“At least we know where to start looking,” said Devin. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure this out.”
“It’s a massive lake system,” said Alex, zooming out to reveal the full scope of the problem. “Something like eight or nine hundred miles of shoreline, breaking off into hundreds of coves and lake arms. It winds a good twenty miles east of Diamond City and snakes like a river for about thirty miles to Branson, where it connects to Table Rock Lake. If I had to guess, this is why your mother couldn’t find the place. They took off on a boat that could have gone anywhere in this entire lake system.”
“Someone around that marina knows what’s up,” said Devin. “They’ve been shuttling hundreds of people out to the camp every summer for what—four decades?”
Berg nodded. “Something like that. Assuming they attend from preschool age until they’re eighteen, maybe a few refresher summers after high school to make sure the capitalists didn’t corrupt them in college.”
“Good one,” said Marnie.
“I’m glad someone appreciates it,” said Berg. “We don’t know the size of this third generation, but it was small enough to escape your mother’s net. And she was actively looking for the camp.”
“Plus, they wouldn’t shuttle everyone from the same location,” said Rich. “Even during the camp’s heyday, they probably had several pickup and drop-off sites. The operation would have blended right into summer on the Ozarks. Those lakes must be packed with vacationers and locals this time of year.”
“Okay. So where do we go from here?” asked Devin. “Can we track their spouses’ phones?”
“That’s not as easy as it sounds,” said Berg. “Hit or miss whether we can get that favor, and if the person doing us that favor figures out the connection to these two, the whole thing could backfire spectacularly. As in we go to the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” said Rich.
“I’d like to stay off it for a while,” said Berg.
“Then what? We sit on these two at the secondary interrogation site until their families return to the marina?” asked Marnie.
“We don’t have that kind of time,” said Rich. “My guess is the entire network has been put on some kind of alert based on what happened in Baltimore, which probably means a daily check-in of some kind. That way the people running the sleepers can determine if we’ve started to work our way through the network. That’s why we identified Barber and Jeffries as targets. If one didn’t work out, we could drive a few hours to the next one and try again before the network went into safe mode.”
“What would safe mode look like?” asked Marnie.
“Probably everyone taking vacation or personal time off at once and disappearing,” said Devin. “Starve the fire of oxygen until they can determine how to better protect their sleepers.”
“While at the same time working on a way to discredit you, me, Marnie, and anyone else they suspect might be involved,” said Berg. “We’re looking at twenty-four to thirty-six hours, tops, before they confirm something is wrong. Probably not even that long.”
“Why am I not seeing a solution?” asked Devin.
“Yeah. Unless these two are willing to—” started Marnie, pausing for a long moment. “Oh. I see.”
“You don’t see it yet, because you’re a good person, Devin,” said Rich. “Same with your friend, though she appears a little quicker on the uptake. Might want to keep a close eye on her in the future.”
“Shit,” said Devin, the cryptic compliment and wry joke suddenly making sense. “I didn’t think we’d reach this point that quickly. Or need to reach it at all.”
Berg took a deep breath and exhaled before putting a hand on his shoulder.
“This is one of those moments when I need you to trust me. I don’t see any other way forward, and we have two people who spent every summer for fifteen years at that camp—right here. We won’t get a chance like this again.”
“I can’t be a part of it, even though I know I’m just as much a part of it as anyone else,” said Devin. “Marnie. You’re only here because of me. You’re not part of this.”
She took his hand. “I came to grips with this possibility before we left Baltimore. I’m most definitely part of this, but I won’t participate. I know that doesn’t absolve me of anything, but that’s where I stand.”