Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 37



THEIR CAPTORS LED Jake and Charlotte to the community house where they faced Thaddeus Kohler. Four men stood behind him. Melisse, Rachel, and Brandi stopped placing clean dishes, forks, and platters of food onto the table to stare at the two strangers.

“Who are you?” Kohler asked.

“Jake Sullivan, Sheriff of Lemhi County,” Jake said. He gestured toward the women. “I've been trying to find those students and their professor.”

“And her?” Kohler’s gaze drifted over Charlotte with curiosity, from her straight blond hair, along her thin, angular body, now held stiffly rigid, to her heavy-soled boots.

“She's my deputy,” Jake said. He moved closer to her, clearly protective. “Charlotte Reed.”

Kohler’s gaze moved between Jake and Charlotte. “I see.” He continued. “Who are the others?”

“What others?” Jake asked innocently.

“We are not fools, Sheriff Sullivan,” Kohler said. “The two men who travel with you, and the men following you.”

Jake and Charlotte glanced at each other. “Following us?”

Kohler gave them an icy smile. “We suspected you did not know.”

“You’re right,” Jake said, his jaw tight. “There’s a reward for rescuing the students. Some damn fools might want it for themselves.” He gazed hard at Charlotte. “Are they Feds? Friends of yours?”

“Don’t be silly,” she said with a sneer.

“Where are the rest of the students and their professor?” Jake asked Kohler.

“I am the one who asks questions here, Sheriff,” Kohler said. “But there is no reason to keep from you that Lionel Rempart and Vince Norton are quartered in the stable.”

Jake did a quick count in his head. He already knew the fate of Ted and Brian. That left Devlin Farrell unaccounted for. He faced the women. “Are you all right?”

“We’re well enough,” Melisse said. “Except that we don’t know how to return home. Apparently, neither do they.”

At Melisse’s words, a chilling thought came to Jake. He faced Kohler. “You still haven’t told me who you are.”

“My name is Thaddeus Kohler.”

Jake recognized the name of the paramilitary team leader who disappeared some thirteen years earlier. But as he looked over these men, a couple of them looked too young to have been here that many years. “How long have you been here?”

“Thirteen years,” Kohler replied.

At Charlotte’s sharp intake of breath, Jake met her eye. She, too, understood who these men were.

“What is this place?” Charlotte asked.

“I wish I could explain it.” Kohler shook his head. “But I cannot.”

“We’d like our guns back,” Jake said. “We need to be able to protect ourselves.”

“You will, as soon as we’re sure we can trust you.”

Jake braced himself, his eyes narrow slits as he coldly regarded Kohler.

Kohler's face grew taut. “Tieg, show the sheriff to the stable. The female ‘deputy’ will remain with the women.” He waited as all the men left, and turned to follow them out when Charlotte stopped him.

She handed him her last pack of cigarettes. “I’m sure some of your men will enjoy these. There’s no reason for us not to be friends, you know.”

Kohler took one out and smelled it, then broke off the filter. Charlotte stuck a match and lit it for him.

“I want you to know,” she said, “that if you have any information about what’s going on here, and if it’s in any way connected to the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the pillars, I may be able to help. But I’ll need more information. A starting point.”

“Egyptian what?” he asked.

“Writing.”

He nodded. “We didn’t know. The symbols were strange to us. None of us has ever seen Egyptian writing.”

“I see,” she said, but nevertheless, his words surprised her.

His haughty presence seemed to bristle as if he recognized her surprise at his lack of knowledge, but when his eyes met hers, her breath caught. She hadn’t seen such emptiness since the day she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror shortly after Dennis’ death.

“I’ll think about that ‘starting point’ you mentioned.” With that, he left.

Charlotte considered herself a good judge of character. As much as she wanted to trust Thaddeus Kohler, she could not.