Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 22



EARLIER THAT DAY, Hammill had stopped his ATV at the top of the mountain ridge and looked at the horses Charlotte Reed and her fellow search team had used, but now had abandoned. “Damn it all!”

It had taken longer than he expected to find three double-seat ATVs in the Salmon area, and then they had to rent U-Hauls to get them out to Polly Higgins’ ranch. Once there, it was child’s play to follow the tracks of four horses into the wilderness, and they quickly closed the distance between them.

But just as the horses could not descend the steep mountain, neither could ATVs. They got off and ran, slipped and slid down the mountain. The pillars surprised them, but they believed the pillars meant they were near the end of the mission, that they would soon find the university group. Exhilarated, they jogged toward the pillars, but stopped when Charlotte Reed and the others came into view.

Hammill and his men dropped to the ground and watched.

Lightning flickered, then a strange rumbling thunder echoed through the valley although the sky remained clear. The men grew nervous, but Hammill kept focused as the searchers began to climb the mound. From what he could see through the binoculars, nothing was up there. He picked up his sat phone to give an update on his success at finding the pillars.

He watched the searchers at the top as they stopped and talked, then saw a strange pirouette by Charlotte Reed and one of the men. His sat phone wasn’t working, which made no sense. He smacked it against his palm then tried again.

“Aw, f*ck!” Crawford, aka Crawfish, then simply Fish muttered.

The Hammer looked up just in time to watch as one by one, the searchers walked between the pillars. And disappeared.

He nearly dropped the expensive communications equipment. “Holy shit!”