”
He smiled. “Get out and I’ll tell you.”
I thought about it. The leaves were gray in the dark, and the cold wind made a rattling sound as it moved through them.
The lights were on inside the cabin, and the light looked inviting and warm.
“Why can’t you tell me now, Mike?”
“Well, basically because of the car.”
“The car?”
“It’s brand-new.” He pulled the gun from his belt and pointed it at my forehead.
“Out. Now.”
I got out. Mike took a couple of steps back and gestured toward the cabin with the Glock.
“After you, Al. March.”
As I trudged up the hill toward the bright, warm lights, the hair on the back of my neck stuck up and I realized then what a terrible mistake I had made getting out of the car. It’s brand-new, Mike had said. Why did that matter? Because he didn’t want to mess it up when he shot me.
From behind me he said, “Okay, that’s good.” We were about ten feet from the front porch. I stopped. He stopped. I shivered in the cold air.
“Don’t turn around, Al,” Mike said softly. “It’s better if you don’t turn around. Maybe you should kneel.”
To my left was the ravine, the deep gash in the side of the mountain. To the right the ground dropped off into a dense thicket of wild blackberry bushes and scrub pine.
“You know what the Company calls this, Al?”
“An extraction?”
“Right. But extraction comes in many varieties. This one we call an ‘extreme extraction.’ ?