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Coyotes watched They were anxious, skittish, scared of the massive insects

She wished she could ask Ja any more questions

She wondered if she could flee She wondered if she should flee But what difference would it er and bigger stones were being hauled out

She stepped in front of one of the insects It was carrying a rock that could easily crush her It would be nothing for these bugs to attack her, tear her apart as they’d apparently done to poor scared Ja just scuttled around her

Why? Why would they eat Ja flesh? Or because they knew that she was Drake and Drake was she and they could not har them?

But Brittney already knew the answer She knew that so hers It was as if she’d always known it As if that cold consciousness had always been there in the background watching her even as she averted her eyes and looked to heaven

When she was still in her grave, clawing at the dirt, she had felt it

When she looked deep into the eyes of her brother, Tanner, she could souise as an angel

She had known but had not wanted to know that Drake was its creature, the creature of this devil, just as she was God’s creature

She looked at the mine shaft, stood there as the insects cleared the rocks Like a rock herself in thethe evil one She could do nothing to stop the to be with it The devil would win this battle

The dark hts In faint, wordless whispers it ive you what you want

"I want to die," Brittney said "To go to heaven"

When she closed her eyes she felt, rather than saw, so sed God to free her Maybe this was His way Maybe it wasn’t Sam ould free her, but this devil inside the mountain

Brittney walked into the mine shaft, lifted a small rock, and carried it away

"Can you make any sense out of that?" Sam asked Jack

They were in the marina’s office Two dozen boats sat placidly in the water Several dozenboathouse There were papers on a desk, books in gray steel shelves, two broken-down rolling office chairs The out-of-date calendars were re time

The computers were useless, of course, without electricity But Jack had insisted on carrying three of the half-exhausted laptops from the train And a search had turned up a flash drive