Argent Glass

Chapter 17 - Tender - Carrel

Dr. Carrel hugged the ground under a juniper bush. Less than five feet away, a pair of hiking shoes went by. Andrew, he reminded himself, and the boy still standing at the fence was Evan. Andrew had called him that.

He slowly shifted his head to look back at Evan who stood dejectedly at the fence watching Andrew's receding back. Slowly, Evan moved to pick up his sleep mat. He bounced it in his hands a couple of times, then pitched it over the fence.

Andrew hadn't looked back, so he didn't see Evan thrust his bag under the fence or put his hands together in prayer and look to the sky before scrambling under. He kept walking until the sleep mat bounced off the back of his head. It was game on.

Carrel smiled at their play. Their laughter tugged at the corner of his broken heart. To have one more day with Leslie to romp like this.

When Andrew and Evan were out of range of hearing, Carrel slid from under the bush. He hung back out of sight and stopped each time the boys rested for a water break.

As the sun dropped lower in the sky, it was easier to move without being seen, but it was also harder to see, and he suddenly found he had moved back into earshot of the redhead's incessant chatter. He could hear rocks displaced underfoot as he followed behind and tried to advance more silently. If the boys heard him, they must have thought it was some nocturnal animal getting restless with the onset of night because they kept moving forward.

A dip in the earth led to the sandy terrain of a washout. It was just visible in the waning light, and the boys followed along its edge, while Carrel tracked in and out around bushes and other scrub at its lip. At one point, Andrew stopped and turned around to gaze in his direction. Carrel froze. His movement was more likely to give him away than the shape of his body against the myriad of boulders and brush in the oncoming darkness.

Andrew adjusted his pack and dropped out of sight into the washout after Evan. As Carrel crept closer, he found the boys setting up camp between a pair of wildly growing lemonade bushes. Sleeping bags were pulled from their packs while they talked. Their voices carried lightly in the cooling, still air.

"Campfire?" Evan stood with his hands clasped before him as if in prayer.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Probably not. People could be watching. Campfire?"

"I didn't bring marshmallows."

"Guess I don't need a fire then." Evan pulled the tent from Andrew's pack and unrolled it. "Keep an eye out for those Dulce scientists. Your mom will kill us if we get kidnapped for a bunch of human genome research projects."

"They're a bit north of us. I think we're safe."

"Or...maybe we're close to their back door. You know, like gophers. Giant underground network with escape hatches all over. It wouldn't make sense to only have one way in and out."

Andrew pulled at the corners of the tent and lined up the poles.

"It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that we're walking into some secret secondary entrance."

"That would mean miles of underground tunnels. Who'd dig that? Better yet, who would dig miles and miles of tunnels and not talk about it?"

"Migrants. Who'd miss them? Dulce grabs them from the border, promises them money, tells them in America we pay after the job is finished, then–" Evan zipped his thumb across his throat. "Who'd even notice they were missing?"

Carrel was as close as he could get. As he took a seat at the edge of the washout, he dislodged some stones and they rolled down the embankment with a light clatter.