Dangerous Minds (Knight and Moon #2)(53)

Emerson closed his eyes. “We don’t have to sit around forever. Just until three P.M.”

“Why three P.M.?”

Emerson smiled. “The clouds may drop down titles and estates, and wealth may seek us but wisdom must be sought.”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Wu wei whatever.”

Riley woke from a sound sleep at two-thirty P.M. to the sound of her cellphone alarm. She hadn’t intended to take a nap, but she’d been up since four in the morning and was exhausted. Vernon was kneeling next to a snoring Wayan Bagus with a can of shaving cream he’d appropriated from the dormitory bathroom in one hand and a feather in the other. Emerson was looking out the window and down the mountain.

Vernon held his index finger up to his lips, grinned at Riley, and pointed at Wayan Bagus’s hand. It was filled with a giant glob of shaving cream.

“Little Buddy, wakey-wakey,” he whispered, tickling the monk’s cheek with the feather.

Wayan Bagus snorted and turned his face from side to side. “Spiders, spiders,” he mumbled.

“Get those spiders,” Vernon whispered.

Without ever opening his eyes, Wayan Bagus lifted his shaving-cream-filled hand and smacked Vernon in the back of the head.

“Son of a bitch,” Vernon said. He wiped the shaving cream off his head and went to the bathroom to clean up.

Riley crossed the small room and stood behind Emerson. “What are you looking at?”

Emerson pointed down the mountain toward Pohakuloa. The clouds had returned, and white tendrils of fog were creeping around the airfield and buildings at the army base.

“I’m looking at the fog,” Emerson said. “I’m waiting for the universe to solve our problems. Another half hour and the entire area will be completely socked in. We could be right on top of Tin Man and he wouldn’t see us.”

Riley watched the clouds as they continued to roll in. “We also won’t be able to see him. How did you know the universe would send you fog at precisely three P.M.?”

Emerson held up his iPad. “The universe works in mysterious ways. In this case, the universe sent me a Weather Channel app. Besides, the clouds always come back in the afternoon.”

Thirty minutes later, Emerson, Riley, Vernon, and Wayan Bagus were standing outside the Onizuka Center. Thick clouds covered the lower elevations of the mountain, and the temperature was noticeably cooler.

Vernon shifted from foot to foot. “What the heck are we doing out here?”

“Waiting for our transportation,” Emerson said.

“Is it being provided by the universe?” Riley asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” Emerson said.

Alani pulled up to the front of the center in a six-person Polaris ATV. “Ready to go?” she asked.

“I’m ready to go nowhere with you behind the wheel of this thing,” Vernon said. “I’d rather walk.”

“Good idea,” Alani said. “You go wandering around in the zero-visibility fog. I’ll follow you in the ATV. I’m sure you’ll be perfectly safe. I’m an excellent driver. Only had one accident.”

“Emerson, did you hear that? Devil Woman threatened me,” Vernon said. “She’s probably planning on driving us all over a cliff.”

“There aren’t any cliffs here,” Alani said. “You’re safe . . . for now.”

“Okay then,” Vernon said, getting into the back seat next to Wayan Bagus, “but I’m keeping my eye on you.”

Alani drove into the cloud cover down the access road to Saddle Road and toward Pohakuloa.

“I wouldn’t think it was possible, but it’s even more dense than it was this morning,” Riley said.

Emerson pointed to an unimproved Jeep trail, barely visible through the fog, off to the right side of the road. “Turn there.”

Alani turned onto the gravelly path and followed the tire tracks as best she could.

“We need to stay on the trail,” she said. “We’re officially trespassing on the army training area, and there’s unexploded ordnance left over from past military exercises all over the place. As long as we stay on the trail we’re safe.”

“Well, I don’t feel safe,” Vernon said. “I feel like I’m a character in some horror movie. You know, the kind of dumbass who’s being chased by a serial killer and decides to hide in a graveyard or an abandoned warehouse or some seriously scary fog.”

“I am certain that this is perfectly normal fog,” Emerson said. “Except for the unexploded artillery and top-secret government research facility guarded by a sociopathic axe murderer. But other than that, it’s a perfectly normal fog.”

“It would be easier to stay on the trail if someone walked in front of me,” Alani said.

Emerson got out of the ATV and picked his way over the disturbed gravel with the ATV bumping along behind him, making slow progress. After ten minutes of walking he held his hand up as a signal that they should stop.

“We should park the Polaris and go on foot from here on,” Emerson said. “We’re getting close to where the SUV disappeared, and I don’t want to risk them hearing the sound of a motor approaching.”

Riley looked around. She couldn’t see more than a couple feet in front of her face.

“This cloud cover is completely disorienting,” she said. “If someone accidentally wanders off the trail they’ll never find their way back.”