Scavenger Read Online Free PDF Page B

touch it,” Amanda told him. “We’ve got to assume all the doors are electrified.”
    “Then we’ll break a window.”
    A shadow appeared at the entrance to the dining room. Amanda swung around.
    3
    In the archway, a woman stared at them. She wore camel slacks and a taupe blouse, highlighted by an expensive-looking necklace, watch, bracelet, and several rings. In her thirties, she was taller than Amanda, thin in a manner that suggested she was a compulsive dieter. Her auburn hair was pulled behind her ears. Her tan features were handsome more than beautiful. Her expression was stark.
    “What is this place?”
    Amanda gestured in frustration. “We don’t know.”
    “How did I get here? Tell me who you are.”
    “Ray Morgan.”
    “Amanda Evert.”
    “Who drugged us? I was at a cocktail party. A boat show in Newport Beach. Suddenly I was in that bed upstairs.” The woman shook her head. “I heard that recording. Time capsules? This doesn’t. ... Who on earth would do this?”
    “I’m getting out of here before I find out,” Ray said. He grabbed a chair and swung it toward a window.
    Amanda jerked her arms up to shield her face from flying glass, but all she heard was wood cracking. Twice. Three times. Louder. Ray grunted with effort. When the pounding stopped, Amanda lowered her arms and saw that a leg on the chair had broken off but the window remained intact.
    “The glass is reinforced.” Ray studied it. “Almost as thick as a jet canopy.”
    “Jet canopy?” The comparison seemed odd.
    “I was a Marine aviator in Iraq.”
    His tone suggested he meant to impress her, but all the reference to Iraq did was send a further spasm of fear through her. For Frank. It reminded her of the terror he’d endured there. Frank. She was certain that he too had been drugged. Otherwise, if he was conscious, he wouldn’t have let anything happen to her. Where was he?
    “You haven’t told us your name,” Ray said to the woman.
    “Bethany Lane.” She frowned at her bracelet and watch. “Whatever this is about, it isn’t robbery.”
    “That doesn’t encourage me,” Amanda said.
    Two more figures appeared behind the woman in the archway.
    Ray picked up the broken chair leg, holding it as a weapon.
    “It’s okay,” a man said. He raised his hands to show they were empty.
    “I heard what you said. I don’t know anything more about this than you do.”
    A woman was with him. “And we’re just as scared.”
    The man was black. In his twenties, he had thick, black hair and a lean build. The woman was Anglo, the same age, with cropped brown hair. She too was lean. They wore khaki pants with numerous extra pockets down the sides. Camping clothes.
    “Derrick Montgomery,” the man said.
    “Viv Montgomery,” the woman said. She wore a wedding ring. “The last thing I remember, we were drinking tea next to our tent, getting ready to go to sleep.”
    “In Oregon,” Derrick said. “But that’s not Oregon out there. This looks like Colorado or Wyoming.”
    “Stand back.” Ray grabbed another chair and stalked past them into the front hall, where he swung the chair at the window to the left of the door. He struck repeatedly. The impacts made the window vibrate but otherwise had no effect.
    “Son of a bitch,” Ray said.
    Derrick reached for the latch.
    “No,” Amanda warned. “It’s electrified.”
    Derrick jerked back his hand.
    “Find the electrical panel,” Bethany said. “Shut off the juice.”
    “I like the way you think.” Ray went through the dining room toward the kitchen.
    “We shouldn’t split up,” Amanda told them.
    They hurried to follow Ray and found him standing in the kitchen, staring down at a trapdoor handle.
    “Maybe it’s electrified, too,” he said.
    “I’ve got an idea.” Amanda pulled a hair from her head, wetted it with saliva, and eased it toward the handle. When it touched the metal, she felt a tingle and jerked her hand away. “Yes, it’s electrified.”
    “Test