Dozens of bootprints mark the area where the soldiers tracked through camp looking for us. I follow the prints down the mountain, my heart pounding as I trace the path that Chance and Junebug took as they fled from the soldiers. I race along for several miles before I see the broken branches and trampled foliage that are evidence of a fight. The kids’ backpacks are torn open and flung aside.
This is where the soldiers caught up to them. I can still smell the uniforms combined with the fuel of the Black Hawk helicopter that carried them here.
I call out to Chance and Junebug, howling into the forest, but nothing comes back except the echo of my own voice.
The scents on the forest floor tell the story. The children ran until the soldiers caught them. They struggled as best they could, but they were overpowered and carried away, at which point their scents disappear entirely.
I whine with frustration and rage that I wasn’t here to protect them when they needed me.
A flash of light catches my eye. I see a glint of metal on the ground behind a tree and run toward it.
It’s Junebug’s laptop. It’s tucked between the tree roots and half-covered with leaves. Junebug would never leave her laptop unless…
She hid it here on purpose, hoping I would come back and find it.
I scrape off the leaves and nudge it open with the tip of my nose.
Junebug has turned off her security, and the screen lights up as soon as I touch a key.
I’m looking at a Google map of the California coast. There’s a location pinned forty miles north of here, in the direction the helicopters were flying.
It’s a different mountain range than the one I’m standing on. I study the area around it, a deserted expanse far from cities and developments. I look for anything I might recognize, any clue at all.
That’s when I see it.
Point Mugu.
That’s where they’ve taken the kids, so that’s where I’ll go.