Then he had a thought that chilled him.
What if Matt’s place was under surveillance?
Wait… what if his parents’ house was being watched? Jesus.
He was only a math teacher.
Who was he kidding, thinking he could kill the Six-Fingered Man, much less track down the truth of giants?
His cell phone rang, making him jump.
He stared at the screen, not recognizing the number.
He answered slowly.
“Ethan? Is that you?” came a voice he hadn’t heard in six years.
His breath left him, and his heart skipped a beat.
“Shanny? I—I never thought I’d hear from you again.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Ethan. I went off to war, not another planet.” A pause, then: “I heard about your dad. I’m so sorry, Ethan.”
Shannon Witherspoon had been his girlfriend the last three years of college. She’d gone using an ROTC scholarship, but other than early morning training and the occasional other ROTC commitments, he hadn’t really noticed. That was until she’d graduated and went off as a newly commissioned second lieutenant. They’d had quite the row, and he remembered saying things he never should have said. Now, hearing her voice brought back all the feelings he thought he’d buried.
“Shanny, I—”
“You don’t have to say it, Ethan. I hold equal blame. I just wanted to call and let you know how sorry I am. Your dad was one of the good ones.”
One of the good ones. Yes, he was.
“Can we—can we get coffee sometime?” Then he scoffed. “I don’t even know where you are. Iraq? Afghanistan? Mars?”
She laughed hollowly. “I’m back at the university. Getting a master’s so I can be employable in the civilian world. Not too many folks out there need a captain who’s an expert in strategic communication equipment.”
“You’re here? In Colorado?”
They made arrangements to meet the next day at the student union, which worked out perfectly. Ethan had an idea, and he needed the university to try it out.
* * *
The next day found him sitting at a computer terminal on the second floor of Norlin Commons, staring at the empty search-engine bar an hour before they were supposed to meet. The circulation desk was behind him, and behind that was the entrance to the West Quad. He’d chosen Norlin Commons because it was the first to open of any of the University of Colorado library locations. He’d hoped that his student log-in was still active. He’d never turned it off. Luckily, it was, so he was absolutely logged in as Ethan McCloud, and everyone would know it.
He glanced at the corner of the room and saw the CCTV camera, then turned to the other corner and saw where one was affixed there, as well. They could be watching him this very moment and he’d never know.
He’d left the house at five that morning to miss the morning traffic and ensure he was at the library when it opened. His mother had been awake and in the kitchen.
“Why are you up so early?” she’d asked.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Do you want some coffee?” she’d asked.
“No. I might get some. I’m going for a drive.”
She’d appraised him and seemed about to say something but decided against it. “Suit yourself. You going to be back in time for breakfast?”
He stared long and lovingly at her. “I don’t think so, Mom.”
She’d looked at him as if she’d known he was leaving. “Suit yourself,” she said again. “I love you, dear.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
All the way to Boulder he’d wondered how she’d known he was leaving and how she’d known it was important not to stop him. Had his father told her the secret? Or was it merely a mother’s intuition? Either way, he was glad to have been able to tell her he loved her rather than slither off like a snake in the night.
Now he was either going to bring the entire world down upon his head, or absolutely nothing would happen. Part of him, the mathematical part that believed in odds and metrics, wondered if they all weren’t being duped. What if his father had been the victim of suggestion with his dreams of the Six-Fingered Man? What if it had been a simple, badly timed aneurysm? What if Matt had been the victim of a simple, non-conspiracy-related, ill-timed hit-and-run?
This can’t be real, right?
Ethan was about to find out if it was or wasn’t. He had three search screens opened and shrunk them until they were side by side.
In the first, he typed the word giant.
In the second, he typed, Six-Fingered Man.
And in the third, he typed, Council of David.
He counted to ten, pressed enter on each of the search bars, then shut off the monitor but left the computer running. He put a sticky on the monitor that read OUT OF ORDER. Without looking up, he stood, grabbed his backpack with the laptop inside, then strode causally toward the stacks, where he found a place to wait and watch. He reached out and grabbed a book. It was On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. The irony wasn’t lost on him.
Several minutes ticked by. Twice student-aged young men approached the computer, only to turn away after reading the note. He wondered how the Six-Fingered Man would do it. He couldn’t be everywhere at once. He’d probably use local police forces to detain him.
Ethan was about to give up when, sure enough, a pair of campus police entered using the West Quad entrance. One of them stopped at the circulation desk and showed the clerk a picture. The other went directly to the computer.
Ethan checked his watch. Seven minutes. Holy shit!
The campus security guard stood in front of the computer, then removed the sticky note. He reached down to where Ethan knew the on-off switch to be for the monitor, and turned it back on.
Ethan glanced at the nearest security camera. He was out of range where he was sitting. He pulled a Colorado Buffs baseball hat out of his pack as well as a pair of clear reading glasses. He put the cap on his head and the glasses on his face. He felt immediately uneasy and off-balance. They’d been his father’s reading glasses and made the universe fuzzy. There was no way he’d be able to wear them and walk. Still, to help defeat any biometrics, he had to change the cut of his face, so he slid them halfway down his nose and left them there. Then he lowered his head and left the stacks. Instead of taking a right, which would take him back to where the police were, he took a left to the stairs and elevator bank.
He opened the heavy door to the stairs, entered the stairwell, then ran up the steps as fast as he could. He exited onto the third-floor stacks, walked through them to the matching set of stairs on the other side of the building, then descended. When he exited onto the first floor again, he saw one of the policemen waiting for the elevator while the other entered the other set of stairs.
He strode by the circulation desk. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the clerk turn and give him a long look. Ethan whispered beneath his breath, Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.
“Hey, you’re that guy!”
Damn it!
He kept his pace steady, went through the scanners, and the alarm went off. He looked down and saw he was still carrying On the Origin of Species. The clerk came running, and Ethan hurled the book at the guy’s chest, then turned and strode out the door, merging with a group of girls. They didn’t seem to notice him as they went down the stairs to the quad. They veered right to the humanities and he veered left to the Ekeley Sciences building. He’d have preferred to go to the mathematics building, but that was in the opposite direction. Ekeley was the next best choice. He was almost there when he heard a shout from behind.