The mountainside was alternately rocky and muddy, with thick grasses in some places and none in others, steep inclines in spots and gentle slopes in others. The first and last time Hannah had been up here it wasn't the rainy season, which made a big difference. It also wasn't nighttime then, where every click, hooo, and crunch wasn't a potential danger. When the wind was refreshing and not a gentle betrayer.

As they climbed, Hannah watched Grand in the glow of the Wall's flashlight. The scientist moved with such poise and balance that it was suddenly difficult to picture him sitting still in a chair back in that small room at the university. Yet he had seemed at home there too. Also when he was wisecracking about Gearhart running for governor.

Outer and inner strength, humor, and intelligence, Hannah thought. And from the way Grand smiled each time he mentioned her name, still very much in love with his late wife.

Hannah had never met anyone quite like him. She felt safe around him, something she'd never felt around Sheriff Gearhart.

They continued up and around the slope, sometimes ascending so steeply that they were literally on their hands and knees going up. As they climbed, Grand occasionally pocketed large, flat stones. She was curious about them but didn't want to talk and break her concentration on the climb.

Eventually they saw the edge of the spotlight. There was enough light spilling over so they could see, and Grand had them shut off their flashlights so that they wouldn't be noticed from the ground or, possibly, from whatever was above. Then he led them around the arc, toward the slide path. It was interesting feeling her way: Her other senses truly did compensate for not being able to see as well, her sense of touch in particular. She was much more aware of the stability, texture, and even the temperature of each rock or ledge or tree trunk she used to climb.

The air was cooler and the wind nippier as they ascended. Hannah could see the moon-speckled ocean in the distance, the white clouds, the stars, the misty lights of Santa Barbara.

They passed the boulders and followed the slide path straight up.

Suddenly, Grand stopped and pointed ahead. "Look."

About forty or fifty feet up the mountain leveled off. It was as though a massive piece had been sliced from the top. A forest of oaks had grown there, the outermost trees slanting sharply outward, bent and shoved but not dislodged by decades of rain. The slide path started at the edge of those woods, bounded on both sides by boulders that hadn't come free. They were too low to see whether or not there was an opening.

Grand started climbing again. So did Hannah. With a deep sigh, so did the Wall.

They reached the summit ten minutes later. Breathing heavily, her hands cold, swollen, and throbbing. Hannah stood beside Grand as he looked down a sinkhole. He turned on his flashlight, using his body to shield it from the campsite. The sinkhole wasn't as large as the one by Painted Cave, only about four feet across. Like the hole in the creek bed, this one sloped away sharply inside. The interior was studded with root tips and rocks, many half-buried in the wall. The soil was dark, rich, and damp.

Grand turned and shined his flashlight into the thick woods. So did the Wall. The twin beams met on a dirt path that led to this point, which was probably a scenic stop for hikers. The narrow, deeply rutted path slanted toward the ledge; rainwater had obviously followed it down, backed up behind the boulders, and created the sinkhole. They couldn't see very far into the woods as ground fog and clouds merged to form a misty cloak.

But they discovered that this hole had something they had not found at the other holes. Something they saw when Grand's light moved slowly across the woods, along the heavy cover of leaves and high grasses.

Another set of eyes, watching it.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The two eyes were about one hundred feet away, maybe four feet off the ground. Large and milky-white, they possessed an eerie luminescence in the gleam of his flashlight. Almost immediately upon spotting the eyes in the deep thicket, Grand shut off his light. If the owner hunted at night and lived in caves, the glare would only antagonize him.

"Wall?" Grand said.

"Yes, sir?"

"Shine your light on the ground."

The Wall did.

"Is it one of them?" Hannah asked.

"I don't know," Grand replied. "It could be an elk or an owl on a low branch-anything." Grand handed his light to Hannah to free up his hands. "Both of you back away from the sinkhole, slowly."

The Wall did as he was told.

Hannah hesitated. "I'm staying with you," she said.

"No," Grand insisted. "Right now we're a pack. If it's a cat we don't want to scare it into attacking."

Hannah started moving away.

"Keep your arms relaxed," Grand whispered. "Don't look at whatever's out there and don't crouch. It might think you're going to lunge. And don't take any pictures. Just a click could set this thing off."

Hannah and the Wall backed around the rocks along the outer side, near the edge of the slope. The boulders there were waist-high and would afford some protection if the animal attacked, maybe buy them a little time to start down the mountainside.

Grand didn't move. He wasn't surprised to find a large animal up here. He had felt its presence throughout the climb. Experienced predators, including humans, had an energy that the ancient Dorset Eskimos of northern Labrador had called moat-literally an unspoken voice that communicated strength. The earth elements had it and communicated it simply by "being" in a great number-rocks as mountains, water as the sea, and air as wind. In most wild species, the great number of moat is enhanced by a display of plumage, by inflating the cheeks, by shouting and chest-thumping, or by exposing teeth or a large set of horns or antlers or a large, shaggy mane.

Here, this close, the creature had moat that was off the chart. It was stronger than anything Grand had ever felt in the wild. It reminded him of how he felt on that childhood Grand Canyon trip, when his family went to Hoover Dam and he stood at the foot. Without seeing it, hearing it, or smelling it. Grand was still very much aware of the awesome might of the lake gathered on the other side. And Grand wasn't the only one who felt it. Whatever animals were in the thicket and surrounding area, they were not active like their brothers and sisters on the mountainside. They were deeply hidden.

When Hannah and the Wall reached the point where they'd come to the summit, the Wall backed over the side. Hannah stopped.

"What are you going to do?" she asked Grand.

"Try and learn something about what's out there," Grand replied.

"How?"

"By waiting here and seeing what it does."

"Why don't we let the sheriff do this?" the Wall asked.

"Because he'll come up here with a small army to try and take the animal down," Grand said. "A lot of people may die."

"Instead of just us," the Wall said.

"We're not going to die," Grand said. He began gathering small branches that had washed down from the treeline.

"This is crazy," the Wall said. "We're standing next to the animal's home. What do you think it's going to do?"

"That depends," Grand said. He was speaking in a very soft, melodic voice which he hoped would help put the creature at ease. At the same time he removed his Swiss Army knife from his pocket. He pulled the blade out slowly, silently. Then he knelt and cut slits near the thick end of the branches he'd gathered.

"What are you doing?" Hannah asked.

"Making a starburst," Grand said. When he was finished cutting the slits he took the flat stones from his pocket. He fit one end into the slit and pushed the other end with his thumbs. The fit was snug, as it was supposed to be. "Twenty-five hundred years ago the Dorset Eskimos of northern Labrador used these to catch sea birds. When they were swung around in a crowd of seagulls, each hunter could kill several birds at once." After he finished inserting four stones into four branches, he bunched them two in each hand and rose slowly. "The ends were weighted to fall with just a snap of the wrist. They would get two hits with each snap."