Submerged Read Online Free Page A

this thing had been here very long, the
paint should be faded and cracked.” Carl squatted and studied the
ground. “Footprints. Look like boots. Several pairs.”
    “Well, the thing wouldn’t have walked here by
itself.” Janet paused. “Okay, I get it. The tracks are fresh, is
that it?”
    “On the nose, my dear deputy, on the nose.”
He stood and studied the area. “No fences. If the military wanted
to protect this area, they would have put up at least a token
fence. No sir, something ain’t right.” Stepping to the side of the
barrier, Carl took hold of one end and lifted.
    “Is this wise?”
    He moved it a few feet, then set it down.
“This is heavier than it looks.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question.”
    Carl saw not fear, but caution in Janet’s
eyes. “I’m telling you, we’re not on government property. We’re
here to find a missing man. That’s our assignment. I plan to carry
it out. Besides, it’s not like we’re tourists. We’re uniformed
officers. Now, are you going to help me or not?”
    Again Carl lifted and an instant later his
load was made lighter by Janet’s added strength. Together they
moved the barricade to the side of the road.
    “We have to put it back when we leave,” Janet
insisted. After Carl agreed, she added, “And if a helicopter comes
over the hills and shoots me in the head, I’ll never speak to you
again.”
    “Are you sure you’d know if you were shot in
the head? After all, you are a blond—”
    “Finish that sentence, and I’ll slap you so
hard your grandparents will bruise.”
    Carl laughed. “I love a tough woman. Get
in.”
    The tires slipped as Carl pressed the gas
pedal but gained traction a half second later. Steering past the
barricade they had moved to the side, Carl drove on, down a slight
grade, then up a longer, steeper hill. He was glad the vehicle had
four-wheel drive. It took another ten minutes and several twists
and turns before they crested one more incline and saw what they
had come to see.
    “Wow,” Janet said. “It’s huge.”
    Carl stopped the car and studied the blue
lake that ex-tended before them. “There are many that are larger,
but this reservoir has nothing to be ashamed of.”
    “I can’t believe I didn’t know this place
existed.”
    Carl directed the vehicle forward again,
easing down a grade that led to the lakeshore. “I checked a couple
of maps this morning. It’s been years since I’ve hiked these hills,
and I wanted to make sure we didn’t get lost. This doesn’t appear
on any of them.”
    “You have a woman with you. There’s no chance
you’d get lost.”
    “Cute. There are no gas stations to ask
directions.”
    “Yeah, as if a man would stop and ask
directions.”
    Carl shook his head. “That’s an unfair
stereotype.”
    Janet cocked her head. “Have you ever asked for directions?”
    “I see a truck up ahead. We better get out
and see if it belongs to our missing man.”
    “That’s what I thought. Never asked for
directions in your life.”
    They exited and started for a dark blue,
well-used Chevy pickup that was parked near the shore fifty yards
ahead of them. The missing person’s report described a similar
truck. As Carl approached, he could see a homemade boat rack,
sitting in the pickup’s bed and stretching over the cab. There was
no boat. He looked out over the lake again. It was flat and blue
and empty of boats.
    “This guy came up here to fish?” Janet asked.
“This is a long way to come to snag a few trout.”
    “Die-hard fishermen have their own ways and
reasons.” Carl took a few more steps. “If I remember right, there’s
a barbed-wire fence—there it is.” A rusty upright stuck up from
some brush near the waterline. It angled sharply to one side. Even
at a distance, Carl could see that it was old and untended. As they
neared, Carl saw that the three strands of wire had been cut or
rusted through, and they lay along the ground. Something white was
partially buried