hot and long with soap and shampoo. It wasn’t a great hotel, but all that mattered to me was the shower, which I stayed under until the water went cold.

I walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Coop was lying on top of one of the two queen-size beds in his underwear.

It was still light outside.

Coop’s eyes were closed.

The phoenix was completely exposed. It was bigger than I had thought, running from his neck almost down to his waist.

The CB, one two-way, and the car battery were on the floor. Alex had taken the antenna off the car. It was now hanging out the window. He had also taken most of our cash. He needed it to buy a different car in case Lod was suspicious of the car we’d been driving. He’d been gone for a couple of hours. We were supposed to call him on the two-way if we heard from Lod. There was a lot of chatter on the CB, but none of the people talking sounded like Lod. Coop was supposed to have been listening while I was in the shower, but it didn’t look like that had worked out.

“I’m not asleep,” Coop said with his eyes still closed. “Did you leave me any hot water?”

“No.”

“Some things never change.”

“I did leave you a dry towel.”

He grinned, eyes still closed. “It’s a miracle. No word from Lod or Bella. The others could be talking on the radio, but I wouldn’t recognize their voices. It sounds like a mundane evening on the southern Oregon coast. People looking for dinner and hotel recommendations. Truckers telling other truckers where they’re going to park for the night. Before cell phones, I bet there was a lot more radio traffic. The CBs were abuzz.”

He opened his eyes and sat up. “I guess I’ll go take a cold shower.”

I got dressed in relatively clean clothes, then paced the room knowing that if I sat or lay down I would fall asleep within seconds.

“Half an hour.”

I stopped in midstep. It sounded like Lod.

“Sorry. I didn’t copy that.”

Bella?

“Half an hour. All clear.”

“Copy. We’ll be there. Out.”

I picked up the two-way, dialed in the agreed frequency, keyed the talk button, then let it go. What was I going to say? Hey, Alex. Pat here. Coop’s little brother. Just heard Lod tell Bella he’ll be landing in half an hour. Thought you’d want to know.

If we were monitoring radio transmissions, they were probably monitoring radio transmissions.

Coop came out of the bathroom shivering.

“That was invigorating, Lil Bro. Thanks.” He noticed I was just standing there with the two-way in my hand. “What?”

I explained the problem.

“That is a conundrum.” He held his hand out for the two-way. Reluctantly I gave it to him. “Now how do you talk on this thing?”

Coop the tech whiz.

“Maybe we should just wait until Alex gets back,” I said.

Coop keyed the talk button.

“Jerry. Otto here.”

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“Did you get the beer?”

“I got it.”

“How about my kite? Axel says that it finally came down.”

There was a hesitation.

“Okay. I’ll swing by and see if I can find it. Talk to you later. Out.”

Coop tossed the two-way on the bed and gave me his trademark grin. “What did you think?”

“It sounded pretty much like all the other stupid conversations we heard today. Jerry?”

“Short for Jeremy, which he uses on his driver’s license.”

“Do you think he understood?”

“We’ll find out.”

We did not find out for nearly two more hours. Even Coop, who never appeared to be concerned about anything, was showing signs of worry by the time Alex finally showed up.

He walked in carrying several bags, which he set down on a bed.

“I didn’t bring you beer,” he said. “Nor did I find your kite. But that was pretty good. You guys might become Pod members yet. You’re beginning to show a real aptitude for paranoia, a primary ingredient for joining the gang.”

“Did you see Lod?” Coop asked.

“I wish you would both just call him Larry. The Lord of the Deep, or Lod, makes him sound like the former archangel Lucifer. He’s as smart as a devil, but he’s just a man named Larry.”

“Sorry,” Coop said. “Larry. Did you see him?”

“From a distance. Through binoculars. I bought two pairs. He was in a Bell Helicopter with a pilot and another guy. I suspect the other guy is a pilot too, and maybe a spotter as well. Larry doesn’t believe in leaving anything to chance. If the pilot keels over dead, there’s another person on board who can fly the helicopter. Larry always has an exit plan.”

“Were they Originals, or from the Deep?” I asked.

“Nope. Never saw either guy before, which isn’t surprising. They were both young. Thirty or so. Fit. The Originals are all old like me. Of course they’re going to use youngsters to help them with the things they can no longer do, or things they don’t know how to do, like flying a helicopter. The two guys moved like ex-military. Foreign if I had to guess. Hired help. But I’m speculating. I was a quarter mile away and couldn’t hear them talking.”

“Did you find out where they went?” Coop asked.

“First, let’s talk about how they went. Three small SUVs. Not old. Not new. Nondescript. We’ve seen hundreds of them on the road. So many of them they’re nearly invisible. Larry got into the middle one along with the pilots. They left the airport at three-minute intervals. Lead car, Larry’s car, then a chase car. They’re definitely watching their front and back trail. I’m certain we passed the SUVs, or they passed us driving south. We’re lucky to have been so far behind the caravan. If we had been closer they would have checked us out and might have made us.”

“Did they travel like this all across the country?” I asked.

“Some version of it. They probably weren’t together all the time. And they may not be all together now. I doubt that the whole group was with Bella and Bill at the train station in Portland. I think Larry is sending people out on side trips as needed. Maybe even stopping the big group from time to time to let the others catch up with it. They had to have stopped someplace earlier today or we wouldn’t have caught up with them. This is a very orchestrated migration.”

“The question is, where are they migrating to?” Coop asked.

“We’ll know when we get there. Right now they’re at Sunset Bay State Park.”

“You followed them there?” I asked. “You just said that we were lucky they hadn’t —”

“Simmer down. I was behind the chase car and I was perfectly disguised.” He walked over to the window and opened the curtains.

In the parking lot just outside our room was a truck with a camper on the back. Behind it was a small trailer with a boat.

“Now you get to learn how to drive a truck,” Alex said.

Lucky me.

“What about the boat?”

“Came with the camper. We’ll ditch it in a day or two, which will change our profile from the air. Look at the plates.”

They were California plates.

“We’re just one of many happy campers heading home after the holidays. Shouldn’t raise too much suspicion, even if they spot us on different days. And there’s a bonus: The camper is equipped with a CB unit in the cab.”

“Did you follow them right into the park?” Coop asked. “Did you see Kate?”

Alex shook his head. “Turned around before I got to the gate. There was only one entrance. What we’ll do tonight is get in front of them, wait for them to pass us. Hopscotch with them down south. While you guys load the camper, I’ll take a quick shower. We’ll head south when I’m finished. I hope you left me some hot water.”

“Brace yourself,” Coop said. “Pat hogged all the heat.”

I shook my head. “Coop was the last one in the shower.”