Nightrise

Scott. I told you that from the start. We're in this together…and Danny agrees. We're going to stick with you."
    Jamie nodded his thanks. "I don't have any idea where to start," he said.
    "But I do." Alicia sat down next to him, on the edge of the bed. "A lot has happened in the last few days," she explained. "Starting with the fact that the Feds took over Silent Creek while you and Danny were hiding out in the mountains."
    "They went in…?"
    "It was John Trelawny. He's been desperately worried about you. He called the authorities."
    "I thought he couldn't do that."
    "Something changed. He wants to speak to you urgently.
    I'd have called him yesterday, only he was traveling from the East Coast, and anyway you were out of it."
    "So what happened to Silent Creek? Did they find the Block?"
    Alicia nodded. "All the prisoners — the ones they called the Specials — have been released and the other kids are going to be transferred to state facilities. I spoke to Patrick. Do you remember him?"
    Jamie thought back to the silver-haired man they had met at the hotel in Los Angeles. He had been the senator's California organizer.
    "He told me as much as he could…which actually wasn't very much. For the moment, nobody's talking.
    Of course, Nightrise is denying any knowledge of the kidnappings or anything to do with them. They're trying to claim that it was all down to Colton Banes, that he was running some sort of independent operation… and since he's dead, he's not going to argue."

    "Has there been anything in the newspapers?"
    "Not yet. The story is so huge and nobody quite understands what's been going on. For the time being, they're keeping it quiet."
    Jamie understood. He knew there would be a cover-up. There were too many questions that were not only unanswered but unanswerable. He didn't care. He was just glad that Daniel's friend — Billy — and the other kids would be returned to their families. And it was good news for Baltimore, Green Eyes, and the other prisoners too. They'd be better off with the Nevada authorities looking after them. Maybe they'd even earn an early release.
    "It's all good news," Alicia said, and Jamie Could tell that she wasn't just trying to cheer him up. "The Feds are in control. They arrested a man called Max Koring and they seized all the paperwork in the administration offices. They're going through it now. There must be some record of what happened to Scott. Someone must know where he is. They'll find something. I'm sure of it."
    Jamie wanted to share her optimism. But he wasn't so sure. It seemed to him that Nightrise was bigger and more powerful than any of them suspected. But then he had seen the Old Ones. The shape-changers.
    The fire riders. The mutilated humans. So much death, delivered without a second thought. Sitting here in this trailer on the edge of the Reno airport, Alicia thought the world was safe. Jamie knew how wrong she might be.
    "Why does Senator Trelawny want to see me?" he asked.
    "He didn't say. He just said that he had new information and there was someone you had to meet. He thought they'd find you at the prison. The people who went in…their first job was to get you out and bring you to him. We'll see him tomorrow."
    "Where is he now?"
    "Not all that far from here. He's just over the state line in California…in the High Sierra. Have you heard of a place called Auburn?"
    Jamie shook his head.
    "It's an old mining town. It got big in the gold rush days. John was born there and today it's his fiftieth birthday, so they're giving him a parade." There was a television in the room, on the kitchen counter, and a remote control next to the bed. Alicia reached out and picked it up. "There should be something on the news," she said.
    She switched the television on.

    It was already tuned to a twenty-four-hour news channel. The anchorman was talking about the result of a trial following some big financial scandal. Then there were commercials. Then a story about a basketball player charged with murder.
    "We'll meet the senator in Los Angeles," Alicia said.
    "Are the police still looking for me?" Jamie asked. It suddenly dawned on him how ridiculous his situation had become. He had committed no crime but he was still wanted for the murders of Don White and Marcie Kelsey. And as Jeremy Rabb, he was presumably wanted for various drug offenses and for escaping from Silent Creek. How had he got himself into this mess?
    But Alicia never got a chance to answer the