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turned to see the deputy seated next to
him. She was one year younger than his twenty-six years, had blond
hair, blue eyes, and stood a couple of inches taller than him. He
hated being small. “You want me to go back and try again, Deputy
Novak?”
    “Uh-oh, I must have hit a nerve. Deputy
Novak? What happened to Janet?”
    “I didn’t want people to think we were
getting chummy.”
    “What people? And we are chummy.”
    He eyed her again and smiled. He had been
working with Janet for almost a year, and a romance was budding.
Out of professional concerns, they both had fought it, but their
resistance had worn down. They had started dating, discreetly, last
month.
    “Oh, yeah. I forgot.”
    “You better not forget. I’m armed and looking
for a reason to fire my weapon.”
    “That’s what I like—a beautiful woman who
packs heat.”
    “Please, no more flattery, I may swoon. How
much farther?”
    “I haven’t been out here for ten years, but
if I remember correctly, we should see the lake in another two or
three miles.”
    “I can’t believe you’re the only one on the
force who knew this place existed. If it’s everything you say it
is, it should be a tourist trap.”
    “Not necessarily,” Carl said. “You ever fly
in a commercial airliner?”
    “A few times. Why?”
    “I flew across country once to interview for
the Asheville Police Department. I had a window seat and passed the
time watching the terrain from thirty-five thousand feet. Big lakes
and reservoirs are easy to spot. I was surprised how many of them
had no buildings around them. You can’t see detail from that
height, but you can tell if there has been significant development.
I imagine there are a lot of man-made lakes that don’t attract
attention.”
    “So I shouldn’t expect a McDonald’s?”
    Carl pushed the accelerator to drive the SUV
up another grade. At least they were in the newest vehicle at the
substation. That was a plus. “You should expect to see a
reservoir—” Carl hit the breaks as they crested the grade. The car
stuttered to a stop, the tires kicking up loose dirt into a cloud.
“What . . . Where . . .”
    “It’s a barricade.”
    “I know it’s a barricade, but what’s it doing
on this road?” Carl peered over the hood at the
red-and-white-striped wooden barricade. A no trespassing sign hung
from the cross beam. Carl put the vehicle in Park and opened his
door.
    “Where you going?” Janet unsnapped her seat
belt and opened her door.
    Carl didn’t answer. Instead he crossed the
distance from the Escape to the barrier. Something wasn’t right. He
stopped and studied it. It was made of wood and looked new. The
sign below read:
     
    No Trespassing
    by Order of the U.S. Government
    Offenders Will Be Prosecuted
     
    Janet whistled. “Looks like they mean
business.”
    “This isn’t government property. Not by a
long shot.”
    “Maybe we wandered into Nellis Air Force Base
territory. They’re kinda particular about who walks on their
dirt.”
    “That’s to the south of us. We couldn’t have
wandered that far off.”
    “Maybe Groom Lake is gobbling up some more
property.”
    Carl shook his head. “I’m not buying it. This
barricade is new. It can’t have been on this spot more than a
couple of days.”
    “Is that a fact, Sherlock? How did you deduce
that?”
    Reaching forward, Carl ran his finger along
the top of the wood beam. He felt the smooth surface of the paint.
He held the finger up. “Just a touch of dust. How much dust do you
have in your house?”
    “That’s kind of personal, don’t you
think?”
    “I dust on a regular basis, and by the end of
the week I have enough dirt in the house to plant corn. This is
open land; we get dust and dirt and wind to carry it. This should
have a good bit more dust than it does. I doubt the military sends
out housekeepers to tidy up signs and barricades. Look at the
paint.”
    Janet leaned forward. “It looks fine. What am
I supposed to see?”
    “If