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When I got out of the Explorer, I didn’t hurry into the house, though the grizzledwas now almost fully upon us The day did little to restore the color that the night had stolen froht see tones, dulling shiny surfaces The cue I would sustain in this shineless sunshine was a risk worth taking to spend onethe two oaks in the front yard

These California live oaks, beautifully crowned and with great canopies of strong black li it in every season, because unlike eastern oaks, they don’t drop their leaves in winter I have always loved these trees, have cliet closer to the stars, but lately they mean more to me than ever because they reth to make the sacrifices in their own lives required to raise a child with ave ht of this leaden dawn had pressed all the wind out of the day The oaks were as monolithic as sculpture, each leaf like a petal of cast bronze

After a minute, calmed by the deep stillness of the trees, I crossed the lawn to the house

This Craftser stone and weather-silvered cedar under a slate roof, with deep eaves and an expansive front porch, all modern lines yet natural and close to the earth It is the only hoe life span of an XPer and , it’s no doubt where I’ll live until I die

Sasha had unlocked the front door by the tiot there, and I followed her into the foyer

All the s are covered with pleated shades throughout the daylight hours Most of the lights feature rheostats, and e must turn them on, we keep theht filtered through aed shadowy ambience that would meet with the approval of any medium who claims to be able to channel the spirits of the dead

Sasha settled in aout of the house provided for her as part of her co daylight hours, she ely by the faint sunshine pressing against the loweredshades

She thinks my shrouded world calms the soul, that life in the low illuree with her to an extent, though at times a mild claustrophobia overco preview of the grave

Without touching a light switch, ent upstairs to low of a decorative glass oil lamp This tandem event wasn’t astwo on a surfboard, because ere physically weary, emotionally exhausted, and worried about Orson and Jiave Sasha a seriously condensed version ofHead, Delacroix, and the events in the egg room

I phoned Roosevelt Frost, who lives aboard Nostromo, a fifty-six-foot Bluewater coastal cruiser berthed in the Moonlight Bayhim to come to seeMungojerrie if possible

I also called Manuel Ramirez The police operator said that he was currently out of the office, and at my request, she switchedthe license number of the Suburban, which I had ’s kidnapper was driving If you care, giveback the covers on the bed inSasha pulled on a robe and went to see who had co

I slipped into a robe, too, and padded barefoot to the head of the stairs to listen

I took the 9-ht Bay wasn’t as full of mayhem as Jurassic Park, but I wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if the doorbell had been rung by a velociraptor

Instead, it was Bobby, six hours early When I heard his voice, I went downstairs

The foyer was dihted, but above the Stickley-style table, the print of Maxfield Parrish’s Daybreak glowed as though it were aon a ri But you have to know about this After I took Jenna Wing to Lilly’s, I swung by Charlie Dai’s house"

Charlie Dai--whose birth name in correct Vietnamese order was Dai Tran Gi, before he Americanized it--is the associate editor and senior reporter at the Moonlight Bay Gazette, the newspaper owned by Bobby’s parents The Halloways are estranged from Bobby, but Charlie remains his friend

"Charlie can’t write about Lilly’s boy," Bobby continued, "at least not until he gets clearance, but I thought he ought to know In fact…I figured he ht Bay--a few hundred out of twelve thousand--who know that a biological catastrophe occurred at Wyvern His wife, Dr Nora Dai--formerly Dai Minh Thu-Ha--is now a retired colonel; while in the army medical corps, she commanded all reat responsibility on a base with more than fifty thousand population Her ht when so reached a crisis in the secret process of beco thee events, she and Charlie were confronted with accusations that their ied This was a lie, but unless they assisted in suppressing the truth of the Wyvern disaster and its aftermath, they would be deported without notice, and without standard legal procedures, to Vietnam, from which they would never be able to return Threats were also randchildren, because those who have orchestrated this cover-up do not believe in half measures

Bobby and I don’t knohy his parents have allowed the Gazette to be corrupted, publishing a carefully ed version of the local news Perhaps they believe in the rightness of the secrecy Perhaps they don’t understand the true horror of what’s happened Or maybe they’re just scared

"Charlie’s been ot ink in his veins, you know, he still hears things, gathers nehether he’s allowed to write all of it up or not"

"He’s as stoked on the page as you are on the board," I said

"He’s a total news rat," Bobby agreed

He was standing near one of the sidelights that flank the front door: rectangular georeen, and clear ele of the porch and the giant oaks prevent direct sunlight froh one of the clearer pieces of glass in the mosaic, as if he expected to see an unwelcome visitor on the front porch

"Anyway," he continued, "I figured if Charlie had heard about Jiht’ve picked up so from Manuel or someone, somewhere But I wasn’t ready for what the dude told ht"

My stomach clenched with dread

"Three children kidnapped?" Sasha asked

Bobby nodded "Del and Judy Stuart’s twins"

Del Stuart has an office at Ashdon College, is for the record an employee of the Department of Education but is rumored to work for an obscure arm of the Departency, or the Federal Office of Doughnut Management, and he probably spreads the rumors himself to deflect speculation from possibilities closer to the truth He refers to hirant facilitator, a teranic waste disposal specialist Officially, his job is to keep outgoing paperwork and incoed in federally financed research There is reason to believe that most such research at Ashdon involves the develope has becood of war, and that Del is the liaison between the discreet funding sources of black-budget weapons projects and the academics who thrive on their dole Like Mom

I had no doubt that Del and Judy Stuart were devastated by the disappearance of their twins, but unlike poor Lilly Wing, as an innocent and unaware of the dark side of Moonlight Bay, the Stuarts were self-committed residents of Satan’s pocket and understood that the bargain they had made required them to suffer even this terror in silence Consequently, I was amazed that Charlie had learned of these abductions

"Charlie and Nora Dai live next door to theh I don’t think they barbecue a lot together The twins are six years old Around nine o’clock last night, Judy is tucking the weeds in for the night, she hears a noise, and when she turns around, there’s a stranger right behind her"

"Stocky, close-cropped black hair, yellow eyes, thick lips, seed-corn teeth," I said, describing the kidnapper I’d encountered under the warehouse

"Tall, athletic, blond, green eyes, puckered scar on his left cheek"